mbc1963

It is normal behavior for a dog to "air snap" at another dog who is all up in his face. It's basically a dog's way of saying, "Back off, dude," but since dogs don't have hands, they use a face/mouth display to give a "push." There's a world of difference between doing that (and occasionally making contact, as is bound to happen with ears and noses protruding out) and attacking another dog. My dog will try to push another dog back, but as soon as he has 18 inches or so of air space, stops his display. He will never willingly engage a dog he's afraid of; in fact, he will walk off to the side of the path and act extremely interested in sniffing the underbrush to avoid any engagement. I'm guessing that most dog owners have found themselves in a situation where one dog snapped at another dog. Most of the time, there's no blood. To imply that any dog who might snap at another dog needs to wear a basket muzzle is to over-generalize - every dog would be wearing one. So, I think it's fair to say that Orbit, while on the reactive side of the scale, isn't a vicious dog or even an aggressive one. Leashing a dog works great most of the time - but when I'm leash-walking Buddy, there's a regular and predictable chance that a stupid dog-owner will let his "friendly" dog come charging at me. My favorite was the Doberman owner who, after I pulled a snarling Buddy to the middle of a big, grassy field and had him do a "lie down" to avoid the big dog who was causing him to react, unleashed the Dobie to allow him to trot at Buddy. While calling, "My dog is FRIENDLY." When I replied, "Mine is NOT," she said, "Well my dog isn't going to DO anything." Great. That's very helpful when I'm in the middle of a fight between your 100-lb dog and my dog, who's connected to me by a leash. I protect Buddy from these situations when I can. I call out, "My dog's not friendly," and I take him off the path to give him space... or, if the other dog is interested in treats, I'll actually hold that dog's collar until the owners can come. (Buddy will not react if the other dog isn't too close.) But, I have to say, it is absolutely NOT my job to manage my dog so well on leash that no other dog ever approaches him or annoys him. We have a leash law in my town, and my dog is visibly leashed in the presence of any other humans. (In the woods, he runs free - his recall is rock-solid.) If some other idiot allows their dog to charge freely at leashed dogs, then the charging dog is going to get snapped at some time. That is horrendous doggie manners, and adult dogs know that, and will scold the way dogs scold. Sometimes, they'll make contact (just like little kids in a tussle can dole out a black eye or bloody nose), but that doesn't mean they're vicious. I learned with Buddy to tell myself, "You don't have a different dog because you saw him react like that. You just have a better understanding of the dog he always was." You live and you learn. And with a reactive dog, you manage as best you can, and you learn that you can't control the world. The world sometimes needs to take responsibility for itself. Orbit's owner took a lesson about her dog, here, and will do the best she can - but I don't think she needs to beat herself up for not knowing previously what Orbit hadn't shown her.

I've paid twice to have other people's dogs go through antibiotics because my reactive dog snapped at them and drew blood. Both times, I had let my dog off leash because he seemed like he was being friendly to this particular dog... and so I figured it was my responsibility. And I learned my lesson: Buddy just doesn't get off-leash unless we have a long-established pattern of friendship with the other dog. He's too reactive, and gets nervous at sudden moves, and snaps to drive the other dog away. Even if it only happens once every 20 meets, I don't want it to happen, period. However, one winter I got "mugged" by two big, off-leash dogs when Buddy was on-leash. I actually fell down on the ice into the dog-fight that erupted when one dog lunged at us. I got up OK and the stupid people got their dog... and I went to leave. I saw the stupid person hauling her dog back to her car, quickly - and figured she must have found blood on him somewhere. I figured, in that case, she deserved what she got, and hoped she learned her lesson. I figure that if I should have seen it coming and should have known better, it's my responsibility. But if my dog is on-leash and I give fair warning (or I get mugged by uncontrolled dogs), it's the other person's responsibility. (Lucky for me, Buddy is incredibly predictable in his reactivity, and I can completely avoid the stimulus that causes it, if I just pay attention.) There's also the delicate balance of "will you see this person again?" The local dog owners in my neighborhood know each other well... and if I were perceived as an irresponsible dog-owner, I'd get a reputation. To me, it's worth the $75 to be seen as someone who does the right thing. I know how awful it feels, but I think an ear-gash is an incredibly common thing. I got home from a walk with Buddy once only to find his ear pierced through by another dog in a tussle. It was scabbed over by then, and I didn't take him to the vet, and he was fine. (Thanks, forum members, for reassuring me that night. Saved me the cost of the antibiotics and all.) So... what did YOU do? I'm curious. Mary

I live alone with my dog, and I completely understand the context-change, dog-change. My dog has a few people he knows and loves, and will let them move willy-nilly through my house. However, strangers have to sit calmly and quietly. Buddy can be fine with a person in one room, but if they go to the bathroom and then re-emerge, he reacts again, as if he had never seen them before. I do believe that Buddy's context-change reactivity is stronger than it is in most dogs, though for what reason, I do not know. He cannot stand to run into things out of context: a dog he knows with known woman X is fine, but when daughter Y shows up with the dog, Buddy growls and barks at her. Puggle Y behind his known fence is fine, and we chat and pat him, but if a guest has another dog behind the same fence, Buddy reacts. (Meanwhile, same unknown dog behind a different, unknown fence: no reaction.) Buddy cannot stand things to be out of place or presented to him in an unexpected way. It just really seems to piss him off. More than anything, it seems, Buddy likes to know what he can expect, and he strongly objects when routine is broken or changed. That's probably not much help, but I can say that Buddy can learn to tolerate just about anything if given enough time to adapt to the new thing. Not crossing the threshold is important - exposing him in small doses until the new thing is familiar seems to be the key. Mary

Excellent! I had my dog for a LONG time (maybe 18 months or two years!) before it seemed to dawn on him that he could ASK me for stuff. Like... I want to go out, so if I go to the door and stand there, she'll let me out. Prior to that, he'd go out if I offered to open the door for him, but he only took what I was giving. When he learned he could ask and receive (petting, dinner, toys), it was a wonderful moment for me! Kelso is going to be one happy boy. Mary

And just another horrid warning story: My brother's old beagle mix rode in the back of his truck, but tied "for safety." He leaped out one night, trying to chase something, and ended up being dragged down the road a bit. Horrible open wounds. And my brother's not a rube - he just hadn't considered the possibility. Mary

This reminded me very much of "The Miracle Worker." (If you haven't seen it, oh, go rent it!) This particular scene: Mary

::Sigh:: Fireworks are illegal in my state, but they shoot 'em every night from June 20 to July 30, it seems. New Hampshire and plentiful fireworks are just a few minutes away. One odd thing that really helped my dog in his first summer: I found that he paced and panted with fear during thunder/fireworks. BUT, if I allowed him to be on the couch or in bed with me, where I could have one hand on him, he calmed down considerably. He's still nervous, but that hand on him seems to be enough to get him through. I know people will tell you not to "reward" fear with petting, but to me this is like jiggling a crying baby. It's soothing, and it quiets him, and I can get some sleep. And THAT'S how my dog ended up in my bed, even though I swore it would never happen. MBC

Your post immediately reminded me of perhaps the funniest dog story ever told. If you read it the first time, this slide says it all: If you haven't read it yet, you MUST GO NOW. http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/11/dogs-dont-understand-basic-concepts.html Mary

Interesting! My Buddy will not go to people who try too hard: stare at him, try to coax him, grab him, etc.. However, if someone completely ignores him and lets him approach at his own pace, he does much better. I know that for Buddy, direct stares and hard eye contact are very threatening - he'll go a long way to avoid interaction or contact with dogs who approach that way. (He'll walk off a trail and pretend to be sniffing - really, REALLY hard - at the grass over there, all to send the signal that he doesn't notice that other dog coming, not at all.) Mary

Yeah, I don't think you should judge Kelso's progress against that of another dog. He is who he is, with his own baggage. Who knows if the other dog isn't just more naturally outgoing or more resiliently wired? My older brother was life-of-the-party Jim. I am shy and retiring and barely spoke in school. My whole life, people said, "I can't believe he's your brother." Same parents, same home environment: two genetically separate people. The two dogs don't even have the genetic connection. My dog took months before he'd allow a strange man to come approach us, even though I took him walking on city streets and park lanes twice a day. He had to go at his own pace, relaxing into the new world as it began to be comfortable for him. You're doing great with Kelso, and he's making strides every day. Mary

Well, as someone who is relatively picture-free on the Internet, and doesn't understand the Facebook generation's need to share everything they do with everyone on the planet, I have to say I completely understand not wanting a stranger digitally documenting me. I'm out grocery shopping. My hair is a mess. Maybe I look totally muddy and sloppy from walking my dog. I'm also a public school teacher, and 8th graders aren't the kindest people in the world. On the Internet, they can do some pretty harsh stuff with any photo of me. Beyond that, even if I weren't a tiny bit of a "public figure" around here - why the bleep does some stranger need to be photographing me without my permission? Just because everyone has a digital camera these days doesn't mean it's suddenly become polite or thoughtful to take photos of other people (or their dogs) without asking them first. When I look around the world these days, I think: George Orwell was right. Except Big Brother doesn't have to watch us, because we're willingly and complacently and happily handing over our right to privacy, to the Big Brothers of Facebook and Twitter. Just because it's happening doesn't mean we need to happily roll over and accept it. In fact, I think we should probably be getting really riled up.

Check. Donut of shame. Been there. Worn that. That's what I get for impaling myself on a stick. My sympathies, bro. -Buddy

My experience with my reactive/fearful dog was that we took forward and backward steps a LOT in the early days, and that in the first year, the leaps were great, huge leaps, but as time went on, the progress got much slower but steadier. So now, for example, people who haven't seen Buddy in a year will say, "Oh, he's so much better!" In the first four years, Buddy became outwardly normal - but in the last two years, he's become (very gradually!) more inwardly normal, and will actually approach people with cheerful hope rather than dart away with suspicion. There's still some wariness and he'll still react to people who move too fast or seem aggressive, but his default setting has gone from "fear" to "maybe treats." Don't be discouraged by small setbacks. Kelso is living in an entirely different world now, and it will take him time to accept that it's the real world. Mary

Not just pictures! I want VIDEO! Mary

Nah, Buddy's fine now - it's 2 months later. But for clarification, while the acorn cap was normal-sized (maybe like a quarter in diameter), it still had its little stem attached, so I suspect the whole lot made it somewhere down this throat and then lodged there.

A follow-up to this thread about the mystery coughing! I was cleaning my living room the other day, and pulled Buddy's bed out of its alcove to sweep behind it. Shamefully, I don't do this very often - I usually leave the bed there and sweep the rest of the room. (Don't judge me!) In sweeping behind the dog bed, I found an old, petrified ball of regurgitation (to be polite). It had dog fur surrounding a ful, unchewed ACORN CAP. So, I'm guessing that at some point in August, Buddy downed the acorn cap, and it got lodged in his esophagus, and he coughed for a while, then later managed to get it back up. I'm wondering if he might have swallowed it down with a particularly delicious chunk of poop that he swalled whole? Eating non-edible food is NOT Buddy's style. Yeesh. The things that could kill your dog, that you never even realize have happened. Mary

Actually, I think boycotting the AKC isn't enough. People actually have to TALK, loudly and openly, about how the AKC needs to be disregarded by the public. The recent BBC documentary did loads to educate people about what breeding for conformation has done to dogs. One can only hope that in a generation's time, it will be general knowledge that the AKC is nonsense, and that people should look for a DOG, not a "purebred," when buying a pet. I know this is a wee bit scandalous to say on the BC forum, and I do understand the need for working dogs. And I completely understand working breeders' desire to keep working dogs working, and to breed for that trait. BUT: The vast, vast majority of dogs alive now are pet dogs, not working dogs. The AKC has convinced pet owners that they need to buy a breed, rather than a dog. All my life, until I got Buddy from the shelter, I had owned (mutt) dogs, rather than breeds. They were stupendous, stubborn, funny, aggravating, boundlessly loyal - all the things you need in a pet dog. For most of history, average people just took mixed-breed pups home from local litters to get their pet dogs. There were no inbred health problems, no weird genetic side-tracks, because there was no "Official Agency" advocating breeding (and inbreeding) for physical appearance to the detriment of dogs' health. Only in the last 100 years have we warped these poor "purebred" breeds into bizarre and unhealthy shadows of their original selves. For what? So my neighbor can own a bulldog that is hardly suited to hold itself upright, instead of a "mutt" who would be a fine pet? So my other neighbor can brag about the lineage of her poodles, who pretty much hang around the house and go for walks just like any mutty pet dog I ever owned? So people obsessed with designer clothes can complement their Jimmy Choos with a purebred (poorbred) Maltese? I am wholly unimpressed by the "dog fancy" that gets whipped into a frenzy by the AKC. I think the absence of the AKC would be better for dogs AND the wallets of the typical pet family. (AND I think fewer people would be able to make a living by puppy-milling and destroying hundreds of dogs if the "fancy" for designer breeds were taken out of our psyches.) And gosh... imagine if all the money that goes into supporting AKC events that provoke people into buying poorly-bred, unhealthy dogs could be funneled into some higher purpose, like encouraging shelter adoptions, or fighting puppy mills? All the dog-lovers who are now swept up in powdering their dogs' coats and coloring their dogs' noses with Sharpie could take all their dog-loving energy and spend it on something highly rewarding, with great karmic outcome. I know this runs counter to our conditioning to buy, buy, buy, and impress, impress, impress. Fancy dogs are, to many people, status symbols. But I strongly believe we have an individual responsibility to think about the ripples that work outward from our choices. One woman's desire to prance around a ring with a beautiful but AKC-ruined dog has an impact on the larger world. I think it's fair to ask that woman to think about it. Mary

Thanks for the ideas, all! I had thought of kennel cough, but this came on heavy and suddenly, right after he ate a lot of grass. I decided to wait till Monday to see how he was (since he seemed happy and well otherwise), and by Saturday night he had stopped with the coughing and snorting. Whatever it was seems to have fixed itself, mercifully. Mary

Last week I had to take Buddy to the vet because he had a long bout of bad diarrhea - to the tune of $277. So yesterday, he finished his last metronidazole pill. Then I took him to the park. He loves to eat a certain grass on the side of the path. (Peculiar. The dogs love this one grass. They'll stand there and graze like cattle!) Anyway, I noticed Buddy coughing and acting like he was trying to throw up. He kept eating grass desperately, and coughing. Now, today, he's occasionally coughing and again, acting like he's trying to vomit. Other than that, he seems fine - good appetite, energy, etc.. I just don't have endless money to spend on him. Has anyone got any potential solutions for a dog who seems to have something caught in the back of his throat? Mary

I've definitely seen dogs do this. Maybe it's the notion of "pouncing" on the prey? Buddy, my current dog, does a crazy straight-up-in-the-air vertical leap when something startles him from below. Funny, but embarrassing for him, I imagine, since it's usually a blade of grass or stray leaf that spooks him. Mary

I'm not getting into the politics of whether dogs can think or not. Just sharing an anecdote that proves my dog's genius. I've mentioned before how handy I found the "touch" command - if I tell Buddy to "touch" when he's being pesky and whiny, he'll go touch the thing he wants: the toy box, the squeaker, the kibble that's stuck under the couch. Today, I had a fever all day. The achy joints, throbbing head, just want to sleep kind of fever. I've mostly been sleeping or lying on my couch all day. I called my neighbor and asked her if she would walk Buddy this afternoon, but he didn't want to go with her if I stayed in the house, so she had to bring him back. I ran to the grocery store to get some chicken soup, and then gave Buddy a very brief lap around the local college field. Icky, sicky feeling - so I came home, kicked my walking shoes off, and fell asleep on my couch again. At this point, Buddy was irritated with his lack of exercise and activity today. I tried "touch Squeaker" and "where's bone?" but it wasn't enough. When I woke up from my nap, I found Buddy giving me the eye - staring at my face expectantly, unmoving. I did not want to entertain him, so I said, "Buddy, sit." He sat. And looked at me. And then raised his paw and did a most distinct and unbidden "TOUCH" on my walking shoes. He got his walk. Mary (feeling better)

I don't think it's particularly vague, nor meaningless. I find "reactive" quite a descriptive as well as useful term to distinguish from "aggressive," which often, in our culture, = PTS. Fearful isn't necessarily the same thing. Mary

No, no, the opposite! I absolutely agree with Kristine: if anything, I think a lot of dogs who are labeled "aggressive" are really fearful and reactive. Honestly, people who know Buddy gush all over about how sweet he is, and gentle. You can see after knowing him a few days how he's just trying to avoid trouble and conflict. He doesn't want to make eye contact with strange, tough-looking dogs, and he doesn't want that golden retriever to get all up in his grill. But, in the wrong situation and pushed over his threshold, he looks aggressive, and with the wrong trainer - or going home to the wrong owner - he probably would have ended up euthanized after a few weeks. Your dog sounds like a lower-key version of mine. Buddy used to have "meltdowns" when bikes went by - he would shake and scuttle around as if he were going to get hit, and be unable to focus on me or the lovely scenery or smells. It took him a long time - like the rest of a 20-minute walk - to wind down. The more he's in the world without getting injured by bikes, the less reactive he is. He lets them zoom right by, now. Mary

Well, I picked up the term "reactive" from my trainer, who used it to distinguish Buddy's behavior from aggression. Buddy will react too-strongly to stimuli that normal dogs tolerate well: mainly other dogs getting in his face or charging at him, and humans moving too fast or suddenly lurching at him. (The list used to be a lot longer, but he's calmed down a lot.) Buddy doesn't charge at people, barking and growling, but if a person suddenly leans over him, he will bark and maybe growl in fear as he backs away. He doesn't approach other dogs with the intention of causing harm - in fact, he'll do everything he can to avoid getting too close. But if the other dog crosses his personal space threshold too fast, Buddy will snarl and snap and drive it away. So, that's how I've taken to defining reactivity: Buddy isn't actively being bad or mean - but he is reacting too strongly to some life situations. Mary