Yesterday we heard news of the legislation regarding dogs which "go out of control and bite", and how this is now extending to all breeds and will go further than the destruction order, to include imprisonment for the owner for up to two years.  Was does this mean for you?

Well the truth of the matter is that ANY dog can bite.  Not just dogs with 'aggression'.  It doesn't matter what has been said about the breed in books or by trainers, breeders or the media, or how lovely a temperment your dog has; every dog is an animal, and any animal could decide to defend itself if given a cause to do so.  I have never been involved in a physical fight in my life, but if it came to the crunch I think that I would lash out if I felt that was the only option available for me to defend myself or those I am responsible for protecting.  I have come across many dogs who have bitten, or warned that they may bite.  The following are the typical reasons that they may do this:

1.  Feeling threatened by someone coming into their personal space - rolling over to show the tummy in this case does not mean 'tickle my tummy', it means 'I am afraid, so I'm showing you my most vulnerable area so you'll know I'm not a threat and will leave me alone'.

2.  Seeing a visitor as a threat to the family - who is this person, what are their intentions?

3.  Protecting the family from strangers on the walk - joggers, children, people wishing to pet your dog, all can be seen as a threat.

4.  Neighbours leaning over the fence into their 'territory' - in the wild, encroaching the territory would lead to a fight to the death.

4.  Feeling the need to protect their resources, e.g. food, toys (do not try to take food from a dog!)

5.  Trying to stop owners from doing something they perceive to be dangerous - like slapping a childs hand away from a hot stove.

This is not an exhaustive list, and it is not intended to scare, it is simple to point out that there are lots of different occasions which could give a dog reason to bite and I have had numerous clients who've called me in because their dog has bitten someone 'totally out of character'.  I wish to equip you with the information that you need so you can make a choice to ensure that you protect your dog and yourself from any mistakes it may make.  The key is LEADERSHIP.  A dog which makes decisions at times of perceived danger is a dog which thinks that it is the leader of your pack.  In extreme cases, the decision may be to bite.  Let me point out here that I have also had numerous clients who have called me in, insistant that their dog knows its place and that the owners are top dogs, however I have yet to visit anyone where this has actually been the case.  Obedience does not mean your dog trusts your decisions!  For more information I recommend that you visit my website: http://adogs-life.co.uk or read "The Dog Listener" by Jan Fennell.

If you would like a report on the tell tale signs that your dog thinks it's the leader of your pack, please send an email to info@adogs-life.co.uk with the subject "Is my dog the boss?"

Vicky Kelly

Highly Recommended Associate Dog Listener

www.adogs-life.co.uk

07908 192656

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 In an ideal world, the best way to introduce a pup to an already established pack is if the pup is already familiar with all of its new pack before entering the environment.  I.e. it will have met its new canine as well as human companions whilst still in the care of its breeders.  This should be a calm meeting on neutral territory, with the adult dogs on a lead.  The benefit of introducing in this way is if a high level of tension is noticed between the dogs you can re-think your choice of pup.

This isn?t always possible of course, and either way, being taken from its mother and siblings is going to be quite traumatic for your new addition.  It is important to bear this in mind, and give your pup at least 48 hours to calmly settle before giving it too much to think about.  If you dogs have not met on neutral territory, then it would be best to keep them as separate as possible during this time.

As Jan Fennell describes in her book ?The seven ages of your dog?, the most important thing that an 8 week old puppy needs is to know that it is safe.  So before setting off to collect your new puppy it is essential that you have created a safe place that the pup can retreat to for some peace and comfort when introduced to its new pack.  If you are planning to use a crate and can fit the crate in your car, this would be a good option, so the crate will already smell of the puppy once you return home.

On arrival at home, take your puppy straight out through to the garden and encourage it to toilet out there.  Praising the results with warm words of encouragement and a tidbit.  It is important to make positive association very quickly on arrival at your pup?s new home.  With Amichien ® Bonding already in place and if the dogs have already met, you can then bring your adult dog(s) out and introduce them to each other in the garden.  Your dogs will instinctively know how to handle this introduction.  If they haven?t met, leave this introduction for 48 hours, so your pup has a chance to settle first.

If you are concerned about how you adult dog will behave during the introduction, take it out into the garden calmly on a lead (making sure that you lead the way out of the door), then if there are any problems you can calmly and simply walk your older dog away.  Likewise if your pup becomes too boisterous and your older dog does not correct it, as the Alpha you can step in to calm things down.  For instance if you pup is hanging off your adult dog?s neck or ears, introduce a soft toy to the play, so your older dog can get a bit of peace. 

Once the initial hours of uncertainty have passed your pup will be keen to cautiously explore what its place is in this new hierarchy, so it is essential that it has been shown clear leadership signals from you from the start.  Your dog which is already established in its position in your hierarchy will then be able to teach your new pup some of the other boundaries.  You can allow this.  In the wolf pack the Alpha female often leaves her pups in the car of her number two, the Beta female, so that she can join the pack on the hunt.  The Beta is able to demonstrate what the boundaries are sufficiently well.  Like a child your pup will push and test those boundaries, so it is important that you maintain them, regardless of how adorable your pup may be!  From two weeks old puppies start looking for their position in their pack, so remember that however cute its behaviour is, your response is really important.  Your older dogs will know this and will behave appropriately.  Make sure you do too!

If you could benefit from one-to-one help establishing yourself as leader of your pack please visit www.adogs-life.co.uk for details on how to contact me.  I am a Highly Recommended Associate Dog Listener.  Please see Jan Fennell?s website to confirm my recommended status: http://janfennellthedoglistener.com/doglisteners.php

When I go to help my clients resolve the problems they are experiencing with their dogs; I am always asked the same question.  How long will it take?  I get asked this by every owner, whether their dog is a biter, barker, has separation anxiety, pulls on the lead, jumps up, or anything else.  Whatever the behaviour, whatever the breed, people always want to know how long it will take.  What I am there to do is to teach the owners how to show the dog that they are in charge, the dog then will not need to do the behaviour anymore.  When the owners start to change their behaviour, their dog needs to clearly understand what the new status is and that will take some time. 

A friend of mine recently told me about his new work situation which nicely illustrated this point.  He is in the Army, and has always worked on a pretty operational basis, so status and hierarchy was always clearly identified by the badges worn by each person, so the instant you looked at someone new, you knew straight away their status with respect to your own.  However this friend recently changed roles and found himself working in an office wearing a suit, sitting at a desk.  Everyone else also dressed in suits and sitting at desks, all ranks mixed in together, and he didn’t know who was who.  Imagine that, you’ve spent your working life knowing your place all the time, and then suddenly all signals are different and you have to work it out for yourself, treading carefully as you do.

This is what happens to our dogs.  They have lived in a household where they are given signals that they are the leaders for all their lives (much as many of my clients have liked to think that they are the “top dogs” in their pack, I have yet to go to a house where the dog didn’t think it was in charge).  Then it all changes as the owners start implementing Amichien Bonding, showing their dogs that they can be in charge instead.  All the signals are now different and the dog isn’t as sure of its place anymore.  Just like my friend in the army, the dog then has to spend some time working out its place in this new dynamic.  Only once it is happy with its place will you see the behaviour change.  It is up to you to prove yourselves as leaders, then your dog needs to recognise what you are doing, then it needs to be happy with what you are doing in all different situations and you can be trusted to continue to do this.  How long this takes depends on how consistent you are, and how stubborn, or how anxious your dog is!

I love going on holiday to countries where the dogs are treated like dogs.  In England we tend to treat our dogs like babies, and put so much pressure on them to conform to our human expectations, rather than just letting them be the relaxed creatures they would be if they were left to their own devices.  I have just returned from a holiday to India where we saw numerous stray dogs and all their pups.  It was really refreshing to see dogs that look like dogs!  All the stray dogs had a really similar look about them, as they are built for survival, as opposed to our dogs which have been built to human specification.

Some lived on the beach and it was really clear which dogs owned which territory when we witnessed an incident where a tourist had taken her dog into a particular area.  There were puppies in this area so the adult dogs were a bit wary about this intrusion.  The tourist dog had nipped away from its owner, a stray had come over to suss him out, and he was handling the situation quite well, showing the stray dog that he was no threat.  Then his human owner noticed what was coming on and rushed up and grabbed him by his lead.  This then meant that he no longer had the option of flight, so changed his feelings about the situation, and therefore changed the behaviour of the pack of dogs on whose territory he had found himself.  A few of the strays rushed up and barked at them, in warning that they needed to leave them and the pups alone.  The human owner, knowing no differently, made the mistake of picking her dog up, which raised his height.  The stray dogs didn’t like this so barked all the more, so the lady carried him into the sea.  The dogs didn’t follow, just stood on the shore barking their warnings at him.  Then the alpha male arrived.  Responding to the barks of his pack, he charged confidently onto the beach and proceeded to mark the area, clearly demonstrating “this is our territory, keep off”.

The tourist dog had the sense to know that it was best to keep his head down and do nothing, so eventually the strays left him alone, moving their pups away from him just in case.  The tourist lady oblivious to significance of this lay down to do some more sunbathing, leaving her dog to keep a watchful eye over her.   It was a good 20 minutes before he was able to relax himself, happy that the dispute was over.

As a dog listener, knowing what we all know, it was absolutely fascinating to watch the stray dogs acting as a pack, and even more interesting to see the negative consequences of the human intervention, when the human doesn’t know how to handle the situation.  She was really very lucky that the situation didn’t escalate.  If you want to get a better understanding of how the canine mind works and what is important to them, then a good place to start is reading “The Dog Listener” by Jan Fennell.  If you’re having some trouble with your own dog and want some one to one help, then please get in touch!

Vicky Kelly

Highly Recommended Associate Dog Listener

www.adogs-life.co.uk

07908 192656

I don't make a habit of dog sitting, but I was asked so nicely by some very lovely clients, who are excellent dog sitters themselves, if I would look after their two dogs for the day today so they could enjoy a day out in London.  I'm so glad I said yes!  The two reformed terrorists have been such lovely company, and it never fails to impress me how clever dogs are as they try to outwit me in the bid for leadership.

That's the most important position when it comes to owning or looking after dogs.  If they don't know for sure that you are in charge then all hell can break loose, so they've got to test you!  To them it's not a matter of having power, it's a matter of life and death.  Dogs don't know that we live in a generally civilised society and aren't under threat from attack day and night, so if they think they are in charge, they will be constantly wary.

When I arrived for my stint as Alpha to Telmo and Yara today there was an initially element of uncertainty, where whilst they had met me before, it was never without their owners present, so Yara the younger dog was a bit uncertain and hid from me at first, while Telmo did the big brother bit and gave me a few warning growls.  But after a while they realised I was no threat and became interested in finding out about me and seeing how I fitted in with them.  First there was a bit of sniffing and prodding with noses, whilst they used their strongest scent to suss me out, then the attention seeking started, but I'm a dab hand at this game, and busied myself making a delicious chai latte, getting on with some work, and reading the newspaper, until they got the message.  I wasn't going to be bossed about, I decide when they get attention.  Since then, we've been having a lovely relaxing day.  They've tested me a couple of times, Telmo trying to gain height to gain status, and thinking he could catch me out and pinch my lunch when I was checking for dangers he'd alerted me to.  Fortunately I was one step ahead of him, and thought to move my lunch before I check, though I'm not sure he'd have enjoyed my watercress salad that much!

To me it's been an absolute pleasure to look after them, firstly because I can see the results of the hard work their owners have put in, showing them consistent leadership, despite Telmo and Yara's attempts to usurp at times, but mostly it was such a pleasure to spend some time watching the way the two of them interacted with one another.  It really was like watching a big brother with his younger sister, who he wants to look after and teach her the right way yet finds her slightly annoying at times!  Bless them.  Eventually Yara realised that the wind whistling up the chimney wasn't worth worrying about and started snoring her head off.

If you want to know how you can transform your terrorists into peaceful pups using Amichien Bonding, like my clients have, then have a look at my website to find out more about Amichien Bonding, Jan Fennell, and how I work as one of Jan's Highly Recommended Associate Dog Listeners.  www.adogs-life.co.uk

If you are looking for an excellent dog sitter/walker in the South East Essex area then I can strongly recommend www.themuttminder.co.uk

I’ve been blogging for some time about my experiences and thoughts as a Life Coach (check out www.butterflyeffectcoaching.posterous.com ), so I thought it high time that I do the same for my Dog Listening business, which has been a part of my life for nearly 4 years now.  In case you didn’t know I am one of Jan Fennell’s Highly Recommended Associate Dog Listeners.  I can help any dog owner, regardless of dog age, breed, whether bought from a pup or rescue.  There is no such thing as an “untrainable” dog.  Sure, some can be more difficult that others, but that’s just their personality, and saying a dog is untrainable is not fair to either the dog or owner.  There is another way.  If you haven’t already you must have a read of “The Dog Listener” by Jan Fennell.  You can also check out my website: www.adogs-life.co.uk

I intend to use this blog to help break down the barriers we have about what our dogs should and shouldn’t do, and what we should and shouldn’t do about it.  I will also use the blog to make you aware of upcoming events as part of the larger organisation of Essex Dog Listeners ( www.essexdoglisteners.com ), and the fundraising that we do for Every Chance Rescue ( www.everychancerescue.co.uk ), so I hope you will find these blogs useful.  I do welcome any thoughts and feedback you may have on my posts.

Bye for now,

Vicky