Training for good long-term outcomes.


Let’s all remember that it is not the ribbons you take home from your chosen Dog Sport that count towards your dog's good behavior. With the exception of CGC(Canine Good Citizen) where the outcome for the Tests is deliberately about regular Social Behavior, all the other Sports are about achieving a set of obstacles at speed, or in obedience achieving a set of very rigid exercises so that in the opinion of the Judge you are doing them better than anyone else.

Good Behavior is how your dog is with your children, with your neighbors, when you go to the forest for a walk or the beach for a swim, or if you live in a town where the dogs can go to cafes and sit outside, (Rotorua has Palmers Garden centre Cafe), that your dog is very well behaved at all times.

Now this is not as easy as it sounds. Again we have dogs mauling children around the country. What does it mean when we talk about some breeds being more user friendly than others? This is my take as a keen observer of dog behavior over many years.

1. Some breeds have fewer senses than other, for example I put Golden Retrievers at the top end of my ‘Easy’ dog list. They have lots of nose, sniff and smell a lot. Therefore their head is down low all the time. Dogs who carry their heads low struggle to be aggressive, they are so sucked up by what is happening down on the ground that everything else goes over their heads. Also at the top end of that list is the Beagle. Lots of nose. So much that they never get a really good recall. So much information being hovered up by the nose and the ears not room for much more information. Basset Hounds are the same. Spaniels make my easy list as well. They don't have much eyesight and often go blind quite young, which doesn't affect them one little bit - their nose and ears are so amazing that life continues as normal with or without eyes. You could almost guarantee that one of the above would live at your house perfectly happily causing next to no trouble, doesn't need much training. Really good for cuddles and walkies. Very loving. But don't get one if you want to do a dog sport

2. The next easiest bunch from whom you probably will get some work, but who will still probably not be aggressive are pure bred Labradors, the Boxer the Bernese Mountain Dog, The English Pointer , the Red, Gordon and English Setters, German Shorthaired and Wirehaired Pointers. These specifically bred dogs with very good pedigrees make absolutely fantastic pets. Perfect for doing CGC with, can make very good obedience dogs, not that crash hot for Agility, but if you have paid good Pedigree prices then you would be well advised to keep the dog entire and use it as a Show dog for some years and maybe breed from it if you have good contacts with other breeders and you want to learn how to do dog breeding properly. It goes without saying that if you happen to be a duck shooter or an upland game hunter, or a weekend bush tramper, then these dogs will serve you well.

3. Now we are getting to the trickier propositions. All those dogs that are going to take a lot of dedicated training to make sure they are happy well exercised well educated, well socialised and fit in well with their families. These are the Sheep workers, Heading dogs, eye dogs, handy dogs, huntaway’s and all their crosses in and out of Border collie, bearded collie and hound. These are also some Terriers. The poodles, the schnauzers in all sizes, the Spitz dogs in all sizes, corgi’s, German and Belgian shepherds. These breeds have all their senses to a higher degree than the 1 and 2 dogs. For example they have moderately good sight hearing and nose. Although nose is probably limited, so their distraction factor is likely to be eye. That means they are going to hold their head higher and view towards the horizon. They are going to be very distracted by what they can see. All training to make them good workers needs to be around where the dog is focusing its eye. If you want it to work the sheep a kilometer away that is fine, but if not then you need to make sure there is a lot going on just in front of it to keep that focus a bit shorter. Having an eye distraction can make dogs jumpy, so their socialisation and information about new things they encounter must be very well done. The handler needs to make sure they are in control of this dog at all times and that the dog has the ability to respect them and work hard for them. Very often these dogs are into partnerships with one person while others are happily tolerated. All of these dogs make great working dogs and great agility and obedience dogs. These are the breeds for the people who really want to dedicate time to their dogs and make them into spectacular performers.

4. Then there are the dogs with unusual or highly developed senses. These will be the hardest dogs to train, the most difficult to fit into family life. These are the dogs who need to be managed plus trained. These are the dogs that might be capable of bad decision making. Unusual senses are the dogs whose eyes are very wide in their head, giving them the ability to not only see in front of them but to see things way round to the side of their head. This is a specific breed trait with all the bull baiting breeds. This deliberate wide spacing and huge peripheral vision means the dog can see and process for attack, anything approaching from the rear. Handy when you are put in a pit with a couple of wild bulls, not so good in the real world. This does not mean that these breeds are inherently dangerous. But it does mean that the handler must be able to keep the dog calm and make sure it is educated to accept things moving over its head and from behind without becoming aroused. Another group are the hounds. Highly bred for huge forward vision, they can see for literally miles, so much so that all of their focus is so far forward that they are very suitable for chasing game and use in coursing and greyhound racing and they do make wonderful family pets, with management and education. The smaller terriers such as the Border and the Jack Russell have massive sight, fabulous noses and hearing that goes forever. The information they have to process is way too much for their brain to cope with and therefore they can be difficult to make obedient but they definitely need to work rats, rabbits, everything that moves. They have potential to be snappy and yappy and as pups they are very hard around young children, latching on to clothing and refusing to let go. I will go out on a limb and put Blue Heelers and Kelpies in this list. Along with Siberian Huskies and Akitas. Absolutely stunning dogs, very bright, lots of sight, good noses and quite a lot of hearing. They do train very well and Huskies in particular can do beautiful Obedience work, but they are just that little bit harder. Not the sort of dog for a first time handler. They need a good working program and lots of training and exercise.

5. The Cross breeds. This is the grey area of concern for me. Hundreds of years of pedigree breeding have given us breed traits that we can pretty much rely on with pure bred dogs. Crosses are just another thing altogether. You do not know which part of the breeding is going to be dominant in the dog. If it looks like a Labrador, but the father was a Sharpei, or a pit bull, or a German shepherd, or a cross of other various things, then you have to be very careful about the management and control plus the education of those dogs. In New Zealand stupid people breed all sorts of things and call them 'Pig dogs'. A lot of these crosses have sight hound in them, so you get Kelpie Fox terrier breeding with Smithfield x Greyhound. The outcome is anyone’s guess. A lot of these dogs are true treasures, but a lot of them are an accident going somewhere to happen. A huge number of them end up in rescue shelters all over the country and really nice people who feel sorry for the underdog, adopt them and take them home. These pups can be extremely hard work. We have little Marley coming to the Club from the SPCA He is Alex Jones project. He is arguably a Kelpie Jack Russell. He is a tough cookie. He is not a family dog. On the other hand we have Billie who is a greyhound x lab x heading dog and he is just lovely. His trainer is a young man called Zane and they are going to be a very good team. Billie was found left to roam in the bush, very emaciated and very unhappy.

The old adage 'every dog has his day' is so true and all dogs have good and bad traits. All dogs have potential with proper care, handling, education and exercise, to develop into a reliable companion and working dog, but no dog is immune to making bad decisions. No dog should ever be left alone with a child. Children should never be allowed to walk a dog on their own. Party time is not a time for Dogs to be involved. Manage your dogs, pen them or crate them in a quiet place away from the noise and bother. Never allow anyone to wind your dog up. Do not think it is great that your dog rushes people who come onto your property. Train the dog properly to alert you to stranger danger and come away to you. Make absolutely sure you are the Master of the Dog and that the Dog is never the Leader whether it is on or off lead. Walk your dog on lead everywhere you go. If there is ever an incident and your dog is on lead then you have done the best you can to avoid trouble. If however your dog is running loose and causes trouble or becomes involved in trouble and you cannot call it off or get it back or stop it from bowling over a jogger, then you are the one that is stupid. Your dog may pay the ultimate price of its life but it is the owner who was at fault.

Choose your Companion Dog wisely. It is not a windup fluffy toy it is a real life flesh and blood animal. If we are not very careful as a society we run the risk of having dogs banned from our homes because we are too half witted to be able to look after them properly