Minding Your Pets Manners

Toby and I read the following on the Tails Magazine website.  For more helpful hints contact our trainer here at Best Friends. 

Hitting the streets with Fido is fun - as long as he behaves like a gentleman

By Kim Kavin

Springtime brings many things: big-blossoming wildflowers dotting the countryside, longer days filled with endless sunshine, and, in many places, a collective sigh of relief among both humans and animals suffering from cabin fever. Parks, sidewalks, and trails practically burst with pets and their people looking to reconnect with the great outdoors. Inevitably those people and dogs end up connecting with one another—and not always in a good way.  Incidents of poor dog etiquette can occur more frequently during the springtime months when a glut of people and their pets make a mad dash for the streets and dog parks to partake in the balmy weather. Dogs who normally play well at the park may get overexcited and rowdy, those who used to walk well on leashes may try to pull, and in the worst cases, dogs with anxiety or other issues may have forgotten how to be polite in general, resulting in barking, jumping, and even biting.  Using spring as a time to get back to good etiquette is about far more than being able to sit with your pet at a canine-friendly restaurant. It is about ensuring that your dog is socialized well enough to be a respectful member of society.
“When a dog respects you, he’s not trying to drag you into the street, under a bush, or trying to attack another dog or jump on a person walking across from you,” explains Rose Williams of the Dog Lovers obedience school in Los Angeles. “Obedience itself starts with socialization.”  And obedience continues with practice and training. Highly social dogs, for instance, tend to need constant etiquette reminders. Often, guardians who don’t mind a dog jumping on them—say to offer a kiss—have a hard time getting their dog to stop jumping on other people. These mutts get into trouble even when they, and their people, think they are simply being friendly.  “You have to know what that dog is thinking, what he’s getting ready to do,” Williams says. “The dog is thinking, ‘Here comes a little kid waving his hands in my direction, and I’m going to pounce on him.’ You have to pre-think him. Have him do his sit, stay, down, come over here. Make sure they’re up on their commands. You stop all that energy from exuding, and you don’t have to tell people you’re sorry all the time.”  Etiquette challenges become more difficult, and occasionally even dangerous, with dogs who are poorly socialized in the first place. If a dog isn’t routinely being placed in situations where she has to learn good socialization skills by the time she is about 3 months old, she may have etiquette problems for the rest of her life, says Diana Coles of Teacher’s Pet in Eatontown, NJ.  Even worse, some dogs will fail to succeed etiquette-wise no matter what their guardian does, Coles says. Some dogs simply prefer to be left alone. “Bringing the dog out and trying to socialize [her] is not necessarily going to change genetic makeup,” she says of antisocial dogs. “You have to have different expectations for different dogs.”  Knowing what situations your dog is capable of handling can be just as important as having a perfectly trained dog, both trainers say. If you know, for instance, that you have a highly social dog who likes to wrestle with other dogs at an off-leash park, then consider keeping your dog away from herding breeds, who typically don’t enjoy that style of play. That’s good etiquette on your part as much as your dog’s. You are both respecting the other people and dogs around you.  By the same token, if you have a dog who has never gotten along with other people or dogs, then consider walking him in the backyard instead of taking him out in public, where he is likely to fail—and where an unwanted biting incident could lead to calls for stricter regulations and subject him to leash laws, which affect even the most etiquette-perfect dogs. If you’re without a yard, pounding the pavement for an early morning walk around the block could be your only resort. But if you’ve got a biter on your hands, even this could be problematic.  “You can’t trust a dog like that, even on a leash,” Williams says. “If he is 6 or 7 and has never been socialized, that’s like putting a man out there who’s 50 or 60. It’s hard to teach them new tricks. Even if he’s a friendly dog, he’s going to pounce.”