242
submitted 2 months ago by Stamets@lemmy.world to c/funny@lemmy.world
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] IMongoose@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

Have you ever seen a puppy of a working dog? Pointers will point. The training they receive is what to point, not how. Retrievers will retrieve, herders will herd, trackers will track. But when someone suggests that a dog that has been specifically bred to fight and kill, oh, they were just trained that way. No, they have been specifically selected for aggression and prey drive. It is at best naive and at worst deadly to think that a working dog comes as a blank slate and will only perform actions it has been trained on.

[-] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago

Have you ever seen a puppy of a working dog? Pointers will point. The training they receive is what to point, not how. Retrievers will retrieve, herders will herd, trackers will track.

That's not how genetics works my guy. None of those things are heritable traits. Being smart, being trainable, those are traits that puppies can inherit. Being a good tracker isn't. That's learned behavior. If you've seen puppies pointing, retrieving, herding, or tracking, it's because they learned it from some other dog, animal, or human.

[-] IMongoose@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

? You don't think animals naturally know how to do things?

[-] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago
[-] IMongoose@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

A bird can naturally know how to build a nest but a dog can't naturally know how to follow an animal?

[-] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago

Still not comparable to what I said.

[-] IMongoose@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

It is comparable.

I implore you to look up videos of working dog puppies. Duck hunters don't get retrievers because they like how they look, they get them because they have been selected over generations on their inherent retrieving drive, which is a natural trait of dogs. You are objectively wrong about these traits not being inheritable. These dogs need to be trained what to retrieve, or what to point, not how to do these things. My sister's pointer would point piles of shit, she had to train it to point birds.

I'm sorry but you are completely wrong about this topic.

[-] HerbSolo@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Border Collie of a friend is trained to work with mentally ill kids (of course his training isn't that specific but that's what he does) Anyways in his spare time he herds everything. When the wind piles up leaves he will run around that pile frantically barking at every single leaf that falls out of line. "Herding cats" lost all its appeal as a figure of speech to me, as i've seen him do it successfully.

this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
242 points (79.5% liked)

Funny: Home of the Haha

7761 readers
47 users here now

Welcome to /c/funny, a place for all your humorous and amusing content.

Looking for mods! Send an application to Stamets!

Our Rules:

  1. Keep it civil. We're all people here. Be respectful to one another.

  2. No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any other flavor of bigotry. I should not need to explain this one.

  3. Try not to repost anything posted within the past month. Beyond that, go for it. Not everyone is on every site all the time.


Other Communities:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS