PERSONAL SPACE

I was out walking my dog this morning as usual. She’s a white Northern Inuit. I rescued her from Dogs Trust about six years ago. When she came to the house she was, to put it politely a basket case. Throughout the first year at home she had a go at each of the other three female dogs in the house. Being the biggest she challenged them all for the right to be top dog one after another. I had my hands full with her to say the least. 

Miya and Star playing in the snow last year.

Out walking with her in those early days was a challenge in that every time I met another handler and dog combo she would go into stalking mode and completely freak out the oncoming duo. Her head would go down in line with her spine in an almost arrow like fashion and she would slow her walking pace. Her body would slightly stiffen just like you see the lions on the serengeti do when stalking an impala. By the time the other dog came close it was ready for a fight. It took me many months to train her through redirection that this was not an acceptable way to greet other dogs. But we made a lot of progress in that first year. She still resorts to this behaviour if i let her but I am suitably aware now of her behaviour and work hard at getting her to focus on me when other handler/dogs approach meaning the whole encounter now is much more relaxed. 

Anyway back to this morning, I was out as usual walking round my usual walk on which we encounter mostly the usual suspects out walking their dogs. As a behavioural trainer I like to watch other handlers walking with their dogs to get a flavour of what their relationship is like. Who’s walking who? Given all the work I have put in to getting Miya to stop stalking approaching dogs you can imagine how I feel when other handlers are completely oblivious to their own dogs body language as they walk along either talking to their friends or checking their Facebook status on the phone. Having no idea that their dog is sending all sorts of messages to an approaching dog, child or other high value distraction. One such owner and dog came towards me this morning. I have seen this person many times on this same route. The dog is a Lab and walks like its a metal detector sweeping from one side to the other as it moves forwards. The owner is usually on her phone either deep in conversation or as I say checking her FB status. Normally I go in the opposite direction so as to avoid any interaction between the dogs. I have witnessed countless times how she lets her dog go up to oncoming handlers and dogs to ‘let her dog say hello’. Up until today I never knew whether the other handlers and dogs had any say in the greeting. This morning I found out. I found myself on the same path heading straight for them. The only alternative option I had was to turn around and head back the way I came but that would have been socially unacceptable to some people. So I carried on. On they came the lab was on an extending lead and it was at the very end of the extension coming straight for us. The thought crossed my mind briefly. Let Miya go and the lab can take its chances. I thought that the fall out wasn’t worth it. So I called Miya to me and talked to her. I asked her to sit and glanced towards the oncoming duo. Now at this point the mere fact that I had called my dog in to close control and made her sit might have you think that  the other handler would see this and think ’he’s called his dog in and has her under close control, I will do the same just incase his dog is in any way aggressive’. But no she kept coming with her dog at the end of the extension some 15 feet in front of her. There was no way she could have done anything had it kicked off, she was too far behind. As they got to within striking distance I began speaking to Miya which immediately got her attention. I glanced towards the other handler who said, whilst continuing to come straight for us, wait for it… “Will I apologise now for my dogs behaviour”. As she finished this statement her dog was right up into Miya’s face adopting a submissive posture. “She does this all the time”, she says. “She just loves saying hello to strange dogs”. “She’s very sociable”. Now thats all well and good and because of all the work I have done with Miya over the last few years there was unlikely to be an incident, however. Had I been just a normal run of the mill owner like her, who let their dog just go and say hello, chances are there might have been a flare up. 

Its all very well people, saying your dog is friendly and just wants to say hello, but what you don’t take into consideration is that the dog that is coming towards you might not like other dogs coming into its space. It might look quite happy walking along with its owner because theres a decent distance between you, but the second you let your dog go right up to another dog you are forcing that dog to make a decision. A decision between, ok i’ll let you say hello or no I really don’t want you coming into my personal space so i’m going to tell you, the only way I know how, to get back, and thats by snapping and lunging at you. Ordinarily that would be acceptable in the dogs world because they know and understand what was being communicated here. But the owner interprets it differently because they don’t understand what just happened there. More times than not the owner of the friendly dog who just wants to say hello takes offence to the fact that their dog has just been snapped at. What they don’t appreciate is that the poor dog that snapped was put in a situation were its options were limited and only did what comes naturally. The bottom line is who’s at fault here is the person with the friendly dog who just wants to say hello. Just because you think your dog is friendly, doesn’t give you the right to let it go barging up to other dogs so that it can make new friends. 

Respect other peoples boundaries people, and if you see another handler take steps to get their dog in and under control, at the very least ask if its ok for your dog to say hello to the other dog, don’t just assume its ok. And if a dog snaps at your dog, don’t blame the other dog and handler, the fault lies with you and your handling.