instict?

[k@tie]

i have had my beautiful jack russell bitch for about 5 months now ..she is 7 months old . I am fortunate enough to be able to take my dog to work so she has never really been away from me . Today i gave her a jumbone treat as i do from time to time, on past occasions she has held it in her mouth for some time whilst wondering around crying. eventually she gives up and eats it. today she held it in her mouth and cried but actually got onto the settee and tried to dig ..after digging her imaginary hole she dropped in the bone..she then continued to cover the hole over as she would with real soil/earth. obviously i was very proud of her and found the whole thing amusing. it just left me wondering exactly where this instinct comes from. she has not been around other dogs to witness such things and i have been with her continually since i had her. why do it now ?

she did of course go straight back to her hiding place 20 seconds after all that effort to chomp the jumbone..she is precious.

[Clanad]

In the case of your Jack Russel, two instinctive traits are emerging. The first is inherent in almost all dogs. For eons before becoming "civilized' by humans, they buried uneaten food so as to preserve it for future use as well as hoard it from other pack members... but of course, you knew that. However, the second trait, in my opinion, is the fact that your dog is a terrier, bred for digging up rats and other varmints. This instinct is just as developed as is the 'caching' of uneaten food...

[k@tie]

thankyou for your response ..i do appreciate these 'instincts' but have another question in that as dogs are now much more civilised and almost domesticated than they used to be will they end up losing these traits in years to come ?

[Clanad]

Hard to say, is my guess. It took millenia for the wolves and other domesticated dog's ancestors to acquire the genetic traits we still witness today. So it's entirely plausible that, given additonal millenia those traits could disappear. Interestingly enough, an experiment was conducted a few years back wherein a variety of different 'modern' breeds of dogs were allowed, in a pen (under humane circumstances) to breed at will. It was found that within just a few generations (I don't have the study at hand) the resulting off spring had reacquired most of the traits and physical characteristics from the wolf or wild dog ancestor's known to be the antecedents of all dog breeds...

[k@tie]

then that leads me to the notion that when did humans lose their 'instinct' ? Women cannot give birth these days without a team of doctors and midwives and specialist equipment....

[Clanad]

Well, that's a different kettle of fish, so to speak. They could if they had to... it's not instinctual. Fact is, the vast majority of women world wide do give birth in the same manner as has been the case for thousands of years...

[k@tie]

oh yes ...i see the difference ..thankyou clanad :)