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Maya2001 -> RE: Submission are we born this way?? (11/5/2007 7:31:44 PM)
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Submissiveness and shyness can be genetic traits. Using pedigrees of greyhounds that go back to the late 1700's as well as historical documents about the dogs in certain breed lines there a severe phobic shyness(referred to as spooks) occuring in some dogs, that can be traced back to two well known dams that were also recorded as spooks., some are capable though very difficult to handle as racers, with some even making it into the greyhound hall of fame. I tend to enjoy having a bit of challenge in my life and as such ended adopting 2 spooks, the first was an alpha dominent female, though very fearful of people, she was extremely confident around other dogs and had strong leadership skills which gave her the capacity to race and strong desire to compete against other dogs , the second is an omega , even around puppies she is very submissive, and had to eventually be seperated from her litter as she would get picked on due to her extreme submissiveness by other dogs, she has the strong prey drive but her shyness and submissiveness will override the desire to chase so she was total unable to race she would become so overwhelmed that she would turn around and try to run back into the starting box to hide, her mother , her grandsire on sire side who is also her greatgrandsire on her dam side were spooks are well but her great/grandsire though a spook was dominate and was very well famed as a racer, most of her litter had varying degrees of milder shyness with one dominant but hers was extreme.
Sometimes shyness/submissive can occur as a result of trauma, but in the greyhound models the litters are kept and raised together right about to about 16 months old so different personalities will emerges despite being treated and handled, fed all the same which helps to prove that genetics is involved. The ones with the phobic shyness starts off fairly normal as puppies but it is when the hormones kick in during puberty that drastic changes in personality start to occur and they start developing vey strong fear reactions, yet the ones with normal shyness it will be apparent from a very young age. One hall of fame sires was retired early from stud duties because a high percentage of his offspring were becoming spooks, my first one was his grandaughter. I got lot of my info a greyhound pedigree historian who was also a topnotch trainer as well as breeder in the US and UK, having had his own spooks he himself interested in whether there was a genetic factor so had spents some years tracing pedigrees before I had spoken to him, though my original reason for getting hold of him was my own confusion as to understand how strong dominance could exist in a dog that was extremely shy
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