A HUSKY MIX PLAY STYLE IS CONFUSED WITH DOMINANCE
I always have a “moment” when I read dominance in a client’s behavior history form. Then we have a discussion about why "dominance" isn't what most people think it is. There is a real construct of dominance in behavior - but it is solely about gaining access to a mutually-desired resource. That's it. My client used this term with her dog Ashley, a 4.5-year-old spayed female Husky mix. In addition to “dominant behaviors with other dogs” Ashley was described as being nervous of human strangers and nervous of bangs/loud noises. So we had the dominance discussion.
I like to be seated to greet my clients and their dogs. A high percentage of my canine clients have stress/anxiety and/or aggression behaviors, and this helps the dogs be much more comfortable with my presence. (My staff go out and greet them in the parking lot and give them instructions for coming in.)
Asley and her human, Karen, entered the training center, came over to where I was seated, and Karen sat down at the other end of the six-foot table. I invited her to take off Ashley’s leash (which I normally do unless I see very unsafe body language from the dog). Ashley came over to me and I ignored her – again, my normal practice unless I see very affiliative body language. As I explained to Karen, many people don’t realize that when a dog comes up to you, they may be investigating you, not inviting interaction. I completely ignore my canine client investigators until they let me know with soft body language that they have decided I’m okay. Even then I proceed slowly, with brief eye contact, and an occasional comment to the dog. Then it’s usually the dog who makes contact first and I will scratch under the chin. And yes, treats happen, eventually. Once we are on “speaking” terms, if I need to get up for some reason I will often ask the client to re-leash their dog – depending on how comfortable the dog is with me. Ashley warmed up to me quite quickly, sniffing out my treat pocket and resting her head on my leg, and I was able to move around during the session without any issues.
I don’t use treats at first because often, if you lure a dog to you with treats you are, in effect, coercing him past his comfort zone because he really wants the treats. Then when the treats are gone, he goes, “OMIGosh I am way too close to this scary person!” and a bite happens. It is not a good idea to ask scary strangers to feed treats to your fearful dog. Karen was already aware of this, as well as the importance of not letting strangers come up to try to pet Ashley.
Karen was mostly worried about Ashley’s play behavior with other dogs. She had been taking her to the dog park (we agreed to stop this) and had observed Ashley doing what she called “bullying” other dogs there. “She enjoys charging and deflecting at the last second or pouncing with her open mouth over the back of the other dog’s neck.” She said this had also happened at other private home and neutral locations, and (surprise!) many dogs no longer wanted to interact with Ashley. She was especially concerned because she has several friends with small dogs that she wanted Ashley to be able to play with. One couple had a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and when they visited Ashley kept pouncing on the little dog. She had also done this with other small dogs. Not good! Even if she’s not being aggressive, the mere size difference can cause injury to the smaller dog, and her high arousal play style can result in the smaller dog being defensively aggressive, which is also not likely to end well.
Play Styles
I explained to Karen that this was about differing playstyles and size incompatibilities, not about dominance. Different dogs have different playstyles, and while some dogs (a minority, I believe) are able to adapt well to a variety of styles, most dogs prefer playing with dogs who like to play the way they do. Ideally, you want to find canine playmates for your dog who appreciate and reciprocate your dog’s play. If you know your dog’s preferred play style, you can narrow his playmate pool to potentially suitable dogs without attempting risky introductions. Here are common canine play styles:
• Cheerleaders: These dogs like to play on the fringes around other dogs who are actively engaged with each other (see Body Slammers, Chasers and Wrestlers). They are often from the herding group (Collies, Shepherds, etc.) and are usually quite vocal, often engaging in non-stop barking. Cheerleading is related to behaviors that have been enhanced for herding – herding dogs tend to be “control freaks.” They may also nip at heels, and at the assertive “fun-police” end of the cheerleader behavior continuum, will actually try to break up the fun. If they do this with dogs who take offense, there is potential for dogfights. Playmates for cheerleaders need to be tolerant of these dogs’ sometimes irritating efforts to control play activities.
• Body Slammers: These are the demolition derby dogs of the canine playground. Labs and Boxers are prominent in this group, although there are plenty of others for whom “play” means “run full speed into other dogs and see if you can knock them off their feet.” This can also include mouthing behavior. Body Slammers play best with other Body Slammers, but can also be compatible with some Wrestlers and Chasers. They don’t generally do well with Cheerleaders and Soft Touches. There is risk of minor to major bodily damage when big dogs run into each other at full speed. Think “T-bone” collision. A lot of the breeds who fall into the Body Slammer category seem to suffer from a higher-than-average incidence of ruptured ACLs. Hmmmmmmmmm.
• Wrestlers: Wrestlers are into full, prolonged body contact. These dogs are most likely to take turns being on top, and also tend to engage in rousing games of chew-face. This is a comparatively low-risk play-style, as long as both dogs are happy wrestlers. If one dog insists on pinning another who isn’t comfortable there, however, it can turn ugly. Watch your wrestlers to be sure both are having a good time, and be prepared to intervene if you see emotions rising. A time-out followed by a Consent Test is a good strategy if arousal levels are getting high – it gives both participants time to chill out and brings arousal levels back down, and you can see if they voluntarily choose to re-engage.
• Chasers: These dogs just love to run. It’s great fun to watch dogs play “catch me if you can.” Some show a strong preference for the specific role of chaser or chasee, others are happily willing to take turns. A variation of Chase is Keep Away, where the chasee grabs a toy and invites the other dog to chase after her and try to get the toy. Keep Away often morphs into a mutually enjoyable game of tug.
• Tuggers: Just like it sounds, these are dogs who love to play tug, and are happy to do it with a canine playmate. Dog-tug is a fine game – just watch for resource guarding that can turn tug into war.
• Soft Touches: Some dogs are very tentative about play. These may be dogs who were not well socialized and aren’t yet sure how to interact confidently with other dogs, they may be dogs who have been injured or are arthritic and it hurts them to play hard, or they may just be dogs who don’t like to roughhouse. Soft Touches should definitely play with other soft touches – they’re likely to find any other kind of play too mentally traumatic or physically painful.
• Self-Play: It always makes me chuckle to watch a dog engaged in self-play. This is the dog who tosses a toy in the air for herself, catches it, and tosses it again. My Corgi, Lucy, would carry a ball to the top of the stairs and push it off so she could run down and catch it, carry it upstairs and do it again. My wonderful Terrier mix, Josie, when she was alive, could entertain herself by rolling onto her back with a chew-toy in her mouth, lifting the toy by grasping it with both front paws, hold it in the air and study it for a while, lower it back to her mouth and chew some more, then lift it and study it again, all while staying on her back. Like children, there’s a certain joy in having a dog who can keep herself entertained!
So – Ashley was definitely in the Body Slammer category.
Cody Comes to Visit
We had arranged for Karen’s friends with the Cavalier to come to the session, and about an hour in, they arrived. We had the dogs on opposite sides of an exercise pen barrier so I could observe body language. Ashley was definitely excited about Cody’s arrival, but her body language was all “happy excitement” – I did not see any aggression. She stayed at the barrier, gazing eagerly at Cody. Cody, on the other hand, moved away from the barrier and showed no interest in interacting with Ashley.
After fifteen minutes of observing the dogs, I proposed attaching leashes (for management) and putting both dogs on the same side of the barrier. Both families agreed, and so we did. Ashley definitely wanted to play. Cody clearly did not. After a few minutes of Ashley bugging Cody, the little dog gave a clear “back off!” snap. I was happy to see that Ashley respected that communication – for a moment – but then tried to reengage.
The Plan
We then separated the dogs and had them lie on blankets about 6 feet apart. I was very pleased to see that Ashley was able to settle and relax on her rug. This gave us our plan for going forward:
1. Karen would seek out appropriate canine playmates for Ashley who appreciated her rough play style so we could meet her canine social needs. We would help Karen with this endeavor.
2. Walk Away – at least 3 times per week, practice “Walk Away” (Ashley did beautifully with this when we practiced in our session) so Karen would have a way to move Ashley away when she was getting too aroused about other dogs.
3. Practice the UPenn Relaxation Protocol at least 3 times per week to enhance Ashley’s “Calm on the Blanket” behavior
4. Sessions with small-dog friends at least once a week – practice having Ashley calm and controlled as we did in the session, including parallel walking.
5. Do Nose Games at least 3 times a week, as fun enrichment time for Ashley.
I did let Karen know that it is highly unlikely that Ashley will ever be able to have small dogs as playpals, but that it is a realistic goal for her to be able to self-regulate and be calm in the presence of her friends’ small dogs, eventually even off leash.
This Week at Peaceable Paws
It has been an interesting week here at Peaceable Paws. The weather has seesawed back-and-forth between 70’s and 20’s – the birds are nesting (including the sparrows that come back every year to nest in our stove's air vent), and some of the spring flowers are trying to convince us that the warmer weather is here to stay.
FLOWERS
BIRDS
A couple of years ago I discovered the Merlin app for my phone. It does sound ID as well as photo ID – you just point it at the singing bird, push the button and it tells you what bird it is. I love it! Thanks to Merlin I found out a while ago that the crows we have here are Fish Crows (had never heard of them). And just last week I discovered that what I thought all these years were Downy Woodpeckers are actually Hairy Woodpeckers – who know? (Another one I had never heard of!) I now know that Carolina Wrens are everywhere
around here, thanks to Merlin identifying their song. We have Red Tail Hawks, Red-Shouldered Hawks (those I ID'd without Merlin's help) and one of my favorites - Pileated Woodpeckers! (Also ID'd without Merlin). I do have a very birdy dog trainer friend who tells me that Merlin is not 100% accurate, but so far it hasn't steered me wrong! Check it out!!!
FIRE IN THE WOODS!!!!!
My husband Paul is a Fire Police volunteer, which means he responds to fires, wrecks and other emergencies to do traffic control for the fire and police departments. So – imagine my surprise when one of our boarders came in the driveway last week and said, “There’s a huge fire in the neighbor’s woods behind your outdoor arena!” Sure enough, the neighbor was burning a wood pile from trees he’d been cutting down and piling up for the last couple of weeks – the pile was about 20 feet high and 40 feet long… We already weren’t happy with all the loud machines (he was also bulldozing the ground) and now this! You’d think he might have had the courtesy to let us know he was going to burn…
We called our local volunteer fire company (we’re members) and they came out and said it was a controlled burn, they had people there watching it, and it was okay. An hour after we called it in the county declared a burn ban for dry conditions. Great. So it smoldered for a couple of days and all seemed well – until Sunday, when two of our dog training students came in for class and said it was flaming again. Sure enough, the wind had come up and the fire had re-ignited. This time the brush truck came in and the Deputy Fire Chief said, “Wait. This isn’t even the burn pile the guy
showed us the other day when we were here – that was just two small piles behind his house. He never told us about this one!”
The re-ignited fire wasn’t threatening anything at the moment, but the firemen thanked us for calling – if it had gotten out of control and set the woods on fire, it would have been nasty!
So they put it out with water and rakes and said they would be billing the neighbor’s insurance company for the cost. Good!
Never a dull moment!!! But for now, all is back to peaceable at Peaceable Paws and Pastures.
Hope you are enjoying the beginning of Spring as much as we are!!!
Warm Woofs,
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420
