The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs

by Patricia B. McConnell

Turning your head away doesn’t just deflect tension. As with a smile, it can have many meanings. My huge Great Pyrenees, Tulip, looks away every night when submissive Pip grovels over to her for attention. Pip lies down on her side, thumps her tail, keeps her head low and her lips in a submissive grin as she flops her way over for attention from alpha bitch Tulip. Matriarch that she is, Tulip rarely deigns to give Pip the attention that she seeks. Tulip raises her huge square head a bit, nose in the air, and turns her head away from Pip. Submissive dogs seek interactions, but high-status dogs get to decide whether to grant an audience or not. Sometimes Tulip deigns to turn back and sniff Pip’s face (while Pip seems to melt in ecstasy). Most of the time she continues to ignore Pip until Pip gives up and goes away. What, then, is your dog to think if every time she comes over to you, you instantly drop what you were doing and respond with petting and attention? Who has control of the agenda in the living room? It’s easy to train your dog to demand attention from you. That’s what you unconsciously do if you respond every time your dog requests (or demands) something from you. You might ask yourself what she’ll learn from that. Perhaps she’ll learn that she is always more important than anything else that you might be doing. Alternatively what some dogs don’t learn can create the biggest problem. I see dogs in the office all the time who, like a two-year-old child, simply have...