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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Today's column is written by one of our longtime members, Danya Leshick.
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2/3/2006
I am an animal rescue worker, not a big sports fan, but I did notice football games on TV over the Thanksgiving holiday, which reminded me of all the phone calls so many emergency wards and animal shelters around the country will be receiving this Holiday Season, as the country gears up for the big event, Super Bowl Sunday.
I can hear all of you asking, “What are you talking about?” Every Super Bowl Sunday, year after year, I receive a volley of calls from distraught dog owners wishing to have their animal either placed in a permanent refuge, or worse, they want the animal euthanized because the owners made one horrible mistake that has now altered their families’ lives forever.
Here’s the Scenario: A nice NORMAL family gets a dog. At first I considered it could be breed related, then I realized, after enough calls, that it is a situational problem and has nothing to do with breeds, except that large dogs are much more likely to experience this problem than small or even medium sized breeds. This may be because more large breeds are acquired for self-aggrandizement purposes. I mean lets face it getting a Chihuahua may get you girls, but it won’t get you far in the male world of tough, cool, and machismo. That’s the realm of “Big Dogs”.
The dogs involved are usually minimally raised (kind of like minimally processed meat), they live predominantly in the backyard, or are banished to some nether region where they can’t make the house dirty. On some big sports event day, like (but not limited to) Super Bowl Sunday, hubby brings the cool “Big Dog” in to show off to his male friends in a ritual of one-up-manship. A “Mine is Always Greater Than Yours” kind of thing.
The wife is usually busy making food for the males of the tribe, the children are camped out around the foot of the TV (the modern equivalent of the hearth, or fire), and the dog is laying beside them, because they (the children) are the only ones who go into the backyard these days, or to those nether regions where the dog hangs out usually.
The Game Begins! Lots of fanfare, burping, belching, eating of animal products here-to-fore unmentionable, and the occasional swil
ling of the alcoholic beverage. Half time comes and there is more excitement and more tension, more eating, belching, name-calling, and comparing scars (and I admit, more alcoholic swilling too), and The Game is back on. Everyone hunched over in excitement cheering the players on and there it is: the big touch down, the big score, the big MOMENT! All the men in the room jump up yelling, cheering, jeering, hollering, the excitement is too much.
The dog, never having played football, or ever made a touch down, thinks that perhaps they are all yelling at the kid and him. They are, quite frankly, directly in front of the pack of men, between the men and the TV. The dog is now confused and his pack mentality kicks in, they are a big pack, and the hunters are all going in for the kill. What is there to get? There it is; target acquired, The CHILD sitting next to him on the floor. He turns, with the rest of his pack, so he thinks in his naïve and inexperienced world. You do remember he’s been living untrained for the past 10 months, and he hasn’t been neutered because the hubby really subconsciously still thinks the poor dog needs them for some emotional instability that the owner has and that dogs don’t even get.
The point is that the dog lashes out at the nearest target that is subordinate to him in the hierarchy of the dog pack. That individual is usually the child next to him. Children get mauled every year because of this scenario; please don’t subject your child to such an experience. As a responsible pet owner protect your pet by protecting others. Never put your pet in a position where it could injure someone. Consider all the scenarios that could happen, no matter how far fetched and treat the situation accordingly, with not just supervision, but by actually handling the animal with a collar and a leash.
Even more, be a responsible pet owner and train your dog. Remember if it has teeth, it can bite. Train your dog to behave properly in new, confusing, or frightening situations. If we could just accomplish these simple things, lots of other behaviors around us would change too, and all for the better!
By Danya Leshick, Copyright 2005.
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