This is a personal post about Chelsea, my flirty little border collie mix and talks about the challenge of developing a consistently well-behaved dog when you’ve got a smart one. She knows how to be so cute and sweet that I can not get people to ignore her when she displays bad behavior such as jumping. This is also a plea for all those good-hearted souls out there to think about the effects of letting a dog get by with misbehaving.
Here’s an example of a typical trip to the local dog park. We get to the park. Chelsea stays in view and listens to me. Until. She sees someone she knows and off she goes like a little black bullet – tail waving and at her flirty best.
If it’s someone who “gets” the importance of preventing dogs from jumping, she runs up and sits prettily in front of them. She’s very clear on who she can jump on and who she can’t.
But - If it’s someone she knows won’t make her stay off no matter how often I’ve asked them to stop her, she jumps on them. Because she’s so cute and has the “innocent” look down pat, they usually coo and goo, pet her and give her all kinds of affection and attention. Unfortunately, this behavior works for her far more often than not.
Why, you may ask, is this a big deal? If people don’t mind getting jumped on, why does it matter?
Here’s one reason — she knows people aren’t consistent and she’s a practical girl. She has figured out that jumping on someone usually gets her the attention she wants because most people don’t make her stop. So she races to people she doesn’t know and jumps up. In her mind, it’s a reasonable strategy. Here’s the problem - a lot of people are afraid of dogs – especially black dogs.
So, she runs up and jumps on someone who is terrified of dogs – they freak out – she freaks out, and I have a lot of apologizing and calming down of both dog and people to do. It gets tiresome.
The other problem is that she quickly figured out that she only has to behave when she’s near me. Because people allow her to behave this way, she thinks it’s perfectly OK to first. Because most people do reward her with pets when she jumps, it is impossible for me to train her to stay off of everyone at all times.
When she’s with me – no problem. It’s never a question. But in places where I can let her go, all bets are off the instant she’s out of reach. It means I’ll never be able to entirely trust her in a public place. And I’ll never be able to stretch her and let her be free in areas where I might otherwise be able to let her do the meet and greet she so loves.
So please – letting dogs jump or otherwise misbehave around you is not doing them or their owners a favor. It sets the dog up for confusion or misunderstanding what they can and cannot do in other settings. And it makes training extremely difficult for the responsible owner who is trying hard to have a consistently well -behaved dog. This is a situation where taking a hard line, however gently, would help both the dog and the owner immensely.
