Just because our dog is our pet doesn’t mean the concept of an appropriate habitat is irrelevant. We have all been unconsciously operating under those market-fed assumptions that “it’s all how you raise ’em,” that all dogs are just pets in different shapes and sizes. We haven’t been told about their different designs and respective needs regarding habitat. The reality is that the details of the environment are just as important to a given dog as they would be for any other animal on the planet.

A wild animal lives in a certain ecosystem and has an ecological niche. He is perfectly suited to be exactly the way he is. This is because his design, physically and behaviorally, “worked” in prior generations that adapted to (yes, learned from) a specific environment. In nature, the environmental shoe has to fit the animal, and vice versa. When it doesn’t fit, the animal is stressed, behaves strangely, and struggles to survive. Nature and men have selected dogs for a variety of behaviors and habitats. Most of them bear little resemblance to the pet dog life.

So if your Border Collie is pacing and whining in your new apartment like a caged animal in a zoo, consider for a moment that it might be an ill-suited habitat that has caused this behavior. If his ancestors spent eighteen hours a day in the field and he spends twenty-three hours a day indoors, his environment may be his problem.

GENETICS: Genes are the instructions for life and survival, passed from one generation to the next. They determine the reasonable scope of what an animal can and can’t do. Genetics also provides room for change and adjusting to circumstances.

The shape of a dog—his size, body, ears, nose, fur, tail, and even behavior—is the product of selected genes intended to promote specific behaviors within specific environments. Dogs look so different from each other because they are so different from each other. The physical forms of almost every breed of dog—their varied sizes, structures, and characteristics—arose as the direct result of their being purposefully selected for the behaviors they expressed. The great changes to form followed the function—and the two were always (and still are) inseparable.

Breeding just for looks is pretty much a modern phenomenon; and it still doesn’t get us away from the behavioral traits that are connected to the physical features. All dogs are just not created equal. A St. Bernard will not beat a Siberian Husky in sled racing; and a Toy Poodle will not take down a wild boar—no matter what kind of training you do.