Dog Breeding and the Relationship to Training - A New World View

A New World View

The focus of this writing is to highlight some of the principles for bringing quality dogs into existence through thoughtful planning, selection, breeding and training, thus enabling handlers and trainers to ensure optimum genetic potential from each and every dog coupled with appropriate strategic environmental design from their carer

Having been involved in dog training and breeding since 1980, I have experienced the luxury of having extensive exposure to almost every type of temperament from sensitive pet dogs to the most advanced competition and service dogs.  Perhaps the most puzzling phenomenon I continue to experience is the lack of understanding dog owners’ have about how their dogs function, particularly at an emotional level.

Interestingly, some dog owners eventually become dog breeders and this is where I believe the difficulties begin.

The problem is not the breeding of animals.  The real problem is the breeding of animals without the necessary understanding to do so.  I am 100 % convinced that there is a relationship between breeding (genetics) and training (environment). Stressful environmental stimuli are not solely responsible for maladaptive behaviours in dogs.  Rather, the behaviours expressed are a reflexive response and is a result of the dog’s genetic predisposition.

I believe the final result is determined by 100% genetic influence and 100% environmental pressures and it is important to consider that both equally influence a behavioural outcome. However, the initial or foundational reflexive responses to any stimuli, both positive and negative, are primarily embedded within the dog’s genes. Hence why I also believe that it is the dog that dictates how he interprets what we try to teach him and not the other way round.

The brain is an amazing mechanism – one of its main characteristic is neuroplasticity – that is, the ability to alter in response to certain environmental factors. This has provided an incredible adaptation possibility and has enabled dogs to survive. Studies show that the brain is far from “finished” at birth; it still needs to develop in many ways, with environmental factors playing a decisive role in this process.

It seems logical that the brain structures which are largely in place at birth (the hardware) determine the process whereby our identity or behaviour (the software) is built up. Without mirror neurons, behaviour can’t take place, but what is mirrored depends on our environment. Moreover, the environment has a very demonstrable effect on the physical development of the brain, which goes on for years after birth. The brain is important in behaviour, but its content is provided by the outside world is response to your genes. 

The only correct scientific conclusion is that we are the product of our constant interaction between our brains – or, more broadly, our starter kit of genes, neurons, and hormones – and our environments. And, right from birth, it’s very hard to distinguish the contribution made by nature from that of nurture. Even brain structures can be modified by external factors. I believe that genes can be seen as the hardware that determines and limits our software, the specific content of that software is another issue.

External factors can, for instance, effect gene expression- a field known as epigenetics. Moreover, the link between genes and behaviour is extremely complex. In reality, things are somewhat less clear-cut.

Most dog trainers have experienced dogs that have certain behavioural inclinations (predispositions) for a given task. With the view of assisting the dog to reach its full potential, people have in recent times, become all too familiar with the necessity of providing puppies with an elaborate emotional stimulation and developmental programme, ranging from bio-sensory stimulation to socialisation, habituation and counter conditioning programmes.  However, many puppies and dogs still fall short and never become worthy of what is referred to in the professional dog world as a “quality dog”.  Hence, one may speculate that quality genetics in this instance may potentially be the missing ingredient.

On the other hand, there are the dogs that are equipped with little potential from the beginning, establishing the importance of why appropriate selection is so important when breeding dogs for a particular outcome. Consequently, I am adamant that selecting dogs that thrive on ‘achieving drive fulfilment’ and those that operate within a particular function zone (optimum function zone), enables handlers and trainers to focus their dogs into their desired application far easier; rather than forcing dogs with inadequate behaviours to go where they can’t or don’t want to go.

Then there are the dogs that have all the essential behaviours for a “quality dog” only to show issues during their training and development phase. Such quality dogs rarely meet their full genetic potential for one main reason, most probably due to inappropriate environmental pressures (conflicting learning) and the disregard of the reflexive nature of dogs by owners and trainers, pushing them too hard too fast.

The focus of this writing is to highlight some of the principles for bringing quality dogs into existence through thoughtful planning, selection, breeding and training, thus enabling handlers and trainers to ensure optimum genetic potential from each and every dog coupled with appropriate strategic environmental design from their carer.

In my travels I have found dogs that operate within a zone, an “Optimum Function Zone”, and these dogs contradict conventional behavioural models and drive theories and consequently exhibit far more plastic, adaptive and predictive responses.

These dogs display less volatility with negative feedback (aversive learning), and if anything, mentally grow and develop a form of mental inoculation even if treated unfairly. As a result, they are adaptive by nature and appear to have a buffer of tolerance or adaptive optimism that enables them to cope more effectively with uncertainty and negative learning.

Adaptive dogs tend to adjust to negativity in a proactive way, while reactive dogs by their very nature, operate outside the realm of an “Optimum Function Zone” and tend to react to negative feedback and remain inhibited causing negative feedback loops and maladaptive behaviours. This inhibition or reactivity is an inner urge / reflex or uncontrolled response to remain unharmed and avoid any form of stress however small it may be, highlighting the fact that these dogs have tremendous difficulty in recovering from stressful stimuli, severely hampering their learning.

This is not to say that the adaptive dogs should be treated with disrespect, quite the contrary. Access to knowledge regarding correct models of animal learning establishes that such dogs are easier to train and maintain robust responses because they are naturally more responsive, plastic or forgiving.  I am a strong believer that breeders and trainers should be focusing their attention on these dogs, as I believe it will provide us with behavioural predictability.

The alternative is what we have today; the loss of predictability and control over aversive and appetitive events with reactive dogs. The result is increased anxious arousal, persistent frustration and nervous genetic tension creating the maladaptive behaviours currently experienced all over the world. This is one reason why positive only training systems have evolved - to suit such dogs. But these training systems are not our enemy as some perceive, quite the opposite. 

Communication systems like conditioned reinforces (the “clicker”) are truly ingenious and provide a pathway for better communication, creating a win – win communication system for reactive dogs as much as they do for highly determined dogs, assisting with compliance and reducing resistance in learning. On the flip side I must also add that e-collars are equally ingenious in design and when appropriately integrated with the clicker they provide the most sophisticated double feedback system any dog trainer will ever experience, cementing what is referred to as stimulus control in the dog trainer’s world; and I am sure every trainer will agree that it is exactly what every dog owner ultimately wants and needs. After all, having a stable, open, friendly, and uncomplicated animal that is under verbal control by its owner is essential in our social community.

Whether by conscious or unconscious design, most breeders have selectively bred for a low prey drive dog for ease of handling. However, in doing so have created an innately unbalanced dog. It is also true that highly specialised working kennels have created the opposite imbalance where if the dog is not constantly at work, in a world where opportunities for such are reducing rapidly, they too become highly subject to behavioural disturbances. 

To add to the disparity, many working kennels are intentionally eliminating assertive tendencies favouring the promotion of prey instincts solely, creating and locking into their genes further unbalanced working behaviours. Of course, as responsible breeders we must address the issue of undesirable and unmanageable defensive aggression in dogs in the interest of personal and public safety, but we must simultaneously address the issue that we are inadvertently producing dogs that lack strength of character; subsequently producing reactive dogs that develop maladaptive behaviours far too easily.

Defensive aggression is highly undesirable and certainly unfavorable in working dog circles; and in my opinion should be totally avoided at all costs. However, the assertiveness that manifests from the “Optimum Function Zone’ during stimulation in training, or under controlled circumstances is predictable, stable and manageable and should be highly sought. 

It is not my intention to say which of the polar extremes is right or wrong, rather that breeders have specialised their dogs specifically for their own desires, and the resulting unbalanced dog does, on average, make a very poor family pet. The key for all breeders is to achieve a balanced dog through careful selection and to ensure that the right people are trained with sound training principles to own such dogs. Equally all breeders should seek further understanding on the necessary steps to further develop their dogs through the art of breeding in order to achieve a stable and consistent global standard.

It should be obvious that a detailed evaluation of a dog’s emotional reactivity should be conducted prior to any serious attempts at training and or breeding, with the emphasis on reliably identifying a dog’s personal thresholds and reactivity potential. Currently training methods are in drastic need of sophisticated adjustment to suit reactive dogs, however I believe more emphasis could be placed on getting the job done rather than having to constantly adjust training methodology to best suit the individual concerned; dogs that are never really able to achieve functional genetic potential. Sadly, our daily lives are filled with such dogs leading from disappointment to disappointment. Society has been breeding dogs for a long time yet most would agree that things don’t seem to be getting better.

Why?

In my opinion the “Optimum Function Zone” model is a better approach in evaluating a dog’s innate thresholds and emotional reactivity to testing, training and breed worthiness.  This “Optimum Functional Zone” is unique, heritable and visually identifiable and can be a bench mark for future assessment or solid functional behaviour. It identifies dogs that function with emotional freedom and although training methods will always require ongoing adjustment due to the nature of behaviour - being fluid, the parameters are nowhere near as rigid as with volatile dogs.

Optimum Function Zone

I am often asked, “what is the optimum function zone”?  This is a question that has plagued me for years and is very difficult to answer because the ‘Optimum Function Zone’ is a particular type of behaviour which is very difficult to articulate in text. It is a behaviour (response to stimulation especially aversive) that one must see and experience. It is a place where certain dogs function at optimum efficiency and is primarily the result of the dog’s genetic disposition along with empowering experiences through logical design. The dogs ‘brain’ and its ‘being’ are hardwired to function within this zone. Regardless of what transpires as these dogs continue to remain within this biologically functional realm, maintaining stable, robust, open and uncomplicated behaviour because they are born that way and their trainer understands the process of learning, repetition and appropriate reinforcement. This organised adaptive behaviour helps the dog cope proactively with the uncertainty of environmental diversity.

In my ‘working dog world’, I believe we are witnessing a dog training revolution whereby traditional systems of dog training are being integrated with “operant” methods, creating the most powerful and humane systems of dog training ever in existence. In these elegant and tightly-integrated systems, rewards are used to teach and motivate performance; corrections are exploited to rapidly establish stimulus control over powerfully-motivated behaviours; and a sophisticated system of conditioned behaviour markers are used to render it all clear to the dog.

There seems to be a distorted reality of breeding and behaviour and it is now at epidemic proportions, particularly in the UK, USA and Australian dog communities. Today, science is integrated with our breeding and training system, providing an understanding of animal learning and quantitative genetics like never before; nonetheless, the information seems to only be heard by those who genuinely want to listen.

It has been proven time and time again that sensitivity and fear (genetic tension) is highly heritable.  

Yet - what are the temperaments most people breed?

We seem to have an affinity with dogs that display fear and feel the need to help them, and we should ensure these dogs are helped and feel safe. However, these dogs should never be breeding dogs, for reasons including; it is the family pet, because we feel the dog has an affectionate temperament, or the dog should bear puppies.

Different Temperaments

The famous Russian scientist Pavlov’s believed there were four of Types of Dogs;

“Pavlov discovered that a dog’s degree of vulnerability to neurosis is dependent on its temperament” 

Hans Eysenck (1916 – 1997) also developed the biological model of personality and arousal. “Healthy and abnormal behaviour is the result of the way that individuals respond to the stimuli in their environment”.  Some individuals are more susceptible to developing psychopathology because of their inherited vulnerabilities.

Below are four types of temperaments

1. Sanguine: - very active, socially uncomplicated and flexible.

2. Phlegmatic: - less active, socially retiring and stable.

3. Choleric: Highly unstable, manic, and prone to develop neuroses.

4. Melancholic: Low activity, socially withdrawn, and susceptible to neuroses.

Dogs with weak unbalanced temperaments (Choleric and Melancholic) were found to be more easily stressed and at greater risk of psychological disturbances than Sanguine and Phlegmatic dogs that possessed balanced and adaptive temperaments.

Genetics are pivotal for a successful outcome, and mental inoculation via environmental stimulation can only mask or enhance what is possible from within the animal and to believe that it will fix fearful behaviour is wishful thinking. In truth, dogs with maladaptive behaviours most likely require long-term behavioural management.  This idea is demanding of owners, many requiring advanced understanding of canine behaviour, time, patience and commitment. 

I am consequently convinced, after many years of breeding and training dogs that the appropriate selection of certain traits is absolutely critical in order to achieve open and uncomplicated dogs and the development of breeds based on performance and stable behavioural responses.

Selection is critical because the results in our training behaviours are not only related to the training system we adopt but also directly proportional to the genetic resilience of the animal.

•    The problem we all face is reaching agreement as to what is quality behaviour and then narrowing down the desired traits that produce such behaviours.

•    To a large degree these traits determine quality responses in our chosen application be it IPO, Police service dogs, ANKC, Search and Rescue and the family pet which is equally important.

Traditionally, we have addressed dog behaviour from the opposite end of the spectrum. The issue is that we are not addressing behaviour from a platform of rigorous testing and then measuring the best responses for specific performance and related behaviours that are proven to provide behavioural outcomes that are predictable and adaptive. Addressing dog breeding from this paradigm will result in an immediate impact on the temperament of dogs within three to four generations.

Breeder Responsibilities

It cannot be emphasized enough that it is the breeders’ responsibility to ensure that all puppies are bred from rigorously tested stock and raised in environments which will foster/promote/cultivate each dog’s maximum innate potential.

Experience also recognises that there are additional factors that may influence maladaptive behaviours in dogs. It is important to recognise the factors that may influence maladaptive behaviours in dogs.

These include

Strategies for improvement

General heightened awareness through education of appropriate dog breeding, selection, socialisation and training.

The need to develop appropriate breeding practices can be highlighted by beliefs involving dog aggression. One common misnomer involves the breeding of dogs diagnosed as displaying dominance or active aggression. 

According to Dr. D F Tortora (1983), the aim for aggressive displays is to avoid some perceived aversive outcome rather than establishing or maintaining the offender or offending dog’s social status. Assertive dogs may be more prone to learn an active defensive coping strategy during social conflict in order to control, avoid or escape aversive outcomes than a more submissive counterpart, but the underlying behavioural dynamics and motivations are not to enhance dominance status or “combative instinct” but simply to terminate a perceived threat.

Fear based aggression and the learning of fearful responses begins very early in the dog’s life and continues throughout its lifespan. Most cases of inappropriate aggression are caused through the aggressive displays frequently being rewarded by the reduction of negative emotions the dog was experiencing prior to the aggressive response.

Such negative emotions engage the dog’s innate defence potential and the reaction occurs and reoccurs. The severity of the dog’s reaction is again a combination of the dogs innate, genetic potential in defence and the amount of success it has had previously in reducing its negative emotional load by using aggressive responses.

The only way to minimise fear is to breed with dogs that are:

• Sound and tested

• Non-sensitive

• Robust and driven

• React positively to stress

• Courageous

• Intense in their drives and not just high in prey drive

• Dogs that have a hard solid grip, - because tug games depict their mindset reality. 

A    Hard grip usually depicts a sound solid mind, whereas soft and passive grips usually depict the opposite.

Inherited Fear of Man

Dogs have an inherited fear of man and unfortunately there is always some remnant of that fear in all dogs despite the many years of domestication. The dogs we are specifically selecting are required to operate in the exact opposite manner regardless of nature’s pure intention; to resist our deliberate selection process.

Nature finds it a priority to keep things the way they are and in the case of dogs “wolf-like”. This primal state is totally contrary to the type of dog we are striving for; this is not only relevant to the working breeds but, all dogs in society. Nature’s intended result is juvenile, soft, suppressive, and fearful behaviour with regards to human interaction. In essence, it is the flight before fight that is a priority for nature whereas we are looking for dogs that fight (possesses courage under duress) before considering flight.

Historically we have used the ‘wolf’ as our model for behaviour and consequently we have identified and named behaviours based on that model. Naturally, we have then selected dogs based on these fight or flight responses (prey and defence behaviours) and consequently continue to reproduce them. Strange how genetics works, or is it?

But there is more to it.

The prey and defence model we have adopted has served us well for decades and in many respects is our world view for breeding selection.  While this model still has merit, it only functions within the prey and defence realm and does so for a number of reasons.

1:          We have been told for decades that these two instinctive responses are all that exist and are the main drives required for training working dogs.

2:          We have all acted on that assumption and hence this idea remains entrenched in our belief system.

Trainers have noticed that there is more to the prey and defence model and like all of us find it difficult to put into words. Therefore, it is lumped into the too hard basket; and then becomes a point of, “that which is difficult is best left alone”.

As a result of this view, we have never really been exposed to other possibilities and our selection for breeding has been limited to prey and defence possibilities – mating after mating after mating; 

producing guess what?

You guessed it more of the same - prey and defence puppies that turn into adult dogs that unfortunately continue the same or similar inherited cycle. On rare occasions there comes into being a positive “mutation”, if you will, a rare dog that defies current world views. This dog’s behaviour is confusing for most breeders, handlers and trainers because it does not fit into our conventional paradigm.

Defence behaviour is in fact, just that, “defensive”, primarily driven by fear or “insecurity” and is unfortunately interpreted as strength by most.  This type of behaviour is an expression of fear, yet for some reason, more often than not, this behaviour is interpreted by many breeders and trainers as a powerful response, depicting strength in character.

Behaviour driven primarily by “defensive aggression” over and above prey facilitates unbalanced responses. The same occurs when the dog’s primary drive is prey as it is with many current dogs and bloodlines. Unfortunately in the recent past the pendulum has swung to absolute prey drive purely for the purposes of competition. We now know that this extreme selection of behaviour from far left to far right does not create a biologically appropriate and functional animal. Hence why I am careful about which dogs I choose to breed with and most importantly, which bloodline I decide to continue with to produce “a physically functional and emotionally stable animal that is able to be managed by many’ and its application is not limited to certain activities due to behavioural limitations”.

I believe if we are going to make a sincere effort to breed and train dogs; if we are going to breed extraordinary dogs, and train to get extraordinary results; we must all be well versed in the art of selection for breeding, the psychology of motivation and understand how dogs learn.

I must point out that I am not one to believe that I am always right; and I am very aware that extreme rigidity in beliefs and illusions can be dangerous.  Hence, I am very interested to engage in future discussions with anyone who wishes to discuss the ideas presented, because for me, the concept of knowledge is continuous learning and I will never stop learning.

After all, once we realise that imperfect understanding is a human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.

Author:

Kris Kotsopoulos has been involved in Breeding and Training Dogs since 1980. He has worked with first-time dog owners to the most demanding Law Enforcement Canines and World Championship Competitors. Kris and his wife Tonia are breeders of Dobermanns and German Shepherds under the kennel name “Von Forell”. His dogs and training philosophies have been incorporated into many training systems by World Championship Competitors and Law Enforcement agencies worldwide.

In this new book on “Advanced Dog Training” or ”Training Dogs To Achieve Drive Fulfillment” as Kris prefers to describe it, you will find a complete manual on preparation and application with an emphasis on mental tactics for dogs focused at the working dog.

“Everything you ever needed to know about breeding, selecting, raising and developing your dog for tactical deployment or competition”

This book provides a philosophical and technical plan for achieving understanding without the decades of hardship. Written for working dog training enthusiasts who value innovative insights into breeding and training dogs that thrive on achieving drive fulfillment, this book fills in the gaps to help you achieve a better understanding of how these dogs function and how to assist them.

There is a new idea, the foundation of which may change the way you see your dog forever.

To register your interest in a training workshop, seminar or ongoing coaching please contact Von Forell Instinctive Training Systems for further information.

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