Are You Being Kind to be Cruel?
A life spent working with dog behaviour is a life spent constantly weighing decisions against welfare.
Because our furry friends cannot speak for themselves, we find the definition of what is best for them to vary depending on the human we are talking to, their values, beliefs, and often, their emotional state.
On nearly every house call I make each day, we are constantly adjusting and re-adjusting training to ensure we are not confusing our canine clients. A dumb, stubborn, unintelligent, or difficult dog is a confused dog.
Lets start with a standard problem. Jumping up. Should a dog be allowed to jump up? How do we rationalise training against this? Should he be allowed to do what he wants? What techniques would be reasonable to use to stop jumping up?
As I consider myself an employee of the dog, rather than the human, and dogs love to jump up, I could suggest we leave this one alone. However, looking long term into the dogs future, if I allow him to jump up, as a general rule we will find many people do not like this.
Confusing a dog with random aggression from people (who don’t appreciate it jumping up) is easily linked with bringing out aggression in the dog.
We now have a possible aggression issue, which could lead to an incident with the dog either being placed on a dangerous dogs register, thus severely restricting it’s quality of life, or worse, with a one way ticket to the vet.
The next scenario to consider involves the dogs quality of life. Can the dog be included in the family’s lifestyle. Can it be taken everywhere and socialise safely around all humans including small children? If it is jumping on people, that is a resounding no. A dog jumping on children is a recipe for disaster. Now we have a dog that has to be left in the backyard most of the time. Great lifestyle!
Beyond this, we also have to look at a dogs natural way of thinking. As a general rule, a dog jumping up on another dog is part of practice (play) fighting which involves proving dominance skills. To your dog, you’re just another dog. Whilst you cannot train your dog with dominance, if your dog thinks it is in charge, training will be limited by whether or not your dog actually wants to do what you are asking.
When my dog wants to run across the road and to say hi to another dog, as the responsible protector of my dog living in a human’s world, I must retain 100% control which involves my dog understanding I will always have the last word. This is not a power trip, this is about what is best for my dog.
For the record though, occasionally I will find a situation, usually with an elderly or disabled handler, where we will adjust training to allow a certain type of jumping up for practical purposes.
Generally a client’s decision to be ‘kind to be cruel’ is fuelled by a view of training guided by emotions; how the owner feels in that particular moment, rather than what’s best for the dog long term.
It is very common for me to hear all the reasons why a dog handler hates how the dog jumps on all the visitors, how naughty the dog is, how inconvenient the problem is.
In the very next sentence, I’m told how much certain members of the family love to play wrestle and roll around on the ground with the dog jumping all over them.
Then, I’m informed how they push the dog away when it jumps up, turn away, say no, bark at the dog (the old ‘bah’ trick) etc etc. But while I’m sitting there the dog is currently standing with two paws on the owners lap getting a cuddle and a cute admonition about how it shouldn’t be jumping up because it’s so naughty!
I’m dizzy just watching. Imagine being the dog.
Fast forward a few weeks, training is going well, the dog has progressed to sitting for pats and jumping up has dropped by about 95%.
Then, around our 4th session, the owners have decided to change the rules again. I turn up, they are not prepared to train, they’re yelling at the dog not to jump before it even started, and are now stating they don’t wish to continue with correcting the dog for jumping up (albeit the very few times it now jumps up) as they actually like it jumping up some times for cuddles (for the owner’s benefit, rather than the dog’s). But not all the time! And not on visitors. Or the kids. Except when they are outside.
Back to square one. Besides the time and money put into training; forget that for a moment. We’ve got a dog that’s just been put through a behavioural modification process. While this is not painful, there are certain techniques that must be used to change particular behavioural cycles. These techniques are not fun for a dog.
To then stand there giggling at the dog for jumping up, or tell ourselves we’ll ‘get back into training later’, is nothing short of cruel. We owe it to our dogs to provide clear and comprehendible training to show them how to live happily in our world. Allowing a dog to do whatever it likes in this world is nothing short of inhumane.
Another fine example is dogs choking themselves to infinity on collars and choke chains on their daily walks (no, it’s not a check chain, it’s a choke chain, and it’s not an acceptable training device).
Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t make it ok: just because no one is doing it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. We’re so used to seeing dogs at the ends of their leashes, we see this as the dog being naughty, enjoying itself, normal, fun, etc. But if we saw someone walking a baby duckling the same way, the RSPCA hotlines would be running wild. Not to mention the facebook shaming…
A dog is not born to have a collar on it’s neck, so if we choose to place one there, we must find a way to teach it how to use it properly. If we cannot do that, or would rather allow the dog to enjoy it’s walk sniffing and pulling at will, a harness is a fantastic idea. A dog that pulls on the leash is not an inconvenience to the owner, it’s an injustice to the dog.
Whatever decisions you are making about your dogs welfare and training, always think ten steps ahead. In the long run, you’re going to benefit from a calm and happy dog, and your dog is going to benefit by having a life full of adventures with it’s favourite human.
"These posts are written weekly by myself, often inspired by the clients we see daily at Clever Paws, right here on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland."