Character traits: What makes some dogs more challenging than others

Dogs, just like every other species on the planet, have their very own set of characteristic traits.

Some of these traits can be influenced by the breed, genetics and socialisation.

But every single dog you meet will be different.

Over the past 5 years we have usually always had a foster puppy that we raise and eventually find them a home. All these pups have been raised by the same principles but with each new pup we always have to adapt to them and their personality.

Some traits make dogs much easier pets and just easier to live with and take out. And other traits make them a lot more challenging. Here are the traits that I generally see and that I think are very important when it comes to adopting a dog and how well suited they are for people and the environment.

Tolerance. This is probably one of the most important traits for the very novice owner. Most people want a ‘do anything’ and ‘go anywhere’ dog that will come pre-disposed to have a very high tolerance. These are the dogs that don’t seem to mind be pet by strangers or by children being a bit too rough etc. From experience gun-dogs like labs and retrievers seem to be high on the tolerance scale whereas herding breeds like GSDs and border collies seem to be lower on the scale.

Sensitivity. This is another trait that almost needs to be low for the first time dog owner or someone that has a chaotic household. Dogs that are high on the sensitive scale, whether that’s sensitive to movement, noise or changes in the environment can be very hard to live with as everything we do or expect them to cope with that seems mild for us can really put these dogs out. Some dogs have been designed to be sensitive to change. Border collies for example have been bred to NEED all their ducks in a row and when something changes this can create a lot of turmoil for them and so we start to see a lot of reactive behaviour.

Tenacity. This can be a really tricky one to deal with when you have more than one dog. It’s a trait that we like for working dogs or sport dogs but for dogs that are pre-disposed to show a lot of tenacity this can also make them very hard to live with. Having a dog that is super determined to get what they want is great for sports or teaching them to do things, but then can be a really hard thing to manage and live with when they show that tenacity in the home environment over something they value highly. Having a dog of the low tenacity scale makes for a much easier pet to live with but also makes them somewhat hard and sometimes frustrating to train due to a lack of motivation. Most dog owners don’t want to be trainers, so getting a dog that is likely to show low tenacity is pretty important for the average pet owner.

Resilience. In my opinion nearly all serious problematic behaviours could be almost completely eradicated if we had better breeding protocols. Breeding for temperament over looks will obviously help this a lot but we’re a society that loves the look of things and how this therefore makes us look. If we could breed for more resilient pups we would have a lot less problems. Having a dog that gets a fright but recovers in seconds is optimal. Having a dog that is scarred psychologically from a single event is obviously not optimal. If we have a dog that is low on the resilient scale it makes things like socialisation a lot more difficult as we have to make sure the encounters are conducive to the pups long term well being and ability to cope. This is where a lot of people go wrong as they fail to recognise this and instead of socialising their pups, they over expose them to the point where instead of getting less sensitive to normal everyday life, they get more sensitive to everyday life. These dogs that are low in resilience can be pretty easy to live with at home but much more challenging when out and about.

Confidence. This is a tricky one as you may think we just want a super confident dog. Super confident dogs make great working dogs or sport dogs as they are hard to spook but sometimes when they are really confident there can become conflict in the relationship between the human and dog. Really confident dogs don’t make good first time dogs as a lot of them simply won’t put up with being told they have to do x, y and z without the training. For example, if they’re on the couch and you ask them to move and they don’t want to, they'll just growl at you so you leave them alone. That’s a very normal response - the same way if you ask a really confident person to do something they don’t want to do and they just say a hard out ‘no’. For an ideal pet we do want a little bit of caution. Having a dog that just steams into any situation can be a challenge. We’ve all seen that puppy that just runs around like a lunatic annoying everything and everyone. At some point that dog gets nailed. Then we might have even more problems.

Conflict-resolution. This is a trait that we see early on that is very important to us - however it can arise as the dog hits and goes through adolescence. How well is a dog able to resolve conflict peacefully? A dog that resorts to conflict at the drop of a hat is really hard to live with and to take out to new places without worrying if a strange dog is going to come rushing over. Some dogs resort to conflict out of fear or simply as a behaviour they have learned that helps that create space or safety. Some dogs, especially the bully breed, enjoy conflict. The word ‘bull’ comes from the time when they were bred to take on bulls. The word ‘pit’ then comes from the pits that bull dogs were put in to fight each other. This is why bully breeds can be especially hard to socialise with other animals as they can’t help but ‘enjoy’ conflict. Gun dogs seem to be high on the conflict resolution scale, bull-breeds typically much lower.

These are just 6 behaviour traits that I look at when I’m working with clients and devising a plan. We have to treat each dog as an individual.

If your friend has that classic ‘go anywhere do anything dog’, it was very unlikely their training got them there, but instead they brought home a dog that luckily has lots or all these traits that makes them such an easy pet dog to live with and take out. With these dogs you can almost get away with not doing any training or doing very little training and not much can go wrong or ever goes wrong. If however, you end up with a dog that doesn’t come pre-packed with the traits that make easy pet dogs, then we have to train them. If we don't we will end up with issues and some can be very serious.

Breed matters. Individual traits matter.

Through training we can modify behaviour. Training cannot change the dog's personality.

If you want an easy pet dog, choose with your brain, not solely with your eyes.