Ever since Jack was a pup, he was prone to wander, explore, and refuse to return when called. After a little while he discovered wildlife and developed a strong fondness for chasing them. He would chase a ball or a lemon in the yard, bring it back faithfully dozens of times in succession, but when he heard, saw or smelled an animal, he would run off to chase it. While doing this, it was like he had absolutely no awareness of my presence, my voice or my actions – he was oblivious, and single-mindedly would chase the animal.
This habit was extremely distressing for me, and dangerous for him. He was at risk of being hit by a passing vehicle, of being shot by a local neighbour, being stolen by someone, of drowning in a dam. Further, he caused considerable damage to other people’s property (fences, gates) and animals (sheep) that cost me money. What cost more money though were the ‘experts’ who diagnosed his behaviour as “strong prey drive”, and convinced me that they could train the dog to overcome this drive. Despite $180 per hour sessions, hours of attempts, to this day Jack retains his prey drive, even though he has been de-sexed, trained and is now three years old.
Eventually, I’ve learned to set the right boundaries for him. At first, I put up rudimentary fences thinking that a psychological barrier would suffice. It didn’t. He would find many ways to breach that boundary, and get into someone’s sheep yard. I then put impenetrable fences up, and that contained him. He still had space to run, and each day we would go to a bigger yard next door, and throw a ball or a lemon. Even though those boundaries were penetrable, he was so engaged with the activity that he didn’t try to escape.
When we did go for walks, he was invariably on a leash. On the odd occasion when he saw a bird and pulled so hard on the leash that I let go, we had the same problem: off he went, chasing animals, out of control, oblivious to my commands, and at risk of being badly hurt, or worse. There was one exception to this: the beach. He loved the beach, and would chase a ball or a stick for hours if he could, but given the risk, I kept him on a leash the whole time. Eventually I would allow him to run free – with the leash attached, but without me holding it, and he proved again that he would not run away. So eventually I allowed him to run without the leash – same result: so engaged in something he loves that he does not even try to run away, always returns on call, even if he runs over 50+ meters away in vain pursuit of a sea bird. I can even let him out of the car now without a leash, 100% confident that he will go straight to the water and not run on to the road.
So, in short, Jack has been given mindful boundaries that have shifted as he has developed. At first the boundaries were too loose, then very tight, very narrow, and strictly enforced. He would push against these boundaries, and whenever he breached them, I would bring the boundaries in more tightly – i.e. even better fencing, more care closing gates, more care on holding the leash, better leashes and buckles that would not break. When he stopped crashing against the boundaries, I would let them out further, giving him more freedom. And for over three years now, we have done this ‘dance’ over and over again. But to this day, I know that if I let him free in the street, and he detected a prey, he would be off and running. So I don’t: we have ‘agreed’ on a working set of boundaries that we both accept.
He is a fabulous dog, my best friend and I love him very much; he is so different from other dogs I’ve had – they were able to cope with much broader, often even non-existent boundaries.
Scrap is a similar breed to Jack, and shares his qualities: great with people and other dogs, intelligent, energetic, loyal. Even though as a pup he would like to explore and sometimes wander off away from home. But today, he stays very close to his owners, and returns on command immediately whenever he wanders too far or in an unwanted direction. Consequently, his owners have no need to put him on a leash. He walks around town all the time unconstrained; he doesn’t need tightly contained boundaries such as leashes and harnesses, he ‘knows’ his boundaries (stay close, etc) and only needs an occasion voice command to reinforce them.
Like it or not, we as dog-owners have a degree of power over the dog, and with that a number of responsibilities. Like it or not, we need to exercise that power or great harm may come to our beloved pet. Like it or not, we as responsible loving pet-owners, need to mindfully set those boundaries, enforce them, adjust them in and out as required, and incrementally teach our pet the consequences of breaching them. Like it or not, in order to treat each dog responsibly and equally, we need to treat each one of them differently.
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