The biggest thing I see is owners with dogs that are not good fits within their family for many reasons.
They can be a bad fit because they are high energy dogs and the owners are a low energy family, or older people with limited mobility, the breed is too large and powerful for the owner, and they can be a bad fit because the owner is a soft person, and they have a hard dog.
In all these cases unless the owner changes themselves or their expectations there will never be harmony in the household. If this is the case many times, I suggest rehoming the dog unless the owner understands that they are going to be frustrated, potentially have a mis-behaved dog, and potentially never truly enjoy their dog to the fullest extent.
It is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. If it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit. Training will help in SO many cases however there are times when there truly is a mismatch in owner and dog and in those situations both dog and owner are going to struggle the whole life of the dog (square peg) to fit together with the owner (round hole).
I am going to highlight a few of the Mismatches we see on a regular basis. This is not an inclusive list but just some examples were the owners and dogs are going to struggle. Training will always help these situations however they do not “fix” the imbalance that is going on between the dog and owner. Sometimes this can be fixed but sometimes it cannot and, in those situations, rehoming the dog to a household that is a better fit is recommended.
Inactive Owner with Active Dog
In this situation you have an active dog that is owned by an owner or family that is in general an inactive family. This can happen when a family adopts a dog that once home cannot settle down and is busy all the time even after the adjustment phase. This could also be because owners do not fully research the breed before getting the breed. Even if they did research the breed, they may not have known that most breed have huge differences between the “show” lines and “working” lines. Quiet often the “show” line would be a good fit for the family but the “working” line would not be a good fit. The other thing about activity within breeds there are going to be a huge variation. From personal experience I have had a border collie that was literally a couch potato and never wanted to do anything while at the same time my current border collie is on the exact opposite active and on the go 24/7. This is where knowing how to pick a puppy within a litter is vitally important as well as determining what breed is a good fit for your family and lifestyle.
The second part of this is owners are not realistic about how active they are. They have already picked the breed they wanted in their head and believe they would be a good fit without truly researching. Mixed breed dogs like the doodles have a huge variation because they are a mix of at least two different breeds, then you have individual variations within that, but they are popular right now, so everyone wants one. However, doodles are truly not for everyone and that can be said for any breed.
So, the some of the major problems I see with this is the following the dogs are usually bored because their physical and mental needs are not being met. These dogs usually finding jobs for themselves to do which sometimes might align with their breed genetics but sometimes not.
However, most breeds that are highly active start to have similar problems such as pulling on leash outside, counter surfing, grabbing items that they are not supposed to and run away, playing catch me if you can, chasing the cats, chasing the kids, demand barking and more. These dogs generally have behaviors that are trying to get your attention to burn off the extra energy they have.
The bright side with this group or mismatch is this one is probably the easiest to fix as long as the owners are willing to put in some work. Through training much of the bad behaviors can be worked on, good behaviors can be instilled, a physical exercise plan can be worked out, and by adding mentally engaging activities many of these dogs and owners can live happily ever after.
Soft Owner with Hard Dog
This is an owner that is a “soft” owner meaning that they dislike correcting the dog, they project feelings on or towards the dog that they are their “kids”, they are not consistent with what corrections they do, they will “ask” the dog to do a command but then not follow thru when the dog doesn’t do it, they get pushed around by the dog (physically or mentally) but can’t bring themselves to correct it.
The things I see with these dogs are pulling on leash, counter surfing, jumping on owners and others, not coming when called, not being kennel trained, resource guarding and aggression of all nature. Once again, the dogs will try run the owners lives in all aspects of life if they can and if the dog is stronger willed than the owner it happens.
Once again, this situation happens with dogs that are more dominant than the owners. A “soft” owner and a “soft” submissive dog will most likely live a happily ever after life because they match (soft and soft). However, when the owner dog relationship is mismatched (owner soft and dog hard) that is when there are issues.
This can also go the other way too if you are a harder owner and have a very soft dog there are going to be behavioral problems as well. I rarely see this which is why I am not putting a lot of emphasis on it, but it most definitely can happen.
Senior Owner vs Puppy
I have seen this more often than I want to admit. Most of the situations I see fall into two different categories. One is the senior themselves buys or adopts a puppy only to find out they are no longer able to physically care for the puppies needs.
The second one I see is when other family members buy the senior a dog to keep them company after a death of a partner or because they feel the senior needs a dog. Most times the seniors themselves did not want the dog but now feels unable to get rid of the puppy now because they don’t want to hurt the feelings of the family members.
The biggest problems I see with this combination is owners are physically not able to take care of the puppies. Potty training can’t go well because the owners can’t physically get the puppies out on time. Biting, jumping, and nipping leading to injury. Seniors just have thinner skin and thus the baby sharks’ teeth on these puppy’s cause and I have seen severe injury to the senior owners. Puppies playing catch me if you can and literally running the house. Once again senior owners just physically cannot catch the puppies to stop bad behavior and once the puppies know this, they will use this to their advantage.
Senior Owner with Large Breed
I see this most often when senior owners have owned a large breed their whole lives and get another dog of the same breed. This dog can be either a puppy or adult when purchased but the most common things I see are the following.
Because the dogs usually physically can out do the senior owners they are in charge. This means that inside the house they may jump on the owners, get on furniture, counter surf, play catch me if you can with items they are not supposed to have, and in some instances physically bully the owners around.
Outside the house the dogs pull the owners down and cause severe injury. I have seen everything from broken wrists to broken hips from the dogs pulling the owners over. The second biggest thing I see is dog’s not coming when called and because the owners physically cannot do anything about it thus the dogs never come when called.
Family with Kids with Herding Breeds/Guarding Breeds
This is probably one of the least common things I see however it is one that can be a big problem. This may also deal with other breeds besides herding breeds or guarding breeds with kids but in any situation what we are talking about is genetics vs environment.
The most common things I see specifically with the herding breeds is nipping and biting specifically at the heels and hands of kids while they are running around. This is natural for the dogs because this is what they would be doing out in the field with sheep. Again a “show” bred border collie will have a lot less herding drive than a “working” line or “farm” dog and might be okay in a home with kids. Depending on your family and your commitment to working against genetics a working line might work with training and management.
The thing I normally see with the guarding breeds is they guard the kids and can be aggressive to strangers. This doesn’t seem like a problem except these dogs see ALL people outside their household a lot of times as strangers. Therefore no one can come over including your friends or the kids’ friends.
