Give a dog a bone? No. Give a dog A CHOICE...

I was reading this blog today and it never ceases to amaze me how you seem to find an article discussing just what you have been thinking about recently.

As my regular readers will know, I've got a life-term foster dog.  He's a 5yr neutered male Neapolitan Mastiff who bounced from his two previous homes for health reasons but also because of his severe neophobia (fear of novel stimuli).

When he bounced the second time, I promised him he never again have to endure another massive trauma (for him) of changing homes.  So here he will stay unless I can find him another person who can actually guarantee his behavioural and physical health management.

The reason I've been thinking so much lately of the irony of my work with him is that over the past 18 months he has gradually overcome the worst of his behavioural problems and he is now only mildly neophobic.  However, while he is now much more comfortable with new people approaching him, I find myself leading him away from people.

Reasons for this? (yeah I had to think about why I was doing this too...)

1.  When you say 'yes, you can come and say hello to him' (that's when they even bother to ask..) people just seem incapable of being polite to a dog.  They will approach making lots of noises, bending down over him, touching and smacking his head.  If they did that to me I'd slap them, but people think it's okay to do that to a dog they don't know.


2.  Being a Neapolitan Mastiff, I am loathe to give people the impression that this breed can actually tolerate this type of personal violation of space so that they will go online when they go home and get one as a family pet.  Only last week I was desensitising him to a lively child on a bike when the boy's father attempted to walk right over to us, saying how beautiful he was and enquiring what breed he was (to which I ALWAYS reply 'just a crossbreed').  If I hadn't physically blocked the man, he would have thought nothing of invading both mine and my dog's personal space.

Having worked in the welfare of this breed for about 7 or 8 years now, I have lost all empathy with people who go out and buy a Neapolitan Mastiff as a family pet 'because I love the way they look' and then want to get rid of them when their true nature surfaces at sexual maturity.

So... I find myself verbally or even physically blocking people when they ask 'is he friendly?'.  I find myself saying 'No' and then praising my dog warmly for walking on peacefully.  Why SHOULD I subject him to the risk of having all of our work undone by one ignorant person who frightens him with their approach?  Why SHOULDN'T he be able to go for a peaceful walk without being accosted by people who he would actually rather not interact with?

I always know a true dog person.  Someone who stands back, asks me if THE DOG would like to say hello and simply waits for an answer, then waits to see if the dog would actually like to approach for a sniff.  No approaching, no hard eye contact or unpredictable moves, no violation of his personal space, no intimidation.  

Most importantly, a true dog person simply smiles back and nods 'of course' if you say no or THE DOG says no.  

Next time you see a dog you would like to say hello to, just wait and watch.  You could be surprised when you actually give the dog some choice in the matter...

So Proud of Poppy...

My day, in fact my month or two was made today when one of my clients described her recent visit to the vet for her Dobermann female's check up as a positive experience with the veterinary staff praising her for her handling of her dog!  

Poppy is a young rescue Dobermann who is a highly strung and feels the need to bark at other dogs that come a little too close. There's no aggression there, just a bit of panic (in much the same I do with spiders that run towards me!) but we've found her some friends in our Walk Club and she's doing marvellously.

The only way this could ever have happened though is her owner learning how to be calm and confident in any situation, which has made the world of difference to Poppy.

When Poppy and her owner went to the vets last week, the staff were really understanding and allowed them to wait outside for their appointment instead of the behavioural boiling pot that that the small waiting room would have been for Poppy.  They then showed even more understanding when they blocked the view of another dog with a large towel as Poppy went through.

Even better, they praised Poppy's owner for her calm and confident handling skills!  I always praise owners for their improving skills but it's even more pleasing when other professionals notice and comment on it too.

So, a big congratulations to Poppy & Ruth, and an even bigger thank you to AlphaPets Veterinary Clinic in Maidstone (I think!) for displaying a terrific understanding of canine behaviour!

A Different Form of Abuse?

I've been busy lately - REALLY busy!  So apologies for not blogging before now.


Before I start, I will state that I will NOT be naming the organisation concerned as I refuse to slander any organisation that actually does good work (which this one generally does).


I was at a pet show event doing charity work recently, working on just one of many charity stands doing a great job of promoting what they do and how they help people and animals.


On my travels around the show, I started to notice dogs showing signs of stress.  Now a big event open to the public is stressful for most dogs to some extent, but these dogs were supposed to be used to and enjoy human interaction, or they wouldn't have been there, right?  Well as the day wore on, these dogs were being surrounded by members of the public, getting smacked by children across the head and all over their bodies.  Now some of these dogs dealt with this okay and just accepted the attention (it must be noted that I didn't observe ANY dog positively enjoying the attention), however some of them started to show extreme avoidance behaviours and when these were ignored by their owners, started to behaviourally shut down.


An example was a large breed dog I was able to observe over a period of hours as I was situated close to where the dog was 'working'.


The owner was either oblivious to this dog's behavioural state or chose to ignore it; whatever the reason, this dog went through over 3 hours of misery.  The first sign that the dog wasn't coping was avoidance behaviours, whenever people came up to him he turned his head away, licking his lips, slow blinking of the eyes, lowering of the ears, tightening of the skin on his head and shutting his mouth tight.  Whenever he did this, his owner would hold his head in place for people to pat and stroke, many of them small children.


As his avoidance signals were obviously being ignored, he then started to actually turn his body around when he saw people approaching.  Again, his owner would merely turn him around and encourage people to come and say hello to him.


Then the dog started to hide behind his owner when people approached, showing real signs of distress by now to anybody that remotely understands dogs.  Again, his owner ignored this and merely dragged him back out for people to surround and begin their assault on his head.


Then this dog merely shut down.  He was in a severe state of distress, by now panting excessively, and didn't even attempt to move away.  The owner seemed to take this as a sign that the dog was now enjoying the attention.


This dog had to go through this for over 3 hours without any kind of break, with literally hundreds of people coming up to him and assaulting him (from his point of view) while being forced to endure the experience by an owner that really should have known better.


The crucial thing here is that this dog was probably trained only to accept the CONTROLLED attention of a few people at a time, not the continuous and uncontrolled onslaught of the general public and their children.  It is only due to this dog's incredibly tolerant nature that he didn't descend into displaying aggressive behaviours to try and control the stimuli (people) that were causing him distress.


What his owner should have done is identify her dog's stress the moment he started turning his head away from people and taken him to 'escape' into a wide open area or outside where he wasn't crowded.  Then if she returned, she should have controlled the amount of people coming up to him to a level that the dog had been previously trained to accept, just something simple like 'just one at at time please!!'.  If the dog was still displaying stress signals he should then have been removed from the public area and not return to the stand.


My point here is that this dog may well have been an excellent dog to bring to schools, hospitals or other similar environments, but he couldn't cope with the sheer onslaught of the general public at this kind of event.


This wasn't the most depressing thing I witnessed however (unbelievably).  


I couldn't bear to watch another dog go through this trauma so when the same stand had a different dog showing exactly the same behaviours I advised the show organiser and they arranged for the vet on call to examine the (toy breed) dog.  


I observed this vet smack the dog's head a few times, (affectionate patting?), smack it's rump a few times (more affectionate patting?) and merely ask the owner some questions. She didn't remain around to observe the dog during intense periods of public interest.  She then said the dog was 'fine' and left.


I was absolutely appalled as I had to watch this poor dog endure more stressful, forced interactions with the hundreds of people that came over to him.


It has to be said that there were also a few dogs that genuinely seemed to enjoy the human interaction, but these weren't subjected to the same kind of sheer numbers of people that the others were (specific, unusual breeds always draw a bigger crowd).


It dawned on me that this kind of abuse is not recognised at the moment.  We all recognise the distress a dog goes through in a car on a hot day, or being left alone for hours at a time, or being hit or kicked.  What about the BEHAVIOURAL stress that a dog goes through?  Just because a tolerant dog that would never turn to aggression to repel the stimulus that is causing him stress (human interaction), does that mean we should ignore the stress it's under?


There are patrols in dog show car parks to break into cars where dogs are suffering, there are legal processes to intervene if an animal is being subjected to being left for hours at a time or being hit or kicked; what about for the stress that demonstrator dogs may go through on stands at shows?  

Because a dog is incredibly tolerant and will not resort to aggression seems to currently mean it can be subjected to hours of intense human attention without consideration for its behavioural well-being.

Next time you're at a show where there are dogs on stands where the public are encouraged to interact with the dog, just stand and watch for a while.  Look for signs of avoidance, however small, and watch to see who the handler is being more attentive to; the humans - or their (supposedly) best friend...

During a Walk the Other Day...

We were out for a walk the other day, just me, my daughter and a couple of the dogs, in a public country park in Kent.

I’ve always wished that there was some way (other than fixing a camera to your forehead) of recording events as they happen to put in a blog entry because a 60 second piece of video can speak an hour’s worth of typed words!  As I didn’t have a camera attached to my forehead, I’ll have to describe the things that happened during our walk that I found so fascinating that I wanted to blog about.

The first was as we entered one of the fields.  An adult male Labrador cross was enjoying himself with a Frisbee being thrown by his adult male owner.  The instant thing that hit you about this pair were that they were inherently relaxed, both of them.  The owner wasn’t on his phone or miles away in thought, he was enjoying some time with his dog and the dog was clearly enjoying the time with his owner, but there was a mutual ‘peace’ and calm about them both that I found really pleasant to watch.

Our dogs were enjoying their first few moments of freedom and of course were terribly excited to see another dog to interact with and ran up to the Labrador a little too rudely and quickly.  I explained to the owner that my dogs were okay, just a little excited to have just got here and the owner merely said with a kind smile ‘Ah that’s okay, he can look after himself’.  As I watched this lovely Labrador very calmly drop his toy to concentrate on dealing with the approach of dogs shouting ‘HALLOOOO THERE!!!’  on their approach, I anthropomorphosised in my head that he was letting out a sigh and a quick eye roll as if to say “…  Oh dear.. and I was just enjoying a bit of peace and quiet with my toy – oh well, had better be polite at least”.  Immediately it was obvious to me that the dog was as relaxed and confident as his owner and of course, the dog was able to calmly receive the attentions of my slightly-hyped pair, including telling my little guy that he was being a bit rude by jumping up at him with a little snap. 

It was lovely to watch, and I dearly wish I’d had that camera stuck to my forehead to show you.

By contrast…

Half an hour on, we were approaching one of the gates when a man came in with his young Springer spaniel.  The Springer was clearly extremely excited to be in this environment, well what Springer wouldn’t?  Rabbit, fox, cattle, squirrel and goodness-knows-what-else tracks all over the place!  My dogs had calmed down a little by now, but were still happy to see another offlead dog and they all met halfway between their respective owners.  However, the other owner’s behaviour was very stiff and anxious and he came walking very quickly up to the dogs.  At the same time his Springer’s tail went between his legs, he became anxious and tense and the entire atmosphere changed.

Now I don’t know if the dog’s behaviour changed the owner, or the owner’s behaviour changed the dog, but I DO know that the only element capable of change in this relationship is the owner.  This was obviously an established pattern - anxiety around other dogs from both owner & dog – and now this pattern is established, the owner is the only one that can alter the course of events through his behaviour changes, his attitude towards other dogs, his actions etc.  However knowing this usually creates more tension in the owner and the downward spiral continues to a point where the dog is automatically going on the offensive with every dog it meets.

As the experienced ‘element’ in this interaction it was up to me to take the initiative and I called my dogs away from the Springer who was led away by his owner.

There are a few take-home messages from this blog; 

• Laid back owners have laid back dogs. (Think about it).
• In EVERY situation where dogs meet, being tense and anxious NEVER helps, and it is really important for the person (or dog in some cases!) with the most experience and knowledge to take the initiative, read the situation and calmly deal with it, whether it’s 2 dogs and 2 owners or 10 dogs and 5 owners…
• Like it or not, if you live in an area where you meet offlead dogs a lot, you HAVE to help your dog learn to socialise.  If that means YOU need to learn more about canine language in order to help your dog, then get in touch with a behaviour consultant who can teach you.

Peaceful Co-existence

Just to show that, with patient, consistent handling, peaceful co-existence can be possible after an argument (and this wasn't set up - I had my mobile on me to take the pic!)...

A New Club

One of the nicest opportunities that presents itself in this job is to watch dogs 'blossom' behaviourally...

A lovely client of mine who lives in a very rural, remote area of Kent has offered her secure paddock to dogs who need somewhere safe to run and be free so I offered to help organise a small group of new friends for her and her dog.  Our first meeting was last week and it was wonderful to see 7 dogs all of different breeds and temperaments (a Lab x Collie, Lab x Dachshund, Lurcher, terriers x 2 and a Springer) simply enjoying the company of each other during sessions of play, rest, sniffing, running, drinking etc.  

They formed a wonderful, natural social group with fluently transient roles depending on who fancied a chase game or scenting exercise or simply chilling out in the sun or taking some shade.  

 There were no fights, no squabbles, no panics.  Once they all got acquainted and learned how to observe each other's personal rules (i.e. Indie the terrier was NOT prepared to tolerate rough play and enthusiastically enforced this, while Sticky the Lab x Dachshund made it quite clear he'd happily entertain anybody that wanted some ruff stuff!). 

I'm going to be blogging on these play sessions with photos, video footage and commentary.  It's going to be sheer joy for me to simply watch dogs being dogs...  I consider it an honour to be able to observe these wonderful animals demonstrate such beautifully simple and subtle ritualistic behaviours.  Yes, I may sound like I'm talking more about dolphins or some other rarely encountered animal, but to me, dogs are as fascinating and awe-inspiring as the most rare whale or tiger - we've just stopped realising it.

Dog Breeding in the UK

Independent Dog Breeding Inquiry

I've just spend the day burrowing into the report on the Independent Inquiry into Dog Breeding by Professor Sir Patrick Bateson FRS, published at 10am this morning.

The report can be downloaded and read by clicking the link above so I won't discuss the whole 64 page report.  I do however want to say things about some of the findings presented as many of them I recognise as laments of those of us working 'at the sharp end' of breeders' mistakes!

Firstly, I'm happy to see behavioural welfare being a topic fairly well represented.  Those of us that work with puppies see first-hand the kind of socially unbalanced examples from breeders who either don't bother with socialisation and habituation programmes or, as the report describes... 

"...reckon that they have nothing to learn and resent bureaucratic interference"

I am no fan of selective breeding or showing for very definite reasons;  the minute either ego or money enters the equation, the worst possible side of humanity shows through.  If animals are involved, they are the innocent victims and I'm really pleased that this report is quite strongly-worded in places regarding the lack of integrity they have noted in breeders, albeit accompanied by the disclaimer that this is a generalisation and does not apply to all, of course.

I fully expect to be reading and hearing the all-too-familiar complaints regarding the feasibility of implementing the recommendations etc but for me, the whole process of the Kennel Club and breeders finally taking responsibility for their past (and present) actions has to start somewhere.  

Yes it's going to be tough-going.  

Yes it's going to involve us dog professionals keeping this ball rolling and getting passionate about it.  

Yes, it's going to take time.

Complaining about it is merely taking up more of that time!  We have got to get the Kennel Club, Breed Clubs and individual breeders to listen and learn without prejudice.  We need a common motivator such as that provided by Cesar Millan in the recent coalition of major European canine health & welfare charities and organisations to pull together and condemn aversive techniques (link below)

Welfare in Dog Training

That common motivator should be animal welfare, but unfortunately as previously said, ego and money are often the primary motivators in dog breeding and showing and I believe that these are mutually exclusive to canine welfare.  

As said earlier, the Inquiry has discovered things that many of us have known for ages.  I've been trying to change breeder attitudes for many years; here's a link to an article I wrote back in 2006.

The Breeder's Legacy - Laying the Foundation 

I'm still astounded at the sheer volume of the general public who have NO IDEA about choosing the right dog for them.  I was speaking to someone today who has bought a historic fighting breed for the first time and when I asked why they bought it, they replied that 'they just like the look of the breed'.  Yes, I'm taking them under my wing and will be helping them as much as possible, especially as this is the 20wk pup's THIRD home...

Bottom Line:  (In this the Inquiry agrees with what I've believed for years) if the public are better informed and educated, they will ask the right questions and hopefully stop buying from the breeders and other outlets that are not complying with the rules and regs which are there for the welfare of the dog.  Let's pull together as dog-lovers, professionals and enthusiasts to help the general public help the welfare of the dog.

We can't do it without them.

They can't do it without us.