WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW AT LEAST A BIT ABOUT DOGS:

Whether you own a dog, are considering getting a dog, or even if you have no intention of ever taking on such a responsibility, it is inevitable that at some point you will meet up with one.

Knowing just a little about these popular furry companions – how to read their mood and intentions, how to behave around them, how to have your children act toward them, and what to take into consideration during festive and social occasions – will help to ensure that those meet-ups are a positive experience for all involved.

Quick Links to Page Contents:

• Thinking Like a Dog
• Good Dog, Bad Dog
• Being Around a Dog
• Dogs & Children
• Dogs & Festivities

THINKING LIKE A DOG:

Dogs do think, they just don’t think like us! All sentient creatures are guided by the senses. For us, our primary sense is our sight, and our primary means of communication is through vocalisation. For dogs, it is all about their nose and their body. It is through smell that they make sense of their world, and it is through their body language that they primarily communicate their mood and intentions.

The interesting thing is that, like humans, not all dogs think the same way nor smell the world in equal measure. While a lot of it is borne out of breed differences, there is also marked variation between individuals within breeds, owing not only to direct hereditary traits but also to learned experience and their respective upbringing.

Along with smell, a dog’s ability to hear is more acute than our own, but not their vision, so chances are a dog will have smelled or heard you well before he has spotted you.

Once he has, though, you can interpret his thoughts and feelings regarding your approach (or lack thereof) from the position of his ears to the orientation of his tail. And with this understanding, you may even be able to respond in kind, such as to indicate to him through your own body language that you are not a threat.  One of the best ways you can achieve this is to avoid direct eye-to-eye contact, slightly angling your body and face away, and dropping down on your haunches so that you’re not looming over the dog.

Once you have established that you mean no harm, the dog may approach you to sniff. He is not only smelling for potential treats you may be carrying, he is also giving you a scent-greeting. So consider his extended muzzle as you would an extended hand, and hold out your own hand, palm up, for him to smell.

For more information on how dogs think, please refer to our page on ‘Dog Intelligence’, and for further detail on how dogs communicate, and how you in turn can communicate with them, please read our page on ‘Dog Body Language & Communication’.

GOOD DOG, BAD DOG:

Dogs are amoral. They do not have an innate sense of right and wrong. A disobedient dog is not a ‘bad’ dog, it is simply one that has not been sufficiently trained for what we consider to be socially responsible behaviour. Equally, an obedient dog is only being ‘good’ in our eyes, not in the eyes of the dog itself, nor any other pooch who happens to be wandering past at the time. The dog is responding to our cues and commands because of the bond that has been created between human and animal. He is simply responding out of love, loyalty, and trust… and perhaps that morsel of cheese you may be holding out.

The key to obedience, and hence to socially responsible behaviour, is training, and the key to good training is consistency, patience, and persistence. With a lot of repetition!

Dogs feel more secure when you establish boundaries for them. In effect, you are creating a safe space in which they can relax and be themselves. The important thing is to communicate clearly and consistently about what those boundaries are, and then to help the dog by not setting it up to fail. This way, the dog will see you as its protector, and when it responds to your cue it will be more likely to do so out of love, loyalty, and trust… and not solely for that tasty treat.

You may well ask: If a dog is neither bad nor naughty, then how do you explain aggression, inappropriate toileting, food theft…? The fact is there are numerous causes for all problem behaviours, none of which have anything to do with ethics.

Aggression in dogs is more often a result of fear than assertive behaviour. Any breed is capable of aggression if subjected to poor upbringing, inadequate socialisation, and bad training. And it is not simply the so-called ‘dangerous’ dog breeds that can behave aggressively. The chief distinction between an aggressive Pitbull and an angry Poodle is the strength of their respective jaws and hence the amount of damage that each can inflict. What is important to understand about each dog is what are its triggers, its reactivity threshold, as well as whether it has sufficient bite inhibition.

Inappropriate toileting can stem from stress and anxiety, inadequate training, or even an underlying medical reason. Shouting and rubbing a dog’s nose in it will teach the dog little more than that you have an undeniably cruel streak, will only make your dog more anxious, and hence more likely to repeat this behaviour again and again. Treating the underlying cause for this inappropriate behaviour will yield a better result than simply assigning blame.

Providing clear and consistent boundaries as well as support and security will go a long way toward fostering a healthy relationship that is built on trust and affection. There is no such thing as a good or bad dog, only a loving, appreciative one.

For more information on how dogs behave, as well as how to tackle problem behaviour, please look at the information provided on our ‘Dog Behaviour’ page, and for further detail on how to train your dog, please refer to our page on ‘Training Your Dog’.

BEING AROUND A DOG:

As has already been noted, dogs primarily communicate through body language, and so your body language and movement will tell a dog a lot about your own mood and intentions.

And while a dog may not express itself through language, it still expresses itself vocally and through varying tones that express very different emotional states. High pitch tones tend to express anxiety or excitability, while lower tones denote confidence and assertiveness.  Recent studies on communicating with dogs suggest talking in a high-pitch tone with exaggerated emotion, incorporating words like ‘good dog’ and ‘good boy’, works not only for puppies but for adult dogs, making them pay more attention as well as showing affiliative behaviour toward the person engaged in that sing-song style of talking.

A dog’s mode of play is to express itself in exaggerated movement and body postures, while its means of expressing assertive-aggression is to stand stiffly upright and with a direct stare.  So how is a dog to read the stiffened posture of a dog-phobic individual staring warily at it from across the park? Or a child screaming and running madly away, with arms waving in the air? The dog-phobic individual would most likely be perceived as a threat while the screaming child might be seen to be soliciting play.

All that a dog knows is what it is told, and how it is told, through body language and through tone. If you cuddle and reward a dog while it is feeling scared or anxious, you are in effect telling it that it is good to be scared or anxious. It is better to distract the dog from its negative emotional state, and then once relaxed provide the praise and reward.

While dogs come in all shapes, sizes, and colours, so too do human beings. And not only that, but we also dress in a variety of colourful garments, wear all manner of headdress, and navigate around with the aid of a range of devices, from bicycles to walking sticks. If your dog hasn’t been educated from an early age to understand that all these things are in part an extension of the humans that he loves, he may become fearful and react aggressively toward those who look different, act different, or move around in a way that he perceives to be strange or threatening.

The best that you can do for your pooch is to maintain a calm assertiveness, let him know that he can feel secure as you will protect him from harm, and introduce him to as broad a spectrum of people, places, and things as you can from an early age, so that he understands not only what it is to be a dog but also what it means to being around humans.

DOGS & CHILDREN:

Most children love dogs, or at least an idealised version of what they believe a dog to be, while those children that are cautious or fearful tend to be so because of some past negative experience. In order to ensure that first introductions are positive for both parties, it is important that all interactions between dogs and children are carefully managed. Remember: Dogs will be dogs and children will be children, but you are the adult in the room.

It is important to teach all children that dogs are individuals, too, and just because one dog likes to be petted, it doesn’t necessarily follow that another dog will appreciate the same treatment. Each dog should be shown the same regard as you would when greeting anyone else for the first time. It is through gradual familiarity that friendships are formed.

How would the child feel turning up to a party where he knew no one, and being surrounded by a group of children all wanting to talk to him? So, too, when introducing a dog to a group of children, it is best that it be done on a one-to-one basis. Let each child take it in turn, with only a brief introduction before giving the dog some respite. Always ensure that the dog has a safe space to retreat to, especially at noisy times, and that the dog should not be followed or chased, nor touched inappropriately, especially around the head or the tail.

The best safeguard you can put in place is to teach a child never to approach a dog but to allow the dog to come to them. Certainly they should never approach at the dog’s eye-level, be that standing or crawling, or putting their face to close to the animal, as this can seem incredibly threatening.

When it comes to food, it’s best to keep children and pets apart. That goes not only for while the children are eating but when the dogs are eating, too. Even when preparing either the dog’s food or the children’s dinner, it is best that the other party not be around. Dogs tend not to enjoy being distracted when their food is about to be served, while they are all to happy to help themselves to the children’s food when you yourself become distracted in the kitchen.

Finally, children should be taught to always ask permission of a dog’s owner before stroking a strange dog, and be prepared to be politely declined from doing so. As an owner, don’t feel bad for turning a child’s request down if you feel your dog is not happy to be stroked. First and foremost, you are your dog’s protector, and inasmuch as you establish rules and boundaries for him so too should you establish boundaries to protect him.

DOGS & FESTIVITIES:

Festive occasions, such as birthdays, Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving, tend to be both joyous and costly events, involving decorations, gifts, and specially cooked meals. For a dog, they can be just as exciting but equally, just as costly.

Decorations, be they on Christmas trees or hanging low on walls and doors, can pose an irresistible temptation for dogs to paw at or to chew. This can be dangerous if these decorations include an electric cable, such as Christmas tree lights, or if accidentally ingested. Ensuring all decorations are out of paw-reach or that careful supervision is maintained will help to keep additional costs, such as emergency veterinary bills, down, and will allow your dog to enjoy the festive occasion with you.

Keeping a close eye on presents is also of paramount importance. You may not want your child sneaking under the Christmas tree to peak at what he will be getting, but equally you would not want Fido to do the same, lest your child discover on the big day that his present is a used toy… used by Fido the night before! Children’s toys, as well as presents of food and drink, are all magnets for a dog’s curiosity.

And if the decorations haven’t enticed your dog or the presents not invited his attention, then the food that is to be served surely will. Knowing what human foodstuff is or is not toxic to a dog is vital to keeping your pet safe on these special occasions.

Festive food that is toxic to dogs include: Chocolate, grapes, certain nuts, raisins, as well as many vegetables of the Allium genus, such as garlic, leeks, onions, and shallots. Added to this are some of the popular Christmas treats, like mince pies and Christmas pudding.

The festive occasions that your dog will most certainly detest will be those that include fireworks. You may not be able to prevent others around you from setting off fireworks in their own homes, but if you have taken on the responsibility of owning a dog then you have committed to not setting them off yourself, certainly not at home while your dog is present.

There are steps you can take to mitigate the effect of fireworks on your dog, such as by purchasing a Thundershirt, which is a snug-fitting garment that targets certain pressure points on your dog’s body, thereby inducing a state of relative calm. There are also pacifying diffusers that emit de-stressing pheromones to calm an anxious animal. But the point remains: Were you to set off fireworks on your property – a space that your dog perceives to be a safe space – you may very well scar your dog for life, even were you to invest in such remedies.

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