EMERGENCY PTS TOMORROW

Why are we seeing so many of these posts ?


A controversial post but I would love what you think

A topic for discussion

More and more there are post saying

EMERGENCY DUE TO BE PTS TOMORROW.

This dog has to go NOW


More and more news about dog's bites, children injured or worse.

What is happening in our world?

Now these are my thoughts, my opinions, my views from a dog owner and a dog trainer.


When I was a kid, we always had dogs.

We were told never to go near them when they were eating. 

dog eating

      • Never to tease the dog, and never to put our faces near the dog. 

      • Never to talk to a dog we didn’t know. That was hard for me as I wanted to love every dog I met, but it was instilled in me to ask if I could say hello and yes no cuddling.

      If our own dog growled or snapped at any of us, we got told off, not the dog. “What were you doing? You know not to tease the dog, it is your own fault the dog nipped you”

      Dog Growling

      Yes the training methods were horrible back then, dogs made to obey, noses rubbed in carpets, hit with newspapers or worse. Yanked around on check chains etc. So there has been a huge change in training methods over the years, but we seem to have lost something along the way.




      So why have things changed?

      Why do people expect our dog's to just fit into our lifestyles?

      That they should be OK with whatever is done to them, and that they should never show any signs of aggression at all.

      Why don’t people know that there are actually not many truly AGGRESSIVE DOGS. The majority of dogs are just communicating the only way they know how, BODY LANGUAGE.

      Why do some people put their dogs into the position that they have to growl, bite etc.

      This is a dog’s way of communicating, telling you they want whatever is going on to STOP.

      There would have been more signals well before the dog felt the need to SHOUT. (see illustration Below) 

      Let's do a simple comparison of Human V Dog


      Human

      Dog

      If someone was in our face, we would move away,

      If someone was in our face, we would move away,

      If it continued we would say” Please don’t do that”

      Would show stress signals

      If continued would say “ Stop doing that” in a clear, firm tone.

      May let out a little growl

      Shout “STOP IT NOW”

      Growl showing teeth

      Resort to feeling you need to defend yourself so lash out then get away.

      Resort to feeling you need to defend yourself Snap or bite then run away

      Here is a fantastic illustration of the ladder of Aggression 

      Ladder of Aggression


      I would love your thoughts on this topic

      Is it that we now expect our dog's to conform to our world?

      Maybe people think that a dog has no say, and they expect them just to put up with things?

      Maybe expectations of being a pet parent have changed?

      Is it a lack of knowledge?

      Maybe the idea of the 2 adults 2 Children and family dog is what people see as the perfect family?

      Is it the throw away culture that we seem to be living in at the moment ? Including family pets as well as household items.

      Is it that our daily lives are so full of stress and tension at the moment that our dogs are being forgotten that they too feel our stress, but they are just a dog they need to fit in?

      I really wish I understood just what is going on.



      Categories: Agression, Anxious/nervous dogs, Dog Behaviour, Dog Training, Reactivity, Romanian Rescue

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