Heritability of instincts. Can anyone help?

I have this question for many years. I have asked many people but none has provided me with an acceptable answer. Here it goes...

We know from molecular biology 101 that DNA makes proteins and that we only inherit from our ancestors between 20000-25000 "recipes" to create a large number of different proteins. We also know that proteins do their job either because of there shape or because of their (local) physiochemical properties, usually both are employed (I am oversimplifying things here so everyone can understand).

How then is knowledge inherited? I don't know any mechanism, nor can I imagine one....
Let me explain what I mean by "knowledge". I certainly do not refer to reflexes because these could be explained, at least partially. For example my male dog started rising his hind leg to urinate to pee at the age of 10 months. Every male dog does that and it has a purpose but how did he know? He obviously didn't copy that behaviour and if we suppose he did, why don't the females copy it to?

How does he know where to put his penis when he wants to mate? It is not trial and failure. I haven't seen any animal trying to put his thing ANYWHERE to release his urges and by chance getting it right! I am sure he hadn't seen it before so that he can learn it and even if he had without my knowledge, I am sure there are millions of animals out there that haven't seen any other animals matting although these animals themselves are fully capable to do so!
How did he know what body position to take in order to defecate? Even if you take a newborn puppy away from any animal, all will do the same thing!
They "know" certain things that must have been inherited by some way but I cannot understand what the biochemical mechanism might be.

I am only referring to those silly yet extremely common examples. There is a vast array of them and I am not talking about behaviours/temperament (eg aggressiveness) that could be explained by a difference in the amount of neurotransmitters or the sensitivity to them. Nor am I referring to differences in brain regions that can predispose to same abilities (eg male-female behavioral differences).

To sum it up... How does my dog know where to put his fuc**ng d**k? What is the mechanism by which he got this info?

Reply 1

Messalina

I can't be sure, but I think all these reactions/instincts are somewhat related to motor functions, in that they are programmed into the subconscious genetically simply for the means of the survival of the species in question. Similarly in situations where somebody/something has been kept in isolated captivity since birth (a rough example would be the captive children of Fritzl, who although had their mother who had experienced the outside world, were otherwise completely cut off and developed their own form of the Austrian language as their vocabulary was limited to what they experienced in the cellar) they still exhibit certain tendancies, such as what you mention, out of instinct. I'd assume in regards to your dog's sexual tendancies, it is somewhat influenced by the motor functions associated with instinct, but also would be driven by hormones, scent and the reactions of the other dog. This boils down to the nature vs nurture debate, but I would say in regards to mating, it's an instinctual action due to the subconscious knowledge to survive and carry on the line of the species.

Reply 2

twl

For example my male dog started rising his hind leg to urinate to pee at the age of 10 months. Every male dog does that and it has a purpose but how did he know

How did he know what body position to take in order to defecate?

How do you know there are more than one position in which this can be achieved comfortably?

How does my dog know where to put his fuc**ng d**k?

First of all he needs to inherit a biological attraction mechanism so that he can respond to female dogs in a way that gets him "primed" for mating (scent, looks, behaviour).

Second, is the answer to your question. Put in another way, the question is: why doesn't the bitch ever give Rover a BJ? Probably female dog doesn't know how to do that.

So if Rover has been primed into a state of sexual excitement by the female dog, he is drawn to pleasure himself with the object of what is causing the excitement.

Since a BJ is not on the menu there is only one hole which is best suited for maximising Rover's pleasure, so Rover goes for it until he breaks his pleasure feedback mechanism.

Reply 3

EskimoJo

twl - Sorry, and how does doggy know that his penis has to even go in a hole?

Reply 4

mac32

twl

Perhaps it's a gene carried on the doggy Y-Chromosome.

1. Male dogs (wolf ancestors?) that didn't have the gene got stinky and unhealthy because they got piss all other them and were less successful attracting mates.

or

2. It's for territorial marking. Get the piss higher up the tree it won't wash away so easily or get pissed over by another wolf. Possibly inherited on the male side because males dominate the packs and have multiple female bitches?

How do you know there are more than one position in which this can be achieved comfortably?

First of all he needs to inherit a biological attraction mechanism so that he can respond to female dogs in a way that gets him "primed" for mating (scent, looks, behaviour).

Second, is the answer to your question. Put in another way, the question is: why doesn't the bitch ever give Rover a BJ? Probably female dog doesn't know how to do that.

So if Rover has been primed into a state of sexual excitement by the female dog, he is drawn to pleasure himself with the object of what is causing the excitement.

Since a BJ is not on the menu there is only one hole which is best suited for maximising Rover's pleasure, so Rover goes for it until he breaks his pleasure feedback mechanism.

I can understand that the scent/looks or whatever of a bitch can excite a male. Pherhormones and the like can trigger a biochemical/hormonal cascade that will make a dog hard. But how does he KNOW how to handle this situation. He never "thinks" what to do with that, he just puts it in her and start mating.

Also how does he KNOW that his ancestors pee got pissed over and their scent got washed off? How can a gene give that information? And how can the female dogs and all puppies pie in another way? I know that there are evolutionary explanations for all these behaviours but my question is how are they inherited since any organism only gets genes from its ancestors to make some proteins and I don't know of any protein, or structure that could convey the info "when your dick is hard go behind her and put it in that hole and start moving back and forth"
Exactly what EskimoJo asked

Reply 5

twl

It's probably not "a" gene but a number of genes in the male dog and also the female dog which might be attracting the male dog. These lead the dog 90% of the way there the first time. The last 10% is worked out by the dog, assisted by inheritance of eyes, nose and brain.

Who knows maybe the female dog is also going "put it in" in doggy-speak.

Reply 6

mac32

twl

I can explain attraction between different animals in a purely biochemical way.
What I am asking is how does the dog or whatever know where to put his dick. Which mechanism is employed and how a gene/multiple genes (proteins) can carry KNOWLEDGE. The question doesn't apply only to dogs or animals but in humans too but I chose to deal with a simple example so to exclude learned behaviours from experience etc

Reply 7

mac32

Anyone?
Even a hypothesis... I am at a loss here and this problem has been in my mind for many years

Reply 8

Normandy114

I've really wanted to understand this. I understand how genetics works, but how for example geese know to follow the first large figure it sees for example just from genetics doesn't make sense to me.