Recently, I watched two dogs get in quite a scrap during training when one tried to horn in on another’s food reward. Not long before the tussle, I watched one of the dogs greet another dog with a tense mouth, high tail, and I thought … “There’s a snark coming.” It didn’t, but then the tangle with a third dog came soon after. These are both situations that would likely set Lilly off, so I actively avoid them. Yet, when the scrap happened, no one else seemed too concerned. Maybe I just worry too much. In many such cases, I know a lot of people believe that “the dogs will work it out.”
If it’s an occassional thing, I can understand this theory. But, when it becomes a “habit,” don’t we have to intervene?
I shared my worries about Lilly with a few people after the scrap, and a couple of them essentially said, “Oh, yeah, my dog does that too.”
Back in the early 1990s, I interviewed a veterinary behaviorist who told me that “only behaviors you consider unacceptable are unacceptable.”
Granted, he was talking about things like jumping up, kissing, being wild, but I wonder how much that thought plays into the lives of more challenging dogs.
I don’t like when Lilly is mean to other dogs. Sometimes they deserve it; often they don’t.
Bottomline, as an ongoing matter, it’s not OK with me. Maybe I’m over-reacting.
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