Sarah Whitehead - Clever Dog: Understand What Your Dog is Telling You

Dogs are a household subject and one it seems on which everyone has a fascinating opinion. Numerous dinner parties attest to this. There I am enjoying a nice glass of Chablis and a friendly chat when someone asks what I do for a living. Ive never yet said Im in IT but I may well consider it in future because no sooner have I confessed that Im a pet behaviour specialist than someone comments: Ooh, thats great. I have a dog you could help with.

At this stage, of course, they dont really want my help they just want to talk about Bonzos latest naughty adventure and, frankly, I love a good dog story. Once they are done, the comments from the other guests are revealing. Having heard how Bonzo bites people, runs off, barks all day or eats the carpet, someone will always say, I know how to stop him doing that and that someone is never me! Invariably, the expert will proclaim the most hideous, punitive measure to be a complete and universal cure. Apparently, its OK to suggest to a complete stranger that they use an electric shock collar on their dog, that they should rub their dogs nose in faecal matter or that they should strangle the poor thing on a choke chain, all in the name of training. Uh oh.

At this point in the conversation, theres a small pause. The circle of guests stop and turn to me. So, what do you think of doing that?

Pass another glass of wine, please, and make it a big one.

Strong opinions on dog behaviour are not confined to the social scene. Over the years, Ive appeared as an expert witness in court cases where the magistrates have, quite literally, the power of life or death over someone elses pet. These cases are often depressingly complex, costly and time-consuming, and yet, all too often, after Ive given evidence on a specific behavioural aspect, the magistrate will say something along the lines of: Thank you, Ms Whitehead, but I think we know how dogs behave.

My work as a pet behaviour counsellor has kept me busy, impassioned, fascinated and laughing for the past twenty years. In that time, I have had the honour of meeting thousands of dogs and owners across the UK and internationally, and have relished the chance to talk dog with them. I now specialise in aggression problems and the more weird and wonderful behaviours dogs can present, while my practice deals with every kind of canine behaviour problem that you can think of and then some. Working on referral from veterinary practices around the country, we are constantly in touch with the practicalities of canine training and behaviour and still, after all these years, I love every minute of it.

Perhaps the fact that dogs are so common in our culture works against them. They pervade our domestic existence and yet they are remarkably under-researched. Want to find out about dog behaviour? Nine times out of ten you will be forced to read literature on wolves, studies on rats and research on pigeons. This is the equivalent of studying human psychology by examining the behaviour patterns of the great apes. It may be interesting and relevant, but it isnt the same as studying the actual species that we live with day in, day out.

Maybe the scarcity of rigorous scientific research on domestic dogs is the reason why so many myths about their behaviour pervade our society. In many cases, these myths have become so ingrained that we accept them as truth, never questioning where they came from or how factually correct they actually are. In this book, just as in my everyday work as a pet behaviour specialist, I will propose some new ways of thinking about dogs. Some of these may be thought-provoking, some even shocking. In an age when we are all too often blinded by the ideas we are fed by television, the lures of urban myth and the promise of a fifteen-minute fix, its all too easy to think about dogs from a purely human perspective. Instead, perhaps now is the time to think about life from the dogs point of view: to let go of all the previous theories that you have toyed with, to open your mind and, as my mentor the late John Fisher always said, Think Dog.

Case history: Ice, the misunderstood Malamute

This is a wolf you are dealing with here! barked the training instructor. You need to show him whos boss. With that, the big man strode across the room, grabbed the lead from the humiliated owner who had been struggling to get her dog to sit, and strung him up so that his front feet were off the floor.

At eight months old, Ice, the big, grey-and-white Malamute, had never been treated like this before and did what any reasonable dog would do when it thought its life was under threat: he became very still, averted his gaze, and uttered a long, low warning growl from deep in his throat.

No dogs gonna growl at me, stormed the instructor, and with one swift movement he launched himself at the dog and managed to wrestle him to the ground and onto his back. Ice wet himself in fear.

There, said the trainer. Hes submitted. He got up and wiped the urine from his sleeve.

Ice stayed where he was, lips drawn back and tail curled defensively under his belly.

Now, you need to do that every day, said the instructor. Its called an alpha rollover. Its what the pack leader would do to the other wolves in the pack to keep them submissive. You need to act like a pack leader, and doing this exercise every day is part of it. OK?

Ices owners, Keith and Sharon, nodded in quiet agreement. They took back the lead and sat down at the side of the hall with a very subdued dog by their side. It wasnt nice to see their pet being manhandled, but it did seem to have an effect on him. After all, he was a big, powerful dog Malamutes may look like Huskies, but they are bigger and stronger and he had started to pull them towards strangers in the street. They knew that they couldnt allow him to become out of control.

Keith and Sharon did their homework every day as instructed or at least they tried to. Over the following week, they subjected Ice to repeated alpha rollovers. The first day, Ice seemed to think it was a bit of a joke. He took Sharons arm in his mouth and held it as if he was playing, but she persisted and forced him onto his back. He lay there looking bemused, and jumped up again as soon as she let go. On the second day, things werent so easy. As Sharon approached, Ice dodged out of the way and tried to flee the room. Between them, Keith and Sharon caught the huge dog and pinned him down, but he growled continuously and Sharon was sure he tried to snap as they let him get up. By the Thursday youve guessed it Ice was having none of it. He had tried every trick in the doggie book to get his owners to stop behaving so weirdly and his patience had run out. When they approached him, Ice bared his teeth and snarled so ferociously that Sharon was genuinely frightened; Keith probably was as well and who could blame him? They decided to leave Ice alone.