Labeling Liabilities

My "gang" walking along the rim of our "bowl" - PJ out in front in the Scout position - as always.


Watching my crew power through the softening snow here in New Hampshire (it is 50 degrees today) I thought about the journeys I have taken with each of them. And one of the things rolling around in my mind for the last week or so is how we all use labels – on our dogs and on each other.

Understanding dogs and people as unique individuals – each a snowflake in their own right - is key to working with them successfully. The slippery slope worth avoiding is labeling that which we personally find difficult or annoying as problematic, or in its worst incarnation, as pathology.

Yes, there are many real issues out there that dogs and people struggle with but there are fewer real issues than we have real labels. As teachers – and each of us training our own dogs is just that – it is important to separate our own preferences and limitations in ourselves from our students. The ones who press our buttons may be someone else’s dream dog. We can, if we’re not careful, pathologize the normal and when we do, we create problems for ourselves and our dogs.

Patholgizing seems to be a bit of a U.S. habit. And the cynic in me thinks this can be traced directly to the companies who medicate our illnesses. There are many real issues that benefit from medication, I am not debating that in the least. Just, as above, I think there are more pills than we have actual individual problems and pills are mega-big business. We’re not encouraged to tease out the reasons for things, to take action on controlling issues ourselves, to change what we do to change what we get - nope – once we have a "symptom" we, too often, seek a label rather than a solution. Once we have a label, more often than not, we get a pill to go with it.

The same is happening for dogs. Billions of dogs have lived hundreds of generations with us before we had drugs to treat behavior. We follow the same course with dogs as we have followed for ourselves. Tack a label on it: hyperactive, reactive, aggressive, has separation anxiety -- the labels can overwhelmed and make people feel powerless to change it. They remove the dog from the context of his life, then, the owner seeks out a white coat to medicate it. By then it moves out of our control/influence and becomes just “the dog”.

Are there dogs in each category who benefit from meds? Absolutely!
Are there owners of dogs in each category who benefit from the dog being on meds? Absolutely.
But do people seek out meds and labels more often than I’ve seen necessary? Without a doubt.

I could have labeled mine – and I have from time to time only to catch myself and work to change that mental habit. We all have to use words to describe our animals, just watch for the moment when terms change from character traits to “illnesses”. The “hyperactive” dog in the city may be the perfect ranch dog, hunting companion, jogging buddy or agility star. The “reactive” dog may be incredibly sensitive and bright, just in need to a leader he can count on to bloom into the companion he is capable of being, the “aggressive” dog can be threatened, fearful, hurting or feeling like he is protecting his person. It’s rare just the dog. It’s almost always the interface between the dog, the environment, and the person/people.


Here Bracken asserts herself with Pip, who, ears back says "Yes, Ma'am" and PJ looks on- tail slightly stiff and slightly raised for her - considering bouncing in. I would have stopped that if she had, but she did not... life moved on.



I was chatting a couple of weeks ago with a service dog trainer, and he mentioned how a pup in his care was “sound reactive” – this was a new pup from a breeder he did not know. I counseled him to be careful, that we didn’t know yet if this was the case or if he was just undersocialized by the breeder and so having normal responses to a new world.

Why does it matter? It matters because once you have labeled your dog in your mind (and heart) as, in this case, “sound sensitive” instead of “normal” then when he reacts to sounds, instead of helping him with joy, the handler is likely to have a more resigned or anxious response to the pup and that resigned or anxious response is likely to leave the pup more unsure than a happy, jollying one.

People also give up sooner on the labeled dog. “What can I do? He’s X”

Next time you have the urge to label, try reframing instead. Reframing is just that – hanging the same issue in a different “frame”. Easy ways to reframe include:

• This is a normal phase…
• This is normal for the breed…
• This is normal for the age…
• This is a normal response to this situation…

“Normal” doesn’t mean you live with it, just that you have faith that this isn’t a big deal and that it can be changed. When you go in with that attitude, you are less likely to psyche yourself out and the last thing any confused dog needs is a trainer who’s given up on him before she even starts.

Way back in the late 1980’s when Brian and I were running a large training facility on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a woman crossed my path with a pet store pup. This pup was terrified of everything she met or saw. I did my best to help but privately, I held little hope for this dog. In my opinion, she was beyond repair. Luckily, the owner didn’t share my opinion. They went on to get an AKC obedience degree together and while this little dog never would be what I would call “confident” she tried her little heart out for her person and her person had a world of faith in her and what she could become. My opinion about this dog would have limited my success with her. Those two beings – so happy together – remain a lesson for me to this day.

Those two helped to prepare me for both PJ and then for Pip, to see potential and when I didn’t see it, look harder. Celebrate the journey, try new things, try old things in new ways and, if that didn’t work, to try again. Not every dog is workable, but most are and none are without someone at the end of the lead to work them. I wish I remembered that woman’s name or her dog's, but I remember the best of them and carry that memory with me into my work today.

So I walk the rim of our land and I watch my crew whirl around me as the words I could have stuck on them forever whirl around in my head. I could have given up. I could have thrown in the towel. Thought about it with a couple of them more than once, but we found our way and in finding our way, I found greater understanding for them and for myself.

Resist labels that limit your dog – no matter who applies them. See things as workable and hopeful. If you get discouraged, talk to someone who will inspire you. Dwell on the gifts each dog brings into our lives. See a challenge as a chance to learn about new things and new ways. Don’t let your life with your dog become about the “problem”. Every creature is more than any label. Have fun.

Onward!