The blank canvas analogy. Neither accurate, nor helpful!

'Every dog starts life with a blank canvas. If the portrait is flawed then look to the artist!'

I saw this on a Facebook post the other day. It made me reflect on how my life has changed since Finn came along. You see, once upon a time I'd have been nodding sagely and agreeing, completely unaware that, even with 30+ years of having dogs and training them to work sheep, I knew next to nothing about dogs. Thankfully, I have opened my mind to learning, and know realise there is so much that I have to learn!

Let's break the above statement down:

'Every dog starts life with a blank canvas.'

Is this true? In a word, no. We know that behaviour has a genetic component. The dog's genes are set as a combination of the parent's genetic material at the moment of conception, so it's already clear that there is no blank canvas. Immediately after conception, the environment and epigenetics start to come into play. Epigenetics describes the way in which outside factors can affect the dog's genes. Genes are switched on or off, changing the way that they are expressed, by a process called DNA methylation. Everything around us can potentially affect these changes by causing chemical modifications.

The outside environment at this point in a dog's life is the inside of the mother's body. While we automatically consider this as a safe place, and it mostly is, things occurring in the mother's body will have effects on the growing puppies she's carrying.

The most notable of these, particularly when it comes to thinking about reactive dogs, is how stress in the mother can be 'passed on' to the puppies in the uterus. Cortisol, the stress hormone, is released into the bloodstream when any animal is under stress. Obviously, in the case of pregnant mothers, nutrients and oxygen in their blood are also passed to their progeny via blood vessels in the placenta and umbilical cord and so some of this cortisol can pass through to the puppies. This can result in pups that are born prepared to live in a stressful world, and prone to reacting more than a situation might actually require. Is this the fault of the human that becomes the guardian to that puppy? Of course not. But when a puppy is born primed to react to stress in a way that could be considered excessive, this is not started with a blank canvas.

Finn the day we brought him home. Very much not a blank canvas by this point!

'If the portrait is flawed then look to the artist!'

Another question is which artist to blame? Do you blame the person on the other end of the lead? I suppose there is a chance that they might be a bad owner, who haven't raised and treated their dog right. On the other hand, they might be a dog walker or canine coach, called in to help a desperate dog guardian who accepts that they don't have the time and knowledge to fill all of their dog's needs, but who hasn't really got to know a new dog to them properly yet. They might be the dog's latest guardian after a string that have done things wrong. Then again, they may have done everything that they possibly could right, but been overruled by a combination of nature and nurture - genetics, epigenetics, experiences or lack of through nobody's fault, a single incident of the dog being spooked or attacked or any number of potential situations could have happened.

What of the dogs who unfortunately miss out on socialisation periods due to illness or injury? Recovering from surgery that requires a period of heavily restricted rest? Whose fault can that be proclaimed to be?

What of the dogs who, whether as adults or youngsters, are minding their own business on a walk and are spooked by a loud noise that scares the hell out of them. Or, much worse, are attacked by an out of control off lead dog, leading them to leap to defending themselves whenever they see another dog approaching? It can take just one of these events to lead to a lifetime of having to work through issues. Single event learning is very real - as a picture I saw a little while back put it so beautifully, it can take a second to instil fear. It can take a lifetime to deal with that fear. I'm really struggling to see how that could possibly be the fault of the 'artist', the guardian.

It can of course be argued that breeders have a big part to play. Obviously the puppy farm type breeders turn out puppies that have a massive chance of being fearful dogs, with their mothers being kept in stressful, unhealthy conditions, little to no attempt at any kind of socialisation or habituation to normal, everyday items and situations, and likely minimal healthcare, leaving the pups feeling ill and even more stressed. The onus is on the person finding a puppy to make sure that they source from the very best breeders they can find, if getting a puppy is what they want to do. This removes income from the puppy farmers and, as that is their only reason for breeding, can help to cut down on the numbers treating dogs in this abominable fashion. Even then, nothing is guaranteed, as dogs develop throughout their lifetime, becoming ever more a product of their experiences. Bad experiences are not necessarily the fault of the guardian - see the comment on single event learning etc. above.

These types of comments are least useful of all when talking about dogs that have been rescued and adopted. It's quite possible that any issues they may have are the fault of someone in their history, but not the person on the other end of the lead, which is who statements like this point towards as being to blame. I have a deep disdain for these kinds of blanket statements anyway, as seen in a previous entry, ''There's no such thing as a bad dog.' Who's to blame?'

Living with a fearful dog is not easy at the best of times. Incredibly rewarding when they give you their trust, yes. Never easy. These kinds of careless, throwaway, over-simplistic comments from other animal people, the kinds you would hope would try and be understanding as we attempt to do our very best for our dogs only make matters worse for the people trying like crazy to find the positives in life with their complicated dogs. They are the kind of things that are what make reactive dog guardians feel so very alone and helpless. Trust me, many of us in that position have spent plenty of time blaming ourselves, regardless of the actual situation surrounding our dogs' 'problems'. We can beat ourselves up enough about things that aren't actually our fault; we don't need your help to end up in tears.

If you find yourself agreeing with the statement, please read the articles on this blog 'The emotional toll of reactivity' and 'Things I wish I'd known before having a reactive dog' and see what those of us that share our lives with these tricky, draining, but so rewarding dogs that need us to be strong for them are dealing with. See what your completely unwarranted and unrequested judgement is doing, and how you are sabotaging the work that we are trying to do with our dogs to help them live with their 'flaws'. If you're one of those people that thinks their dog is friendly and so should be able to run up to other dogs, particularly those on leads, read 'Why loose dogs can be a problem' and make sure you have a rock solid recall coached with your dog.

One more thing - my dog is not flawed. He is complicated. He is needy. He is defensive. He is SCARED. None of those things are flaws. They are not things I'd wish for my dog to be or to have as part of his character. Then again, they make him, HIM. What is he? The most amazingly beautiful soul who loves his family and trusts us completely. It makes me sad that other people don't get to see that side of him, because they don't know him. Guess what? If you don't KNOW my dog, don't JUDGE my dog. You don't know me and the massive amounts of effort I have gone to to learn, to educate myself, and to try and show him that the world is a safer place than he views it to be. Not a great quality video, but this is Finn, reactive to dogs and people he doesn't know in a very loud 'Go Away!' fashion, at home with his family. This is the side of my dog that very few people get to see. There are no flaws here, just a much loved and very loving member of the family having a cuddle on the sofa with his dad.

If you think I have no idea what I'm talking about, I wrote a book (since this blog was originally published I've now written several which can be found HERE). It spends a chunk of its time bobbling around in the bestseller list in its category on Amazon UK (at the time of writing this article originally, it was sitting at number 2). Buy it, it's not bad. 😂😂 (Also now available as an ebook at other digital stores!)

And breathe...

Apologies for having got a little ranty there, but this kind of thing is the entire reason for this blog developing the way it is, it's the reason I study so hard and it's the reason why I wrote 'Fight or Fright?' in an attempt to give those dog guardians some kind of armour against the slings and arrows of outrageous bullshit* from people that don't have a clue!

*I apologise unreservedly to Shakespeare for stealing his line so horribly! 😂