“Love” is often a shorthand way of saying that the dog is given a stable, non-scary, supportive environment, and ALL dogs need that, but dogs with behavior issues may need it even more.
Love will help you have patience, the patience you need to be consistent, to be optimistic, to have perseverance. And you may need all of that, because just being loving with your problematic dog is not enough; you may need to do some serious behavior modification work. This is because there are a number of factors that usually go into severe behavior issues:
Genetics
Purebred dogs come from a long line of ancestors that were chosen to contribute to their breed because of certain factors they had. Initially these were physical or personality traits to perform a certain job – to herd obstinate and dangerous cattle, to pull heavy loads long distances, to seek out and kill vermin, to watch over sheep in all sorts of weather to protect them from predators, and more. We expect a border collie not just look different, but also to behave differently than a Labrador or a Doberman pinscher or a husky or a Newfoundland. And genetics can play a part in factors like the range of shyness to boldness (sometimes measured via the tendency to approach novel objects and a willingness to take risks). Nervousness, biddability, and a willingness to be handled all seem to have a genetic component.
More recently, purebred dogs have often been selectively bred because they meet some kind of appearance standard – whether that’s conforming to the breed standards set out by some kennel club, or chosen to appeal to a popular look. And sometimes when you choose your breeding stock based on appearance, you can get unwanted physical or behavior traits along with that. Dalmatians and merle Aussies are notorious for having hearing issues, and a lot of my colleagues think that the poodle mixes – “doodles” – have a lot of fear and impulsivity issues that come with their cuteness. If you’ve already acquired a dog whose genetics code for behaviors that don’t fit with your world, I’m sorry but no amount of ♥ love ♥ alone is going to change that.
More on genetic differences between breeds here, a summary of genetics and behavior here, and a deeper dive here.
Epigenetics
Epigenetics is the term for how genes may be expressed; this is often influenced by the environment the dog is (or was) in. Factors in the environment can include the dog’s diet (especially as a puppy), sleep (dogs in busy households may not be able to get enough) and the types of hormones the dog’s mom produced during pregnancy. There may be factors relating to what time of year a pup was born, or how many puppies were in the litter. A bit of research has shown that mom-dogs who are stressed during pregnancy tend to produce puppies that are also fearful, even if those puppies are reared apart from her. Puppies born to stray dogs, in puppy mills, or impoverished environmental conditions often have behavior issues related to that. There is some evidence that stressors on the mother-dog can affect gene expression not only in the puppies she’s carrying, but on those puppies’ germ cells – those puppies’ puppies’ gene expression can be changed. This means that some of your dog’s behavior may actually be due to stressors in their grandmother’s life during pregnancy! Since some epigenetic factors may have happened before you acquired your dog, your ♥ loving care ♥ alone is not going to change that.
More on epigenetics here, and an article on maternal stress effects here.
Maternal Behavior
In addition to the effects of Mom’s hormones during pregnancy, young pups can learn from their mothers, too. Mothers who show a lot of “maternal behaviors” towards their puppies (for example, showing a lot of physical contact, including nursing, licking, sniffing or poking) seem to produce puppies who are more interested in social interactions with humans, fewer signs of stress when left alone, and less fearfulness overall. Mothers who are fearful or over-excited at certain triggers may teach their pups to be that way, too. If you adopt or purchase a puppy whose mother demonstrated behaviors you don’t like, don’t be surprised if the pup does them, too. If you don’t know how Mom behaved, this is another question mark in your dog’s behavior puzzle – and one which ♥ love ♥ alone will not change.
More on effects of maternal behavior here and here, and general effects of puppy’s parents’ care here.
Lack of Socialization/Acculturation
Dog trainers talk a lot about the importance of “socializing” young puppies, but because the term implies “socially interacting with” and is usually interpreted “meeting and playing with”, it’s not an accurate one. Some of us are leaning towards words like “acculturation”, with the idea that dogs need to learn how to be comfortable interacting with human culture. Whatever you want to call it, we’re talking about teaching young puppies to have positive experiences with the human world – encountering or meeting strangers (different languages, races, ages; drunk/altered; quiet or loud; dressed or moving oddly), passing or meeting other dogs, encountering other animals; experiencing different surfaces (grass, concrete, gravel, rocks, wet surfaces, suspended floors/bridges/floating stairs/elevators); seeing and hearing cars (small economy cars to big 18-wheeler trucks; slow-moving Sunday drivers to fast, would-be speedway races; quiet EVs to loud, muffler-less VWs, etc.); household and neighborhood sounds like vacuum cleaners, leaf-blowers, hammering, loud music, and a variety of high-pitched beeps from smoke detectors, microwaves, etc., and being left entirely alone. Often when dogs show fearfulness to one or more of these items, it’s often because they have never had a positive experience with them. They may not have had a negative experience, they may just lack experience. I’ve seen a number of dogs react with everything side-eye to panic to small kids screaming, elderly folks doing tai-chi in the park, rowdy teenagers, or a ballet dance class – probably because when they were young puppies they didn’t get to encounter anything like that in a safe, comfortable, fun way.
Remember, socialization/acculturation is about teaching your dog to be comfortable, confident, and well behaved in every normal situation; it is NOT about teaching your dog to meet or play with every other dog or person you encounter. You will want to end up with a mature dog who can be comfortable when interacting with others, but is able to focus on you and ignore them as you walk past (or wait in a vet lobby, or attend a dog class, or hang out at your kids’ soccer game, etc.). You do NOT want a dog who is trying to drag you to meet other dogs or people, or is barking in frustration, or is barking in fear.
If your dog has a fear of things that seem outside of what they learned was “normal” and “expected” in the world they grew up in, your sincere ♥ love ♥ will help you be patient as you do a desensitization/counter-conditioning program to help the dog acclimate. But you need to be proactive with such a program, because loving that dog will not be enough.
Puppy socials can be helpful for puppies to learn good social/play skills for San Jose-area ones, see here.
Bad Experiences/Trauma
This is the one that almost everyone thinks is the cause of their dog’s behavior – the dog had a bad experience (or several bad experiences), and that’s why they act the way they do. And this is the one that people think can most be cured with love. If the dog just knows that they’re safe and well-loved now, the behavior will go away. In my experience, fearful or aggressive behavior is more likely to be due to lack of experience (that lack of socialization mentioned just above) than a traumatic experience or a series of bad encounters. In other words, your dog is more likely to have just had few truly positive experiences near men wearing hats and working leaf-blowers, than to have been hit or yelled at by a man, a person wearing a hat, or someone operating a leaf-blower. But traumatic experiences do happen – your pup gets bullied in the dog park, a stray dog attacks, a child smacks the dog on the head, your dog is with you during a car accident or an earthquake – and something about that experience stays with them. (My parents’ dog survived an earthquake that leveled their brick house, and he was understandably afraid of floor vibrations and low rumbly noises forever after.) If your dog had some bad experiences or went through something traumatic, just being ♥ loved ♥ and cared-for is not going to be enough, though it will help you remember why you’re doing a desensitization/counter-conditioning program to help your dog form new associations with those previously-poisoned triggers!
