"My Dog is Friendly."
We dog trainers tend to be a seriously judgmental lot. It is a challenge not to bite one’s tongue, to remain silent when a client states ”we have too much going on in our lives to spend time with the dog,” “none of our other dogs ever needed training,” “the last training we did was two years ago in puppy kindergarten class.” As I mentioned in an earlier entry, the only thing two trainers can agree on is what the third trainer is doing wrong. Age has certainly mellowed me somewhat and I no longer chafe when I witness a dog, nose fused to the ground, straining at the end of a leash. To be sure, owner and dog are connected. At least by a leash. To be sure, they are both enjoying the outing and most assuredly, the owner is not about to seek my advice.
However, I did overreact to a person in one of my classes recently, when she said she never, ever, ever, allowed her six month old puppy to sniff on a walk and would physically correct the poor creature if it attempted a quick whiff. I was flummoxed and momentarily at a loss for words, an extremely rare condition for a dog trainer. My perplexity was brief as I then felt compelled to pontificate on the importance of an on and off switch, using sniffing as a reward for proper walking behavior and the need for a dog, especially a puppy, to interact with his environment. No word deficit now. I had mounted and was speaking from a very high horse, indeed.
Recently,my judgmental hackles have been raised on a number of occasions both while working dogs in public as well as in classes. There has been a spate of overly “friendly” dogs. This sounds like a paradoxical situation but these dogs are allowed to race up and get in the face of any unsuspecting dog or person that happens into the orbit of their friendlysphere. On some occasions this convivial canine will materialize suddenly, off leash, on a park trail. The owner shows up well after Mr Amicable’s over excitable “C’est Moi” and delivers the inevitable but meaningless “my dog is friendly.”
It is as if because a dog is friendly, an owner grants this pet a dispensation from good manners. Somehow, being friendly negates constraint. Often enough, these dogs are large and if jumping, easily capable of bowling over a person like a ten pin. No harm intended, of course. In a recent class, three owners entered the first session with dogs and immediately allowed their charges to pull into a frenzied furry entanglement, cartoonishly marked by three rapidly rotating tails.
So, as you might expect, we spent a good portion of that class emphasizing and practicing how a dog should not automatically approach and greet every dog and person he encounters. Instead, he should wait for his owner’s permission and calmly approach to interact with that dog or person. Jumping terminates the interaction. As I was leaving, just outside the facility’s door, were these same three dogs, tails again wildly rotating. The trio of “friendlies” was now happily leaping and cavorting upon a delighted girl who was sitting on the pavement, laughing while petting them. The three owners hadn’t even made it close to the parking lot before undoing all the work in class.
As mentioned, there is a real danger of one of these over zealous greeters doing a serious damage to someone. A few weeks ago, one of my clients, who has a number of disabilities, tripped and fell when another dog came nose to nose with her dog at a Farmer’s Market. She lost her balance and fell. An ambulance was called and off she went to the hospital, her dog with her. Weeks later she was still bearing a load of pain. She blamed neither dog, as both were calm and well behaved, but she simply turned and lost her balance.That simple. Bad things can happen even without a cavorting canine.
The Center For Disease Control tracked non-fatal pet related falls (dogs and cats) from 2001-2006 through the NEISS-AIP or the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System- All Injuries Program (1). There was an annual estimated average of 76,223 injuries related to pet dogs. (Dog bites were in an altogether different category). It was not specified exactly how many of these falls were perpetrated by jumping “friendly” dogs. Most of the people who fell were chasing, tripped on or pulled over by their dog. The number of injuries included only those incidents reported in emergency rooms of about 100 hospital Emergency Departments. There were no reports of untreated injuries or those treated outside a hospital setting. So we cannot know exactly how prevalent and dangerous “friendly” dogs can be. What we do know is that these assaults with intent to be fri.endly are preventable with a consideration for others and their dogs as well as a bit of training. At the very least having a leash on your dog and using it if need be.
I used to work with service dogs and people with disabilities. I felt I had a goodly amount of empathy for the job but recently after experiencing some medical issues, sparing the details, my balance is off and I now list slightly to starboard. So I have attained a very limited but real understanding of disability and the vulnerability of people like my client. On several occasions in these recent classes I have come close to being capsized by a “my dog is friendly” type.
In another class there was once more a number of overly enthusiastic dogs. We were again practicing proper meeting and greeting behavior. To my surprise and chagrin, several students could literally not say “no” to a person approaching and asking to pet their dog. When prompted, instead, out popped an automatic “sure” or “of course.” Several of those students have been around long enough to recall Nancy Reagan and her famous “Just Say No” (to drugs) back in the early 1980’s. Sounds simple enough but it is much more complicated. Much more. It turned complicated for Nancy, too (2).
An additional human behavior problem that surfaced in this class was ignoring the person with the dog who had finally gone on script and replied “no” or “let me get him to sit first.” But before the dog could comply with a sit, the approacher automatically pounced upon it with high pitched silly talk, bent down and started petting the startled dog. It really is more complicated. Some of these over friendly dogs had been allowed to practice unruly behavior for weeks or months, sometimes a few years, Some owners have been rehearsing, permitting and practicing misbehavior for decades.
The good news is that by the end of these classes, my students and I had come to an understanding, at least in class. They had enrolled to improve the manners of their dog, which they all did. And at the very least all were aware of a possible liability issue. This flurry of “friendly” dog incidents has since receded- only one off leash “friendly” encounter in the last few weeks.. Lately, the weather has been delightfully warm and sunny for winter. People have been taking advantage and the park is teeming with humans and their dogs. The majority of these teams are well behaved and pass by without a glance or attempted ”howdy do.” I may no longer chafe if I see a dog with nose fused to the ground, straining at the end of the leash but admittedly, I still experience a twinge of agitation, “Their only connection is the leash,” I might mutter to myself, shake my head but shortly let it go
There was one near incident just a few days ago. I was walking with Dolly, the poodle, she with the sparkly rhinestone collar. A couple rounded a curve and was almost upon us headed towards us from the opposite direction. Their dog was in front of them at the end of a flexilead. Exactly 26’ plus the full, extended length of the woman’s arm, to be precise. The dog was large, some brand of Doodle. His gaze locked onto Dolly and he began to make a beeline towards her. At that same instant the man grabbed the flexilead and prevented the dog’s approach. He correctly read that I wished to avoid an unbidden meet and greet. In another instant they had passed by and were gone.
The entire scenario lasted only a few seconds. As they receded down the trail I heard the exasperated woman say, “the dog was nice, though.” This situation was not about to morph into a “teachable moment.” We had both “thin sliced” the situation (as had the man) and passed judgement (2). During the brief encounter she had correctly assessed that Dolly was a good dog. She had judged me as some type of not so nice, controlling, ne’er do well. In truth, I surmised that her dog could be a very nice companion, too. With a bit of training, of course. As for her, I bristled that she assumed it was ok for her unrestrained “friendly” dog to come up to Dolly without my ok. I deemed her to be an unfettered canine anarchist. All this within a time frame of less than ten seconds. We were both over quick to leap upon the back of our metaphorical tall steeds to joust. Once you have seen the view from a high horse it is difficult to dismount.
(1). Nonfatal Fall-Related Injuries Associated with Dogs and Cats --- United States, 2001--200
(3), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - Wikipedia
mental processes that work rapidly and automatically from relatively little information. It considers both the strengths of the adaptive unconscious, for instance in expert judgment, and its pitfalls, such as prejudice and stereotypes