Behaviour

• Majority of working dogs are bred from specific strains of working or sport dogs
• Working and sport dogs

  • Intense selection for physical & behavioural characteristics to undertake specific activities
• Specific activities


  • Hunting - English Springer Spaniel
  • Guide dog work - Labradors
  • Racing - Greyhounds
• Specific activities


  • Police work - German Shepherd Dogs
  • Military - Belgian Malinois
• Many working and sport dogs are shelter dogs
• Shelter dogs identified as

  • Toy focused, playful, not timid
  • Obsessive dogs
• Training of working and sport dogs


  Trained to undertake work e.g. search & rescue, conservation
• Sporting dogs - mostly breed identified

  • Gundogs - retrieve, flush, or point
  • Hounds - track or chase
  • Gazehounds/sighthounds - sight & speed
  • Terriers - 'burrow' (terra) dogs
• Sporting dogs


  • Greyhounds
  • Sled racing
• Working dogs


  • Guide dogs - specific lines
  • Hearing dogs - shelter
  • Police, Customs and Military work - specific lines
  • Farm work - specific lines
  • Conservation, Medical and Search and Rescue (SAR) - shelter dogs, volunteers with pet dogs
• German Shepherd Dogs (GSD)


  • Working line vs. show line
• Working dogs - behaviour traits

  • Biddability - how readily dogs respond to human direction
• Working dogs - behaviour traits

  • Distinct predatory motor pattern sequences based on the traditional working roles
  • Airedale terrier - fully intact predatory sequence
  • Border Collie - exaggeration of eye-stalk-chase component
  • Anatolian shepherds - inhibition of the full predatory sequence
• Working dogs - behaviour traits

  • Human-guided (point) object choice tasks
• Working dogs - behaviour problems calcification

  • Learning related problems
  • Physical or intellectual problems - detected normally during the selection stage
  • Performance problems - normally detected in dogs already performing specific tasks
  • Disruptive problems - disrupt the performance of a desired behaviour
  • Husbandry problems - generalized overactivity intense and persistent enough to interfere with the dog life
• Working dogs' behaviour problems are different to classification systems used for pet dogs
• Some behaviours seen in working dogs are not present in pets
• Working dogs' behaviour problems are viewed in the context of their employment
• Working dogs - behaviour therapy/modification

  • Decision whether to diagnose and treat a behavioral problem based on the needs of the program to produce and maintain enough animals capable of successfully performing the critical tasks
• Working dogs - drug therapy

  • Medication may have direct adverse effects on the physical performance of a required behavior
  • Blunt sensory abilities
  • Undesirable effects on learning, memory, and performance