A Small Dog

Something's Not Right

(photo courtesy of randy@flickr.com*)

Weird Behavior

First off, here’s what I mean by weird behavior. I am talking about anything your dog does that seems unusual or inappropriate for the circumstances. Here are some examples:

• Hiding under furniture, even though there are no apparent threats to your dog in your home.
• Chronic self-stimulation, such as continuous or nearly continuous paw licking.
• A fear display in response to a harmless noise, such as your refrigerator’s cooling motor starting up, or a dry leaf crunching under foot as the two of you walk outside.
• A fear display in response to a benign movement made by you or someone in your family, such as raising your foot off the ground to scratch an itch on your leg.
• Your dog clings to you as if leaving your side will result in certain death.

It Doesn’t Always Apply

Before I go further, know that some rescued dogs arrive in their new homes ready to take on the world. They adapt quickly to their new environment and never show any signs of trouble. I don’t want you to bring your new dog home expecting the worst, because your concerns may actually cause your dog to fulfill your expectations. This article addresses a worst case scenario that may never happen.

Why is this Happening?

There are three reasons why your new small dog may display behaviors associated with fear or anxiety in the most harmless situations:

• Your dog may have come from a situation in which he or she was abused, neglected, or threatened on a regular basis.
• He or she may have inherited a genetic pre-disposition to be fearful.
• You may inadvertently be encouraging your dog to act worried or fearful.

There is nothing you can do about your dog’s past. Nothing. You cannot go back and undo the trauma your dog may have faced at the hands of its previous owner. Even if you could somehow exact revenge against a previous owner who was abusive, your action would do nothing to improve your dog’s current situation. It’s a dead end and a drain on your emotions. Here is the real take-away: Being angry about your dog’s past can actually make your dog feel worse, even if your anger has nothing to do with your dog. Let it go and move forward, for your dog’s sake.

Many, many rescued dogs do not come from abusive situations. Though we might imagine ourselves heroes who save our dogs from the terrible abyss, the truth is, most dogs who behave fearfully were programmed that way from birth. Bad behavior is the number one reason dogs end up at the pound. Your rescued dog’s weird behavior may be the very reason he or she became a dog that was rescued. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your view, we cannot go in and reprogram our dog’s genetics. All we can address is the behavior that results from genetics.

What Can You Do?

That leaves us with what to do, right now, that can make a difference in your rescued dog’s life. Here are the fundamentals:

1. Send worry and empathy packing.
2. Ignore weird behavior, as long as it does not cause your dog physical harm.
3. Encourage good behavior.
4. Build your dog’s confidence.

The Hardest Part

Of all these fundamentals, which do you think is the hardest to tackle? The first fundamental is the hardest because we humans are programmed to empathize with pain and suffering. Our dog moans and we respond automatically.

Here is a scenario for you. Imagine you are a firefighter, answering the alarm on a blazing building. The chief of your station tells you there is a person trapped inside the building, and he needs you on the search and rescue mission. There you are, inside the smoke-filled building. The infernal is rapidly consuming the walls. It’s hotter than hell. The only things keeping you moving are your portable air tank and mask, your fire-resistant clothing, and your resolve to save the trapped victim. After some methodical searching, you find the victim, a young girl trapped under a collapsed wall. She’s alive, but moaning and coughing. You look around. The flames are tearing up the remaining walls and flashing over the ceiling, which looks like it might collapse at any moment. Here’s your response:

“Oh, you poor, poor girl! You must be in a lot of pain. I feel so bad, so bad for you. Here, let me sit by you for a few minutes and comfort you. Oh man, that’s a really bad cough. You poor girl, you must be miserable. I’m not sure you are going to make it. This fire is terrible. We may both die right here, but that ‘s okay. I’ll be by your side, poor girl.”

Is this the right response? You know, it’s so ludicrous, it’s absolutely laughable. What firefighter in his or her right mind would sit there and do this? If this was your response to this situation, not only would you be wasting time and further endangering your victim, your response would destroy any hope your victim had of surviving.

The firefighting situation I just described is an absolute parallel to a dog owner who worries and frets about his rescued dog’s weird behavior. Not only will worrying about your dog’s behavior not help your dog, your worry will actually make the situation worse.

Dogs, if nothing else, are barometers for human behavior. When you worry and fret, they worry and fret. If your dog is already battling inner demons, adding your worry to the mix is like pouring gasoline on their fire.

Worry also handicaps our own behavior by pulling us off the task of helping. Just as a firefighter cannot waste time and energy worrying about his victim, you cannot afford to waste time and energy worrying about your dog’s behavior.

Take Action: How to Show Worry the Door

1. Begin by defining how you want your dog to be six months from now. (We will set a tighter timeline in the third part of this series.) Write it down. Hopefully, you are choosing phrases such as “More confident,” and “Energetic,” and “Relaxed.” You may also include goals such as “No longer licks her paws,” or, “Does not retreat under the bed.”
2. Become objective and less emotional by journaling your dog’s progress. Start a notebook right now and write down, as specifically as you can, what your dog does that seems out of place. Keep your descriptions clear and unemotional. For the sake of your dog, do not journal your feelings about his behavior. This is supposed to be an objective chronicle. We need to put your worry-filled emotions on an upper shelf, out of reach.
3. Commit yourself to a years-long project. Change will not happen overnight or even in weeks, so don’t fall apart if your dog does not improve instantly. You will see incremental changes over the coming weeks, but the big changes may take much longer. (Yeah, I know about that guy on TV that seems to perform miracles with dogs instantly. Those “miracles” are examples of incremental changes. We’re talking about changing a rescued dog’s overall demeanor, which takes more than a 5-minute span between commercial breaks.)
4. When positive change happens, write it down and celebrate! When positive change does not happen as soon as you expected, or if your dog seems to be heading in the wrong direction, write it down and analyze the situation. Look for a different path to take, or decide whether the path is right but just needs more time to work. Time is on your side.

Remember, the timeline you set up in your journal is based on your previous experiences and expectations. Your dog has his own timeline. That’s okay, because know this:

Dogs are survivalists. They cope by adapting. If you set up your dog’s environment so it is to your dog’s advantage to improve, your dog will improve. He or she won’t be able to resist. It will happen.

Up next: Ignoring weird behavior. It can be a huge challenge, but it is possible. I’ll tell you how to do it in my next article.

*The opinions expressed in this article are my own and not necessarily those of the provider of the attached photo. I make no claim the dog in the attached photo is a rescued dog, nor that it has any behavior problems whatsoever.