For so long, the message has been “socialise, socialise, socialise“. The idea has been that, regardless of the puppy you select, you should be able to socialise it into a happy, normal, well adjusted pup.
Markable Curly Coated Retriever puppies, socialising with some cows.
The more I learn about dogs, the more I am inclined to disagree. I think we have hugely overlooked the role of genetics in determining many behaviours. While I will always advocate socialisation to get the best out of a dog, I think some dogs are genetically wired to be confident despite their socialisation experiences.
I have some anecdotal evidence to share with you.
I used to work in boarding kennels. We had a pretty extensive questionnaire we’d ask new clients and, sometimes, owners would admit: “We didn’t really socialise her.” Considering these admissions, most of these dogs were actually quite okay. I can recall very few cases when these dogs were outwardly aggressive to people, and most were okay with dogs, too. What kind of explanation supports this evidence? To me, it suggests that these dogs were either genetically ‘good’ dogs, solid and confident, or genetically ‘mostly good’ dogs, which needed minimal socialisation to complete an adequate behaviour code.
Another example with my own girl, Winona. Winona came into my household at a difficult time and got relatively little socialisation compared to other puppies that have come through my house. However, she is a very confident dog. She is tolerant of all handling, she likes all people, and though she is sometimes ‘overwhelmed’ by large dogs when she first meets them, she recovers well and interacts appropriately. It’s clear that Winona is supposed to be a confident, happy, non-aggressive dog. Socialisation had, at most, very little to do with her as an adult dog. Considering the confident, non-aggressive dispositions of her parents, I am not surprised. Winona is genetically confident.
Mooch the Norwegian Elkhound – with us for 2 months due to her severe fear issues.
And then let’s consider Mooch. Mooch was a foster dog we had last year for 2 months. She was an incredibly fearful dog. It took two weeks before my partner could touch her. Once she was on my lap when a stranger approach, and she expelled her anal glands in terror (I didn’t even know this was possible). From her history, it seems she was (almost) kept exclusively in a house for 2 years, being tended by immediate family, with few visitors and few outings.
It took very little effort to bring Mooch around to a near-normal dog. She will never be perfect, but she didn’t take huge efforts or time to get her to be a decent dog. I took her out to tracking training with me a few times, and this is a very busy house – you need to get used to seeing a lot of people fairly quick! You would think, from her history, Mooch would be impossible to restore to confidence. I think Mooch was never meant to be a fearful dog – I met Mooch’s parents and I have met few dogs as beautifully confident and contented. I think Mooch was a genetically confident dog, with a hugely neglected socialisation period, that meant she displayed fearful behaviours.
Now, again, I believe the environments and the genetics work together to produce the dog. I’d like to emphasise that I think socialisation is important, but not the ‘be-and-end-all’ of dog behaviour. To me, the message of “socialise, socialise, socialise” is outdated.
I vote for a new slogan: “select, select, select”. I’ll explain in my next post.
I agree! My Nola was socialized from 8 weeks on very very throughly, and yet (true to her breed) she is very standoffish and picky about who she likes and who she doesn’t. Nothing I can do about that, it’s in her blood. Great post!
Dachshund Nola’s mommy
Yes! The opposite is true too – socialisation can have little bearing on your ‘end result’ if your start with a dog that is genetically predisposed to nervous behaviour. My first border terrier was socialised well, but he is dog aggressive and a nervous dog. I used to count my own failings, but I’ve decided that he was never supposed to be a confident and happy dog, and my socialising probably had little to do with the ‘end result’.
Hi Tegan the question of Nature (genetic inheritance) and Nurture (envirommental and social enrichment) is the biggest question in Behavioural Sciences.
You say your Border bitch didn’t get much socialisation (but your house is VERY busy) so she did all be it mostly at home maybe she did meet stranger people and probably dogs with your history of fostering. The Elkhound may have never met anyone but her immediate family making her wary of strangers. Genetic selection is VERY important I agree and your Borders are a breed required to work with other dogs (highly excited foxhounds) and horses, plus many other people when hunting for vermin etc. Elkhounds originally worked with the people hunting Elk so not a huge group I’d expect and are also considered good gard dogs.
Personally I dont think nature or nurture has a stronger hold of dog temperament I think both are equally important. You hopefully educate your self about specific breeds and select a breed that you think is right for you (Using “PETSELECT” is a great way to get a few suggestions) and then you get a pup that has been well brought up by a breeder who has socialised the pup with many different animals, people and environments so the pups are confident and willing to accept new experiences. Dont buy a pup hidden in the back of a pet shop since being weaned as young as 4 weeks then sold at 6+ weeks after their vaccination (they aren’t legally allowed to sell them earlier but they can be removed from their Mum at weaning). The breeders of pet-shop pups want them gone quickly and pet shop sellers market their pups by showing them while in their cute stage and selling them ASAP. Well that’s my opinion. Cheers Ruth Bell Bach. Behv. Sc. (Psyc.)
Hi Ruth. Thanks for commenting.
I think you’ve given away some of what I’m going to talk about in the next post.
I should’ve also talked about my recent rescue litter- Clover had a singleton puppy but also raised two toy-crossbreed puppies (probably chihuahua crossbreeds). These puppies were all so different to one another, and from an early age, the genetic influence on their behaviour was undeniable. Despite extensive socialisation on my part before they left (from 4-8 weeks) one of them just was never happy when out of home, and never tolerant of my other dogs… And I very much doubt that anything her new owners do is going to change it. (I actually offered to refund their deposit because I felt this bitch was so objectionable in temperament, but they were committed.)
So now you have genetic = Nature; Learning =Nurture and the x-factors = individual differences/genetic drift. I am sure this is why we have dogs in the first place. There must have been some grey wolves who were less afraid of settled humans who then hung around and over generations became more tame. Gradually we humans began to control their genetic selection for specific purposes (guarding, hunting etc.) taking their natural tendencies into account. The wild grey wolf is a very wary and timid pack animal behaviours which have survival advantages. Now we have hundreds possibly thousands of breeds of dogs world wide. Human artificial selection of canines used to be for a function (guarding, working sheep, hunting verman). Sadly some people have a dog for it’s looks these days, or they like it’s ability to do one thing like guarding but don’t factor in all the needs of specific breeds to be fulfilled. I hope this is where you’re heading that people should select a dog taking into account what the breed (or breed mix) was bred for. A Chihuahua is a pocket guard dog (or handbag dog) and acts accordingly, maybe the more friendly pup wouldn’t have been selected for breeding by a specialist breeder, though it will make a great pet. Just some thoughts. I want my dogs to be retrievers firstly which encompasses being tolerent of others and adapting to strange environments and loud noises. Yes I seem to have been lucky and I thank all the breeders in my dogs ancestory for this. The rest is up to me
Oh and glad you used a pic of my pups meting their next-door neighbors
I am very lucky my pups and dogs socialise with so many different species and people and go to such a broad range of environments. Even though I socialise my pups a lot I still go along to puppy classes at my vets as I feel socialisation during the important periods has proved to be imporant to my pups (from 6-weeks) I take other pups too, that are going to be adopted at a later age. All my dogs go to Dog shows, the local park, friends houses and Retrieving trials plus waiting outside shops etc. with a pup waiting with a confident adult. At first I tie them and lurk; to make sure that everything is okay (that noone treats them inappropratly) or overwhelms the pup. I sit at a coffee shop and let people/children patmy dogs if they introduce temselves properly. You have to be VERY careful I had a young child about 2 kick my male Mallee. After his Mum asked could he say hello. She then said he is told-off if he does this to their pet whippet (poor dog must hate this kid but whippet’s are so lovely I’m sure it doesn’t react) one day it may though then it is the dog that will be in trouble not the child :-(. I think education is VERY important for all species and wont let people adopt unless I can evalutate the people in the house to see how the pup will be treated etc.
It’s a lovely picture, Ruth, and no one who has met your adult dogs could ever say anything bad about them! They’re the ultimate in good breeder selection and lovely socialisation – you’ve obviously got the good mix happening.
True, some dogs who haven’t been socialized do perform well with other dogs and people, whilst the general dog population who haven’t yet been socialized require some introduction before they can be fully trusted to meet with others.
Poor Mooch, I believe that the dog’s owner is also responsible to how the dog faces everyday challenges.
I just realized that Peanuts does some submissive urinating whenever she’s with strangers. Although they’ve said that making her win a tug-of-war game could help boost her confidence, I’m thinking that I might be doing something wrong because she’s playing roughly.
Any advice?
Huggies and Cheese,
Haopee
Hi Haopee,
Submissive urination is very common in puppies, and becomes less frequent in adult dogs. I don’t know how old Peanut is… With puppies, I try to minimise the opportunities for submissive urination (I normally find it’s when they’re excited to see new strangers that they urinate, so I just ask strangers to wait 10 minutes before patting my puppies). If the opportunities are minimised, then urination will hopefully not become a habit.
Unfortunately, for an adult dog that has learnt to pee when greeting new people, then it’s probably a habit that can’t be fixed easily. I would still minimise the opportunities for submissive urination (i.e. ask strangers to ignore her when first meeting), but I am not sure how successful this would be long-term – it may be just a symptom issue.
If you think Peanuts is peeing because she is fearful, then you could raise her confidence by getting strangers to feed her. I doubt playing tug of war would have any bearing on this.
Lovely post! Thanks so much for sharing it. The socialization mantra left me feeling guilty when my dog started having behavior problems- like I’d failed to do something. But I took her to puppy classes, and we lived in a group home (staff coming and going all the time, medical equipment, etc.). I could have done more, sure, but the truth is I just have a genetically anxious dog. If there’s anything to feel bad about, it would be my impulsive selection of her, but it’s hard to feel bad for that since I love her so dearly.
Thanks for stopping by, Crystal. I know the feelings of guilt that come the socialisation mantra, too, with my first border being dog-aggressive/fearful towards other dogs. I did all the right things, and I think he was just supposed to be the way he is. Learning about the genetic basis of behaviours have allowed me to ‘let go’ of my guilt. Mac is who he is – I didn’t make him.
I completely agree.
I do understand how important it is to socialize your dogs, however at some point you need to accept the fact that perhaps your dog is not going to be an overly social one. Our puppy is incredibly timid, and while she’s made GREAT progress, I don’t think that she will be the type of dog to run up and meet everyone. And honestly- that’s okay. Each dog has unique characteristics, and I need to be accepting of hers.
And the idea of selecting the breed and what their are genetically linked to is SO important. I find that people who adopt cattle dogs get upset because when they have people over to socialize the dog, their pet begins to either ‘herd’ people or nip at heels. I feel like saying “IT’S A CATTLE DOG!” You’re trying to socialize the poor thing and are getting upset over something that they were bred to do…
Chelsea, you’re so right! A lot of people are very intolerant of the herding breed’s desires to herd and nip – lots of people are attracted to them because they’re ‘smart’, but don’t think about how they’re going to channel those smarts.
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