Nature or Nurture?

[UKPoacher]

I have always been a great believer that no matter where a spaniel or labrador comes from, trials winning stock or a puppy farm and providing it is physically fit and has some motivation I could train it to be an acceptable gun dog. I proved this theory over and over again with police search dogs when I took on all sorts of basket cases that no one else would touch and turned them into first rate search dogs. Similarly I sourced and trained GSDs from non-working stock that made excellent police dogs in all capacities. Better in many ways than the Eastern European working stock that was fashionable at the time. We have also all seen the 'Blue Riband' puppies that never make it in the field and I'm sure we all know people who never have a bad dog, and conversely, people who never have a good one. All this supports my theory.

 

Today I've been speaking to a foster parent who has a lot of experience with taking in kids from all sorts of backgrounds and has many contacts of similar fosterers. She firmly believes that nature is dominant over nurture and that no matter how a child is brought up, if it is from the wrong side of the tracks the child will get into trouble with the police. Initially I believed that the more complex interactions of humans as opposed to animals might be the reason for this, but then later on I remembered the TV program on dog behaviour a couple of weeks ago. There is an establishment in Siberia that houses dozens of Russian Foxes and has done for over forty years. Some of the animals were entirely vicious and would bite the attendants through the cages. A few were more amenible and these have been bred with similar animals. The result was that the tamer foxes bred even tamer offspring generation after generation. The strange thing was that these tame foxes changed their appearance and became more like a domestic dog breed.

 

If you take this lady's belief as read then a child of say four years old taken into a good social environment will still be a wrong 'un when he grows up. Now I know a family where the three children were believed to be from the same parents (you can never be sure without DNA) who grew up together, and one is a police officer, one a nurse and the other is serving a life sentence for sexual crimes. There are many similar cases of 'Black Sheep' that blow her theory out of the water yet the experiments with the Russian Foxes seems to support it and that type of experiment is the foundation of our dog breeds.

 

I am now unsure of whether nature or nurture is the dominant cause of behaviour and would be interested in any views on this subject.

[Mungler]

Another vote for nature.

 

Incidentally, just to get my civil liberties soap box out (one of many soap boxes I have), be afraid not just of what this government will do with collected DNA but what the governments yet to come will do with it. Once a civil liberty goes, it's gone forever. I digress.....

[Lloyd90]

I think nature comes into it alot. Some people just havr the INSTINCT to do right or wrong.

 

HOWEVER Nature can make a change, not always but it plays a part. When ever I see someone in trouble or needing help I always go over and offer a hand. Now I would think I would do this out of nature, but was also brought up to be like this :unsure: so it does help Some people will see someone in trouble and just walk on by. Doesn't even cross there mind.

 

Is this because there parents wouldn't help ? Or they just wouldn't bother to help people from there nature ?

Hard to put it down to one factor. Id like to think Its a complex combination of the two plus alot more!