How to Raise the Perfect Dog (4 page)

Brooke had three schnauzer pups to show me—two males, one with a blue paper collar and one with a green, and a female with a pink collar. The female was the smallest of the three. Upon observing her pouncing on her green-collared brother, however, I could tell that her energy level was still quite high. Brooke’s clear favorite, and the dog she assumed I’d choose, was Mr. Blue Collar, a coal black schnauzer with glistening silver eyebrows, chest, feet, and tail. She introduced him as “the pick of the litter.” “He was the first to do everything. He was the first to climb out of his whelping pen. He was the first to bark. He was the first to go over to the other puppies when he was just in ‘swimming’ mode, and he was even the first one to get on all fours. He has a lot of natural intelligence, a lot of leadership qualities.”

Her description of the first two dogs’ energies placed the green-collared male at the bottom of the family hierarchy. But it was clear to me that he was not a fearful or anxious dog, and his energy was medium level, not low. To test their different temperaments, I put each of the three pups up on three different garden chairs. Mr. Blue immediately jumped right off the chair and came running back to me; he wanted to be in the middle of things. When Brooke put him back on the chair, he jumped right off again. It took a little longer for the female, Ms. Pink, to jump off, but eventually she couldn’t take the waiting anymore and followed her dominant brother’s example. Of all the dogs, only Mr. Green was able to sit on the chair and just observe. He didn’t whine, he didn’t squirm, he simply waited, alert, to take his next cue from me. I asked Brooke about her experience with him. “I think he is going to make a fabulous pet because he is so, so loving. He’s more mild-mannered than his brother, less independent. But personally, I like the more independent dogs because I find they’re very easy to train.”

Like the ladies from Southern California Labrador Retriever Rescue, Brooke also seemed genuinely surprised when I chose Mr. Green Collar—the medium-energy dog—as the dog I wanted to raise for this book. I reminded her that, although as Dog Whisperer I enjoy higher-energy dogs, most potential owners are not as experienced as she and I, and can easily let an independent, dominant pup overwhelm them once they bring him home. My goal for this book was to find pups that would start out life with the perfect, inborn “medium” energy level—suitable for any average or even inexperienced dog owner or family—and to share with my readers exactly how to maintain that state of mind during the crucial months of puppyhood and beyond.

Angel and his littermates

After choosing Mr. Green, I asked Brooke if she could find me a towel or cloth that carried the scent of his canine family of origin, to help ease his transition from his first pack into my pack. Brooke did much more than that. She presented me with his “papers”—including his passport certifying that he is a miniature schnauzer male, his AKC certification, documents showing the date, place, and type of inoculations that he had already received, and the recommended dates for his next round of shots. She also gave me a brochure with rich information about the miniature schnauzer breed, a trimming chart, and a little “going-away” gift basket containing treats, a teddy bear dog toy, and a grooming brush. That’s the “personal touch” that you’re going to get when you adopt a dog from a top-notch breeder. For breeders like Brooke, every dog is not just a dog. It’s absolutely a family member, and while her life’s mission is to find these dogs great homes, every pup that she sells will take a little bit of her heart with it when it goes out the door.

I’m a major supporter of shelter or rescue organization adoption, and I always encourage people who want to go this route for finding the right dog. The problem of canine overpopulation in America is staggering, and two to three million dogs are put to death each year simply because there are no homes for them. Every dog that finds its way into a family from a shelter or rescue group is one less dog that will lose its precious life simply because it was unwanted by a human. And there’s a special satisfaction that comes from giving a rescue dog a great life. But for those of you who do decide to go the breeder route, finding someone like Brooke is like striking gold. When you bring home a puppy from a breeder with Brooke’s level of high ethics and years of experience, you are not just bringing home that one dog, you are bringing home the rarefied bloodlines of many generations of dogs—in essence, you are owning a little bit of canine history. Brooke says the three most important qualities she breeds for are health, temperament, and conformation—that is, maintaining the integrity of the breed. In the next chapter we’ll talk more about how to find breeders like Brooke.

One of the ways such breeders preserve their chosen breed’s lineage is to make sure their puppies do not fall into the wrong hands. A huge red flag indicating a less-than-reputable breeder is someone who will sell you a puppy sight unseen, without asking you any questions about your experience with dogs, your home environment, and your intentions for caring for the dog. An important item for most breeders is the adoption contract. Brooke had me sign a contract that stipulated that I would not neuter Mr. Green until the eight-month puppyhood period was up. Personally, I prefer to neuter male dogs at six months, to prevent them from ever experiencing the overwhelming, uncomfortable urge to mate. But I understand Brooke’s criterion—as a breeder, she wants the pup to grow to full adolescence before she decides whether or not to mate the dog, to continue its valuable bloodline. I also agreed that, at the end of the puppyhood period, I would return the dog to her if I decided not to keep him or didn’t find a placement both she and I agreed was suitable. I greatly admire Brooke’s devotion to her litters.

During the half hour or so we spent going over the puppy’s paperwork, Mr. Green sat next to me, quietly chilling out. That’s pretty amazing for any puppy. Then and there, Mr. Green confirmed for me that I had chosen the right miniature schnauzer puppy to raise for this book.

After signing the papers and saying good-bye to Brooke, I brought Mr. Green to my car, first putting the blanket from his mother’s bed on the seat to attract him. Of course, I had to lift him from the ground onto the car’s running board, but I wanted to let him go onto the seat by himself as much as possible. With a puppy, patience is key, and the first time you separate a puppy from his first pack is one of those occasions when you need to call up all the patience you can muster. I held a bully stick—which is like a rawhide bone but is actually a dried bull penis—in front of his nose, and let him follow the scent as I gently pushed his rear up into the car. From there, I was able to easily guide him into the crate in which he would ride to his new home and family in Santa Clarita. Once I got him home, my boys were so impressed by his sweet temperament, they promptly gave Mr. Green the new name Angel.

HAIL TO THE CHIEF
Mr. President, the English Bulldog

Now that I had in place America’s next favorite pit bull, my happy-go-lucky Labrador, and my nose-driven terrier breed, I wanted to choose a breed with completely different inborn characteristics for the final puppy in the project. I’ve always had a special affinity for bulldogs—and in America, I’m not alone. According to
USA Today
, bulldogs have made their way onto the AKC’s “top ten most popular dogs in America” list for the past two years.
¹
imagine many of you reading this are considering a bulldog-type dog as a possible breed for you. There are lots of stereotypes about bulldogs—that they are all lazy couch potatoes, that they don’t need much energy or stimulation, or that they are consistently laid-back, mellow, and gentle in temperament. In many cases, these stereotypes can prove true, but there is another side of the coin.

The truth is, the bulldog originated in the British Isles, its name a reference to the purpose it was originally genetically engineered to fill—as a star player in the brutal but unfortunately popular sport of bullbaiting, in which a bull was placed in a pen or a hole, and one or more dogs were set upon him, to clamp down on his neck with their jaws. The first bulldogs—descendants of ancient Asian mastiffs mixed with pugs—were specifically bred for ferocity, staying power, and an astonishing resistance to pain. When bullbaiting was made illegal in England in 1835, a kinder, gentler generation of bulldog lovers took over the line, eventually breeding out most of the fierceness of the original Olde English bulldog. But those characteristics of pugnacity, persistence, and what many call “stubbornness” remain deeply lodged in every bulldog’s DNA. With some individual dogs, it can be quite a challenge to properly channel those breed-related tendencies.

One thing that is little known about bulldogs of all varieties is that they are in a sense handicapped from birth by the fact that they have been designed by humans to have pushed-in, flat noses and small windpipes. Mother Nature didn’t plan this kind of nose in her blueprint for canines, but back in the bulldog’s history, humans theorized that a flatter snout allowed for a stronger jaw to clamp onto the bull. The fact that bulldogs wheeze and snore is often a subject of good-humored sympathy among bulldog owners, and this is one of the side effects of their unnatural physical design as dogs.

Another result of their unique physical design means that bulldogs’ sense of smell is generally not going to be as powerful as that of other breeds, which puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to tracking and makes it harder for them to find their way back if they get lost or separated from their pack. They can also fall into a pattern of using their eyes more than their noses in responding to the world around them, which is not natural for a dog and can cause them to get into more conflicts with other dogs right off the bat, if they engage in eye contact with a stranger too soon or at the wrong time. Since I believe that a dog’s nose is the key to his behavior, I wanted to raise an English bulldog the right way, by going the extra mile to give him the kind of scent-driven upbringing that the rest of my dogs get to experience. I wanted to bring out the best of his species-related qualities—patience, loyalty, and affection—in order for him to grow up more dog than bulldog.

My dream English bulldog would come to me the same month I got Angel, from a longtime acquaintance of mine who specializes in breeding English bulldogs with mild, reliable temperaments. My friend knew I wanted a medium-energy-level dog and one of his bitches had just given birth to one. This chunky, white-and-brown guy who looked like he was wearing baggy pajamas was the only dog of his mother’s litter; in fact, he was delivered by C-section, the way most bulldogs must be—another side effect of human genetic engineering that’s made bulldog pups’ heads and barrel chests so much bigger than their mothers’ narrow hips and birth canals can bear. Our researcher, Crystal Reel, came with me to pick up the new bulldog puppy. She was ecstatic because English bulldogs are her favorite breed. I let her name the little guy, who is now known as General George Washington, or Mr. President for short.

If you’ve watched episodes of
Dog Whisperer
, you may have seen two of the many bulldogs I have been called in to rehabilitate—Jordan, from season one, and Matilda, from season three—both obsessed with skateboards. They would attack them, grab them in their jaws, clamp down, and hold on for dear life. Obsessive mouthing behavior—chewing, pouncing, and never letting go—is one of those ancient bulldog traits I described and one that you as an owner need to manage or discourage early on. Puppyhood is the time when you have the best chance of dialing down the volume on this breed-related behavior that resulted in the old cliché “stubborn as a bulldog.”

Mr. President started showing his bulldog nature as soon as I brought him home. He was the only one of the four puppies raised during the writing of this book that ever had a chewing issue. When the puppy reaches two months of age, however, owners have the perfect opportunity to stop or redirect that behavior before it escalates into a problem. With Mr. President, I began by distracting him with various pleasing scents, not only to redirect his naturally obsessive energy but also to encourage him to use his nose more. If his intensity level is too high, a very light touch to his neck or haunches snaps him out of obsessive behavior immediately. I’ll discuss redirecting and correcting unwanted behavior more in Chapter 4.