the puppy wizard

Date: 2001-05-20 00:34:31 PST

Hello People,

We get a lot of posters asking about mouthing and jumping
problems. Deaf dogs have a tendency to act out with seemingly
hyperactive mouthing and jumping behavior. Often times the
deaf dog's condition is misdiagnosed as a behavior problem,
the family believes the dog is simply hyperactive, as was the
recent case with MsMarti, who had been blessed with a deaf
dog, and didn't recognize their blessing, because they thought
they were cursed with a hyperactive, aggressive, dog.

The out of control behavior of the deaf dog is a frantic
attempt to be UNDERSTOOD. He is being FRUSTRATED because he is
living in a vacuum, and we are punishing him
for things beyond his control, things he can't understand. He
needs the physical contact to COMMUNICATE, just like the
hearing puppy NEEDS to do to communicate mutual, SOCIAL
ACCEPTANCE..

What brings the subject of this post to my mind and prompts
me to write, is the post from a reader asking about their dog's
growling and snapping behavior, when rebuffed by his human
mom, for licking their new baby.

The reason the dog is snapping at the owner or the new baby,
is because his attempts to bond with the new baby are being
REJECTED by the parents paranoid concerns about the dog's
INTENT, exhibited by the intense licking. While the natural
fear any mother would have entrusting an exuberant adult
Dalmatian not to swallow their brand new infant cannot be
ignored, there are more successful methods of addressing
such an enigma. But first, let's take the mystery out of the
behavior.

I don't think it's hard to understand HOWE frustrating it must
be for a dog to repeatedly be REJECTED for his attempts at
being sociable. ALL of us have been rejected by someone, and
have experienced hurt feelings, FRUSTRATION, anger,
embarrassment, even self loathing... SOME of us manage to get
through such crises without hardly breaking stride. Others are
devastated, and may withdraw from society, become masochists,
or join a self help group or even rpdb, so they can find
EMOTIONAL ACCEPTANCE.

Well, that's the dynamics of what goes on behind the scenes
when you walk in the door and your pup jumps all over you to
say hello, and you go bonkers on him in response to getting
your clothes slobbered on or your shoes scuffed by your
exuberant pup... JUST THINK of HOWE he is going to feel
as you reject his attempts to say hello, as you knee him in the
chest, step on his feet, pop him on the snout, chin cuff,
scruff shake, stick your fingers down the pup's throat, or
throw him down by his ears and climb all over him like a wild
animal. Our "traditional" trainers would have you put a leash
and pronged choke collar or sadoelectric shock collar on the
dog, and jerk and choke and shock him, till he becomes
SOCIABLY ACCEPTABLE...

Sure, I'm taking a worst case scenario and complicating it by
giving the WORST EXAMPLE of the MOST INAPPROPRIATE handling and
training methods AS TAUGHT RIGHT HERE by
our "EXPERTS" and our HUMANE and RESCUE societies,
that GIVE THIS KIND OF ADVICE to REHABILITATE behavior problems...

The greeting you get from your pup when you come home is much like
a mom dog gets when she returns to the litter bearing
a gut full of fresh hot chow. The activity of the pups literally
makes mom dizzy and causes her to regurgitate. Of course,
that means breakfast is served. NO WONDER we have such
a difficult behavior to break. .

The excitable behavior from our puppy as we return to the den
from the hunt is Nature ordering up breakfast. It's INNATE,
INSTINCTIVE, NATURAL,REFLEXIVE behavior.

The pup is EXPECTING YOU to flip your guts out and
FEED HIM!

That's not to diminish the social bonding that's also intended..

This brings us to the question of WHY is greeting a superior
pack member STRESSFUL for a dog??? Because, at some point, just
like with humans, it's time for the pup to leave the
nest, and go out and get himself a job, to bring down his own
chow. The hunt may not have gone well, and there may not be
enough food for mom or dad to provide to ****age slouches who
loaf and lollygag all day long, too lazy to go to work....Instead
of kicking the lazy young adult out in the street, the dog is more
humane, and may simply feign a snap and a snarl, not intending to
inflict damage. At some point the pup is invited to go out on
the hunt, but that never happens in the human family. Neoteny
rears it's ugly head, and we are left with a behavior problem.

Simply accepting this activity would be ideal, but for many
reasons it is not appropriate. More APPROPRIATE methods would be
to redirect the dog's exuberance into a more human
friendly greeting. You could teach an alternate behavior. You
could use any number of distractions. But as long as we simply
distract the dog, the desire for the exuberant behavior is never
extinguished. At some point, the dog may make the initial
overture, and then automatically remember the alternative
behavior of chasing the toy used for the distraction, but
that's going to take weeks and weeks, because we've got lots
more going on than meets the eye.

Instead, I prefer to interrupt such behaviors using a brief
variable directional sound distraction followed immediately by
prolonged, non physical praise. The INTENT is to ALLOW the
behavior to resume again moments later, so we can once again
interrupt the thought of the inappropriate behavior, thus
making it UNREWARDING. The brain reflexes to the most recent, most
successful response.

REMEMBER, we've got MORE going on than just greeting behavior, the
dog is literally EXPECTING you to regurgitate
a portion of the day's hunt. Interrupting the behavior from a
neutral standpoint using sound distraction and non physical
praise correctly and consistently, just a few times in succession,
will EXTINGUISH the behavior in the most expedient manner,
allowing YOU to always be the non confrontational, attentive,
loving, pack leader.

Your pal, Jerry.