Thursday training tip: I have flying monkeys!

MISS GULCH: That dog is a menace to the community. I’m taking him to the sheriff to see that he’s destroyed.
DOROTHY: Destroyed? Toto? Oh you can’t, you mustn’t. Auntie Em, Uncle Henry, you won’t let her, will you? Toto didn't mean to. He didn't know he was doing anything wrong. I'm the one that ought to be punished. I let him go in her garden. You can send me to bed without supper.
MISS GULCH: If you don't hand the dog over now, I'll bring a damage suit that'll take your whole farm! There's a law protecting folks against dogs that bite!
AUNT EM. How would it be if she keeps him tied up? He's really gentle — with gentle people, that is.

— Wizard of Oz

I have a plaque that I keep on my desk: “I have flying monkeys, and I’m not afraid to use them!” There have been times when I’ve been tempted to release them, like when I discovered my chewed up reading glasses. “Fly, fly!!” But I’m joking at those times. Other times, our consternation is more serious, more reminiscent of Miss Gulch’s complaint against Toto.

Well-meaning and loving folks are sometimes at wit’s end when they bring a new foster or adoption into their home. The new dog attacks the household dogs; or growls at a child; or lunges for an arm; or bites a witch. It happens all too frequently and, when it does, chances are high that returning the dog to the rescue organization is on the list of options.

In her book, Bones Would Rain From the Sky, dog trainer Suzanne Clothier points out that “normal, healthy dogs do not suddenly go berserk or ‘turn on their owners,’ or act aggressively without reason.” She suggests that owners look deeper into the dog’s feelings. Perhaps you are the (unwitting) cause?

Here are two scenarios, both of which actually happened, although with different rescue organizations. They illustrate how the dog experiences what you yourself experience: the last straw! Or, in dog training parlance, “stacked triggers.”

Scenario #1
Dog Artie (not his real name) was a wonderful, loving dog at the shelter and with his foster, getting along well with the foster’s dogs after gradual introductions. Within a couple of days of his adoption, his new owner was complaining that Artie “was not happy with the attention [from bigger dogs at the dog park] and started snarling when the other pups wouldn't leave him alone.” Yet the owner continued to subject Artie to the dog park and other “social” activities, despite Artie’s obvious discomfort.

Despite Artie's obvious discomfort, his owner constantly put him into the dog park.

In the following weeks, the owner reported that Artie had started to react to people (“he turns into a lunging, barking psycho”) so the owner started tightening the leash as she forced Artie to walk by the person who was setting him off. Within two months, the owner was posting on Facebook: “Artie didn’t try to bite me today.”

Scenario #2
This happens in foster care way too often. Dog Betsy (not her real name) was in the shelter when the rescue group got her. Betsy spent a week at the vets, getting the spay, vaccinations, and other care she’d need for a healthy start to her new life. Betsy was then transported by plane for several hours, then by car for several hours more. The foster parent was so anxious to socialize Betsy with her own dogs that she immediately took Betsy out of the crate – in the same room with her own two dogs, who were excited and happy to meet a new dog. Tired and scared, Betsy attacked both dogs.

In scenario #1, Artie had to face situations that made him uncomfortable, day after day after day, until he started responding in the only way he could get acknowledgement from his owner. Let’s face it, not every person is an extrovert, and not every dog is either. We need to consider our dogs' comfort levels and give them the life THEY need, not the one we imagine for them. Be your dog’s advocate. If he doesn’t like the dog park, don’t take him to the dog park. If he’s nervous about passing a stranger on a walk, increase the distance from the stranger and cross the street if you need to. (Tightening the leash just tells him that “stranger = unpleasantness.”)

In scenario #2, Betsy was way past her stress threshold. After weeks of being poked and prodded, she endured a long trip, only to find herself in a strange place with strange people... and then she had to deal with strange dogs pushing their noses over and under her. It was the last straw, and Betsy had to call a “time-out” in the only way she could. Imagine how much nicer it would have been if she could have relaxed in a room by herself for a few days while she got acquainted with her new owner and her new situation, and then met her new dog companions slowly.

“When a dog goes to their foster home, or to their new adoptive home, we have to assume the dog is stressed,” explains Sandy Tiller, CPCRN foster home director. “The dog is experiencing new people, a new home, new sounds, and new smells.”

“The dog may be fine with the first stress – the new environment – and be able to handle that, but then we add new dogs, new freedom, and new commands.”

Each of these stress points are called “triggers” because they cause a reaction in the dog. The reaction may be obvious, or the dog may internalize it. When these triggers start stacking up, the rescued pup may act “aggressively” when he wouldn’t normally do that if he was allowed time to handle/de-stress after each trigger or, in scenario #1, if Artie wasn’t constantly forced into uncomfortable social situations.

“When dealing with aggression in any form, we need to tread carefully, alert for the stumbling blocks of our own (often false) assumptions,” Clothier writes. “If we truly seek to understand a dog’s behavior, then we cannot ever forget that all dogs are dogs.”

We need to understand our dog’s stressors, and we need to learn how to avoid them, manage them, and hopefully overcome them.

We may also need to find qualified professional assistance. Dog behaviorists are almost always a better option than winged monkeys.