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Newsela | If that service dog seems jittery, it could be fake - how can you know?

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Service dogs are important to many people and fake dogs only hurt their cause.

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Newsela | Pup dives in for kids with special needs

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With the help of trained dogs, the nonprofit Waves of Empowerment teaches children and adults with special needs to swim.

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Newsela | Eye contact is a crucial part of the dog and human connection

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(AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

Specially trained dogs help farmers with disabilities

The demanding daily chores of a farmer were always a little different for Alda Owen. She is legally blind, able to see some blurry shapes and very close objects but not much else.

It was like that for years on the 260-acre farm she shares with her husband in northwest Missouri. That was until a bull knocked a gate into her. The injury required 60 stitches in her left leg. Owen's daughter decided her proud mother needed a helping hand. Or in this case, a wagging tail. Help came in the form of Sweet Baby Jo, a friendly, energetic border collie. The dog helps control the couple's Angus cattle.

The pairing was made possible through a nonprofit. It is believed to be the only one of its kind in the United States. The organization trains dogs specifically for farmers with disabilities. Operating in only four Midwestern states, PHARM Dog USA, or Pets Helping Agriculture in Rural Missouri, has placed 10 dogs since 2009. It has two more in training.

"She's made it possible for me to be a productive person, to keep the life we've built," Owen said of the dog, which she received in 2012.

PHARM Dog USA has a shoestring budget. But founder Jackie Allenbrand is committed to help disabled farmers prove they can be as independent as their able-bodied peers.

"People think of farmers as rugged and tough," Allenbrand said. "When you see a big, burly farmer crying after they get a dog because they know they can keep farming, you see what a difference it's making. That's what drives us."

PHARM Dog USA trains Labrador retrievers and lab mixes for service skills, such as retrieving tools, carrying buckets or opening gates. Border collies are trained only to herd and help control cattle and other animals. The farmers never pay for the dogs, which are donated or rescued from shelters, and agriculture rehabilitation groups pay for the training. PHARM Dog also has received some grants, and gets dog food donated by Cargill Nutrition.

It takes about a year to determine if a dog has the intelligence and temperament to be a service dog, according to Bobby Miller, a Plattsburg, Missouri, rancher who also trains border collies, including Sweet Baby Jo. The biggest challenge is matching a farmer's specific needs with the right dog, said Don McKay, an Iowa farmer who trains border collies.

"Dogs have different abilities, just like people," he said, adding that the first days can be bumpy but that most matches work out once the dog and farmer improve their communication.

The emotional support is as important as the work Sweet Baby Jo does, Owen said. Now 62, Owen spent most of her life hiding her disability and staying within a small comfort zone. Since she got Sweet Baby Jo, Owen has started traveling and speaking at panels about farmers with disabilities.

"It gave me back my self-esteem and pride," Owen said.

Troy Balderston, who has been in a wheelchair since a car accident in 2010 left him a quadriplegic, said he wouldn't be able to work on a feedlot in Norton, Kansas, or live on his farm near Beaver City, Nebraska, without Duke. That is his border collie provided by PHARM Dog and trained by McKay.

"Duke keeps me safe. He keeps the cattle from running me over," Balderston said. "He goes everywhere I go. He's a great worker and a great companion."

PHARM Dog USA has had inquiries from farmers in several other states, including New York, Colorado and Mississippi. But Allenbrand said it isn't yet financially possible to meet those needs. She hopes to someday have corporate sponsorship to expand the effort because, "there are farmers all over the country who need this service," she said. "It's important that we help them."

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION

Why did "PHARM Dog USA" choose this name?

Write your answers in the comments section below

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Specially trained dogs help farmers with disabilities

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(AP Photo/Orlin Wagner) Specially trained dogs help farmers with disabilities The demanding daily chores of a farmer were always a little different for Alda Owen. She is legally blind, able to see some blurry shapes and very close objects but not much else.

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NICOLET, Quebec - I'm sitting in an outdoor pen with four puppies chewing my fingers, biting my hat and hair, peeing all over me in their excitement.

At eight weeks old, they are two feet from nose to tail and must weigh seven or eight pounds. They growl and snap over possession of a much-chewed piece of deer skin. They lick my face like I'm a long-lost friend, or a newfound toy. They are just like dogs, but not quite. They are wolves.

When they are full-grown at around 100 pounds, their jaws will be strong enough to crack moose bones. But because these wolves have been around humans since they were blind, deaf and unable to stand, they will still allow people to be near them, to do veterinary exams, to scratch them behind the ears - if all goes well.

Yet even the humans who raised them must take precautions. If one of the people who has bottle-fed and mothered the wolves practically since birth is injured or feels sick, she won't enter their pen to prevent a predatory reaction. No one will run to make one of these wolves chase him for fun. No one will pretend to chase the wolf. Every experienced wolf caretaker will stay alert. Because if there's one thing all wolf and dog specialists I've talked to over the years agree on, it is this: No matter how you raise a wolf, you can't turn it into a dog.

As close as wolf and dog are - some scientists classify them as the same species - there are differences. Physically, wolves' jaws are more powerful. They breed only once a year, not twice, as dogs do. And behaviorally, wolf handlers say, their predatory instincts are easily triggered compared to those of dogs. They are more independent and possessive of food or other items. Much research suggests they take more care of their young. And they never get close to that Labrador retriever "I-love-all-humans" level of friendliness. As much as popular dog trainers and pet food makers promote the inner wolf in our dogs, they are not the same.

The scientific consensus is that dogs evolved from some kind of extinct wolf 15,000 or more years ago. Most researchers now think that it wasn't a case of snatching a pup from a den, but of some wolves spending more time around people to feed on the hunters' leftovers. Gradually some of these wolves became less afraid of people, and they could get closer and eat more and have more puppies, which carried whatever DNA made the wolves less fearful. That repeated itself generation after generation until the wolves evolved to be, in nonscientific terms, friendly. Those were the first dogs.

People must spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for weeks on end with wolf puppies just to assure them that humans are tolerable. Dog puppies will quickly attach to any human within reach. Even street dogs that have had some contact with people at the right time may still be friendly.

Despite all the similarities, something is deeply different in dog genes, or in how and when those genes become active, and scientists are trying to determine exactly what it is.

There are clues.

Some recent research has suggested that dog friendliness may be the result of something similar to Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder in humans that causes hyper-sociability, among other symptoms. People with the syndrome seem friendly to everyone, without the usual limits.

Another idea being studied is whether a delay in development during a critical socializing period in a dog's early life could make the difference. That delay might be discovered in the DNA, more likely in the sections that control when and how strongly genes become active, rather than in the genes themselves.

This is research at its very beginning, a long shot in some ways. But this past spring and summer, two scientists traveled to Quebec to monitor the development of six wolf pups, do behavior tests and take genetic samples. I followed them.

I visited other captive wolves as well, young and adult, to get a glimpse of how a research project begins - and, I confess, to get a chance to play with wolf puppies.

I wanted to have some firsthand experience of the animals I write about, to look wolves in the eye, so to speak. But only metaphorically. As I was emphatically told in a training session before going into an enclosure with adult wolves, the one thing you definitely do not do is look them in the eye.

Sleeping With Wolves

Zoo Académie is a combination zoo and training facility here on the southern bank of the St. Lawrence River, about two hours from Montreal. Jacinthe Bouchard, the owner, has trained domestic and wild animals, including wolves, all over the world.

This past spring she bred two litters of wolf pups from two female wolves and one male she had already at the zoo. Both mothers gave birth in the same den around the same time at the beginning of June. Then unusually bad flooding of the St. Lawrence threatened the den, so Ms. Bouchard had to remove them at about seven days old instead of the usual two weeks.

Then began the arduous process of socializing the pups. Ms. Bouchard and her assistant stayed day and night with the animals for the first few weeks, gradually decreasing the time spent with them after that.

On June 30, Kathryn Lord and Elinor Karlsson showed up with several colleagues, including Diane Genereux, a research scientist in Dr. Karlsson's lab who would do most of the hands-on genetics work.

Dr. Lord is part of Dr. Karlsson's team, which splits time between the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester and the Broad Institute in Cambridge. Their work combines behavior and genetic studies of wolf and dog pups.

An evolutionary biologist, Dr. Lord is an old hand at wolf mothering. She has hand-raised five litters.

"You have to be with them 24/7. That means sleeping with them, feeding them every four hours on the bottle, " Dr. Lord said.

Also, as Ms. Bouchard noted, "we don't shower" in the early days, to let the pups get a clear sense of who they are smelling.

That's very important, because both wolves and dogs go through a critical period as puppies when they explore the world and learn who their friends and family are.

With wolves, that time is thought to start at about two weeks, when the wolves are deaf and blind. Scent is everything.

In dogs, it starts at about four weeks, when they can see, smell and hear. Dr. Lord thinks this shift in development, allowing dogs to use all their senses, might be key to their greater ability to connect with human beings.

Perhaps with more senses in action, they are more able to generalize from tolerating individual humans with a specific scent to tolerating humans in general with a scent, sight and sound profile.

When the critical period ends, wolves, and to a lesser extent dogs, experience something like the onset of stranger anxiety in human babies, when people outside of the family suddenly become scary.

The odds of being able to pin down genetically the shift in this crucial stage are still long, but both Dr. Lord and Dr. Karlsson think the idea is worth pursuing, as did the Broad Institute. It provided a small grant from a program designed to support scientists who take leaps into the unknown - what you might call what-if research.

There are two questions the scientists want to explore. One, said Dr. Karlsson: "How did a wolf that was living in the forest become a dog that was living in our homes?"

The other is whether fear and sociability in dogs are related to the same emotions and behaviors in humans. If so, learning about dogs could provide insights to some human conditions in which social interaction is affected, like autism, or Williams syndrome, or schizophrenia.

The pups at Zoo Académie were only three weeks old when the group of researchers arrived. I showed up the next morning and walked into a room strewn with mattresses, researchers and puppies.

The humans were still groggy from a night with little sleep. Pups at that age wake up every few hours to whine and paw any warm body within reach.

Wolf mothers prompt their pups to urinate and defecate by licking their abdomens. The human handlers massaged the pups for the same reason, but often the urination was unpredictable, so the main subject of conversation when I arrived was wolf pup pee. How much, on whom, from which puppy.

As soon as I walked in, I was handed a puppy to cradle and bottle-feed. The puppy was like a furry larva, persistent, single-minded, with an absolute intensity of purpose.

Even with fur, teeth and claws, the pups were still hungry and helpless, and I couldn't help but remember holding my own children when they took a bottle. I suspect that tiger kittens and the young of wolverines are equally irresistible. It's a mammal thing.

The first part of Dr. Lord's testing was to confirm her observations that the critical period for wolves starts and ends earlier than that for dogs.

She set up a procedure for testing the pups by exposing them to something they could not possibly have encountered before - a jiggly buzzing contraption of bird-scare rods, a tripod and a baby's mobile.

Each week she tested one pup, so that no pup got used to it. She would put the puppy in a small arena, with low barriers for walls and with the mobile turned on. She would hide, to avoid distracting the puppy. Video cameras recorded the action, showing how the pups stumbled and later walked around the strange object, or shied away from it, or went right up to sniff it.

At three weeks, the pups had been barely able to get around and were still sleeping almost every minute they weren't nursing. By eight weeks, when I returned to have them gambol all over me, they were rambunctious and fully capable of exploration.

The researchers won't publicize the results until observers who never saw the puppies view and analyze the videos. But Dr. Lord said that wolf experts considered eight-week-old wolf puppies past the critical period. They were so friendly to me and others because they had been successfully socialized already.

Before and after the test, she collected urine, to measure levels of a hormone called cortisol, which rises during times of stress. If the pup in the video would not approach the jiggly monster and cortisol levels were high, that would indicate that the pup had begun to experience a level of fear of new things that could stop exploration. That would confirm the timing of the critical period.

She and Dr. Karlsson and others from the lab also collected saliva for DNA testing. They planned to use a new technique called ATAC-seq that uses an enzyme to mark active genes. Then when the wolf DNA is fed into one of the advanced machines that map genomes, only the active genes would be on the map.

Dr. Genereux, who was isolating and then reading DNA, said she thought it was "a long shot" that they would find what they wanted. She and the other researchers plan to refine their techniques to ask the questions successfully.

When They Grow Up

And what are socialized wolves like when they grow up, once the mysterious genetic machinery of the dog and wolf direct them on their separate ways?

I also visited Wolf Park, in Battle Ground, Ind., a 65-acre zoo and research facility where Dana Drenzek, the manager, and Pat Goodmann, the senior animal curator, took me around and introduced me not only to puppies they were socializing, but to some adult wolves.

In the 1970s, Ms. Goodmann worked with Erich Klinghammer, the founder of Wolf Park, to develop the 24/7 model for socializing wolf puppies, exposing them to humans and then also to other wolves, so they could relate to their own kind but accept the presence and attentions of humans, even intrusive ones like veterinarians.

The sprawling outdoor baby pen was filled with cots and hammocks for the volunteers, since the wolves were now nine and 11 weeks old and living outdoors all the time. There were plastic and plywood hiding places for the wolves and plenty of toys. It looked like a toddlers' playground, except for the remnants of their meals - the odd deer clavicle or shin bone, and other assorted ribs, legs and shoulder bones, sometimes with skin and meat still attached.

The puppies were extremely friendly with the volunteers they knew, and mildly friendly with me. The adult wolves I met were also courteous, but remote. Two older males, Wotan and Wolfgang, each licked me once and walked away. Timber, the mother of some of the pups, and tiny at 50 pounds, also investigated me and then retired to a platform nearby.

Only Renki, an older wolf who had suffered from bone cancer and now got around on three legs, let me scratch his head for a while. None was bothered by my presence. None was more than mildly interested. None seemed to realize or care about my own intense desire to see the wolves, be near them, learn about them, touch them.

I saw how powerfully a visit with wolves could affect how you feel about the animals. I wanted to come back and help raise pups, and keep visiting so that I could say an adult wolf knew me in some way.

But I also wondered whether it was right to keep wolves in this setting. In the wild, they travel large distances and kill their food. These wolves were all bred in captivity and that was never a possibility for them.

But was I simply indulging a fantasy of getting close to nature? Was this in the same category as wanting a selfie with a captive tiger? What was best for the wolves themselves?

I asked Ms. Goodmann about it. She said that park operated on the idea that getting to know the park's wolves, which had never been deprived of an earlier life in the wild, would make visitors care more for wild wolves, for conservation, for preserving a life for wild carnivores that they could never be part of.

And she noted that Wolf Park operates as a combination zoo and research station. Students and others from around the world compete to work as interns, helping with everything from raising puppies to emptying the fly traps.

This is the rationale for all zoos, and it was a strong argument. Then she made it stronger. She pointed out that one of the interns, Doug Smith, worked on the reintroduction of wild wolves to Yellowstone National Park.

Dr. Smith has had a major role in the Wolf Restoration Project from the very beginning in 1995 and has been project leader since 1997. I reached him one morning at his office at park headquarters and asked him about his time as an intern at Wolf Park.

"I hand-reared four wolf pups, sleeping with them on a mattress for six weeks," he said. "It had a profound effect. It was the first wolf job I ever got in my life. It turned into my career."

From there he went on to study wild wolves on Isle Royale in Michigan, and then to work with L. David Mech, a pioneering wolf biologist who is senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota. Eventually, he went to Yellowstone to work on restoring wolves to the park.

He said ethical questions about keeping wild animals in captivity are difficult, even when every effort is made to enrich their lives. But places like Wolf Park provide great value, he said, if they can get people "to think about the plight of wolves across the world, and do something about it."

In today's environment, "with conservation on the run, nature on the run, you need them," he added.

Then he said what all wolf specialists say: That even though wolf pups look like dogs, they are not, that keeping a wolf or a wolf-dog hybrid as a pet is a terrible idea.

"If you want a wolf," he said, "get a dog."

The Big Search to Find Out Where Dogs Come From

Why Are Dogs So Friendly? The Answer May Be in 2 Genes

NONFICTION

How Do You Make a Fox Your Friend? Fast-Forward Evolution

Curious Orangutans, Raised by Humans, Do Better on Cognitive Tests

In Captivity, Orangutans Unlock Greater Curiosity and Intelligence

Tricky Cockatoos Match Shapes Better Than Primates

Cockatoos Rival Children in Shape Recognition

Wolves Know How to Work Together

The Big Search to Find Out Where Dogs Come From

Why Are Dogs So Friendly? The Answer May Be in 2 Genes

NONFICTION

How Do You Make a Fox Your Friend? Fast-Forward Evolution

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Wolf Puppies Are Adorable. Then Comes the Call of the Wild.

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NICOLET, Quebec - I'm sitting in an outdoor pen with four puppies chewing my fingers, biting my hat and hair, peeing all over me in their excitement. At eight weeks old, they are two feet from nose to tail and must weigh seven or eight pounds.

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Oh, those puppy eyes.

Just by gazing at their owners, dogs can trigger a response in their masters' brains that helps them bond. This is according to a study.

Owners can do a similar trick in return, researchers found.

This two-way street evidently began when dogs were domesticated long ago. That's because it helped the two species connect, the Japanese researchers say.

As canine psychology experts Evan MacLean and Brian Hare of Duke University wrote in a commentary on the work, "When your dog is staring at you, she may not just be after your sandwich."

The new work is the first to present a biological mechanism for bonding across species, said researcher Larry Young of Emory University. Neither he nor the Duke scientists were involved in the study. It was reported in a paper from Japan released by the journal Science.

The brain response is an increase in levels of a hormone called oxytocin. Studies in people and animals indicate this substance promotes social bonding. Think of it like an bond between a parent and an infant.

One experiment in the new research involved 30 owners and their dogs. Oxytocin levels in the urine of both species were sampled. The levels were measured before and after the owners and their dogs spent a half-hour together.

Analysis showed that owners whose dogs looked at them longer in the first five minutes had bigger boosts in oxytocin levels. Similarly, dogs that gazed longer got a hormone boost, too. That's evidently in response to being touched by their owners during the session. It is what one of the study authors, Takefumi Kikusui of Azabu University near Tokyo, said in an email.

No such result appeared when researchers tried the experiment with wolves. The animals were paired with people who had raised them, although not as pets. The difference suggests dogs started gazing at owners as a social strategy when they became domesticated. That is instead of inheriting it from their wolf ancestors, researchers said.

Another experiment with dogs found they looked at their owners longer if they were given doses of oxytocin and that the hormone's levels then went up in their owners. But these results appeared only in female dogs; the reason isn't clear.

An oxytocin researcher not connected to the study said previous work had provided bits of evidence that the hormone plays a role in bonding between species. But that the new work is more comprehensive.

"It makes very good sense," said C. Sue Carter. She directs the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University.

But Clive Wynne of Arizona State University disagrees. He is a psychologist who studies interaction between dogs and people. He said he thinks the link to domestication is "barking up the wrong tree." The study doesn't provide convincing evidence for that, he said.

Emory's Young studies bonding behavior. He said the relationship between people and dogs is special. Human love can lose its initial exhilaration over time, he said. But he hasn't seen that with the dogs he has owned for 10 years.

"When I come home from work every day, they are just as excited to see me now as they were when I got them," Young said.
Critical thinking challenge: Why were wolves used in the study? What do wolves have in common with dogs? How are they different from dogs?

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Oh, those puppy eyes. Just by gazing at their owners, dogs can trigger a response in their masters' brains that helps them bond. This is according to a study. Owners can do a similar trick in return, researchers found. This two-way street evidently began when dogs were domesticated long ago.

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The nature vs. nurture debate is the scientific, cultural, and philosophical debate about whether human culture, behavior, and personality are caused primarily by nature or nurture.

Nature is often defined in this debate as genetic or hormone-based behaviors, traits, and dispositions, while nurture is most commonly defined as environment, culture, and experience.

History of the Nature vs. Nurture Debate

The nature vs. nurture debate is an ongoing one. The modern debate often centers around the effect genes have on human disposition as opposed to the influences that early environment and development might have. As culture changes, so have popular understandings of this debate. In the 1960s, for example, psychologists-and pop culture in general-were heavily influenced by the theories of behaviorism. This theory led to the widespread belief that human personality is primarily influenced by experience and training. It was during this time that researcher John Money attempted to demonstrate that gender was a product of early conditioning by raising a boy, whose circumcision was botched, as a girl. His experiment seemed successful in the beginning but ultimately was a failure.

In recent years, the nature side of the debate has gained more attention, with headlines trumpeting newly discovered genes for virtually every behavior. Evolutionary psychology and sociobiology are two branches of science that attempt to demonstrate the evolutionary roots of human behavior. Books authored by scientists in these fields are extremely popular. However, critics still emphasize the important role of early childhood environment, development, and cultural influences. Many have argued that sociobiology and evolutionary psychology are deterministic pseudosciences.

Twin and Identical Twin Studies

Several studies done on twins separated shortly after birth reveal that genetics do play a significant role in the development of certain personality characteristics, sexual orientation, and religiosity. The bond between identical twins was also suggested to be genetic by these studies, as 80% of identical twins reported that they felt closer to their twin than they did to their closest friends, despite having just met their twin.

One study also suggested that genetics play a significant role in the development of personality: Environment had little effect on personality when twins were raised together, though it did have an effect when they were raised apart.

How Nature Affects Mental Health

While nature, or genetics, has been proven to be an important factor in the development of some mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia, bipolar, and major depression, the development of mental illness is not entirely genetic. Nature, or genetics and disposition, has been proven to be an important factor in the development of some mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia, bipolar, and major depression. Bipolar, for example, is four to six times more likely to develop when there is a family history of the condition. However, although the importance of genetic factors cannot be denied, the development of mental illness is not entirely genetic. For example, identical twins share their genes, yet if one twin develops schizophrenia, research shows the other twin only has a 50% chance of also developing the condition. This indicates that nature, while it plays an important part, is not the only contributing factor.

Another area where researchers may place more emphasis on nature than on nurture is that of addictions. Research indicates that alcohol addiction, for example, can recur in families and that certain genes may influence how alcohol tastes and the way it affects the body.

How Nurture Affects Mental Health

Certain genetic factors may create a predisposition for a particular illness, but the probability that a person develops that illness depends in part on environment (nurture). When a genetic variant indicates the possibility of developing a mental illness, this information can be used to direct positive (nurturing) behavior in such a way that the condition may not develop or may develop with less severity.

James Fallon, a neuroscientist who discovered that he had the brain of a psychopath, has stated that he believes growing up in a nurturing and loving environment helped him become a successful adult and may have been effective at preventing him from fully developing traits of psychopathy. Similarly, the basis for addiction is not thought to be entirely genetic by most researchers. Environmental aspects, such as the habits of parents, friends, or a partner, might also be significant factors contributing to the development of an addiction. A genetic predisposition to alcohol addiction may be far more significant if one is routinely exposed to binge drinking or other forms of alcohol abuse and comes to view this as normal alcohol use.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool recently found that while a family history of mental health conditions was the second strongest predictor of mental illness, the strongest predictor was in fact life events and experiences, such as childhood bullying, abuse, or other trauma. This supports the idea that nurture plays significant role in the development of mental health issues.

Nature vs. Nurture in Therapy

In the mental health field, some therapeutic treatments and approaches may be nature-based or nurture-based, depending on which paradigm to which they adhere. For example, an extremely nature-based approach might seek to address mental health on a biological or genetic level, while a nurture-based approach could be more likely to address a person's learned beliefs and behaviors. Most approaches borrow from both nature and nurture-based philosophies, and many seek to address the interaction between nature and nurture.

For example, using medication to treat a mental health issue may be a primarily nature-based approach, while behavioral therapy, which stems from behaviorist psychology, addresses a person's upbringing and conditioning and takes a nurture-based point of view. Meanwhile, therapies based in cognitive psychology may be more likely to address the effects of both nature and nurture.

It is possible to find a therapist who takes a more nature or nurture-based approach to treatment. However, many therapists today consider multiple factors, including how the nature and nurture work together, during a session.

How Nature and Nurture Interact

Many scientists eschew the nature vs. nurture debate by emphasizing "nature x nurture." In this schema, nature and nurture are inseparable. Some genes, for example, cannot be activated without certain environmental inputs. The development of vision is a prime example of this. People cannot develop normal sight without exposure to visual stimuli.

Similarly, some environmental inputs may be undermined by some genes. For example, some lifelong smokers may never experience smoking-related illnesses, and this may be due at least in part to their genes. Environmental toxins may alter the expression of some genes, and genes for many behaviors presumed to have a genetic basis have not been discovered.

Developmental systems theory, among other theories, presents an alternative to this debate that does not require scientists to advocate either for nature or nurture.
References:

1. Agin, D. P. (2010). More than genes: What science can tell us about toxic chemicals, development, and the risk to our children. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2. Alcoholism Nature vs. Nurture. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dualdiagnosis.org/alcohol-addiction/nature-vs-nurture.

3. Facts about Bipolar Disorder. (n.d.). Retrieved May 12, 2015, from http://adamhscc.org/en-US/facts-bipolar.asp.

4. Iliades, C. (2013, February 7). Mental Illness May Be In Your Genes. Retrieved from http://www.everydayhealth.com/depression/mental-iillness-may-be-in-your-genes-1751.aspx.

5. Lewis, T. (2014, August 11). Twins Separated at Birth Reveal Staggering Influence of Genetics. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/47288-twin-study-importance-of-genetics.html.

6. Ohikuare, J. (2014, January 21). Life as a Nonviolent Psychopath. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/life-as-a-nonviolent-psychopath/282271.

7. Moore, D. S. (2003). The dependent gene: The fallacy of nature vs. nurture. New York, NY: Henry Holt.

8. Putt, G. (2013, October 20). Nurture Over Nature: Mental Illness and Traumatic Life Events. Retrieved from http://www.decodedscience.com/nurture-nature-mental-illness-traumatic-life-events/3836.

Last Updated: 09-28-2018

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Nature vs. Nurture Debate - GoodTherapy.org Therapy Blog

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The nature vs. nurture debate is the scientific, cultural, and philosophical debate about whether human culture, behavior, and personality are caused primarily by nature or nurture. Nature is often defined in this debate as genetic or hormone-based behaviors, traits, and dispositions, while nurture is most commonly defined as environment, culture, and experience.

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Genes and the environment influence each other to create unique individuals through complex interactions. Thanks for watching! Leave feedback below!

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Premiere date: October 28, 2015 | 0:00:36 | Buy the DVD

From the award-winning team that brought us "EARTHflight" and "Penguins: Spy in the Huddle" comes a revolutionary look at our pets. Our pets may seem familiar but they exist alongside us in a secret world of wild behavior and natural abilities that we hardly recognize. This two-part series explores this parallel existence with all the techniques that have been perfected in past "spy" shows, including HD spy cameras, night vision cameras, drones, miniature on-board cameras and digital high-speed cameras.

Episode 1: Playful Creatures
In this astonishing program filled with innovative photography and scientific revelation, we investigate how our favorite pets get in touch with their wild side through play. From talkative budgies, marathon-running hamsters, wall-climbing cats and diving dogs, as well as an island where rabbits rule and a city where dogs live a secret double life - discover how our pets' playful games are just a whisker away from the wild.

Episode 2: Secretive Creatures
In a program packed with incredible filming techniques, from Schlieren photography that makes smells visible, to moving X-rays, ultra slow-motion, and ultraviolet vision as well as HD horsecams and doggycams, discover how our pets experience the world through their astonishing senses and hidden channels of communication. Includes the sensory secrets of budgies, horses, guinea pigs and goldfish as well as the remarkable abilities of hamsters, cats and dogs.

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Pets Wild at Heart | About | Nature | PBS

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From the award-winning team that brought us "EARTHflight" and "Penguins: Spy in the Huddle" comes a revolutionary look at our pets. Our pets may seem familiar but they exist alongside us in a secret world of wild behavior and natural abilities that we hardly recognize.

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Humans have had dogs by our side for a very long time. Scientists estimate that domestication happened around 18,000 to 32,000 years ago. Dogs and wolves both came from a common ancestor, and there is still some gray area as to how and when the split happened between domesticated dogs and wolves. Some believe domestication happened when hunter-gatherers discovered the common ancestor. Others believe the agricultural revolution domesticated dogs. Either way, there is a common connection between the two scenarios: humans had food scraps and the animals wanted them.

Anyone familiar with dogs know they do some strange things. While they all have their own unique personalities, there are some traits and behaviors that they all have in common. These traits come from years' worth of instincts, way before dogs were domesticated to be a part of our families. After thousands and thousands of years, the dogs that share our lives still can't shake these wild instincts ingrained in them.

1. Spinning Around and Around and Around Before Laying Down

You've seen them do it and maybe muttered a "Just get on with it and lay down" during the act. It turns out dogs spin around and around ... and around some more ... for a reason. In the wild, dogs didn't have a cozy bed or loving human to cuddle up with while they went to sleep. In order to give themselves a comfortable place to rest, they would spin around to mat down grass and to kick up anything that might get in their way, like bugs, dirt, sticks or anything else you'd find in nature. Today, spinning around helps them to create a comfortable nest, whether it's in a dog bed or a blanket pile.

2. Licking Your Face

Anyone who has ever been around a dog has been subject to dog kisses. Whether you love them or not, you're going to be on the receiving end of some slobber. Dogs kiss you for many reasons. For one, it's a way they would communicate in the wild. It is also the way a mother communicates with her young. She licks them to clean them or stimulate them to breathe when they are born. Another reason is one many people already think: the dogs are showing affection. Licking their guardian releases endorphins that can comfort dogs. The next time your dog gives you big kisses, they just want you to know they really like being around you.

3. Burying Their Toys

Burying their prized possessions is a survival instinct. In the wild, dogs would bury their food to hide it, then come back for it later. The toys that your dog buries are actually prized possessions in their mind. By burying them, they are hiding their treasure and keeping it safe.

4. Wagging Their Tails

Like licking, tail wagging is another sign of communication between dogs. Not all tail wagging is happy, however. Dogs can also wag their tails when they are frightened. You can tell, however, how a dog is feeling by looking at the way their tail wags. If you see it wagging to the right, that means they are happy. When they are frightened, they wag their tails to the left.

5. Rolling in Gross Things

This disgusting habit is actually another survival instinct. Dogs would roll around in pungent smells in order to camouflage their smell and sneak up on prey.

6. Sniffing Each Other's Bottoms

This is a part of life we accept, even though it's baffling and pretty disgusting. Dogs just like butts. Not just any butts, however, but their own kind. We hear it's how they say hello, but it's much more than just that. Dogs' noses are extremely complex and dogs can tell a lot just by smells. By sniffing butts, dogs can learn each other's gender, diet, emotional state and more. Scientists have called this "chemical communication."

Lead image source: rbennett661/Flickr

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6 Common Dog Behaviors That Originated From Wild Instincts

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Humans have had dogs by our side for a very long time. Scientists estimate that domestication happened around 18,000 to 32,000 years ago. Dogs and wolves both came from a common ancestor, and there is still some gray area as to how and when the split happened between domesticated dogs and wolves.

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A brief description of Indentured Servants as discussed in American History.

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