524 Canine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation
“drive.” Genetically selected drive that is honed
through training is the reason that dogs per-
form the tasks they are trained to do, but also a
reason that they can be easy or difficult reha-
bilitation patients.
Drive is defined as “an innate, biologically
determined urge to attain a goal or satisfy a
need” (Bryson, 2000; Volhard, 2013) (Box 21.1).
This is the instinctive behavior behind environ-
mental stimuli responses in any individual ani-
mal. In the dog, certain drives have been
selected for and enhanced through years of
controlled breeding and training interactions
with humans. When the genetic predisposition
is then further enhanced with focused training,
the dog’s drives can be forces to be reckoned
with. This is validated by the fact that dogs are
still working companions for humans with new
uses for dogs being discovered even today. All
successful competitive and working dogs will
have enhanced drives that are focused above
and beyond those of average pet dogs.
These heightened drives create important
considerations for the rehabilitation therapist.
How an individual dog’s drives interact with
each other in the face of various stimuli is
thought to create temperament in the dog; cer-
tain temperaments are desirable and selected
for in working dogs (Box 21.2), but might not
be appropriate in a pet or even a competitive
sport dog. Training a dog to do anything is
accomplished by the conditioned manipula-
tion of drives and it can also be affected by the
dog’s drives. Understanding the basic canine
drives is important for any veterinary thera-
pist working with dogs, especially in situa-
tions where the animal might be stressed or
feel threatened. This cannot be emphasized
enough for the therapist who will care for
working dogs. Veterinarians and rehabilita-
tion therapists, even those who have personal
experience training, working, and/or compet-
ing their own dogs, should spend time with
and learn specific working dog requirements
from experienced dog handlers in the disci-
plines in which their clients and patients work
and/or compete.
High-drive working dogs are usually also
accompanied and/or trained by high-drive
handlers—another factor that can differ from(A) (B)Figure 21.3 US Customs and Border Protection uses food detection dogs, such as Kipper, that are often obtained from
shelters. These dogs detect food, plants, and animal products that might endanger US agriculture. Their handlers carry Dog
Cards (A, B) that contain information about their dogs to give to the public. Source: Card image courtesy of the USCBP.