Avoid these breeds – dog behaviourist lists ones he doesn’t recommend

If you are considering getting a dog but don’t know where to start, a canine behaviour specialist has identified the breeds he doesn’t recommend.

Will Atherton, who founded his own dog training academy, believes “super smart” breeds are surprisingly “rarely a good choice” for the average home. He took to TikTok to elaborate.

“People assume the more intelligent the dog, the easier they are to train,” he began in a video. “But in reality, those high-drive, highly-intelligent breeds often struggle the most.”

Indeed, Will pointed out that the idea is “categorically not true” from what he has witnessed in his line of work. “The vast majority of dogs I see with problem behaviours – ranging from annoying their owners through to being incredibly dangerous and at risk of ending up in a shelter – are actually often the smartest dog breeds.”

Will explained that this is often the case because the smartest dogs tend to have the most energy and the highest drive-output and have the ability to “work and train you just as much as you can train them”.

For inexperienced owners, Will says he always suggests breeds that “want to look up at you for guidance and direction” and ones that have been bred to be gentle with people and not show any form of agression towards people, other animals and other dogs.

“But after all of those things have been considered, you want one that is still intelligent enough to train to great standards,” he continued.

So what breed does Will have in mind? According to the specialist there is a “king of all dog breeds” that “ticks every box” and is better than the rest. That breed is the Labrador Retriever – followed very closely by the Golden Retriever.

“If more first time owners got those breeds instead of ones like Border Collies and German Shepherds or Belgian Shepherds and Malinois, there would be a lot more happy owners,” Will said. “And there would be a lot less behaviour problems in dogs, a lot less dogs in shelters, and euthanasia tables would be a lot less empty.”

Writing in response, one TikTok user pondered: “People don’t meet their needs and that’s where it goes wrong. I always look for a dog/breed his needs so we match, I don’t want my dog to be unhappy, vice versa.”

A second person revealed: “I have a Border Collie crossed with a Greyhound. Super smart and massive energy output. He gets minimum one hour a day of high intensity exercise during the week. The weekends he’ll run damn near all day. After a big sleep, he’s recharged and ready to do it all over again.”

A third shared Will’s opinion: “My husband laughed at me for wanting a stupid dog. After he saw how awesome my very simple minded dog was, he got a similarly unintelligent one. Now he got a smarter one (not highly intelligent) and struggles with teaching him not to (wrongfully) think ahead or outsmart him!”

While a fourth TikTok user added: “Another reason Labradors and Golden Retrievers are usually great choices for first timers is that they are super forgiving of mistakes.”