Instinct or Inherited Memory?

Very interesting. I always get a strange feeling when we pass a certain row of cottages just outside Bicester. Something in my head says I know them and 'something' happened there. I have never been in them and as far as I know there are no family connections.

A good point Culag - it's surprising what the sub-conscious will store away that never returns as a full memory but just enough to give you the heebie-jeebies!

Maybe that's it, culag.

I wonder wether these fears or whatever they are, stem from incidents happening in babyhood, or up to about 3, which we can't quite remember. For instance I vaguely remember seeing pictures of Chinese or Japanese soldiers and being horrified that these people could be about somewhere. Like JaneRowena.

janerowena - that is unusual isn't it. It conjures up all sorts of thoughts of what memories you could have inherited and if your family has historical ties to Japan in any way.

Oh Dragonfly - your description has me chuckling away here as I have the same from both of my dogs (and one previous to that), my eldest granddaughter jumps up on the low garden wall to escape the jumping and crying with excitement from the dogs lol. I also had to resort to professional help with that behaviour but so far, not much luck either.

Still, I'm sure you'll agree it's better to have dogs who love everyone as opposed to aggression from them towards strangers so we're quite lucky really How old is your dog?

Iam64 - I can relate to your nephew's resemblance to his uncle; my first husband and I divorced when my son was around 14 months old and he has never met his father since - yet I often see the same facial expressions and mannerisms from my son that I saw from his father and he has also developed his father's love of cars and tinkering endlessly with them! As you say, it clearly can't be learned behaviour so has to be inherited doesn't it.

Anything to do with Japan. Totally illogical. When I was 13 in France I met a young Japanese boy and couldn't bear to look at him, he was very hurt and I was brought up to be very polite, but I just couldn't do it. Ever since, I have fought against visits there, artefacts and souvenirs, anything. To my knowledge none of my family have had anything to do with Japan, so it's completely irrational, it seems to me.

Why am I not at all phased by anything that 'flutters' except moths ? I can't explain it. I will happily let a butterfly land on me but rush from the room if anything bigger than clothes moth is seen.

My father was brought up by foster parents and had very little contact with his mother until he was about 24 at the beginning of the war.
They lived over 100 miles away from each other and even then contact was limited. They lost touch in 1948 when she was said to have moved to North Wales. (None of this was ever spoken about at home and only came out in about 1995.) I managed to find she had died two years earlier at age 96. I made contact with the niece of her second husband who was as near to next of kin as she could get.

The niece knew nothing about my fathers existence but was was very surprised by how many mannerisms my Dad and his mother shared. Their way of standing, hand movements and how they laughed.

Given the very limited amount of contact, these patterns could not have been down to early imprinting.

Oh well done Holly - what a lucky mutt he is! Mine is just a typical bloody adorable springer. She's well behaved on the lead now, after huge effort, and fine on her own with me at home. But if visitors come she goes bonkers and just wants to sit on them, kiss them, use them as a trampoline..... We've had some excellent help and advice from a guy who trains and judges Gundogs, and we've got everything sorted except this idiotic behaviour with visitors. Keeping her shut away or on a lead till she's calm works fine and calms her really quickly. The reward is to be allowed to greet the visitors calmly, which she does. THEN she goes bonkers! Love her really.....

Lol Dragonfly. My method with this particular dog would most likely be frowned upon. He was very ill-treated and trusted no-one so shouting at him when he seriously over-stepped the mark (as he was frightened most of the time, he was prone to aggression) like clamping his teeth on my arm, I would screw up the angriest face I could manage and glare at him whilst talking very low to him. It only happened once more then I ignored him completely but carried on being very stern with him (but gentle and caring). It was only when he trusted me and a firm 'NO! Don't you dare' (same growly voice) taught him he had to stop. His instinct will stick kick in now and again and I now all I have to say is 'ERM!!' coupled with the glare. When he does as I ask, lots of praise, pats and even a kiss and a hug as well and told what a really good boy he is.

He'd never been trained to walk on the lead either (what a nightmare that was) but he's very good now. Maybe part of him knew this was last chance saloon (he'd been deemed as unsuitable for rehoming until I was asked if I could help him) and decided to co-operate. I'm not a dog trainer in any sense of the word but I don't stand any nonsense from dogs at all - he pulls at me, he gets yanked straight back. The upshot is, before I get shouted down, he was not put to sleep and now lives a life being spoilt rotten with me (he was supposed to go back to the shelter but I couldn't part with him).

Holly - exactly how have you managed to calm your mutt down please? Pretty please....?

The only real phobia I have is seeing birds in cages,I can't go into the area of a pet shop where they keep budgies etc as just the sight of them frighten me and I would never be able to get near one if my life depended on it,but I spend lots of time watching the birds nest & hatch out in the tree's in our garden & ajoining pathways.

I couldn't see anything in the front garden of the house Aka and no-one was about (this was about 15 years ago so not sure if cat scarers were around then or not but it could explain it if they were). Very strange though. I found I'd walk past that house looking very sceptically at it

HollyDaze, maybe they did, maybe there is indeed ancient wisdom if only we'd listen to it. I have two cross breeds, both from gun dog and poodle stock. Their genetic/inherited personality types are just there. They flush birds, retrieve from water, the one with hunting standard type poodle in her family tree was born to hunt and it's taken a lot of work to persuade her that leaping 4 foot walls to pursue deer etc is not a Good Thing.Both of them greet any visitor, including me, by bringing a gift, carried softly in their mouths. On a more human front, my nephew is in his mid 30's and has become increasingly like his maternal great uncle in both personality type, mannerisms, general approach to life and relationships. Physically, he looks so like his ancestor as well. The two never met, and the uncle had died many years before my nephew was born.

holly perhaps there was a car scarer in in that garden that your dog was reacting to.

seasider - it's strange isn't it how some ideas that were once disregarded end up getting some credence later on; maybe those old wives knew what they were talking about

My ruddy English Springer certainly has inherited instincts. Anything that moves when we're out is a pheasant in disguise in her mind. Today she tried to 'flush' a heron. The heron won.



I have a Springer Spaniel (adopted) whose first 3 years of life was as a gun dog and he will also try to chase things down and a loud bang and he's off running - with me being dragged behind ; I've worked on him though over the last 4 years and he's calmed down a lot but still, as you have said, Dragonfly, still tries to retrieve things.

Read an article years ago that suggested deja-vu experiences, where you feel you have been somewhere before , were simply down to inherited memory. Nobody believed me so glad to read about this study

My ruddy English Springer certainly has inherited instincts. Anything that moves when we're out is a pheasant in disguise in her mind. Today she tried to 'flush' a heron. The heron won.

Some breeds of dogs used for particular tasks seem to develop the instincts needed for the tasks. Border Collies for example seem to have an instinct for sheep herding that other dogs do not have. This has presumably come down a genetic line.

So these actual behaviour patterns are somehow inscribed on the "chemistry" of a gene. All very interesting.

Fascinating stuff isn't it. I suspect we find it easier to accept that dogs inherit either characteristics, or some breed memory, than we do about people. What is exciting, is that humanity continues to find out more, about well, humanity

nanos8 - pleased you enjoyed reading about it

annodomini - dogs do behave in what can seem a peculiar or puzzling manner can't they. I adopted a dog on the Isle of Man (she was born on the Island and lived here all of her life) but I took her to Birmingham with me to visit relatives. Whilst walking her, we came to the front of a house (well, the garden gate) and she flipped out and pulled like mad on the lead; very out of character for her and we both ended up on the roadside near the kerb - that's how much she took me by surprise. She wouldn't get back on the pavement until we were well past that house. I tried her there another couple of times and each time, she refused to walk anywhere near the property. What caused it I have no idea but some smell or sight triggered off something.