04/03/2022
Don’t choose who your dog will be, before you get to know them
Some of the inquiries I receive that trouble me the most, are people looking for training to turn their puppy into something very specific, for example, a therapy dog. This is actually quite a common request from people who have just bought or just adopted a puppy and there seems to be the impression that you can simply take any puppy and mold them to fit a specific purpose. People clearly don’t understand just what is required of a dog to be able to support a human being emotionally or to remain calm and relaxed in nearly all circumstances in a human world. This is a huge ask, and yet we have requests for dogs to be trained to be permanent therapy dogs for a classroom full of kids or to be the personal emotional support dog for a child with severe learning or social challenges.
Very often the dogs whose destinies are being mapped out in this way are shelter pups with their own set of emotional and social issues. While I understand how appealing it is to think of a rescue pup blossoming into a therapy dog that changes lives for the better (it makes for a great, feel-good story, doesn’t it), a dose of realism is desperately needed. While it is certainly not impossible for a rescued dog to end up becoming a Pets As Therapy visiting dog (one of my rescues was) or to offer emotional support to their human family members (all our dogs do in a way), we have to remember that guide dogs and many other assistance dogs are specifically bred for purpose and, even with these careful breeding programmes, not all dogs make the cut at the end of the day.
Puppies are simply not blank slates for us to write their story on, as we see fit. They are shaped by their genetics, their early environment and their own unique individual personalities and we are unlikely to fully grasp exactly who they are until they are mature. Of course, we have an important role to play in providing a safe environment and meeting their needs so that they can develop to their full potential, but we cannot fundamentally change who they are.
People have many aspirations for their dogs:
Agility champion
Obedience Champion
Freestyle Champion
A dog to go to restaurants with
A dog for my child to play with
While there is nothing wrong with having hopes for what you could do with your dog and of course it is wise to try and choose the type of dog that is more likely to enjoy and excel at the activities you are hoping to participate in, even choosing a border collie with the single-minded goal of agility achievements is unfair. What if for some reason your border collie does not like agility? What if they find the competitive environment stressful? What if they prefer other activities like long walks in the mountains? What if they have a health problem that makes them susceptible to pain or injury?
Sadly, I see too many dogs that are not coping in competition or even group training environments, dogs that become severely stressed around other dogs and dogs that are in physical discomfort being forced to continue a sport, because this is why the dog was obtained in the first place and the human part of the equation simply will not admit that it is actually not benefiting the dog - because doing so would mean giving up their dream.
I will be the first to admit that I choose the breed I have, because everything about them appeals to me and they fit in well with the activities we enjoy. I love training and working with my dogs, I love hiking and swimming and I love dogs that want to be wherever we are. However, as wisely as I try to choose, even down to getting to know the parents of a prospective pup, I am fully aware that there are no guarantees, and I won’t know for some time whether the puppy I want will be suitable for demos at retirement villages etc. I will do my best to give the puppy the opportunity to develop in a way that would hopefully help them enjoy this sort of thing, but I will have to be guided by their responses at the end of the day and willing to let things go, if it doesn’t make them happy.
So, by all means, choose wisely, have goals and put everything you have into supporting your dog to be the best they can be, BUT be willing to see and accept them for the unique personality they are, even when this may mean giving up on things that you wanted for them. Love the dog you have and don’t try to turn them into something they are not.
