Animal Communications
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How Humans Communicate With Dogs
(Or Why Dosen't He Understand What I Want???)
by Brenda Aloff
The way humans communicate can be very confusing for dogs. When people meet, eye contact is considered polite. With dogs eye contact is a matter of direct challenge, and can make some dogs feel very threatened. Timid dogs can become frightened by direct eye contact from strangers. Very assertive and/or aggressive dogs may consider you challenging and become defensively aggressive.
Many dog bites occur when someone bends over to pet a dog - we are trying to be friendly, yet the dog interprets your gesture as threatening. A common posture is when Alfie rolls over, exposing his tummy. He is saying "I respect you, and don’t want you to hurt me, and I want you to know I won’t hurt you.". It can also signal "I want a belly rub”. Please don't think submissive means timid or is a bad connotation for a dog. (Remember how great it was to be a small child where adults just "took care of things"?)
A dog that knows the rules and understands about having limits placed on her behavior is much less stressed than the dog who keeps having her rules changed by a well meaning owner who is unaware that they are even behaving inconsistently, and continually sending conflicting messages to his dog about who is in charge.
If a dog signals submissiveness to another dog the dominant dog will "stop" aggression. We can learn a lesson here from our canine friends. Whether Alfie greets you by running up to you and rolling over, even perhaps urinating a bit, or displays this behavior when you yell at him, Do not be cross or sharp with your submissive puppy. He is doing his best to say "You win - I'll do what you want - if only I could understand what it is". He is only trying to please you by showing you that he knows you're in charge, and is showing you respect, the only way he knows how.
Continuing aggression by yelling or swatting a submissively wetting dog signals to your dog that you are psychotic, and perhaps not to be trusted. Dogs constantly placed in this situation will display what psychologists and ethnologists call "learned helplessness". They resign themselves to their fate because there is no communication flowing and their situation is hopelessly beyond their control.
If your puppy wets in greeting, your best move is to ignore it and do not pet the pup when he is in a submissive position. Many just outgrow it, as they establish better control of their bladders. If your puppy is wetting from harsh treatment - you must avoid the kind of punishment which causes the behavior. Teach a "recall" exercise so you can call the puppy to you and enforce a stand position with a cookie.
Teach the puppy that people, all people, are "good news", and mean pats and cookies or games. Socializing for the timid pup is very important. The more self confident he becomes the less he will display this behavior. There are specific programs to help owner and dog teams overcome this kind of behavior "rut". I can remember swatting a pup for submissive wetting, before I knew better. But once you do know better, it's nice to know that you don't have to perpetuate the behavior!
Hitting or scolding a submissive pup only makes the problem worse! Alfie, a 16 week old puppy plays with Fletcher by placing his paws on Fletcher's shoulders and growling. Is this cute? What Alfie is doing, as he matures, is looking for his place in the pack. Fletcher ignores Alfie for a while, then "woofs" in his face, startling the puppy. Fletcher has a pretty mild mannered outlook, but Alfie still gets the idea. "Move on youngster!"
On the other hand, the first time Alfie approached Breanna, the alpha bitch in my pack, he placed his nose on her shoulder whereupon she whirled around with a growl, pinned him to the ground and in no uncertain terms let him know that he wasn't moving up in pack status today! As soon as he said "uncle" she let him get up and ignored him for about five minutes, then invited him to play a little tag.
I like my puppies to know that they are not "super puppy" and undefeatable. By challenging an older dog the puppy is being rude, and it is rare that a well-socialized adult will hurt a pup. Most adults will behave similarly to Bree, correct the pup just like mom would, then let the whole incident drop and go about their normal business. This is a good lesson for the puppy, and if you can get hold of a reliable and well-socialized older dog, it is well worth the effort, and can put an uppity pup in his place, making your job of training easier at the same time.
Learning to accept "your place" is a valuable lesson for Alfie. If your dog puzzles you there's a reason. Suddenly misbehaving? Look for physical reasons first - ear infections, sore muscles from that long run yesterday. . .I myself had a bitch who occasionally favored her left hind leg, just for a step or two she would take a hop step. We checked her joints, her feet, her back; she never refused to jump and was very active. At almost two years old, in a little tussle with my older bitch, (those books you read that say most of your vet bills with multiple fox terriers will be from dog fights. They were right…) she ended up with a very large, irregular shaped swelling in her left flank. It appeared quite suddenly and as I felt around the area, I discovered I could shove most of the swelling up into a little hole. She had developed an Inguinal Hernia. When my vet performed an operation the following day, it became obvious that the defect was congenital, and the scarring of her guts indicated that it had been causing my poor puppy problems for some time.
Dogs don't just "make things up". If they steal food, it's because it tastes good - they aren't trying to "get you". If they don't obey, they don't understand. If they willfully disobey, you better take a look at communication skills with the dog (take your breed into account!) and change your training program accordingly.
How Humans Communicate Continued... "Rewards"
© 1-12-1994 B. Aloff #794 Rev 2 |
