Living With Dogs (22 page)

Answer:
The dog has not been taught to be alone, and to be happy with its own company while you’re at work. The dog knows you’ve left, and as a member of the pack, he wants to know why you haven’t taken him with you. He suffers separation anxiety and starts barking to try and find out where you are, hoping you will reply.

The first thing to do is to stop making a fuss of the dog when you leave the house. Don’t say anything; simply leave. Arrange with a neighbour or relative to check on the dog during the day and scold it if it’s barking. It would help if you could find someone to break the dog’s boredom by coming to exercise it during the day. Many retired people would be happy to do that. It will take time and patience to overcome the dog’s anxiety, but be persistent, and you’ll win. If a neighbour can help you in the process, all the better.

Why does our dog bark when my husband goes on top of the roof?

Answer:
Your dog knows that it is your husband on the roof and cannot understand why he has been left at ground level. His barking is one of happiness and attention-seeking. Perfectly understandable and normal.

What can we do to stop our Kelpie leaping over a very high fence?

Answer:
Dogs dig out or jump fences due to separation anxiety. Remember that the dog pack does everything together yet in your case the kids have gone to school and you have gone to work leaving one member of the pack behind. Your dog is searching for you. Having said that, make sure that there are no ‘stepping stones’ such as piles of firewood, bricks or soil up against the fence. Turn the top of your fenceline inwards at about 30 degrees, like a factory fence, by erecting a strip of chicken wire so that your jumping dog hits his nose on the wire. This usually stops the dog escaping, but does not cure the reason for him wanting to get out. Alternatively, why not consider erecting a dog enclosure in your backyard for use when you are not home?

My daughter has a one-year-old Maltese/Shih Tzu cross, and we can’t get it to walk on the lead unless it goes where it wants to go. What should we do?

Answer:
It’s obviously a boss dog, and it owns you. If the dog’s on a choker chain or halter, give a jerk and just keep going. The dog will soon get the message. It would go if I had it on the lead because I’m the boss dog, and the leader of the dog pack, and it would realise, ‘If I don’t move, something’s got to give.’ I’m not interested in what the dog is telling me. It will do what I tell it to do. I provide the money for the food, shelter, the comfort and the patting, but they will do what I tell them to do. You’ve got to take a firm hand. If you don’t provide the leadership, the dog is lost, and it doesn’t know what to do.

A Staffordshire Bull Terrier and a German Shepherd–Dobermann cross live in our area and they’ve already killed my neighbour’s two cats. We reported it to the ranger, and the dogs were sent away for a month, but now they’re back again. When the ranger comes around, the owners say the dogs haven’t been out, and nothing happens. We’re fed up with the dogs terrorising the neighbourhood, so what can we do?

Answer:
Report them to your council. They are the enforcers of the Domestic Animals Act. If there are witnesses that the dogs have been seen killing and mauling, then the council is obliged to do something about it. Write to the chief executive officer of the council and demand that something is done about it. If that does not work write to the State Ombudsman.

If the dogs approach you, stand stock still, and they will lose interest. If you whack them with a stick or call out there will be all sorts of trouble.

We recently moved from the city with our four-year-old pure breed Cattle Dog. He seems to have adjusted quite well to the change, but the other day he launched himself at me, as though he was going to bite me. Why has he suddenly become aggressive?

Answer:
A male dog at three or four is at the peak of his maleness, and I think that if you get him desexed it will stop most of the dominant behaviour.

Our Terrier cross loves people but we can’t let it off the leash in the park because it is aggressive to other dogs. Can we rely on a muzzle?

Answer:
You have only part-socialised your dog. It is okay with humans but not with other dogs. Using a muzzle, which is quite unreliable, is no substitute for lack of good training. First, you must accept the blame for this situation, and then you need to seek the advice of a qualified dog trainer to guide you on a one-to-one basis how to overcome your dog’s problem.

I have a West Highland White Terrier with discharge from the left eye, but she fights like mad to stop me putting the drops in her eye. I take her to obedience training every Sunday, but I still can’t hold her down to give her the drops. How do I get her to let me do it?

Answer:
The tragedy of situations like this is that owners haven’t asserted themselves, and they’ve allowed their dog to become the boss dog. If you’re not the boss dog, you can never achieve anything with the animal, and now you’re regretting your decision to let her take charge.

There shouldn’t be any necessity to hold her down if the dog has been trained to be number two in the pecking order. Then the dog will do what you want it to do. All dogs, without exception, love to be disciplined, and to follow the leader, who sets the rules and sticks by them. Your difficulty is that you didn’t set the rules. Swap obedience schools, or train yourself.

We have a delightful one-year-old Maltese-Bichon Frise cross who is very intelligent and strong-willed, and we’ve kept in mind your words about boss dogs. Although she tries it on, nine times out of 10 she obeys a powerful voice command. But when we walk her on the beach and she runs free, if she sees another animal or human she just takes off, heedless of our call. We don’t want to keep her on the lead all the time, because it’s wonderful to see her running off and enjoying herself. How do we deal with this?

Answer:
It’s part of her defiance mechanism. You haven’t got her under complete voice control, and therefore she should be on one of those extension leads which can go up to nine metres. You can’t have it both ways: either you put up with her running off, or you put her on a nine-metre lead.