Nature VS Nurture — Using Both to Improve Your Training and Relationship with your Dog

Some debates are timeless, spanning decades and centuries. One debate where there’s no denying the waters run deep is Nature VS Nurture and which might be driving behaviour. Trying to discern the role of both when sharing time and space with beings of the 4-legged variety can be astounding when you take a deep dive. This post will help you identify how to use your dog’s nature to strengthen your training efforts and how to give the relationship you share with with your dog a great boost by appealing to those instincts!

Defining Nature VS Nurture

Nature — “the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.”

Nature includes things that are instinctual in tendency and innate to the being in question — the qualities of nature exist without human influence and often in spite of it.

Nurture — “care for and encourage the growth or development of.” — this is the influence part. Be it human influence from sharing space with us or environmental influence that guides the creature and allows for learning and growth, nurture can play a giant role in our dog’s development and perception of the…