Failure to be “bad” does not make a dog “good”

New show on TV – doesn’t matter which one, the point of this blog is to encourage people to hear past the hype and look for what they do not see. I’m going to focus on one particular adoption story.

This dog, after weeks of training, doesn’t give his trainer the time of day. The trainer trots along behind the dog - the dog doing his own thing. What is missing? We’re missing soft looks, tail wags, greetings, leaning in for touch, seeking even more touch. The profession could debate the trainer’s methods and application of those methods till the cows come home, but what is not debatable is that a) the dog even with repeated exposure to a specific interested and friendly person doesn’t appear to be interested, let alone connected and b) that this trainer is more dog savvy than the average pet home.

In dogs, overt aggression gets a dog pros attention but so does lack of interest in humans. I’d much rather see a jumping, mouthing, silly, people-loving dog than an aloof, disinterested dog. Jumping is a behavior that can be worked on – lack of interest in people can be much more resistant to change. And why does it matter that a dog doesn’t especially like people? It matters because we all – dog and human alike – tolerate more from that which we love. A dog who barely cares about people may well barely tolerate them when stressed or upset.

The show gives us plenty of “cute” moments but if you mute the sound and just watch the dog, he is too often a passive backdrop to the human’s clownish efforts. In one shot, the trainer is on the floor, laughing and “playing” with the dog. But look – what do we really see? We see a laughing human rubbing toys against the dog’s face. The dog lies there. What don’t we see? We don’t see an interactive dog at play – we don’t see pawing at the toy, head movement back and forth, ears back, tail wagging, or any such engagement. What we see is a dog tolerating this from the human. People easily mistake such blank behavior as being “good” but it’s not. It is being blank and blank is not “good” – not by a long shot.

If we applied a little of what we know about people to dogs, we would be wiser. (In a trainer’s perfect world, people would apply dog knowledge but we start on common ground and work out from there.) Imagine watching someone trying hard to engage a stranger in play. The initiator smiles, laughs, shows toys. The stranger stares at the person – no smile, no comment, no looking away. Just sits there and stares. Would you watch that and say “Oh, he is such a good guy! He’s doing just great!” or would you say, “Uh, oh, what’s up with this?”

Most people think of “bad behavior” as being overly active behavior and “calm” behavior as “good”. So the impassive dog can become labeled as “nice” when he is in fact barely tolerant and not retreating. Failure to be “bad” does not make a dog “good”.

Next we watch the dog at an adoption event. The dog is hanging out in the pen looking calm and quiet. But look at what we do not see. We do not see tail wagging, ears back greetings. He’s parked, which probably means he isn’t a reactive sort but that doesn’t mean he’s a friendly “pet”. He may just be a confident dog who isn’t especially social toward people.

Who shows interest? A young girl. She’s entranced. Not the dog. As the family interacts with this impassive animal we hear the “trainer” chime out: He’s good with children! How does he know? It does not appear he’s ever seen the dog with children other than a toddler-sized doll. Does acceptance of a doll warrant a blanket endorsement? If he is wrong, it will not be he who pays. It will be the child, the family, and the dog.

The mother might have asked “Good with children? Based on what?” or “How do you know?” but she doesn’t. She trusts the “expert”. She neither knows to ask nor is she prone to asking, since she’s hearing what she wants to hear. Her daughter likes this strangerdog who, as of yet, has made no friendly overtures that we’ve seen. We see no ears back, soft eyed, tail wagging. We just see an adult dog standing there . I fear this dog is saying “You may interact with me if you must” -- not “Whee! People! And oooohhhh mmyyyyy CHILDREN!!! How lucky am I!!”

Again, the failure to be “bad” is seen as a proof of being “good” but no one present is reading the dog. He is, currently, a blank screen on which they can freely project and boy I hope he stays that way. If your child ran up to a strange man and he stared at her blankly. No smile, no greeting and she said “Oh, he is sooooo cute, can we keep him?” and his social worker of a couple of weeks said, “Oh, he’s great with kids” and he stood there blankly looking at you and your kid – no hand shake, no smile – would you say, “Good enough for me! Let’s bring him home!”

Then, the shelter trainer takes the dog to the home and “introduces” this animal by (apparently) walking him directly in to the backyard with the two small dogs who live there, including what looks like an intact male. Next scene we see is the dog tail up and stiff, trotting through the yard dragging his lead.

This is the most risky way to intro strange dogs and is a horrendous model for pet people – walk a strange large breed dog into the yard with your two small dogs and let him go. Eek!

In the next few minutes of shooting, that tail does not come down, we see no soft greeting behavior – again, the dog appears impassive and way too confident for my comfort level.

The last scene we see the dog, open mouthed, and one of the small dogs comes by, there appears to be a flash lip retraction - a minuscule display but it shows intent and state of mine – the tail is still up. I did not tape it and could not play it back but I am pretty sure that’s what I saw. End of scene - the shelter trainer leaves them all… assumably happily ever after.

I hope so but it is pure hope. My experience tells me there is a high likelihood that this dog is going to have low patience for intrusion or interruption by kids or dogs and that there will be tension – or worse – in that household.

But I can not know. I know it is presented as a “happy” adoption story but after all my years in this work, I see it as one more story where both the good intentions and the safety of the family are being put at risk.

This probably makes me a grinch. No one is supposed to question to “good work” of shelters – as if good intentions are enough when placing dogs. I will go to bed every night this week hoping I am a grinch who is wrong. I hope so for the family, I hope so for that dog. And I really hope so for that little girl.

From here on out, whenever you watch any such show on TV, look carefully at what you are actually seeing. Don’t mistake calm for friendly, don’t mistake impassive for “nice” – look for dogs who clearly like people, who show immediate and sustained interest. Whenever an animal is involved, listen to what they say first, what the human says second. And let these words float in your mind: Failure to be “bad” does not make a dog “good”.