I am not a Scientist and I appreciate all the work Scientists do but I have a bit of a beef with this study.
First, I’ve owned dogs for 47+ years and the past 27+ years those dogs have all been Great Danes.
My response is based on what I’ve discovered over these years of owning dogs.
The study of this kind is Extremely difficult to do because you have the human factor involved.
The dogs studied were not raised all the same and nor do we know how they truly grew up. All we have is a human’s word to that respect; how the dog was raised. Unfortunately, people lie. People fabricate. People boast and sometimes add a little hyperbole. People exaggerate and people will almost always never say anything that makes themselves look bad.
How a dog or a human for that matter grows up has almost everything to do with the fear and anxiety levels they will experience in their life. Can fear and anxiety be reduced and even dissolved, yes. Can fear and anxiety be built into our genes, yes.
The genes in our bodies and those of dogs are yes, handed down to us from our parents and in that gift is little bits of them and the whole gene line. When one is born with blue eyes and one parent has blue eyes, people will say they were inherited from the blue eyed parent and they probably were. But dig deeper into the intangible things like fear and anxiety, you have so many outside factors that could add to, change, or even resign any inheritance.
To not take into consideration the dogs socialization as a puppy… is going to automatically put a big doubt in most dog owners when reading about a study like this. Because our outside world affects our inside world where our genes reside.
Science itself has put that theory to test multiple time with the outcome being as said… environment, external stimuli, other lives… humans, dogs, etc… affect our genes not to mention chemicals, pollution, etc. and our insides too… food, quality of water, etc.
That’s the problem in my opinion with this Study. It’s just not worth the time and energy to do unless done in a controlled environment but even that takes out the genuine in the result because it’s controlled.
With all that being said, yes, some dogs tend to be more fearful than others and even specific breeds can gain a reputation for such a thing… and the same can be said about people minus the specific breed of course.
A lot of children are born fearless and are either taught to be fearful or have experiences that cause fear. A good parent, in my opinion, would help their child to deal with fear, maybe even help remove fear that is unnecessary and find a healthy balance for the child to grow up and be capable of coping with their fear(s) throughout their life.
Some children just outgrow some of their fear(s)… like the boogeyman under the bed, etc.
While others are fearful no matter how much they have been helped.
All that goes even with children who do not receive guidance and yet they find away or not to come to terms with fear.
Like every human is a unique living being so are dogs. This may seem like a far reach because we are talking genes here! Genes we are born with. Genes that one has with fear are genes with fear! Again, yes and no… there might be some controversy on whether genes change or are turned on or off and even more on what can cause them to change/turn on or off but that really is insignificant in the facts of life. We don’t need a study done in a scientific setting when we have hundreds of years of examples of all types of animals, including humans to show us what apparently now needs to be studied.
Do we really need a Scientist to tell us that some specific breeds come with fear and anxiety in their genes? It’s a well known fact that Great Danes are usually unaggressive and most will shy away from things like fights. We call them the Gentle Giants for a reason. I’ve met a lot of Great Danes outside my own and for the most part this is true and for the most part the owners LIKE THEM THAT WAY! They are big, strong dogs and if they wanted to they could drag you around like a rag doll when on leash… but they don’t! Yes, training them on leash is a big factor but nonetheless they don’t do a lot of things that they are capable of doing due to their size and strength. They are powerful creatures and I’d hate to see mine turn on another dog. Unless he was face to face with an equal there would be little chance for the other side.
A very long time ago, according to history… Great Danes we’re bred to hunt wild boar. If you have never been face to face with a wild boar… you may have no idea how insanely defiant and big they are. I happened to come across one, one day after moving deep out into the country. I knew they had been coming around from the damage they left in their path of rooting and their pig prints in the dirt. So, I hear a noise down by the pond and I’m sure it’s a boar so I head on down with my Great Dane, I get about 15 feet from the pond and I see the boar. It’s just having a hay day tearing through the bushes and destroying everything in its path. I see it, it sees me and stops and turns and looks directly at me in the eye. It was like a bull getting ready to charge the bull fighter, I look down to my dog who was right by my side but he’s not there. I turn to look for him and he’s running towards the house. He simultaneously looks back at me and sees I haven’t moved. He looks at me like he’s saying, “C’mon, don’t you see that very large and mean creature!” I was shocked but I had a boar that appeared to be ready to charge me so I looked back at the boar and sure enough here he came towards me. Must not be any fear in his genes because he wanted me off his turf and he was willing to fight me over it. I yelled at it, no response. I had a big tug toy rope in my hands, I swung it toward him all they while yelling at it. No response. He just slowly and methodically continued walking towards me with his head hung low like he was going to plunge his head into me when he reached my location. I decided this was a fight I would definitely loose so I then slowly walked backwards and when I did after about 10-12 steps, he stopped and watched me cowardly walk up the hill out of his territory. My dog already at the front door waiting to bolt inside.
There was a time in history that this behavior from a Great Dane would be considered bad, real bad, unacceptable! They were to go after these wild pigs and they did! The whole reason Great Danes ears were cropped was because the boar would rip them off their heads.
Somewhere in the sands of time or what some like to call evolution; the Great Dane lost its fight and really now that’s a good thing. Perhaps, in the evolving out the fight the evolution went a tad bit far and some Danes are scared of their own shadow. But just like a good parent a good dog owner will work with this pup and help it cope for the world can be a scarcely place for dogs and humans alike. These dogs go on to live happy and secure lives. Then there are other owners who do nothing and maybe even encourage the pups fear for many reasons but maybe one of the saddest is that isn’t it so cute and/or funny how such a big dog can be scared of such a little thing.
Thats my two cents. Am I wrong? Am I right? I’m not perfect or an Expert either so take what you can and leave the rest. I’d appreciate any comments, feedback, constructive criticism. Thanks
