#Dog Behavior

[maybe-im-dark]

Do you think everytime he takes a shower, Logan shakes himself violently to dry himself off like a dog? Like obviously he also uses a towel but beforehand he gotta shake that water off some?

[darkwood-sleddog]

If dog buttons have one hater I am that very hater.

Communicating “in the same language for the first time” through dog buttons as Christina Hunger describes in her book is a failure of the most human proportion, putting too much value on the human (English) spoken word and ignoring that every detail, movement, twitch of our dogs is an act of communication itself. They are already communicating with us, just as human and primitive dog first did thousands of years ago. Just how we have shaped each other’s evolution by our very relationship. The dog understands you without buttons. If you can’t understand a dog without buttons, or “speak the same language” without human spoken language that is your HUMAN failure.

[instacrew]

[allthings-acorn]

I’m considering trying behavioral meds for Acorn. I’d love to hear about from dogblr folks who’ve experienced putting their dog on meds for behavior— whether you ended up continuing meds long term or not.

Rambling under the cut—

After three years of working on Acorn’s leash reactivity with few results to show, I decided to start working on with a behavior consultant. She’s helped me realize how much is his reactivity is because he quickly goes into a frustrated, high arousal state, and has a lot of trouble self-regulating. This is mostly triggered immediately by seeing dogs from a distance or the presence of prey animals— but even seeing a human walking towards us can sometimes produce whining and staring.

Part of me feels stupid for not realizing all of this on my own. I’ve basically done everything right! I only walk him places where I can avoid dogs so he won’t have a reaction (he’ll still stare and whine but he won’t bark and lunge) worked on look at that, etc. He also has some possible issues with minor compulsive behaviors—story for another day—which she rightly pointed out as more evidence that he may benefit from meds.

So I am probably going to make an appointment to talk about this with my vet. I like to think I’m past the stigma of medicating behavior, but I guess I’m not because I am struggling with this a little. The thing is that he’s a really easy dog to live with! He is! I manage the compulsive stuff very well, and I don’t walk him where he’ll get triggered, and we have a pretty nice life together. So it was hard for me to see the whole picture, I guess. If I didn’t have bigger goals—going to an agility trial or being able to get his CGC— I would probably be fine with this status quo. And I’m ok if we never reach those goals. But I told myself I would give one more try, get an outside opinion, and do what I can for the reactivity before giving up. So here we are.

Anyway, I guess I’m hoping to hear some stories to give me more of an idea of possible outcomes. Thank you to everyone who read all of this!

[maisietheyellowlab]

Does anyone have any good resources on dog-dog resource guarding in multi-dog households?

I'm looking for force free resources of any kind, so videos, podcasts, books, blogs, whatever, as long as it's sensible and useful. Please, and thank you!!!

Navi has always been a typical little herding dog who takes it upon herself to "enforce rules" and it was usually not problematic at all, it was moreso a quirk. However, she's tried to guard her bowl and a cardboard box (love that for her) in front of Maisie and a friend's dog in the past month. I'm pretty convinced this is linked to her being in heat, since it's been a tough one for her, but I think we'd benefit from working on this regardless. Don't want it to escalate and create conflict with other dogs and I also don't want her to feel unsafe with her food etc. I already do a lot of things to manage it, and I know how to work on resource guarding between dogs and people, but I honestly don't have that many resources on dog-dog resource guarding and how to effectively manage or solve it.

[halodogcollar]

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[toyastales]

Soaking up the sun 🌞

[bisexualbaker]

[Alt]

Oh come on, the joke wasn't that bad!

[sweetlittlepuppie]

Really cute puppy girl art by the great and talented puppy girl on Instagram: Mimiwoofz

[darkwood-sleddog]

Watching tv shows when any dog appears has been ruined for me bc I just start searching for “I am being good dog looking at my cue and waiting for my high value reward!” face and it’s very distracting lmao.

[instacrew]

[hashtag-xolo]

Dog buttons upholding Proper Verbal Communication as the one and only true valid form of communication with humans is the bane of my autistic, poor auditory processing, tonally flat, occasionally nonverbal existence. And as the parent of an ADHD kid whose primary mode of communication is not spoken words.

If my fiance can tell I'm happy because I'm flapping my hands, and I can tell what my kid is saying with a gesture and squeak, then you too can learn that your dog staring deep into your eyes and then walking towards something is clear communication of "I want a thing"

[grison-in-space]

blatantly stolen from the Working Australian Cattle Dog Group:

For fun, and to share opinions. What's your definition of a biddable dog? What about an independent dog or independent thinker? Can those two things be synonymous or do you have one or the other?

[femboy-valentine]

Erm actually. I’m a lapdog, but I still bark and bite. Maybe you should muzzle me, just to be safe.

I’ll be decently well behaved though. I sit at your feet, and sleep at the end of your bed, and I’ll fetch when you say so. I’m relatively good at following instructions.. I just get a little over excited sometimes :( I can’t help it :(

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

When I treat my dog for something, sometimes he seems to play with his treat? He goes into play bow and sorta bats at the treat with his paws then throws it in the air and chases it before he eats it? Why?

Sounds like he's having fun! Think about what toy play looks like - it's pretty similar behaviors, much of the time. If treats are super exciting, maybe it's more enjoyable to play with it before eating it and ending the fun time.

[germanshepherddogwithablog]

Hello Hoomans, I have been gone for a long time, I'm sorry, I ran out of ideas for what to post. I'm just going to post a status update, though, so you know I'm still alive.

I am very much alive, but I'm not feeling so good today, I got into some of my hooman brother's friends fried fish, and it just didn't sit well with my tummy. Everything else is OK, but I frew up a few times today.

Other than that, things at my house have been pretty good, I've gotten used to mommy going to work everyday, at first I was afraid she wouldn't come back, but now I know she will, It's just takes forever, but luckily she's always home on the weekends, and sometimes she surprises me and sissy by coming home early.

As far as my behavior goes, I'm calmer on walks, but whenever sissy has me on a walk and starts talking to her friend who lives near buy, I get really mad at sissy's friend and I don't know why. I even got mad at grandpa's (mommy's daddy) friend, and tried to fight him.

Maybe it's because sissy is always nervous when we go on walks, It's hard not to feel her emotions. Whatever the reason, sissy has started putting on a collar that beeps when she uses a remote.

I don't like the beeps, so I don't try to fight people or dogs on walks anymore. And sissy somehow gets me to actually give her MY ball when we play outside by keeping the remote in her hand.

She always throws it after, and that's what I want her to do, but I just don't want her to take MY ball.

Other than that, I've been pretty good, but I seem to be very restless. I'm fine until mommy comes home, then whenever sissy is resting and spending time with mommy, I get bored and demand that sissy takes me outside and play with me, even if I don't have to go potty. Then, right when we come in, I'm ready to go back out.

Well, puzzling stuff is happening in my mind, but life has been pretty good. I trust mommy and sissy though and know they will help me.