Dog trainer shares the 3 dog breeds that are most ‘challenging’ to train

A professional dog trainer has named the three breeds he finds most challenging to train based on his experience with thousands of dogs. Will Atherton of Canine Training said: “I’ve had the pleasure of working with thousands of different dogs and thousands of different owners.”

As a result, he noted: “That has allowed me to work with countless different breeds of dogs.” Disclosing his “three least favourite breeds” to work with, Will began with the Siberian Husky. He explained: “I always sigh if I realise I’m going to be working with a Siberian Husky.”

Characterising the Siberian Husky’s disposition as “frustrating”, Will acknowledged that training a Siberian Husky proves “challenging”.

Will expanded: “In my experience, Siberian Huskies are almost cat-like; they have very little desire to please their owner. They know what they want and all they care about is getting what they want [without following orders].”

These canines are “ludicrously high-energy dogs” that are bred to cover up to “30 miles a day, in brutal conditions, pulling extremely heavy sleds.”

Will clarified: “Then we bring them into our home and expect them to be happy and content with a 20-minute walk round the block.” Stressing that this won’t satisfy the dog, and given they’re “drama queens”, owners can anticipate “squealing and howling”.

“They’re incredibly dramatic,” Will reiterated. “Which makes it more challenging, frankly more embarrassing and difficult to work with. I would never choose to own one myself in the future.”

The second type of breed that Will isn’t keen on training is “anything a poo: Cockapoo, Cavapoo, you name it”.

Will explained: “I find that the people that gravitate towards these breeds tend to make the cardinal sin of humanising dogs, [which] can create huge problems.”

The third dog breed Will doesn’t enjoy training is the Caucasian Shepherd, or the Central Asian Shepherd.

“Luckily, they’re incredibly rare so I’ve only had to work with a handful of them myself.”