Doggone Etiquette—

No Excuses!

By Bardi McLennan

A Word to the Dog:

Don’t you just love it when you get your own way? Maybe you want to snooze a little longer in the morning and your concerned person asks you what’s wrong, or if you have a tummy ache — and you just moan a wee bit and then are left in peace. Or perhaps at dinner time you are pulling your “I don’t eat that!” nose-in-the-air trick and your frustrated VIPerson tries to figure out why. However, before rushing you off to the vet’s office, he/she changes the menu and offers you a tasty treat which, of course, you inhale! Life is great for clever dogs that don’t speak — verbally, that is.

A Word to the Dog’s Owner:

Whatever it is that your dog does to command your attention can be amusing or utterly frustrating, depending on how you care to look at it. But there are plenty of times when accepting the fact that Rufus has put one over on you is the quickest path to solving the puzzle or the crime. Making excuses is the biggest obstacle for most dog owners to overcome. It is so easy to come up with an excuse as to why the dog didn’t hear you and didn’t come when called, or didn’t “leave it” when told to — or any other thing that dear Rufus repeatedly doesn’t do when told. You may say to yourself, maybe he’s cold, or he’s having an off day, or you try to convince yourself that he’s just a puppy and will outgrow all these problems. Think again!

More often than not, disobedience in a dog is as much a learned behavior as is obedience. You let him get away with disobeying your specific request once, so he makes note of how he did it and no doubt will be successful when he tries it again. With three or four such “lessons” Rufus has learned the misbehavior and how to get away with it. Let’s face it. You yourself have taught him just how to manipulate you, and that’s his excuse for the behavior!

When the excuses begin to fly, Rufus is labeled deaf, stupid, naughty, an impossible dog to train, or a multitude of other excuses you care to dream up for what boils down to learned disobedience. Dog trainers have heard them all. The retraining begins by getting everyone in the family to see and understand how, when and why things have gone wrong, and how to correct the problem. A common error dog owners make is to use commands such as “come” or “stay” when the dog is off-lead but before the dog has been taught to work off-lead. Rufus is virtually handed the liberty to disobey.

Occasionally, the reason for the frustration and use of excuses boils down to a misunderstanding of what kind of temperament, behavior and intelligence are normal for the specific breed of dog a person owns. Researching the breed (or the more obvious ones in mixed breeds) will help to solve some of the problems. And if you’re planning to get a puppy this spring, it pays to do that research first, so you get the breed that’s right for just about everything you want in a dog!

As for the error of your excuses, remember that Rufus can come up with them, too. That wide-eyed innocent expression doesn’t excuse the fact that it’s your shoe clenched in his jaws! His focus on some monster in the bushes that prevents him coming when called is a pretty lame excuse, too. If you do look at his doggy misbehaviors this way, you’ll see there are lots of times when you have been hoodwinked by the excuses Rufus handed you. Shame on you for underestimating what a smart dog you have!

Until next time — BE GOOD!

—Bardi

Bardi McLennan bred, trained and showed Welsh Terriers for 30 years, during which time she wrote a monthly column on canine behavior in Dog Fancy Magazine. In addition to contributing to numerous dog publications, she has written 15 books on dogs, the latest being Rescue Me!, which received the ASPCA Humane Issues Award in 2008.