Problem Dogs and Their Therapy E-Book

Sascha Bartz

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 169

Beschreibung

Books about the socialization of the dog have always been written from the perspective of humans who believe they understand me and my world. I have the courage to do it in this book instead from my perspective, from the perspective of a dog, because I am sure that I will understand my world better. Before the dog trainer Sascha Bartz socialized me, I was a socially incompatible "leash aggressor", as my master used to express himself. My constant tugging at the leash or the annoying barking were only two of the harmless behaviors that made every attempt to take a relaxed walk end in disaster. Biting attacks and even assaults on children were my fault, which is why the veterinary office had already kept an eye on me. In this book I explain the reasons for this behavior and the theoretical approach of a puristic socialization method that leads to success in the short term if the dog owners are well compliant. To understand the theoretical approach, however, it is necessary to understand the difference between education and socialization. Because ignoring them is the source of failure.

Leseprobe

Neu Karin, 2020

Dear Roof,

you have shared your life with me and revealed to me a world that would not have opened up to me without you. Because you existed, I know what it means to have a reliable friend at your side when you need help. And be it only moral.

I am infinitely sorry for the conflicts I must have brought you into because I did not understand you. It took too long to speak your language. Forgive me.

Today I know that I owe all my knowledge about your world of canids1 to you as well. You have patiently taught me to understand you in order to be able to communicate with you.

Now I have a little son whom I love above all. Sometimes I dream and see you both still playing. And you look after him.

You have an equally intelligent, reliable and faithful successor who now runs at my side instead of yours and protects my son. But he can never be like you. For you have been my great teacher.

Thanks Roof

1Family of dogs in the order of predators

CONTENT

OR WHERE TO FIND WHAT?

01 WHO AM I?

or why was this book written?

02 THE SOURCES OF HIS KNOWLEDGE

or who is the dog trainer Sascha Bartz?

03 WHEN IS THE DOG A "PROBLEM DOG"?

or how should we behave instead?

04 OUR NEEDS

or why do we behave the way we do?

05 THERE ARE MANY REASONS FOR SOCIALIZATION

or does the marking serve our well-being?

06 A PURISTIC SOCIALIZATION METHOD

or is there a recipe for success?

07 THE FORMATIVE FINAL EXPERIENCE OF A WORLD

or the consequences of failure to provide assistance

08 ARE DOG SCHOOLS PLACES OF TRUST?

or why not only puppies experience bad things?

09 PRO AND CONTRA DOG HARNESS

or is the type of leash conducive to education?

10 WHEN WE WAVE OUR ROD

or when are we uncertain?

11 OUR DEVELOPMENT PHASES

or when can a person do something wrong?

12 THE DANGER OF MEETING DOGS

or is the dog still a pack animal?

13 THE RELEVANCE OF HERRCHEN'S LEADERSHIP QUALITIES

or what does that have to do with a group of skiers?

14 "SO WE RAISE SNOTTY-NOSED BRATS"

or what does an anti-authoritarian child socialization have to do with "problem dogs"?

15 THE CRITICISM OF THE "RANK REDUCTION" THERAPY METHOD

or just a misunderstanding?

16 THE METHODS OF TRAINING

or the internals of a puristic dog training

17 COMPLIANCE AS THE ULTIMATE GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS

or why do therapies occasionally fail?

18 SO MANY BEHAVIOURAL PROBLEMS

and only one solution?

01. WHO AM I?

OR WHY WAS THIS BOOK WRITTEN?

Books about the socialization of dogs have always been written from the perspective of humans, that is, from the perspective of those who believe they understand me and my world. I have the courage and allow myself to do it in this book instead from my perspective, from that of a dog. I am sure that I know more about my world than I think I do.

I was annoyed and a solution was needed

My master always thought that I fulfill all the clichés of a dog with behavioral problems. He said I was aggressive, not only towards my own or other species of fauns, but also towards humans and even attacks children. My alleged aggressions would not only be directed against living beings, but even against everything, if it only moved, not excluding baby carriages and mopeds. Also my constant tugging and yapping on the leash annoy him endlessly. A relaxed walk through woods and fields, let alone through an urban environment with all its many people and animals, is impossible with me.

In other words: I am socially incompatible, and a decision about my future must be made. And this especially because in the meantime even the veterinary office has already kept an eye on me, because even biting attacks have affected my Account.

So he went with me on a real odyssey of dog school visits, to train this problem out of the world and to let me be socialized, as he used to express himself. But since all these attempts were unsuccessful and he seemed to have invested a small fortune in my unsuccessful reeducation, he even hired a so-called problem dog trainer. At least that is what he called himself. But even that was not really crowned with success. In the selection of all these experts he obviously did not seem to have had a lucky hand.

Therefore he often sat resigned and visibly depressed in front of me and asked, looking at me, why nobody could free this beast, which he loved despite all that, from his quirks? Of course I would have liked to answer him, if I could have, because the question of the cause of the many failures was basically easy to answer: None of them understood me.

Until chance wanted it and we got in contact with a dog trainer on the basis of a recommendation, where I had the feeling from the first minute on that something could come of it. Because not only the first minutes of our meeting went completely different, no, rather the entire process had nothing to do with what I knew from all the previous excesses or was used to endure.

For example, the caustically long so-called first talks with my master, in which apparently profound analyses of my being were first made and on the basis of which extensive strategies were developed and entire training concepts were drawn up, did not take place this time. The planning of a whole series of training sessions,

which had to be completed and the number of which was allegedly a result of my docility, was no longer an issue this time. Although this seemed to be a matter of course for all previous experts. After all, according to them, education is a highly complex and therefore inevitably time-consuming process. And success depends on a multitude of factors and variables over which a dog trainer has little influence anyway. From this it would also result that the goal must necessarily only be laboriously compiled by practicing, practicing and repeated practicing.

Likewise, all the rituals that usually followed suddenly didn't matter anymore, like the constant offering of treats or similar distraction maneuvers always just in the moments when I was about to do my job. For such dressage attempts they even invented all kinds of competence pretending and axiomatic2 word creations like "anchor effect", "positive reinforcement", "alternative behavior" and similar "wisdoms". And not to forget the so-called "social walks", which were basically nothing more than the attempts, doomed to failure from the outset, to get used to them at some point during walks with my rivals. What nonsense screaming to the sky. After all, a rival remains one, unaffected by how long one is forced to walk side by side. Equally ludicrous to absurd were attempts, which they called "pack therapy," in which they even put a muzzle around me, supposedly for my own protection, in order then, deprived of my defenses, to let me be "educated" by a pack of foreign beasts. The result of such nonsense was, as expected, a manifestation of my unwanted behavior and not its elimination. Why, I will explain in this book.

The solution lies rather in the removal of the reason

As I said, there was suddenly no more talk of all this with this coach. After my master had explained his worries, which he thought he had with me in a short conversation, he grabbed me instead of that spontaneously together with my leash, went for a short walk with me and demonstrated me in an impressive way that from now on it was no longer part of my duties to take care of the safety of my master to carry care.

And at the same time he answered my resulting question about the responsibility for my own safety with an impressive demonstration. He obviously had his therapy dog, whom he addressed by the name of Neo, with him for exactly this purpose, who, almost on command, put on a monkey show for me, which his boss used to demonstrate to me that he is not only willing, but obviously also able to avert this threat from both of us instead of me

In short, he relieved me of my responsibility by means of only a few gestures and actions and instead took it over himself and then obviously transferred it to my master. Because from then on, he suddenly behaved very differently than usual and, as I immediately felt, from now on and always instead of me, he reliably provided for both our safety. And when, as chance would have it, a short time later an alien member of my species crossed our path, which I probably would have torn to pieces or at least sent to the devil, he did not, as I was used to, reflexively pull on my leash to signal me: "Attention, watch out! No, on the contrary, he remained quite cool and instead demonstratively stood in front of me, protecting me. I felt his pleasant and self-confident self-confidence and the resulting confidence for me logically resulting protection.

But my scope for decision making was also wiped out

The consequence was, however, that I was immediately cut off from my competitors and my freedom of decision was not only limited, but virtually erased. From now on, I was no longer allowed to decide for myself whether I was chasing, chasing away or attacking someone. This now required the explicit permission or instruction of my boss.

It may be that this, superficially, does not sound very advantageous for some of my conspecifics, but when you consider the consequences, it has an advantage that can hardly be overestimated: Suddenly there was no more responsibility on my shoulders, and I was relieved of all kinds of psychological strain and stress. Instead, I was able to relax and enjoy a carefree life at my master's side, without having to constantly watch out for threats, inform the police station about dangers or chase away potential rivals. And also the constant urinating for the purpose of marking, to give everyone the hint that I was here, was completely omitted. I only had to go when I had to.

The history of domestication

The connections and causalities of all this will probably only become really understandable to the reader after we have taken a brief look at our domestication. And from this should then also arise the understanding, why only in this way my problems could be solved.

Nobody really knows exactly, but it is said to be thirty thousand years ago when my ancestors began to seek the proximity of humans. Whether these ancestors were really pure wolves or some kind of intermediate species, research does not really know yet. But with a probability bordering on certainty it must be the courageous among them. And the people in turn must at least have tolerated it. Which could not have been a matter of course, because we were food competitors after all. So it is reasonable to assume that it was to our mutual advantage.

For my ancestors, this was certainly due to the easily accessible food, because we were probably satisfied with the leftovers and wastes. An own exhausting hunting was certainly not completely omitted, but was probably less necessary. And the whole thing may have promoted our consistent subordination to the will of man.

The compromise we had to make was our genetic separation from our great parents, the wolves, or even this intermediate species.

Humans probably took advantage of our hunting experience and the fact that we kept further food competitors and unpleasant companions at a distance.

The basic understanding for my problems

And herein lies the basic understanding of the problems I mentioned in the beginning. Man and dog were never equal partners, but always in a relationship of commanders and recipients. Therefore I also consider remarks like "Make your dog your partner" or "Communicate with your dog at eye level" to be unhelpful, if not even counteracting. Being a partner suggests that we not only have the same duties but also the same rights. Or we would discuss the better solution in decision-making situations. But this does not work in our living together and is still a source of conflict today. We should rather be seen in a relationship like parents and child.

But be careful: This does not mean that we should measure and evaluate our behavior by the same standards as children. We are despite all this caniden,

even if the look through anthropomorphic3 glasses makes a lot of our behavior look like that of children or is seemingly similarly motivated. But it is not. We just want to be able to orientate ourselves, similar to children, to our reference person as a kind of parent and get feedback whether what we are doing is right or wrong. And the more pronounced the leadership qualities of the caregiver are, the better. Nothing else is meant by this.

We accepted this role of the recipient of orders relatively unopposed, since we knew hierarchical structures anyway as former pack creatures, which we are no longer today. We subordinate ourselves to humans in principle and without contradiction. However, we tie this to the condition that man ensures the satisfaction of our basic need for food.

In return, we are happy to take over the protection or other tasks that are often annoying or even unsolvable or dangerous for humans. We do this with a stoic matter of course.

And by the way, many of my conspecifics take over the protection of humans in principle already from the beginning, even without having to receive the order explicitly, because we are used to protect our basic right to to take self-defense into your own paws. So we don't mind if we protect those who trust us and their belongings. Especially since their integrity is ultimately also guaranteed by our own.

But especially in the latter my "problems" are also based. Behind our behavior, if we perceive it as conspicuous, disturbing or even aggressive, we usually do not recognize our true motives, i.e. the true reason. Or to put it another way: In such situations, humans are not even aware that we are doing nothing more than our job, which humans have entrusted us with for thousands of years. However, this seems to have been forgotten in the meantime. This is certainly promoted by the constantly changing relationship between dog and man, which obviously results from a completely different understanding of roles.

The changed relationship between dog and man as source of our misunderstanding

The classic distribution of roles between us resulted from the agreement made thousands of years ago that humans take over the leadership as well as the satisfaction of a part of our basic needs, and that we, as a counterpart, reliably fulfill the tasks set to us.

Basically, we have been single since time immemorial-three jobs: Either we should go hunting with humans and help them catch prey, or we should herd their animals in the pasture or guard their belongings and protect them from danger. Later on, there were more jobs like searching and rescuing or pulling a sled across Siberia.

But especially the effects of the three first-named tasks can still be found today as predispositions in our disposition structure and thus determine our species-typical behavior. For this we use the agonistic4 behavioral repertoire inherited from our primordial parents, such as aggression, territorial, arbitration and avoidance behavior.

However, our current expectations of us in modern Western civilization often no longer correspond to this dispositional structure. Because hand on heart, which master still roams the woods with us today to make prey, or lets us herd his animals in the pasture or guard his house and yard? Surely there are still some here and there. But these lucky ones among us are not the typical Kandi-data for the necessity of education or socialization described here. For in their case, the dispositional structure and the behaviors expected of them coincide like two blueprints. Because no rational dog trainer, for example, would ever have the idea of training a guard dog by taking away the responsibility for what is being guarded. That would be absurd, because this dog finally behaves exactly as one expects it from him: He chases everyone from the yard, who approaches him.

Instead, however, today we are supposed to act more and more often as a kind of social partner or, for lack of social contacts, as their substitute. Not infrequently, when people look at us through the anthropomorphic glasses mentioned above, they even see us as socially equal members of the family. Our present role, which we are supposed to play in the life of man, has meanwhile become miles away from the one my ancestors still held. With the result that man sees something in us or has even made something out of us, which we actually are not or do not want to be, let alone can be.

There is an apt metaphor for this: A wolf once said to his own kind, he would go over to the humans for a moment. What could happen? Thirty thousand years later, he finds himself completely disfigured, far from resembling a wolf, with a knitted bobble hat and a warming loaf in a baby basket and is carried through the city by his mistress.

My boss always says, when he sees once he found himself in a dog store, he thought he had gotten lost in a baby and toy store. Absolutely crazy!

What can you expect from this book?

The reason for writing this book is therefore on the one hand the intention, based on this current contradiction between our predispositions and the role expected of us, to justify the resulting necessity of our socialization so that we can deal with our entire environment without stress in a community. And on the other hand, to describe a puristic5 method by means of which a so-called behaviorally conspicuous dog, which in the true sense of the word is not a dog at all, can be socialized in a short time.

But what should you not expect?

My dog trainer, briefly introduced in the next chapter, whose socialization experience is the subject of this book, occasionally receives critical remarks criticizing that he does not give concrete instructions for action in any of his theoretical contributions. There is a lack of practical guidance on how to train a dog. An explanation in form of a justification can be found in chapter 16.

And another hint for a better readability of this book

In order not to be accused of being macho, I would like to state explicitly that I used the male form only for the better readability of the text and of course I always want the female form included. The same applies to the used term "master". Of course also mistress is meant here. Therefore I did it the other way round in my second book6 and chose the female form.

But before I begin, allow me to explain the competence of this trainer and to describe the sources of his knowledge.

2 here: not to be doubted

3 humanize the nature of the dog

4 combative behavior in the confrontation with rivals

5 simple method, leaving out everything that is not

6 Die Erziehung verhaltensauffälliger Hunde und die Gründe ihres Scheiterns (The socialization of dogs with behavioural problems and the reasons for their failure)

02. THE SOURCES OF HIS KNOWLEDGE

OR WHO IS THE DOG TRAINER SASCHA BARTZ?

He was born in 1979 on the island of Usedom