Post by willow on Jan 20, 2006 9:20:57 GMT -5
Of course, I am talking about bite inhibition again, and I have been doing a lot of thinking about this lately.
Is it a learned behavior or is a dog naturally born with it? Does anyone really know for sure? The reason I have been thinking and wondering about it is this:
If it is a "learned" behavior, and if "aggression begets aggression" as PP and human behaviorists say, then you would think that if a puppy bites mom/sibs too hard and they correct it by biting harder...wouldn't that just make the other puppy come back more aggressively, to "show" mom and sibs they bit too hard? And why then, aren't all adults who were spanked as children criminals or abusive. Also, why are we seeing more aggression now in both dogs and people instead of less, with the "new way" of raising our children and animals, with physical correction being barbaric and out of date?
Of course I am not talking about out and out abuse here...just a couple of swats on a misbehaving childs behind, like I got when I was a naughty kid, (Me naughty? ) and a well timed collar correction for a dog.
Also, take for example, the Caucasion MD, which are said to be "bred/born aggressive". What happens in those litter's when puppies bite mom or sibs too hard? Do they "correct" the same as in all litter's? And if they do, does that mean that they too, then learn good bite inhibition? I know that breeder was an idiot, but according to her they can tell at three weeks if a puppy is going to be aggressive or not, so that should apply to all breeds and that would mean that dogs are born with or without an aggressive nature.
If it is true that a dog is not naturally born with aggression or is caused by correcting a dog, then we would not see so many bad bites from dogs raised in "normal" litter's, like we do, and with dogs trained without corrections. They should all have good bite inhibition, especially with other dogs.
I can sort of see where they would have to be taught not to bite humans hard, but we are seeing more and more dog/dog aggressive dogs and more dog/human aggressive dogs, not less.
I am probably thinking in a too simplistic manner again, as I was taught, and just don't get all this thinking on a higher plane, dog behaviorist vs. dog trainer thinking.
Your thoughts?
Is it a learned behavior or is a dog naturally born with it? Does anyone really know for sure? The reason I have been thinking and wondering about it is this:
If it is a "learned" behavior, and if "aggression begets aggression" as PP and human behaviorists say, then you would think that if a puppy bites mom/sibs too hard and they correct it by biting harder...wouldn't that just make the other puppy come back more aggressively, to "show" mom and sibs they bit too hard? And why then, aren't all adults who were spanked as children criminals or abusive. Also, why are we seeing more aggression now in both dogs and people instead of less, with the "new way" of raising our children and animals, with physical correction being barbaric and out of date?
Of course I am not talking about out and out abuse here...just a couple of swats on a misbehaving childs behind, like I got when I was a naughty kid, (Me naughty? ) and a well timed collar correction for a dog.
Also, take for example, the Caucasion MD, which are said to be "bred/born aggressive". What happens in those litter's when puppies bite mom or sibs too hard? Do they "correct" the same as in all litter's? And if they do, does that mean that they too, then learn good bite inhibition? I know that breeder was an idiot, but according to her they can tell at three weeks if a puppy is going to be aggressive or not, so that should apply to all breeds and that would mean that dogs are born with or without an aggressive nature.
If it is true that a dog is not naturally born with aggression or is caused by correcting a dog, then we would not see so many bad bites from dogs raised in "normal" litter's, like we do, and with dogs trained without corrections. They should all have good bite inhibition, especially with other dogs.
I can sort of see where they would have to be taught not to bite humans hard, but we are seeing more and more dog/dog aggressive dogs and more dog/human aggressive dogs, not less.
I am probably thinking in a too simplistic manner again, as I was taught, and just don't get all this thinking on a higher plane, dog behaviorist vs. dog trainer thinking.
Your thoughts?