Am I Boring My Dog? (20 page)

As with every service, rates vary depending on where you live, but $150 to $300 for a series of six group classes is a good ballpark figure. Individual sessions can range from $50 to $150 for an hour but you can expect progress fairly quickly (although completion may take longer). If you don’t see the slightest difference in your dog’s behavior after two or three sessions, look for someone else.

Sure—and you’ll doubtless be better at the local dialect spoken in your house. All you have to do is keep your eyes and ears open and avoid shutting down the lines of communication. A dog that growls, for example, is trying to tell you something, whether it’s a fear-based, “Leave me alone,” or a possessive, “Hey, that’s mine.” It’s in your best interest to investigate what’s behind the growl rather than attempt to suppress it. If you discourage self-expression, next time your dog might go straight to bite, do not pass snarl.

But it’s a two-way street. You not only need to decode your dog’s signals, but to be aware of what you’re telling him, whether deliberately or inadvertently.

The good news is that dogs can learn hundreds of words in our language, including ones we don’t intend to teach them—thus the common phenomenon of people in doggy households spelling to each other, “I’m just going out to the c-a-r.” They can even get past our ineptitude. We tend to treat our canine charges as we do foreign exchange students, repeating words, adding more of them, and speaking louder when we’re not immediately understood. But if we take the time to understand what our dogs are saying and to transmit our wishes more effectively, a surprising amount of information can be exchanged.

Books such as Patricia McConnell’s
For the Love of a Dog
and
The Other End of the Leash,
and Stanley Coren’s
How to Speak Dog
go into the topic in great and fascinating detail, and Sarah Kalnajs’s DVD
The Language of Dogs
adds visuals. The following is just a quick sketch of some of the basics.

When you spend time with a dog, his barks are pretty easy to read, whether low and mean, high-pitched and excited, or persistent, almost rhythmic, demands for attention. Frankie recognizes my ability to tune out this last kind, so he occasionally fakes the more urgent variety.

Body language, on the other hand, may be more difficult to decode. Some moods and their indicators include the following.

 

Some signs of high anxiety will be obvious even to dognoramuses: a tail between the legs, ears pinned back, cringing, shaking, and pacing. Others may be less familiar, such as the out-of-the-corner gaze that leaves the whites of the eyes showing, known as whale eye. And some cues are ambiguous. Yawning might mean sleepiness, for example, lip licking and drooling could be food-related, and lying on the back could indicate a desire for a belly rub. Put a few of these mixed signals together, however, and add a bit of submissive peeing to the back flip, and you can bet your dog is scared and/or upset.

 

Along with the obvious snarling, teeth baring, and growling, a dog that’s on edge is likely to give a hard, cold stare (not dissimilar to the one you might get if you’re caught checking out someone other than the person you’re with); stand stiffly; raise her ears (if you have a breed that can do that); and hold her tail rigid (ditto). She might also raise herself up on her toes to look bigger and tougher, unless she’s Great Dane-size, in which case, why bother?

 

Anyone who’s ever taken yoga will recognize the play bow as the downward-facing dog position (far easier for Frankie to assume and maintain than it is for me). Dogs who feel frisky and eager to engage will look relaxed, tail wagging lazily, maybe even a full body wiggle. If you think your dog is smiling, you’re probably not imagining it; loose lips and an open mouth are part of the picture. Finally, gentle nose nudging and pawing—or dropping a favorite toy at your feet—are clear signs of playfulness.

Dogs are far better at reading our body language than we are at reading theirs—thus their successful adaptation to our world over the millennia and our (not unwarranted) belief that they can intuit our moods—but the gap between canid and primate is often difficult for them to bridge nevertheless. And because we primates don’t often bother to learn canid, the results include the following.

 

Approaching a dog directly and staring straight at him, for example, is considered an act of aggression; so is leaning down and patting him on the head. Hugging? Sudden movements? Sticking your hands in his face? All are intrusions into canine personal space, and they may cross over from annoying to downright scary. That’s why kids, with their sudden, impulsive movements, so often frighten dogs—and why dogs bite them.

 

Sometimes dogs believe they’re speaking the same language as we are and don’t understand why they’re not getting their point across. Say your dog is barking and you yell at her to shut up. She’s thinking, “Oh, you’re making a loud noise, too. Good—let’s keep it going,” but is puzzled by your rigid posture and the tension around your mouth.

This is where Dogspeak 101 comes in handy. You’d be amazed at how quickly even simple attempts to communicate—ignoring the barking and rewarding a brief bout of silence, for example, or blinking and yawning to calm a stressed dog—can yield results.

Socializing is the process of introducing dogs to the scary, complex world they’re going to be sharing with us, and showing them how they’re expected to behave in it. Ideally, puppies should be exposed to lots of different people, dogs, noises, and sights in their first 12 weeks so that nothing will faze them later on. One way to accomplish this—in addition to taking them to training classes—is to arrange for small groups of friends to come over and handle your pup
⁵⁷
while watching loud action movies and/or listening to heavy metal. If you can get your pals to put on hats and carry umbrellas, you get bonus points. It’s fun, plus any outlay for beer and pizza (or whatever inspires your particular group) will be more than compensated for by having a friendly, well-balanced dog.

Desensitizing performs mop-up duty for dogs who have not been properly socialized, helping to ease their fears. (These fears can also be breed-based or spurred by a single frightening episode.) Methods vary, depending on the source of the fear and its intensity,
⁵⁸
but they don’t include “flooding,” or full-on immersion—the canine equivalent of shoving an arachnophobe into a room full of spiders. Nor do they include babying. If you try to soothe a fearful dog, it only confirms her view that there’s actually something to be afraid of.

Typically, the dog’s desensitizer remains calm and confident while carefully exposing the pup to the source of her anxiety—whether it is shiny shoes, pugs, or men in black—and creating new, positive associations with it. Here again, professional guidance and the help of a few friends are essential. It shouldn’t be hard to find people willing to role-play—wearing shiny shoes, say, or dressing in black—and toss treats around. Who doesn’t love a chance to be silly for a good cause? Borrowing a pug might be more difficult but by no means impossible, and most pugs are happy to cooperate; they’re a helpful, fun-loving lot.

Specialists who treat dogs for mental health issues—as opposed to dogs who earn advanced degrees in psychology
⁵⁹
—are called behaviorists. This is a vague, blanket term; it would be like teachers, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists all going by the same title. One way to distinguish between the different people who call themselves behaviorists is by fee structure: the highest rates go to those who have the credentials to wield a prescription pad.

But that’s relative. Dog trainers may give themselves the behaviorist label so they can charge more than instructors who don’t know enough to claim it. Consultants with an M.S. or Ph.D. in a field of animal behavior have a far more legitimate claim to the behaviorist name, especially Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists (CAABs; www.certifiedanimalbehaviorist. com); in addition to an advanced degree, CAABs are required to have five years of field experience. These experts don’t all do training—they haven’t necessarily majored in dog—but can usually provide knowledgeable referrals.

The top dogs in the canine mental health hierarchy are veterinarians who are board certified in the specialty of behavior. This is a relatively new discipline; in 2008, there were fewer than 50 members of this elite group in the United States. Check the website of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists (
www.dacvb.org
) to see if there’s one near you. Renowned among their ranks is Dr. Nicholas Dodman, a best-selling author who founded the Tufts University Animal Behavior Clinic and pioneered the field of animal behavioral pharmacology.

Reading Dodman’s
The Dog Who Loved Too Much
is one way to tell if your dog needs a shrink. Documenting case studies of canine patients who
really
have problems, from obsessive tail chasing to severe separation anxiety, this book will give you perspective on your dog’s mild shyness or occasional temper tantrum.

Most of the time, you’ll know if your dog is in imminent danger of harming herself or others and thus in need of expert help. But there are gray areas, including behavioral changes that seem to come on suddenly, that may leave you wondering whom to consult.

If you suspect your dog may have a problem that’s beyond the scope of a regular trainer, start by checking with your vet. Some obsessions are breed-related, for example, and sudden aggression could be caused by pain from an undiagnosed illness. And any veterinary generalist—or layperson who watches Animal Planet—will tell you that exercise is the key to canine mental health. Diet may make a difference, too. It’s worth asking your vet if feeding your dog less protein might lessen her aggression, for example.

A behavior modification program, such as desensitization for fear, guided by a trainer with good credentials, might be the logical next step.

Finally, there are drugs. If you’re hesitant to go there, consider that …