The Dog Listener by Jan Fennell

Author:Jan Fennell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2014-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

The Bodyguards: Overprotective Dogs

The dog’s reputation as man’s best friend is a well-earned one. In addition to providing entertainment and companionship, a dog’s caring nature and sheer physical presence give many people an important sense of security, and we have all seen even the meekest of animals transformed into aggressive devils when their beloved owner is threatened.

A pet’s protective streak is not, however, always a force for good, especially when it is applied within families. I have dealt with a number of cases where favouritism towards certain family members has caused consternation. The most extreme example I’ve come across was that of Toby, a springer who lived with a couple, Jim and Debbie, in Grimsby. Toby’s protectiveness of Debbie expressed itself at night-time. As a result, she and Jim had grown to dread going to bed.

By day, Toby was a reasonably well-adjusted dog, but at the end of the evening, however, he transformed. The moment Jim and Debbie began switching off the lights in the house and heading upstairs, Toby would bound up the steps ahead of them, rush into their room and jump on to their bed. While he would allow Debbie to climb in without protest, Toby would snarl and growl at Jim the moment he made a move for the duvet. His determination to keep husband and wife apart was so great that Jim genuinely feared he would be bitten.

Jim had resorted to all sorts of tactics to beat Toby into bed, everything from sneaking up ahead of Debbie, to distracting the dog by pretending there was some kind of danger in the house. Jim would walk off into another part of the house and begin banging loudly on a door, then the second Toby went to see what the trouble was, he would rush back into his bedroom and dive under the duvet. At first their predicament seemed funny but by the time Jim and Debbie called me, it was far from a joke.

Few facets of a dog’s behaviour are as fundamental as the protectiveness that Toby was displaying: in effect, he was behaving like a jealous spouse repelling a rival suitor. It is, on the face of it, a difficult point to grasp, yet the principle becomes clear when we consider the pack environment. As I have explained, the rules of life within the wolf pack are founded on the primacy of the Alpha pair. To the dog’s ancient ancestor, these two dogs rule supreme, and their status is so unassailable that they are the only animals allowed to reproduce. The key thing to realise here is that, as the lone dog in his ‘pack’, Toby looked to his human subordinates for a partner. And his choice had been Debbie rather than Jim. The prospect of them being intimate was utterly unthinkable to Toby, and the idea of Jim (in Toby’s eyes a subordinate pack member) sharing a bed with Debbie, his Alpha partner, was a threat to everything that held his world together. When one looks at it from this point of view, it was little wonder Toby was so protective.

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