Give a Dog a Bone is an organization in San Francisco, (I DO miss my home town) all about making life so much better for dogs kept in long-term care. Check in at their site for some really inspirational ideas about how to make the dogs in your shelter's kennel just that much healthier and happier.
Yesterday I felt like I wasn't helping at all, then I remembered the Give a Dog a Bone folks and it reminded me that I do, actually, make a difference that counts.
Please be sure to read the safety precautions at the end of this post before trying this relaxation technique. Always remember these are shelter dogs we're dealing with and the normal expressions of dog behavior don't necessarily apply.
Now, my personal tip for the day to all new and/or untrained dog-walking volunteers: You don't actually have to walk the entire time.
In fact I've found that many of the dogs I handle are so frantic about the entire experience of just being outdoors they don't actually enjoy it. A "walk" that is spent with you holding onto one end of a leash for dear life and a dog on the other end who isn't really aware you're even back there is no walk at all. It's a battle of strength and will for both of you the entire time. Nobody in their right mind can really believe that kind of experience will have any beneficial effect on their mental health. Yours or the dogs.
When I find myself with a dog that is obsessively pulling, sniffing, whining, lunging and scent marking every three feet, I try to remember it's likely because he's house trained and has been holding his feces and urine until somebody finally gets him outside. The first five minutes of dirt under his feet are spent sniffing and spinning and pulling in order to find the RIGHT place to have a poo. Seriously, dogs can be very picky about where they go, and they sometimes use it as an additional scent mark. One funny bugger I walk insists on hovering over a few thorny canes in the brush. I wince every time I watch him do it, and collecting the remains for disposal is no picnic either when thorns are involved. However, if after we've managed a good bathroom break and my charge is still obsessively nose down, spinning like a top and pulling like mad on the leash, I head straight for a peaceful spot on the property with a bench and some grass and get down to the business of helping Mr. or Ms. Obsessive relax enough to enjoy some companionship and calm (weather willing). The most effective tool in my bag for this is a simple doggy massage. I usually start at the chest for a nice kind of good rub, then work my way up to the spine, scrunching and rubbing in the direction of fur growth and end up giving the area above his tail and down his haunches a really scrumptious rubby scratchy, make 'em wiggle massage. I often murmur words of praise in a soft and low voice, never squeaky, squeaky leads to hyper or playful activity, and whispering can do the same. Even the most scattered and stressed out dogs usually respond to this. Some within seconds, others take a little longer. Yesterday it took Spud, a whirling dervish in his kennel and not much better outside, a good 30 minutes to finally let his ears drop, pay attention to me, and stop frantically looking around for trouble to get into even while his butt and back legs were saying " Ooooooh, that feels so good I could fall over".
Once you get into the process, you can see in their eyes that they've suddenly realized there's a loving, calm human on the other end of the leash. Their pupils become more normal, ears usually drop back and they'll sit down on their own. It's then the distractions of "BEING OUTSIDE", and the attendant frantic antics slowly start to fade into the background. It's quite funny to watch sometimes; a look of complete surprise that you're there at all, as if you were merely an object holding him back from something, whatever that something is for him every other nanosecond.
It can be an extremely rewarding, and healthy, experience for the both of you. I love, love, love to watch them soften bit by bit until they're basically little droopy pools of fuzzy relaxation leaning against my thigh, head resting politely on one knee. I swear I've come close to a catnap or two, sitting under a warm spring sun with a now human-attentive and adoring pooch half asleep at my feet.
This can all be accomplished in as little as 15 minutes or so. I extend the experience as long as I can depending on how many of his or her shelter-mates still need to get outside. Once we've achieved at least a couple of minutes of genuine calmness together -- calm being a relative term depending on the personality of my companion -- we finish the walk. I always try to get up and get going before his nibs decides to do so for himself. For some of the dogs, the walk turns into a nice stroll around the property and back to the kennel. For the really hyper ones, it's often back to "I WANT TO GO OVER THERE NOW", but still with less intensity, and far more awareness of your presence. And for the shy ones it's a time for them to experience being outside, a place they don't want to go, in a calmer state. Startling noises, scary leaves blowing around, other animals or whatever their particular phobia is begin to take on less of a bogeyman quality.
The BEST times are when they spend the rest of the walk close to you, looking up at you adoringly, basically asking you to give them some directions. MAN that feels good.
Here comes the safety part. It's important, read it.
Temperament evaluaters and behaviorists aren't dog mind readers and they may not catch a hidden trigger in a dog they have no background information on in spite of their expert efforts. You need to remember that with every new dog you encounter in the shelter.
Before you go about the enjoyable task of giving a dog a massage, make quite certain they've not recently had surgery, you might get yourself a warning nip if you come too close to a sore spot. But your greatest concern is that some dogs don't like being touched in certain places AT ALL. Start slow with dogs you're not familiar with. For many it's the ears or paws that upset them. But arthritis in older dogs can also be an issue, particularly in the spine and hips. Be very gentle at first. If your companion is sitting, mouth in an open and relaxed position, tongue out and breathing or panting normally, it's going well.
For some of the bigger, gladiator breeds, looming over the shoulder area, or firmly placing your hands/arms across that part of the back, is a bald gesture of dominance on your part, for both males and some females. If you're unsure of a new dog, don't go there at all until you know him/her better. Stick with chest and booty rubs to be safe. Also, you may believe your walk-mate is enjoying the massage when in reality he/she is merely tolerating it until they've had enough. Not all dogs, or breeds for that matter, bother with warning barks or snaps or growls, they just make sure you understand immediately that you are NOT in charge by giving you a good bite that seems to explode out of nowhere. If you feel tense yourself for any reason, that makes it worse, or may be an extra trigger. Dogs might make you feel better, but shelter dogs are not fuzzy Valium, stick to walking only when you're having a tense day.
The worst attacks from confidently dominant dogs are often precluded by complete silence and stillness and are explosive in nature. Watch for a closed mouth, sometimes lip licking (theirs, not yours), obvious body tension and "the eye". It's hard to explain that last bit, but generally what you'll get is a "corner of the eye" kind of glare. Not to be mistaken with a closed-mouth, submissive and adoring look from a low position. You'll know the difference. Do not ever attempt to use dominance or discipline to correct the behavior, it's a recipe for absolute disaster in a shelter setting. Calmly stop what you're doing, don't try to "calm" the dog with high-voiced reassurances, what I call "cooing"s, in fact don't speak at all, turn your face and eyes away enough to stop being a threat, but still keep your face visible and be sure you can still tell what they're doing. Dogs read our faces, and our eyes in particular, like expert cartographers looking at a map and he/she will need to see a calm, even disinterested face to read you right and back himself out of a potential attack. If you're sitting, get up confidently at a normal speed as if the incident never occurred and walk calmly and confidently in whatever direction you need to in order to be next to the animal or behind him, never in front with your back turned. Make your way to the closest person or entrance to the shelter and calmly ask someone to accompany you and the dog back to the kennel. Many breeds have a strong prey drive and turning your back and moving quickly simply triggers the instinct to chase. If you have to, drop the leash and let the dog go wherever he likes. Don't follow him, and don't run from him where he can see you. Once you're sure he's out of site, beat feet back to the shelter and raise the alarm (not in front of adopters if you can avoid it). The shelter staff and animal patrol will know how to wrangle him up.
Usually the episode will pass very quickly if you don't escalate the situation with a fear response. Before you even begin a walk, pick your favorite confident leader-type character from history or a movie, whatever, and visualize yourself as that person, this is a tremendous help in remaining calm and collected when any kind of incident occurs.
The good news is I have never personally experienced this situation with the bigger dogs, not even close to it, but I've seen it happen to others at other shelters. It's the toy and teacup stinkers that get a tooth in more often because we treat them like toys and forget they have teeth.
Lastly, report the behavior to whomever it is you're supposed to report to and do NOT allow that person to brush you off by suggesting that you simply stop walking that particular dog. It suggests that you're the problem, which might be true, but that's not the point. At the very least the dog should be reevaluated to see if the aggression response can be triggered again by someone else. Go over that person's head if you have to and ALWAYS report any kind of incident to the Vet in residence if your shelter is lucky enough to have one.
Now that I've scared the pee out of you....try to have fun.
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