Extrasensory Doggie Perceptions

Last night, OrganFam crowded around the speaker phone in the study to honor our appointment with a dog communicator in Georgia. First she asked his age and breed and what his appetite was like. After a moment, she asked us what we wanted to know from our dog and proceeded to interpret for him. We began the conversation with Anita skeptically, but were soon disabused of our suspicions of fakery.

First, some backstory. Shem, our very intense 3.5 year old male, had changed quite a bit about 8 months back, shortly before the puppy joined the family. His crate was in our study and most evening would find us amiably coexisting at our stations; my husband me at our desks and Shem hanging out in his crate. Then furhead began to defend his crate and growl serious warnings, eventually actively warning off Monkeyface and her friends whenever they were near his crate. This got so bad that Shem would bark or growl whenever certain small people were near the study itself.

About two months ago, it got to the point where Shem actually jumped and nipped at my foot when I walked into the study. We kept his crate locked by that time, thinking that if he couldn’t get into it, he would not need to defend it, but that backfired when he started hanging out under our desks instead, clearly adopting either of those enclosed places as his den. The evening of his nipping at my toes (of my new boots, dammit!) , Shem was under Husband’s desk, snoozing. My Dh accidentally stepped on Shem’s tale at which point Shem jumped up, startled and growled softly. My love responded by apologizing to our dog, stroking him and getting him settled under the desk again. Not 10 minutes later, Dh got up ever so slowly so as not to disturb Shem. Wham! Shem snarled, growled and bit my husband’s foot right through the show. My husband jumped on his CHAIR to escape the dog’s impressive jaws and yelled at Shem to get down. The ears went back, the tail went down and Shem went into his crate, but immediately turned around and barked like a crazy dog (something he had taken to doing whenever crated) so that we had to fight to get his crate locked.

We were shocked, traumatized and frightened. Clearly we needed some help. First thing we did was to call a breeder friend and discuss the problem with her. She recommended that we get the crates out of the study immediately and completely bar both Canaans from that room. She also recommended getting our hands on some good dog aggression books, which we have, such as The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell and Cesar’s Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems by Cesar Millan and Melissa Jo Peltier. We moved their crates into the basement that very night and then contacted the breeder in Israel we’d got wenchface (puppy Sephira) from. When we relayed the story to her, the breeder’s response was:

Sorry to hear about the problems with Shem. However, what is happening is not unusual. This is the behavior of a young dog who is starting to feel mature and wants to establish his position in the pack, and for him, obviously, his desire is to be as high in the hierarchy as possible. Having another dog in the house makes it even more important to him. I expect that you have just been pampering Shem too much. Does he get treats for no reason? Is he petted whenever he requests it? These are a few ways that the dog establishes his superior position in the pack. Basically – NILIF – Nothing in life is free – if he wants a treat, he should first do something – sit, come, whatever, and the treat should be a reward for obeying. The same with petting – if he wants to be petted, have him sit first or perform some command – he should not be allowed to control you, you should control him. He needs to learn that you, as leaders, control the territory and not him. Reward good behavior – following commands, waiting to enter, etc. Rewards can be just a pat, or “good dog”. It is very important to build up a new behavior pattern by preventing what is undesirable and rewarding what is. Any signs of aggression – grumbling, growling, lip lifting – should result in immediately removing him from the room for a period of time. This should be done without shouting or scolding, just a firm tone telling him no and calling him out of the room. Be sure he understands that the children can also give him commands.

We never want to confront an aggressive dog – shouting, shaking, or any physical confrontations usually end badly. In a situation like when he bit you, you should have sent him out of the room at the first sign of growling. It sounds very much like you are being very cautious and appeasing to him, which reinforces his feelings of dominance. Again, I do advise working with a good behaviorist – you can solve the problem, but it is important to do it correctly.

Getting that email and reading those books was such an eye-opener: we had no clue we’d been such pussies as allow Shem to dominate us but from our new perspective we realized all the times Shem had headbutted us for strokes, jumped on us, sat on our feet, walked ahead of us out the door or up/down the stairs had been dominating behavior. We put a stop to all of that.

But we still had questions and since my family knows I occasionally have prescient flashes, we’re open minded. So, last night we contacted a doggie psychic one of my husband’s Veterinarian patients swears by when she has an animal that stumps her. We wrote out our questions in advance and dialed her number.

Our first question was about Shem’s crate and his issues around it. She paused and then asked, “Did he growl or bark at you?” DH looked at me and replied that Shem had, indeed, bitten him. Anita pauses and said, “Shem doesn’t think that was a big deal; he said he just grabbed your foot as a warning for you to stay away from his territory.”

Okaaay.

Then, Anita asked, “Do you have a daughter, 9 or 10?” Monkeyface will be 10 in September. “Uh, yes, we do.” Anita went on” Well, Shem sees her as part of his pack and wants to intimidate her. He feels like he needs to whip her and the puppy into shape.” Monkeyface’s mouth hung open at this revelation.

Then Anita told my husband that Shem believes himself second only to my husband in authority in the house, that he is whip smart and that Shem feels he needs to check every person out before they come in into the house and protect the whole family.

Anita then said, “It’s interesting that Shem hasn’t said anything about your wife.  Pause Ah, Shem sees your wife as the hired help; she does an adequate job of doing everything he can’t do without opposable thumbs. “

Excuse me???

Anita had a point, as I really don’t do a helluva lot of interacting with the dogs. I feed them and I walk him (she still thinks walking is stupid), I play with him sometimes, but mostly I let them in and out of the house and do my thing. As I digested this revelation, I realized that Shem will respect me only when and if I start giving more orders and get right in his face. So, while I was writing this, Shem rang the bell to get back inside. I asked him to sit before he could come in out of the rain, which he did not deign to do. Eight separate times, he rang and I insisted until he finally sat. I praised him and allowed him back into MY house.

Hired help, my ASS!