Canine Behavioral Development – How Breeds Differ

David Jones   from California wants to tell you that no matter how good Cesar Milan is at dog training, no matter how fancy he can make his pit bulls sit. No matter how he bangs on about all dogs being fundamentally the same, you know, animal first, dog second and dog breed last. THERE IS A MAJOR DIFFERENCE IN DOG BREEDS and dog behavior.

IF you are good enough at training a dog, and then socializing a dog (taking them for a walk) and understand the underlying evolution that has gone into your dogs breed, and your dogs specific personally (ie behavior tendency between submission and domination) THEN and ONLY THEN, might you have a chance at understanding their behavior in dog terms – NOT human terms.

And there are fundamental reasons in the for and against camp of dog behavior for telling you anything different.

1          why people say that dog breed is irrelevant

Most of this camp are people who own big powerful dogs and dogs demonized for killing other dogs. The pit bull breed and its supporters spring to mind.

NO not every pit bull is viscous. But out of a 5% population estimate in the United states they account for 60% of dog killing human deaths. Even if this statistic is 100% overestimated, their is a lot to be said for either bad owners or intentional misuse of dogs, or the dogs ability to kill humans.

With that out of the way, why would a dog trainer say it is irrelevant? Mostly because they want you to feel comfortable with you giving them a large sum of money to train their dog rather than you giving it away.

Cesar Milan seems like a nice sort of guy, except for that cheating on wife thing. He seems to know his dogs, and puts an exceptional amount of time into them for the business and his personal life.

He runs into the Hollywood hills for four hours per day to burn the pit bulls energy (and many other breeds) and that way they will be much more trainable and compliant when he gets them back to his ranch. HOW MANY OTHER PEOPLE do this with their dogs? Who has the time or money or commitment? If you answered, no one you know, then you know why the who dog breed thing is irrelevant is irrelevant for most people.

And that is because if you don’t have the time, money or skill to train and socialize your dog properly, and you have a large potentially aggressive and deadly breed at home – you are likely to have future problems with that dog.

2          Why people say that dog breed is very important for training or temperament

Because it is. More on that later. BUT in social media many people use a controversial heading or stand point to get notice and garner a following they can turn into money.

Yes that is the other side of the coin of the Cesar Milan camp. He makes a living out of dogs that people can’t control and some breeds that almost no one can training. He has a TV show, a ranch, books and dvds, even dog treats (full of wheat of course) but he has made a stance.

Unfortunately the people who could benefit people knowing their training limitations and give guidance on how to train their dog, sometimes prefer hysteria and breed banning legislation to get their own name out there, rather than benefit dogs.

Here is something to think about for the people for and against banning the pit bull. It will never happen in America because America values personal freedom above that of society, but have a look at another breed called the cane corso.

Wiki suggests that it is related to the Neapolitan Mastiff. Under temperament it says “The Cane Corso is not recommended for novice dog owners.” And that “it is highly encouraged to begin socialization as soon as possible.” Another breed the “Presa Canario is a massive fighting from Spain’s Canary Islands”.

The common factor is that these dogs mostly have mastiff and a bull breed somewhere in their genes and many have been selectively breed for fighting. The common factor is that these breeds are often banned around the world. BECAUSE of the inability of people to control these dogs, and the inability of councils and local law enforcement to police these dogs sufficiently.

The next blog will go into why some dog GROUPS or categories seem to have more issues than others with being socialized or killing humans …