Beauty or A Beast?
For over a century, there has been a tremendous debate regarding human behavior and personality—neatly called “Nature versus Nurture.” The central question is ‘what is more important to determining personality—a person’s genetics or how he was raised?”
Though the jury is still out regarding people, this debate was settled a long time ago in the animal kingdom. Anyone who has cared for creatures of any kind knows that animals are born with the foundation of their ‘personality.’
In other words, a pet’s nature tends to closely resemble the parents’ natures. Anxious animal parents are more likely to have anxious offspring. Our ancestors understood this by domesticating pets through selectively breeding the social animals in order to create more social offspring.
Owners are often surprised when I advise them not to breed their mean dog or neurotic cat. I explain that the offspring will likely reflect the parents’ nature. Will the offspring of your pet be a Beauty or a Beast?
In this era of “designer-everything,” I worry that we may be pushing the genetic experiment with pets too far. No longer are a sound mind or body the most important ingredients in determining which pets should become parents.
Some have forgotten the lesson learned long ago when dogs were domesticated. Dogs live in a state of perpetual “arrested development” when compared to their wolf ancestors. Wolf puppies display the same play behavior that is seen in our canine friends, but wolves eventually grow up to become the sort of beast that scares Little Red Riding Hood (and me.)
Instead, many new breeds are being created with only one thing in mind—the pet’s appearance. When an animal’s appearance is the key factor, there are a whole lot of “beasts” lurking in the genetic closet that can creep out.
New breeds tend to come from shallow gene pool, which means that your fancy new pet may have a greater chance of carrying undesirable traits. Besides physical problems (bad hearts, eyes, knees, teeth, etc.), there are a lot of behavior problems that can be found in designer pets.
If you want a purebred animal—do your homework. Read everything you can about that particular breed and its various health problems. Some breed groups actually track and publish the incidence of various ailments from dental and heart disease to the risk of seizures.
Ask the breeder very specific questions about the health and behavior problems found in your chosen breed of pet and find out how that breeder works to prevent them. If you don’t get good answers, then find a new breeder.
Though a lot of animal behavior may be hard-wired, there is some hope if your pet doesn’t have a ‘sound mind’--- your pet’s nature can be improved with a careful and appropriate training program. With time and patience, even a beast can be a little more beautiful.
