Ten days ago you might have heard the tragic story of a woman from Widnes who was mauled to death by two family dogs. We don’t know the full story yet, but it seems the woman was arguing with one or more of her children and the dogs were trying to defend the children.
Dogs are very aware of human emotions and most of them become upset with arguments and raised voices.
A week or so ago I was, as I am so often, frustrated with not being able to do something that should have been simple on the computer. With my emotions held tightly in check I went through to the kitchen to prepare lunch, only to find that Himself had left a pile of dirty washing up in the sink. It was the last straw. I directed a few pointed and pithy comments towards Himself to explain why I was a little upset to find said cups, plates and crockery. Himself slunk away accompanied by Gus, both of them seeking a quieter place to hide.
Poor Gus. Himself tried to defuse my tirade by pointing out that I was upsetting the dog, but that just made me want to cause Himself harm by sticking a teaspoon where the sun don’t shine.
But I will try to calm how I respond to such provocation in future as I don’t like upsetting Gus. It shows how important it is to watch your dog when less ordinary things or events happen and monitor the effect on them so that you can take action if necessary to calm things down or move your pooch away from a difficult situation.
Dogs will usually try to avoid conflict, but if they can’t, either because there is no escape route, or because they feel the threat they are facing is too great, they may turn to aggression to try to resolve the situation, which seems to have been the problem in Widnes.
And that led to a bad outcome for the woman and for at least one of the dogs.
If you’re interested in learning more about why dogs do the things they do, there’s a whole section in my book about it. Problem Pooch to Perfect Pet is available from the website or from Amazon.
Keep training,
Carol