Recently an acquaintance, we’ll call him Bill, asked me about the appropriate time to neuter a dog. His dog is around nine months old and he said the dog was “becoming a little jerk.” Oh dear….
While the onset of canine adolescence can certainly be challenging, clearly this was a red flag. My sense was that Bill’s adversarial wording meant there was more going on than run-of-the-mill teenage naughtiness, at least in Bill’s mind. When I asked what the specific problem behaviors were, he said the dog had begun marking his territory, was acting headstrong, barked when returned to his crate, and had even growled and bared his teeth.
I quickly considered this list from a dog trainer’s perspective: marking – normal, acting headstrong (distracted by outside stimuli with low impulse control) – normal, barking when returned to crate – sign of boredom or distress, growling and teeth baring – uh-oh, more signs of trouble.
Bill was trying to understand why his darling little pup had suddenly turned into a rambunctious lout and had come to the conclusion that testosterone was the culprit. He thought that if he got rid of the hormones by getting his dog neutered he’d be rid of the problems – presto! But this is not so.
I told him that his dog’s problems sounded more behavioral and relationship-based than hormonal. Adolescence is a time when perfectly sweet and relatively needy pups suddenly get minds of their own. Their confidence grows, as does their interest in the whole wide world. Energy is high and impulse control is low.
Sure, some secondary sexual characteristics are starting to bloom at this stage, but this happens whether you alter your dog or not. The beauty of training is that it still allows us to nurture and sculpt what was given to us by nature, so I don’t focus much on hormones when I want to change the behavior of a dog.
The fact that Bill called his beloved dog a nasty name told me that he was taking it personally and feeling emotional about the changes in his pup’s behavior. This is quite common. People often believe that, as Man’s Best Friends, dogs should not only inherently know what we expect of them but also graciously do our bidding as their leaders. When we have this expectation, a dog’s every “wrong” move seems like a deliberate transgression, a personal affront to the “master.” This makes people mad – and when people get mad, dogs get punished.
The thing is, dog behavior is simpler than that. Dogs do what dogs were born to do unless we proactively teach them otherwise. They chew things, pee on things, bark, and even growl. So when these things happen, dogs aren’t being bad, they are just being dogs. They never read Lassie or Rin Tin Tin or saw the movie Bolt. They don’t know they are supposed to submit and be “obedient” just because we said so.
Dogs do what works for them at any given moment, without ascribing any moral code to it. Bill’s dog is doing what works for him, either instinctively because it’s a natural behavior and is inherently rewarding or because a particular behavior is getting him something he likes or keeping away the bad stuff. In short: Bill shouldn’t take it personally.
The good news is that since we control our dogs’ environment much of the time and can control their access to rewards nearly all of the time, we can shape their behavior to suit our needs. This is called training. If you want your dog to do as you say, you’ve got to teach him what you want him to do and (here’s the kicker) then provide the motivation for him to want to do it.
What about the growl, you ask? Well, my guess is that Bill’s indignation at his dog’s transgressions had made him angry. I asked him if he’d been dominating his dog to “put him in his place” and he said he had, because he was so furious (give the man points for honesty).
As I said above, when people get mad, dogs get punished for merely acting like dogs without sufficient training and communication on the humans’ part to help them navigate our world “correctly.”
In this case Bill’s dog was feeling frightened and threatened by Bill who was, in the dog’s eyes, being unpredictably violent by alpha rolling, staring, and yelling. Bill’s behavior had done nothing to resolve their issues. In fact, Bill’s display of anger had probably exacerbated them and begun to damage their relationship.
I told Bill that I’d help him learn how to communicate with his dog and suggested that he not let his emotions get in the way of good training. I assured him that we could finesse the situation with training while keeping his dog’s confidence and trust in him intact.
This is, quite simply, what works. By treating our dogs as our best friends rather than our foes, we can harmoniously establish good behavior and enjoy the canine relationships we long for.
Kelly Gorman Dunbar is Director of the Center for Applied Animal Behavior, where she recruits and trains the instructors for the Dunbar family business, SIRIUS® Puppy & Dog Training. She is the creator of the SIRIUS Sniffers scent-detection program, and is in the process of bringing the French sport of cavage (truffle hunting) to the US. Kelly is also Founder and President of Open Paw and consults on various matters.
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