I once got into a Facebook battle with a nameless stranger who had a dog I’ll call B. B’s owner claimed that B was perfectly trained and controllable under voice command at all times in all conditions. To have a dog otherwise not so perfectly trained was a reflection of the idiocy of the owner, which was just one of the things he accused me of.
I own a reactive dog. He’s a five-year-old male whippet with a big personality who joined me and his six-year-old whippet sister — a steady, calm, easy-to-train — female, when he was nine weeks old. When he was around eight months old, it was suggested to me in an beginner’s obedience class that Zephyr might benefit from a class for reactive dogs. It was the first time I’d heard the term, and I had no idea what it meant.
Zephyr barks and lunges at other dogs. He is much better now, but he was pretty intense for a while at times nearly pulling me off my feet with the sheer force of his desire to rid his space of the other dog. Off-leash dogs were particularly annoying because I could not control Zephyr’s environment by steering clear of the dog moving toward us. B’s owner notwithstanding, most other owners were either unable to to recall their(his/her) dog or would never react fast enough, leaving Zephyr with no choice other than to bark and lunge to make the approaching dog go away. Because of him (and service dogs, which will be another post), I am huge proponent of leash laws. I do everything in my power to avoid potential confrontation with other dogs and having an off-leash dog charge up to Zephyr while the dog’s owner is yelling, “Don’t worry. He’s friendly” just means that my dog is frightened and my dog is the one who will do what he can to protect himself and then get blamed if a bite happens. A bite that never would have happened had the owner been obeying the leash laws.
B’s owner was under the firm belief that our city’s laws required only that a dog be under voice control, and if an altercation happened whichever dog, when brought into the animal control office, was proven to be under full voice control of his or her owner would be the blameless one. Setting aside the fact that there is a written leash law that says nothing about verbal control being sufficient, there are several problems with this. Any dog, no matter how well trained, after having a fight with another dog and brought into an unfamiliar place would have a little trouble obeying commands. Dogs, like people, get worked up and lose their ability to obey simple commands when under stress. If you asked a friend to do a basic math problem while in the middle of being chased by a serial killer, chances are your friend would not be able to answer what one plus one equaled. No dog gets along with every other dog, despite our human desire for this to be true, and most dogs will ignore a command if he or she feels threatened.
After posting an article about the ruination of a service dog thanks to a dog owner who ignored the leash laws and expressing my love of leash laws given my reactive dog, B’s owner thought Zephyr should be locked up behind a fence and that his reactivity issues were all a matter of poor training by an idiotic trainer, who clearly had no idea what she was doing. I got mad. Really mad.
Despite outward appearances, the investment in a reactive dog tend in tends to be a lot higher than a dog without any behavior issues. I have spent more money and time on classes, behaviorists, medications, and care to get and keep Zephyr happy and comfortable navigating the world. My training time is 70% devoted to him versus 30% to Zoe, an imbalance I’m trying to correct now that he is better. Reactive dogs take time. They take patience. They produce a lot of emotional angst, and they do take money. Other than having an owner who was a professional dog trainer or behaviorist, Zephyr had all the things to help a reactive dog. And the thing is even though he’s better, he will require management his entire life. He will never be “cured.”
I fired back at B’s owner with information, articles, and websites. I wanted him to drown in information. He had no idea what he was talking about. He needed to understand that reactivity is often fear based, not an act of intentional aggression or poor training. I doubt he read anything I sent him, but shortly after that he dropped out of our neighborhood dog FB group, where the battle took place.
What B’s owner made me realize was how few people are educated about dog behavior. The average pet owner can’t tell when their dog is scared or thinks all growls are a bad. They certainly don’t understand what Zephyr’s reactions mean. Reactions that are so often misinterpreted. Because of B’s owner, I vowed to become an advocate for dogs, especially dogs who have a little trouble navigating the world. This is was the genesis for this site. Welcome.
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