Woman killed by neighborhood dogs(Dog of Love Update)

I wonder if this article would be of interest or assistance to you? Another poster has indicated that they have found the adrenal system of these dogs is a “very-high cortisol” item, with behavioral ramification.

“The science of how behavior is inherited in aggressive dogs”

November 10, 2015 by Merritt Clifton
Some people have their heads in the sand about the origins of dog behavior, but this Lab, the Mayor of Maxwelton, digs the jive. (Beth Clifton photo)

Some people have their heads in the sand about the origins of dog behavior, but this Lab, the Mayor of Maxwelton, digs the jive. (Beth Clifton photo)
by Alexandra Semyonova

Probably most people recognize that every dog breed results from human manipulation of inherited physical traits.

Until recently, most people probably also recognized that much dog behavior is also a result of manipulating inheritance: if you want to do sheep trials, you get a border collie. If you get a beagle, he will likely become instantly deaf to your calls if he picks up a scent to track.

But after discussion started about perhaps banning breeds who often attack and kill, defenders of these breeds began to dispute the heritability of any kind of dog behavior.
Husky accepts mush. (Beth Clifton photo)

Husky accepts mush.
(Beth Clifton photo)
Conformation

Only when behavioral inheritance is understood, beginning with basic biological concepts, can we have a clear and honest discussion about aggression in domestic dogs. First we must understand the relationship between “physical conformation” and “behavioral conformation,” which may be seen as opposite sides of the same coin.

“Physical conformation” describes how a dog has been bred to become physically shaped specifically for the task we want him to perform. The purpose-bred dog’s body––brain, skeleton, muscles, and metabolism––will be different from those of other dogs. The dog will feel physically comfortable doing the job, whatever it is.

The border collie is physically designed for the stalking stance and for switching easily and often from standing to lying down to standing again. A greyhound enjoys sprinting, with a deep chest that easily provides enough oxygen to the dog’s muscles to fuel a burst of high speed. The same deep chest means the greyhound cannot run marathons because the deep chest prevents a greyhound from losing heat efficiently.
Border collie mixes. (Beth Clifton photo)

Border collie mixes. (Beth Clifton photo)

The greyhound’s brain has been shaped by selective breeding to steer the legs in a gait that provides maximum speed in a sprint. The unique composition of a husky’s skeleton, muscles and brain enables a husky to pull a sled with a different gait, and to sustain a brisk pace for long distances.

The greyhound runs by leaping, the husky by pushing, always with one foot on the ground. Each dog is genetically wired to use the specific body the dog has.
Cattle dogs herd customers at Starbucks. (Beth Clifton photo)

Cattle dogs herd customers at Starbucks.
(Beth Clifton photo)
Selecting for performance

Dog breeders have for centuries selected for particular traits by simply watching how a dog performs. They have bred dogs for specific tasks by removing the dogs who perform less well from their breeding stock. Sometimes they will cross in a dog breed they think will add traits to perform the task better. Breeders select for performance without always knowing exactly which traits they are breeding for. For example, until recently no one realized the husky was being bred for a particular heat economy; they just chose the dogs who kept running the longest. Eventually, successful breeders produce dogs who are physically shaped to do the dog’s task better than any other dog, no matter how well the other dog is trained.

“Physical conformation” leads to “behavioral conformation.” First of all, each dog’s brain is genetically predisposed to grow to efficiently direct the body it is born in. Then the dog’s brain adapts itself further to the body it is in as it grows in the developing puppy. There is no gene for running or stalking, but there are genes that give a dog four legs and make those legs longer, shorter, more or less flexible, and so forth. It is because of the action of the genes that confer differently shaped bodies and brains that the pointer enjoys pointing, the border collie stalks and stares, the Newfoundland floats in cold water, and so on.
Rhodesian ridgeback. (Beth Clifton photo)

Rhodesian ridgeback.
(Beth Clifton photo)
Selecting for aggression

Just as we cannot make a dog into something the dog has no genetic capacity to be, we cannot prevent a dog from being what the dog is genetically predisposed to be. Because inherited postures and behaviors are suitable for the body and brain the dog was born with, they are internally motivated and internally rewarded: they feel good. This means that inherited behavioral traits are practically impossible to extinguish by manipulating external environmental stimuli.

In breeding dogs to perform certain tasks or have a certain look, humans often select (sometimes inadvertently) for abnormalities in body and behavior. We do this by looking for mutations and then breeding for them, or by crossing breeds to get combinations of traits. to speed the process up. A clear case of this is the old English bull dog, who can hardly walk, hardly breathe, and cannot be born except by Caesarean section. The bull dog has also been crossed into other breeds by people who wanted to increase aggression in a breed without waiting for mutations to appear.

There is such a thing as normal aggression in dogs, as in all animals. Maternal defensiveness, territorial defense, and predatory behavior and depend on different neuronal and hormonal mechanisms, and are all normal coping responses. These dog behaviors have been accepted by humans in the process of domestication, as long as the behaviors can be foreseen.
pit bull teeth

(Beth Clifton photo)
Serotonergic dysfunction

But abnormal disinhibited behavior is not functional, and it is unpredictable. Although high arousal and sudden attack can be functional in certain environments, this behavior is pathological in a safer environment, where a high level of arousal and aggressiveness are not necessary and only lead to unnecessary attacks and injuries. Research implicates the frontal cortex, subcortical structures, and lowered activity of the serotonergic system in impulsive aggression in both dogs and humans. Impulsive aggressive behavior in dogs seems to have a different biological basis than appropriate aggressive behavior.
Rottweiler. (Beth Clifton photo)

Rottweiler. (Beth Clifton photo)

Kathelijne Peremans, DVM discovered this by studying two different populations of impulsively aggressive dogs. Each dog had executed one or more attacks without the classical preceding warnings, and the severity of the attacks was out of all proportion to environmental stimuli. Peremans found a significant difference in the frontal and temporal cortices of these dogs, but not in the subcortical areas, compared to normal dogs. Peremans also found significant dysfunctions of the serotonergic systems among these dogs. Serotonergic dysfunction has been widely shown in many different species to be connected to abnormal, impulsive aggression.

Peremans studied dogs of various breeds, selected purely on the basis of their behavior. Peremans was not interested in implicating any particular breed, but rather in finding the mechanism behind the behavior in any dog it occurred in. She found that all of the dogs with a history of abnormal impulsive aggression shared the same physical abnormalities in the brain. The gender of the dog made no difference. Neither did whether the dog was castrated or spayed.

Peremans left open the possibility that we will later find other physical factors that contribute to abnormal impulsive aggression. For example, the adrenergic system may also play an important role.

excerpted from : The science of how behavior is inherited in aggressive dogs

November 10, 2015 by Merritt Clifton

link:

https://www.animals24-7.org/2015/11/10/the-science-of-how-behavior-is-inherited-in-aggressive-dogs/

Thank you. a good read indeed.

My mom was a dog breeder for many decades. She liked to think she invented the “Cockapoo” back in the ‘60s. Maybe she did. They sold like crazy. She used to tell me after four generations she could get a trait to breed true, something I’ve been told by goat breeders (my sister for one), cattlemen and others.

Then this tidbit from my reading hit home: “The sins of the father will be visited upon the third and fourth generation.”

Coincidence? IF human genetics are anything at all like OTHER mammals on this planet - and I have no doubt they are - then how many generations of violence, sloth, envy, greed, depression, anxiety, alcoholism, or economic success, musicality, literacy, mechanical ability and you name it are also going to breed true?

Not 100%. I know from training and work in alcohol and substance abuse counseling that this disorder often skips generations, but I know from work in family medicine’s exposure to psychiatry that many characterological disorders, mood disorders run through a family tree like a 2x4 in a hurricane penetrating even the thickest wood.

Curiously, biblical scripture doesn’t say a word about the “sins of the mother.” I finally figured out the reason. It’s obvious. Everyone for millenia of humankind’s existence has known this simple truth:

The sins of the mother just keep going on and on forever.

Mitochondrial DNA bears witness to this truth.

Thanks again.

I am please that you enjoyed the article - you seemed to be the type of person for whom it was meant. Myself, I found it to be of such interest that I may purchase the book.

Regarding the third and fourth generation - thank you for that information. It appears to be applicable to my own recent research regarding the spiritual explanations vs. the natural ones of violence, alcoholism, depression, et al, especially since the success rate in treating these items medically is less than ideal.

The negative traits such as the ones above referenced have been found to be at least partially attributable to spirits which are common to and passed down through a family line (i.e.,”familiar spirits”). This has been discovered, or rediscovered, in Christian deliverance ministries (as in the “casting out of evil spirits”). As we know, in the Roman Catholic religion and many others, it is known commonly as exorcism.

Of course, this is quite laughed off as foolishness by the world. The information above comes through the Bible and in recent years, the ministries and studies of Derek Prince, Pastor Win Worley of Hegewisch, and Pr. Micah Stephen Bell of Key Ministries of Dallas, TX.

Of the above Christian ministers applying deliverance, Pastors Prince and Worley have passed on, but Pastor Bell is still actively ministering to people with problems that defy treatment medically and psychologically.