|
Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Fran grew up teaching everything from chickens and goats to dogs and horses. These days, Fran works with DOG GONE IT rottweiler rescue, is registered with AKC as a Canine Good Citizen Evaluator and continues to train dogs in Las Vegas, Nevada. She also writes a canine question & answer column for a local news paper, The Hilltop & High Desert Shopper News.
Click here to join Fran's mailing list and receive an email each time a new
column is published.
 printer friendly
email this column
comment on this column
 |
|
Fran Williams
|
7/1/2005
Recently I was passed an email with an attached picture of a beautiful female dog that was missing. I, with all my heart, hope they get her back, BUT - it said she is afraid of people and that means someone, trying to catch her, could run her right out into traffic. We all know how that might end. It's hard enough on a dog that is lost, but you add “people fear” and you have just made that dog's chances 100% worse for making it back home to the people who love her. What makes dogs afraid of people, sounds, other dogs, horses, cars, etc.? It's lack of knowledge on the owner’s part to teach that dog about the world they live in - how unfair is that!
I have said a hundred times, if you do not have the time to train or teach or socialize your dog, then you should not have one. It's just so wrong, and it really gets me stirred up when I come across someone with a dog that bites, snaps, barks or shakes and hides when it is in its owners arms or by their side and they say, “Oh, it is just scared." Scared? Of what? A human, a child, bike, skateboard? Why does this dog have to suffer by being afraid of life? That tells me he has not been around people - or when he has, YOU, the owner are not doing your job. Every dog in this world should be taken out (on a leash of course,with a collar that cannot slip off its head if it does try to run) and walked down a busy street (to get them over their fear of cars ,movement and noise) or pass a school yard or pass a sports field where lots of things are going on - just keep walking likes it's no big deal - and the dog will soon learn "it's no big deal."
No dog should ever have to be afraid of normal daily lifetime things. When I have a new dog or pup, I take them to everything that makes noise or moves. Take them into town and walk them past the doors that open when you pass by. My dog, being a service dog, also rides in elevators and escalators. He even knows how to walk or stand on moving sidewalks. If he or she jumps, just keep going back and forth until they get that its nothing that is going to hurt them. Don’t cuddle them or baby them at this point as that will just increase their thought that there is something to fear when, in fact, there is not.
Most people (yes, strangers) would be
more than happy to help you with your dog. When I am in public with my Tilk, my problem is stopping people from touching him. So use this to get your dog used to humans: Just make sure you have your dog sit nice and calm by your side and then allow the person to come to you - never let the dog go to the person, never allow your dog (no matter how small) to jump on people. It is of course, best to do all this when they are young, but it's not impossible to get an older dog through this by just taking them out in the world.
Also, a dog that lives only in their own backyard will be scared of everything. A lot of people think, "Oh, my dog is so fierce" because he barks and carries on, but nine out of ten times, a dog that’s not social would run when someone comes over that fence or they would do worse and that makes an attack that you could not stop. A well-rounded dog has a better working brain and is much less likely to bite. Most bites are fear-based or misunderstandings. A dog that is used to people will protect his family and stand his ground, but with a working brain, he can tell the difference between a kid running by and a real attack on his people. The more you teach your dog, the more you take your dog out, the better his mind will work and you will have not only an animal that can think, but he or she will stand proud and carry themselves that way because they fear nothing. One of the comments I get most often on my dogs is, “They just seem so proud, almost as if they are conceited." Well, truth is, they know they are great and they know they fear nothing because they have all been out in the world since they where babies.
Oh yes, and another thing to get your dog used to is firecrackers or guns. Get something that makes that sound and just have someone make that noise while you play with your dog. If he runs, just coax him back into playing until the noise has no meaning for him. It's perfectly all right for the dog to STOP and LOOK at the point of the noise, but by teaching them this, when the Fourth of July comes around, there will be a lot less dogs lost or found dead because they ran in fear right into a car.
Okay, enough for now, so go hug your dog and take it for a walk.
Fran Williams Dog Gone I
|
Are you a trainer? Interested in being involved in the Ask a Trainer column? Click here!
|
Login 
