Yuppi Puppi Blog

I read an interesting article in the Nova Magazine, which is a free holistic magazine available around Australia. This article was written by holisitc vet Dr Clare Middle and is very informative. I hope you folow some or all of these steps if you are having issues with you dog and it’s positino within the family.

Dogs can teach us some unusual lessons about the act of giving, in that giving too much can be a problem, just as not giving enough may be. Humans and dogs can form amazing and beautiful interspecies bonds. Providing firm discipline for your dog can be a much greater act of giving than not providing appropriate emotional boundaries for him by giving him treats or praise when it is not earned.

Unfortunately, humans can therefore tend to assume that dogs are more similar to themselves than they really are, and this can sometimes be detrimental to the dogs welfare. The “personification” or anthropomorphisation of our pets (which means treating them as if they are people) can cause significant problems with many dogs.

This may have happened because the dog woners were trying to do the right thing, but in order to treat dogs in the correct way, we really have to use our logical, not emotional, brain and know how dogs behave in order to treat the correctly. The important difference between dogs and humans is that dogs are very hierarchical and therefore seek to know and be sure of their place in the “dog pack”. Even if it is at a low level, they are happy because they then know the rules.

The unique open heartedness and affection of dogs can cause us to reciprocate our love and attention too often and at the wrong time, and in way which tell the dog that we are the underlings and the dog is the pack leader. This is never the correct order and can lead to severl problem dog situations:

• Anxious dogs with separation anxiety who worry all the time the owner is out, as the dog cannot carry out his perceived job of looking after you while you are not home. These dogs may howl, bark or even destroy property when the owner is out.
• Aggresive, over-dominant dogs who think it is their job to keep other dogs or people (even the owners partner or best friends) away from their owner. These dogs growl or bark at other dogs or people when out on a walk or even at home.
• Dogs who are continuously over demanding of attention, asking for pats or food treats or play, so that these activities become controlled by the dog, not the owners decisions.

If dogs ever see themselves as higher up in the order than they really are, then it places a huge and unmanageable responsibility on them, making them confused and stressed, and sometimes even dangerously aggresive to the point of needing euthanasia.

Training methods have improved markedly in that last decade or so due to more appropriate and scientific principles based on what the dog is thinking and feeling, and its natural physiology and psychology. The appropriate feeding of treats is an example of this. Dogs must earn a treat, and it must be a “chance” event so the dog does not expect a treat at the same time every dat, most especially if the treat has not been earned. Some people say they feel guilty if they don’t give their dog a treat whenever it asks for one. That is an example of humanising a dogs emotions, because the owner is assuming (incorrectly) that the dog will rationalise in an intellectual way like a human.

The most important ways to let a dog know you are the pack leader are the following:

• Always feed the dog after the humans in the house. This give sthe dogs a clear message they ar ethe last in the pecking order, which is what all dogs need to be told. For most households, the evening meal is the main one. this can be useful also as left over vegetables can then be saved for the dog. Once daily feeding is much better for most dogs than two meals a day.
• Always ignore your dog when you return home, until he settles. Only then, go up and initiate communication. This re-asserts your leadership status, as the leader may have been killed on the “hunt” while away from home, and the current leadership needs to be re-formed or re-confirmed back on home territory.
• Use your superior brain to catch dominant behaviour before it happens, such as growling at other dogs on walks or jumping up at visitors. Use correct training methods on wallks or lock the dog outside when the doorbell rings, whatever it takes to show the dog the correct behaviour and not to keep practicing the wrong behaviour.
• Keeping dogs as far away from the main bed or bedroom of the house will easily lower their pecking order to a lower and therefore more appropriate position.

It may take a day, at the most two or three weeks, for the dog to create a new emotional pattern. And your dog will be far happier and healthier in the long term. It is the owners responsibility as “pack leader” to initiate and establish these patterns. By law, a dogs behaviour is the responsibility of the owner, and this is important for owners to be aware of, not only because it can save you expensive fines if your dog growls as another dog or person, but because it may very likely make you and your dog healthier and happier.