After a break, we are glad to be back and in full swing again! Today's topic are ways that dogs and their behaviours can be misread, or misunderstood. We believe that there are many situations that can be avoided if owners and trainers would understand these differences - however, like everyone, people and dogs make mistakes, and its up to each and every one of us to understand the difference. We are listing only a few - the tip of the ice berg on the plethora of common misunderstandings that even we ourselves have been guilty of in our early days.
1) The Dominance/Aggression Blurred Line
This is by far the most common misunderstanding. Too many people think these two terms are synonymous, when they're actually two totally different behaviours. They can and do often come hand in hand, but a dog that does not show any shred of aggression can be a very dominant dog, and a dog that is not even remotely dominant can be very aggressive, as they both have different sources of instability. Dominance by itself is a dog's way of communicating that it is in total control; little things like toy possessiveness, couch laying, pulling on leash, wandering too far off leash, and constant barking among other behaviours can be symptomatic of dominance, when there is little evidence of aggressiveness. A better word for aggression-free dominance is "rude", or "doesn't respect the rules". When you add in a dog that is too self confident and knows it can use it's body as a way to assert that dominance, you get a dog that is dominant-aggressive - these dogs bridge the gap between the two behaviours, and are most common in pets that have not been taught proper rules, boundaries, and respect, and also are not getting enough of all the types of exercise needs a dog has. Aggression in and of itself can have many causes - only one of which is dominance. You can have a submissive dog that is very aggressive due to fear, or because they're in pain. Aggression is just a term used for dogs that use their body, voice, and teeth to communicate that they dislike something. Just like a dog can bite out of fear, they can bite out of dominance, pain, and many other reasons. While a dog possessing both dominance and aggression is commonplace, they are not the same thing.
2) The Excitement/Happiness Blurred Line
A close second in the most commonly misunderstood behaviours, many people equate excitement to happiness. While a happy dog is always the goal, many people equate human happiness to a dog's happiness - the more the better! Unfortunately, this isn't accurate. To a dog, calm and relaxed is happiness - anything more than that is unstable. We call this excitement. In most situations, excitement is a very bad thing. Excitement to a dog would be like a rush of illegal drugs to a human.While there are cases where you can use excitement to your benefit (training a solid recall, training a young puppy to do something they are nervous or scared about; encouraging an unconfident dog, ect), in the vast majority of cases, excitement is just as damaging to the dog and your relationship with them as aggression and fear. If their human allows and encourages excitement, they know that their human is allowing instability, and cannot be respected. How can you tell what is excitement? The main behaviour that is tell-tale is their tail. While most people associate a moving tail with excitement, it is a symptom of intensity. An aggressive or fearful dog will have a stiff-looking tail that may be stationary or slightly moving; an excited dog will have that tail loose, but moving really fast. The faster the tail, the more unstable the dog. At the top end, or "red zone" to use a common term, a dog will be running or bouncing, and their rear end will be wagging along with the tail. It's usual to assume a dog like this is happy, when in reality, they are absolutely psycho-level unstable. It just happens to be cuter than snarling, biting, killing, or peeing on the floor. Always aim for a dog that is calm, relaxed, and with a loose, flowing, slightly moving tail; not a ceiling fan on high.
3) Toy Dominance, Over-Excitement, and Normal Behaviour
Another commonly misunderstood behaviour surrounds toys. What is normal behaviour, what is not, and what is dominance? When should I stop a dog from playing? We get asked this question quite a lot. In the sense of toys, dominance should always be stopped, while over excitement should be properly addressed, utilized, and trained, and normal behaviour should be encouraged - but where are those lines? It obviously depends on the situation, but as a general rule, if it takes more than a couple seconds or one command to get your dog's toy from them, they are being dominant, or over excited. If your dog dodges you when you try and remove their toy, they are being dominant. If you have to be very quick and sneaky to get a dog to release it's toy, they are being dominant. If you have to plan when a dog gets a toy based on how they behave, or have to give them a toy to settle them down, they are being dominant. If your dog takes a toy and hides it or removes themselves to go play with it, they are being dominant. If when your dog has a toy and you have to fight with them to get it back, or if they do not listen to commands, they are being dominant. If your dog destroys a toy and doesn't seem to understand intensity control, they are being dominant. However, if you take a toy and they try to play tug with it or bounce around like a puppy, they are being over excited. If they see a toy and bounce or bark incessantly until you do something with it (like drop or throw it), they are being over excited. If you have to brace yourself when playing with your dog more than another dog of the same size class, your dog is more than likely being over excited. If you cannot successfully issue commands and get consistency, your dog is over excited. If you have to wrangle your dog to get their toy free, your dog is over excited. Normal, however, is a lot different. If your dog can listen to a command with a toy present, this is normal. If your dog shakes their head during play, this is normal, but it is also over excitement if it is allowed too far - they are literally practicing how to kill things. If your dog lays down with a toy and chews on it for long periods of time, this is normal - however, it is a sign they are overly bored and need to do something else. If your dog pulls the stuffing out of its toys, this is normal - however it borders on dominance, and should be stopped.
4) Leash Skills Blurred Lines
Most people think their dogs are excellent on leash - but would it surprise you to learn that this is rarely the case? The vast majority of people believe that a dog that doesn't pull hard or bite on the leash is being respectful - but in truth, they've only just barely mastered the first step of leash skills; the basics of leash manners. Most dogs before they're one should understand that concept - what a leash is (a connection of communication to the owner), and what it isn't (a toy or a source of frustration). Most people achieve this stage and start training off-leash, when they're nowhere ready for it. Critical leash skills that all dogs should know include understanding leash pressure and how to turn it off; how to safely follow leash direction and understand what it means; how to walk loose-leash; how to understand what a leash correction is, what it means, and how to properly respond; how to respond to directional stimulation (such as backing up, turning left and right, and stopping or sitting). If your dog doesn't know what any of this is, it does not have leash skills.
5) Playing - Safe, or Rude?
The line between a play and a fight is thin - but did you know there is a line as well between playing safely and rudeness? Both can look like play, but one is safe, and one is not. While rude playing can have all the hallmarks of safe play, the biggest difference is intensity, and how the other dog is responding to it. Everyone likes to see dogs playing, but is it wise to allow it to continue if your dog is being rude? Rude play can encourage and teach instability, and feed into other problem behaviours like dominance, aggression, and disrespect. A rude dog will often target the back of the neck, tee off, and mount the other dog, and the receiving dog will either bark and yelp, or fight back just as hard to fend off the behaviour. In both cases, the fight needs to stop. At any point if one dog is asserting their desires on the other dog, the play needs to stop. Many dominance fights can look a lot like rude play, and it can easily be missed. While a hierarchy between dogs is critical for balance, play time is not the time to establish that - especially with new friends, dogs with large age gaps, or dogs with vastly different personalities or energy levels. Play time should be expressly used to burn energy when the human does not have the time to engage with the dog themselves, and it should always be medium in excitement. Never allow a dog to get too far into dominant play, because they can and will use these skills outside of play and can quite often instigate a very serious fight - especially if the other dog doesn't appreciate being played with that way. It might be cute and an easy way to burn your dog's energy level, but it doesn't replace the one-on-one every dog needs with their human.
6) My dog is "just dumb".
Unless your dog has had its brain removed, or hasn't been trained whatsoever in a specific command, your dog isn't just dumb. Some dogs do take longer to understand a command than others, but all dogs, once they know a command, rarely forget it, and they understand full well what you want. Other dogs have a different "payment" system than you're using - such as a dog that prefers toys over treats, or won't work at all for just petting. 99% of the time, a dog that just looks at you when you give them a command knows exactly what you want, but knows that they don't have to take you seriously. This is called willful disobedience. A prime example of this is with a common rule; no dogs in the kitchen. If your dog knows they're not supposed to be in there, and knows what "leave" means, yet you find them underfoot every other step, and you have to tell them leave at least five times before they actually listen, they are not stupid - they just don't respect you. If you can't teach your dog a new trick, your dog isn't dumb - you're just not teaching it the way they need to learn, which can couple with a lack of respect. While truly "dumb" dogs are rare, if not next to impossible to find, the reality is, its the humans that are causing the dog to appear as if they're dumb. Dogs are not fools - they know exactly what they can get away with, and if you're not consistent, they will ride that dollar for all it's worth. If your dog is "just dumb", it might be time to take an inventory of how you're raising your pet - they're not as dumb as you think.
I've only addressed 6 of hundreds of issues that are often misunderstood - and I hope you've learned something!
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