Difficult Dogs (eBook)

An Everyday Guide to Solving Behavioural Problems

Ann Stead (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2012 | 1. Auflage
192 Seiten
Crowood (Verlag)
978-1-84797-498-3 (ISBN)

Infos

When your dog's behaviour becomes problematic no matter how understanding and patient you may be it can leave you feeling distressed, unhappy and unsure of what to do. Your dog's behaviour can have significant implications for everybody concerned, both in and out of the home and in severe cases you may even be contemplating parting with your dog as everyday life becomes seemingly impossible.This invaluable book aims to help you understand your dog's negative behavioural traits, displays and actions; whilst explaining why they are likely to have occurred and how you can put into practice effective methods to solve unwanted behaviour.Topics covered include:Stressed owner; stressed dog; Second hand dog, first hand problems; How to deal with problem behaviour both in the home and outside; Understanding aggression; Effective training for obedience. An invaluable book that covers the common problems dog owners experience, from separation anxiety to disobedience to fear and aggression.Gives the reader a theoretical understanding of why dogs behave in certain ways and instruction on how you can re-train your dog successfully and ensure that their behaviour is desirable.Superbly illustrated with 609 colour photographs.Vanessa Stead is a canine behaviourist with extensive experience in helping dogs to overcome behavioural problems.

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1 HEALTH AND BEHAVIOUR

Before attempting any training or behavioural modification, it’s vitally important to exclude any medical causes behind your dog’s problematic displays.

A significant number of behavioural problems arise from health and pain issues, and if these aren’t treated or taken into consideration you will miss a key part of the puzzle. Without this knowledge, you will definitely reduce your chances of successfully tackling the concern and possibly even risk increasing the severity of the problem.

Pain and the many conditions that cause it, hormonal imbalance, sensory dysfunction and sensory deterioration are four of the main health-related concerns that can lead to behavioural problems. Both here and later in the chapter I give you the same advice: take your dog to your vet for a full health check to exclude any medical concerns. This chapter will show you why this is so important and give you practical advice on how to help and support the behaviour of dogs suffering from health concerns.

PAIN

Quite understandably, pain can be a very common cause of problem behaviour. Pain is simply an unpleasant sensation that can range from acute (short term, such as somebody stepping on a dog’s paw) through to chronic (long term, such as arthritis). Physiologically, pain often relates to potential and actual damage to the body’s tissue, which commonly causes behaviour to change. Heartbeat, blood pressure, respiration and general activity can become dramatically different when pain strikes. Therefore it is essential that owners can identify what is normal behaviour for their dog as well as recognize changes, even subtle differences. Interestingly, the experience of a pain-provoking event can affect learning and cause the dog to be suspicious and react with fear/stress, avoidance and even aggression in the future. This highlights why every owner should look out for pain-related behaviours and be able to identify them, noticing any relevant changes in their dog’s behaviour as an individual. It is important to remember that ‘normal behaviour’ varies from dog to dog; some dogs have higher pain thresholds than others and these thresholds can change as they mature and get older. You know your dog best, so if you see any signs of change, especially if they are presented repeatedly, seek veterinary help straight away. And try to note not only the behaviour being shown but also when and for how long it occurs. This will help you to judge your dog as an individual and if any of these signs are not in character, all may not be well. There are, however, standard signs of pain to look out for, together with the behavioural changes that accompany them.

Signs of pain-behaviour changes

The following are signs of pain that influence behaviour:

• Avoidance, including lifting limbs, and mouthing and pulling away when handled.
• Fear: freezing, staring, glaring, flight or fight mechanism including potential displacement behaviours such as fidgeting.
• Stress, producing panting, pacing, listlessness, facial ridges, displacement behaviours and repetitive or stereotypical actions.
• Irritability and potential for aggression both defensive and offensive, depending on the level of pain and past learning.
• Depression.
• Reduced mobility and muscle constriction; the dog may appear hunched up and stiff.
• Reluctance or excessive motivation to eat or drink.
• Vocalization such as whimpering, groaning, crying and yelping, usually high-pitched and especially when touched or handled.
• Increased attention to a particular area: licking, nibbling or biting, and repeatedly turning to look at a certain area of the body.

The Conditions that Cause Pain

A common cause of acute pain is injury, often caused by trauma such as impact, force and constriction (remember that the use of a choke chain covers all these three!). Anything that tears, pulls, stretches or actually damages the dog’s tissue fibres can lead to pain anywhere in the body; organ failure and disease can also cause this response. Rubbing the same area of the body through repetitive movement such as pacing or through poorly fitting equipment such as collars and harnesses of the wrong size are examples of mechanical force that can cause pain.

This dog is suffering from a severe stomach upset and painful sores. He’s depressed and listless; his facial expression says it all.

Three different painful conditions and their corresponding behaviour.

Extremes of temperature, chemicals, and electric shocks can also provoke pain, and acute pain can be caused by toothache, cuts, bruises and abrasions. This can result in the behaviour changes mentioned above, but it is also worth remembering that if your dog is suffering from any painful complaint, stress will be a very likely by-product.

This lively pair are enjoying a rough play session. Some dogs can find this difficult to cope with if they are in pain.

I can’t continue this chapter without briefly referring to examples of training implements that can cause acute pain. Although these methods are designed to be relatively short term and abrupt, through repeated use they can lead over time to long-term physiological and behavioural effects. Continued use of pain when the dog is unable to escape and avoid it can lead to a state called ‘conditioned suppression’, where a dog’s behaviour ceases and he shuts down altogether. Some may think that this means that the treatment has worked; however, far from dealing with the cause of the problem such methods merely suppress the true behaviour and can have dramatic and detrimental impacts for the dog’s future mental state. The simple message is: don’t use choke chains, electric shock collars and prong collars, and remember that using painful methods (even yanking or pulling the dog on a flat collar) can be hugely detrimental to your dog’s overall behaviour.

Chronic Pain

If a painful condition continues and even exceeds the ‘normal’ healing time for the condition, it can become chronic, which has additional implications for both behaviour and welfare. Conditions that cause chronic pain in dogs include: hip dysplasia, arthritis, organ disease or failure, cancer and back/limb problems. When pain continues to plague the dog the signs are likely to become increasingly severe. If any of the dog’s maintenance behaviours (eating, drinking, sleeping, urination and defecation) are affected, this is very likely to result in behavioural consequences. Chronic pain can cause a dramatic increase in irritability and disturbance to sleep. Some dogs may even struggle to reach the deeper sleep stages where rest and repair take place. If you do have a dog suffering from a concern related to chronic pain and under veterinary supervision, there are ways to help it both in and out of the home.

• Always ensure that you cater for the basics and give priority to your dog’s maintenance needs. If he is a little stiff or immobile, ensure that food and water stations are within easy reach (maybe even raised on a stand). And be sure to help these dogs go to the toilet area regularly; don’t wait for them to struggle to hold themselves in. Remember that if they are suffering from a painful condition it may take them longer to get to this area and helping them to do this can really make things easier.
• Protect them: it’s even more important to ensure that dogs suffering from painful conditions have a quiet, restful place in the home that is warm, safe and secure and away from comings and goings. This will enable them to rest away from the hustle and bustle of family life and provide valuable respite from children and other pets. Dogs in pain can be more sensitive to movement and become particularly concerned, even defensive, if threatened. So take care to allow space when walking past them and avoid walking over the top of them. Limit play and particularly keep watch over youngsters interacting and playing with your dog as they may be more inclined to instigate rough games – absolutely not advisable with a dog suffering from long-term pain.
• Keep watch when out and about. On walks, judge interaction with other dogs carefully. If your dog starts to show concern, keep moving and encourage him to distance himself. Another dog instigating a rough or over-zealous game could worry your dog, who may already be more sensitive to interactions and potentially defensive or aggressive.
• Look, listen and learn. Watch out for any sign that your dog is experiencing pain or feeling threatened by a stimulus from inside or outside the house. This may be the first indication that something isn’t right, perhaps telling you to stop what you’re doing or that something needs changing. Freezing, staring, glaring, growling and showing teeth are all signals that your dog may be experiencing pain during an interaction. Activities such as grooming, fitting equipment, bathing and general handling are potential risk areas, and it’s advisable to take notice of any signals, however slight, that indicate that your dog is not confident about the situation.

THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM

Hormones have a vital part to play throughout a dog’s life. They are...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 21.12.2012
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik ► Tiere / Tierhaltung
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften
• ISBN-10: 1-84797-498-8 / 1847974988
• ISBN-13: 978-1-84797-498-3 / 9781847974983