Are you in my corner? When the stakes are high, I need to know!

Working at the vet's office really allows me to see a lot of dogs in their worst mental space. All of their issues really surface when they are on the table or in the kennel (anxiety, insecurity, fearfulness, pushiness, aggressive behavior). Unfortunately, we've got a job to do, and respecting space is not always possible, since we have to get hands on to solve a problem or leash a dog up. I do my best to be as respectful and understanding of a dog's insecurities during these times, but the truth is we've only got a limited amount of time. Building your dog's trust with the vet is huge, and probably one of the biggest challenges you will face if your dog struggles in these circumstances. 

That said, your dog's relationship (or lack there of) with family members, neighbors, and strangers, should not be anywhere near as stressful (or forced!), so you shouldn't be seeing the extreme behaviors we see at the office. There is no reason anyone should be forcing themselves on your pet, and if they are, they (and you!) really need to reconsider what that is doing for their relationship. Work diligently on being a leader your dog can trust and follow, advocating for your dog, set rules and boundaries (a lot of those nasty insecurities are coming from spoiled dogs who don't know how to handle themselves in a situation they don't agree with, because no one teaches them to do anything that THEY don't start themselves!) and creating a calm and comfortable state of mind for them. While joy and love are a part of life, so are stress and challenges. Life can be stressful at times, and it's important you and your dog understand it, and know what to do when those times happen. Setting rules, boundaries, and giving structure to your dog in your home on a daily basis has them look to you and understand to follow your lead, not always their own. THEN when life presents something stressful, that aggravates, scares the stew out of, or over excites you dog, your dog will have a job to do, and so will you--advocating for your dog and making sure your dog is working on themselves as well. 

No Pets for You!

t's not uncommon for people to want to come up and pet your dog. Unfortunately, no matter how good their intentions, not all dogs are comfortable with strangers in their personal space. When trying to rehabilitate a dog who growls, snaps, or bites at people out of self preservation, you have to start by advocating for them. When you clearly create the "bubble" around these dogs-- telling people "no petting", putting yourself between your dog and them, and keeping on lookers away--your nervous, defensive dog starts to see that you are helping them get the message accross. Work on an obedience relationship and an advocating relationship--it's the only way to help your dog become more comfortable in public. If they feel pressured to be pet every time you take them out (or have people over) they will act out more and more. Not to mention, their trust in you will start to deminish if you can't help them from feeling uncomfortable. With lots of advocating, and them knowing what to expect because you are around with strangers, they can hold a down/stay or place pretty comfortably, knowing they can trust you (their leader) to take care of everything.

Ramses loves strangers, but with his training vest on and in a down/stay, many people looked but did not touch at this Lowe's self-check out. Even without the vest, if someone would have walked up and tried to pet him, I would have stopped them and reminded them to ask me first. People want a doggie fix...but it doesn't have to be your dog if he's not happy about sharing affections. Pets are supposed to be a 2-way thing...not just satisfaction for the person. Always look at what your dog is telling you  :)

A New Way Home

If you're driving home and the road you need to turn onto is closed, you don't pull over and quit--you find a new way home.  You change your plan.

If you're trying to work through something with your dog, but just can't seem to get things going in the right direction, don't throw up your hands and quit.  Find a new way home.  Change your plan.  Take a moment to step back and rethink how to achieve the goal you want.  Troubleshoot.  Try something different.

Don't give up or get discouraged because the road is blocked.  Appreciate the new knowledge you will gain by discovering a new way home.  Breakthrough what you think must happen, and find out what needs to happen.  There's a reason there is only ONE road to nowhere :)

Under the Influence

Dog ownership is rewarding, fulfilling, and down right fun!  When you love your dog so much, it makes sense to want to add another to your family--a new playmate, a friend, another soul to love--shoot, I have 4 (and a cat, but he thinks he is a dog! ;)

I want to bring awareness to something that may get overlooked in the honeymoon phase of adopting/buying/fostering a new dog or puppy.  YOUR OLD DOG!  I'm not implying that you will forget about your first dog; on the contrary, I think you will be very excited for him/her!  What I actually want you to think about are your dog's behaviors in your life right now.  Are you happy with how your dog behaves?  Does your dog respect you and your guests?  Do you feel like you have good control of your dog when you are out in public?  Does your dog bark non-stop out of the window, or fence fight with the dog next door?  Does he pull you down the street on the leash, barking and jumping at people and other dogs?  Does he potty in the house or destroy things when you are gone?  

If you are struggling with your dog's behaviors, it is VERY likely that your new dog will begin to mimic these behaviors--the good and the bad.   Adding another dog to the group may seem like a good idea, for instance if you feel your dog is "bored and needs a playmate" because of destructive or hyper tendencies, but you must understand that, from puppies to older dogs, they learn from each other and will learn good and bad habits.  If barking aggressively at people, wildlife, and cars going by is a fun activity your dog likes to do now, it's almost guaranteed you'll have 2 dogs doing that in a short amount of time.  They are pack animals after all!

I want to encourage you to look at your relationship with your dog now and figure out if you are the pack leader.  It's important to know that you are in control, you're happy with your dog's behaviors, and you know your dog represents a good role model for a new addition.  If you have a dog with questionable tendencies or down-right bad behaviors, I'd highly recommend doing some training and leadership building skills with your original dog before adding #2 (or #3, #4, etc.) to your pack.  It's much easier to have a well-behaved dog help teach your new dog good habits (like looking to you for guidance!) than to have 2 dogs who are out of control because they have no structure or leader.  Plus, you'll already have a well trained dog, so you'll know what to do to create a calm and peaceful household with another because you've done it once already :)  Remember, the people you hang out with influence you--the same can be said for our dogs.

                                                                Learning the art of calmness

Getting What You Give

An excited dog is very eye appeasing--they have big smile on their face, their tail (or whole body!) is wagging around, they have a prance in their step, might do some jumping up, and even some excited barking.  As a human, when we see a dog we start pumping him up to be like this, because we want our interactions with our dogs to be so exciting--a celebration!--because it makes our dogs happy!  When we see them in the morning after waking up--a celebration!  When we get home from work--a celebration!  When it's time to go on a walk, eat a meal, or even just walk from one side of the house to the other--it's a dog-celebrating parade of bouncy dog!

Now, here are some behaviors we don't like from our dogs--jumping on us or guests, barking, pulling on the leash, acting crazy in the house, stealing food from the table, chasing the cat, etc.

Okay, so let's say you put your excited, celebration-having, dog beside a mirror image of himself practicing some of those undesirable behaviors-- you would see the exact same dog, making the exact same body movements, because he is giving you the exact same energy.   Over adrenalized dogs make bad choices, and when every interaction with our dog is that exciting, they begin to live a life of constant high-drive adrenaline.  Our dogs give us the behavior we encourage, and if every day tasks are celebrated with trumpets blaring, then every behavior your dog is going to practice will have roller-coaster adrenaline and speed to it.

You know that feeling you get when someone tickles you to the point you are laughing so hard, you can't breathe?  We all know that feeling--what a rush!  When we amp our dogs up with excitement, they are having the exact same feeling.   All the time, every time.

Can you imagine doing that to your spouse, child, sibling, or parent every time you saw them, multiple times per day?  Death by tickles?!  That's crazy!   So why are we doing it to our dogs?

If you start to give your dog calmer behaviors, you'll get a calmer dog in return.

At the end of the leash: Greeting dogs

photo by aresauburn on Flickr

More times than I can remember, I've been out walking my pack of 3+ dogs and someone, out for some exercise, has stepped off of the sidewalk and knelt down, awaiting my pack to land in their wide-open arms.  As we pass them by, empty armed, I can see their look of disappointment as well as hear the occasional comment: "are you in a hurry or something?"

Other times, I'm out and instead of a human looking for some affection, it's a person wanting their dog to meet mine.  "She likes other dogs," she shouts, as this hyper dog, on the end of their leash, is dragging their owner over to my dogs.  Again, I wave and scoot on by with my pack before the impending collision happens.  To this, I get a disappointing look and probably some not so kind mumbles.

My efforts to not greet other people and dogs while on a walk are not to be rude, or anti-social, but to protect my pack AND the person or dog coming in for the "hug".  Greeting a strange group of dogs on leash is not safe.  Many dogs are extremely friendly, however the person who is walking the dogs has a lot of responsibility to be in control, regardless if it is one or 20 dogs!  That said, by someone pushing them self on a group or even just one dog, they are disturbing the pack dynamic in place.  Some dogs may do just fine with a random person wanting to snuggle them up, but some may be nervous of an impending stranger and bite, or some may become jealous of each other receiving affection and start fighting.  For everyone's safety, you don't know what to expect when you see someone with their dog(s), so you can't assume that you are welcome to touch or interact with them.  

As the dog's walker, it's important that you think about what is best for your dog.  Can you control your dog(s) to meet another person or dog?  What message does it send to your dog if you're asking them to be structured, calm, and well-behaved while you're on a walk, but allow them to get over-excited as they meet someone or another dog?  Will they start pulling you over to meet the next stranger that walks by, because "that's what we do now?"  Allowing your dog to dictate when it's time to stop and socialize ultimately discredits you as the in-control pack leader your dog needs you to be.  

The same rules apply to dogs meeting other dogs on leash.  Leash to leash greetings are the worst of all, because you have two (or more dogs) circling each other and sniffing, while their owners hold their leashes tightly.  The tension on the leash and collar, creates tension in the dog and can cause a negative response.  This scenario is why many people say "my dog can socialize with other dogs at the off-leash dog park, but when they see another dog on our walk they go ballistic." The leash receives tension from the dog pulling and sniffing, thus creating a tense dog that may make a bad choice (like snapping, mounting, challenging, or fighting another dog).

Instead of trying to make dogs "shake hands" with each other in an on leash setting, like while on a walk or a dog training class, try moving together in the same direction.  Create a little pack!  Trust me, a dog's sense of smell is 100,000 times more powerful than a human's--they can smell each other from 3 feet away.  They don't need to be in each other's personal space to have a relationship.  If you take a group of on leash dogs that need to socialize, and start migrating them as a pack, they will begin to relate to each other on a primal level while still being influenced and under the control of their pack leader--YOU! 

Save the personal space greetings for when your dog can be off-leash, without the tension of the leash in the way of their decision making.  If your dog can't be trusted off-leash with other dogs--that's ok!  These on leash pack migration movements will give your dog some relationship time with other dogs, regardless of if they are sniffing butts or not.  Be aware of the influence you are giving your dog--a loose, relaxed leash makes for a relaxed dog.  A tight, tense leash makes for an uncomfortable and tense dog.  If you can be the pack leader, in control of your dog and his surroundings, you'll have a happy dog who trusts what situations you're putting him in!

A change would do you good...

Here is a picture I snapped the other day while taking a pack walk with my crew and my client's dogs.  Would you guess that 5 of the dogs in this photo above have been in some pretty nasty dog fights?  Yep-- the 3 ladies in pink would duke it out over attention from their mom.  It got to the point that the newest one was going to be returned to the shelter because of their blowouts.  The corgi and greyhound would tear each other up over personal space, guests in the house, toys, and anything else they didn't want to "share".   Mr. Poodle hasn't been in any dog fights, but he was "knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door" from biting the stew out of some humans until I took him  from the chopping block and brought him into my pack.  Goodness gracious, how in the world can all of this drama be on a pack walk--totally under control and peaceful?

The answer:  humans stop thinking like people, and start thinking like dogs.  We bring these  animals into our lives and have so much expectation of our relationships.  We want them to cuddle with us, love us, love each other, be protective of us from strangers, but not our friends when they come over.  We want them to jump up and be really excited when we want to play, but not when we are busy and don't.  We want them to lay in our laps and soak up affection, but not when we are eating or dressed nicely.  We want them to sleep quietly beside us, but only when we are by ourselves, not when when we are trying to share our bed with someone else.  We want them to bark when we think it's cute, but not when we are watching TV and they are trying to get our attention. We want them to have fun and be carefree on a walk, but not drag us around or bark at every dog or bicycle we see.  We have so many expectations of them, and what it means for them to be OUR dog.  

Unfortunately, the rules and expectations of nature apply to humans just as much as they apply to dogs.   All the behaviors we get from our dogs we influence, by what we do (or what we don't do!).   It is important for people to understand that if they want their dog's behavior to change, they will have to change their behavior as well.  It is selfish to think that dogs will just be what we want them to be, without us putting in our time, and making sacrifice as well.  All of these expectations that we have for our dogs really don't mean a thing if our dogs don't actually understand what we are asking.  All of the standards we have for our doggie relationships will not be achieved if we don't represent a source of leadership and guidance for our dogs.  

 How do we make them understand?  It starts when we stop thinking like people, and start thinking like dogs.  We must take the time to understand the needs of dogs.  We must appreciate that they need guidance and leadership from us.  We are not doing them any favors when we let them "do whatever they want."  More than likely, they arn't making good choices.  They don't speak English, read the news, or watch TV.  If they did, we'd just have to put on an episode of Dog Whisperer and they'd be like "Ok, gotcha.  No more fighting with each other."  It is up to us to communicate that message to our dogs, and take the role of pack leader.  It is our responsibility to be the source of information on how to behave, and we express it in a way that they understand.

How do we achieve calmness and cooperation with our dogs?  We must give them clear information of what we want; we don't send them mixed signals.  We take the time to address these situations in their language, not ours.  This pack of six dogs has only the option of walking calmly and following me.  Sniffing, pulling, competing for who gets to be in front, and peeing on every mailbox are NOT options, period.  If one of these dogs starts creeping ahead, they get a little "leash pop" and then think "oh yeah, I don't do this" and fall back into the pack.  It's not an argument or debate of what you can or can't do-  it's split second conversation of "yes and no".  You achieve this by being consistent in the information you give your dog, and correcting them for making the wrong choice.  Create only the options to make the right choice, by being consistent in communicating what is not.  If you successfully show your dog "yes, this behavior is good" or "no, this behavior is not", you will have a dog who understands their options.  If you make things simple for them, you'll get a little doggy light bulb  going off and a response like "Ok!  Now you're speaking my language!  Pushing the other dog out of the way when I want your attention is NOT ok.  I need to do something else instead" or "snapping at people when I see the on the sidewalk is NOT ok.  I need to do something else instead."  After that, you see his next choice and decide if it's an appropriate reaction or not.   You will have a dog who understands he's got a limited amount of options, but is also learning how to make the right choices, because he sees what you are asking for and what you will accept.  Dogs appreciate the clarity!

It is important for me to mention, that the role that you take with your dog must continue through your whole relationship.  You can't take the assertive leadership role with him so he will behave on a walk, but when you come inside give him no boundaries, loosey goosey, non-enforced rules, and then get frustrated that he is all over the furniture and not listening to you.  Dogs listen to a leader who is consistent in what they ask.  They take seriously someone who has earned their respect, not someone who goes back and forth on expectations.  It's not because they are trying to be difficult, it is because to a dog, if you change your position you arn't being consistent-- "wishy washy" doesn't serve purpose in the animal world and thus will be seen as "not the right choice for leader."  If you do not represent a leader to your dog, they will start making their own choices and choosing their own options again, because yours really didn't mean anything.   Someone who half applies their message should not be surprised when they get a half respected reaction.  Dogs don't take time off from being dogs, so you can't take time off from being their leader.  

If you continue to correct and interrupt the behavior you don't want, and guide towards and reward the behavior you do, you will have a dog making better choices because he knows what is and is not an option.  Build a relationship of understanding, and you'll have a dog who appreciates your clarity and guidance.  Human communication is  confusing and foreign to a dog-- speak his language and you'll be surprised how he answers you.

"Should I follow, or do I lead?"

Take a moment today to step back and think about how your dog views you.  Are you stressed out, frustrated, or anxious? Think about your dog, who looks to you for guidance--the person that is supposed to set the tone for them is all twisted inside.  How would that make you feel?  Wouldn't you also feel anxious or stressed if your leader looked like they arn't handling life well?

We are always saying something to our dogs, if we realize it or not. They are looking for a leader who is predictable and confident to give them some guidance. Take some time to think about how you feel today, and think "would I want to follow or trust someone like me?" 

Our dogs read us better than any person can-- and they only follow a confident leader. If you can't represent that for them, then they take their anxiousness and say "well, someone's got to do it!" and take on the pressure and burden of trying to be the leader for their pack.  Most dogs prefer to be a follower, and may make some bad choices and develop neurotic behaviors from the pressure of being the leader.  If their humans haven't successfully shown them that it's all under control, they will by default assume that role (even if they arn't very good at it).

Think about who is in control in your relationship and ask yourself if "you'd follow you?"