I’m a canine behaviour expert – these are the 3 popular dog breeds I’d never own

A dog expert has shared the three popular family breeds that he wouldn’t personally have in his home. Will Atherton is a canine behaviourist and owner of Will Atherton Canine Centre and Will Atherton Training Academy with more than a “decade of experience, specialising in helping rescue centres with extreme behavioural cases”.

He also shares his expertise with owners online on his popular Will Atherton Canine Training YouTube channel, which has 1.23million subscribers. In a video on the channel, he shared the breeds he wouldn’t want to own himself, including one that can exhibit “severe” behavioural problems.

His first pick are the Spaniel breeds, with the dog expert lumping together the Cocker Spaniel and the Springer Spaniel, both of which are incredibly popular.

“Now, when it comes to the Spaniel breeds, they are breeds that I see a lot in my behavioural work, which means that they do have the potential to go wrong,” he said.

“They are breeds that are very, very trainable, and a lot of people think I dislike Spaniel breeds, it’s not that I dislike them at all.

“I am somebody who partakes in field and country sports here in the UK and I love nothing more than seeing Spaniels working with the retrievers out in the field. It is awesome to behold, and for their job that they do, there isn’t a better dog breed on the planet.”

But it’s for that very reason that Spaniels “rarely” make good family pets, he said

“Yes they are usually gentle, they are usually loving, but they are extremely high drive, they are extremely high energy”, and he favours a calm and relaxed atmosphere with his dogs at home after working with difficult cases during the day.

His second pick is the Border Collie, with Will stressing that as with Spaniels, he by no means dislikes all of them. In fact he noted that the breed is “magnificent” to see when it’s at work in the field herding sheep, describing it as “mind-blowing”.

However, he added that in his experience they “rarely make good pets”. While the severity of behaviour Spaniels exhibit isn’t too bad, Collies display “very severe behaviour problems, and especially around biting and nipping of children”, which “tends to be one of the most common behaviour problems of the Border Collie that I tend to see”.

Will said as a father he would “never take a risk” on having a breed in his home that has a “high likelihood to herd children”.

When you combine that with the fact that they’re among the most high intensity, high energy, high drive breeds out there, it doesn’t really fit with the relaxed atmosphere he wants to have with dogs of his own, with Will preferring a doggo that can enjoy being active outside and switching off at home.

The third and final breed he picked is the Dachshund, which have grown in popularity in the past few years.

He chose them for a number of reasons, including that they’re extremely vocal – a factor which tends to be the main problem with Dachshunds he and his team work with.

Issues they encounter include excessive barking, “separation anxiety-related behaviours” and “extreme reactivity when out on a walk” none of which are ideal if you’re looking for a calm and quiet pooch.

Will says though he has been able to improve their behaviour and get them to a place where they’re calmer and make for better canine companions, it’s harder than with other breeds.

He recommends picking breeds that have temperaments and qualities already suited to your lifestyle, rather than exhausting lots of energy trying to temper and deter their natural behaviours.