Does Your Dog Have Any Limitations With Training?

Before we get started on talking about what type of limitations your dog may have when it comes to training let me point out one simple fact. I've never seen a dog that couldn't be obedience trained. I don't care what breed it is or how big or how small it is every dog can be obedience trained. Of course, some dogs will train easier and better depending on what they were bred to do.

So now that we've determined that every dog can be obedience trained even though some will be better than others let's talk about some other areas of training that your dog may or may not be suited for.

Today I had a lady call me who wanted to get an eight-week-old husky puppy and have it trained as a service dog. I explained to her that she'll never see a service start organization training Huskies to be service dogs. Now that's not saying anything bad about Huskies. In fact I have worked with a bunch of them and they can be real nice dogs but it's just not the type of work they were bred to do.

I recently had a police officer call and want to find out about training a bloodhound to be a drug detection dog. I explained to him that bloodhounds are the ultimate man trailing dog. When it comes to tracking human beings you just can't beat the nose on a bloodhound. However, you'll never see a bloodhound doing drug detection work. Why I'm not sure it may just be that they don't understand the game. There's more being a drug dog than just having a good nose.

I recently had a firefighter contact me about training his Labrador Retriever to be an arson detection dog. After testing the dog we realized that the dog had no prey drive. He didn't pass the retrieve test or the hunt test either. In order to have a good detection dog you need high prey drive.

I tell people that if you lined up 100 Labradors Retrievers or any other breed as a matter of fact and we came in to test them we would be tickled pink to get one out of that hundred that had what it took to be a detection dog. Keep in mind that doesn't mean that the other 99 dogs are not nice dogs it simply means they don't have the drive to do the type of work we want them to do.

I think you're beginning to understand now that not just any dog can do just any kind of training. The dog needs to have the particular drives to do that type of work. That's why as trainers we need to be good talent scouts and know exactly what we are looking for in the selection process.

So do some research and find out what your dog was bred to do and then find something that you can train your dog to do that will allow you both to have fun together.

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