And A Dog Named Velvet

me:

Dogs in the snow…

The music is Slobberbone’s Gimme Back My Dog. I wish the universe would, but he’s gone and I miss him. 

Where shock collars are freely available there seems to be this persistent belief that if you can just be tough/fierce/scary/strong/alpha enough then the animal will ‘submit’ and have perfect behavior. This isn’t the case, and it’s super confusing for an animal to be surrounded by strong ‘DONT DO THAT’ messages without any positive ‘Do This’ messages, it can only guess at what you want.

Which also happens to mean they’re at increased risk of having to be put down, not to mention injuring, disfiguring, or even killing someone or something.

Once you get to the point where a dog has learned helplessness, there’s really very little you can do and they’re extremely hard to work with as a behaviourist. Because they don’t give off any signs of what they’re feeling until it’s too late, there’s a mountain of trial and error you have to go through before you can actually start working to help the dog. And every trial carries the risk of the dog reacting, which puts the people around in danger, can end the session early because the dog is in no mental space to continue, and can erode any trust the trainer has built with the dog.

(You also have to convince the owner not to do X and Y and have the owner be able to convince anyone who comes into contact with the dog not to do X and Y, which can be super difficult because I swear some people just want to be bit. I have lost count of the number of times people and clients have been told not to do X to their dog, only for them to do it in front of me, or admit to doing it at home, or letting family and friends do X, and then they wonder why all the training isn’t helping.)

Some dogs do respond well with specialized training and work, but others are too traumatized. The most that can be done for them is setting them up with a safe and calm space in a home with people who won’t push them, but in some cases the dog is so traumatized and so unsafe that euthanasia is the only humane option.

I can’t speak to things on the vet side of things, but dogs with learned helplessness are some of the scariest dogs to be around. They hide what they’re feeling for fear of punishment so you have no clue if the dog is fine and relaxed or if it’s getting close to 60. I’d rather deal with a dog that growls and muzzle-punches than one who seems perfectly fine no matter what, since at least with the former you have behaviour to react to and know where you stand.

We have a young golden retriever patient who was anxious and mouthy. He probably would have done great with positive reinforcement and anxiolytics. The owners (a lovely but gullible older couple) consulted the local Cesar Milan-style trainer who was all about the prong and shock collars, and now he’s fucking dangerous and really ought to be put down.

Two visits ago, he was giving all happy signals in the exam room, and I knelt and looked at his belly to check an area the owner was concerned about, and he nailed me straight in the face without ANY warning. No growl, no tensing up, nothing. Top jaw over my nose, lower jaw around my lips. THANK GOD it was just a warning bite and I was only bruised and sore for a few days. It could have been much, much worse.

And the scariest part was immediately after he was back to being lovey and trying to kiss my face, all loose, wiggly body language and everything.