Force-free · Research-backed · Puppy → Advanced
Training & gear built for your dog's breed.
Generic dog advice ignores what makes your dog your dog. BuiltByBreed composes each guide from breed traits and a cited research corpus — humane, positive-reinforcement methods, plus breed-matched gear, from the first night home to advanced work.
Choose your breed
64 force-free, breed-specific guides — from the first night home to advanced work.
Shih Tzu
The Shih Tzu is a small, affectionate brachycephalic companion breed with a flat face, prominent shallow-socketed eyes, and a long flowing double coat that needs constant grooming. Bred purely for companionship, it is people-oriented and trainable with reward-based methods but carries a mild independent streak, and as a flat-faced dog it shares the airway and heat-safety vulnerabilities that drive this corpus.
Cane Corso
The Cane Corso is a large, powerful Italian molosser bred as a property and livestock guardian: intelligent and handler-focused, with strong territorial/guarding instincts, a confident-but-discerning temperament, and the size and bite power that make early, generous, reward-based socialization and lifelong management non-negotiable. It is not a flat-faced (brachycephalic) breed, but its large body mass and often-dark short coat still warrant real heat caution, especially in hot climates.
Pug
The Pug is a brachycephalic toy companion bred purely to be a charming, people-focused lapdog — affectionate, comical, sturdy, and deeply attached to its humans. Its flat face and prominent eyes mean heat and airway emergencies are the single biggest safety concern, and its food-driven, sensitive nature makes short, cool, reward-based (LIMA) training the only humane and effective approach.
Goldendoodle
A Golden Retriever x Poodle cross: people-oriented, highly trainable, and energetic, with a low-shedding wavy-to-curly coat that demands serious grooming. Not flat-faced, so it lacks the Frenchie's airway limits, but its dense coat, athleticism, and velcro attachment style shape its real-world care and training needs.
Labrador Retriever
The Labrador Retriever is a large, high-energy, intensely food-motivated gundog whose biddability and soft, retrieving mouth make it a joy to train with positive-reinforcement methods. Channel that drive into structured enrichment and growth-safe exercise, guard hard against obesity, and protect developing hips and elbows from forced high-impact work.
Boston Terrier
The Boston Terrier is a small, brachycephalic companion dog — friendly, sensitive, and notably biddable, with moderate (not high) energy — whose flat face and prominent, shallow-set eyes make heat safety, airway awareness, and eye-injury prevention first-order concerns. Train in short, cool, low-arousal, positive-reinforcement sessions on a Y-front harness (never collar pressure), and treat any sudden behavior change, reluctance, or worsening breathing as a medical rule-out before a training problem.
Dachshund
The Dachshund is a small, long-backed, short-legged scent hound bred to hunt and go to ground after badgers and burrowing prey, which makes it intensely nose- and prey-driven, vocal, persistent, and independently minded. Its defining long spine and chondrodystrophic (dwarfed) build make intervertebral disc disease (IVDD/back injury) the breed's number-one safety concern, so back-injury prevention is first-order in everything you do with this dog.
French Bulldog
A humane, positive-reinforcement (LIMA) training curriculum built around a brachycephalic, heat-sensitive companion breed.
Border Collie
The Border Collie is the world's premier herding breed: a medium-sized, athletic, intensely intelligent working dog with near-limitless work drive and biddability, but a heavy daily requirement for mental work and a sensitivity that makes force-free (LIMA) training not just preferable but essential. Under-stimulated or pressured, this breed channels its motion-chasing brain into anxiety, reactivity, and repetitive/compulsive behaviors, so the whole training program is built around channeling drive, not suppressing it.
German Shepherd
The German Shepherd is a large, highly intelligent working breed combining intense drive with exceptional biddability, which makes it both a joy to train with reward-based methods and a breed that suffers badly when mistrained with aversives. It needs substantial daily mental and physical work, early and thorough socialization to temper its natural aloofness/wariness, and joint- and spine-conscious management throughout life.
Bernese Mountain Dog
The Bernese Mountain Dog is a giant, deep-chested, gentle Swiss draft/farm breed: biddable and soft-tempered but slow-maturing and heartbreakingly short-lived, whose training must be built around GDV/bloat risk, a heavy heat-trapping double coat (never shave), extended growth-plate/joint protection, and proactive cancer/health-change vigilance. The trait vector attaches large-breed, deep-chested, double-coat, and heat-sensitive safety modules; the delta below covers only the ~20% that differs from the universal LIMA library.
Boxer
The Boxer is a large, deep-chested, exuberant, high-energy working companion whose moderate brachycephaly makes airway and heat management first-order safety concerns — especially in Arizona — while its deep chest (GDV risk), big-dog impulse control, and breed-typical cancer/cardiac profile shape the ~20% of training and husbandry that differs from the universal LIMA library. Content is educational, not veterinary advice, and Boxer-specific medical claims are pitched at AKC-standard / parent-club (American Boxer Club) / OFA-CHIC authority level without fabricated figures.
Chihuahua
The Chihuahua is a tiny, smooth-coated, keenly alert and vocal toy companion whose training deltas are dominated by physical fragility and airway sensitivity: harness-only handling to protect a collapse-prone trachea, vigilant supervision around larger dogs and young children, hypoglycemia management in very young/small puppies, and confidence-building that treats the dog as a real dog rather than coddling its fear. Everything else — marker mechanics, luring/shaping, the 3 Ds, recall, leave-it, loose-lead walking, relaxation, body-language basics — is inherited from the universal library and must not be re-authored.
German Shorthaired Pointer
The German Shorthaired Pointer is an athletic, biddable versatile gundog with very high energy, strong hunt/point/retrieve working drive, and pronounced prey drive, whose deep chest carries meaningful GDV/bloat risk and whose smooth coat offers little sun/thermal buffer; it needs large daily physical AND scent-work outlets or it becomes destructively frustrated. The trait vector attaches the deep-chested (GDV), high-energy, working-drive, and high-prey-drive safety modules on top of the universal LIMA library.
Miniature American Shepherd
The Miniature American Shepherd is a compact, high-drive herding dog: intensely biddable and quick to learn, but a genuine working brain that will self-employ (herding household members, chasing motion, patrolling) if its need for physical exertion and daily mental work goes unmet. Its 20% delta is drive-channeling and impulse control, double-coat/heat management, herding-specific socialization, and MDR1 drug-sensitivity awareness (vet-directed) — layered on top of the universal LIMA method every breed inherits.
Miniature Schnauzer
The Miniature Schnauzer is a small, intensely alert, vocal terrier-type companion with a harsh wire coat (traditionally hand-stripped) and strong prey drive, historically bred as a farm ratter (AKC breed standard; American Miniature Schnauzer Club). Force-free training leverages its high biddability and food motivation while proactively managing arousal-driven barking, small-animal chase, and pancreatitis-aware (low-fat) treat selection.
Maltese
The Maltese is a ~4–7 lb toy companion with a long, single (undercoat-free) white coat and the classic toy-breed fragility profile: it inherits the site's universal LIMA training method wholesale, so this profile only sets the trait vector (small_breed / long coat / high grooming / vocal) that attaches the toy-safety modules and adds the ~20% breed delta — physical fragility, tracheal sensitivity (harness only), puppy hypoglycemia, and a heavy daily grooming/dental burden. All method (marker, luring/shaping, 3 Ds, recall, LLW, relaxation, crate/house-training, body-language basics, medical-rule-out) comes from the universal library and is not re-authored here.
Brittany
The Brittany is a soft-tempered, highly biddable pointing gundog with high energy, strong working and prey drive, and a flat feathered coat — the safety delta is channeling that drive into legal outlets and protecting a sensitive dog from shutdown, plus exertional-heat and field-debris caveats layered on the inherited universal library.
Cocker Spaniel
The Cocker Spaniel is a small-to-medium flushing spaniel with a low-risk training baseline: soft, sensitive, and highly biddable, so the entire LIMA universal library fits cleanly with the gentlest possible handling. Its breed-specific delta is dominated by the profuse long feathered coat (intensive lifelong grooming plus a cooperative-care commitment), the pendulous ears that predispose it to recurrent ear infections, notable eye-health screening, and managing a soft dog prone to submissive/excitement urination, alarm-vocalization, and (rarely, and mostly discussed in solid-colored English Cockers) sudden-onset aggression that must be worked up medically.
Collie
The Collie (rough) is a sensitive, highly biddable double-coated herding dog with strong working drive and high energy: its gentle-but-soft temperament rewards force-free, low-arousal training, while its breed-specific deltas are motion/chase and heel-nipping (herding origin), alert barking, a dense double coat that must never be shaved (heat load matters even in a non-brachycephalic dog, especially in Arizona), and elevated MDR1 drug-sensitivity frequency that is a vet conversation, not a training issue. Only ~20% differs from the universal LIMA library the breed already inherits.
English Cocker Spaniel
The English Cocker Spaniel is a merry, medium flushing spaniel — biddable and people-oriented, it thrives on positive, reward-based training, daily exercise, and regular coat care.
Mastiff
The Mastiff is a giant molosser guardian — deep-chested and GDV-prone, slow-growing with fragile growth plates, smooth-coated, drooly, and heat-sensitive from sheer mass — whose defining training imperative is that he must be reliably controllable on a Y-front harness and calm around strangers BEFORE he outweighs you. This profile sets the trait vector so the large-breed joint, bloat/deep-chest, heat, and guardian-socialization safety modules attach, plus a short list of Mastiff-specific deltas over the inherited universal LIMA library.
Shetland Sheepdog
The Shetland Sheepdog is a small, intensely biddable Scottish croft-herding breed: handler-focused and highly trainable, but genuinely vocal (alert-barking), motion-reactive (herding chase / heel-nipping), sound-sensitive, and carrying a dense double coat plus herding-breed MDR1 (ABCB1) drug-sensitivity risk. The universal LIMA library covers the method; the deltas below gate double-coat heat management, motion-chase and barking troubleshooting, sound/motion desensitization, and the MDR1 vet caveat.
Vizsla
The Vizsla is a high-energy Hungarian pointer-retriever (HPR) with intense prey and working drive, deep affiliative "velcro" attachment, a deep chest that gates GDV/bloat safety modules, and a thin smooth single coat that gates cold-weather caveats — so its delta is built around channeling drive, preventing separation distress, and managing thermoregulation at both ends, all within the inherited universal LIMA method.
West Highland White Terrier
The West Highland White Terrier is a small, feisty, independent earth-working terrier with a harsh wire double coat, strong prey drive, and a high alert-barking baseline; its breed-specific deltas center on channeling terrier drive force-free, hand-strip coat/cooperative-grooming care, and a well-documented skin (atopic dermatitis) and small-breed orthopedic health profile. It inherits the universal LIMA training library and small-breed/coat safety modules automatically; this profile supplies only the trait vector and the ~20% that is genuinely Westie-specific.
Bichon Frise
The Bichon Frise is a small, cheerful companion lapdog whose defining deltas are a high-maintenance curly non-shedding coat (heavy grooming + cooperative-care conditioning), separation-proneness from its bred-for-companionship history, and small-breed fragility (patellar luxation, safe handling). The universal LIMA method carries the load; the breed-specific ~20% is coat/grooming conditioning, alone-time resilience, and toy-dog handling/health safety.
Chesapeake Bay Retriever
The Chesapeake Bay Retriever is a large, deep-chested, dense-double-coated working retriever whose independent, protective temperament and GDV/orthopedic morphology make it a large_breed + deep_chested + working_drive + double-coat profile — so it inherits the universal LIMA library plus the large-breed/deep-chested/working-drive safety modules, needing only a short breed-specific delta for bloat, Arizona heat under a heavy coat, drive-channeling, and early socialization against over-guarding.
Italian Greyhound
The Italian Greyhound is an ancient, affectionate toy sighthound whose fine-boned, thin-coated build and sight-triggered chase drive make it inherit the universal LIMA library plus the small-breed, high-prey-drive, and smooth-coat safety tracks. Its genuinely breed-specific deltas are dominated by extreme leg-fracture fragility, cold-intolerance, toy-breed dental/anesthesia care, and managing a sighthound's selective recall force-free.
Papillon
The Papillon is a tiny (~5-10 lb) toy spaniel with a long, silky single coat and a famously bright, biddable, high-energy brain — one of the most trainable toys — so its training constraints are body fragility and impulse/height management, not airway or heat like a brachycephalic. The trait vector attaches small-breed fragility, long-coat grooming, high-energy enrichment, and alert-barking safety modules while the universal LIMA method (marker mechanics, luring/shaping, the 3 Ds, recall, LLW, relaxation) carries the bulk of the curriculum unchanged.
Portuguese Water Dog
The Portuguese Water Dog is a medium, high-energy, highly biddable working water-retriever with a dense curly single coat: not brachycephalic, but its coat heat-load, relentless working drive, and demanding grooming/health profile are the breed-specific deltas layered over the universal force-free library. Every module is LIMA and educational, not veterinary advice.
Samoyed
The Samoyed is a friendly, high-energy Siberian working spitz whose defining care facts are a heavy weather-proof double coat that must NEVER be shaved and real heat sensitivity despite its Nordic origin, paired with a vocal, prey-driven, somewhat independent temperament that shapes recall, containment, and enrichment needs. Its trait vector attaches the double-coat/heat-safety, high-energy, prey-drive, and vocal-management modules; the delta below covers only the ~20% that is Samoyed-specific.
Scottish Terrier
The Scottish Terrier is a small, sturdy, wire-coated earthdog bred to hunt vermin to ground in the Scottish Highlands, producing a bold, independent, vocal, and somewhat aloof/guardy temperament that responds to reinforcement-based buy-in rather than repetition or pressure. Its ~20% breed delta is high-prey-drive management, wire-coat hand-stripping grooming, breed-specific health screening (bladder cancer, von Willebrand disease, CMO, Scottie cramp), and socialization that softens natural aloofness.
Weimaraner
The Weimaraner is a large, deep-chested, smooth-coated versatile hunt-point-retrieve gundog with relentless energy, strong prey drive, high biddability, and a notoriously velcro temperament that predisposes it to separation-related distress. This profile sets the trait vector so large-breed, deep-chest/GDV, high-drive, and prey-drive safety modules attach, then adds only the ~20% of content that genuinely differs from the universal LIMA library.
Wirehaired Pointing Griffon
The Wirehaired Pointing Griffon is a versatile, medium gundog with a harsh wire coat — affectionate and eager to please, it needs plenty of exercise, mental engagement, and reward-based training.
Bloodhound
The Bloodhound is a large, deep-chested, slow-maturing scent hound whose overwhelming nose-driven prey/working drive and independent persistence — not defiance — define its training: manage the environment (long line + secure fencing) as primary safety, give the nose a sanctioned job, and guard against the two morphological hazards this frame carries, GDV/bloat and ear/fold problems. It inherits the universal LIMA library unchanged; the delta below is the breed-specific ~20%.
Alaskan Malamute
The Alaskan Malamute is a large, powerful arctic sled breed — its dense double coat, high prey drive, and independent mind call for cool-weather care, generous exercise, and patient, force-free training.
Bullmastiff
The Bullmastiff is a giant, deep-chested, territorial guardian bred to find and physically pin intruders without mauling — so its first-order training constraints are impulse control and reliable responses installed BEFORE the dog reaches 90–130 lb, plus giant-breed GDV/bloat and joint safety and a brachy-leaning airway that makes heat a genuine emergency risk in Arizona. Force-free, low-arousal sessions and early discerning socialization convert an innately wary, independent guardian into a controllable, confident adult without ever punishing the warning behaviors that guarding breeds are wired to show.
Doberman Pinscher
The Doberman Pinscher is a large, deep-chested working guardian with high biddability and strong working drive, bred for protection and now a devoted companion — its size/chest morphology (GDV risk), guardian wiring (early neutral-stranger socialization), smooth single coat (cold sensitivity), and notable breed-wide DCM cardiac predisposition define the ~20% that differs from the universal force-free curriculum. Health and temperament claims are framed educationally (not veterinary advice) and grounded in breed-authority sources (AKC standard, Doberman Pinscher Club of America / parent club, OFA-CHIC, RVC VetCompass) for expert review.
English Bulldog
The English Bulldog is a severely brachycephalic, heat-intolerant, heavy-bodied companion whose airway and heat safety are first-order training constraints; its low-energy, food-motivated, people-oriented but deliberate ("stubborn") temperament rewards very short, cool, positive sessions, and its skin folds, screw tail, and joint/spine fragility demand breed-specific husbandry-handling and impact management woven into every protocol.
Giant Schnauzer
The Giant Schnauzer is a large, deep-chested Bavarian working dog with intense guarding instincts, high working drive, high energy, and a harsh wire coat — a highly trainable but willful guardian that needs a real job, wide early socialization, and a certified force-free (LIMA) professional to thrive. The trait vector below attaches large-breed, guarding, working-drive, high-energy, deep-chested (GDV), and wire-coat/grooming safety modules; the delta modules cover only the ~20% that is genuinely breed-specific.
Great Dane
The Great Dane is a giant, deep-chested, smooth-coated companion whose force-free training is dominated by two first-order physical realities — life-threatening GDV/bloat risk and the long, slow protection of immature joints and growth plates — paired with a gentle, sensitive, biddable temperament that responds best to calm, low-pressure handling and shuts down hard under any harshness. It inherits the universal LIMA method wholesale; this profile supplies only the trait vector and the ~20% giant-breed delta.
Saint Bernard
The Saint Bernard is a giant, deep-chested, heavy double-coated working breed bred as a gentle mountain rescue/draft dog — profoundly people-oriented but so large that early impulse control and calm-on-lead handling are safety-critical, while GDV/bloat, growth-plate/joint immaturity, and heat intolerance are its first-order health caveats. Because every physical trait axis it triggers (large_breed, deep_chested, double coat, heat_sensitive) is genuine, the right trait-gated safety modules attach; the deltas below are the ~20% that differs from the universal LIMA library.
Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier
The Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier is a medium, athletic, single-coated farm terrier whose defining training-and-husbandry deltas are heavy daily coat care with cooperative-care desensitization, a high-energy terrier prey/chase drive that shapes recall and management, exuberant "Wheaten greetin'" jumping, and a breed-signature diet-aware vigilance for protein-losing conditions (PLN/PLE) that makes appetite/weight changes a medical-rule-out reflex. It inherits the universal LIMA library wholesale; only the ~20% below is breed-specific.
Akita
The Akita is a large, primitive Japanese guardian breed — deeply loyal but aloof and independent, with strong predatory chase drive, notable same-sex/dog-directed aggression tendencies, and a heavy double coat that makes it heat-sensitive despite a normal (non-brachycephalic) airway; the profile prioritizes early neutral socialization, force-free management of guarding/prey drive, and large-breed/deep-chest health vigilance. It inherits the universal LIMA library; the delta below is the ~20% that is genuinely Akita-specific.
Australian Cattle Dog
The Australian Cattle Dog is a medium, double-coated, bred-to-work heading/heeling dog with very high energy, strong prey drive, a hard-wired heel-nipping habit, wariness of strangers, and high biddability paired with a tenacious independent streak — so its training deltas center on channeling drive into a real "job," force-free redirection of the heeling bite (never punishment), proactive motion/stranger socialization, and breed-specific eye/deafness/joint health plus double-coat heat management in Arizona.
Basset Hound
The Basset Hound is a heavy-boned, extremely long-backed chondrodystrophic scenthound: independent, food-obsessed, and gentle, but built low to the ground with a spine and joints at high IVDD/orthopedic risk and a nose-driven brain that ignores everything on a trail. Its delta from the universal library is almost entirely spine-and-scent: ramp/no-jump spinal protection, aggressive weight control, long-line scent-safe recall, ear/fold/eye husbandry, and managing the booming bay — all force-free.
Beagle
The Beagle is a pack-bred scent hound whose nose, prey drive, and escape-artistry are the first-order training challenges — meaning secure containment, long-line management, and heavily proofed recall around scent distraction define the breed-specific work, alongside food-driven weight control and managing the breed-typical bay. Force-free method otherwise matches the universal library; the delta is a small set of scent-drive, containment, vocalization, and Beagle-health modules.
Belgian Malinois
The Belgian Malinois is an intense, high-drive working herder (AKC Herding group; parent club American Belgian Malinois Club) that is extraordinarily biddable and trainable yet self-reinforcing and mouthy ("malligator"), with a genetic need for a real job — under-stimulation, not stubbornness, is its dominant failure mode. Its relentless drive plus a weather-resistant double coat make exertional/heat management, prey-drive containment, and structured force-free outlets the breed-specific deltas layered on top of the universal LIMA library.
Cardigan Welsh Corgi
The Cardigan Welsh Corgi is a chondrodystrophic (dwarfed), long-backed herding dog: an IVDD-prone spine on short legs paired with genuine working drive, an alert/vocal temperament, and a weather-resistant double coat, so spine-protective handling (ramps, traction, no jumping/stairs, Y-front harness) and constructive outlets for a heeling, motion-sensitive brain are the ~20% that differs from the universal LIMA method. It inherits the shared training library; these deltas gate the long-backed/IVDD safety modules and add herding-specific socialization, troubleshooting, and heat/coat husbandry.
Dalmatian
The Dalmatian is a high-energy coaching breed — plan around a congenital deafness risk (train with visual cues) and a urate-stone tendency (diet and hydration), and meet its real endurance-level exercise needs.
Pomeranian
The Pomeranian is a tiny, alert, vocal Spitz with a profuse double coat whose two first-order safety facts are physical fragility (must be protected from larger dogs and rough handling) and toy-breed tracheal sensitivity (HARNESS ONLY, never neck pressure); it inherits the universal LIMA library and attaches small_breed, double-coat, vocal, and heat-sensitivity safety modules, with breed-specific deltas focused on never-shave coat care, gentle alert/quiet training, and dental/luxating-patella husbandry.
Siberian Husky
The Siberian Husky is a high-energy Arctic working sled dog with an exceptionally strong, hardwired prey-and-run drive that makes it a notorious escape artist and never reliably off-leash; secure containment plus long-line recall management are first-order safety concerns, alongside protecting its heat-vulnerable double coat (never shave). It inherits the site's universal LIMA training library and trait-gated heat/escape/working-drive safety modules; this profile supplies only the breed-specific deltas.
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
A gentle, soft-natured toy companion bred above all to bond closely with people, which makes the Cavalier exceptionally trainable with positive reinforcement but genuinely prone to separation distress. Two breed-defining health concerns — mitral valve disease (MVD) and syringomyelia (SM) — sit above all training: any new scratching at the neck/air-scratching, yelping, touch-sensitivity, exercise intolerance, fainting, or coughing is a medical-rule-out-first emergency, vet before trainer.
English Springer Spaniel
The English Springer Spaniel is a high-energy, highly biddable flushing gundog whose scent/flush drive and stamina demand a real job (scentwork, structured retrieves, cooperative-care grooming) far more than distance walking; its distinctive deltas are the feathered long coat with pendulous ears (high otitis-externa risk) and a soft, people-focused temperament that thrives on force-free work and shuts down under harshness. It is mesocephalic (normal muzzle) and not brachycephalic, IVDD-prone, or heat-limited at a brachycephalic level, so it inherits the universal method plus prey-drive, working-drive, high-energy, and long-coat/grooming safety modules rather than airway/spine ones.
Golden Retriever
The Golden Retriever is a large, biddable, soft-tempered gun-dog bred to retrieve to hand: profoundly people- and food-motivated, easy to train with reward-based methods, but mouthy and high-energy through a long, boisterous adolescence. Health-awareness is central — hip and elbow dysplasia, a notable breed-wide cancer burden, and ear/skin issues mean the medical-rule-out reflex applies before treating any new behavior change as "training."
Havanese
The Havanese is a small toy companion with a low-risk training baseline: people-oriented, soft, and highly biddable, so the entire LIMA universal method fits cleanly with the gentlest possible handling. Its breed-specific delta is dominated by its profuse long silky double coat (intensive grooming and a years-long cooperative-care commitment), small-dog fragility/patellar-luxation caution, and managing a sensitive, attention-seeking companion that is prone to over-attachment and demand-vocalization.
Newfoundland
The Newfoundland is a gentle, biddable giant bred for water rescue and draft work whose training deltas are driven by body type, not method: giant deep-chested frame (GDV and slow-closing growth plates), a heavy heat-trapping double coat that must never be shaved, prodigious drool/grooming load, and enormous size/strength that make force-free impulse control and loose-lead urgent before the dog outweighs its handler. It inherits the site's universal LIMA library wholesale; only the ~20% breed-specific safety and husbandry layer is authored here.
Pembroke Welsh Corgi
The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is a long-backed, chondrodystrophic herding dog whose first-order needs are spine/IVDD protection (ramps, no jumping or stairs, careful two-hand lifting, non-slip footing, lean weight) and force-free channeling of a vocal, biddable working drive that defaults to alert-barking and heel-nipping. It inherits the universal LIMA library; the delta below is the breed-specific ~20% plus the trait vector that attaches the spine and double-coat safety modules.
Poodle (Standard)
The Standard Poodle is a large, deep-chested, exceptionally biddable retrieving-water dog with a curly single coat: training delta is mental-work load and rapid skill acquisition (it learns whatever you reinforce, including mistakes), while the health delta is GDV/bloat awareness for the deep chest plus relentless coat-matting management. Trait vector attaches the deep-chested/bloat, large-breed, high-grooming, and working-drive safety modules on top of the universal LIMA library.
Rhodesian Ridgeback
The Rhodesian Ridgeback is a large, powerful, deep-chested sighthound-guardian bred to trail and bay big game and guard the homestead, so its training deltas center on GDV/bloat husbandry, high prey-drive recall and impulse control, early force-free handling before the dog is strong, and channeling an independent, aloof-with-strangers temperament through relationship-based reward training. It inherits the universal LIMA library; the modules below are the breed-specific ~20% and should be flagged for veterinary/behavior expert review before publishing.
Rottweiler
The Rottweiler is a large, powerful working breed with a confident, guardian nature — early socialization and calm, consistent force-free training bring out its steady, deeply loyal best.
Shiba Inu
The Shiba Inu is an ancient, independent-minded Japanese hunting spitz with very high prey drive and escape-artist tendencies (a secure-containment / long-line breed, never reliably off-leash), a heavy seasonal-shedding double coat, and a resource-guarding predisposition best met with trade-up, force-free management. This profile sets the trait vector so prey-drive, double-coat, and independence safety modules attach, then adds the ~20% of Shiba-specific delta content on top of the universal LIMA library.
Whippet
The Whippet is a lean, thin-skinned sighthound with a 35-mph chase brain: a soft, affectionate "velcro" companion indoors whose very high prey drive and escape ability make sighthound-grade containment and a never-off-leash-near-roads rule first-order safety constraints, while its low body fat and single smooth coat drive real cold-intolerance, anesthesia-sensitivity, and skin-fragility caveats. Its explicit safety vector is high_prey_drive=yes and coat=smooth (plus a deep sighthound chest), so the shared prey-drive containment/chase-outlet modules attach automatically and only a thin layer of breed-specific delta is authored here.
Yorkshire Terrier
The Yorkshire Terrier is a tiny, big-personality toy terrier: bold, tenacious, vocal, and bright, with a flowing single coat that needs near-daily upkeep. Its training plan is shaped less by stamina limits than by physical fragility (jump/fall fracture risk), a collapsing-trachea-prone windpipe that makes a Y-front harness mandatory, and a terrier's quick, alert, alarm-barking brain — all best handled with short, calm, reward-based sessions.
Helpful tools
Quick guidance built around the dog in front of you.
Why BuiltByBreed
Breed-specific, not generic
A Frenchie isn't a Border Collie. Each guide is composed from traits — energy, prey drive, biddability, brachycephaly — so the advice actually fits your dog.
Reference-supported
Claims are backed by a vetted research corpus and a per-guide bibliography. We show our sources instead of asking you to trust us.
Force-free (LIMA)
Positive reinforcement only — no choke, prong, shock, or "dominance." Grounded in a vetted research corpus, with medical-rule-out reflexes built in.
Safety-aware
Heat and breathing risk for flat-faced breeds is treated as a first-order concern, with emergency guidance surfaced where it matters.