in my presence and accept me moving about close to him. He would still startle if surprised by a sudden movement, but given enough space he would choose to back away from me rather than attempt to get me to move. However, we still needed to give him some different options when meeting other people.
George and I started to watch Dave for unconscious reactions when he felt fearful and defensive. We videoed his behaviour and watched it repeatedly for clues. The most obvious of these was a tendency to move backwards one or two tiny paces before coming forwards again in a barrage of lunging and barking. George used the clicker to mark the ‘backing up’ behaviour, and then reinforced or rewarded it with a piece of food. He needed to be pretty accurate, but the exquisite timing of the click allowed this and we soon began to see results. Indeed, by the end of the session Dave was backing away four paces instead of just two. I sensed we might have a chance of encouraging him to choose that option in a moment of panic and sent the pair home to practise once again.
The following week I arranged a home visit to see how Dave and George were getting on. In this new setting, Dave was once again unnerved by the presence of a stranger, and barked at me from behind the safety of a baby gate across the kitchen door. George ignored this completely, knowing that any attempts at intervention or ‘discipline’ would only fuel the big dog’s anxiety. Instead, once Dave’s initial fear had subsided, he was brought in on a long line to allow him freedom but also keep him under control. Instead of rushing at me, teeth bared and frothing with saliva, Dave’s new-found option kicked in. He took one look at me and gracefully retreated, by neatly reversing out of the room. Encouraged by his own success, and lured by the sounds of George and I chatting and laughing about this new development, Dave soon reappeared – peering round the edge of the door to see what was going on. This of course elicited a click and treat from George, which brought the big dog another couple of paces into the room.
For the next twenty minutes, Dave shuttled back and forth, in and out of the living room doorway, in forward and reverse gears. Finally, discovering that this was rather tiring, he decided to come right in and say hello. This was the break-through we needed. Allowing him to make his own decision about whether to retreat or approach seemed to give him new-found confidence, which in turn helped to bolster his emotional state when he was around new people and new situations. While Dave was never going to be a dog to wear his heart on his sleeve, at least he had a strategy to employ when the going got tough. Quite literally, the tough got going.
TOP TIPS FOR COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR DOG
» Learning any new language takes a little time and effort. Try to think about how your dog is feeling, rather than simply imposing a human interpretation.
» Basic play gestures, such as the play bow, in which the front end is held in a low stalking posture and the dog’s bottom stays in the air, are easy to spot once you know what to look for.
» Dogs clearly experience emotions, but don’t be fooled into thinking they are the same as ours. For example, most dogs that appear to be looking guilty are really showing fear.
» Watch out for stress symptoms in your dog, especially in new situations or those that could present a risk – such as around children. Stressed or anxious dogs may react defensively so be proactive in removing your dog from a situation in which he’s showing signs of being uncomfortable.
» Watching video footage of your dog allows you to view in slow motion, repeat clips and to watch without sound – all of which will help you to notice subtle aspects of your dog’s body language and facial expression.
» Dogs don’t understand human words, so if you shout at your dog it probably sounds to them as if you are barking encouragement.
» Your tone of voice is important when talking to your dog – low tones can sound gruff, while high-pitched sounds can be exciting – but your body language is even more crucial. For this reason, try not to bend over your dog or stand ‘square on’ facing a dog that is lacking confidence.
» Dogs watch our body language and facial expressions avidly. They can easily tell when we are engaged with them or not, and can be encouraged or intimidated by even small changes in our posture and movements.
» Dog wraps and T-shirts can be a helpful tool when treating dogs with fear-based problems – however, in my opinion, that’s no excuse to dress a dog up like a human just for amusement. Dogs definitely look and function best in their own ‘ready-made’ outfits.
All too often, dogs showing aggression are labelled as dominant. Their owners are told they have no control because their dogs lack respect for them, and that they must re-establish their leadership in all manner of ways that domestic dogs are meant to understand.
When I see a dog that is showing aggression, however, I take a different route. I look for the underlying emotional state – and this, in the vast majority of cases, starts out as fear. Fearful dogs would always rather avoid confrontation. They don’t want to take risks or escalate the threat they are experiencing. It’s dangerous. Avoidance is not possible in many situations – we block dogs’ opportunities for flight by having them on the lead, in a kennel, or tied up – and this means they are effectively forced to take defensive action.
Once this has happened and the behaviour has been reinforced, or rewarded, by relief and success, then of course it is going to happen again and again. Unfortunately, for some dogs this new strategy is enough to alter their emotional state from one of fear to one of satisfaction. Now we have a dog that knows how to use aggression and enjoys it. That’s a whole different can of worms. The dog that had no way of coping has developed a strategy that works for him. Sadly, it is one that rarely works for us and in the worst-case scenarios the dog can no longer be kept as a family pet.
With this in mind, our mission should surely be to focus on prevention, rather than struggling for a cure. Puppies come into this world with a whole set of genetic potentials, and some of those will be connected to just how well they cope under pressure. While we would like our dogs to live a wonderful, stress-free life, the reality is that this can’t always be the case. Every day, I have to get out of bed too early, get ready in no time, go in the office, deal with e-mails, phone calls, traffic and technology, fix the printer, tussle with the mail, work my way through a hundred little annoyances – and that’s all on a good day! Dogs also have to deal with life as it happens, warts and all – and how they learn to do this, how they learn to build effective coping strategies, is largely up to us.
Case history: Amber, the cotton-wool Cocker Spaniel puppy
One of the most potent arguments that the old-fashioned ‘pack’ theorists rely on is that in order to live together, dogs – and, by default, people – must fit into a structured hierarchy. This notion was based on the work of a Norwegian zoologist called Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe in 1921. He looked at social systems amongst hens and developed the idea of a ‘pecking order’ – a hierarchy based on physical dominance, in which one hen would peck another in order to establish rank. The phrase ‘pecking order’ has become commonplace in everyday parlance in this country and many others to describe social hierarchy. However, it takes more than a single step to extrapolate chicken behaviour to that of the wolf or dog (or even humans), and this is where myth and reality part company.
Watch wild dogs hunting as a pack, and what you see is not a rigid hierarchy at work but a fluid and flexible team operation. In any group of wild dogs there will inevitably be some individuals that are particularly fast, light on their feet or agile. These may be the dogs that chase the prey animal to tire it, effectively corralling it towards other members of the group that have different but no less impressive skills. For example, there might be one or two dogs that are recklessly fearless, and these are the ones who get the job of hanging onto the prey’s nose until other heavier or stronger team members do what they are good at and bring the prey down. In such an efficient hunting team, no individual has supremacy over any other; in fact, each individual has an equally important part to play in their survival.