Top 10 Most Difficult Dogs
When people hear that I work as a dog trainer, they frequently ask me what breeds are the most difficult to work with. I have yet to discover a breed that consistently makes my job challenging. More frequently, I struggle with the conditions of the dog’s environment, their learning history, or the owner’s lifestyle.
These are the 10 most challenging types of cases I have seen so far.
10. Dogs with strict owners
Many pet parents we see are searching for tools to make their dogs more obedient or listen better. Often, I’ve found that parents who take a heavy-handed approach with their dogs see symptoms like lack of interest in the owner, selective hearing, acting out of control, or even causing injuries. These parents may think their dog needs to learn who’s in charge. Spoiler alert - we’re always in charge! We control access to food, water, social contact, the outdoors, even freedom outside the crate! These dogs can be difficult to work with because owners often argue with the trainers or drop out of their programs early.
9. Dogs with separation anxiety
Separation anxiety, and the sound sensitivity that often comes along with it, can be extremely difficult to work with. For this reason, I usually refer potential clients out to other trainers who actually enjoy working these cases. Separation anxiety and sound sensitivity are challenging issues to approach with a plan of desensitization & counter-conditioning because avoidance of the full-blown stimulus (leaving the house for more than a few minutes) is simply not achievable for most modern-day pet parents. Finding the right medication can also be tricky for these cases, and many pet parents are closed off to the idea of helping their dog feel better with meds.
8. Dogs who went to a board & train or trained “military style”
Dogs who have been trained “military style” or trained at a facility where parents could not supervise are difficult to train and even a little scary to meet for the first time. Because this type of training requires tools that cause pain or discomfort, like prong or shock collars, these dogs often carry negative feelings towards many things in their environment. Often, these dogs have learned that a stranger who smells like dogs and kibble cause pain, which makes first appointments challenging and even dangerous. Pet parents who have spent several thousands of dollars on a board & train often see their dogs refusing to comply with place training & other commands, and they believe that training does not work.
7. Dogs from backyard breeders
We see a lot of puppies coming from backyard breeders here in Missouri & Kansas. Backyard breeding, or the business of mating two dogs for profit, can be a profitable line of work. Unfortunately, most backyard breeders in the area do not conduct genetic, medical, or temperament testing on these dogs before mating them. These puppies are sold at a premium but often have issues that last a lifetime. Backyard-bred puppies often miss essential socialization milestones, and less successful backyard breeders who are unable to sell their pups until 4-10 months of age miss out on critical developmental periods. Pet parents who have purchased a pup from a backyard breeder sometimes feel they have already wasted enough money on a broken dog, and do not want to spend any more money on veterinary surgery or training.
6. Dogs owned by people with memory problems
These dogs & people are a little different than other difficult cases we see because they can actually be super fun appointments. Some of my most favorite clients ever have unfortunately been burdened with memory issues. While these folks and their dogs are absolute treasures, it does present challenges. People with memory issues will often forget to text me back, or they won’t review their notes, and they certainly can’t remember which exercises they were supposed to practice. I am still trying to figure out how to best serve our friends with memory issues.
5. Dogs in hoarding homes
This type of case is difficult for me for a number of reasons. For one, hoarding of items and hoarding of animals can go hand-in-hand, meaning that there are more animals in the home than the space can accommodate. Additionally, because these animals have little room to move around, scenarios where fight or flight responses are triggered can become full-blown fights. Creating comfortable areas to train, play, and decompress are a challenge when the owner cannot get rid of anything. Having grown up in a hoarding home myself, I can really empathize with the painful emotions that come along with living in this type of environment. A dog in a hoarding home needs better welfare before they can be trained.
4. Dogs with mostly absent owners
Training dogs is a tricky job because many owners think you will be like a TV dog trainer - you show up, do a couple things, and with movie magic the dog is miraculously fixed within an hour (plus ads). Teaching a dog how to behave in a way the owner likes requires the owner to participate in meeting the dog’s needs, setting up management, practicing training exercises, and sticking to house rules. When a pet parent is absent for long stretches of time during the day, especially if their dog is crated during this time, the dog can have a hard time trusting their owner & listening to them. Even if one parent takes control of the training and the other declines to participate, we see vastly different behaviors when the dog interacts with each of them. A trainer can help you make big changes, but they can’t do everything.
3. Puppy mill studs and mamas
Dogs from puppy mills present a number of challenges for trainers. Because Missouri is the number one puppy mill state in the U.S., we see a lot of studs & mamas in rescue when they can no longer breed, or when their mills are busted. These unfortunate dogs have been kept like industrially farmed chickens their whole lives - in cages with very little room, crammed together, with poor health & welfare - and their behavior shows the effects of these horrid conditions. They demonstrate very little behavioral diversity, meaning they don’t know how to do much besides spin around and bark incessantly. Most have not been socialized to normal life things like grass, cars, or the insides of homes. They often carry negative associations to what they have encountered and may be reactive or aggressive around dogs, kennels, or humans. Worse, they may be so scared that they are unable to do much of anything. These traumatized dogs can take months to years to recover, which causes strain on their relationships with their new parents.
2. Dogs living without management strategies
It should seem obvious that adherence to a training & management plan would be the best way to achieve desired results. Unfortunately, many pet parents see management as “cheating” in their training plan. For behavior modification to work, the dog simply cannot rehearse undesirable or dangerous behaviors over and over again. Owners often perceive a dog who gets into trouble over and over again as purposefully spiteful or insolent. Even after learning the dangers of allowing “bootleg reinforcement,” or reinforcement from the environment, pet parents still rely on training alone, or even physical punishment, to attempt behavior modification. Management, or modifying of the environment, can often be the only way to truly stop bad habits while teaching alternate behavior. Parents who hold their dog to an unachievable standard are often also hard on themselves, and ultimately fail out of their training program when they achieve less than perfect results.
1. Dogs who give no warning signals before a bite
This type of dog can be truly terrifying to work with, which is why I do not take this type of case. In addition to being extremely dangerous, the heartbreak of hearing that a dog who I care for deeply has completed another bite will keep me up at night for weeks on end. Dogs who bite with no warning signals have usually learned to take serious action when all other signals have been either ignored or suppressed through punishment. A dog who growls is a good dog! Growling lets us know that we need to give the dog space. Growling & other distance-increasing behaviors happen frequently during initial evaluations, and frequently I see owners attempting to correct this behavior with verbal or physical consequences. Aggression is complicated and emotionally charged for trainers, and even more so for pet parents. To make things even more confusing, some pet parents claim that their dogs bite out of nowhere, when in fact the dogs had given every sign in their repertoire that they were not comfortable. For trainers to safely work with dogs who truly do not give any signals before biting, we need strict boundaries, both physical and social - a tough job for anyone burdened with empathy. For dogs who bite out of nowhere, I refer out to more senior trainers. It’s just not worth the sleepless nights.
Do any of these dogs sound like your dog? I am truly impressed by how much you’ve been able to tolerate! You have a difficult case.
Although your dog may be difficult to train & manage, we still want to hear from you. If you want to change some of your habits, we would love to work with you! If you need a referral to another qualified trainer, we’d be happy to get you pointed in the right direction! No matter what’s going on with you & your dog, we would love to be a resource to you.
Happy training!
Chloe
