Does your dog go self-employed?
Before dogs became loved companions cuddling on sofas and enjoying daily life with humans, they were bred for centuries to perform very specific jobs. It is worth remembering that just because our dogs don’t perform these jobs anymore, it doesn’t quite mean they don’t have a need to work.
I find a lot of problematic behaviours stemming from the dog simply going self employed out of innate need to perform the job they were created for. Does your Labrador chase birds and ignores recall? Does your terrier shred your pillow cases? Well… All of those make complete sense if we have a look at the predatory motor pattern. The predatory motor pattern (PMP) is an instinctive, biologically programmed sequence of behaviors dogs use to hunt prey. It’s not something learned — it’s a hard-wired behavioural chain which is deeply engraved in your dog’s DNA.
The full sequence looks like this:
Dogs were bred to perform specific tasks via choosing animals intentionally to make some parts of this predatory motor pattern stronger or weaker. For example, we wanted terriers to kill vermin so the dogs with a strong kill bite were chosen. Labradors were bred to pick up birds, so we wanted the eye, chase and grab bite strong and the kill bite or dissect much weaker to not damage the bird. All this time breeding dogs with specific genetic traits did not disappear now as we mostly choose these dogs to be loved pets. These genetic needs are still there and they may explain some of the behaviours we find problematic.
Does your Border Collie chase children? That would be the strong chase part working it’s magic. Does your Golden Retriever steal socks? That’s your grab bite!
However, just because it’s genetics, it does not mean we can’t work with these behaviours. The truth is, your dog shows those behaviours because they have a need to show them. If we give them a job, they will not go self-employed searching for the relief for the job they want to perform. You can play herding games with your Border Collie, gundog games with your retrievers or spaniels, and let your terrier shred some cardboard or chase and grab a flirt pole toy to save the pillows.
Be an expert on your own dog! Take the first step by learning what was the original job your dog was created for. Then you will be able to recognise your dog’s needs, and provide them with the jobs you will both enjoy to save you the stress, and save your dog the frustration.
