I’m sitting in Ian Dunbar’s ‘In Oz’ conference eating peanuts and he’s talking about lots of fascinating dog training tidbits;
– Becoming wary is normal behaviour. A dog from about five months on, will only NOT be wary of things and people that are familiar to it. An undersocialised dog will likely become wary of many things and may suffer from anxiety, making it hard to live with. Therefore ‘super socialising’ is vital to keep the relationship of owner and dog healthy.
– We have to integrate dogs back into society if we want friendly, safe dogs. Banning dogs from everywhere, gives owners much less opportunities to incidentally socialise their pets.
– ‘Owner absent’ (including boredom and separation anxiety) problems are the most common reason people get annoyed by their dogs.
– Most dog bites happen because of ‘you touched me triggers’ (pats/hugs/pokes/collar grabs). People breeding dogs need to be handling them from birth, they need to live with families with kids and meet lots of strangers.
So this whole room of dog trainers are a learning about the concepts they’ll need to do ‘pet dog’ training. They’re learning about all the things that bring pet owners and their dogs to them for help – the exact same things that, if not treated effectively, will likely see that dog enter a shelter.
If this whole room of people know why dog and owner relationships break down – why don’t we? Why are we still trying to reduce the number of dogs born – rather than look at keeping dogs in their homes? Why are we berating owners, rather than working to try and make society better for pet and owner? Why are we still chasing ‘overpopulation’ as the reason dogs enter shelters?
Dogs aren’t entering shelters because there is ‘too many’ of them. They’re not entering shelters because ‘too many’ are being purchased and brought into people’s lives. They aren’t even entering shelters because puppy farms or backyard breeders exist.
They’re entering shelters because people don’t know what to do with dogs when they start displaying normal, albeit annoying, behaviours. If they knew more about what to do to treat (and more importantly prevent!) these problems, their dogs could very well have a lifetime home. They would keep their pets and we wouldn’t need to rescue them.
These aren’t ‘evil’ people. They’re not abusing their pet. They didn’t set out to have a failed relationship with their animal. They certainly didn’t get the pet, so they could suffer through a miserable few months of miscommunication, only to get to experience the guilty drive to the animal shelter. They got their dog or pup, because they wanted to have the joy of a companion animal.
Pet dog trainers are in the business of knowing what we don’t seem to want to acknowledge – pet owners need education and support to get it right.
The desire to restrict pet numbers with laws, is based on a flawed notion that we can somehow restrict ownership to the point where only successful pet owners will have dogs. This is completely unrealistic. There is no quick fixes. We need prevention of abandonment and pet ownership support, not the development of a system which restricts pet ownership to a privileged and chosen few.
Rescue need to tap into the pet-dog training community. Get them on board before the dog is out options. Once the owner has walked through the door, it is too late. How do we get good information to that new puppy owner, before they raise a dog that needs to come to us for rescue? How do we keep pets in their homes?
IMHO lack of positive socialisation is a huge issue, but to compound it further the majority of our pet dogs suffer from negative socialisation from a young age. We all know that pet shop dogs and internet / newspaper sale pups are most likely to come from a puppy factory, yet the authorities do pretty much NOTHING to stop this. In a puppy factory, the dogs get negative socialisation in that they are taught to fear the people they meet. They are then placed in a glass shop window with people peering at them, tapping the windows, again teaching them to fear humans.
And then we wonder why dog attacks are on the rise.
Unfortunately the people who make the laws don’t take advice from the right sauces, but listen to representatives of the pet industry who either directly or indirectly make a profit from puppy factories, so nothing changes.
If the lawmakers could only understand the link between socialisation and dog attacks, many many lives (human and canine) would dramatically improve. No more puppy factories, no more BSL, many less dog attacks and aggression based on fear.
Community education is a very important part of the No Kill movement and one of the main reasons why it is successful. How do we get the word out in Australia?
Sorry just wanted to add – all qualified dog trainers know about the vital importance of socialisation, so it isn’t exactly a secret. It makes me so furious that so many members of the public have no idea about it.
Dog owners and dogs are being let down badly by the people who sell us dogs, the people who help us train our dogs, and the people who legislate our dogs.
Funny how an ‘elite’ dog trainer, who presumably knows all abou the importance of positive socialisation, and who is president of the PIAA, can still support the sale of dogs in pet shops. Actually funny isn’t the right word, disgusting is the right word.