Do we expect too much of our dogs?
As the roles our dogs have in our family morph closer to children than their outdoor only predecessors, are they able to cope?
This is something I consider on a regular basis, not only with my patients, but also with my own dogs at home. This evenings’ walk went as follows - walk outside the gate, turn left and see 3 people in the dark, one in a wheelchair, move past to find chicken bones on the road, not 2 metres later there is a cat that scrambles up the fence and simultaneously a gate opens to reveal 3 new people, one of whom wants to ask questions about Biscuit and reaches out to pet him. This was all before I was 20 metres down the road! My expectation of their behaviour is to walk past and ignore or calmly interact with the stimuli. It struck me that my expectation is unreasonable, what a huge barrage of varying stimuli to manage in such a short distance. Why should we expect our dogs to move past these things unfazed?
Developing healthy behavioural responses involves our animal’s having time to process the information in front of them, then to make appropriate and ‘reasonable’ responses. However, when we bring dogs into our densely housed environments they are thrown new stimuli at an abnormally high rate. There is no wonder why we experience problem behaviours and behavioural problems in our pets. We ask for a dog who is calm and relaxed on their own, friendly and accepting of strangers, playful and tolerant of all dogs and cats, comfortable around fast moving vehicles, unresponsive when presented with constant loud noises and relaxed out in busy public spaces (just to name a few…).
It takes a very special individual to cope well with all of these challenges, and in all the dogs that I have come across both professionally and socially, I am not sure I have met one. When we begin to appreciate the difficulties our pets face existing in our environment, we can begin to understand and empathise with their experience. This new perception allows for patience, support and a better relationship with our furry companions.
