Saturday, October 01, 2022

The Saturday Morning Post: Good Dogs



There is a tiny little dog that lives with a young woman down the hall. The dog backs up against the wall, snarls and barks when he/she passes another person in the hallway.  The owner does nothing, but grimace and say sorry.  She makes no effort to comfort or control the dog. 

The dog does not seem aggressive,  the dog seems terrified.  I have no doubt if threatened the dog would bite, but it seems to be trying to scare away anything that might be a threat.  It makes me wonder what the dog finds threatening, why the dog is terrified.  

It could be a history of abuse.  It could be that the dog is tiny and feels threatened by anything larger, and anything bigger than a rat would be larger.  It could be that the dog has never been socialized to people.  

People who are fearful, often act aggressive. People who are not use to other people, or people who are different, often perceive the unknown as a threat. People who are terrified, act in strange ways.  

The owner has not trained the dog, and the dog has not trained the owner.  Some of us are not able to be good dog owners.  

There is a trainer on TV who says there are no bad dogs, only bad owners.  Fix the owner, fix the dog.  

12 comments:

  1. And there are so many bad owners.

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    1. Maybe the dog or cat(s) tell us a lot about the owner.

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  2. I agree about bad dogs and bad owners.
    When he was younger Ozzo was quite the barker when people came into the house, but his bark always seemed to be a request to have them pet him and as soon as they did he was a happy little man.

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    1. If only we could understand what they are saying

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  3. My friends David and Riley adopted a dog that was known to have been abused. With love and support and understanding the dog is slowly coming out of its shell. Every time it would back up to avoid being touched, it broke my heart.

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    1. Early life experiences, take time to recover from

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  4. So many people do not train their dogs. It annoys me no end. It's not doing their dogs any favours either. "A trained dog is a happy dog."

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  5. Why not bark and snarl back at that tiny dog? See how he/she/it likes it. It might surprise the owner too.

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    1. I have been known to do things like that, and to Moo at cows

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  6. It's my understanding bad dog behavior is correctable if the owner does their duty.

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  7. Few dogs who are properly treated and loved would act like this. Poor puppy!

    Sassybear
    https://idleeyesandadormy.com/

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