The answers to most common behavioural questions

I need to address some crucial behaviour “problems” that people often mention regarding their dogs, which they want to resolve. I find these issues to be highly relatable and worth discussing. Let's go over these examples together but from your dog’s perspective.

👉He doesn’t like it when people he doesn’t know come to the house, especially if it’s a man.

🫵 dogs don’t understand company coming over. They have no concept of mailman, Amazon delivery, or family gatherings. The majority of time in human civilization that dogs have existed with us did not include ANY of these things. They are mostly still hardwired to view unknown visitors on their territory as a potential threat or danger. We forget that most of the time we KNOW who’s coming, but our dogs don’t. And imagine if you didn’t know and suddenly a stranger showed up wanting to come in and hug you. I bet you’d freak out too.

👉He’s fine with people he knows, but he doesn’t like it if a stranger tries to or does touch him.

🫵 dogs are not public property. I wouldn’t allow a stranger to touch my child or baby simply because she’s cute, why my dog? Dogs should be able to choose if they want to interact with someone and people need to learn how to accept and understand when they say no politely, before the dog feels they have to escalate to get more distance.

👉She doesn’t want me to touch her while she’s eating and will sometimes growl or grumble if she has a toy and I try to take it away.

🫵 ever try to take away a kid's Easter chocolate? How about taking someone’s money that they are holding in their hand? How do you feel when someone takes food off your plate? Sharing doesn’t come naturally to humans or dogs, but for dogs, it’s rooted in survival and completely normal.

👉She growls when the kids lay on her if she’s sleeping, or if I try to move her when she’s on the couch napping.

🫵 not wanting to be bothered when resting is also natural and normal. If I groan and get irritated when my kids do that to me, I’m not labeled as aggressive or unpredictable. What dogs do to communicate irritation or discomfort is absolutely acceptable, and yet they are the only creatures that we see this behaviour as a problem.

👉He used to be fine with big social gatherings like the dog park. Now he’s not.

🫵 behaviour and ideas of “fun” change as we get older and mature. The same happens to dogs. I’d love a nice salt bath and some Netflix time at the end of the day now, not a night on the town. Nothing happened to me, I just grew up. Dogs are the same way. Their likes and dislikes aren’t always concrete and we have to learn to adapt with them, just as we do ourselves.

I seriously could write these all day. All it takes is a mild shift in perspective to see the issues we label as bad or rude or negative in dogs are often COMPLETELY normal mix and “fixing” any specific behaviour first starts with understanding it, then helping your dog, and meeting in the middle. Training is appropriate in lots of different situations but it’s useless if we fail to actually realize dogs as the animals they are.  The more we do this, the easier life with these amazing creatures is for both of us.