Not a very good photo I’m afraid – black dogs are difficult and I wish you could see his lovely face.
Eighteen-month-old Cockerpoo Algie is becoming increasingly wary of men he doesn’t know – and some that he does.
He was a somewhat timid puppy, and when he was about nine months old they moved house. The first indication of problems was when he began to growl at the men working on their new home.
As people do, they told him ’No’ and ‘’Stop’ and put it down to the upheaval in his life.
Reacting scared of men
The couple used to take Algie to work with them when it looked like he might be alone for more than a couple of hours. The owner didn’t actually see what happened in the second incident because it was outside the office. Men would be wandering about. This time he actually nipped.
Next he bit their gardener, a man he knows. So they called in a trainer.
From bad to worse
Following this things have escalated to such an extent that, in addition to biting a couple more men, Algie now barks and lunges at male callers to the house. His reactive behaviour and barking in general is increasing.
The lady is having a baby very soon and Algie needs sorting out.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but if his fear had been addressed in a positive way as soon as it manifested itself, if his body language could have been read before he even did his first growl at a man, it would not have got to this stage.
Instead, they got a trainer in who taught them to Alpha roll him.
Oh dear.
After twice pinning down her beloved dog for growling, the young lady felt so bad she couldn’t carry on, and they called me. It just felt so wrong.
The male trainer is a quite a well-known trainer in the area, and people tend to do what they are told. Thankfully the lady could tell she was damaging the relationship she had with Algie. She wanted him to feel safe near her, not threatened by her.
This reaction as demonstrated on Algie by the trainer will most certainly have added to his fear of men. The side effects of punishment can be more difficult to deal with than the original behavior it is meant to cure. Now he is reacting to nearly all men rather than growling at just a few. He even growled at me a couple of times which was unusual. It can only go one way unless approached differently.
Immediately abandon this kind of training advice
Zak George has this to say: Immediately abandon any training advice you’ve heard about being the “Alpha” or being “dominant” over your dog. Any dog trainer advising you who uses these terms is likely basing their approach on 20th century myths that originate from flawed studies on captive wolves. These are the buzz words of past superstitions in dog training when less was understood’.
As much as anything, punishment like pinning down fails to teach the dog what to do the next time he is in that same situation. It disempowers him even further. It failed to give the little dog confidence in the one person who should be his protector.
What is Algie’s growl saying?
What is Algie’s growl saying? It’s saying ‘I’m feeling scared’. If this was a child, would it be appropriate to harshly say NO, or worse still, throw him onto the floor? No!
We would be looking into the basis of his fear, find the triggers and work on desensitisation and counter conditioning – big words for getting Algie accustomed to men from a comfortable distance and associating them with good things.
From the start they have done what they thought was the best for Algie, sending him to doggy daycare which he loves and training him conscientiously. Like so many people they have been the victim of bad, outdated advice, but they will bring him around I’m sure – if they take things slowly.
Two months later:
I received this email today: Algie’s behaviour on walks is going from strength to strength. I am managing to keep him calm and happy most of the time by anticipating the situation and putting myself (& a high value treat!) between him and any perceived danger. As a result we have twice now walked past a man he always used to bark at and Algie has stayed quiet, which is a great improvement.
Inside I try to do daily training of some sort and I find this is slowly improving his overall behaviour as he is becoming more responsive to me. We are are seeing improvements in the barking when people come to the door. The best thing is that this weekend we felt for the first time that we were seeing signs of the old happy go lucky Algie coming back. I’m hoping as we continue we’ll see this more as Algie gets more confident that we’re in charge and he can just concentrate in sniffing out rabbits in the woods!
Many thanks for all your help and your second visit which we found invaluable for sharpening us up.
