DNA Drive - using breed as starting point for enrichment

If you’re anything like me, you’ll have chosen your dog’s breed mostly for ‘the look’ of that breed - and there is a dog breed for everyone. Some people like fluffy dogs or scruffy dogs; some like big and muscular dogs…some like teeny-tiny ones.

I freely confess that I knew next to nothing about fox red Labradors before I owned one. I thought I knew “Labradors” - they’re the nation’s favourite, aren’t they? (Or were.) They’re friendly, trainable, dependable - I mean, they’re the go-to breed for guide dogs, they must be amazing, right?? How hard could it be to own one?

I certainly knew nothing about owning a working-line labrador…I just loved their build and their colour.

That was about to change. What was also about to be challenged was my notions on what we ask and expect our dogs to do.

So, I now had a gundog but no gun… and let’s take a moment to be genuinely thankful, that in the UK, that is true of the vast majority of gundog owners. But what was it I was going to ask this dog to accept as its life?

I thought: ‘Y’know, chasin’ a ball a bit, learn basic skills, go for nice long walks…have nice manners around the house, that kind of thing’...

My dog, Red, had other ideas. We soon realised that for her to be content and fulfilled, we were going to have to find many more ‘‘work-like’ activities for her to utilise all the skills she had pent-up in her DNA and which needed an outlet.

And we were going to have to do it without birds.

I just hadn’t thought about how breed impacts on the look of the dog and therefore, what kinds of things it may need to do.

Take those of you who own hounds, sight or scent. Their physique and physiology have been shaped through the breeding process to create dogs ideally suited to the purpose they were bred for: scenthounds with longer, larger muzzles to scoop up more scent molecules; sighthounds with lean, muscular bodies to chase down fast prey. So, by breeding for purpose, the ‘look’ of the dog and the physique follows.

You get the idea.

I’m guessing that if you’ve read this far, we might have something in common. We maybe weren’t the world’s greatest researchers pre-dog ownership. I know, though, that many of you will have done loads - and fair play to you. I meanwhile must continue in a confessional tone.

So first up, think about doing a little research: what was your dog bred for? Or in a mixed breed, which breeds look prevalent?

By researching what the breed was ‘created’ for (and remember, modern dog breeds have been created) you may well find that you understand your dog better almost immediately.

Take the dachshund…low slung, very short legs, ideal for picking up and petting on your lap?? Surely they are a toy breed?

Eh….try, tenacious, independent and fearless hounds (the clue is in the name, particularly if you speak German) bred to disappear down the tunnels that lead towards a badger sett (the clue for that is also in the name, but only if you speak German)!

And remember, a sett is where a whole family of badgers live - maybe even up to eight of them!

Imagine the courage, the confidence and intelligence a dog would need to do that? Is it any wonder then, that dachshunds can be such strong characters?? (Those of you who thought a miniature dachshund would be easier may have discovered that their size, far from making their breed traits more benign, actually only seems to concentrate them!)

Now, your actual dog may have come from a long line of dogs bred, no longer for the working purpose of that breed but because people really like the look of the breed. But the link between purpose and look is still there, so dig into it. Find out what your dog may like to do.

My teacher, Nanci Creedon, gives this warning though: “you’ll always find individual dogs that’ll make a liar of you!” Meaning, that you may find individual dogs that may behave in very atypical ways according to their breed. For example, most collies love to herd, but you’ll often see them working as sniffer dogs. Or, huskies love to pull - until you meet one that loves to dig.

Dogs are individuals, that is for sure.

So, how do we replicate what our dogs were bred for if we are not going to engage in the sports or hunts they were designed for?

Well, try putting their ‘breed skills’ under the microscope. Let’s use Labradors for an example. First off, it’s easy to forget their full breed name includes the word retriever. They were bred to fetch things

When they are at their work, retrievers are trained to be very steady and very disciplined. They have to wait for long periods in noise and commotion before they are sent to find fallen game. They have to seek out, sniff out and find that game. They have to lift it carefully - not shaking it to kill it (like a terrier would be trained to) and they need to bring it back undamaged to their handler - which means they also need to find him or her - and then release it.

And, they need to do that without becoming distracted by all the other dogs present - lots of smells and bangs and noises and birds lying everywhere - not to mention the fact they do all this out in the open in a wild environment.

[If you’re thinking: “jeese-louise, I could maybe be asking for a bit more from my lab/dog” (or words to that effect), I’ll be honest with you - even now, so am I!]

That’s a whole lot of ability that we maybe have never thought to tap into.

d maybe by not asking for it, encouraging it and training for it, it can be lost altogether?

But look at what the microscope has shown us. If we look at the words, four paragraphs up (the words in bold and italics) we can notice they are mostly verbs, the “doing” words…(see, we did need to learn that at school ;) These are things retrievers can do - if we ask them to and train them to.

Now look at the opportunities for much more challenging activities and games than just spinning a tennis ball for fifty metres and our dogs pelting after it!

Our dogs can learn quite a lot of vocabulary - why not train them to fetch things we want? Shoes, slippers, keys, the tv remote - just think about how much time out of our lives we could claw back if we trained our dogs to locate our glasses!!! (Ok, that is a middle-aged point which will be recognised by many now and the rest of you, soon enough.)

We could also train for a gentle mouth. No shaking, no eviscerating. Think of the opportunities on wet days for seeking within the house? Or on big walks, seeking and retrieving out of doors too? Think about how much waiting a gundog has to do….quite a lot before their energy is released in a job they love to do.

The good thing about this ‘principle’ is that it opens up a lot of scope for your own creativity. By thinking about what your dog could do, you can start to imagine how to train them in a way that enables them to.

And, if you get stuck with creativity, there is always Youtube.

(Was there life before it?)

Our training and play could be less adrenalised, lower octane, more focused, more challenging - more like wee jobs for your dog to do.

Whatever their level of ability - and not all dogs are equal in this - they will definitely LOVE the time with you and the attention given to them in the training.

How to train, we’ll get into as this site gains more heft - but what to train - well, the sky's the limit.

Probably literally.