Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

She Wears a Mask

By

I’m not quiet when I walk Sampson and Delilah.

If you’re walking with me and hoping to enjoy the quiet of nature and scenery like

IMG_4347 this

IMG_4353 or this

You may want to choose another walking partner.

My whole purpose of walking with my dogs is to interact with

IMG_4346 these two.

In order to do this, I talk to them and at times I need to call them.  In other words I’m very loud.

So when I catch someone unaware it surprises me, I mean sound really carries in our little neck of the woods.

We were taking our walk on Sunday when I noticed someone ahead of me on an adjacent trail.  I called the dogs to me and waited, watching.

From the distance we were at I couldn’t tell who it was.   Then all of a sudden I saw a brown dog with an orange collar come into the picture.

Ah, it’s Brady and one of his moms I thought.  So I let the dogs go, and started walking towards them.

This was a big mistake.

The dog in question was not Brady at all.

The dogs were fine with the other dog but as soon as I realized my faux pas, I started walking towards them calling my dogs as I walked.  As I got closer I could see a woman holding her dog, while telling my dogs to “Go.”

My dogs did.  They came back and I hooked them up, then shouted over my apologies.

“I’m so sorry, I saw your dog off-leash and assumed it would be okay.”

“Are you speaking?”

“Yes, I said, I’m super sorry, I saw your dog off-leash and assumed it would be okay to allow them to say hello.”

“She wears a mask, because sometimes she doesn’t like other dogs, not all dogs, just some.”

Let me remind you all of what ASSUME means.

Yes, I felt like a complete ass.  Here is her poor dog, in the woods wearing a muzzle and the two galloping goofs are rushing over to say hello.

I’m going to make another assumption right now.  That assumption is you’ve read Suzanne Clothier’s article He Just Wants To Say “Hi.” If you haven’t read this amazing article, take the time to do so, if you don’t have the time, bookmark the page or print it off and stick it in your pocket for future reading. It is a must read for every single dog owner.

I. Kid. You. Not.

And I want to thank Pamela Douglas Webster again for sharing the article.  I cried when I read the article, thinking of the times I corrected my dog for reacting like a dog.  I also printed it off to put with my dog material and I intend to make at least one copy to carry with me, for sharing purposes.

That article sprang to mind as this woman and I shouted back and forth across the trails.  I thought of her poor dog and the frustration and fear her dog must feel, being muzzled and unable to let another dog know that she wants to be left alone.

And then of all the other dog owners who will misunderstand and misread the signals their dogs are sending to them.   Other dog owners who have consulted with professional dog trainers.

I did.  The first time Delilah reacted to a dog, we went back to class.  I worked with her on reactivity and as I worked her, I really started watching just exactly when and what she reacted to.

Yes, she was selective in her reactions.  Dogs who are rude, or misbehaving are the dogs she snipes at.  She’s letting them know she doesn’t care for their behavior.

The problem is, that many owners misunderstand her ‘reactions’ as aggression and I have to be careful.  I can’t have her reacting to a dog whose owner is not going to understand what’s going on.

Have you read the article?  What do you think?  Is it a reactive dog, an aggressive dog, a fearful dog or a dog with normal expectations of how other dogs should behave?

Rally Reactions

By

At the beginning of the month Kristine over at Rescued Insanity had a post How to Broach the Subject of Reactivity Without Demonizing Your Dog.

My heart ached for her as she described how she reacted to a situation and how her reaction could have possibly affected a friendship Shiva had with a couple of park dogs.

In the post, Kristine explained that Shiva reacted sometimes on leash and Kristine saw a situation brewing, sped into management mode and felt like she had maybe scared someone into thinking her dog was a monster.

I could totally relate as Delilah at times can be reactive to other dogs, especially on leash.

After her first few reactions I began to wonder if she was a fearful dog.  But everything about Delilah screams confident, bold, and secure, she reacts for a different reason.

Like her human companion, she has the need to be in control.  I know where my issues come from and I’m working on them.  I have no idea what the first 18 month’s of Delilah’s life were like.  Delilah can’t tell me and unlike us humans who strive to be perfect and have a tendency to over-analyze everything.

Dogs simply accept themselves flaws and all.

Since we’ve been taking all these training classes, I’ve really begun to notice what sets Delilah off 1) she does not like a dog rushing up to her from behind and shoving their nose in her butt.  She’s not that kind of girl.  She’d like a little romance first before someone goes for the gold. Thank you very much.

The other thing she’s not fond of is a dog that is lunging, barking, posturing or behaving a little too enthusiastically.  In our Intermediate dog handler class there was a dog named Duchess that pranced into the room.  Delilah was itching to teach Duchess a lesson.

We really learned the “look” command in that class.

I’ve gotten much better at reading Delilah’s body language, which also means I’ve gotten a lot better at managing her.

In dog training, management can be your life line.  If I see a situation brewing, I remove her from it.

If I can’t remove her, I will distract her, usually with treats or the look command.  But whenever possible I redirect her away from the situation.

However when push comes to shove and a dog is in her face I simply drop the leash.  The leash tends to be the real reason she is reacting anyway and I’m certain she can feel my tension through the leash, so I drop it.

When I have to explain it I usually say something like, “She can sometimes be snarky on a leash.”

I’ve never noticed anyone looking at me differently or reacting like my dog is something nasty they need to scrape off their shoe.

In retrospect, this is probably because in a tense situation, my whole focus is on Delilah and making sure she always succeeds.  In other words, I’m too busy taking care of my dog to notice what someone else is doing.

Until this past Tuesday.

We were in our last Rally class and there were only three of us.  Oakley a HUGE Rhodesian Ridgeback, Misty a little American Eskimo dog and Delilah.  Oh and their human counter parts of course.

Both of these other dogs make me a bit nervous.  Oakley because he’s lunged a couple of times at Delilah, (although his mom is right on top of it) and Misty because she’s a little bit yippy. Just the kind of dog Delilah reacts too.

Misty is about two, and she’s a little fresh.  While Misty’s mom was working her in the Rally course, Misty decided she’d rather hump her mom’s leg.

Ariane went over and stood on Misty’s leash and said to Misty’s mom, “Okay, now she’s going to stay here and you’re going to do something fun…..like go over and pet Delilah.”

  IMG_4118 I’m really very sweet, I just don’t care for surprises.

And Misty’s mom, eyes wide, a look of horror on her face looked at me and said, “Is it alright?”

I wanted to cry.  All this time I’ve been trying to protect my dog from getting a reputation and I’ve gone and given her one myself!

I nodded my head and said, “Yes of course.”  And as she walked towards us, she asked questions and I answered and by the time she was done petting Delilah (who behaved perfectly) she had confessed that sometimes her dog reacted too.

But I’ve given a lot of thought to Shiva and Delilah this week and I think, there has to be a way to protect our dogs without making people afraid of them.

Any thoughts?

Approaching Fearful Dogs

By

Neither of my dogs are fearful dogs in the traditional sense of the classification.  I say this because I think any dog faced with a new situation can be a little fearful.  Remember the pallet incident at the Mellow Mutt?

My point is I have no real experience dealing with fearful dogs.

Oh sure I’ve read about them.  In fact, I even follow some bloggers who have fearful dogs, but that doesn’t mean I know how to deal with them.

Which is why when I saw this posted on the Bringing up Bella facebook page yesterday I thought it would be good to share with others who may be in a similar position as myself. (FYI, Leslie was quoting Debbie Jacobs at Fearfuldogs.com)

“Words of good advice for anyone entering our home…

Meeting a shy dog?  Ignore them.  If a shy dog comes up to you for a sniff…ignore them.  Want to feed a shy dog a treat?  Drop it and ignore them.

First impressions matter.  If your first interaction with a dog does not create a fearful reaction you won’t have to put the time and effort into changing it.”

I wouldn’t have known this.  Yes, I would certainly know to let the dog approach me, but once a dog has sniffed me my instinct is to reach out to pet them.

How many of you have the same instinct?  Would you know not to reach out and pet the pup?

Our current house has a screened porch off the back door.  Shortly after we moved in Hubby changed the hinges so the door will swing either in or out.

During the nicer months, the back door (while we’re home) remains open so the dogs can go in or out as they please.  During the colder months, all we have to do is open the back door to let them out.

We’re lazy, what can I say.

When we first modified the door, both dogs, especially Delilah were afraid to push it open themselves.  We had to go out and open the door for them.

But after a week or so adjusting to the door swinging behind them, they realized it wasn’t THAT scary and they could push it open for themselves.

If we hadn’t been patient and let them adjust to it at their own pace, we could have dogs terrified of that door.  They’ve even learned timing when coming in one behind the other. 🙂

"Pssst....Hey Bob"

You’re right, it’s not that scary.

Do you have a fearful dog?  If so, how do you deal with the situation when introducing new people/experiences.  If you don’t have a fearful dog, did you know the proper way to greet them?

 

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...