There is No "Bad" Dog Behavior, Simply Communication Misunderstood by Us!

This episode explains the basis of most behavioral issues in dogs and many of the root causes, as well as ways to address them through understanding canine communication and responding appropriately for them.  It's surprising to understand the true reasons why!

Transcript

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Grab your cup, hug your cup, and welcome to Peace in the Pax Canine Coffee Talk. Hi, I'm Nancy T, your Canine Behavioral Specialist, and we welcome you to another podcast. Beautiful sunny day today. Sitting here with my Paxie and my Penny. Penny's making a bit of a ruckus trying to lay down and how they rumble up all their covers. Pax did that a little while ago, but he's settled in. My Greyhound, and now Penny, my little Yorkie Karen, is just kind of getting herself situated. And I invite you to do the same. Grab a cup of coffee if you like. I have mine right here. Go ahead, I'll eat. And grab your very best friend. Give them a hug for us and uh sit back and join us for a nice informal chat about our very best friends. Today we're gonna be talking all about miscommunication. Meaning your dog's bad behavior, or negative behavior, I should say, is not what it seems. They're not acting out of spite, although I hear that a lot with people, it's not spite. They are literally trying to communicate. Dogs are always communicating with us. It's up to us to understand that and to answer them in kind. And let's get started. So, when your dog is exhibiting quote unquote bad behavior, negative behavior, inappropriate behavior, behavior that's not befitting to what's good for them or even for us in in most, if not all settings. What is that exactly? Okay, so let's just break this down because this is why I work as a professional canine behavioral specialist. I get referred quite often, if not most of the time, by vets in our profession, many veterinarians, vet techs, people in the industry, trainers. When things are a little bit beyond, when things get more aggressive, more out of control, more intense. Um there are many dogs in that case haven't been listened to, haven't been heard, or haven't been seen. Thereby the threat or the problem for them still exists, and they're forced to feel they have no choice but to take it to a higher, more intense level. Now it's important to realize that aggression does not define who the dog is. It is not a diagnosis, it is not the problem in and of itself. Aggression is a symptom of a problem or something unresolved, something that is causing high distress to your dog. What that is is to be uncovered. It could be any of a number of things. It's never one specific thing, but it means something of high importance to your dog. And it basically desperately needs resolution. Aggression is truly a symptom. It is them showing that white flag, please help. They haven't been heard or listened to or seen. They're not receiving a resolution to their distress from their posturing. For them, nothing has worked, and they're getting desperate. Their stress, their fear, their anxiety still remains. It's when we have to step in, not condemning them, but helping them, because it's all a cry for help and they don't know what to do. Most of the time it may be an aggressive tendency first, turning into full aggression. For example, an air snap originally can turn into a nip or even a bite. But it was an air snap originally. That in itself was when the dog was in some sort of tense state. But the dog had a level of discipline to stop it. After a while and the dog isn't heard, and happening several times, it's no wonder it escalates. The level of frustration and anxiety increases. Therefore, the level exacerbates from an aggressive tendency to a higher level of aggression. It's no wonder that there in the dog becomes even more frustrated, so it becomes a vicious cycle, one that the dog cannot get himself or herself out of alone. This, as you can imagine, can only produce more anxiety, more frustration, even isolation on the part of the dog. That is never likely to produce a healthy psychological state of mind. Only one of imbalance. That's not fair to the dog. The best thing that you can do is to recognize that at the outset. Don't take it as a one and done. Recognize that archive when things happen. A growl is another example. In and of itself, it's not a bad thing. In fact, it should be in your dog's repertoire. It's meant to serve as a warning. If heeded, nothing happens. But what happens when a dog isn't listened to or seen or understood? A bite naturally ensues. Now we don't want to hear that growl, but it's good to have in their repertoire. When some dogs are not heard enough times, or seen or understood, their posture, their message, what happens, and this is scary, I've seen this, there is no more growl because the dog feels no one listens. The dog then goes straight for the bite. That's dangerous. Not only for the recipient, but for the dog too. The dog was in a constant state of stress. Certainly, along with that grow at one point, there was body posturing, there was fixation, there was tension that was shown. But the dog was never listened to and the growl was never heard. All communication. Think about it. It's like that with humans, right? If we're not being seen, if we're not being heard, we have to make our point clearer, higher, louder to be heard, to be understood, to make our point known so that we can get help or that we can get the result that we need. This is all forms of communication. As I said earlier, dogs are constantly communicating with us all the time. And it's a beautiful thing because dogs want to communicate with us, they innately reflect our energy. They watch us all the time. They're highly cognitive. They take so much in. A lot of times we miss this on a day-to-day life in a subjective way. We do need to start recognizing that so we can recognize what their needs are and when they have issues until we wait till it's too late and then it's out of control. And then unfortunately, the fault seems to lie with them, and that's not there. The fault really is never with them. We as humans have to realize that the fault always lies with the human. And even if you don't understand the dog, that's one thing. It's understandable. Then you must try to. You must seek help so that you can understand your dog. We have to take on that responsibility when we have a dog. It's all part of being a great dog parent, a great companion person, an excellent guardian, and an excellent caregiver. And you'll notice I use these terms quite frequently in my work, in my life, and on a day-to-day basis because I don't like saying owner. I just don't like it. I just believe that we are guarding them, we are caring for them. We are their family, they are our family, and we are their companion person, and they are part of our pack, our family. So you'll hear those words quite frequently when you listen to my podcast. Anyway, as a good caregiver, guardian, companion person, or or dog mom or dad as part of your pack, it is really a necessary thing to understand their language. If you don't understand it, there are plenty of classes on that. I also teach that in my speaking canine class. By the way, I'll be giving classes on Udemy. So please check back soon. I'll be making an announcement in the next couple weeks. So all my classes are like 20 classes. I'll be offering so many of my classes on Udemy. And speaking canine will be the very first one, I promise you guys. And you could take it at your convenience. And this is a class and a seminar that I give to people in the industry as well as adopters, shelters, shelter workers, vets offices, various colleges, schools, and different learning facilities. And you'll be able to take it at your convenience in the comfort of your own home for Udemy. But I'll be able to give you all the information you need about Udemy on my website at peaceinthepack.com. So check back, okay? Quick sip of coffee. Okay, let's get back. So here we are talking about their behavior. When they seemingly act out, when they aggress, when they exhibit negative behavior, they are communicating a problem. It is up to you to recognize that it is a problem instead of just taking it out on the dog or blaming the dog and realize that help is needed. If you know what to do, great. Make sure that you address it. If you don't, as I said, seek the help so someone can advise you. And this is where when I come in home, I advise what the dog needs and create a program plan for the person. I love for it to be very simple and it's a clear-cut thing. Once in a while it is, sometimes it isn't, because you know, it's a lifestyle and it could be different things that's happening on a day-to-day basis. But once in a while it can be fixed very quickly. Everybody's different. I'm always open to that. It's a good thing. But the problem is that it is a problem that has to be addressed. They're not innately a bad dog. He or she is not just have a bad personality, it's not bad breed, bad genetics, it's not all that. Now, having said that, keep in mind if it's a medical problem, a neurological problem, that's a whole different story. That would certainly bring on aggression, but that would need a diagnosis. And that's not to say that I haven't seen that as well. But that's a whole separate thing. But for the most part, and for most dogs, if not predominantly most dogs, and I've been working with aggressive cases for 16 years successfully, and seen a lot. I can honestly say that every dog is unique and every dog is different. Canine rules apply always from the eyes of a canine. But then it gets to the individual dog in the individual home and the individual dynamic of the situation. Thereby it comes down to the environment, the situation the dog is living in, who the dog is living with. One dog living in one situation would certainly be different living in another. It all depends how they're nurtured in their environment, the direction and the boundaries they're given to keep them safe, and even more importantly, to make them feel safe, secure and balanced. And if you want my true recipe for their feelings of safety, security, and balance, it's this. Listen. Structure, follow through, and consistency in that order. Structure first. Your daily routine where your dog may have some issues in certain parts of the day, certain events of the day where the dog has some trouble spots, be very observant for that. Such as overall excitement on a walk, lunging, barking, tense energy, overexcitement, maybe different parts of the day. Those things must be addressed. They can't be overlooked. Those kind of things cannot fix themselves, nor do they decrease on their own. They have to be addressed, number one, observed first. Then there needs to be a plan for resolve. If that's not something you can do on your own, once things are observed, then you might want to seek help by a trainer or behaviorist. But your first line of defense is observation. Be very clear on watching your dog, be very clear where their signals are, because those barks, jumps, lunges, whines, nips, they're all a sign of help. They're all a sign of communication, and they're reaching out to you because they just don't know what to do. So your job then is to observe first and to acknowledge it, then to seek help for a true resolution so that the problem doesn't exist anymore. So then you create the structure through that by following through. That's your next thing is to follow through. Once a structure is created, the follow through is mandatory. When I see my clients and I write a program plan specifically for their dogs, I want to make sure things are followed through on an everyday basis, or it just won't work. It's real life. I observe, I tell them what the dog needs, we try it out to make sure that it works, and then that's part of their structure, part of their routine. Their job now is to follow through and to do this every day. And then that comes to the third point of it, which is consistency. Structure, follow through, then consistency. The third part, it needs to be every day. This needs to happen on an everyday level. And if it's not done on an everyday basis, that structure falls apart for them, they will actually panic. So it gets to a higher level right off the bat. So again, structure, follow through, consistency, in that order. Once that pattern starts and it continues, you'll see a change in your dog. So remember that structure, okay? And remember, if your dog is acting out, if they're doing something unwarranted, something annoying or inappropriate, such as jumping voraciously, or continually scratching on things or pulling out trash, or continually nipping or growling or even biting, it is not the dog's fault as a symptom of something else that's bothering the dog. As I said, they are communicating that, and that is a clear-cut communication of begging you for help. So I can't really say that loud enough. It's really important because once you put that onus on a dog that they're a bad dog, it kind of not only stigmatizes the dog, but it also changes your feeling on the dog. And if not you, then other people in your household. So you have to be very careful of that energy shift. Yes, it is frustrating. Yes, it's exhausting. I understand. But seeking help is the first thing to do because they're not doing this to spite you, they are not doing this to hurt you, they're not doing this because they're just a bad dog. So communication is so important, guys. They're doing it all the time. They're watching us, they're reflecting us, and they're communicating with us. That's a beautiful thing. We have to look for that information and respond in kind. Okay, homework. Let's start a little bit of homework, but it'll be fun. Homework for now. Be observant, okay? Today, tonight, as soon as you can, when you're with your dog, and hopefully it's right now, actually. Take a look at your dog. Take a look at his or her body language, take a look at her posture, his posture. How are they standing? How are they looking? How are they what is what is the do they feel like there's a softness to them? Does the energy feel harsh and tense? Do they need to go out? Are they looking at you and wanting to go out to the door? Or are they playing with a toy? Are they snuggling with you? Take a look at that, make note of it, note the differences. Start your observation skills now so you can learn when there's an anomaly or a change later, and that you could do something about it. And then seek help, of course, if necessary. That's what we're here for. It does take a village. A good village of that, but it takes a village. Just like with children. It takes a village for dogs too. And I'm always here to help if you have any questions. You can always reach me at my website, peaceinthepack.com. I'll also, as I mentioned earlier, be offering seminars and classes. Speaking canine, one of them. There's one on aggression, cats and dogs living together, dogs and babies, tons of them. And I'll be offering them on Udemy pretty soon. So check back at peaceinthepack.com and of course check back here on our podcast. There's a new episode every two weeks, so be sure to follow us. Thanks again for joining us. Give your best friend a big hug for us. We'll be talking to you soon. In the meantime, do your best to create peace in your pack. And remember, peace changes everything. Take care.