John Paul Scott is a renowned scientific researcher who was interested in the interplay between genetics and behavior. He did experiments with mice to determine whether highly aggressive mice could be created through breeding. ???The experiments with mice show us that aggression has to be learned. Defensive fighting can be stimulated by the pain of an attack, but aggression, in the strict sense of an unprovoked attack, can only be produced by training??? Heredity can enter into the picture only in such ways as lowering or raising the threshold of stimulation, or modifying the physical equipment for fighting??? In considering hereditary effects, we must always remember that the environmental situation is also important?????? ??? John Paul Scott, Aggression.
Kellie Snider, Board Certified Associate Behavior Analyst and co-developer of the Constructional Aggression Treatment for Dogs, has this to say:
"Pit bulls living in well-meaning, loving families may learn aggressive behaviors pay off, too. But once again, this isn???t because they???re pit bulls. It???s because aggressive behaviors tend to produce distinct outcomes. If a dog of any breed snarls at you, more likely than not you???ll move away. Ah, that???s what he wants, so the next time he wants someone to back off, he???s going to snarl. If they???re slow about it, he???s going to throw in a growl, or a bark, or a lunge or a bite. Pit bulls that learn that aggression works are learning just what other breeds of dogs learn under the same sets of circumstances."
" Imagine, if that simple quiet crouch behind the sheep depends on four separate genes, what must be involved in the entire collection of herding behavior: eye, balance, power, biddability, etc. And what must the chances be of accidentally combining the right factors to remake a herding dog, if those combinations are ever lost?
The complexity of the genetics of behavior is probably not a surprise, but it is the basis of the entire argument that the performance dog must be bred for performance at every generation. The more genes are involved, the more different combinations are possible, the more easily they become separated and lost.
If the dogs selected for breeding for conformation are not the ones with the best herding genes, the population will inevitably drift away from the wonderful performance combinations that have been selected in the breed for so many generations." USBCC Newsletter, Winter 1994 in response to a 13 year study asking "what does heredity do to behavior?" Even dogs that have been bred to fight for generations are killed by their owners for refusing to fight. Genetics are a very, very complicated business.
