Lost in Translation: Understanding Every Woof - Ep 02

Let's unravel the complexities of canine behaviour by exploring Sara's journey from struggling with German GCSE to understanding dogs' multilingual communication. 

• Dogs are Bilingual: Like humans, dogs communicate differently, and understanding their body language is crucial for effective communication and preventing behavioural issues.
• Socialisation is Key: Correctly socialising puppies to various environments and experiences to ensure they become well-adjusted adults is essential. However, we caution against exposing them to risky situations, such as puppy parties, and stress the need for responsible socialisation.
• The Ladder of Aggression: We will share and walk through the "The Aggression Ladder" model, which outlines the body language cues dogs exhibit as they become increasingly stressed or reactive. Recognising these cues can help owners intervene before situations escalate.

Join us on the Bulldog Broadcast as we discuss dog behaviour, socialisation, and responsible ownership. Remember to subscribe and share the podcast with fellow dog enthusiasts!

Visit bulldogbroadcast.com for additional resources and episode extras.

📝 Click to read Show Notes

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Transcript

[00:00:00] From failing German GCSE to exploring the universal language of dogs, join me as we navigate the complexities of puppy school, socialisation and understanding canine behaviour. Discover why every dog, like us, deserves to be understood and supported.

[00:00:24] Welcome to the Bulldog Broadcast, the pure talk pedigree podcast. Join me Sara Lamont as we delve beyond the pedigree propaganda and misinformation surrounding the beloved bulldog breed. Together we'll uncover the real life realities of bulldogs, sharing insights with admirers, owners and breeders worldwide.

[00:00:46] Something you won't know by looking at me is that my nan is actually German, so I have, I am from, I contain German heritage, which is a slight disappointment that When I set my GCSEs, you were able to pick between Spanish or German. And in hindsight, Spanish would probably be the better language to select because it's more widely used and more versatile.

[00:01:15] But yeah, so I picked German because I thought, Oh, that would be great. Obviously having German heritage, this would be the correct course to be taken. However, I failed badly. I flunked at German. So languages, languages are definitely not my thing. I struggle with English as you've probably worked out by now.

[00:01:36] So. Taking on a second language isn't, isn't my forte, it's not for me, which shocks me even more so because one of the upsides of having dogs as part of your lifestyle, and then also having it as a hobby, and exhibiting dogs, and judging dogs, you come into contact with people that you would never previously ever have.

[00:02:01] cross paths with, and it's because you will have the common element. You will have the same interest of you like a particular breed. And ultimately over the years that's resulted in me being in situations where. It's a multi cultural group of people, and thankfully, because English is like the default international language, that we've all been able still to communicate about our passions, because everybody's talking English.

[00:02:32] And what always makes my skin crawl, is when somebody's trying really hard to speak English, and they apologise that, They're not doing a very good job, which I just have these mental flashbacks of my German exam and failing massively. So. It's a skill set to be able to talk a second language, a third language and even more so than that.

[00:02:58] Your brain definitely works in a certain way. And yeah, no one should ever apologise for bad English when it's, when it's not their native tongue. So just putting it out there to begin with. What that brings me on to is that dogs are also in the same situation. They have to communicate in two different ways because not only do they communicate dog to dog, But then they also have to communicate to us as humans.

[00:03:25] So they are bilingual. They're chatting to two conversations all the time. They're talking on two, two different frequencies in different ways, and understanding your dog is just such a huge part of dog ownership and avoiding potential problems, dealing with problems and issues quickly by being able to read and understand your dog.

[00:03:49] And that's why. Generally, when people get a new puppy, and I'm talking all breeds here, they would take their puppy to puppy school and do some basic training or obedience, because it helps you build that bond. Even if they're really totally rubbish at it, it helps you build the bond and connection between the dog and you.

[00:04:10] So. A lot of the time when people have situations happened and they, you know, go to the vet and the vet sort of overrides it and then it still deteriorates, it's, it's their gut reaction. They know inside because of the cues, the nonverbal cues the dog's given them. They know that something's not quite right, but they can't necessarily understand it and place what it might particularly be.

[00:04:35] Dogs are talking to two languages and we need to be in tune with them as much as possible. Now there are instances where it just seems to be when people get a new puppy they think that puppy wants new dog friends and most dog trainers don't. From my experience, we'll go, no, that's a mega bad idea.

[00:04:55] There's no reason for you to be taking your puppy to a puppy party to make new puppy friends. You are their number one provider. You are the person that they should be. besotted by and that will ultimately make your training and your rapport and your relationship with that dog so much easier as soon as you confuse them and distract them with other dogs and they become more exciting than you.

[00:05:24] Then you're going to make your relationship a bit more difficult or more challenging than it needs to be but also by Subjecting your puppy to dogs that you don't know with their own behavioural issues You could potentially be putting your dog in a risky situation that then has a long lasting damaging effect to them So something you should be aware of is a puppy will have a socialisation window.

[00:05:51] So there's a key window where they're, they need to be exposed to different sites, sounds, experiences for them to build up a robustness to life, basically, that they will then become a well adjusted puppy because they're able to deal with altering situations. For my experiences, Bulldogs are quirky. they should be socialised more.

[00:06:18] You can freak a bulldog out just by moving a garden chair or a bin and it's not in the breed standard that they should have that type of temperament. They are meant to be like fearless. They have a whole bull baiting history to them and so to have a dog scared of a bin sort of indicates that they might not have their innate temperament within them.

[00:06:41] And that would have happened over time. That could be generational. That could be for its parentage, but as a new owner, when you receive a puppy, it's your job, the breeder would have already started that exposing them to different sites, sounds, even different textures, noises, the Hoover, the TV traffic, all that kind of stuff, but you need to carry that on until the window closes at around 14 weeks out.

[00:07:07] And so, and this is where I'm going to go on a tangent a little bit, but this is where the whole vaccinate your puppy early comes into play. And I understand it as a counter argument because vets are trying to say is no vaccinate your puppies younger so you can get them out sooner so you can expose them to different situations and start their socialisation sooner.

[00:07:32] So then you have a more, well, more chances of having a well adjusted puppy, because if you leave your vaccinations later and you don't take the dog out, and then you're missing your window of opportunity as an adult, you're probably going to have more issues with that dog. Now, my slight counter counter argument is that they have mother's maternal immunity until 12 weeks out old to take the puppy out regardless of when it had its vaccinations done.

[00:07:58] Obviously just be sensible in which environment you would put them in. I wouldn't be putting any puppy in a puppy party. Whether they're vaccinated or not, but as an unvaccinated dog, I would not be subjecting my puppy to any environments where there are dogs that I don't know and that haven't been vaccinated.

[00:08:18] So definitely be off the cards, but there's tons of other socialisation opportunities that you can have that don't involve dragging your dog along to a puppy party. From my point of view as a breeder, even on one of my most recent litters, one of the owners sent me a picture of, and I obviously hadn't made it clear enough about not taking puppies to puppy parties, but you know, it's easy to say the, to not have the full conversation with all the people all of the time.

[00:08:45] And that's just how it is. And people are not always tuned in and listening to what you're saying, which is a reason why I'm doing this podcast because I'll be able to go, Oh, go and listen to episodes. So and so, so and so. So this will make my life easier as a breeder as well. And obviously other breeders, but if puppy owners are already up to speed with all this stuff, then it makes it even better for everybody.

[00:09:05] But I got sent this video of their bulldog puppy down the local doggy daycare running around off lead with a load of other puppies. Now the problem was one of the other puppies was a gigantic schnauzer. So the size difference of those two dogs playing without any control, without any overseeing, they're just left on their own devices to run around with the owners busy having a coffee or nattering, could end up in injury, could end up in inappropriate play of which one of the two dogs is then triggered.

[00:09:44] They suffer trauma from that play and then That's actually going to be triggering for them going forward as an adult. And even my own dog, different breeds will have different socialisation expectations. And so for instance, my Labrador, she, she was very highly socialised. But she's a breed actually that could suffer from overstimulation and over socialisation.

[00:10:09] So I feel that I socialised her correctly for her breed and for the environment and what she needed to learn. However, what I found well, what happened, and this is an incident, I had her off lead at a local park, not necessarily dog park, but just people do walk their dogs there. She was awfully playing, having fun.

[00:10:28] And these two dogs awfully come bounding up to her. Now. If your dog's a knob, don't have it off lead. Or maybe not even take it to those type of environments in the first place. You know, you can hire fields nowadays, so maybe that's more appropriate. Anyway, these two male dogs come running up to her and I've already said she's quite a naive butterfly of a dog so these two big boys come running up to her which she was like oh my and she you know she was just happy girl just playing having fun they scared the life out of her they didn't necessarily do anything although one did have a muzzle on but not muzzle shaming either so not one of But a dog off lead with a muzzle questions the sanity a little bit, but still, anyway, there was a little bit of a cough forward.

[00:11:13] She lucky enough, her recall is amazing. She comes. She just come running back to me, but ultimately what's what the cause of that was, and there was no fights, there was no serious. confrontation between the dogs, but ultimately now when we're out and she sees a dog, even if they're on the other side of the road, she's not reactive, which is a dog trainery word, which is where a dog is triggered by something.

[00:11:40] So it's almost like we see nowadays where people chatting about avoid these people and all their red flags that this is exactly what dogs are experiencing all the time when other dogs are around them and their red flags. But when she sees another dog, Her heckles will always go up and I can, I will say to her, Spice, ignore them, come this way.

[00:12:00] And she will, but because she has so much tension now built in her body because of that trigger, she shakes off. And so this is where it's really important to understand about your dog's body language and how they're trying to communicate. So I know for her though, she did not react in any obvious way.

[00:12:20] The fact that her heckles go up and then when I crawled away, she has to shake off. That was actually a stressful situation for her to have been in. And so unfortunately we're not paying enough attention to our dogs and we'll put them in these situations all the time. And we're actually ignoring them until something.

[00:12:37] Catastrophic kicks off such as a dog fight or such as a dog lunges out or barks or bites, you know to the point This is highest level of observation So off of the back of that you need to be aware socialisation windows are really important And you need to correctly socialise your dog. So It's more about experiences and environments rather than we seem to put the humans twist on it because we like meeting up and going down the pub or going to the calf or coffee shop that we kind of want to do the same thing with our dogs and that's not the right way to socialise a dog though those environments.

[00:13:17] Taking them to the pub and a coffee shop and all that kind of stuff is actually a really good thing to do, but they don't need a load of other doggy mates with them to do that. You can do that on an individual basis or with any of your other dogs anyway. Now, in regards to a dog being called reactive, so this is when a dog is responding to some stimuli in their environment, which typically, typically would be called a trigger.

[00:13:42] And this could be anything, like a trigger, It could be anything, generally it could be another dog, it could be a certain type of person, a stranger, someone acting in a certain way, it could be an object, it could be a noise, there's so many possible triggers it's impossible to say, so that's the whole point of socialisation is that you lower the number of those triggers.

[00:14:05] Generally, when they're reacting, it's because they're feeling fearful. They're suffering anxiety, they're frustrated, and that's all probably because of they haven't had the correct socialisation. Some of it will be because of the DNA of the dog and the purpose of the dog and the breed of the dog, but generally that's why it's so important to have a dog you a puppy well socialised.

[00:14:30] It's also worth noting that there will be a second fear phase. There is a second window of socialisation that generally comes with sexual maturity. And so I hear a lot of times where someone might say, Oh, my female was fine until she had a season or until she had a second season. So equally, you need to monitor and manage when a female is in season and likewise the boys when they get to sexual maturity when they might start getting a bit humpy or this that and whatever you need to manage the environment that they're exposed to so you don't create unnecessary triggers for them.

[00:15:09] Now something that you need to bear in mind that I wasn't aware of until I actually attended a dog communication workshop and if there is one, go on it. If you can find one, definitely go on it. It'll only be like a half day job and you'll learn so much and it will probably help you avoid needing a dog trainer or behaviourist ever in the future.

[00:15:32] So definitely do it. Most dog trainers will refer to a model called the ladder of aggression. And so these are. the signals a dog will give off when they're increasing in their anxiety or reacting to a trigger and they're very low level at first. So if you can pick up some signals from your dog at a low level, you know that you can appropriately do that.

[00:16:00] deal with that situation and generally 99 percent of the time the answer is get them out of that situation don't let it continue change it up move them away walk away close the door whatever it is so don't set your dog up to fail don't keep them in that situation where it's going to carry on escalating i will put this image this model in the show notes but just think of a ladder up against the and on the bottom rungs you will see A way that a dog is reacting to stress or a threat.

[00:16:35] Low level, they might yawn, they might start blinking, they might be licking their nose. Then the next rung, where they might turn their head away from whatever's making them uncomfortable, then it will continue to turn their whole body away or they might sit or they might paw. So I've noticed this. Even me working with dogs, this is really good for me to know if I'm making them uncomfortable and at what level of the ladder they are on.

[00:17:03] A dog will never just attack out of the blue, they're always going to move or 99 percent of the time they're going to move up this ladder and it's good to know. They're going to work their way up there. I mean, they might miss a few rungs, but they're literally not just going to stand there and savagely attack you.

[00:17:20] They're going to show some of these really minimal body changes that you need to be in tune with. So they get to the point where they're turning their body away. They're sitting, they're pouring, then further up, they might walk away. So they're trying to get out the situation. Then they might start creeping.

[00:17:37] So hunched over low down, ears will be back. Then it can move on to the standing crouched, their tail. So a tail is a really good indicator as to how a dog is feeling. The problem with bulldogs is they generally don't have a big waggy tail. Even if they've got a tail, it's not going to be a big bushy tail that It's really obvious of what they're doing and by virtue, it should never go above their top line.

[00:18:05] So you're never going to see a big, waggy, bushy, you know, big waggy tail like some breeds. But if it's something like an abrador, they're literally going to tuck their tails right under their body. Then it might escalate to them lying down and putting their legs up where they're not comfortable. Then it could go to the point where they're stiffened.

[00:18:23] They're acting really stiff and rigid and they're just staring. Then it's going to escalate to growling, then possibly snapping and then biting. So when you see all these videos where kids are climbing over the dogs, which is obviously a massive no, no. Do you ever really want to put your dog or your child in that position?

[00:18:42] No, but. If you see any of these signs then that is a massive you need to change the situation immediately because they're already under threat, they're under stress and they're going to do something to be able to cope with that situation. Every owner should know this and it's really interesting because now if you go somewhere and even if you read somebody else's dogs while they're on a walk and how they react to you rather than just saying and sort of The adage of years ago, people used to be like, I was always told to ask to pet someone's dog before you do it.

[00:19:18] I think that is pretty good common courtesy. And I very much see that being the case. Whenever I've experienced parents with kids, I remember once generally when I walk my dogs, I'm sort of on a bit of a mission. And I remember once these teenage girls stopped me and they said, Oh, can we, can we pet your dogs?

[00:19:37] And I went, no, and obviously as a dog owner, you can say no, they're my dogs. So I said, no. And the girl turned around and called me a selfish bitch, which I'm fine with that. But yeah. Again, we like to be polite and we like to say yes, just say no and equally when you're and you'll see it's really good nowadays that some of the trainers online, bulldogs would expect everybody to stop and pay them attention, which is quite cute and endearing and they're quite put out when somebody doesn't, but actually most dog trainers nowadays will say to people, please ignore the dog if we're having a conversation because they need to learn between when I want to Invite them into the conversation and to get the attention and when they shouldn't.

[00:20:23] And if they're in training for certain triggers, hopefully general Joe public won't be offended when you sort of go now I'm training with this dog or. No, I'm doing socialisation or no, not at the moment. Sorry. I just think of a really good, no get out clause basically. Understanding this ladder of aggression for you as an owner and actually being around other people's dogs, even for your kids to know this will be game changing because then I straight away, Oh, when he rolls over and he's putting his legs up.

[00:20:56] Is he being friendly or is that because he's actually quite stressed in the situation and me leaning all over him and pinning him down, he's not enjoying that, he actually just wants to get out of the situation. And so another thing to be aware of with the ladder of aggression is that trigger stacking, so what might happen is It doesn't just happen in one situation, it could happen over a period of time.

[00:21:22] And so the anxiety is building, so they don't necessarily always start the beginning of the day on the lowest level of the ladder, they might already be two up from the day before, and then it keeps increasing, increasing, increasing. So, It might not just be one situation. It could be multiple situations or multiple experiences that actually then result in the ultimate bite or attack or growl, or something that's really reactive and really obvious to you.

[00:21:53] So I think the key things you need to take from this episode is that dogs are talking different languages to different Species and we need to make the effort to be able to read our dog's body language to ensure their safety and to ensure that they're, they're, they're never in a situation where they're forced to feel under stress and to become reactive because of triggers.

[00:22:24] And we need to understand. What the levels of body language changes are, how to read those. Another thing to bear in mind is that some of these signals that these non verbal cues that they're giving us might actually be because they're not well. They might actually be ill. Feeling unwell, not feeling right.

[00:22:49] So a lot of dog trainers will always say if they have a consultation with a potential client, they generally ask for the dog to be checked at the vets, because if they've got a bad back and the trigger they've realised is every time I, I get the dog off of the sofa, he tries and nips me. Well, yeah, because you're causing pain to that dog as you're getting them off of the sofa.

[00:23:12] The trigger is. You move in the dog. It's not just because you're moving the dog. You've actually inflicted some pain, which the dog is then reactive to so many dog trainers. Behaviourists will say, please make sure you get the vet. The dog checked over at the vet first to make sure that he's not in any pain that we haven't picked up.

[00:23:32] And that's why he's become reactive. And then they were looking to what the triggers are and how they can be. dealt with accordingly and sort of unprogrammed. But obviously we never want to get to that point in the first place. So that's why socialisation is really key. And it doesn't mean socialisation. Go down the pub with your mates and or the dog equivalent of that. It means you as an owner exposing them to different situations safely. So not taking any risks that are going to cause. potential reactivity and triggers, but you safely expose them to lots of different environments, lots of different situations that they then become a well adjusted adult.

[00:24:12] So then when they're in those situations going forward, they're able to process that and not, not feel under threat. And, like, different breeds are different, and I think probably there should be more socialisation with bulldogs rather than less. So my Labrador, she, you can literally see her brain work, and I'm going to cover this in a separate episode, but there's a difference between emotional intelligence and IQ.

[00:24:38] Labradors generally have really good IQ, where Bulldogs have really high emotional intelligence. And so, when the Labrador sees a problem, she tries to fix it, where Bulldogs are slightly different to that. Where they just look at you and go, please can you fix this for me mum, or dad, because I know you will because you love me.

[00:24:59] So, they have different, How they work is different, but ultimately when you put them in, in certain situations, a Labrador will cope a lot easier and they are known like that's why Labradors are the most popular dog in this country because they are adjustable. They do adapt. It doesn't bother her that something's moved or changed where a Bulldog can be a little bit more stuck in their ways and confined.

[00:25:25] can be a bit more stressed and will have those triggers a lot easier than other breeds. So as a dog owner you need to be aware of that and to prevent that being a problem you need to make sure you socialise that puppy when you get it at eight weeks old until 14 weeks old that's your lovely window of socialisation and you need to put the effort in then and it's not just a case of taking them to a doggy daycare or taking them to a puppy party.

[00:25:51] So that's it, I think I've made myself clear on this one. Any questions? Then feel free to join us in the community or any disagreements, I'll probably set up a poll and we can go from there. But that's my stance on it as a breeder of bulldogs. Different breeds are all different, but please come and join us in the community if you want your voice to be heard.

[00:26:12] And likewise, don't forget just to share this podcast with two people. That's all I'm asking. Just tell two people about this podcast. Make sure you open up their phone, go onto whatever platform they use, and Hit subscribe, hit the bell notification and then I'll be more than happy that we're heading in the right direction and the right people are hearing this podcast.

[00:26:35] That's it. Signing off for now. Speak to you soon.

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