Why on earth do our dogs manage to find so many things to do that drive us
and other people mad?
Well, basically because they are dogs and are born into the world of people
equipped with a whole set of perfectly natural doggy instincts and behaviours
and nothing else.

Modern research tells that our domestic dogs are probably descendants of opportunist, scavenging wolves that hung around the settlements of our prehistoric ancestors. These scavenging wolves took advantage of the easy pickings around human habitation, hung around with people and through many generations developed into the dogs we know and love today.

However, these scavenging wolves retained elements of the survival behaviours of their hunting cousins and we see some of these behaviours many generations later in our present day dogs. Some of the original wolf behaviours have been lessened to some extent by conscious or sub-conscious selective breeding, but to a greater or lesser extent, we can expect our dogs to dig, bark, hunt, stalk, chase, scent, track, shake things, retrieve, guard food and chew.
Hhm…..I think we can all see some potential problems here!

Of course human beings, like those first dogs, are opportunists and through generations of selective breeding we have enhanced and exploited those dog behaviours that are useful to us.
We have developed terriers that enthusiastically dig to find and kill vermin for us, flushing dogs such as spaniels that find prey for us to shoot, retrievers that bring back the prey that we have shot, sight hounds and the scenting hounds that do the whole job of hunting and killing for us, collies who are willing to tirelessly stalk and chase without needing to carry that through to a kill, huskies that delight in running endlessly in a “pack”, guarding breeds who will protect ourselves and our possessions , ……….the list is endless and year by year we find more ways to use the natural behaviours of dogs. No wonder the dog is called Man’s Best Friend.

But Man’s Best Friend is not always popular when his natural canine behaviours conflict with the life-style and expectations of the humans amongst whom he lives. Obviously to try to prevent our dogs displaying all of their natural behaviours would result in stressed and unhappy dogs, but realistically we cannot, in today’s society, give our dogs free rein to behaviour in all the ways that are natural to them. We cannot allow our collies to chase cyclists to stop them moving; we cannot allow our spaniels to run amok on other people’s land chasing wildlife and livestock; we cannot allow our guarding breeds to threaten everyone they meet.

So what can we do to minimise this potential conflict between Man and Dog?

First of all when we are choosing a dog to join our family we need to consider the selective breeding that has gone into producing the various breeds and decide whether a dog with “working” characteristics will be right for us. Do we want the responsibility of a pet with the characteristics of a working dog or would we be better with one of the delightful breeds that have been bred for generations to be purely companions?

Once we have our dog, motivational, reward-based training is a must.
Basic training gives our dogs a repertoire of acceptable behaviours and gives us a degree of control over our dogs when we are out and about, which in turn usually means we can give them more freedom.

There is, however, more that we can do which will not only help our dogs to behave acceptably, but will also enrich their lives. Most working breeds have more than one characteristic that defines them and of these characteristics we can usually enhance those that are less likely to get them into trouble. If your spaniel is a determined hunter you may have to keep him on a long line in the countryside when the ground nesting birds are raising their broods or around livestock, but he’s probably brilliant at using his nose to find things. So by by all means stop him disturbing, chasing and possibly killing those birds or livestock, but be fair to him and help him to indulge his other passions, and maybe teach him to be useful, by developing his scenting skills. Wouldn’t it be great if your dog could find the car keys you’d dropped on a walk?

Your collie is perhaps not such a hunter, but he is likely to feel the need to chase and control the movement of anything that appears to be getting away from him, be it your toddler or a jogger and we can’t allow that. However your collie has been bred to follow instructions at a distance and to show great self control when it is required, and he will revel in the challenge of enhancing these skills. He will thrive on doing your bidding so give him lots to do, if he’s waiting for your next instruction he may not notice that jogger at all.

Working breeds love to do just that……to work! Channel all that brain power and energy into enhancing those of his natural canine behaviours that will not get your dog into trouble.

Sue Kinchin MAPDT 00922
Contact : suekinchin@btinternet.com