My social circle of animals has been expanding. Recently I was helping a friend with a photoshoot and she brought her absolute behemoth of a dog to participate. This dog deserves a story all on his own, because my friend rescued him from the street as just-born puppy and didn’t sleep for days as she worked to keep him alive.
But today, I’m writing about another dog that’s become a focus of my life lately. Truthfully, originally I was going to write about something high-brow: the question whether animals have souls, and how different cultures approach that question. Instead, what has nabbed my imagination is a short anecdote about humping.
So, the story. This dog belongs to an Argentine friend of mine. She’s a rescue he apparently got for free, and the amount of care he puts into this dog is incredible. Imagine a grey and white teddy bear-sized creature that should be shaggy but is somehow soft. He grooms her weekly himself, which leads to some hilariously choppy cuts sometimes.
So now we have the dog. Let’s get to the incident of our meeting: the first time, she hated me. There was a lot of barking, not least because the large rottweiler his Peruvian family keeps on the roof was leaping around over our heads and making a scene. OK, fine, I can deal with that kind of anxiety by giving her a bit of time to get to know me. By the end of the night, she’s asleep on my stomach.
It seemed like we made good progress the second time, because she was excitedly nipping at my hands the way my dogs do when we play with them. Great, excellent, I’m good at doing what I do.
But, then, the third time, she decided she was jealous (about the same time he decided he was jealous of the attention I gave the dog!). Thus every time I turned my attention to said Argentine, I felt a little body clamp down on my ankles and go to town.
For those who don’t know, there are many ways dogs can display their dominance. Humping is one of them. And what this dog was continually trying to tell me was she is number one in her man’s life.
So how to deal with this kind of behavior? One is to not let yourself become too affected by it. If an animal doesn’t like you, don’t try to force it one way or the other. Just let it be. A lot of us want to show physical affection, but another great way to have an animal see you as a stable presence is by watching the way you talk to it. Don’t get angry or raise your voice. Keep things light and cheerful.
Of course, something like that isn’t going to work on the rottweiler on the roof, not without a significant amount of time, but with a scared dog desperately trying to claim the most important thing in her life? Treating her with kindness and patience goes a long way.
It also helps to understand that frequently dominant and submissive behaviors are fear-based, especially with rescue dogs. In that case, some of the worst things you can do is try to force or shame them into the response you want.
Dear Cesar Milan has some articles on this on his website, and they’re worth a read to understand dominant and submissive behaviors, and what you can do to deal with a dominant dog.
I’m still working on my relationship with the little teddy bear, and it seems we’re heading toward a better place again, although now she’s displaying more submissive behaviors. Everything in due time.
What do you do when approaching unfamiliar animals? How do you respond to a new animal friend asserting its dominance over you?