Not necessarily. There’s an entire class of dog breeds literally named “retriever”. A quick search shows the AKC saying the first retriever breed was from the 1

Not necessarily. There’s an entire class of dog breeds literally named “retriever”. A quick search shows the AKC saying the first retriever breed was from the 16th century which means humans have been selectively breeding dogs for this specific behavior for nearly 500 years. Whether or not we consider the basal instinct as retrieval vs some other similar instinct that can be easily used to motivate the retrieval behavior [1], I’d wager most dog owners that have trained (or attempted at least!) would agree that some dogs are just more likely to become good retrievers which to me suggests that there’s more than just a basic pleasure stimulus response. Similar dog behaviors based on breed that I would argue at least point towards instinctual behavior being at least a partial explanation for behavior are herding and live stock protection breeds. Take a quick watch of any of the sheep herding competitions or other fun related videos [2] to see what I mean. However, at the end of the day I also think that most “instincts” are more of a shorthand/stereotype for some set of abstract probabilities that may or may not result in a dog being good or bad at any specifically desired behavior. [1] https://www.wildfowlmag.com/editorial/tips_strategies_wf_instinct_0510/280526 https://www.wildfowlmag.com/editorial/tips_strategies_wf_ins... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw