In the last week I have been reading posts by people in the dog community using the social media platform to beat each other up with hurtful comments.
In one instance a man reached out to a breed club for advice on his submissive peeing pup. A big man with a naturally booming voice was scary to this little pup. Some responses were blaming him (for being a big guy??), accusing him of harsh treatment. Telling him he should give the dog up. Poor guy, likely a gentle giant who loves the little puppy. A few, myself included gave him some constructive help. Simple things like spend time sitting on the floor, lighten your voice, carry cookies in your pockets. Take him with you everywhere. He took the advice to heart and guess what?, that little spaniel is warming up to his person.
Closer to home, this morning I was reading about a dog person in our local community that tragically lost a client’s dog. It was hit on the highway and died. While there may be a myriad of points to nail this guy on – lack of a proper fence, too many dogs, inflated ego regarding his abilities and frankly his hot headed, aggressive and threatening responses to a client’s negative comments made me wonder what kind of a trainer he really is.. But, I also have to note that in the same week just down the road from where I live a little bully breed dog was hit on a road just off that same highway and died, recently a pair of poodle mix dogs got out of their yard and haven’t been seen since. Even closer to home, even though we went to a lot of expense putting up a secure fence around our property, little Gus managed to get under and went “walk about” for 3 hours, lucky for us he did not go to a busy road.
In an age of PETA, breed bans, purely positive vs balanced training camps, the SPCA’s determination to stick it’s nose in every aspect of dog ownership, we need to know the risk we are facing. We could lose our canines and all the sports that we enjoy doing with them. Whether we like it our not, we are in this together. As the saying goes, “United we stand, divided we fall”.
While different groups or individual’s outlook on dogs and dog training may not mesh with mine. I have to believe, that everyone in our dog community is part of the community because they love dogs. No one is just “in it for the money”, the money is just not that good š Modeling good dog stewardship with your well trained, well adjusted dog as well as mentoring new folks will have a greater impact than ugly, judgmental posts. Maybe that is a simplistic “Polly Anna” view but there you have it.
On that note, I wish you all a wonderful Christmas time filled with laughter, peace and puppy dog fun from the All Things Dog Room crew!