This brings up some interesting points. When I was pregnant myself I read some studies on humans showing that babies born to mothers who experienced high levels of stress during pregnancy were born with altered brain chemistry that predisposed them to nervousness, anxiety, and a host of other problems.
If this is true in humans, it is probably true in other mammals. The womb environment has such a huge impact on the physical development and gene expression, I absolutely believe that reducing the levels of stress hormones developing fetuses are exposed to will go that much farther to producing calmer, better adjusted individuals. It won't change genetics, but it should help.
It may be that a nervous female producing nervous puppies has just as much to do with the influence of her womb environment as her genetics.
Nature vs. nurture, nurture may begin much earlier than previously thought.
And v-girl, I don't support the breeding of any un health tested dogs, regardless of whether they are mixed or not. At 16 months your puppies are not old enough to screen for orthopedic diseases, thryroid problems, etc so you really don't know if your breeding produced healthy animals or not. If the parents weren't screened, then that was just a total crapshoot with all 3 breeds in the mix having a high incidence of hip dysplasia. Honestly I'll be surprised if they are all fine. And to add the dad's temperament problems on top of that...The problem is, with an iffy history, you don't know whether his problems are genetic, or environmental. You just don't know. Dogs of his size are capable of killing an adult human. It's just not worth the risk. Even if they bite and it's not fatal to the human, the dog is still likely to pay with it's own life. Before anything else, health and temperament are the two most important things.
Also, I wouldn't expect a 16 month old puppy to show protective behaviors. They are immature, their personalities are still developing, and many do not show protective, aggressive, prey driven, etc. behaviors until after they mature, which can take over 2 years. There is a very good reason the American Temperament Test Society will NOT test dogs under 18 months of age, and that is simply because they are still babies.
That being said, I do admire you for being willing to take back any of the puppies you brought into the world. There is something to say about that. Thank you.
If this is true in humans, it is probably true in other mammals. The womb environment has such a huge impact on the physical development and gene expression, I absolutely believe that reducing the levels of stress hormones developing fetuses are exposed to will go that much farther to producing calmer, better adjusted individuals. It won't change genetics, but it should help.
It may be that a nervous female producing nervous puppies has just as much to do with the influence of her womb environment as her genetics.
Nature vs. nurture, nurture may begin much earlier than previously thought.
And v-girl, I don't support the breeding of any un health tested dogs, regardless of whether they are mixed or not. At 16 months your puppies are not old enough to screen for orthopedic diseases, thryroid problems, etc so you really don't know if your breeding produced healthy animals or not. If the parents weren't screened, then that was just a total crapshoot with all 3 breeds in the mix having a high incidence of hip dysplasia. Honestly I'll be surprised if they are all fine. And to add the dad's temperament problems on top of that...The problem is, with an iffy history, you don't know whether his problems are genetic, or environmental. You just don't know. Dogs of his size are capable of killing an adult human. It's just not worth the risk. Even if they bite and it's not fatal to the human, the dog is still likely to pay with it's own life. Before anything else, health and temperament are the two most important things.
Also, I wouldn't expect a 16 month old puppy to show protective behaviors. They are immature, their personalities are still developing, and many do not show protective, aggressive, prey driven, etc. behaviors until after they mature, which can take over 2 years. There is a very good reason the American Temperament Test Society will NOT test dogs under 18 months of age, and that is simply because they are still babies.
That being said, I do admire you for being willing to take back any of the puppies you brought into the world. There is something to say about that. Thank you.
