The Importance of Choosing The Right Breed

Arguably the most common cause of the issues dog owners contact me for help with stems from them having the wrong breed of dog and the two of them being a mismatch; a mismatch between what the dog they have is and what it is hard-wired for, and the situation the dog finds itself in with the owner. 

A breed can be wrong for someone for many reasons but the most common I see are it being wrong for the owner's handling ability and experience; wrong for the amount of time and resources the owner can provide to the dog; wrong for the owner's living situation; wrong for the owner's idea of what this given breed is or should be; and wrong for what would actually suit the owner, rather than suit what the owner wants. As you can see these issues are all wrong on the part of the owner, not the dog. 

 If a high-drive dog finds itself being kept in a home with no opportunity to express and satisfy itself through behaviours appropriate to its breed and it becomes destructive or begins to display undesirable behaviours, the fault lies with the owner who keeps the dog there under such conditions, not with the dog. Working breeds in pet homes are prime examples of this incompatibility. Working dogs are supposed to work, not be kept simply as pets, so it's no wonder why your German Shepherd*, Belgian Malinois, Dutch Herder, Rottweiler, Giant Schnauzer, Dobermann, livestock guardian or even your working-line Cocker Spaniel hasn't quite met your expectations as a pet. If your plan is to live the typical London-pet-owner lifestyle with your dog, taking casual walks in the park, freely allowing your dog to interact with strange people and dogs and enjoying the dog-friendly cafes and pubs that London has to offer, then chances are a breed which has been bred to have a defensive edge or to chase and bite isn't right for you.

 Choosing a breed that is appropriate to you, your ability, your living situation and the life you can and intend to provide that dog is paramount. This of course begins by knowing the breed of dog before you bring it into your home; the function they were intended and bred for; the drives that gear them toward those functions; by having first-hand experience of what is required to properly care for, manage and satisfy them, and by making sure you can and will provide this for the dog's lifetime. If you do not intend to use a breed for what it was intended for, or something similar i.e your working-line German Shepherd doesn't have to be a police dog but you may train for a breed-appropriate sport such as Shutzhund/IGP, then do not get that breed. Choose a breed better suited to your intentions for the dog and more appropriate to your situation.

 Something worth mentioning as a key aspect of being able to handle a working breed, particularly the larger ones, is an owner's physical ability to handle them. Yes, in time the dog can be trained to be obedient on commands alone but more likely than not it will have grown to almost full size while still retaining its puppy levels of energy and excitement before your training reaches this level, and it only takes a couple of handling failures to allow for significant reinforcement of undesirable behaviours to happen to set your dog off down the wrong path. Think ahead to the dog being an adolescent and ask yourself if you can really handle a powerful 40kg German Shepherd that decides it doesn't want to listen to you.

 Responsible dog ownership starts with truly knowing what breeds are suited to you and what you can offer a dog and then choosing one of them, rather than choosing a breed because you like the idea of them or because of how they look. Stronger breeds may in time become better suited to you as your handling ability and experience develops and you have the capacity to really do right by a dog of that breed, but you shouldn't jump in the deep end and try and figure things out as you go as there is a good chance this could come back to bite you or someone else in the arse.

 What was the breed bred for? Does that align with the life you can provide a dog? If not, then do not get that breed.

 *I should mention that all of this applies to choosing the right breeding lines within a breed too, as a healthy show-line or lower-drive working-line German Shepherd may suit your family's active lifestyle in Greater London, but a German Shepherd from police or security lines will likely be volatile towards everyone bar your family, so no nice walks in the park and say goodbye to being able to relax when guests visit your home. A good breeder should be able to advise and properly allocate a suitable puppy to you, but there's huge emphasis on the word 'good' here.

This is of Shwan, a Caucasian Shepherd who at 7 months old was already in excess of 50kg! Bred to protect livestock from wolves and bears in the Caucasus mountains, Shwan was a complete mismatch to the situaiton he found himself in, living in a terraced house in West London. However, Shwan is my greatest rehoming success story as with the support of his very understanding and responsible previous owners and the help of Graham from Caucasian Shepherd Rescue, Shwan now roams freely around 80 acres of fenced woodland in the hills of Abderdeen.

The Need to WORK Working Dogs

Last year I wrote a post titled ‘Why You Should NOT Get a German Shepherd or Belgian Malinois’ in response to a constant frustration I found myself facing as I visited the homes of such breeds and their owners who were living in anything but harmony. I have since removed the post as I don’t want to demonize the breeds; rather my intention was to deter the average would-be pet dog owner from getting one of these dogs because they felt some draw to them, without actually understanding the responsibility and work that goes into living with them. I have since come to realise that it is not an issue with the breeds specifically, but more widely with working breeds in general, being taken on by owners who want a pet dog and have no intention to or understanding of how to properly handle a working dog. This mismatch in a working dog’s nature and the pet homes they find themselves in is where we can run into serious issues and experience a breakdown in our relationships with these dogs.

I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised when I tell you of the shepherds, malinois or rottweilers I have worked with in these situations that have become aggressive, are outwardly disobedient or ‘too intense,’ however, you would be of the spaniels and labradors from working-lines that I get contacted about for such behaviours - particularly aggression toward children! Pfaffenberger documented this explicitly in his book ‘New Knowledge of Dog Behaviour’ in 1963 with a labrador retriever in training to be a guide dog who had displayed aggressive behaviour when not allowed to play fetch - that which it was bred for - yet when fetch was implemented in its training, the labrador stabilised and proved to be a top-performing guide dog.

There seems to have been a new trend set in owning working-line dogs but a disconnect from what that actually means, as many of my clients proudly state their dog is from working lines, with accomplished parents and then go on to tell me how the dog is out of control and they are struggling to handle them in their pet home. I would imagine it being obvious given ‘working’ being in the name, but these working-line dogs were bred specifically to be high-drive animals that will work and work and work. They are intense and energetic by design. If they are kept simply as pets with no opportunity to express or satisfy their drives and find a sense of purpose, it is no wonder they destabilize and wreak havoc in your home. Moreover, if they do not get to express and satisfy these drives with YOU, their owner, they will do so elsewhere and become more conditioned to and focused on whatever that may be, as opposed to you.

And herein, lies the issue; if you cannot or do not wish to provide these dogs with what they NEED, which is to be worked, then in my opinion you have no business owning one of these animals. They will more than likely be unhappy and develop behavioural issues that will either land both you and them in trouble or lead to you getting rid of them, and you will have failed your dog. If you are looking for a family pet, steer clear of working lines - and that includes you would-be cockerpoo owners who are looking at pups whose spaniel parent is from working lines. However, if you are responsible, you have done your research on the breed, you know what they were bred for and what work they will likely want to do, plus you know you can not only offer this to them but offer them enough of it, and you are ready to take on the challenge, then working-line dogs can be amazing. Working with an animal that wants to work for nothing more than the sake of working and seeing the sense of satisfaction it gives them is one of the best feelings I experience.

I often experience these undesirable behaviours with a young high-drive dog of mine on days where I haven’t managed to work him enough and he’ll begin playing up, and that’s within one day! Recently, all my dogs contracted Kennel Cough and I couldn’t work them for a couple of weeks. Bullet and Shadow, two 12-month-old shepherds who had never fought before or shown any significant aggression toward each other, became restless and irritable after the first few days of not working and ended up having a series of fights increasing in severity as time went on. Both their obedience plummeted after the first week and our relationships weakened. Toward the end of the two weeks, they had their most violent clash and had to be separated, but the next day I started working with them again doing some light bite work - that which they were bred for - and the behavioural issues stopped immediately and they became affectionate with each other and engaged with me once again.

The bottom line is, you NEED to work working dogs, for their sake and your own. Work them in whatever constitutes satisfying work for them and enjoy doing it. They will love you for it!

7 Tips for Puppy Owners

Since writing the first instalment of Puppy 101 last year I’ve gained a tonne of new knowledge, heaps more experience and generally feel I’ve progressed as a trainer, coach and all-round person. I think it is important to always remain a student, to be open-minded to new ways of thinking and willing to challenge your opinions if for the better of your cause – mine being happy dogs - so I wanted to revisit this post and update my ideas, which I’ll likely do routinely. Here are my 7 top tips for new puppy owners but can be applied by dog owners in general.

1.    Choosing the right puppy for you;

Many of my clients contact me prior to collecting their new puppy, so I thought it best to start there. So, to begin, this may seem obvious, but remember, the puppy you buy now will be the dog you have for 10+ years. I cannot stress enough how important it is to choose the right dog for you, for your energy, for your lifestyle and for your environment – not for how cute you think it is. If you live in an inner city or a small flat like me, if the dog will be home alone while you work long hours or if you’re generally not an active person, a working breed is not for you. A calm, low energy, companion breed would be more suitable, which is why we got Biggie our Frenchie and not another German Shepherd. Be responsible when choosing your puppy, don’t base your decision solely on appearance, research extensively into what it takes to properly care for them and always put the dog first.

2.    Acknowledge what your puppy is:

Your puppy is not a baby; your puppy is a domesticated predator. Although we may use them as something else, ultimately, they are a predator. As puppy owners, the sooner we acknowledge this truth and satisfy their inherent drives, the easier life becomes and the quicker we reach harmony. In doing so, we can predict and then capitalise on their behaviours, setting them up for success, as we do not teach puppies anything; rather we shape and condition these inherent behaviours to suit our needs.

Further to this, acknowledge what your puppy’s breed was bred for and know what characteristics to expect. If you’ve got a shepherd or guardian breed, expect them to be protective and territorial; if you’ve got a hound, expect them to be independent and to follow their nose; if you’ve got a companion breed, expect them to be needy; if you’ve got a terrier, expect them to have high drive to chase small animals including other dogs; if you’ve got a bulldog, expect them to be stubborn; and so on.

3.    Communicate in your puppy’s language:

Our puppies cannot communicate with us in our language, but we can communicate with them in theirs. We must be the ones to meet them at their level, as clear communication establishes trust, develops understanding and increases potential for success. Dogs communicate energetically through body language, posturing and spacial pressure, often reading us for these cues and responding accordingly. Think of them as an input/output system where we must BE what we want to SEE in them, which essentially translates to: when I get excited, you get excited, and when I’m calm, you’re calm. Whenever communicating with our puppy, we must always make sure to check in with ourselves first and ask ‘am I clearly communicating in my puppy’s language what it is I want to say?’

4.    The need for corrections:

Relating to the point above, to help our puppies understand our social rules and to reach their full potential within our pack, we must be just as clear in communicating what is not acceptable with the use of corrections. Corrections are commonplace within a pack as its fate depends on the cooperation of its members, therefore imbalanced dogs are quickly corrected or rejected. Assuming we are not going to reject our puppies, we need to employ corrections to ensure success. As we are now communicating with our puppies in their language since my last point, we must do the same in our corrections, so just as their mother would have, when we need to correct our puppies we take them by scruff of their neck and hold them still in a calm and assertive manner.

Considering dogs live in the present our corrections must happen as our puppies are doing wrong so they can clearly associate them with the unwanted behaviour, and not afterwards as they could be unsure of what they did wrong.

Something worth considering with correcting a puppy is the intensity you use. If you are on the firmer end with your corrections you will cause the puppy a higher level of stress in the moment, but you will be clearer in your communication of what will not be tolerated and likely have to correct the puppy less often. If you are on the milder end with your corrections, you will cause the puppy a lower level of stress in the moment but will likely need to repeatedly correct the puppy to get your message across. I believe being clear in your expectations is the fairest way to treat a puppy, therefor I opt for the former.

5.    Establish leadership:

Dogs are not natural-born leaders, but if they do not see leadership, they will often assume it. Unlike human relationships where who takes the lead can be dependent on the situation, dogs follow a strict hierarchy of either being above or below another pack member, so we must consistently enforce this pack structure to establish correct leadership. Consistently being firm but fair, with confidence and conviction in our commands and the discipline to always follow them through is how we establish leadership. Controlling all resources, including attention, affection, food, and toys, and making our puppies earn them, as opposed to letting them demand them, is how we establish leadership. Eating first, deciding when we play and when play is over, walking through our puppies and not around them, walking through doorways first, greeting people first, not allowing them to jump up on us, on the sofa, or on our beds without permission; these are all ways in which we establish leadership.

6.    Routine and structure:

However your puppy lives now, is how they will expect to live as an adult. Understandably, when we get a new puppy, they become our world and the centre of our attention, but if they come to understand this, they will expect it throughout their lives. With that in mind, before you bring your new puppy home, get them a crate and from day one, keep them in it for most of their day. A puppy’s crate is its den, it is its safe space and is the perfect way to implement a routine and structure within their lives. Keeping your puppy in a crate, with routine toilet breaks and short sessions of play is not only a great way to supervise them, but it will teach them that we decide what’s happening, when we interact, when its time to play and when its time to relax and they will take this understanding with them throughout life. It is also a simple way to house train your puppy as they will typically not want to eliminate where they sleep, so by keeping them in a small confined space and routinely taking them outside they will begin to understand this is where they should go.

7.    Don’t train your puppy to be anxious and socialise them:

When I tell clients they’re training their puppies to be anxious, they always seem to have a confused look on their faces as they ask ‘why would I do that?’ No one intentionally trains their puppy to be anxious, but almost every client I see is doing so unknowingly. How they do this is by pandering to them, over-petting them, over-praising them, over-comforting them, tolerating neediness, avoiding discomfort, and creating dependency. As hard as it may be to not give into the puppy-dog eyes and give them the attention they want, doing so will serve your puppy well. If they react with fear or unease to something, ignore them and lead by example in how you would want them to respond. Continually doing so as you repeatedly expose them to new things is proper socialisation.

Typically, socialisation seems to be a term used to describe the development of dog-to-dog social skills, but proper socialisation goes way beyond that. Think of it as your effort to condition and desensitise your puppy to everything and anything it may encounter throughout life, whether that be dogs, other animals, people, children, vehicles, places, situations etc while generalising its training. Now of course not all dogs need the exact same type of socialisation beyond commonalities, so you should make yours appropriate to the life your puppy has ahead. Every Sunday my Girlfriend and I walk in Hampstead Heath, stopping for pints in the pubs as we go before settling in one for a roast dinner, so from the first Sunday we got Biggie, our Frenchie, we took him along so that now busy, noisy pubs with people, children and dogs passing him while he remains calm and behaved is the norm. The four German Shepherd puppies I am currently training will be living on farms with ATVs with loud engines driving around, so I have been feeding them while in the ATV with the engine running. These may seem like simple, almost obvious things to do to help your puppy settle into their lives comfortably, but It is a process so often overlooked yet far more important to focus on from the get-go, as opposed to teaching your puppy to give the paw.

Puppy 101 - Relationships First

Puppies are like sponges soaking up huge amounts of information from the day they are born and certainly from the moment they meet you, so there is no such thing as starting training too early. However, I do like to give puppies a day or two to settle into their new home before applying any further pressures on top of the stress of their move, but once they are comfortable you can begin work right away.

With this being said, it is important that we begin correct work with our pup, focusing first on relationship building and teaching them how to simply be while defining a structure before we attempt to teach them cute tricks. What this results in is a dog that knows how to act and clearly understands their position in the pack as it walks through life with us, as opposed to a dog that can sit and give the paw in the home, but goes crazy as soon as the front door opens. Taking the reverse approach is what often leads me to people’s homes as behavioral issues arise and quickly become out of control.

We all want a balanced dog, but as explained in one of my previous posts we often fail to be what we want to see in our dog, meaning their apparent faults actually lie with us. To achieve energy balanced with calm and excitement we must lead by example, showing them when it is time to settle and when its time to play. If our relationship with our puppy is only one of high energy, it is no wonder they jump and nip and yap and while it may seem cute now, it quickly wears off as they grow and the play becomes more painful. Just as their mother would have, we must correctly proportion positive reinforcement and encouragement and consistent discipline when interacting with our pup, clearly defining the boundaries of what is and is not allowed.

I’ll explain what this looks like with an overview of some aspects of our past 4 months with the latest addition to our pack, Biggie Smalls, our 6-month-old French Bulldog puppy.

Preventing Anxiety:

From the moment we met Biggie we made a conscious effort not to make a fuss of him/give him too much attention (very hard to do with a pup!) and worked on this while projecting calm and assertive energy whether in our home, our car or on walks. The reason being is if this is what the pup learns to expect, anxiety quickly kicks in when they don’t receive the attention they are used to or are left alone, even if only for a short period. The pup also begins to understand the focus is on them and not us, reversing what the relationship should be. What this looks like with Biggie at 6 months old is we have worked up to leaving him alone for 4 to 5 hours at a time with both he and us being comfortable about it.

Jumping Up:

When Biggie was much smaller and couldn’t reach the sofa it lead to him starting to jump up and each time he did, without saying anything we calmly put him down and if he persisted, we held him there until he settled. We’re fine with him being on the sofa and he does come up most evenings, but as with everything, it must be on our terms. So now if he wants to come up, he’ll calmly sit in front of us and if we want him up we’ll let him, but if not, after some moments of extreme puppy dog eyes, he finds somewhere else to lie down. This principle also applies for when a pup jumps up at us, as we, of course, want to give them a cuddle from time to time, but no one likes a dog that won’t stop jumping.

Sit, Stay and General Obedience:

While we didn’t focus on teaching Biggie any tricks up until recently, we have been strict on him having good manners, particularly around feeding time, so his routine is always tightly followed. Since his third day with us, every time we have fed him we have calmly stood and waited for him to sit before beginning to move toward putting his bowl down. As we’ve done so, every time he’s become excited again we stand back upright and disengage, giving him no eye contact and wait for him to settle and sit. Once he has settled and waits while we put his bowl down and stand back upright, we then pause for some moments before giving him the go-ahead to eat. This did at first take time, but within a few weeks, Biggie would sit in front of his food for up to 10 minutes while we walked into other rooms or pottered around the flat and would only move once told to. This is a huge aspect of building a disciplined relationship with your pup as they learn we mean what we say and our commands/directions must be followed.

When the time came that we began working on some tricks with Biggie he knew the score in that we were working together with us giving commands and him following. This worked so much so that the first day we worked on getting him to bark on command, he was doing it within 10 minutes (with some guidance from Millie our GSD).

Walking On and Off-Leash:

Given most pups are nervous during their first few walks and want to be right under our feet, we look to use this lack of confidence to teach them how to move with us while on walks and reward them with pieces of food when they do. For Biggie’s first walk we took him to an enclosed park away from the exits/roads and simply let him off his leash and began walking away from him. Out of fear he didn’t leave our side and stuck by us throughout, following us (and the food) as we went. As the days passed he started to venture further away from us and we continued to walk away from him, praising and rewarding him when he came back to our side after his confidence would run out. Over time this has lead to him understanding he is free to run and play, but within range of us as we are the decision-makers of which direction we go in. This then transferred nicely into walking on-leash as the same principles applied in that we move, he follows and if he does overstep the mark a simple ‘ah ahh’ with guidance using the leash is enough to get him to fall back in line.

Recall:

Taking the idea from the last point of us moving away from our pup to show them they must move along with us feeds nicely into our recall work in that essentially, whether they’re 1m ahead of us while walking or 20m away playing with another dog in the park, when we move on, they should follow. Expectedly this will take some work as your pup is exposed to new things which will excite them, but as we’ve done with Biggie, through practice and patience in giving him the opportunity to come back, when we move on he usually follows and if not, calling his name once or twice generally does the trick. We make sure to remain calm, but assertive throughout and praise and reward him when he does well.

Check out the Biggie’s highlight on my Instagram to see the work mentioned above and much more - www.instagram.com/k9harkin

Your Dog is More Wolf Than Human: Treat it Like One

The story of man’s best friend begins over 15,000 years ago during the last Ice Age, when man and wolf would have been forced closer together in competition for resources. Exact origins are often heavily debated but it is widely accepted the relationship began with either man first tolerating and then befriending wolves that followed their camps and/or by coming across orphaned cubs that they raised within the tribe as their own. Recent research suggests that this happened in multiple instances across Europe and Asia, meaning there is no one true origin pack or wolf as our dog’s ancestor, but a number of them.

Fast forward to the modern day and while some of our dogs no longer look like wolves, their genetic makeup and much of their psychology remain the same. This is often where we hit a sticking point with our dogs and give way to behavioural issues as we are quick to humanize, project our emotions, and expect intellectual reasoning from them, simply setting us up for failure and frustration.

The most significant difference between us and our dogs is our mentality: we often live between the past and future, jumping from one emotion to the next while trying to use our intellect to understand our experiences, yet they live within the now, driven by instincts and stimuli. While dogs do experience emotions, they are very much within the moment and differ from ours greatly. They do not worry about the past nor fear the future, but assess the here and now and react accordingly. Without acknowledging this, we easily become reluctant to correct our dogs as we fear we will spark negative emotions causing them to resent and/or fear us.

As explained in my previous post, just like wolves, dogs are pack animals that follow a strict hierarchical structure which we must understand and impose for a healthy, happy, and balanced pack. If we follow this protocol 9 times out of 10 and on the 10th time give in to the dog as we feel they are stressed or we lose patience, it only signals to the dog that in this instance they were in charge and it will give way to future push-backs. When we then try to be pack leaders, we are both left frustrated as our views on the relationship we have together do not align. Like wolves, we must be disciplined in upholding the hierarchical structure and quickly correct unbalanced members, so that our dogs clearly understand their position and stay within it.

Ultimately unrealistic expectations, miscommunication and lack of correct structure lead to confusion and anxiety within us, our dog and the pack relationship. If we want a strong bond built on trust and respect, we must set aside our human perspective and emotion and meet our dogs on their instinctual, energetic level and it is only when we do so that we can create a real connection with them, meet their needs and fulfil the role of a true pack leader.

Building Bonds and Pack Energy

Correct energy, consistent structure and clear direction are key when working to build a strong bond with our dogs and cement their understanding of their role within the pack. A lack thereof will more likely than not result in our dog assuming leadership themselves, which can manifest as undesirable behaviours ranging from leash-pulling to aggression.

If we want our dog to be the ideal pack member, we must first check in with ourselves as pack leaders, making sure we are being what we want from our dog and transferring the correct energy for them to reflect. We often create tension and confusion by expecting our dogs to understand verbal commands using verbal language as we do, and overlook body language and energy which dogs instinctually use to communicate. Regardless of the words we say to our dogs, if we are projecting excitement and/or anxiety through our demeanor our dogs will pick up on it. Likewise, when we are calm and assertive, our dog will naturally gravitate toward us, align with our energy and become more susceptible to direction.

As we all know, dogs are pack animals, but we often forget the strict hierarchical structures they follow, furthering confusion as they receive muddled discipline and affection from us when on the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. If we are not clear each and every time our dog pushes these boundaries, their misbehaviour will only grow with each instance as they test us to see what they can get away with.

Similarly, with each command we give our dog, we must mean it to the point where we will make it happen each and every time. If we are not disciplined and do not follow through with making sure our commands our met, our dogs will not respect them and the fault for this lies with us, not them.

An example of this would be my German Shepherd Millie as although I believe she loves me, she ultimately respects my position in our pack as I give her balanced affection and opportunity to express her drives while consistently following our structure and enforcing its rules and it’s this that she loves, giving way to our amazing relationship. My mother, on the other hand, would also like to believe that Millie loves her as she becomes excited when seeing her, as my mother always greets Millie with high energy and a treat but no structure. The major difference here is when my mother tries to be assertive, Millie simply gives her a look and either turns away or continues with what she was doing as she doesn’t have the respect of a pack leader. I can then calmly give Millie the same command and she’ll do it first time. This isn’t from being trained to listen to me and not my mother, Millie knows full well what is being asked of her by both of us with the same command, it’s that, on one hand, she has incorrect energy and no structure and on the other correct energy and consistent structure.

So when working on building a bond with your dog, ask yourself are you being a real pack leader or are you being like my mother? The latter of which is fine, until you need the dog to do something...