Body Language and Emotion of Dogs by Myrna Milani

Author:Myrna Milani
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

7

FEAR AND AGGRESSION: THE BEST AND THE WORST

TERRY PEDERSON BECOMES so engrossed in Rocky’s training that several weeks pass before he realizes Pamela barely even looks at the dog. Although he initially understands her reluctance to work with Rocky until her arm heals, he can’t comprehend it once she’s fully healed several weeks later. Why won’t she at least play ball with Rocky?

“I can’t Terry, I just can’t. I don’t trust him.”

“But he’s not vicious. We just hadn’t trained him properly. Trust me, all you have to do is work with him. You’ll see.”

“You don’t understand. He attacked me. How can I trust a dog that attacked me?”

“Pam, you’re forgetting what the trainer said. Rocky didn’t attack you specifically. You just happened to get in his way.”

Rather than become embroiled in an argument, Terry takes Rocky for a long walk. While they’re gone, a deliveryman comes to the door, and to Pamela’s chagrin, the ever-calm Lily leaps off the couch and begins barking furiously.

“Lily! What’s the matter with you?” shrieks Pamela. “Don’t tell me you’re going to turn into a vicious beast like your brother!”

Across town Howie Chan’s family feels equally exasperated with their dog’s behavior. Their proud and elegant eight-month-old Akita, Kіmo, turns into a quivering mass of canine Jell-О every time he hears thunder; and during the last six months the problem has grown progressively worse.

“By the time he’s a year old, we won’t be able to haul him out from under our bed on a cloudy day!” groans Howie as Kimo slinks toward the bedroom during a particularly fierce storm. Howie picks up one of his son’s toy trucks and pitches it to the floor just in front of the fleeing canine. Kimo leaps in surprise, defecating, urinating, and emptying his anal glands in the process. “Alright, that does it—now you’re really going to get it!” roars Howie as he grabs the terrified dog by the scruff of the neck.

Connie Chan shakes her head in disbelief. “Howie, stop it! You’re scaring Kimo to death.” As usual Howie ignores her plea and begins shaking and spanking the dog. Regardless of what Kimo does, his behavior never satisfies Howie. Even if the Akita does the right thing, he never does it fast enough for Howie; if he does manage to do it very quickly, Howie’s likely to fault him for being too fast. To Connie it seems as if her husband were actually competing with his own dog in a game where Howie periodically changes the rules to make sure Kimo always loses.

Of all the emotional and behavioral states that affect the canine-human relationship, fear and aggression are the two most misunderstood and maligned. While we generally consider these states undesirable and seek to avoid them at all costs, in reality they both serve protective functions critical for the survival of the individual and the species. Given this fact, why does the idea of a fearful or aggressive dog strike us as abnormal, cowardly, or even dangerous? Why does

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.