Socialization Matters: Why Nature vs. Nurture Isn’t an Either/Or

If you’re raising a puppy (or, in my case this week, a house full of kittens), here’s my PSA: socialize your animal. If you don’t, you’re setting yourself up for a fearful pet down the road.

There’s a long-running debate in rescue and behavior circles — nature versus nurture. How much of a dog’s temperament is genetic, and how much comes from what they experience? My honest answer after years of seeing this play out: it’s both.

What I’ve seen in the exam room

I’ve had eight-week-old puppies come in with severe aggression and resource guarding already in place. That’s not something they learned in eight weeks — some of that is genetic. At the same time, I’ve watched a normal, confident puppy get turned into an anxious one purely because of how they were socialized (or overcorrected, or not socialized at all).

So both things are true at once. You can take a puppy with real genetic challenges and use good techniques to help them through it. You can also do nothing and watch things get worse. Or — and this is the one that surprises people — you can take a naturally confident puppy and make them fearful through overcorrection or lack of socialization.

There’s a happy medium in there, and honestly, even I don’t always find it on my own. I’ve trained dogs for years, and I still go to a trainer for my own animals, because I don’t catch the small stuff — the timing, the little habits — that shapes the relationship I’m building with my dog or cat. (Cat trainers are rare, by the way, but if you find a good one, they’re worth their weight in gold.)

What this looks like at my house right now

I currently have three kittens at home. I’m keeping one; the other two need homes. Right now I’m socializing all three to my dogs, to going outside, to wearing a harness — the same foundational work I did with my own dogs, just not in the same way. Every animal has its own personality and its own timeline. It’s not my timeline. It’s theirs.

It reminds me of coaching kids in high school or junior high. They develop on their own schedule, at their own pace. You can only show them the way — they have to put in the work. Same with animals. You’re there to guide it, not force it.

A small win worth sharing

One of my kittens had a really good interaction with my dog this week — a lot of gentle sniffing, a little snuggling in my coffee mug, calm energy on both sides. My dog read the situation correctly and stepped away exactly when she should have, which let the kitten process what had just happened. The kitten’s reaction was basically: oh, if I do this, the dog backs off — that’s how this works, the dog isn’t so scary after all. Ten seconds later, the kitten’s hackles were down and everything was calm.

Seven days ago, that same kitten would have bolted. We let her run when she needed to, and over time she learned — from a distance — that the dog wasn’t chasing her, just minding its own business. Eventually she got brave enough to sneak up and swat at the dog’s tail. The dog got up, the kitten got startled and darted off… then came back a minute later to try again. React, process, come back. That’s the whole process in miniature.

The bottom line

Socialization isn’t a one-and-done event, and it isn’t purely genetic destiny either. It’s a slow, patient process of exposure, reaction, and recovery — on the animal’s timeline, not yours. Whether you’re bringing home a puppy or, apparently, three kittens at once, give them the room to process at their own pace, and don’t be afraid to bring in a trainer to help fine tune what you’re missing. I do, and I’ve been doing this a long time.

— Dr. Kuhn