This piece has been on hiatus for quite some time, I wasn't exactly sure if my initial ramblings were getting the point across or not. Regardless, is it any wonder that one of my favorite dog blogs is 'The Dog Snobs'? Ok, maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. The Dog Snobs blog is funny, insightful, and....well, they don't sugar coat anything. They had touched upon a topic that I wanted to talk about at some point, and then they touched upon it in their own fashion: http://thedogsnobs.com/2014/01/28/genes-count-too-aka-if-i-hear-its-all-in-how-you-raise-them-one-more-time-a-rant-by-fang/
Many in the animal rights crowd or those well meaning dog lovers can sit there and mutter all they want that a dog is a dog, and it's all about how they're raised, but it simply isn't true. Many times people seem to want to believe that dogs are a blank slate, innocent even, and that you can shape them completely into what you want them to be. But how often does that fall short? Quite a lot. Especially when people don't consider genetics.
Breeds are not a new thing, though closed gene pools are in the grand scheme of things. Some people will simply say that types existed, that landraces existed, but regardless, different types, names given to different types of dogs of a certain kind, did happen. Whether or not they were kept as 'pure' as the dog fancy does so now, doesn't really matter. These different varieties often had different jobs, different drives, different ways of working and being....different temperaments. You simply can't erase all that genetic history and believe that you're getting a perfectly clean slate.
While temperament is one of the lowest inheritable traits, it still can be selected for, it can still be a bit consistent. Compare Chow Chows to Golden Retrievers as a whole, and there's no way that anyone can say that the breeds are even remotely a like in temperament.
Believing that 'it's all about how you raise them' does a grave disservice to breeds as a whole, even if you have a mixed breed, those breeds, whether you know them or not...gave you that dog. To believe that undermines the fact that there are wonderful adult dogs out there who need homes. To believe that undermines the fact that there are dogs who have been through hell and back and still come out for the better-it doesn't always happen, but it does happen.
And even more than that-it undermines the fact that genetic psychological issues do exist.
I'm talking about something like 'Springer/Cocker Rage' due to the occurrence in Springer and Cocker Spaniels, or just generally called 'K9 Rage', 'Rage Syndrome', 'Sudden Onset Aggression', or 'Idiopathic Rage' as it can happen in other breeds.
With K9 Rage, these are dogs which sometimes there's a trigger, other times, there's no trigger. These dogs will freeze and then launch into a frenzied attack. There's some suspicion about the actual causes, from thyroid to seizures, but 30 years of study and we're still fairly in the dark about it. Granted, in the past, sometimes resource guarding aggression and other problems may have been attributed to K9 Rage, but this is a very real disorder that does happen. The first story I had heard about it was actually from my mother who had met someone with a very physically restrained Rottweiler who suffered from it. Just several years ago, I heard another story from a man who runs a large rescue who rescued a couple of German Shepherds from the street....one of which, with no triggers, tried to kill the man twice. The dog was sent to one of the top dog training facilities in the state, but there simply was no help for it, and while I wasn't told whether or not it really was K9 rage, the way the dog's attacks were described to me made it seem likely.
Just in this alone, just because idiopathic rage does occur in dogs, means that nurture does not always over ride nature. Nurture can only go so far with genetics in play. Which, there can be an otherwise perfectly stable litter save for one pup that just had something wrong, and no matter how far the owner goes to try to manage and handle that dog, it's a lost cause.
Yes, you can say that a genetic mental disorder is an anomaly and we should just ignore it, that it shouldn't count. I honestly don't think that we have anything to gain by ignoring the fact that it exists, and we have only more knowledge and understanding to gain by accepting it as a fact that no, it's not 'all about how you raise them'. I think at some point I wanted to believe that it was about how you raised them. However, my way of thinking left loopholes that developed into what I believe now, that only strengthened with time and evidence.
One part being the fact that, yes, idiopathic rage syndrome does exist. Another being the fact that you can take dogs used in dog fighting, and they aren't ruined, defective, or dangerous, they can be rehabilitated, trained, and become perfectly fine pets in some cases. Lastly, there exists breeds and random individual dogs with temperaments that if in the wrong hands, can be dangerous-yet some of them can be managed just fine through their lives with the right owner, though such homes are very few and far between.
For those owners who are out there dealing with dogs who seem to exhibit some severe temperamental issues, I want to tell you that it's not your fault. It is completely understandable. Sometimes, dogs are just broken from the beginning, and there is nothing we can do to fix it. If you are an owner who has tried everything you possibly could and just can't....I want you to know it's ok to let the dog go peacefully under the eyes of your vet. I want you to know that it's ok to wonder if. And I want you to know it's not your fault, whether you raised the dog or not.
