Power Struggle

Duncan and I just had a near break through. I wouldn’t say it was a full breakthrough, but it was definitely a very large step. But let me back up a ways...

If you remember, one of the things I have struggled with most with Duncan is grooming. He hates to be brushed and to have his feet messed with. He darts away and squirms and rather aggressively snaps at me and the brush. I have found many different, varying suggestions on how I should handle this. The “Dog Whisper’s” tactics dictate taking a dominant roll with dogs in training. I did not believe this would fare well with Duncan’s fear and trust issues. Other experts say that you should ignore fearful reactions and should not coddle a dog and comfort him because you are only reinforcing the undesired behavior by doing this. This did not seem right to me either. Duncan needs reassurance, he gains confidence by being reassured and encouraged. The suggestions that I received from the “Shy Dog” group that I am a member of encouraged me to take a more passive approach, to “treat and brush,” gradually building up to brushing him by treating after each stroke. This did not seem to work with Duncan either; he continued to jerk away and snap.

Please understand that I am not saying that any of these sources is not competent or does not know what they are talking about. Throughout my work with Duncan, I have tried to follow the suggestion given by The Monks of New Skeet in their book How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend. They suggest reading and researching information various different sources. Different people have many different opinions on how to approach dog training. They suggest study of these different methods, taking each with a grain of salt, and then take that and make your own decision on what you believe to be the right way to handle things for your situation.

With Duncan’s recent developments in actually enjoying physical contact, I have come to believe that he has developed a certain level of trust and affection for me finally. I believe that even though he may still “spook” occasionally now, he actually on some level knows that he can trust me not to hurt him now. He may indeed have some fear in him when he snaps at me when brushing him. But I believe I have a level of trust to my advantage that I did not have this time last year. I think that when he snaps at me, he is actually exerting some dominance and deciding that he does not want to be brushed. His snaps are to tell me, “I don’t like you doing that, and I’m going to make you stop.” So with that in mind, I believed I needed to have a “power struggle’ with him; to tell him that even though I love him, and I will not hurt him, I am the boss and I am going to brush him. I think I need to “gently force” him to face his fears about being brushed so that he can learn to accept it and so doing, learn that there really is nothing to fear. My approach is a combination of the various different suggestions that I have received. Here is how we started:

I put him on a leash and put his muzzle on him. He can still snap with his muzzle on, but cannot harm me. I took him to a corner in my living room and sat down with him. Some may question my cornering him, but without doing that, he will simply dance and dart way, escaping the brush. This is not facing his fear. I certainly would not recommend this for all dogs . Many dogs will surely panic if cornered, making the situation worse. But Duncan does not seem to panic when I sit down with him in a corner at all. I began brushing him around the neck and ears gently. He does not care for this, but will usually accept it without much issue. When I started moving down his neck and shoulders is when he started to jump a little and snap. I did not hold him down or yell at him at all. I firmly and quietly told him “No” and looked at him sternly. I never raised my voice, and I talked to him quietly and encouragingly, telling him, “You’re ok.” “Mommy’s not going to hurt you.” “Good boy ”

I continued brushing him getting the same response periodically. Each time I would quietly but firmly tell him “No,” and continue brushing. He was a little (but not severely) stressed about the situation, but I never once saw any fear or panic in his eyes. His attitude was more one of defiance, confirming my thoughts of a dominance struggle. We continued on for a few minutes stopping occasionally for some petting and kisses on his head, which he seemed to appreciate even though I was doing something he didn’t like. His snaps decreased over the next few minutes as I continued to brush his back and sides.

We ended on a positive note when he had not snapped at me at all for a few minutes. I set the brush aside and took off his muzzle and switched to simply sitting there with him for a few minutes stroking his head. He even let me lean over and kiss and snuggle his face over and over again. (He will sometimes jerk away if I lean over to kiss him, but did not do this once during our session here.) His demeanor was not fearful or resentful in the slightest this whole time. I gave him several of his favorite treats over the next few moments as I continued kissing and petting him and he seemed completely at ease. That is how we ended the session.

It seemed to go just as well as I expected it to; and even better with him accepting and enjoying my physical affections as a reward afterwards. I plan to continue this several times a week in exactly the same way and hope that I’ll see some improvement in his reaction to being brushed. I’ll keep you posted