And further, the subject of my post was the hard-wiring that comes with the dog out of the chute. You immediately changed the subject to “can a dog be trained”. Can the hard-wiring be overcome? In most cases, sure. But the fact remains that it it there to begin with, and that is what caused the story here.
If you want to get technical, ALL dogs are hard wired to hunt and kill.
Feral packs of dogs can include Poodles to Pit Bulls and everything imaginable, in between.
We may have slightly, tenuously modified some of their behavior to suit our needs but at the day’s end, a Yorkie could survive quite well on its own, if it had to.
Any owner of any “nice, safe breed” deludes only themselves if they quietly romance that less than a wolf is laying at their feet.
As a dog person, rather than a “pet owner”, as an example, I never kid myself that my Ibizan Hounds “need” me in the least.
Turned loose in the mountains, they’d absolutely thrive as a fully functional, primitive pack.
I’m not sold on “hard wiring” [though it would more appropriately be “wet wiring”] because I’ve had Ibizans who had no interest in hunting yet were great guard dogs.
I’ve had Dobermanns who were lackadaisical about guarding but excelled at birding.
I had a German Shorthair who cared nothing for birding, preferring to constantly dig for imaginary ‘badgers’ or something.
My miniature Poodle thought she was a Malinois.
My dad’s insanely expensive “field champion hunting lines” Brittany wouldn’t point a bird to save his life.
All breeds have “inherent tendencies”.
Not all of them exhibit them.
If a breed is actually “hard wired”, *all* of them should exhibit the same traits.
Predisposition is not necessarily disposition.