A Plea to Puppy Breeders
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I’m a fan of intentionally-bred dogs – heck, we have two of them here at our house. And I believe that many many breeders work hard to produce the healthiest puppies possible, both in terms of physical health and also temperament. I have the good fortune to work with so many of these solid, healthy, happy dogs of various breeds. So, I admit that I have a high regard for breeders who work to produce better and better dogs – often at great expense, sleepless nights, and time spent on on-going education. You do health testing, carefully select dogs to mate in hopes of getting the best traits of each of the pair, ensuring puppies are handled well, fed well, and given every advantage possible. While there’s no guarantee in your line of work (nor mine) that everything will turn out as we hope, you do all you can to stack the deck in favor of producing the next generations of great dogs.
Of course, I also work with many dogs with serious behavior issues including fear and fear-based aggressive behaviors. Those dogs often didn’t get the good start that your puppies got. You and I can’t fix the problems that exist with backyard breeders and puppy mills. We can only impact the dogs under our own care.
Of course, once you are “done” producing those puppies, they move on to the best families you can find for them and those families sometimes call on me for additional guidance. You and I do all we can to support those families and those dogs for years to come.
Like you, I’m continuing my education so I can help your dogs and their adopted families live happier and behaviorally-healthy lives. And the more I learned about one topic, the more I realized I wanted to write this to share with you about an important factor that can significantly influence a dog’s temperament AND health.[1] Failing to address this one issue can cause behavior problems which may lead to abandonment (whether returning the dog to you or to over-crowded shelters where dogs with behavior problems may languish or be euthanized) and can lead to various health issues including brain development, and dysregulated metabolic, cardiovascular, and immune systems (which can cause depression, heart disease, and even shortened life span).
So, what’s this all-important factor that impacts literally every aspect of the dogs[2] we care about?
Stress
This isn’t just an issue for young dogs. No, it starts even before they are born. Stress hormones have been shown to pass through the placental barrier and impacts puppies in the uterus. Prenatal stress has negative impacts on learning and cognition, social behavior, anxiety and depression-like behaviors (including an increase in learned-helplessness), body mass index, insulin resistance, and increased risk for auto-immune disorders. Puppies born from mothers who were stressed during pregnancy are more likely to struggle to recover from fears.
And, as we might easily guess, puppies are susceptible to the impacts of stress after they are born too. Everything from decreased growth of the hippocampus to increased levels of stress-related hormones for the rest of their lives are just two of the many observable and measurable outcomes of stress on puppies.
And the impact can literally be seen on multiple generations of dogs. Males born from mothers who were stressed during pregnancy have been shown to have decreased social interactions as adults. So, we aren’t just protecting a litter – doing this wrong can have an impact on your breeding line for generations to come. Doing it right enhances your lines.
Though senior dogs also show an increased sensitivity to stress, I understand that breeders may not be able to impact their lives as much. But you have a LOT of control over the lives of pregnant mother dogs and the puppies they are carrying – and for the first several important weeks of their young lives. The better you can protect the dogs in your care from experiencing negative stressors, the less work I may have in the future (and that will be a good thing for those dogs and their families – and the popularity of your breeding program).
So, what can you do to improve the futures of the puppies you are producing (as well as the lives of the people who are fortunate enough to live with your puppies for years to come)? The first two things that come to mind are these:
Breed only temperamentally sound dogs. If you’re relatively new to breeding, learn what that means. It’s not just dogs who have never bitten. But it’s not necessarily dogs who have never once had an argument with another dog either. It’s dogs who have a normal number of non-injurious squabbles who recover quickly. And they either don’t mind or at least they recover quickly from other things too - like getting startled by an especially loud noise, a big truck that came out of nowhere, accidentally having their toe stepped on (don’t test this just to find out!). Bad things happen in life. We want dogs who can shake it off and move on.
Make sure pregnant dogs have a luxious life. Yes, I JUST said that bad things happen in life. But we want to do everything humanly possible to make sure bad things don’t happen to pregnant dogs. Make sure they are getting enough nutitious and yummy foods, have comfortable resting places, and don’t have to put up with an annoying housemate they are typically expected to tolerate. Be especially careful not to use pain, fear, or intimidation to correct behaviors during this time.
I could go on and on and on about this topic. Tons of studies have been conducted that I could point to. And whole books have been written and entire college-level courses are given on stress. But a blog post probably isn’t the right place for lengthy articles (no one reads them!). So, I’ll close with two offers:
1. Contact me if you want more information. I’ll happily point you towards some of those studies and to chat with you about this topic. I’ll point you to additional resources on the subject (including the course I’m currently taking on this subject).
2. I’m currently also reading a book called The Stress Factor in Dogs: Unlocking resiliency and enhancing well-being by Dr. Kristina Spaulding. I highly recommend it.
Stress is a fact of life. It’s not always bad. And there are things we can do to help our dogs handle the inevitable bad moments that come to all living animals (including us). We can go a long way towards helping dogs be more resilient by getting them off to a good start which includes protecting them – and their mothers – from stress during their earliest developmental periods.
[1] I’m not a veterinarian. So, I’m entirely unqualified to assess or diagnose the issues of any single dog. But I’m very comfortable sharing well-researched information about things that can improve/damage our dog’s health.
[2] I want to be really transparent here: there’s been a lot of research about this topic. But some of it has been done on humans, some on rodents, and some on dogs (and other species). Modern ethics review boards prevent repeating some studies which gave us good information in years past. There’s good reason to believe that what we’ve learned can apply to social mammals of various species.