• zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Have you ever seen a puppy of a working dog? Pointers will point. The training they receive is what to point, not how. Retrievers will retrieve, herders will herd, trackers will track.

    That’s not how genetics works my guy. None of those things are heritable traits. Being smart, being trainable, those are traits that puppies can inherit. Being a good tracker isn’t. That’s learned behavior. If you’ve seen puppies pointing, retrieving, herding, or tracking, it’s because they learned it from some other dog, animal, or human.

    • Wilco@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      This is EXACTLY how genetics works. Research the Belyaev’s domestic fox program. It took about 4 generations of choosing the calmest and friendliest to make a domestic fix on par with our domestic dog breeds.

      This is what dog breeding is. Breeding to get a specific dog behaviour was literally 90% of dog breeding … before the weird cosmetic trend started.

    • acchariya@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      So the owners of retrievers what, subconsciously all train them to retrieve because they knew the breed?

        • IMongoose@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          A bird can naturally know how to build a nest but a dog can’t naturally know how to follow an animal?

            • IMongoose@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              It is comparable.

              I implore you to look up videos of working dog puppies. Duck hunters don’t get retrievers because they like how they look, they get them because they have been selected over generations on their inherent retrieving drive, which is a natural trait of dogs. You are objectively wrong about these traits not being inheritable. These dogs need to be trained what to retrieve, or what to point, not how to do these things. My sister’s pointer would point piles of shit, she had to train it to point birds.

              I’m sorry but you are completely wrong about this topic.

              • HerbSolo@lemmy.world
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                28 minutes ago

                Border Collie of a friend is trained to work with mentally ill kids (of course his training isn’t that specific but that’s what he does) Anyways in his spare time he herds everything. When the wind piles up leaves he will run around that pile frantically barking at every single leaf that falls out of line. “Herding cats” lost all its appeal as a figure of speech to me, as i’ve seen him do it successfully.