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It's OK, He's Just Being Friendly
It’s OK, He’s Just Being Friendly
by Debbie ConnollyThis morning I walked my dogs down a public right of way to an open space used by dog walkers. Once there, my dog still on the lead, a collie cross raced over, barking with hackles up. I looked up for the owner. My GSD was being good but won’t tolerate this sort of thing. I saw a woman smiling over at me. Knowing my dog would like to bash this one, I asked her to call her dog back. “It’s ok”, she said, “He’s friendly”………
Was this woman blind or stupid? Her dog was behaving in a clearly “bring it on, I can fight you” stance and I was obviously the only one who could both understand and control my dog. After telling her mine wasn’t friendly and asking her again, I got fed up. By now she was closer, looking at my dog but not doing anything. Hers was getting closer.
I said “Either call it back and move it or I’ll release mine and she will kill yours and you can pick up the pieces”.
Add a few swear words of your choice. She then went a bit pale and grabbed repeatedly at her dancing, growling dog, eventually fighting it into having its lead put on.
“Don’t let the b#@&#y thing off the lead if you can’t control it, one day you’ll meet someone as stupid as you and your dog will be dead” I shouted. She, of course mumbled away. No apology.
This is one of my real bug bears. Can owners really not see aggression? Why is it ok to let your dog run up to another dog, jump all over them, and the owner simply says “It’s ok, he’s friendly”? Even if this was true, why should I bother trying to keep mine under control not to hurt yours, when you don’t do it?
It’s a funny thing to define, aggression. I also get fed up with the number of calls and emails that start with “my dog is fear aggressive…..” This has become the “acceptable” face of aggression. Somehow fear aggression is acceptable whereas simple aggression isn’t. A dog recently that I worked with was defined by its owner and a trainer as fear aggressive. This dog ran up to other dogs, postured, threatened and if they didn’t submit, attacked them. Where exactly was the fear? It wasn’t afraid of anything.
I pointed this out and explained the confident posturing and provoking behaviour of this dog was aggressive, not fear driven. A very disappointed owner said she was embarrassed by this as telling people it was afraid made her feel it was ok? It was still trainable and proved so, but working with it as if the dog was fear driven was never going to work, which is why, until this point, nothing had worked.
With young dogs, boundaries are very important. Owners want their dog to be friendly and allow or even encourage them to run up to other dogs. When their puppy gets bigger and some get overly pushy, they can’t stop them because they never taught them to wait for permission. Or they own a puppy that persistently jumps on every dog it meets and the owner of the puppy gets annoyed when older dogs tell it off rather than saying “thanks, your dog has taught mine an important lesson that might save it from attack one day”.
Owners encouraging their dogs to go mad at the door or to passing dogs and cats simply should have their dogs removed. When these dogs one day race out of the door and attack the first thing they see, the dog gets the blame instead of the idiot owner.
Stop letting your dog off lead if you can’t control it. You don’t know whether the dog it races over to might kill it or even whether the dog has a fear problem or medical condition that could have serious consequences for your victim.
I know of a case where an abused collie with epilepsy was found a fabulous home. Gradually the dog had the confidence to go out, not off lead and walk quietly around the area. A local dog, that was a damn nuisance, came racing over, barking madly and trying to jump on the terrified collie. Despite the owner’s pleas for the moron who owned it to come get it, with the usual shouts of “it’s friendly” and her calls that her dog was afraid and ill, he casually walked over to finally get his dog just as the poor collie hit the floor in a major fit.
As there wasn’t much she could do while the dog was fitting, she went ballistic at the man who by now was rather pale and trying to get away. THIS is why we say keep your dog away, this is why we shouldn’t have to tolerate the selfish dog owners who think other people should train and accommodate their dog because they are too lazy to do it.
There are never ending stories of dogs attacking, even killing children and other animals. It never improves, the stories are often similar. Dogs with a history of aggression, owners who know this yet don’t bother to neuter or get some help, police not responding early when the problem would be easier to sort. I’m not talking just about “status” dogs, plenty of “ordinary” owners cause problems just as serious.
Aggression is the result of many things. Breeding can raise status to the point that dogs want rid of every other dog as they are competition. Breeding from bad temperaments and not health testing usually results in dogs intolerant because they have inherited it or are in pain. But lots of it is simple. It is owners who do stupid things with their dogs and are too idle to train them properly. Owners who hide or work round problems rather than admit there is a problem and sorting it out.
Don’t make excuses. It isn’t “just the breed” or “he doesn’t mean it, he’ll be fine in a minute”. Get help early and give your dog the life it deserves before it is you in the papers. If you play fight or teach your dog bad behaviour then you will pay the price. Or sadly, your dog will.
Was this woman blind or stupid? Her dog was behaving in a clearly “bring it on, I can fight you” stance and I was obviously the only one who could both understand and control my dog. After telling her mine wasn’t friendly and asking her again, I got fed up. By now she was closer, looking at my dog but not doing anything. Hers was getting closer.
I said “Either call it back and move it or I’ll release mine and she will kill yours and you can pick up the pieces”.
Add a few swear words of your choice. She then went a bit pale and grabbed repeatedly at her dancing, growling dog, eventually fighting it into having its lead put on.
“Don’t let the b#@&#y thing off the lead if you can’t control it, one day you’ll meet someone as stupid as you and your dog will be dead” I shouted. She, of course mumbled away. No apology.
This is one of my real bug bears. Can owners really not see aggression? Why is it ok to let your dog run up to another dog, jump all over them, and the owner simply says “It’s ok, he’s friendly”? Even if this was true, why should I bother trying to keep mine under control not to hurt yours, when you don’t do it?
It’s a funny thing to define, aggression. I also get fed up with the number of calls and emails that start with “my dog is fear aggressive…..” This has become the “acceptable” face of aggression. Somehow fear aggression is acceptable whereas simple aggression isn’t. A dog recently that I worked with was defined by its owner and a trainer as fear aggressive. This dog ran up to other dogs, postured, threatened and if they didn’t submit, attacked them. Where exactly was the fear? It wasn’t afraid of anything.
I pointed this out and explained the confident posturing and provoking behaviour of this dog was aggressive, not fear driven. A very disappointed owner said she was embarrassed by this as telling people it was afraid made her feel it was ok? It was still trainable and proved so, but working with it as if the dog was fear driven was never going to work, which is why, until this point, nothing had worked.
With young dogs, boundaries are very important. Owners want their dog to be friendly and allow or even encourage them to run up to other dogs. When their puppy gets bigger and some get overly pushy, they can’t stop them because they never taught them to wait for permission. Or they own a puppy that persistently jumps on every dog it meets and the owner of the puppy gets annoyed when older dogs tell it off rather than saying “thanks, your dog has taught mine an important lesson that might save it from attack one day”.
Owners encouraging their dogs to go mad at the door or to passing dogs and cats simply should have their dogs removed. When these dogs one day race out of the door and attack the first thing they see, the dog gets the blame instead of the idiot owner.
Stop letting your dog off lead if you can’t control it. You don’t know whether the dog it races over to might kill it or even whether the dog has a fear problem or medical condition that could have serious consequences for your victim.
I know of a case where an abused collie with epilepsy was found a fabulous home. Gradually the dog had the confidence to go out, not off lead and walk quietly around the area. A local dog, that was a damn nuisance, came racing over, barking madly and trying to jump on the terrified collie. Despite the owner’s pleas for the moron who owned it to come get it, with the usual shouts of “it’s friendly” and her calls that her dog was afraid and ill, he casually walked over to finally get his dog just as the poor collie hit the floor in a major fit.
As there wasn’t much she could do while the dog was fitting, she went ballistic at the man who by now was rather pale and trying to get away. THIS is why we say keep your dog away, this is why we shouldn’t have to tolerate the selfish dog owners who think other people should train and accommodate their dog because they are too lazy to do it.
There are never ending stories of dogs attacking, even killing children and other animals. It never improves, the stories are often similar. Dogs with a history of aggression, owners who know this yet don’t bother to neuter or get some help, police not responding early when the problem would be easier to sort. I’m not talking just about “status” dogs, plenty of “ordinary” owners cause problems just as serious.
Aggression is the result of many things. Breeding can raise status to the point that dogs want rid of every other dog as they are competition. Breeding from bad temperaments and not health testing usually results in dogs intolerant because they have inherited it or are in pain. But lots of it is simple. It is owners who do stupid things with their dogs and are too idle to train them properly. Owners who hide or work round problems rather than admit there is a problem and sorting it out.
Don’t make excuses. It isn’t “just the breed” or “he doesn’t mean it, he’ll be fine in a minute”. Get help early and give your dog the life it deserves before it is you in the papers. If you play fight or teach your dog bad behaviour then you will pay the price. Or sadly, your dog will.
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