Friend or Foe?

Not long ago,  when I came in from feeding the horses, my 9-pound Malte-poo Eddy was waiting inside the door. As I came through the door, he didn’t look up at me to identify me. He looked at what was at his eye-level–my snow boots–and from that he judged I was a stranger, and he ran into the other room momentarily.  We had only just had our first snow of the season. The snow boots had been packed away where Eddy had neither seen nor smelled them for over 8 months. It didn’t matter that the body wearing them had been around all the time. In Eddy’s view, the boots that came through that doorway disqualified me for entering my house.

Here we see another example of the importance of understanding dog behavior so that we don’t pass mistaken judgments. We need to be aware of just how sensitive dogs are to their environment.  This goes far beyond only their behavior toward humans. As I wrote about a few weeks ago, a paper bag left in a room made that room unapproachable for Eddy until he’d had a chance to make its acquaintance. We should not treat such things in a callous manner. The more we develop our awareness of our dog(s)’ sensitivities and level of anxiety, the better we can prepare ourselves to lower their anxiety and help them to build their confidence and level of security.

An aware and empathetic person would never even teasingly label a dog as dumb and ignore such behaviors as Eddy’s.  A person who has committed to living with his dog(s) in Dialogue® recognizes each  behavior of this kind as a question (usually “Am I all right?” in the presence of this bag or this “strange” person) that deserves an immediate and loving answer. My answer to Eddy yesterday was to remove the boots, greet him as the family member he knew well, and then introduce him to the boots he didn’t know. The following day he allowed the boots to come and go at will without running from them.