13/07/2025
This is such an important post. We get so lost in trying desperately hard to create dogs that can be tolerant and stoic under every situation, even those where extreme trauma has in the past been present. Trauma CANNOT always be remedied. Even if the dog is appearing tolerant, doesn't mean they are feeling it.
In recent decades, there has been a growing trend both in breeding and public expectation toward dogs who are exceptionally tolerant. Dogs who are quiet, calm, passive. Dogs who accept all handling, tolerate noise, confinement, busy households, and intense human interaction with little or no objection.
In many circles, this is considered desirable the mark of a “good” temperament. But it raises an important ethical question:
Have we gone too far in breeding for tolerance? And at what cost to the dog?
By consistently selecting for dogs who show little resistance, we risk producing individuals who are less likely to communicate distress through early warning signs and more likely to internalise stress, shut down, or ultimately display explosive or health-related consequences when their tolerance runs out.
Studies in canine emotional expression (Mills et al., 2014) and pain masking (Mathews et al., 2014) show that dogs often conceal signs of discomfort, especially when conditioned to associate calmness with reward or safety. Many of the dogs we call “stoic” are, in fact, experiencing chronic stress or discomfort with no safe outlet to express it. Dogs who have been bred or trained to suppress natural behaviours, such as growling or avoidance, may present as "well-behaved" while experiencing internal distress, a state that often precedes behavioural shutdown or reactive incidents. Some dogs bred for “gentleness” or “softness” are, in reality, lacking the behavioural range to express or navigate stress.
When we normalise extreme tolerance, we set dangerous expectations for what “good dogs” should be. We raise children thinking dogs should never say “no.”
This mindset leads to:
Punishment of normal canine communication
Missed opportunities for early intervention
Dogs being kept in environments they cannot cope with
Escalated incidents that “came out of nowhere”
We put dogs in homes where they are never allowed to express discomfort, and then we blame them when they finally break.
When the truth is: the signs were there — we just didn’t want to see them.
