Letting Your Dog Be A Dog

[SpotTheDog]

Thought I'd throw this out there and see what comes up.

I have a mongrel dog who will be 21 months old on 1st February. He's some sort of bull breed mix with a dose of something lanky in there too - he's registered as a bull arab X but honestly could be just about anything. Much as I know the history around many breeds and I've read up on my BSL and animal welfare stuff, he's the first dog I've owned since I was small child.

Gus has always been a sweet natured creature - he's friendly to visitors, hardly barks, can be full on with other dogs but is also very playful and has never been in a fight. He has reasonable basic obedience, but it was difficult to achieve because I have little experience and he's a stubborn dog and is also not food motivated when he's distracted. (I discovered he is rubber-ball motivated when distracted - ACE!)

Last weekend there were two incidents that threw me somewhat. First, someone visited the house with a child of around 9 years. Gus was outdoors and at one point was allowed into the house (where he is commonly allowed) and he came to great the guests. The child backed up onto her chair away from him but he greeted her with sniffs and wags. He loves to lick and went to lick her and she tried to climb onto her chair. His reaction was to step backwards and bark at her (and Gus virtually never barks). It wasn't like a play bark, more like a sort of admonishment as if he was telling her to stay put. His tail stayed wagging but I felt his mouth tightened up somewhat (panting stopped). I gave her a packet of treats and supervised her giving treats to the dog - making him sit and take a treat gently, and all was good with her and with him.

Later that same morning Gus was given two pieces of beef cheek and one of the cats came to investigate what he had. Gus has never shown any food aggression whatsoever, but he stripped his teeth at the cat and then went for her (probably with not much seriousness - more a warning shot but I let a shout as he was moving because I saw him and he took off in a different direction). The morning was a reminder to me - a kick up the arse to make sure I reinforce the dog's desirable behaviour and also not to put him in positions where he may react. I don't mean never let him near visitors, I mean don't feed him high value food like beef cheeks near the cats, who will butt into his bowl.

Anyway - the point of this thread was I had to sit down on Sunday and think about my own reactions to the weekend's incidents. Because of my inexperience owning a living breathing dog I needed to modify my expectations and dial back on the "horror" that my dog would do two such things - barking at a child and stripping his teeth and jumping at one of my cats. I thought to myself, a dog that defends his dinner, and barks at a child who's behaving strangely when he has never been socialised properly with children? Of course he might do these things - he's a DOG. I was reminded of the famous quote from dog owners whose animal has bitten someone 'Oh he never did anything like that before, he's normally such a sweet dog!' and had to kick myself in the arse over it. I think I may have bought into the sort of modern broadcast thinking about dogs - this idea that a dog gets one chance and it's then euthanised if it shows any aggression, regardless of the justification for its reaction. Also the notion of 'good behaviour' and 'bad behaviour' and how, somewhere in the middle of it, society has forgotten how to let a dog just be a dog.

Thoughts, anyone? There are probably a bunch of far more experienced folk on here who think I'm nuts.

[Dame Aussie]

I agree. They are animals, and they will display these behaviours, it's natural. It's up to us as owners to be aware of this and manage it if and when it occurs.

I know if one of my dogs snapped at me it wouldn't be the end of the dog, it would be lots of work for me as the owner making sure it didn't happen again.

I also agree that sometimes I think we expect too much of them, in the sense that they should be like robots and never slip up, JMO though.

Edited January 16, 2012 by Aussie3

[Kirislin]

You say you are inexperienced with dogs but I think you actually did pretty well watching him and reading his body language.