Conflicted

Recently I met with Rachel and her goldendoodle, Marilyn, to practice LooseLeash walking at a Big Box Store (BBS). Marilyn is 20 pounds of fluff, fairy dust and hyper social enthusiasm! She loves practicing and we need practice limiting her points of social contact! I ride shotgun to give Rachel advance notice of any significant distractions/triggers so she knows what to expect as we negotiate the store. I vaguely scan for dogs and profile them for how exciting they might be. Marylin’s primary trigger is people so dogs aren’t a priority for us.

Ahead of Team Marilyn I turned onto a new aisle and came upon two dogs looking like they’d been set up to practice down-stays. Each dog appeared to have their own handler. This resembled the Service Dog training I’d seen when we first arrived at the store. So this appeared to be a coordinated training session.

The next part of a very brief encounter that lasted at most two minutes. What follows is how I described the situation to a friend.

~*~

We’re halfway into a happy and productive session as I round a corner to go up a new aisle and spot two dogs pretty far ahead on our left. They’re not moving so stationed in some kind of purposeful fashion, most likely some kind of training is happening. Since that’s my first thought is not wanting Marilyn to possibly be a distraction for them. I start thinking about how to walk between Team Marilyn and the dogs.

So I move about 15 feet ahead (which I don’t normally do so I must have already noticed something off) and see Dog1 who looks chill and unphased by being in the store and even got up and kind of shifted on his feet and the woman working with him seemed to be paying him little attention. The demeanor of the dog was very laid back and the woman he was with presented as unconcerned about what he was doing.

No big deal, this looks normal to me.

Then I glimpse forward to Dog 2.

Seeing Dog 2, I realize I have a problem. I’m not afraid of him, I'm alarmed for him. A casual glance at the dog picks up that he is in a rigid down position facing the shelving, not the aisle. His neck even looks stiff as he turns to see who is approaching. I’m alarmed because his body posture is 100% unnatural. After checking over the dog from head to tail I look back at the dog's head area and see a tiny bit of prong collar…..his head is at a little bit of an angle as he is sort of turning his head away from the shelving to see me (I’m still about twenty feet away). I don’t think a prong collar on a dog is going to generate the level of alarm or fear I am seeing in Dog 2 so I’m still trying to put this together..

I’m processing this all super quickly. So I’m slow on my walk as I try to discern the dynamic between dogs and people that I’m approaching. At this point I’m still thinking about prepping Rachel to work Marilyn past this group.

I turn to Dog 1 for clues as to what else could be going on with Dog 2 and notice the orange plastic collar which almost always accompanies an electric box on a dog’s neck. I see zero concern from Dog 1 about anything in his world. It seems obvious that Dog 2 is intensely concerned about something happening to him and see that he has a darker color collar above the prong that is also, most likely, holding an electric box. Dog 1 is totally fine and Dog 2 is presenting with all signs of being paralyzed by something really frightening to him.

I’m in a time crunch as I have Marilyn fast approaching where I am and I’m trying to both assess the situation and, for the first time in my experience in Lowes training, I’m trying to figure out what my role is in the life of the dog I’m looking at who is not my client or even known to me. I have a rescue background and I want to help that dog.

Person with Dog 1 comes forward really sweetly and says ‘It’s okay, you can walk on by’ as she turns to the Person with Dog 2 and gives an ‘it’s okay’ signal. So I ask ‘Are the dogs on shock collars?’ And Person 1 says ‘No it’s an *E*.......’ at which point I give her a knowing look indicating that semantics are meaningless here. She says ‘Yes,,and it’s no problem you can walk on by them **They’ll be fine**’.

Meanwhile, coming behind me is Marilyn, on leash, approaching with her novice handler who just may want to engage these people in conversation. I feel like I have to prevent contact because I am super worried about what this event could cause to happen to Dog 2. I’m not even factoring in the person with Dog 2 because the woman with Dog 1 appears to be the decision maker in this situation.

The thought that a dog I was training could be used to ‘proof’ a dog who was clearly afraid of something awful happening to him drove my next actions. I put my hand out sideways and turned to Marilyn’s mom briefly saying ‘Don’t go any closer keep Marilyn away from them’.

Was I right or wrong in my assumption that Marilyn was about to be used to proof whatever behavior was being set up for Dog 2? I don’t know and it doesn’t matter. I can tell you Dog 1 couldn’t have cared less about us and Dog 2 appeared to care a lot about some event that our appearance could be predicting.

I don’t interfere in people’s training. Looking back, in a way, I was invited into a stranger’s training session by the person in charge; realizing this makes me feel better. I broke out of ‘trainer role’ with Marilyn’s mom to get them away from the situation. What I couldn’t understand was why a dog who could not handle ‘this’ was in Box Store on the busiest day of the week being forced to deal with it in a way that not only looked like a form of torture BUT was also not going to produce a dog who looked like Dog 1.

~*~

‘Pavlov is always on your shoulder’ right? In BBS, Pavlov was emanating from Dog 2’s demeanor, especially the look of resignation and dread on his face. One look told me the dog was in a very bad place. And I have no doubt that the person with Dog 1 felt like she was doing everything she could to ‘fix something’ that was ‘wrong’ with Dog 2.

Dog 2 was there to learn lessons. They wanted him to lie on the ground and not react, by moving or barking, to anything that walked past him.

So the woman in charge of the training session seemed to be showing the other woman, friend or more likely a client, how to have her dog act like Dog 1. Both dogs were leggy Hound/Labby looking mixes but that was the end of the crossover. Every part of how those dogs were functioning in that environment was completely different. For starters, one of the dogs had freedom of motion and the other dog did not appear permitted to move or, it seemed, even twitch without possibly causing something to happen to him that was bad. I think the event would be extreme judging by the fear I sensed in the eyes of that dog. Whatever was going on was frightening to him.

A mythology is ruminating in dog culture which is causing suffering to dog owners. It is the illusion that ‘I can make my dog behave like the dog on TV, neighbor’s dog, friend’s dog and/or dog on social media’. It appeared a form of this was playing out with Dog 1, Dog 2 and their respective owners that morning. This scenario reminded me to be mindful of the dog you have and who you may plan to change them into being. Completely possible to greatly alter behavior, we know behavior can be changed. I am saying that a plan is helpful and step one, I think, is when you start by really looking at your dog for who they are and not at your fantasy dog. More often than one might think, our real dogs, the ones in our lives who we feed, play with and talk to have unique qualities that the social media driven composite of the perfect wouldn’t have.

Standing up with and for your dog can lead to the journey of a lifetime. And it’s all yours. Being mindful of how you process the one dimensional representations of ‘what a dog should be’ from social media and dog training sights is a skill. We get so much information of what kind of behavior should matter to us for our dogs to have that who our dogs are can get lost in all the words and images showing up in our lives and feeds daily.

This puts you ahead of the crowd not behind it.