It isn’t often that I actually feel in mortal danger in my consulting room, but it happened last week. The dog in question was a massive Mastiff/Rottweiler cross-breed, far too big and powerful to be a people hater with attitude.
When I walked into the consulting room, the slightly built woman who owned him had to wrestle with this cantankerous canine sumo wrestler just to prevent him from taking me down before I could even reach my seat. During the entire consultation the dog was on red alert, growling, lunging, and thrashing if I or my resident came even close to looking at him or moving in ways he considered suspicious or threatening (which was pretty much any way).
At one point during the consultation, the owner tried to pass me a bottle of tranquilizers that her regular vet had prescribed for the dog for car rides, but the exchange had to be done extremely quickly—like passing a baton in a relay race—and it took two or three attempts before we got the task completed without bloodshed.
How do dogs like this come to be, you might ask, and it’s a good question for which we now have an answer. Here at the Tufts Center for Animals, one of our master's degree students conducted a an analysis of case records of dogs just such as my friend Cujo. It turns out that dogs with fear-based aggression are more than 500 times more likely to have been raised with lack of proper socialization, in what we call a "dysfunctional environment": a garage, outdoor kennel, basement, or some relatively isolated part of the house. In a functional environment, puppies are raised alongside people within the body of the house, in a central area like the kitchen, perhaps, where they are exposed to the comings and goings of family and friends.
Constant exposure to kindly people is especially important in the sensitive period of learning, from 3 to 12 weeks of age; but actually, there's a secondary rapid period of learning from 3 to 6 months, in the so-called "juvenile period," when character continues to be formed. During these critical periods of development, it's important to expose dogs to every type of person in every type of dress. It's also important to protect pups from exposure to adverse events during this time.
Needless to say, Cujo didn't have the benefit of a functional environment in his early life. His fear of strangers, coupled with his pushy personality and extreme athleticism and strength, made for a deadly combination. While I did my best to get this dog back on track and his owner back in the driver’s seat, the sad fact is that learned fears and missed socialization opportunities create a permanent deficit that can only be modified, not erased. Paranoia—it'll destroy ya! Let’s hope our friend Cujo responds well to the treatment before his proactive attempts to intimidate or harm his presumed adversaries lead to his undoing.
From: Marjorie B. Kaplan | 7/29/10 at 10:28 am
...I love anything that Martha encourages. Years ago, thru her positive approach to life and beauty, I became involved with fancy chickens. Some became so tactile that they imitated the cats and became litter-box trained. It was an equisite experience having these smart and friendly birds; Not to mention their beautiful eggs. Martha's comittment to herself and ability to brng beauty and courage to ppl is inspiring. My simple rental became a folral/foliage showplace from knowing her. AMM.