The Old Trainer: Let your dog be a dog, sniffing and all
D ear Old Trainer: I adopted Sammi, a Jack Russell/heeler mix and I never have a problem with her except when we are out walking or at the dog park. She sniffs every dog she meets and they sniff her. The people with the other dogs ignore it, but it’s embarrassing. How do I train her not to do that?
Sarah, Mill Valley
A: You don’t. Sniffing is standard canine behavior, as you might have deducted from the fact all dogs do it. No reason to scold Sammi for conduct that has been standard in canines for 3 million years.
Just relax and enjoy watching her having a good time doing what dogs do. The only reason you are embarrassed is because you are projecting human standards onto canine behavior.
Sammi gleans more information from sniffing than a human can learn about another human in a week of conversation. With one sniff she can determine health, age, sex, mood, attitude, diet and a dozen other useful bits of information.
Let Sammi be a dog and the two of you will have many great days at the dog park ahead of you.
Dear Old Trainer: We have two mixed-breed females, Rainy, 6, and Sally, 4. When I feed them they both start eating, then Sally looks at Rainy and Rainy stops eating and lies down and waits until Sally finishes, then she eats. It doesn’t bother Rainy and they are best friends, but it happens every meal. Should I try to make them eat at the same time?
Darren, Modesto
A: My advice is to do nothing. It’s just basic canine psychology at work. They are obeying pack etiquette wired into their DNA and, as you point out, it doesn’t bother either of them.
The law of the pack, from the time when dogs were wolves, is leader eats first, no one else eats until he gives the command. It may seem odd to humans, but it makes sense to a canine. And the rule holds for all the ranks within the pack. The leader eats first, number two dog second, then number three and right down the line. No dog is allowed to jump the line.
If you want to stop it, move their dishes farther apart and stand between them while they eat. Encourage Rainy to eat, and tell Sally to mind her own business. You are leader of the pack, so while Sally gives orders to Rainy she has to take orders from you.
Give it some thought before you do it though. It’s usually best to accept pack arrangements dogs make on their own. They chose this way of eating based on the way dogs think. If you force a change based on how humans think it may make them both edgy.
Dear Old Trainer: I just read a story where scientists claim dogs prefer being petted to verbal praise, and consider verbal praise the same as no interaction at all. That certainly isn’t the case with my dogs. Have you read the study?
Allison, Turlock
A: Yes I read it, and had a good laugh. For those who have not read it, Allison is accurate in her summation of the findings.
What they leave out is how the study was conducted. When you read the details you can’t help but laugh. It’s goofball science at its finest. They put shelter dogs, already stressed from being in a shelter, into strange rooms with people they had never seen before. Even worse, no attempt was made to ensure the people knew anything at all about dogs.
So of course the dogs had no interest in listening to those people talk. No dog cares what a stranger has to say. If a “scientist” came into my yard and tried to talk to my pack he would be lucky to escape with his stethoscope in one piece.
Even the author of the study disagrees with the findings, saying, “My dog loves it when I talk to her.”
They should have saved time and money and just dropped by the nearest dog park. Everyone in the place would have informed them that while dogs prefer petting to verbal praise, they love it when their human talks to them too.
We know that by most reliable test of all – every time we do it their tails wag.
This story was originally published October 10, 2014 at 5:16 PM with the headline "The Old Trainer: Let your dog be a dog, sniffing and all."