Dexter's Corner

Dr. Dexter here to talk about how people seem to see dogs lately. My person was working with a Pit Bull owner today and the owner had been treated in another training class as though her dog was a "problem" - as though the dog was a species from another planet. Her dog was jumping excessively and trying to engage rudely. This is a 10 month old "teenage" dog! That's what teenage dogs do.
I undertand newspapers, media etc over report and the public can get the wrong idea but when the trainers of dogs can't see the difference between CANINE issues and PIT BULL issues it scares me. If we can't have teachers of the people understand dogs what do we do?
People used to live and work very closely with us dogs. Dogs were outside a lot but so were people. Then work moved inside, the dogs didn't necessarily (and that's another blog). People seemed to understand us animals AND it was OK! It was ok that we were animals. Now (possibly due to movies like Lassie, Beverly Hills Chihuahua etc) dogs are suppose to not have drives or have any senesitivity to other dogs (God forbid) and they're suppose to be very well trained already as a puppy. If they're jumping and acting goofy AND they're a Pit Bull like me well then heck....it's a big problem.
I think folks need to get what we are and normalize to themselves real canine behavior. I work with the dogs at the shelter all the time. I don't think there's anything wrong with them, I just try to send the right signals to get the right response. It's not that dogs need to BLEND into the people world, it's that people need to GET the dog world and understand that it's up to them to help us make the best of ourselves, to set us up for success. When we see someone acting goofy in a pack we don't blame and judge them because they're Foo Foo or such-and-so breed we give them a signal of some sort to help.
Try sending your dog some signals to help him calm down if he's having that issue. Sometimes it may be just doing nothing when he's goofin' too much.
Here's some ideas on calming signals that some of us dogs use with each other. Good luck. http://www.canis.no/rugaas/
Dr. Dexter
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Dr. Dexter here to talk about how people seem to see dogs lately. My person was working with a Pit Bull owner today and the owner had been treated in another training class as though her dog was a "problem" - as though the dog was a species from another planet. Her dog was jumping excessively and trying to engage rudely. This is a 10 month old "teenage" dog! That's what teenage dogs do.
I undertand newspapers, media etc over report and the public can get the wrong idea but when the trainers of dogs can't see the difference between CANINE issues and PIT BULL issues it scares me. If we can't have teachers of the people understand dogs what do we do?
People used to live and work very closely with us dogs. Dogs were outside a lot but so were people. Then work moved inside, the dogs didn't necessarily (and that's another blog). People seemed to understand us animals AND it was OK! It was ok that we were animals. Now (possibly due to movies like Lassie, Beverly Hills Chihuahua etc) dogs are suppose to not have drives or have any senesitivity to other dogs (God forbid) and they're suppose to be very well trained already as a puppy. If they're jumping and acting goofy AND they're a Pit Bull like me well then heck....it's a big problem.
I think folks need to get what we are and normalize to themselves real canine behavior. I work with the dogs at the shelter all the time. I don't think there's anything wrong with them, I just try to send the right signals to get the right response. It's not that dogs need to BLEND into the people world, it's that people need to GET the dog world and understand that it's up to them to help us make the best of ourselves, to set us up for success. When we see someone acting goofy in a pack we don't blame and judge them because they're Foo Foo or such-and-so breed we give them a signal of some sort to help.
Try sending your dog some signals to help him calm down if he's having that issue. Sometimes it may be just doing nothing when he's goofin' too much.
Here's some ideas on calming signals that some of us dogs use with each other. Good luck. http://www.canis.no/rugaas/
Dr. Dexter