The Dog Blog

It was 12 years ago this summer I first took on a proactive animal rescue role. My brother and his then wife had just moved back to Cleveland a year after I had and the day the moving van rolled up to unload, my ex sister in law found a cardboard box on the lawn of their new suburban manse that she didn't recognize. Upon closer inspection she found inside a wriggling mass of kittens. Terribly allergic, her first instinct was to call the local animal control officer who promptly came and took in the litter of 6. When I learned of this a few hours later, I was aghast and went to the depressing shelter and paid $10 per kitten to release them to my custody. I encased them on my porch and socialized them while seeking permanent homes. We ended up keeping two of them -- an all black one we called Willow and a white one with black ears we called Leaf. All the others were adopted.

It is simply amazing how technology has allowed us to control and manage nearly ever facet of our lives for our convenience. We multi-task at work and at home, programming the TiVo, the Roomba robotic vacuum, even our preferred ring tones, etc. In our world, where everything is prerecorded, edited, and set to our specifications, I'm seeing more new pet parents whose lives are strict routines in which their time is critical.

Not surprisingly, a new puppy or dog coming into their lives can present major inconveniences in their compartmentalized lives. They discover that the wants and needs of their new pup cannot be programmed or scheduled as easily as the TiVo. The dog's needs happen at all hours, even at 4:30am to use the potty. This was not on the agenda!

Accept, as I do, that among the wonderful features of the creatures that they are, dogs are creatures of habit and habits can be formed in a variety of ways. Further, since they inhabit our homes and lives, it is our job and responsibility to shape them into what we want (using positive methods of course). It seems to me a wise thought that once shaped into your minimum standards, that you use powers of observation to note mutations as they might occur and decide if they are

a) beneficial or useful or desired in which case you randomly reward them;
b) neutral/don't matter and no one gets hurt and you can reward or ignore; or
c) behaviors that probably should be redirected/reformed because someone can be annoyed or worse -- it can be downright dangerous for either dog or others.

The other day I was with a client with two 4 month old golden retriever puppies that needed some training attention. I was asking my routine questions of the owners when the puppies broke out in a play session. Suddenly one puppy was screaming while on top of the other. We rushed over and saw the top puppy had gotten his bottom jaw caught in the other dogs collar. Fortunatly we seperated them without incident and no one had any serious injuries. Had we not been there however it could have had a much different outcome.

We in the dog world have all heard the stories warning of this common danger yet few of us have actually witnessed it. I can assure you however, once you do it will change the way you look at those collars.