The Dog Blog

You think you are alone.  Everyone else sees your new little bundle of fluff as fun and exciting.  As the neighbors ooh and aah in delight over Oscar’s antics, you heart starts to sink.  What have you done?  How did you ever think that getting this puppy would add delight to your life?

It all starts with an image.  The image that we focus in our heads is one of the loyal, faithful companion.  The companion that is willing to dole out unconditional love to us after a hard day at the office.  We visualize ourselves tossing a stick on a beach just as the sunset is approaching.  We visualize ourselves sipping coffee at an outdoor café with our dogs patiently waiting at our sides and we visualize just how cool this dog will be as he lopes around the dog park, with only eyes for you.

We humans have to admit that we ask a lot of our dogs. Not that they cannot to adapt to our environment – they are certainly able to, and get much out of doing so – but in exchange for the comforts of living with us we often ask them to inhibit, forget or redirect most of their spontaneous and instinctive behaviors.

Why? Because who is the owner who wishes to hear his dog bark for a yes or no, who wants his dog not to come when called even if he’s on a rabbit track, who wants his dog to growl or snap when disturbed by somebody, who wishes to be welcomed by a jumper, to constantly refill holes in the garden, and to hear his dog growling to keep his bone or food?

Most of the behaviors we want our dogs to adopt (or stop) in order to make them good companions, are behaviors that simply aren’t natural to dogs, and would never occur spontaneously.

There seems to be a continuing issue with "temperament tests" at our local SPCAs and Animal Control facilities.  Being as heavily involved in rescue as I am, I see a lot of pigeon-holing and biased interpretations based on NORMAL dog behavior in abnormal conditions. 

Let's clear something up here - living in a shelter cage is NOT a normal housing situation for a dog.  Any dog living behind chain link fencing and on cement flooring is going to have some behavioral fallout just from the environment around him or her.  Imagine being subjected to deafening barks, overwhelming smells, and barriers to block sight and contact from other dogs and humans.  How would you act?  Like a "loon", as Ian Dunbar likes to say.  The mere stress of the situation would crush some of us, while social facilitation would cause the rest of us to bark and act crazy with frustration until we were hoarse and running in circles.

I’m a lazy dog trainer, but I think that actually helps me in my work.  Many dog trainers have trouble identifying with seemingly unmotivated owners looking for a quick fix.  I don’t have that problem.  I was that guy.  I always loved dogs, but training used to turn me off.  I never thought that I’d take an obedience class, let alone teach them.  Then I adopted a catahoula as my first dog of my own.  The bills for replacing my roommates’ chewed up possessions started piling up.  Desperate, I reluctantly signed up for my first obedience class.  I didn’t finish.  Only months later did I get serious about applying what I learned, and only because I had to.  My dog learned to be very obedient, but I still saw training as a necessary evil; the price of being able to take my dog places.