Neighbourhood Disputes-High Anxiety Street.
You have woken early as the sun is just peeping though the window and there is not a cloud to be seen anywhere.You are thinking it looks like a great day for a walk.
You stretch your limbs straight out, wriggling your toes as you kick off the blankets.
As you hop out of bed, you are wondering if Clara feels like you do, would she like to go for a walk too. Checking out the garden you see the first bloom of the summer roses hanging over the trellised fence, their perfumed odour fills your nostrils, boy they smell great. You have never seen them so big and plump at this time of the year, it must be the extra warm summer days we’re having. They smell absolutely wonderful. You pluck the most beautifully formed red rose to carry inside to Clara.
The smell of coffee brewing fills the air and you just know you are in luck, Clara must already be up and ready to go for that walk. As you enter the kitchen and get the whiff of buttered toast, you suddenly see Clara standing at the sink sipping coffee and munching on her last bite of toast. She’s wearing her joggers and tracksuit. You already feel yourself getting excited, and think to yourself this is going to be a great day. How could anything go wrong on such a wonderful day?
As you both walk happily through the front gate and reach the street, ‘Henry’ across the road yells loudly, ‘get away from my place, or I’ll rip your head off, you whiny little pip squeak. You begin to yell back, ‘leave me alone’, ‘just leave me alone okay?’; ‘do you hear me?’
‘Ignore him’, Clara urges as she sees you begin to get riled up. ‘Ignore him, he’s a fool.’ You finally get yourself together. You calm down and you now feel that you and Clara can continue on and enjoy your walk in peace. When suddenly from next door you hear another loud bellowing sound.
‘You look silly’, said the voice from over the hedges. ‘You look so silly’. The sound was getting louder now as you grew nearer. It was Jock. You could hear him yelling over the hedge but you couldn’t see him. You would know that lilting Scottish accent anywhere.
‘You look silly. What is that you are wearing? It looks two sizes too big. Clara should be ashamed of herself having anything to do with such a silly looking……………’
His voice trailed off as Clara’s voice broke through your feelings of anger, urging you past Jock’s house with her usual calming voice. ‘Ignore him, ignore him’, she implored you. ‘He’s a silly old fool, too miserable to go for a walk and enjoy himself.’
You plodded on now stressed and very anxious, no amount of Clara’s urging could calm you down. This was not at all what you envisaged your walk would be at all when you first got out of bed that morning.
Is this your neighbourhood?
Hopefully many of you would say ‘no’.
That is if you are a human being--but if you are a dog, there is a good likelihood it is.
Many inexperienced dogs or puppies go through this kind of thing daily and it causes them extreme anxiety each time their owners take them for a walk down the street.
Dogs behind fences rush at them barking, growling and threatening them as they go by for their daily walk. A walk for their owner might be a joy to behold and a pleasurable thing, but for their dog it can be a walk down Anxiety Street.
They are being traumatised every single step of the way and it brings into question ‘socialisation’ and what type of ‘socialisation’ is good for your dog and what type is bad for him and likely to cause severe behavioural problems as he matures?
To Socialise or not to Socialise that is the question
Dog owners are constantly told by everyone they meet that ‘socialisation’ is important if you want your dog to be well adjusted and a solid, upstanding doggy citizen.
Well I totally agree if it’s good quality ‘socialisation’, not the type that traumatises your dog or that causes fear and anxiety, resulting in long lasting remembered trauma.
Bark Busters are regularly asked to help dog owners that were traumatised by socialisation that was detrimental socialisation. Situations where as young puppies they were either walked through their neighbourhoods and subjected to intense situations that put the fear of death into them or where they were taken at a very impressionable young age to ‘leash-free parks’ where they were terrified by larger boisterous dogs that bullied the life out of them.
Taking your dog for a walk
Temple Grandin, PhD, and gifted Animal Scientist at Colorado USA (who I was fortunate enough to meet recently and to hear her talk at our Bark Busters USA national conference) says in her book ‘Animals in Translation’ (A Harcourt book-discussion guide available at www.HarcourtBooks.com) that dogs cope better with trauma if that trauma occurs when they are mature. She also says in the section titled: How an Animal’s Fears Grow-page 223 and quote: ‘Animal fears spread like crazy-animal fears spread in a hyper-specific way.’
We believe that taking young inexperienced puppies for a walk through streets where they will be approached by marauding dogs is not correct socialisation and in many young impressionable dogs will only instil ‘fear’. Situations where they are barked at by aggressive dogs behind fences can only serve to scare and traumatise them. This leads to either aggression towards other dogs as they grow and mature, or to pulling their owners down the street or pulling them over causing their owners to skin their knees as their dog tries to get home as quickly as it can to what it feels is a safe haven.
Leash free parks
Leash free parks are loved and extolled by many dog owners today, as great places to socialise their dog and they are a great social venues for dog owners where they have an opportunity to meet other dog owners and catch up on the latest gossip and doggy management tips. Some people would not know how they could ever survive without their leash free doggy park.
For those dogs that can cope with dog parks, those dogs that are social butterflies able to tolerate any kind of madcap rushing, rolling and playing with other just as confident exuberant dogs, this is doggy heaven.
However there are shy, withdrawn puppies and dogs that are unable to cope with these types of heavy petting, intense party atmospheric zones. These puppies and dogs have temperaments they were born with, that make them beautiful loving pets at home but unable to just jump in ‘paws and all’ to enjoy a leash free park, without suffering long lasting mental trauma.
Going to a leash free park can terrify and traumatise these type of dogs forever. Some never recover. They will shake and tremble or bark and growl every time their owners try to get them back to the park. Their owners feel like a social misfit, they wonder why their dog can’t be like all the others, what is wrong with their dog?
The story of Sasha a year old female Doberman, who according to her owner Jennifer, was very well socialised from a very early age should explain what can go wrong.
Sasha was taken by Jennifer to the dog park from the age of 3 months (the age her vet had told her it was safe to take Sasha out following her immunisations).
She said Sasha was fine with all of the dogs who approached slowly, sniffed her and moved on--until the day Nero, a big bossy German Shepherd, entered the park with his very fragile owner. She had little or no control of him and she was totally unable to stop Nero from bowling Sasha over in the dust and standing over her looking down into her eyes in a very threatening way.
This was very scary for an inexperienced puppy unsure of the big bad world out there. Jennifer said that the other owners had laughed, saying they saw this a lot and thought it was cute to see Sasha ineffectually snapping at the imposing hulk of Nero, saying she’ll get used to that.
Jennifer said from that day on, she began to see a big change in Sasha. She became very jumpy when she saw a dog approaching. Jennifer told us that Sasha would go into a mad panic trying to duck between her legs, hide under a park bench or she would see her just madly rushing to the end of her lead, pulling in the opposite direction each time she spotted a dog coming her way. Jennifer told me, that now walks were a nightmare. A puppy that had been happy, outgoing and well-adjusted was now cowering and fretful, unable to walk three paces confidently. She would cower in the car refusing to get out each time Jennifer tried to take Sasha back to the dog park.
The funny thing was Sasha was never afraid of people; she looked forward to greeting people as long as they did not have a dog attached to them. Jennifer had contacted us the day Sasha turned 12 months of age. She had that very day, attacked a dog that was being walked by its owner down the street.
You might be asking yourself how could this happen, how could a scary experience by a large dog on a young impressionable puppy turn Sasha into an aggressor when she matured? Why would she attack a perfectly innocent dog being walked down the street? What had he ever done to her?
You could just say it’s a coincidence. It was the result of a dog that was not socialised, bad breeding--the argument could rage on forever. But the truth is, Bark Busters see hundreds of dogs like Sasha every year that have become aggressive to other dogs and people (but that’s another story) and there is a pattern emerging, the pattern is as follows:
- Dog was attacked as a puppy by an adult dog. Dog became aggressive to other dogs when it matured.
- Dog was traumatised by dogs barking at them from behind fences when being walked down the street as a puppy. Dog began to launch itself at fences where dogs were barking as it matured.
- Dog was roughed up by another dog at the dog park. Dog became aggressive to all dogs as it matured.
- Puppy had happily greeted an adult dog while being walked on a lead by its owner when an adult dog snapped at it. Dog began attacking any dog it met while on lead but was perfectly behaved when off lead.
- Puppy was only frightened by other more confident dogs the first time it went to the dog park. Dog became aggressive with dogs everywhere it met them, even those at the dog park.
These are the most common reasons we hear about and the pattern we see emerging and yes, we do help these people rehabilitate these dogs. However we believe that prevention would be far better than the cure. We would much prefer that these puppies were not traumatised at all in the first place. Temple Grandin says “when dogs are traumatised, they never ever really ‘close the file’ on those feelings or the experience.”
I firmly believe making sure they don’t get that bad experience in the first place when in that very impressionable stage of their development has to be the better way to go.
You would have to wonder why in a society where dogs are being socialised more and more, are there a growing number of dog attack statistics, rather than a decreasing amount-who knows why exactly, but we definitely feel that the incorrect type of socialisation might be part of the problem.
What is the answer?
What is the answer; how do we ensure that our dogs are properly ‘socialised’ and how should we go about making sure our dogs are given the best possible chance in life?
How do we get our puppies their life experiences so they can be able to relate to other dogs in a confident non-threatening way?
Well I think we have the answer. Remember when you were a child and your parents tried to control the kind of friends you had and which ones they hoped you would not have anything to do with? Your parents knew what was best for you, even if you didn’t, they knew the type of kids they wanted you to play with and the ones they didn’t and the ones they thought might only get you into trouble.
This is the answer to the question of ‘correct socialisation’ that your vet keeps telling you is vitally important to your dog’s proper development, and they are right. So think about ‘the naughty kids up the street’ scenario and select those dogs that you know are friendly to other dogs, the ones you would prefer they socialised with and the ones that will not attack or frighten your young dog, ones that are not bullies and the types that won’t traumatise a young impressionable inexperienced mind.
Check out your friend’s dogs, who have the best dogs to begin your puppy’s education, who have gentle ‘puppy tolerant’ dogs that will accept your puppy and give them the best possible first time experience. Then as your dog grows and develops he will be more able to cope with the seamy side of life.
It is best to leave that seamy side until your puppy has matured, following some good socialisation experiences (with the right kind of well-behaved ‘puppy tolerant’ dogs).
12 months of age is about right and ,providing you have allowed him to socialise with the right kind of dogs, you should have a well socialised dog able to cope with life’s little ups and downs.
Happy socialising!!!! For more info on ‘socialising’ contact www.barkbusters.ca
Sylvia Wilson, Dog Behavioural Therapist
Bark Busters International
