Honouring Genetic Predisposition

Genetics are not something most pet owners tend to consider when thinking about their dog. We think about their emotions, their wellbeing, what they are eating, where they are sleeping, when they last went on a walk and many other things which are indeed very important.

When most people purchase, or rescue a dog, they don't spend much time thinking about the genetic predisposition of that dog. They look around and decide they like the look of a certain breed, or they like a trait in the breed such as 'short hair'. This is absolutely not the best way to look at your new companion.

Genetics are an extremely powerful thing that are often overlooked, because on the surface they are invisible, but if you spend a little longer looking at your dog you will see that there is deep rooted genetic information, honed over many generations for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Dog trainers all around the world get questions like 'My beagle keeps running off with his nose to the ground' or 'my terrier keeps trying to kill my rabbits' and the answers to this lie in the genetic make up of the dog.

Every breed has a genetic predisposition and although training and management can help to make these traits easier to live with, it can never overwrite them because genetic code is the most fundamental part of a dogs make up.

For example. One will find that many spaniels enjoy to sniff the ground a lot. They were bred for centuries to stand next to the shooting man and search for and retrieve their game. Similarly the German Shorthaired Pointer will love to point. The terrier will love to kill things. The Belgian Malinois will love to bite. The Border Collie will love to herd.

With this in mind, your dog will have a genetic predisposition, whether you know it or not and whether you like it nor not. There is nothing you can do to change that pre programmed DNA but what you can do is both properly manage it and properly focus it depending how strong the inclination to a given behaviour is.

For the sake of this writing, we will take a single breed and give some examples, but depending what your breed is, will depend what avenue you need to take. If you need help with a specific breed with a specific inclination, jump onto our monthly Q&A available to all Gold Members of BICS (You can sign up here > https://www.britishinstituteofcaninescience.org/get-involved)

Let's look at the Border Collie, a dog that has been bred for hundreds of years to aid in the herding of sheep, often on very difficult terrain for many hours of the day. We then come storming in and rescue one from the kennels and it is expected to live in a flat, in London, happy with a fifteen minute walk in the morning and a fifteen minute walk in the evening. Naturally this can cause an array of behavioural issues that the dog is then blamed for, but in reality much of that issue comes from the fact the dog cannot express the pre written story of its DNA.

The collie owner needs to consider what behaviours the dog enjoys, and how he or she can replicate these behaviours. Obviously if you live in the city, you cannot have your dog herding a flock of Suffolk's every evening after working in the office, but what you can do is stimulate the dog.

During herding behaviours, the dog is moving, the dog is using its brain and the dog is solving problems on the fly. We can replicate this with a multitude of activities such as agility, competitive style obedience or even nose work.

This applies to every breed to some degree, although some are programmed considerably harder than others. No matter what breed of dog you have, and no matter how happy or miserable the dog is, consider your dogs predisposed genetic make up. How can you improve it? How can you enhance your dogs life? How can you fulfill that coded DNA to do what it was designed to do?

There are an endless array of activities available to everyone, so get your thinking cap on and have a go!

The Team

British Institute of Canine Science