How many times have you come across someone walking their dog barking and lunging in an uncontrollable manner and the owner says “oh don’t worry he’s friendly he just wants to play” when in fact the dog is either fearful or showing more aggressive body language? I have seen this many times while working in the vet field and it astounds me how many people misinterpret their own dog’s behavior. What is play drive? Play drive is part of the joy system in Panksepp’s emotional command system and when other systems are in play (seek, rage, fear, care, panic and lust) the play drive can also be the most suppressed if a dog is in another “mode”. If you have dog that comes across their Achilles heel they may not have any interest in playing with you. This is because their seeking mode is prominent at that moment. Once your dog has a better understanding and increased impulse control they will soon learn that engaging with you is more fun and productive so chasing the animal is not worth it. This is something that takes time and practice to achieve but is well worth it in the long run. The type of play you have with your dog is also very important for achieving this goal of reengagement with you after seeing a trigger. The play has to fulfill the desire that the dog wants to do which can be achieved with Predation Substitution Games and also knowing what kind of toy they find rewarding. This must be done when the dog is not over threshold and has their thinking brain back online and if your dog is not interested in either the treat or their toy do not fret. This is important information as it tells you that your dog is not ready yet. The play drive system also serves as a buffer between prey and aggression drives as it provides a safe way (pending your fingers) for your dog to “scratch that itch” but in a safe way. Fetch is associated with the seeking system (aka the prey drive) and a game such as tug is associated with the rage system (aka the aggressive or fight drive) but while also keeping the play system engaged.

Today we are going to talk about the Xoloitzcuintli. You may know this dog has the Hairless Mexican Dog or Mexican Hairless Dog. First let’s just get pronunciation out of the way because my God what a name! I am going to quote from the AKC website: “to pronounce this three-car pile-up of letters, try ‘show-low-eats-queen-tlee. Or just know when you’ve been beaten and use the shorthand ‘show-low’ instead.” The Xoloitzcuintli is considered another one of the oldest dogs but also one of the rarest breeds with statues that look like the hairless variety going back over 3,000 years. (I have only seen 1 that I can remember and it was over 10 years ago). They are native to Mexico and nearly went extinct in the 1950s until the Federation Cynologique Internationle (FCI) took action, recognized the breed officially and a gentlemen named Norman Pelham Wright along with a team of Mexican and British dog authorities ventured off to find any purebred Xoloitzcuintli that may have still existed in remote areas of Mexico. They ended up finding 10 strongly suited Xoloitzcuintli and became the foundation stock to revive the breed and by May 1, 1956 a breed standard was established in the breeds native land and around the world. The Xoloitzcuintli is named after the god of lightening and death, Xolotl, and it is believed they were made from a sliver of the bone of life which is where all of mankind is from, according to the Aztecs. The Xolo, being beloved by the Aztec people, believed that they would guide man to the world of death in exchange for man protecting the Xolo in life. The Aztecs also believed that the Xolo had healing abilities not only for the physical but also the spiritual and were often buried beside their custodians. This would be accomplished by killing or being burned alongside their masters to ensure safe travels in the world of death. If a person could not afford to own a dog a stature in the shape of one would be provided. The Xoloitzcuintli did also aid those in life by lending their furnace like abilities to warm aching joints and other afflicted areas. If food was scarce they were also used for food as well as they were the only domesticated animals alongside turkeys. It wasn’t just during times of scarcity but also religious ceremonies due the powers they were thought to have had.

Once again my apologies about posting this a day late. We have been quite busy here at Chiron K9 and there was a little mayhem for me personally. My youngest cat Minka (who I just call Kitten usually) has a UTI (treated) and apparently peed on some blankets and my female vizsla Csili has decided to be quite interested in Minka or the toads under the RV so she forgets to potty outside so she also peed inside. Needless to say, on top of everything else, yesterday was a huge laundry day and of course when I thought the washer was running it wasn’t so put my progress back about an hour and a half. It was one of those days. Anyways this week’s Breed of the Week comes at the request of @Katie Schobel: the Duck Tolling Retriever. The Duck Tolling Retriever is from Acadian community of Little River Harbour, Nova Scotia in Canada that originated in the early 19th century.. They are known by a few names: The Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Toller and their original name Little River Duck Dogs. They are in the sporting group so should go without saying that if you are interested in one exercise, both physical and mental, are not optional but in return you will get a loyal and happy fur friend that will want to anywhere and everywhere with you. The Duck Tolling Retriever were a well-kept secret of Nova Scotia hunters for many years and used their fox like athleticism and playfulness to lure fowl and their retriever side accounted for their willingness to retrieve downed fowl from the water. This is where the “tolling” part of their name comes from. They would lure their prey by frolicking in the water which would catch the attention (not sure how. I guess the fowl in Canada are just…different) which would close the gap between the fowl and the hunter who would then shoot and down the fowl. While the origin of the Duck Tolling Retriever is unknown it is thought that they are a mix of retriever, spaniel, setter and possibly collie. Despite this mystery when the breed was discovered outside of Nova Scotia the blend had been perfected by the late 19th century and was considered a purebred by the Canadian Kennel Club in 1945. The Duck Tolling Retriever is considered the provincial dog of Nova Scotia.

When someone says they have a “high drive dog” have you ever stopped to think what that means? I know as a trainer when someone describes their high drive dog to me what I imagine is that their dog has a lowered threshold for predatory triggers - often times that is by design within the breed. What is drive? Many people think that when a dog has a lot of drive that it comes from within and if their needs are not met that it builds up and often leaks or pours out as “bad” behavior. This is a very easy thing to think and up until recently I thought the same thing. While a dog with unmet needs does display more intense predatory behavior it is not an “internal drive” that is building up like water behind a dam but rather the dog’s SEEKING system becoming overactive and dysregulated with no appropriate outlet which can happen under stress, conflict or frustration. The SEEKING system does not wait for an external trigger as it is always on and scanning. The part of the Predatory Motor Pattern that we do not want our dogs to display (chase, grab bite, kill and dissect) does in fact wait for an external trigger such as movement or scent. What is Motivation? Motivation is considered the why behind a behavior and it is not just with predatory behavior either (hunger, social need). Learning is less likely to happen without motivation and when a dog has a history of predating there is motivation to repeat the behavior but if that stimulus was not there then the behavior wouldn’t happen. So how can one reduce the motivation of the undesirable behavior chasing wildlife. When a dog chases something there are two phases that occur: drive induction (wanting - as in the chase itself) and drive reduction (getting - as in capturing). Both are rewarding but the pleasure areas of the hypothalamus is more strongly connected to the drive induction (which is why dogs try again and again even if they fail). Since drive induction is associated with pleasure part of the hypothalamus more so than with drive reduction if you were to replace chasing a wild animal, such as a lizard, with chasing a treat not only will you get a dog that is not chasing wildlife but you will get a dog that has less of a desire to solo hunt and an increased desire to engage with you in these highly stimulating moments.

I did not write this but I think it is important and puts into words well what I wanted to talk about today. From Canine Evolutions on Facebook: There is a question I get asked constantly: "Bart, should I play fetch with my dog every day? He LOVES it!" And my answer is always the same: No. Especially not with working breeds like the Malinois, German Shepherd, Dutch Shepherd, or any other high-prey-drive dog, like hunting dogs, Agility dogs, etc. This answer is often met with surprise, sometimes with resistance. I get it-your dog brings you the ball, eyes bright, body full of energy, practically begging you to throw it. It feels like bonding. It feels like exercise. It feels like the right thing to do. But from a scientific, behavioral, and neurobiological perspective- it's not. In fact, it may be one of the most harmful daily habits for your dog's mental health and nervous system regulation that no one is warning you about. Let me break it down for you in detail. This will be long, but if you have a working dog, you need to understand this. Working dogs like the Malinois and German Shepherd were selected over generations for their intensity, persistence, and drive to engage in behaviors tied to the prey sequence: Working dogs like the Malinois and German Shepherd were selected over generations for their intensity, persistence, and drive to engage in behaviors tied to the prey sequence: orient, stalk, chase, grab, bite, kill. In their role as police, protection, herding, or military dogs, these genetically encoded motor patterns are partially utilized- but directed toward human-defined tasks. Fetch is an artificial mimicry of this prey sequence. - Ball = prey - Throwing = movement stimulus - Chase = reinforcement - Grab and return = closure and Reward - Reinforecment again. Every time you throw that ball, you're not just giving your dog "exercise." You are triggering an evolutionary motor pattern that was designed to result in the death of prey. But here's the twist: