Well, folks, it looks like my irony fell flat on its farce.
I would have thought that after so much of my harping on the topic of nature vs nurture around here that my sarcasm in my post on page one here was obvious - of course I don't believe that all dogs are born equal - in the sense of having equal qualities, that is.
The issue is dealt with here, on a random dog-training site:
Genetics matter
"A genetic predisposition toward fearful or aggressive behavior can make it very difficult for even experienced dog owners to avoid having fearful or aggressive behaviors reinforced in a dog. Some dogs will never be completely comfortable around whatever their aggression target is, even after being trained so that they don't display aggressive behavior any more. The safety of the aggression target is never assured. I trained one of my dogs not to attack people on bikes under virtually any circumstance, at any speed, even off-leash. Yet one day, while I was tying my shoelace, she lunged at a rider as he passed. I hadn't trained for that! Hope that the training will generalize, but even if it does, do not expect 100% reliability.
Some dogs, and some breeds in particular, are more likely to "fight" than "flee" when faced with a stressful situation. It is no coincidence that my golden retriever runs from a stressful situation, while my German shepherd will stay and face the threat head-on. Both responses are entirely normal for the breeds (to a degree). It would be very difficult to train a police dog who ran away when faced with threat. That doesn't mean that all phenotypically-ideal German shepherds will be aggressive, but it may mean that extra care is required to ensure that behaviors appropriate to the situation are reinforced and trained to fluency."
The idea that genetics and evolution count for almost nothing in life (the current social view), and that nurture is ALL, is nonsense. Life is not play-dough to be molded into whatever shape one desires.
And the "blank slate" ideal applied to animals is a recipe for tragedy. How many children are going to be mauled in future by unsuitable pets directly because of the belief that if you give an animal enough love and care it will always return the same.
As the passage above indicates, genetics does not determine behaviour, but to discount genetic elements entirely is simply ludicrous. Environment and experience are both crucial to development, but they are NOT the only factors.
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