|
One reason some dog trainers eschew love as a basis for our relationships with our dogs is that misunderstanding a dog’s needs can cause people to fail their dogs in the name of love. Loving another means helping them get what THEY need, not what we would need. Specifically, a dog needs different things than a human does, and we must understand that if we are to truly treat our dogs with love. Dogs need structure. They can’t understand if you tell them you will be back at 6 o’clock. If you come home at 6 o’clock several times in a row without being late (at least not very late), that’s how a dog understands. Structure that provides a dog’s needs makes the dog feel secure. So, what are those needs? Adequate food each day at reasonable time intervals is a need. The dog needs reasonably spaced opportunities to eliminate, too. If you’re not going to be home to let the dog out, the dog needs indoor potty facilities. If all else fails and the dog has an accident, the dog needs to be free from fear that you will fly into a rage when you return home—whether because of a housetraining accident or something chewed or any other reason. A dog needs medical care, especially at times of pain or sickness. As a dog gets used to your tending and your veterinarian’s able aid, you may even notice the dog begins to tell you something is wrong—and to show expectation of feeling better from the veterinarian’s care. This is complicated dog communication and hard to pick up on, but the normal dog behavior about any weakness is to hide it. That is a survival instinct since showing weakness in the wild gets an animal killed. So when the dog tells you something hurts, you are experiencing an act of trust. Encourage it! Dogs need exercise, with our oversight for their safety from pain and fear. Being hurt or frightened by other dogs in the course of exercise makes a dog distrust the exercise situation, along with losing faith in the person who took the dog there. Every outing needs to be structured for the best chance of leaving the dog able and willing to do it again another day. That may mean leaving before an event is over, pulling your dog out of competition because conditions are not good, or ending your interesting conversation with another dog owner to go remove your dog from an inappropriate situation. When you take this kind of leadership with your dog, you will notice the dog looking at you with loving eyes. A great many dogs can get adequate exercise mostly in the house if they are not confined to crates. Dog professionals like crates. When you have a lot of dogs and/or have dogs who are not spayed/neutered, you can’t keep them all together. For most people with one to a few trained and spayed/neutered dogs, training and managing toward being able to have the dog free in at least some of the house all the time is an achievable goal. This allows the dog to diffuse energy and work muscles through the day, have more time with you, have access to water at all times, keep arthritic joints moving, and be in position to warn and protect you. When you’re not home, the uncrated house dog can protect property, as well as being more likely to escape the house in the event of fire or other disaster. Uncrated dogs have awakened their owners in the night to get them out of bed for a family member in trouble, a criminal on the premises, or a danger such as fire or gas leak. Many dogs benefit from crating early in life until they have the habits and maturity to be loose unattended in the house without destroying things. Ideally, all dogs should receive gentle conditioning so they will be able to rest calmly in a crate throughout life in times of need. But beyond that, we need to look at the dog, the lifestyle, and the home to decide about crate use. A lot of what is diagnosed as separation anxiety is actually crate overuse anxiety.
|
