08/09/2025
DO YOU HAVE A “GOOD DOG” OR A “BAD DOG”?
Society would have us believe that just like children years ago, a good dog is one that is “seen & not heard”. That he or she should live life according to our orders & should never disobey us or he is indeed a bad dog!
We are all too often told that we should “master” our dog and he must be a good dog in all the situations we choose to put him in.
Human expectations are that our dog should absolutely allow every Tom Dick & Harry to touch him even if these folk rub him inappropriately or invade his space, that he should tolerate every other dog in society, and in fact should want to play with the friendly dog that rushes into his face or jumps on top of him! He must enjoy playing at the park, not be worried about anything at all & know not to pull on the lead. The good dog, should never jump up, chase cats, sniff the grass when he’s walking with us, he should absolutely always come to us when called, and shouldn’t bark at people ever, even if they are walking past his house or sitting on his garden wall where he can see them from his window, and yes he’s a Dobermann bred to guard but he must be a good dog and he shouldn’t bark unless we want him to?!
If our dog is seen to be doing any of these things then we may feel embarrassed or stressed about his behaviour, or even cross with him, because of what others might think or say!
I honestly believe we need to look at our, all too often, unrealistic expectations because
the truth of what we need to know & is important to understand, is that many of the behaviours we see in our pet dogs that are challenging to us, are actually just normal dog behaviour and, importantly, some of that “undesirable” behaviour which is being displayed comes from our dog’s own feelings of frustration, worry & anxiety or overexcitement and that these behaviours absolutely do not make our dog a “bad dog”! These behaviours are mostly occurring because our dog’s needs are not recognised, not being met and often we don’t know or understand what’s going on.
Our dog has feelings and emotions & a whole set of needs of his own too. These are not the same as ours! He is of course a different species hardwired to hunt, chase & scavenge and he is genetically programmed, having been bred to do so over many years, to do a specific job for us.
It’s important to understand how fast our human world has changed in the last century and where our dogs figure in these changes and why they might be struggling today.
Less than 60 years ago our dog was probably doing the job he was bred for, every day, all day. That job, we humans designed him for, having deliberately honed & specialised him for, over many years of selective breeding, highlighting those genes we required, deliberately selecting the parts of the dog’s natural predation specific hunt/chase drive so hard wired in him. We’ve chosen to make him an expert in the job we wanted him to excel at. For example, collies to stalk, and nip at heels but not kill, were herding all day, Dobermanns & GSD’s guarding, chasing & biting to bring down criminals were employed mostly by the police & armed forces, terriers employed on farms as pest control. These days, however, we humans buy these breeds for pets, and expect them to be content, maybe with a walk a day, largely unemployed, decorating our sofas and homes whilst we work.
These days, I believe our own unrealistic human expectations are just the start of our dog’s difficulties, and lead to many of our co-habitation problems with our dogs and miscommunication too.
Contrary to popular belief - We do not need to be our dog’s “master” and tbh a dog who is “mastered” and forced to be perfect in every single situation (even those he’s terrified of) is going to be leading a pretty miserable life and in a lot of cases there will be some sort of fallout if “training” is indeed forceful.
In fact if you learn to read dog body language (and most of us humans fail to even realise how important this ability is) you will see all of the videos that “quick fix” trainers post, boasting of fixing a problem In an hour, will show a dog who is either shut down or is exhibiting fear in the situation he is being forced into in the name of producing a “good dog”’.
If every second of your waking day you were forced into being a “good human” following orders or otherwise something bad would happen, then I think you will agree this is a life that will lead to either a breakdown or retaliation. The same is true for all animals.
If we are considering owning a dog or indeed already own one, I believe we need to shift away from the good dog/bad dog scenario and take responsibility ourselves for studying and learning about dogs, and everything dog related, particularly their natural behaviour, what they need as a species & more importantly, as a breed, before we just dash out and buy a puppy because we like the look of the breed.
Most of the behavioural issues we blame our dog for and label him for are coming from a place of being misunderstood, or struggles he is experiencing, living in our modern human world.
Us humans more often than not absolutely do not know enough or understand enough about dogs, their needs & behaviour to help our dogs thrive today. We need to learn & understand that a lot of the behaviour we see as problematic is simply hard wired normal dog & breed behaviour which we need to provide outlets for if we are all to live happily together.
If one wants to buy a horse one generally goes for riding & stable management lessons and advice first for a good while and then will get help with choosing the right horse & will keep it under the supervision of experienced horse folk for a good while too. I strongly believe this should be the same for dog ownership. Instead it looks very different as we insist we know all about dogs & how to keep them and more often than not just go out and get one. Then the difficulties start, particularly with a large strong working breed who needs a job to do such as the Dobermann.
I will often say to owners, imagine bringing in a tiger or lion cub into your home what would your knowledge or expectations of it be? Your puppy is in fact not too different from a tiger cub, he is a species hard wired to scavenge & hunt in the wild and we bring him into our modern day perfect shiny homes & expect him to know how to behave. Left unsupervised he won’t know the difference between your expensive Jimmy Choos left on the hall floor and the toys you have provided specifically for him!
So you see there is no such thing as a “good dog” or a “bad dog”. The real question we need to ask ourselves is “do I really know and understand all I need to about dogs?” All dogs are different just like us and sadly, many are simply failed by our own lack of knowledge & understanding.
When we know better we do better, it’s about educating ourselves first & foremost and not blaming or labelling our dog! After all we are the intelligent beings in this unique relationship aren’t we?!! Don’t we owe it to our dogs to learn as much as we can about them & their needs so we can help them thrive alongside us in our human world rather than blaming them for being a dog and constantly thinking of them as “bad”!
Education and knowledge for us and our willingness to put the time aside to learn & dedicate to our dogs is where a fair deal for our dogs starts.
