Picking a puppy – does breed matter?

I think the answer is NO…and YES! 

 Most of the things your puppy does are totally normal, albeit sometimes annoying, and all puppies do them. But some of the things your puppy does may have more to do with their breed than their age. 

I’ve been teaching puppy classes for 9 years and I always expect owners to ask certain questions in class; 

‘my puppies biting at our hands – what do we do?’ 

‘My puppy keeps weeing in the house – help!’ 

‘he won’t settle on a night or when we leave him’

We include a group discussion at the end of class so we can discuss management strategies and training techniques for these scenarios. These issues are pretty common across all breeds of puppies and it can be great to know you’re not alone! 


Then we get the questions, or cries for help, which aren’t typically the same across all breeds of puppies. 

 'My retriever puppy is picking everything up and carrying it around, they have now started running away and growling when we go near' 

 'Our Collie pup was pulling towards cars on walks and has now started lunging and barking when cars go past'

'My Terrier thinks chasing the kids feet and biting them is a great game, they’re now scared of him' 

While these problems aren’t uncommon, we may expect to see them happen in some breeds more than others. 
   

So, does breed matter when you’re picking your puppy? 

Once you’ve done your research, picked a breed that fits with your lifestyle and you’ve found a good breeder (who knows their breed well and can support you with choosing a puppy), you can prepare for some of those breed specific behaviour traits that may pop up! 

• We can’t stop the retriever puppy picking things up, but we can teach them to love bringing things to you 
• We can't change the Collies desire to herd things, but we can teach them what we would like them to do instead of chasing cars 
• We can help the terrier find a more appropriate outlet for chasing and biting things that aren’t feet! 

Do you have a Gundog puppy? 

Join us for a mini workshop where we’ll discuss living with these breeds, a chance for you to ask questions and work on some foundation exercises to harness their incredible work ethic. 

 Booking for Baby Gundog  

Do you have an older Gundog or Herding breed? 

We’re running a series of workshops for Gundogs and herding breeds to introduce games you can play with your dog to harness their hunting or control their herding! 

 Booking Link for Workshops  

 Happy training 

 Clare and the gang