Nature vs Nurture

When I was in my teens, a long, long time ago, the argument raged over whether canine behaviour was the result of breeding or environment. Many professional breeders of the time were adamant that breeding was the major factor and that they designed their breeding programs with that theory in mind. In contrast, the opposite viewpoint was that dogs’ behaviour was much more the result of the way a dog was brought up, particularly in the first 12-18 months.

Alongside these theories is the almost identical one related to humans, often referred to as Nature or Nurture

Nature being the biological factors, namely genetics and nurture being the experiences that affect one’s early life

Personally, I have always been convinced that it is a bit of both and tend to favour nurture far more than nature, but I’m not sure what percentage can be attributable to nurture, so I am going to use the story of Oxana Malaya. This story highlights both canine behaviour and the result of a bizarre childhood like no other.

Born into neglect

Oksana Oleksandrivna Malaya, or Oxana Malaya as she is now known, was born in Nova Blagovishchenka, Ukraine, on the 4^th of November 1983 to an impoverished family. According to doctors, her medical records show that she was perfectly normal at birth without complications. Sadly, her biological parents were both alcoholics, and either by design or accident, Oxana didn’t find favour with her parents, or as she put it herself.

“There were too many children and not enough beds.”

Neglect was a way of life, and on one bitterly cold night Oxana, aged three years, found herself locked outside. To find warmth and to avoid freezing, she followed the family dog into its kennel, and this would form the basis of her life for the next five years. During that period, she would be integrated into a pack of stray dogs and developed a number of canine behaviour patterns. For food, she relied on raw meat and scraps and lost all ability to speak, relying on barking and growling as a means of communication as she mimicked her canine companions. Also, her walking on her hands and knees was perfectly normal. Naturally, her personal hygiene suffered, and it is remarkable that she didn’t become seriously ill from any number of infections.

The attitude of the parents almost defies belief, but so entrenched in a permanent alcohol stupor, it shows how normal behaviour descends into a haze of neglect and cruelty.

Learning to be a dog

The fact that a family pet dog, or a pack of strays, are willing to adopt a human child, accept it into the pack and raise it as they would a puppy, and furthermore teach the child how to live as they do, is fascinating. Just as fascinating is the reaction of the dogs as the authorities attempted to extract Oxana from the pack. They were extremely hostile and so protective of their child companion that they became so aggressive that they had to be bribed with meat before it was possible to remove the child.

Incredibly, this state of affairs lasted for around 5 years and only ended when Oxana started barking at a neighbour. She was then taken to a children’s home where she spent years being rehabilitated and learning to speak normally

When Oxana was able to talk rationally about her experiences, she recounted that when she spoke to the dogs, they answered by barking, which she then imitated.

She has explained the story of her life experiences on camera many times, notably in the Australian television show 60 Minutes.

Oxana is now in her early forties and is in a specialist farming care facility as she spends most of her time milking cows and looking after animals, mainly dogs, tasks for which I suspect she is well suited. Sadly, specialists believe that the damage has left her with the intellectual capacity of a 6-year-old, which is permanent. Oxana even sometimes reverts to walking on all fours when she feels lonely, as she says, ”Nobody notices, and the animals don’t care.”

Over to you

So what do you think when it comes to nature v nurture in the development of both dogs and humans? Whilst thankfully this is not a typical story when addressing this subject, it does demonstrate that the nurture element is definitely included. So what is the ratio? What do you think?

50-50, 60-40, 70-30, 80-20

Do you favour Nurture or Nature, and in what majority? Furthermore, is it the same for dogs and other animals?

For those of you who think that this story is so bizarre it is made up or created using AI, the story is absolutely true. Furthermore, there have been approximately 100 recorded cases over the decades worldwide; these included Dina Sanichar, discovered in1867 in India at the age of approximately 6 years, and raised by wolves. He is believed to be the inspiration for the fictional character Mowgli from The Jungle Book, written by Rudyard Kipling