Is my dog… BAD?                                         By Laurie Albright                       

Are there things that your dog is doing that your friends complain about?  Perhaps, things that your neighbors don’t appreciate?  Maybe even, gasp, things that YOU don’t appreciate?  Are you asking yourself, “is this dog just plain BAD?!”  Relax, the answer is probably “no, just under civilized”. 

If you go do a survey of dogs surrendered at the Humane Society, very few of them are there because they won’t sit, or down.  They’re more often there because they destroy furniture, bark too much, bite the kids, things of that nature.  But really, that doesn’t make a dog bad, it just means he hasn’t been socialized to life in our human world! 

Let’s take a look at destroying property from the dog’s perspective.  He’s bored.  You’ve been gone all day and left him in the house by himself.  He’s slept as much as he can stand, the cat has gone into hiding and there’s NOTHING TO DO!  And he’s lonely.  “Oooo, look!  There’s a shoe, mmmm, it smells just like my favorite person!  When I lick it, it tastes like my favorite person.”  Chewing makes dogs feel good.  Have you ever seen a dog go all cross-eyed chewing on a raw bone or chew toy?  It must release endorphins or something!  Next thing you know, another pair of shoes is now a singleton.  And the dog is bad. 

Too much barking?  Barking is the way a good subordinate pack member tells you there’s something the boss should check into!  If you yell at him, you’re just confirming that either a) there’s something worth making a fuss about or b) it’s not really safe to do your job – somebody’s going to lose it!  While it seems labour intensive at first, letting your dog know what is worth barking at (like the guy sneaking in the bathroom window at night), and what is not (like the squirrel that lives in the tree in the front yard) is well worth the investment of time.  There are, of course, other reasons that dogs bark – but its really in our best interest to figure out why they’re barking too much and work on the problem, not the symptom! 

How about a dog that nips at the kids?  Has he ever been taught how to play appropriately with children?  For that matter, have the children been taught how to play appropriately with the dog?  A puppy that’s been left to “run wild” with the kids is going to consider them more like “litter-mates” than pack leaders.  The dog is going to play with the kids like he would other puppies in the pack – and puppies use their teeth when they’re playing!  Again, he’s branded a “bad dog” just for being a dog. 

If you’re having problems with your dog, try to figure out why the problem exists.  See if you can “civilize” your pooch to live in a human world.  If you can’t figure it out, call a specialist who can make sense of what’s going on and help you solve the problem.  Let’s keep those “bad dogs” in a happy home, not in the pound!