I Don’t Want to Bite You
According to the CDC, about 4.5 million dog bites occur each year in the U.S., and half of those take place at home, with a familiar dog. Children from 5 to 9 years of age are at highest risk. While there are many causes, understanding humane handling and the signs of stress are key ways dog owners can help prevent family members from becoming another statistic. While a dog owner may claim a bite is unprovoked, the truth is there is often provocation, but it is simply missed. There’s no excuse for picking up a pet the wrong way, which brings us to the final point…
Okay, so I’m turning over a new leaf… Starting now, I’m going to work with my dog to get him used to walking on his own again. I want him to be confident, secure, and self-reliant. I want him to be healthy, both physically and psychologically. I don’t want one of those nervous little ankle-biters that many celebrities carry around either in their arms or even in their purses. I hope it’s not too late for me to return my dog to his natural “all paws on deck” mentality. And it’s good to know our expert dog trainers are there to help!
And… a biggie… If I carry him around a lot, he is not getting near the exercise that he could be getting. That’s not only bad for his weight, but for the proper functioning of all of his bodily systems. Walking helps alleviate arthritis and other joint issues. It strengthens his muscles. Walking may actually strengthen his spine so that he has a better chance of avoiding IVDD, the same disease suffered by his “predecessor”, which is a common disorder for his breed. The more he walks, the healthier he will be… That goes for all of us, right?
What does my dog think of being “restrained”? I mean, he’s an animal. Holding him prevents him from being free to run, or to “escape” if need be. Animals have a “fight” or “flight” response that I have shut down by not allowing him to run. Surely this causes undue stress and anxiety for him, particularly if he feels threatened or senses danger. For instance, I have my dog in my arms, someone comes over to pet him and I feel him immediately tense up as he is approached by a stranger. Maybe he gets a bad feeling about that person but guess what, he can’t flee! He could bite if he wanted to, and that could happen. He could very easily develop some aggression issues caused by the hopelessness he feels to protect himself. Or, he could go the other direction and, over time, suppress that anxiety and begin to expect me to protect him. Not that that’s a bad thing, because of course I intend to protect him, but if he depends on me to keep him safe, then he has given up on a beautiful natural instinct that makes a dog a dog… the instinct to be strong and provide protection.
What am I doing to my dog’s confidence when I carry him? Does it somehow diminish his confidence, or does it give him delusions of grandeur? I mean, does he think that because he is elevated, that he has a higher ranking? I don’t know, but my guess is the latter – that it would weaken his confidence. He would become unsure of himself, having not been consistently exposed to things and not having the opportunity to learn and “do” for himself. Walking on his own could be a great boost to his confidence.
My last dog had IVDD, Intervertebral Disc Disease, a condition where the cushioning discs between the vertebrae of the spinal column either bulge or burst (herniate) into the spinal cord space. As she was too old for surgery, conservative treatment for IVDD was to do whatever we could do to keep pressure off of her neck and backbone. So we carried her around… a lot. We carried her anytime when we took her anywhere, even when we took her outside to go potty so that she wouldn’t have to take the stairs that lead from the deck to the yard. Picking her up became a habit. She was small and it was easy.
My Limbs Are More Delicate Than You Think
Dog limbs are a wonder of form and function, meant to propel pups forward with speed and agility. They aren’t designed to support the entire weight of the dog when he’s suspended in the air, however. The most common form of dangerous pet handling I see, particularly with young children, is when they lift a pet by the front limbs as if it were a doll. Adults tend to put their hands under the armpits of the dog and lift, as one would a human child. Both techniques are incorrect. When a dog is lifted by his front limbs, instead of properly supported by the chest and pelvis, it puts unnatural force on the elbows, shoulders, front toes and even spine as the pet dangles in the air. This can strain the muscles that support the front limbs and spine, tear ligaments, and potentially even dislocate a shoulder or elbow. In the worst-case scenarios, it can damage the bones and cartilage, particularly if the pet struggles and is dropped. The pain and risk of injury is compounded in older dogs who may already experience degenerative changes in these joints, such as arthritis.
14 Signs Your Dog Doesn’t Love You (Even if You Think They Do)
Blame Bruiser. The canine star of Legally Blonde wasnt the first hound to be outrageously pampered – the tradition of lap dogs, tiny breeds cosseted by kings, emperors and their consorts – goes back at least 600 years. But the sight of Reese Witherspoons Elle Woods carrying her bejewelled Chihuahua around in a tote, closely followed by the sight of Paris Hilton carrying her bejewelled Chihuahua around in a tote, seems to have inspired a whole generation of dog owners to treat their furry companions like a cross between a Tamagotchi and a human baby.
In 2015 the Oxford Dictionary added the term “fur baby” to its official lexicon, acknowledging the trend. In its 2016 comprehensive survey of Australian pet owners Animal Medicines Australia, the peak body representing manufacturers of veterinary medicines, found increasing numbers of people (64 per cent, up from 59 per cent in 2013) regard their dog as a member of the family rather than just a companion (23 per cent).
Trish Harris, a dog trainer says the trend for owners to treat their pets as surrogate children can be damaging.Credit:Eddie Jim
Which is, you know, lovely. Coddling a dog is inarguably better than neglecting or abusing it. But are we loving our dogs too much? Or in the wrong way? And unintentionally doing them harm in the process?
On a Saturday morning at Four Paws K9 Training, a big obedience club in Melbournes north-west, a couple arrive for class carrying their small fluffy dog. Because it doesnt like to walk. Another young chap is there with his big Lab-cross because its developed some behavioural issues, but hes uneasy. Hes not sure he “believes” in training. He doesnt like telling his dog what to do.
Having dogs at work can boost productivity and workers wellbeing, the study shows. But will dogs want to be at the office? Credit:iStock
Others wonder why their dog doesnt like other dogs, or wont listen to them, or wont stop jumping on people, or pulling on the lead. About half the human students struggle to speak to their dogs in anything other than a pleading murmur.
“Twenty-odd years ago the mindset was quite different,” says Trish Harris, a dog trainer and owner of Four Paws. “When I started out, a dog was a dog. It had to be obedient. They lived in the family but it was a little bit more balanced. Over time what weve seen is a lot of these dogs becoming surrogate children.
“When I tell them you need to give the dog clear instructions, you need to set boundaries and enforce them they say, Wont he stop loving me? or Wont he stop listening? I say, well, hes already not listening.”
The AMA report also has some pretty staggering figures on expenditure. Australians spent more than $12 billion on pets and pet products in 2016. A third of that, $4 billion, was for dog food with another $1 billion for doggy accessories but just $274 million was spent on training. Yet if theres one really crucial thing you can do for your fur baby, its to undertake proper obedience training.Advertisement
Mini dachshund Chilli, dressed as a biker dog competes in the Hophaus Southgate inaugural best dressed dachshund competition.Credit:Getty s
A lot of the issues Harris sees in her classes are with the toy breeds – pugs, poodles, dachshunds. Because the dogs are small and adorable theyre allowed to get away with murder. But she sees the same problems with people who have adopted from a shelter. In an effort to compensate for what they imagine was the dogs previous life, they go all out to be “kind”. Without understanding what being kind to a dog actually entails.
“Our maternal instincts come out and we want to mollycoddle and love it and protect it. Which is great. But it can have the opposite effect. It can turn the dog into a really nasty, uncontrollable, undisciplined aggressive dog.”
Barking, jumping, lunging, snarling, snapping and biting are not the signs of a “naughty” dog, and certainly not simply a high-spirited one. They are almost always the sign of a dog that has never been taught how to get on in the world, and as a consequence is experiencing a lot of stress.
It sounds like heresy but after two decades in the business and a wealth of study and observation, Harris says dogs dont actually want our love – or not in the ways we tend to show it.
“They want your guidance. They want to feel safe. They need structure, and theyre the things people dont think of giving.”
And while she would say this – shes a dog trainer, after all – the science backs her up. Happy dogs are well-trained dogs, or at least dogs that live in a world with consistent rules and routines.
“Dogs dont understand grey areas,” Harris says. “They can either always do something, or they can never do something. And once a dog understands that, he feels safe and happy.”
Dogs arent people. But in the 21st century a lot of them are suffering from a similar malaise to their owners. They dont get enough exercise, and they eat too much. Obesity in a dog is every bit the problem it is in a human. It puts stress on the skeleton and on the joints, on the heart and lungs, it makes moving and breathing difficult.
In the US, things are so bad theres an Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, which estimates 54 per cent of that nations dogs are obese. Its unlikely things are much better here.
“Too much food, too much love,” says Kerri Bradley, a dog trainer with a particular interest in canine nutrition. The most common issue she sees is simple over-feeding. A beloved pet gazes at you mournfully, longingly, with perhaps just a little drool trickling out of the corner of its mouth. What do you do? Hand over a snack, of course.
“I also see problems with the kinds of things people are feeding their dogs, especially processed foods,” says Bradley.
While we know, just looking at them, that their physiology is completely different from ours, we dont always factor that in when were choosing their dinner or their treats. Dogs teeth are designed for ripping and tearing, not grinding. Their gut has a higher acid content, to digest fur and bone. Their mouths dont produce amylase, the enzyme that helps process carbohydrate.
Unfortunately the perfect canine diet looks pretty repulsive to most people. Raw meat, raw offal, meaty bones, finely shredded raw veg – thats a dogs idea of fine dining. (In fact, if you snapped a rabbits neck and tossed the still-warm carcass in front of your dog, that would be his equivalent of a trip to Noma.)
One feature dogs unfortunately do share with people is “sweet” receptors on their tongues. Dogs get as addicted to sugary treats as we do. We also get just as sucked in by pet food marketing as we do with our own treats. “People see the cute ads, and think Ill get that for my dog. But a lot of these treats have a lot of sugar in them. Of course the dog loves them, but that kind of food isnt doing your dog any favours,” Bradley says.
But not giving you fur baby something it thinks is yummy? Its a tough ask. “Even my mum does it, Im ashamed to say,” says Bradley.
Perhaps one of the strangest trends in modern dog ownership is playing dress-ups with our dogs. Sure, it looks hilarious. A pug in a party frock is quite a sight. But even putting a raincoat on your dog can have unexpected consequences, and were often not good at reading our dogs behaviour.
Tim Munro is a trainer and behaviourist who specialises in a form of doggy physical therapy called Tellington TTouch. While he concedes some dogs are temperamentally better equipped to handle being corseted than others, its an area where we should be proceeding with caution.
“I absolutely dont think its automatically bad,” Munro says. “But I do see a lot of people who think their dogs are fine but Im seeing things in the dogs body language that show its not OK.”
The feeling of constriction produced by being strapped into clothing can activate the sympathetic nervous system, the fight/flight/freeze response. A dog that starts running around like a loon when its dressed up is probably not enjoying itself. There are more subtle signs, too.
“Sometimes you put something on a dog and the dog suddenly goes really quiet,” Munro says. “You think thats good but in fact the dog might have just frozen, completely shut down.”
You see that a lot in those YouTube videos of dogs in Halloween costumes: motionless except for their bulging eyes and anxiously flicking tongues. You may be laughing, but thats a very unhappy dog.
Professor Paul McGreevy, a vet and animal behaviour specialist at the University of Sydney is a big fan of treating dogs as dogs.
In her influential bestseller Inside of a Dog, cognitive scientist Alexandra Horowitz talks about umwelt, the world as its perceived by a particular organism. McGreevy talks about a dogs telos: its purpose, its reason for being. What McGreevy and Horowitz are both saying, in essence, is instead of imagining that your dog is human, imagine what it might be like if you were the dog.
“We assume that their needs are the same as our needs, but thats not the case,” McGreevy says. “Dogs have evolved to be dogs. So canine company, rules and routines that facilitate their ability to spend time out of the house, to access other social groups including other dogs – thats what they need.”
In other words, training – so you can be confident about having your dog out and about. Lots of time with other dogs – providing the dogs get along. Vigorous exercise. And plenty of opportunity to sniff stuff. Thats how you get a happy dog. And a happy life.
McGreevy says the key to being a good “fur parent” (although he would never, in this life or the next, use that term) is to establish a relationship where were relevant to the dog, without needy co-dependence.
“Thats the critical blend or balance. Being there for the dogs, being the social group member that the dogs look to for activity, fun, excitement. Without them being entirely dependent on us.”
So staging a birthday party for your dog could actually be a great thing to do – as long as it gets along with the other guests and youre not feeding it chocolate eclairs. (You could probably leave off with the party frock, too.) Taking your dog everywhere with you is terrific – just dont carry it around in your handbag.
Melinda Houston is a Fairfax Media television critic and is studying to be a dog trainer.,