Genetics vs Learned Behavior....

i was thinkin about this all morning............... theres behavior thats learned and then theres genetics....

now example.......i was told that the specific family of one of my dogs is known for being "quiet" dogs, and from what ive seen from his brothers,sisters,mom,dad & uncle is they are indeed "quiet dogs", which obviously leads me to believe that they are genetically inclined to be quiet n content. btw i have a cousin thats bred fairly similiar but a little looser that is also "quiet".

now, i have another dog that is bred COMPLETELY different and whenever he is outside (or wants something) ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT SHUT THE FUCK UP! i mean he will sit there and bark for a goddamn hour if you let him!


my question is.......is this behavior i should worry about the pup catching onto and learning from the idiot? or will his genetic inclination of being a role model citizen overide the potential of him learning this behavior?

just thought i would get your guys input and if all else fails might make for some good discussion in genetics....thanks in advance..

That's a great question. Most recent theory is that it's not nature vs nature, it's nature, vs nurture, vs the brain. It seems our genes made an organ that can move both nurture and modify our genes. Read the book, genome by Matt ridley

so in other words, the genes may be there he just may learn how to overide/ignore those impulses that he has naturally if he knows that barking will get him what he wants?

not sure if i read/understood that correctly.... sorry im kinda simple when it comes to reading comprehension lol

Well that would depend on whether the barking helped the dog,depends on the owner too. If the dog barks and gets more food, he's at an advantage and most likely to survive and pass his genes on. If the owner hits him over The head with the shovel for barking, well.. he won't live long. Many factors to consider.

Generally speaking, having one asshole dog around a bunch of well mannered dogs will make the formerly pleasant animals assholes, too. Dogs are latent learners, so if they're introduced to a dog that barks incessantly, or chews their kennel, or climbs or digs... they're likely to start to mimic the behavior. I have one dog that likes to carry her water bucket around. She'll drink her fill, then tip the bucket over and just trot around with it. It was never a problem with any of my other dogs, UNTIL I had to put her in a kennel in between two others. Now, all three of them do it, almost in unison. Being a pain in the ass is definitely contagious in the dog world.

Barking is a little more complicated, some dogs will never bark to compete with a frequent barker, some will. A lot of it will have to do with how you handle the barker, as you said. I have a number of Bolio and Bolio-cross dogs who think they were put here on this earth to bark all day long. Amazon sells bark collars for about half price, and every one of them is sporting one. It works because [1] they're getting corrected IMMEDIATELY for the barking, so they don't get confused about what the issue is and [2] dogs who are looking on aren't seeing me go out to the barkers all day long to yell at them which, depending on the dog, could be something they still think of as extra attention.

yep negative attention is still attention, they dont give a shit which one it is lol