Living With Dogs (10 page)
Authors: Dr Hugh Wirth
Dogs have a wider hearing range than humans, and they pick up higher pitches than we do. Some dogs are frightened by sudden noises which is called being ‘gun-shy’. Others will suddenly howl at a particular noise, and it is often because the noise simulates the pack leader’s howl, which calls them to rally. The howl is an instinctive reaction to the pack leader’s call.
Barking at the garbos, or unusual noises like planes in the sky, is reasonable dog behaviour, and not a behavioural problem. Dogs are territorial animals, and when the garbos come along once a week, they think, ‘How dare these people come through our territory like that, making all this noisy crashing and bashing. We don’t crash and bash.’ So the dogs bark, and kick up a fuss. No territorial dog will enjoy a loud incursion into its territory, and will protest.
We confine the dog to a quarter-acre block, but its territory is two or three times bigger than that. It can encompass neighbours’ property, and the public area in front of the house. It also includes aerial territory, so if you have low-flying aircraft, or possums in the trees, they are seen as invaders, and foreign to the environment. The dog will bark to alert the invader that they have been sighted, and to warn the members of the pack within the invaded territory.
Dogs will protect their territory by barking at people who come to the front door, or at people or dogs outside the car, which is an extension of their territory. A dog can be in a car and it starts barking when it sees an owner walking their dog, because it sees the other dog as invading its space, and the pack has to be told. Behavioural problems arise when a dog continues to bark, long after the invasion of its territory has ceased.
Dogs will also bark in response to noisy space invaders, such as motor bikes or big trucks. My dogs used to bark at the noise of a nail gun being used to build the house across the road, because it was an abnormal noise invading their territory. They also respond to the ambulance and police sirens, which simulates the pack leader’s call, by yodelling back.
All these are manifestations of normal dog behaviour that need to be modified in an urban environment. When someone knocks at the door, a dog will look to the ‘boss dog’ for leadership, and the ‘boss dog’ has to say, ‘It’s all right, you can be quiet.’ If the dog goes on barking in that situation, it doesn’t have a behaviour problem; the owner does. The owner has failed to modify the dog’s behaviour by imprinting on it that he is the ‘boss dog’; the one who determines whether there is a threat.
Owners never think behavioural problems are their fault. Take dogs who bark if they’re left at home on their own during the day. If the pack leader disappears for 12 hours, of course the dog gets upset, and starts howling and barking. The dog is behaving normally, but that behaviour hasn’t been modified to suit the quarter-acre block, and the owner’s expectations.
I get a lot of people saying they can’t stand their dog barking. Incessant barking, barking at imaginary things or at things the dog is used to, is a behaviour problem, and should have been modified. You can teach a dog to do anything if you have the will to do so. We educate our children, but none of us seem to believe we have to do something similar with our dogs. Some owners see dogs as a chattel, and think they will magically do what they’re supposed to, regardless of instinct. They see dogs as an appendage which you take off and on, like a sports coat. The truth about dog ownership is that you have to meet your dog halfway. It is not just a matter of providing food, water and a bed.
Of all the animals domesticated by humans, dogs are the most dependent on us. If you bring a puppy into the house and make it dependent on you, the moment the umbilical cord is cut it will become distressed. This is the cause of the separation anxiety that many dogs feel when their owner goes away. But there are individual variations in dogs, just as there are in children, and some dogs have the opposite problem — they have not been encouraged to bond with their owners and exhibit a strong streak of independence.
Between 15 and 20 per cent of dogs experience separation anxiety. The dog’s principal concern is to find you, the owner. It vocalises its distress by putting out a call to you, by either barking or howling. Some dogs may become anxious if you leave them outside when you go inside and will do anything to be with you. Other dogs will get out and go looking for you when you leave the property, which is why I tell people not to leave their dog in the backyard when they go away on holiday — it can slip out when the neighbour comes in to feed it.
The older the dog is when the decision is made to correct the problem, the harder it is to do. You have to teach a dog that you will disappear, but you will also return. The first thing is to ensure you have help. You have to find someone, a friend or relative, who will go and identify the behaviour, and correct it immediately. The dog must be disciplined in the act of howling or barking. No discipline meted out afterwards ever works. You, or friends or relatives, have to give a scolding which the dog realises is a significant rebuff to its behaviour.
It’s also important that you don’t make a big production out of leaving your dog. Sometimes separation anxiety is made worse by the boss dog encouraging dependency, so don’t draw attention to the fact that you are going.
If a dog is persistently getting out of a property to go and find its owner, it may be necessary to put the dog in a pen. These can cost around $1500, but if you know your dog has separation anxiety, and will do anything to get out to try to find you, then $1500 is not a lot to spend. A pen may also be the best answer for those ‘Houdini’ dogs who are always getting out and committing social indiscretions.
Dogs will try to pay you back if they’re upset with you for doing something without them, or leaving them alone for a while. Dogs left in the backyard on their own often get upset, and when you get home you may be confronted by deliberate wreckage, just to let you know your actions haven’t gone unnoticed. The usual ‘paybacks’ are to chew something, like a plant or a piece of furniture, or to dig a hole. The hole dug in the garden is the dog’s ‘payback’ for your getting home an hour later than usual. Dogs are creatures of habit, and if there is a variation to that habit they get upset and respond very quickly.
Dogs can also become upset if they are suddenly displaced in the family by the arrival of a new member or another dog. The established animal has been closely bonded and there is an expectation built into that bonding. Suddenly the bonding is broken by the arrival of a new animal, a baby, partner or elderly relative, and the dog can respond by seeking attention, to try to restore the expectations. The owner must ensure that the new arrival does not reduce the amount of affection or attention given to the dog.
Apart from being educated about the rules of the household, dogs also need to be amused. Boredom is the cause of many holes dug in the garden or washing ripped from the line — the devil finds work for idle paws. Most young dogs are mentally highly active, and if you don’t occupy them, the trouble begins. It doesn’t take long for the average dog to investigate the garden and learn where everything is, and after a few months the environment presents no fresh challenges. If you haven’t made your dog’s life interesting, the animal will find its own ways of amusing itself.
You’ve got to spend time with your dog, even if it is with simple communication, reinforcing the message that you are boss dog. You must give it a taste of adventure, by taking it into the wider environment, and that means regularly walking your dog. Breeds like Labradors and Kelpies need to walk five kilometres a day, so, if you can’t walk the dog, find someone to do it for you. The walk burns up physical energy, and some of that inherent curiosity. If you bring the dog home from a walk and give it a bone, this will occupy it mentally. After that it will snooze instead of digging up the lawn.
Dogs are very predictable in their behaviour, and they will always react in a set order. If you walk up to Sheelagh, my Irish Terrier, in the street and she growls, she’s saying, ‘I don’t like you, strange dog, and if you continue to approach me, I’m going to take sterner action.’ A growl warns you that a dog may bite. Once the dog has curled its upper lip, it will bite without further notice. If the human ignores these warning signs, and suffers a bite as a result of their actions, it is always the dog that takes the blame, even though the human was at fault for not recognising the dog’s behaviour, and taking suitable precautions.
People often ring me up and say that their dog has got a behaviour problem. But what they’ve really got is a human behaviour problem. The human has destroyed the dog’s pack, and the dog has learned to accept the human as surrogate family. But, in return, the human has not learned to understand or modify the dog’s behaviour.
The dawning of each new day finds a dog rested, refreshed, raring to go, and looking to the boss dog for guidance. The perfect response is to take it for a walk, because a dog is at its most energetic first thing, so it’s always good to walk then, and afterwards get them to eat a bone. The key is that you must stick to whatever routine you establish.
Dogs like games and doing things, whether it’s chasing balls and sticks, and bringing them back, or leaping after toys. You should ensure that the ball is not small enough to be swallowed, and that the stick isn’t a light one which can damage the structures at the back of the throat. All the time dogs are playing they are using energy, and working at the direction of the boss dog. Some working dogs will even go to sleep with a tennis ball lying next to their mouth, so that they are ready for action the instant they wake up.
DOES YOUR DOG HAVE ENOUGH SPACE?
A bored dog is not a happy dog. The Petcare Information and Advisory Service first produced a report in 1993, ‘Pets in Urban Areas’, later updated by Harlock Jackson in a 2010 report ‘Four Legs Four Walks’, which looked at the implications for dogs who live in apartments and housing estates. Often it means there is less space and less back yard — if, indeed, there is any at all — in which the dog can exercise and play. The report, prepared by the Melbourne animal behaviourist Dr Robert Holmes, together with the planning and development consultants Harlock Jackson and architects Goad Fink, encouraged builders and developers to design pet-friendly houses and estates. This included giving the animals access to sun and shade, outside spaces in which to exercise and plenty of windows from which to view the outside world. If a dog spends its days outside in the yard, it should be contained by a fence which allows the stimulation of a view through to the street. A bored dog which is left locked in a yard enclosed by a high paling fence is more likely to be driven to dig up the garden or pull down the washing. It is the canine equivalent of solitary confinement for human beings. The report concluded:
On the whole a dog’s behaviour is likely to be better if he or she can see a busy scene such as a busy street. Restraining a dog to a service yard with no view for long periods increases the chance of boredom which may result in undesirable behaviour such as excessive barking. Although the dog may bark at passers-by in the street, there will be less likelihood of excessive barking that might arise through boredom. It should be added that in a very busy street, a dog’s tendency to bark at passers-by is likely to be considerably reduced because of the intensity of the stimulation.
It is important for owners living in high density situations to choose their breed accordingly. The report recommends small dogs such as Cavalier King Charles Spaniels or miniature Poodles for people living in units or apartments; Welsh Corgis or West Highland White Terriers for owners living in multi-dwelling developments such as villa units or townhouses; and Whippets or Cocker Spaniels for people living in houses on small blocks.
Dr Holmes suggests a five-point programme to combat boredom in dogs in a paper titled ‘Environment Enrichment’ published in 2001. He wrote:
Boredom is the scourge of the suburban dog. Typically the pet dog doesn’t work, is not allowed to roam and spends long periods by itself. In the wild it would always have companions, have to hunt for its food, and would roam around monitoring and marking its surroundings. In domestic life there is just not enough to do and so the dog adapts in the best way it can. The ways it does so vary with temperament and opportunities for action. Such dogs are likely to be B.A.D.— to bark, be aggressive or destructive.
He stresses that young dogs, aged from three months to three years, have a much greater need for stimulus and activity than mature dogs. The five points of the programme are obedience work, free-running exercise outside the property, play, a view of the world and a chewing object.
1. Obedience
Obedience work has three benefits:
Firstly, it quietens dogs down by giving them work therapy or something to replace what they would get as working dogs. Secondly, it brings dogs under better control. The commands can be used in other situations, such as telling the dog to drop if it starts to be aggressive. Thirdly, it reinforces the handler’s status as leader of the dog’s pack. Every act of obedience by the dog acknowledges the handler’s authority … A key point in training is to ensure that the dog responds every time a command is given. Every time the handler repeats the command he or she reduces their authority. No commands should be given when the dog cannot be made to obey. It should not be in a position of choosing whether or not to obey. The handler has to be in a position to back up her or his authority. Consistent assertiveness on the handler’s part and consistent obedience on the dog’s part are the basis to solving many problems.
