The Honest Dog

He barks at me through the kennel bars with his body positioned in such a way that I know he is fully aware that he can take care of himself if he needs to. He wastes no time in false pleasantries, he rejects my friend request on the spot, and makes it crystal clear that me coming into his kennel is not an option. Not a wise one anyway. Considering the dog before me is a 45 kilo Rottweiler I oblige.

We make friends slowly, it takes a day before I can see he most likely isn’t going to bite me if I pick up his training line and go with him to the paddocked area where he can relieve himself and stretch his legs. Letting go of the line would be a mistake, one I’ve learnt on the job, the line is long so allows him enough distance to (hopefully) not view me as an imminent threat. I allow him to go wherever he wants, with me ignoring him, mechanical handling is what he needs for now.

I am no one, just a robot on a line, he is the captain and I’m the first mate with shaky sea legs.

When he says that we are acquaintances however he means it, and when he says that we are mates then we will be for life. With these types of dogs it won’t take long for this to occur, he just needs to suss me out and establish friend or foe. He will be honest every step of the way and consequently will feel very little need to bite, as no human is likely to misunderstand his statements.

Their is always that second when you enter the kennel, of wondering have I made the right decision, have I read this right, because lets face it if you haven’t the consequences won’t be pretty.

With a dishonest dog it can feel like Roulette, and not the Derren Brown version. Oh the fun of a dog in a state of learned helplessness, thank you aversive trainers for forcing this poor creature to tuck into itself like a snail. You’ve turned the bouncy puppy into a highly nervous cobra.

Kennel door opens, you take a deep breath in and innately put faith in the statistics of dog attacks being rare, of it not happening to you; in these situations you trust your gut and hope to god it doesn’t need a metaphorical Rennie.

With an honest dog you don’t have that doubt, or if you do its miniscule as these dogs are open for all to see. You will know at face value who they like and who they don’t; they are the emotional exhibtionists of the canine world.

What grieves me the most is the peril of the honest dog, they are adept communicators, their is no strip tease, they are bare. Yet so often they are judged, labelled as highly volatile because they say it like it is.

In my experience the honest dog is far safer than the still closed off dog staring at you with a blank face; if these dogs were authors one would be already finishing the sequel and the other you’d be waiting on for months to write the blurb.

That is not to say that every honest dog can be out in society, however it is worth remembering that most people won’t approach a barking hound and the owner will know quite clearly that this dog does not want to meet that person. It is also not to say that every dishonest dog can’t be out in society, but one dog comes with a how to manual, the other with a blank page.

A quiet dog standing there being oh so well behaved on the other hand? Lets go and touch him as he doesn’t seem to dislike me, he’s watching me, he can’t look away from me bless him, he clearly wants me to come over.

Absence of behaviour is not a positive thing. I will ignore the scary thing, but if it comes closer I have confidence to show my displeasure without warning.

Give me a choice, and I will always choose the honest dog, the heavy metal screamer over the mime. The spider I can see, and not the one I lose in the house. The argument, not the passive emotional torture.

As a wise person once said “honesty is the foundation for trust, you can’t have one without the other.”

 

 

 

 

The Panic Button

She leaps at me, eyes wide, her paws cling around my waist and she pants excessively nuzzling her face into my stomach. She feels vulnerable, desperate for human reassurance, she is not seeking attention but rather protection from an unknown foe. The big wide world, that for a dog whose spent the first year of her life in a kitchen, is a pretty scary place to be. Turning my back on her at this time does not feel right and so I trust my gut and don’t do it, she needs a mother figure right now, not an obedience trainer.

It’s all about priorities, in that moment what will be of most aid to the dog, me attempting to decrease her jumping up by applying negative punishment and ignoring her in her moment of need, or positively reinforcing her choice to come to me for guidance as opposed to reacting at the object. Which in this case is a fallen down tree.

We walk away from the tree together, and I do some zig zags on her body and scent work with the tree in sight but at a distance that is no longer causing her distress, she is a very honest dog so guessing at her thresholds is not needed. I don’t lure, but wait for her to choose to approach the tree, I praise her gently and continue scentwork in the opposite direction to reset her incase she become over whelmed. By now she is curious as opposed to worried and in a movement that suprises me, play bounces the tree. My brain ponders on is she trying to create distance or engage the fallen tree, so we continue our nose work to determine this, in the end in one quick jump she is over the tree and proudly sitting on the other side waiting for her slow handler to untangle the lead and climb over to be with her. Off we walk together, her checking in calmly from time to time and me stroking her head when she does. A partnership.

So what is a partnership? The word equal springs to mind and a sense of togetherness where any battle faced you face together, supporting each other through thick or thin, for better or for worse. Like marriage, but better. I’ve seen better dog and handler relationships than I have marriages but maybe I’m a cynic.

With a relationship between the same species or a differing species, the ultimate goal would be to preserve your own survival and each others I imagine, and to seek each other out in times of anguish. So for me, if a dog I am working with is in a moment of trauma, providing comfort and togetherness in that moment overrides all else and I will do all I can to ensure their emotional well being. It’s a thing of trust isn’t it, if your safe attachment figure can’t get you out of a sticky spot and leaves you to suffer alone, then why would you trust them in other situations? Just how reliable are they?

My primary goal when working with a dog with aggression issues, or any issue for that matter, is to make them feel that I am safe, that when they’re with me they will be safe, and consequently when I’m there the environment is also safe as is the trigger because if they press that panic button at any time we are out of there as a unit.

Disclaimer alert! Of course before I awaken any trolls regarding stress thresholds and systematic training – I do that, in every session, every day. I plan, I measure, I assess and critique myself. But at times it will be going well, very well, and then something changes unintentionally in the environment and the dog will signal I want out, and in that moment we need to listen, always.

They will be consistently braver, the more we don’t force them to be. I remember as a child in a swimming lesson being unsure of jumping in the water, I wasn’t the best swimmer and was a serial wimp, the instructor held their arms out and said they’d catch me, so I jumped, and they didn’t catch me. A deliberate miss. Did I ever trust them again? Hell no. Did I like them after that? Not one bit.

In a similar way, the old adage of letting dogs that make noise when left at night ‘cry it out’ so eventually they give up barking screaming and wailing into the night and fall asleep as they learn no one will come when they call? What part of that feels right? It doesn’t feel very ethical to me, for a dog to learn that in your moments of distress you can ask for help as much as you like and no one is going to come to your aid. The learned helpleness kicks in and the dog goes quiet. Success!  With the bitter sweet tinge of delibately inducing a traumatic experience.

I see it especially in dogs that have just been rehomed, or puppies, where they are in a new environment, had extreme levels of trigger stacking that day already, and they are expected to lie there in the pitch black surrounded by smells that are not theirs, and just cope?

How many times do you wake up when you are away for a night and forget where you are? And then because you are human you remember you’re in the holiday inn on a training course and haven’t been kidnapped by a lunatic and fall back asleep. Now imagine you are a species that lacks this level of rationale and understanding, and when you try to reach out, theirs nothing but darkness and failed attempts to find comfort. Am I being over dramatic? No i don’t believe so. As trauma is trauma.

My good friend Guy Williams blog about raising his puppy will explain more about setting the dog/puppy up for success but at the same time responding to their panic button in the right way when they call for help: https://positivepolicedogs.wordpress.com/2016/03/

The more training sessions I put in with my girl the less she pushes the panic button, she has learnt that I’m her buddy and so now as opposed to a jump she simply glances at me with her beautiful bright blues, and we then together work out the best course of action.

In summary, if in the words of doting dog dad Gene Hill ‘his presence by my side is protection against my fears of dark and unknown things’ then the least we can do is return the favour.

 

 

 

 

 

The Unclassy Class

The dog pants excessively as it paces up and down the field, flittering its eyes side to side like windscreen wipers in a state that can only be described as total panic, drool is building in its mouth and a sudden out break of anxiety laced snow over runs the dogs back. The dog is in fight or flight mode, it is a catch 22.

The dog cannot escape this situation, and any protest results in a flood of water which feels unpleasant as it goes up its nose and made it choke last time. It’s human stood by and watched and that didn’t feel good. Fighting is too risky as the other dogs are hyenas waiting to strike, so instead the dog drifts into a state of learned helplessness waiting for the end of the class like a nervous child in drama class watching the clock.

To the untrained eye the dog is relaxed and merely keeping itself to itself. The panting and pacing is the dog excited, the manic jumps at its owner are boisterous and happy. The dog won’t eat its most treasured treat but it must just be full up, it did have a big dinner last night after all.

Splash as the water hits a dog, a Lurcher who is off lead unmuzzled despite a recent dog attack, the jack Russell she has pinned to the floor, runs away squealing and this excites her more, and her eyes light up, splash ‘don’t you get any ideas’.

Humping, constant humping, ‘he needs his bits off’ is the sniggering consensus, it’s funny though as he never does this on walks.

The chase begins, 5 off lead dogs charge around the enclosure nipping and scrapping as the machine gun water sprays hit them again and again.

Recall is absent, the dogs have a lot to talk about, choice words, ‘it’s ok they’re just being vocal’ he shouts.

Why bother coming to a guardian who doesn’t guard, the faith has gone, I’m out on my own.