Every week I meet dog owners who suddenly find themselves with dogs they can't handle.
How does this happen?
For example?
Let's call this
dog one: A couple wanted a dog. Both came from dog owning lives with their families and decided to go to the local Pound to have a look.
A dog took their eye. A Border Collie fluffy, who knows cross, black and white and tan. Ears on end with an almost Pappillon look. Twelve months old.
They paid the money and took the entire bitch dog home in the car.
On the way home the dog started howling in the back seat and then threw up. They stopped the car and as they opened the rear door to calm the dog, she tried to escape and as she tried she lashed out and bit the ,female owner on the shoulder drawing blood.
They tied the leash to the back seatbelt anchor and continued home somewhat in shock.
What had gone wrong here to date?:
1. This unknown dog was put into a car virtually loose. Either they should have had a crate to put the dog into or a crate should have been provided by the agency selling the dog.
2. There was no handling management plan in place and the dog was not muzzled.
The couple were unnerved, but decided that the problem was that the dog had been in a cage for some weeks and needed exercise to get rid of its excess energy.
They realised the dog would need to be on leash for this exercise so they decided to stop at a park they knew well on the way home and, as they were an athletic couple and had their running shoes in the car, they would take it for a run.
As they set out on the run the dog had it's ears flat and it's tail between it's legs, it was panting copiously and simply flew in all directions on a very inadequate leash and tripped them up, growled and tried to turn and run the other way.
So they gave up and put it back in the car, where it calmed considerably and actually laid down on the ten minute journey to it's new home.
The dog did not want to leave the car, but they insisted, pulling it out by its collar and lead, it then flattened itself on the garage floor and would not move. They had to give up and leave it there.
What more had gone wrong here?:
3. The Dog was already well out of it's comfort zone, so taking it to another strange place and expecting it to run along side two running people, on a short leash was just beyond this dog's emotional capabilities.
4. The Dog had adopted the car, felt relatively safe there, so pulling it out was really the last straw, the dog needed to be left in the car in the garage, maybe with the doors of the garage shut and a bowl of water provided, to come to terms with yet another environment.
The couple opened the garage door to the deck of the house and slowly the dog made its way onto the back lawn where they fed it and it started to relax. The barbecue was going and the young woman was going back and forth to the house, because - guess what, they had invited six other couples over for dinner and drinks that very night. The dog bit one of the house guests and was shut back in the garage for the rest of the night.
On Monday morning I received a call from a destraught new dog owner to say they were not sure that they could keep the dog because it seemed to have a lot of issues and was very difficult to handle.... We think she needs to come to training classes, she said.
Just think about the Emotional Overload this dog had suffered, probably not just with this couple but with previous owners as well. A lot of people think dogs get neurotic because they are beaten and mistreated, I usually find those dogs respond very quickly to quiet confident handling, but those who have suffered panic and confusion and are rushed upon by people and new events, get very damaged and need a lot of laid back calm slow patient handling to get back on track. It could take up to twelve months to reassure a dog that 'this place is good'.
So if you are going to rescue a dog from a fate worse than death, make sure you do not add to it's troubles. Go directly home, give the dog a week of quiet life before you introduce anything, just let it muck around at your place with a bunch of good food, clean water and a little bit of sticking to doing things at the same time every day. Breakfast at 7a.m. dinner at 7p.m. A little bit of backyard leash training, see if she knows how to sit.
Oh and I forgot to mention our poor bitch dog above was booked to be de-sexed in the first week of her new life. I told them to cancel it and make her happy first. De-sexing her was the least of their worries.
So I hope everybody catches on to slowing down when they bring a new dog home, whether it is a pup or an adult in need of a new place to hang it's collar, the method is the same, slow, quiet, gentle and consistent. No loud voices, or party time - for the moment anyway.
Raewyn Saville, August 2012
