Saturday, 21 July, 2007

Earlier this week, just after I woke up, I looked outside to see if the July rainfall we had had late the night before was significant, with the hope that it may put out some of the fires threatening homes here in Siskiyou County.  I saw that the depression in our dirt driveway was indeed filled with water, meaning we'd had good rain.  As I surveyed the back yard something bright and white caught my attention.  Undoubtedly my panties.

We have a doggie door leading into a well fenced back yard area for our dogs.  It works out perfectly because we are surrounded by land, and so our dogs can go outside without the approach of other dogs or people threatening them.  Doggie doors are an excellent idea in general because, well, would you want your toilet needs determined by the presence and sensitivity of another person, one who may be gone for hours, or one who doesn't understand your language?

But in some cases doggie doors can become a problem, or can contribute to a problem, so keep in mind that what I write here is 'in general', or for my dogs.

Panties, underwear, socks, gloves and shoes have an extra special enticing allure to many dogs, as these objects are most heavily scented with our smell.  Most dogs love to play, and most dogs love to play with their owners.  These items are strongest with our smell, and so playful interaction with them is natural.  And shredding or destroying is certainly an aspect of doggie play.*

Kleenex is another item of high value for many dogs.  I don't know what it is about Kleenex, both used and unused, that is so very attractive.  Toilet paper also falls into this category.   One of my dogs, as a puppy, had a thing about phone books.  He was able to shred them into the tiniest of little pieces, - very talented he was. 

This brings me to a fateful dinner I was invited to some years ago.  The food was served in a nice festive setting, and I ended up sitting next to someone I didn't know.  The topic moved to dogs, as it often tends to do in my presence, and this person I was sitting next to told me about the bad dog that he'd had just recently.  Full of indignation he told me that his dog took his glove and chewed on it.  He then told me that no dog of his was going to chew his glove.  He said he showed her the glove and beat her, teaching her not to ever do this again.  But the dog got the glove again a few days later.  He went to take the glove and teach her a lesson again, and the dog growled  at him.  So he dragged her outside by the collar and chained her up on a short chain for a few days to teach her a lesson, ignoring her and not giving her food or water.  When he went to get his dog a few days later, she bared her teeth at him, growling, threatening to bite.  He took her up to the woods and shot her.

This guy told me this as if he had honestly done the absolute right thing, no doubt.  He handled it.  Wasn't no dog gonna chew his glove or growl at him.

I was so stunned that I could only look at him and feel sick to my stomach.  My husband and I were still new to this rural area at the time, and I didn't understand the local culture, and so I was afraid to say anything.  But it was really very straight forward as far as dog behavior is concerned.  The dog took the glove.  Gloves are enticing, with all that human smell on them.  Not only that, if she was given raw hides as a puppy, well, a leather working glove is sort of a soft raw hide, isn't it? 

So he hurt her and frightened her by the beating.  She very likely did not connect the beating to the glove.  She probably went into instant panic mode, and when a dog is panicked, she cannot learn.  Then when the next threat for a beating came, the dog was frightened and she told him with a growl to stay away from her.  Actually she was a very good dog because she didn't bite him.  He then dragged her and tied her to a short chain and left her alone for a number of days.  Chained up she was defenseless against predators, and also against him when he finally came back.  She was terrified and so she bared her teeth, growled and threatened to bite, trying to keep danger away.

I would say this is natural behavior on the dog's part.

And all this for a glove!  Why didn't he just put the glove away?  He, supposedly having a higher level of reasoning than dogs, should have understood that the dog liked to chew on this glove.  Well, so you just put the darned glove away to where the dog can't get it!  If the dog does get the glove, or the shoe or the pencil or pen or Kleenex, he is doing a totally normal doggie thing, and I would say that if humans are supposed to be smarter than dogs, why aren't we just keeping these things out of the dog's reach?  We would do this with babies, wouldn't we?

My husband and I laugh when Wakelee, our 8 year old comes prancing up with a sock or a Kleenex in his mouth.  And once, when we had guests over, Wakelee ever so gently removed the paper napkin from our guest's back pocket.  We were all in hysterics laughing over this and Wakelee had a great time too.

We even play keep-away with items Wakelee - and now Bernard - "steals."  We run and chase them around the house laughing and having a great time.  BUT, both Wakelee and Bernard, who are the only dogs of ours who purposefully take items, will drop them immediately if Eric or I say "Drop it" ever so gently, and they understand when the game is over.  This is important when playing keep away. 

When it comes to possessions, the more forceful you are about what the dog has, the more the item increases in value to the dog, and the more interested he will be in it.  Put yourself in the mind frame that the dog is doing nothing 'bad' when he has that sock, and just trade him for the object you don't want him to have.  Give him a chew toy, a stuffed Kong, or something else that will make it worth his while to drop what he has.  Once he has dropped it, just pick up your shoe or sock and put it in a place he won't get it again.  But please don't do this if your dog is seriously growling at you or threatening you in any way.  Consult with a dog behavior professional if that is the case.   


With the culture of macho dominance that has prevailed in our relationships with our dogs, people immediately jump to the "He's not going to get away with that" way of thinking.  Isn't a lot of the fun of having dogs connected to laughter and harmony and partnership?

I think so.

In the big picture, how important is a glove really?




*  Please note that I am relating this to my dogs, how my dogs have been raised, and my dogs' personalities. When a dog is in possession of an object and chews on it or otherwise interacts with it, other factors can certainly be involved.  It can be stress related behavior, or it can trigger serious guarding or possessive behavior in the dog.  These are certainly things I take seriously, and assess in my consultations with clients.