Spread The Word!!! - Opinion by Alwyn Walker

Why do so many dogs end up in shelters and what can be done about it?
In 1978 The Dogs Trust created the slogan about a dog not just being for Christmas. The message got through to the public and very few people now get a dog at Christmas without taking into account the rest of the dog’s life - however, we still see shelters full of unwanted dogs, so how is this still a thing?

Being a dog breeder I sometimes hear that I’m part of the problem. This simplistic thinking goes something like this:
        [Too many unwanted dogs ; must be the fault of people producing more dogs]
While this seems on the surface to make sense, it is not the responsible breeders providing puppies to well vetted families who are the issue, but the irresponsible owners whose unspayed and unneutered dogs are producing undesirable types that are sold off for pittance a pup, to people who don’t value the purchase more than “getting a cheap deal” on something that they might not have planned of getting otherwise.
People abandon their dogs for many reasons but tragically two of these reasons are easily avoidable:

      1- Poor Training (obviously!)
      2- Uninformed choice of breed (root cause)

1- Poor training leads to “bad behaviour”.
Shelters know that a huge proportion of dogs that come to them are better at doing useless tricks like “giving the paw” than getting along with other dogs or having good recall. Despite us all having access to the internet and specifically youtube (which is a FANTASTIC resource for dog training tips), most people simply don’t know how to, or simply don’t bother to put in the time required to fix bad behaviours.
2- Uninformed choice of breed. This can be broken into two parts:
      A - Uninformed
      B - Choice of breed
A - Uninformed:
      We need to get the message out to the public that different breeds have different
instincts and different needs. Everyone can see that breeds are of different sizes, different athletic abilities and most of the public would be able to guess that some breeds are better as guard dogs and that Huskies shed their fur - but does the public really understand the prey drive of a Greyhound, the energy level of a Belgian Malinois or the stubbornness of a Frenchie? Even more importantly do they fully grasp how these breeds require EXTRA training (or facilities) to ensure that these instincts don’t become a serious problem?

B - Choice of breed:
      It’s understandable that many people choose a breed based on looks alone. After all,
beautiful dogs get more positive attention from strangers and we appreciate beauty in many things such as cars, houses, partners, landscapes etc... but this completely ignores the years, decades and often centuries of selective breeding that has created breeds that were tailor made for specific jobs such as hunting, fighting or guarding.
Thankfully the internet is full of advice these days including of course the sites of the Kennel Club and the Dogs Trust but even better, many websites have built “choose your breed” software, and that’s how I settled on Staffies . These websites and brands should be praised for this user friendly approach: selectadogbreed.com (insurance), Purina (food), iams (food), PetPlan (insurance), Orvis (outdoors shop) and many more.
Put simply, we need a national campaign to educate people (and kids) about the instincts of different dog breeds and the importance of tailoring socialisation, facilities and training for each breed.

Alwyn Walker - Nov 2024
www.hillsboroughstaffies.com