We’ve been told we’re the pack leaders; we’ve been told dogs respect dominance.
We’ve been told not to let dogs go through a doorway in front of us, and we’ve been told never to let dogs on the bed or furniture without being invited.
This is nonsense, to put it plainly.
How do I know? The work I do at the shelter training 90-pound pit bulls, german shepherds, boxers, rotties and all kinds of powerful breed mixes has nothing to do with dominance. And what I do works.
I’ll give you a quick example that happened today on my morning walk with my own issue-laden and wonderful labradoodle, Maddie:
We ran into my friend Gavin and his amazingly intuitive border collie, Bud.
Maddie really likes Bud — he’s maybe the only dog she truly enjoys being around and doesn’t just tolerate — and it’s because he’s intuitive.
In short, he gets her. He picked up right away that Maddie doesn’t want to be sniffed, jumped on or focused on in any way. She just wants to amble along next to another dog and be left alone. That’s how she starts to feel secure and can trust the other dog won’t come at her and hurt her.
Bud got this right away and my dog now wags happily when she sees him.
As we walked together, Gavin and I talked about this and that. Let me tell you about Gavin:If not for our dogs, I doubt we’d ever spend 5 minutes in each other’s company.
He’s a strong-willed guy — what he says, goes. A real “my way or the highway” type. I can tell from our conversations that he’s like that with this family, and he’s like that with his dog. He’s also smart, powerful and clearly used to getting his own way. I think you get the picture.
As we were walking this morning, we heard barking from about 50 feet behind us. We all turned — people and dogs — and saw a portuguese wagging happily and pulling on the leash to get to us.
Maddie went into her usual “strange dog approaching” mode, which means lots of barking, yanking and seemingly aggressive behavior toward the new dog. (She really just wants it to go away and leave her alone.)
Bud, on the other hand, went into typical border collie mode: He flattened himself on the ground and began boring his eyes into the portuguese.
In the few seconds that these behaviors occurred, Gavin and I took very different approaches to keep our dogs moving forward instead of waiting to stalk/scare the other dog.
Gavin forcefully yanked Bud’s leash, physically uprooting him from the ground by his neck. I inwardly frowned (poor Bud’s neck!) but I can’t tell Gavin anything. I’ve tried. He’s always right, of course.
Another second passed, and Bud had tried again to flatten himself on the ground and wait for the new dog. Gavin yanked even harder on the leash and Bud was thrown into the air — and quickly decided it’s best to keep walking by his human’s side.
I on the other hand, reached into my pocket and pulled out a microscopic piece of cheddar cheese. “Quiet,” I said to Maddie. I pointed to my noise, which is our signal for her to look at me and pay attention to what I’m saying.
Not only did Maddie stop barking on the spot, but she sat and stared up at me. I popped the cheese into her mouth.
“Let’s walk,” I said to her, giving her my hand signal for walking (it’s like a “come on” wave with my hand at hip level). She trotted next to me, got another tiny piece of cheese — and never once looked back at the portuguese.
Gavin is a firm believer in dominance over dogs. He’s told me so. I’ve tried to put forth my argument, but Gavin is always rights.
But just look at today’s situation: 2 dogs, both interested in another dog to the point of halting the progress of our walk.
The real difference in how we handled it? I gave my dog something she wanted more than to bark at the dog behind us. Maddie wanted to do as I said and that made the whole process easy and uneventful — not to mention, painless.
Bud was simply being told the old “No, because I said so!” and was frustrated and clearly still interested in the dog.
It’s kind of funny, but Gavin wound up stopping so Bud could smell and play with the portuguese, while Maddie and I stood on the sidelines.
So Bud got what he wanted in the end but a) isn’t that confusing for him? and b) is his neck OK?
Forget dominance. Pit bulls become lap dogs if you give them a good reason to motivate them to sit, lie down or just stop pulling on the leash. The reason may be food, praise or a brief neck massage.
But the dog who wants to be trained is so much easier on both of you.
Half Full 