What Dog Owners Can Learn From Horse Owners

6/5/2023

Yesterday was a recovery day for me. For the CRPS, my Saturday added up to Intense Walking + Intense Standing + Intense Sitting = haha, good luck walking later... I know, it sounds dumb. With CRPS, though, this is life.

Anyway, I was supposed to be resting. Resting is difficult for me, because I like being active. As I scrolled through NPR looking for interesting reads, I saw this headline, "Dogs attacked more than 5,300 mail carriers last year, Postal Service Says."

Oh good grief...

All the colorful metaphors bounced around in my mind, and watching tv quickly got pushed aside as my brain jumped into action. I have a theory about dogs and dog bites, and this headline pushed into focus a topic I've been wanting to write about for a while, and didn't quite know where to start. Until yesterday.

I Train Dogs to Withstand Pressure

I want to preface this by saying I am not a behavioral or rehabilitation specialist. I specialize in largely starting with clean slate dogs or dogs with a few rough edges which don't include biting people. There's two reasons for this, 1) I'm disabled and my disability is one where my brain tells me a butterfly landing on my arm is someone punching me, so it's really not safe for me to be around actual biting dogs and 2) My strengths lie in teaching service dogs, specifically mobility dogs for CRPS. Service dogs undergo an intense amount of training to be sure that under stress, startle, or other types of pressure they absolutely will not bite someone.

My training helps forge a dog who won't bite, with the exception of possibly being in severe pain, because, frankly, service dogs have to put up with a ton of pressure on the job. Some expected, some ridiculous. People passing close by, being stepped on, surprise hugs or pets from strangers, food shoved in their faces, hearing loud noises all around, being startled and remaining in position, other dogs invading their space, and more.

My training focuses on prevention, management, and preparation for both dog and owner. I teach how to teach your dog to withstand the pressures of being out in the world, and equally how for the owner to recognize when their dog needs a break or more space and how to advocate for it. It surprises people to hear I teach dogs how to move away from pressure (a fundamental lesson in training), and how to not move at all under other types of pressure, primarily spatial pressure. For service dogs to do their jobs, though, they have to be able to not react to a lot of situations where a pet dog would most certainly lash out or move off in a demand for more space and release of pressure.

*I can't guarantee your dog will never bite or growl, though, because dogs are animals, life happens, not every dog is capable of extreme bite inhibition (choosing to not bite), and it is a big ask some times.

Truth #1: Random is Rare

Random is very rarely what happened. Dogs give all sorts of signals before they bite someone, but people miss most of them. If you've missed them, it's understandable. Dog body language is complex, at times subtle, contextual, and in some cases dog-specific or breed-specific.

Random usually means 1) you missed something or 2) something is medically wrong with the dog.

Each of these dogs is showing at least one sign of feeling uncomfortable. They may or may not bite. More than likely, though, if they were to bite, it would be written up as "came outta nowhere."

Truth #2: We're Part of the Problem

People aren't raised with a healthy respect for dogs. I grew up riding horses. Before I could ride a horse, though, I had to learn,

Safety Tips for moving around a horse, handling a horse, walking a horse
How to Properly Care for a Horse by brushing them, cleaning their feet, and why
Basic Horse Body Language to understand when a horse was upset and what to do

Once I began riding, and got old enough to start volunteering at the barn, the learning increased to include,

How to clean stalls and why
How to clean tack and why
How to look at a horse and tell if we needed to call the vet
More thorough body language to see when a horse was fearful, nervous, uncertain, confused, "hot" (aka buckets full of energy), "green" (aka probably gonna try to intentionally or accidentally kill you multiples times in a ride), dangerous, temperamental, happy, relaxed, confident, and distracted/not remembering you're near or on them (potentially dangerous).
With body language recognition, I also learned How to Respond to various horse states of mind, to help the horse in the moment and keep myself safe
How to get a horse in/out of a stall safely
How to reinforce good manners and train out the bad manners, such as bolting out of their stall

Above all else, the main theme with horses was, "This is a ~900lb animal. They are inherently dangerous by size alone. We must learn how to coexist with them, for everyone's safety. They can hurt you accidentally, or intentionally. Let's learn the best ways to handle horses, to prevent accidents."

"Horses can hurt you" was drilled into me from Day 1. That's not done with dogs.

My training courses approach dog ownership and dog training with the intent of building a similar level of respect and knowledge for one's dog, as if it were a horse. I do this for both service dog courses and pet dog courses, because I feel that developing a healthy respect and understanding for your dog will go a long way in preventing future problems from arising.

Socialization Isn't Just for Service Dogs

More and more I'm seeing other dog trainers emphasizing the importance of teaching your dog how to handle life and being able to go to pet friendly places, and have a dog who is relaxed and confident, so the owner is able to enjoy life with their dogs. This is awesome, in my opinion.

All dogs need socialization training, from the very beginning. If you got your dog when they were older, it's not too late to start socialization training. It is true that early socialization is crucial for puppies to grow up with confidence and calm minds, but any dog can learn how to chill out around various stimuli (with the exception of health conditions affecting the dog's mind).

Socialization isn't about forcing your dog to interact with the world, though. It's about teaching your dog how to respond positively or neutrally to the world. It's about learning how to simply exist, and trusting you to handle an issue if it arises.

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Dog Ownership = Responsibility

Mail carriers should not be getting bitten, and certainly not in the thousands. Some will argue in the grand scheme of the country's population, that's not so bad. I argue differently. Postal workers work in extreme conditions at times, doing valued work, and shouldn't be afraid to go up to someone's house.

And it's not just mail carriers. It's babies, children, owners themselves, family members, friends, veterinarians, groomers, and trainers. Vets especially are abundantly cautious when it comes to the possibility of being bitten that some of them jump right into over-handling your dog, inadvertently causing more tension in the animal. Some trainers will likely roll with it, learn from it, and take steps to ensure it doesn't happen again, but plenty others will send the dog back to you. There's a crisis of dogs being unruly and "unpredictable". People get a dog and assume there's nothing to it; anyone can own a dog. I would argue that's not true. Maybe once upon a time when there were fewer people and life was more spaced out, but certainly not now. Thinking there's nothing to learn about owning a dog is reckless, in my opinion.

Part of owning a dog means taking responsibility for safe management of your dog, teaching your dog how to exist in a human's world, and admitting when you need to learn more about your dog and get help with training. It also means learning how dogs communicate, what a dog's personal space bubble is and how to respect it, and how to handle problems if they do arise.

I looked over several articles on this subject, and most of them give good advice, but tend to put the responsibility on the mail carriers. Don't make sudden moves. Don't get in their space. Don't give mail to children because the dog may be protective.

Mail carriers should be able to get out of their truck, walk up to your house, deliver the mail, and walk away unscathed, without having to worry about making a wrong move that may upset your dog.

For mail carriers and delivery people, if I'm home, I go out and greet them with my dog on leash or under voice control. I ask my dog to sit or down while I get the mail, and they can only move out of the command if I suddenly need help or it's time to go back inside. If we're outside playing off leash, I call my dog to front or heel, walk up to greet the mail carrier, and leave my dog behind me or beside me in a sit or down. Two reasons, 1) to reinforce impulse control when people arrive, to not rush up to say hi and 2) to help the delivery person feel more at ease. Not everyone wants a dog rushing up to them, and some of them are likely expecting to be bitten at this point.

Tips for Being a Responsible Dog Owner

Buy a crate or outdoor dog kennel. This is where your dog is when you're gone. It will help them know what to do with their time, which will help them feel more relaxed. If you can't afford this, you can't afford a dog. If you leave your dog in a fenced yard, be sure the gate is secure. If your dog has crate or separation anxiety, check out the Training Resources below.
Learn what dog body language means, and learn how to read your own dog. Once you start paying attention to all the little cues your dog is giving you in a day, you'll discover, they have a lot to say! Listening to them goes a long way. At times, we need to push our dogs to help them overcome a stress/fear/challenge, but other times, pushing our dogs can lead to bites. Learning how they communicate can help you learn when to push and when to step back.
If you like having a dog who tells you someone is at the house, teach your dog a specific way to alert you, other than barking wildly and throwing themselves at the windows. The latter is coming from being too excited, overreacting, being insecure, or boredom exploding out at the sudden activity outside. None of which are actually helpful for you or your dog. Alternatively, teaching your dog to come nose poke or paw tap you when they see someone in the driveway or approaching the house achieves the same benefit for you, and helps the dog feel like they have a job, which as we know, dogs really enjoy.
If you want a dog who can protect your home when you're away, find a professional dog trainer who specializes in protection dogs and hire them to help you. There is a HUGE difference in how a dog who is protection trained responds to potential threats, versus a dog who has no protection training. Most of what people have are reactive dogs who don't know what to do in a certain situation, and overreact. Protection dogs can be trained to protect people and/or property. It's very specialized training, though, and it is a job for the dog.
Break away from "oh that's how dogs are" and start imagining how you'd rather have your dog act around people and other life situations. Now believe me when I say what you're imaging is possible. You do have to work for it, and maintain it, but it is absolutely possible to have dog who doesn't destroy the house, bark at people, lunge at mail carriers, pull you over on walks, or add stress to your life.

Training Resources

It may seem weird to recommend trainers other than myself, but I don't see it that way. I'd love to work with you in helping you teach your dog how to coexist with you and your world, especially if you need their assistance as a service dog. I'm not the best fit for everyone, though, and if I can't help you, I want to be able to offer you names to explore, instead of leaving you with, "well, yeah, good luck..."

I am not a behavioral specialist, nor do I specialize in dog bite prevention or rehabilitation. If your dog has a bite history, is known to be reactive, fearful, or aggressive, please consult with a rehabilitation trainer before attempting any of the exercises suggested in this post.

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For simple lifestyle training exercises you can do on your own, like teaching your dog how to wait at doors, check out my Patreon page!

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