It Only Takes One Time.

"It only takes once" is probably the most-uttered quotation of any dog caretaker that I've ever heard.  It's only in reference to bad habits/inadvertently undoing good habits, and until it happened with Miles, I didn't believe it for a second.

Flash back to about a month ago.  We like to play frisbee with Miles at the dog park in between his bursts of playing with other dogs.  And really, what's better than a dog who can catch a frisbee?  Nothing, really.  He's generally ok playing with other dogs, with the exception of a couple of them, who are either hardly ever there, or if they are, we know to leave.

Without exception, the dogs that he has trouble with are bigger than him, but that's a whole other issue.  The issues that I'm referring to now is aggression.

It can come in any form - toy aggression, other-dog aggression, people aggression, food aggression...you name it, and a dog can become aggressive either toward or in protection of it.  Miles developed toy aggression on this particular day at the dog park.  We've gotten some advice on how to fix it, and I think it's working, but we have to keep trying to not reinforce the bad behavior.

As I said, we like to play frisbee with Miles at the dog park.  We have a great indestructable frisbee, and he loves to play with it and has FINALLY learned to catch it.  Kind of awesome.  So, there were other dogs that were playing too, but most of them knew to back off when it was time to catch it and bring it back, because it is Miles' toy, it smells like him and us, and he's the one that gets to bring it back.  One such dog did not understand this and went after it.

Wrong move.

Miles went after that dog, teeth bared, barking the "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY STUFF" bark that I had never heard before that day.  We decided to (obviously) stop playing with the frisbee and let him calm down for a while.  Of course, at that very moment, the owner of the other dog decided that it would be a brilliant idea to play fetch with her dog with a tennis ball and one of those chuck-it things.  Miles would NOT let the other dog get to it without getting totally aggressive again.  No one got hurt, but Miles was so upset with this particular dog that we had to leave.

I asked my daycare lady what we should do, and she said a few really interesting things, namely:

1. She never plays with toys with the dogs in daycare unless they're by themselves, and even then, she's hesitant, because the dog's toys are not their toys.  She doesn't even give them the opportunity to be aggressive about toys, because toy aggression in dogs is so common.

2. At a dog park, it should be the same rule.

3. All it takes is once for a dog to become aggressive.  It should be prevented whenever possible, and if you try to do something that may cause it after a while of not doing it (playing with a toy in a dog park, for example), then if it happens again, take away the cause of the aggression.

She also told me a story of a woman at daycare who fed her dogs from the same bowl once.  As in, one time.  They were sharing it, and all of a sudden, one of the dogs got incredibly aggressive with the other dog.  Now, both dogs are food aggressive.  It only takes once.

Now (previous situation excepted), if there's an owner playing fetch with their dog, Miles does not interfere.  He's an incredibly socially adept dog, and knows that when it's his turn to play fetch, it will be either Rob or me throwing the projectile to be fetched.  He doesn't generally go after other dogs' toys, and doesn't let anyone go after his, either.

However, I'm now nervous about his toy aggression, and it shows when I bring him around other dogs.  We went to the Dover dog park yesterday and there was a guy playing fetch with his dog.  Miles would get near the toy, not even touch it, and the other dog would go BERSERK.  I never, ever want Miles to get to that point.  I didn't like the general mojo there yesterday, so we went into a fenced-in area by ourselves and played frisbee, which he loved and got nice and tired doing.  I had a real fear that a huge dogfight was going to break out in the main area, so we didn't stay there.

We went to the Concord dog park this morning, and we decided to bring the frisbee, just to see how he would do.  There's a greyhound that's there every weekend, and they're not besties, but they'll co-exist.  We decided to try the frisbee, and Miles got aggressive with the greyhound!  The greyhound wasn't backing down, and so we separated the two and took away the frisbee.  Miles was disappointed, but I felt like he connected his actions with the taking away of the frisbee.  There are times where I think Miles gets it.  Today was one of those days.

So, I'm hoping we can overcome this little stumbling block.  Regardless, he's still my good boy. :)

Below, is a video of Miles playing with the laser pointer, one of his favorite toys.  Ella will even share it with him!

Why I will never buy from a breeder, but I will never judge someone who does

So, because I work at the SPCA, I run into a lot of dog owners.  I often ask where they got their dog, and they will sometimes say to me, "I got him/her through a breeder..." and then look at me with those Guilty Eyes.  You know the ones I'm talking about.  The "I did something that you probably think is bad and you're secretly judging me, I KNOW IT" eyes.

Right.

There are two fundamental differences to me between having a dog from a breeder and a dog from a shelter:

1. Shelter pictures are sadder.
2. Purebred dogs statistically have more health problems.

The second one is why I will never buy a purebred.  But I would never, ever judge someone who chooses to.  Why?  Because a dog, regardless of where it comes from, needs a home.  I'm not saying that a breeder will take any extra puppies that they can't sell and then go drown them in the river or anything, but those dogs need homes too.  If you buy from a breeder, it's the same end result as if you adopt it from a shelter: you are still giving the dog a loving home.  Mission accomplished.  Now, I imagine that breeders are much less rigorous in their screening of potential dog owners than a shelter would be, but with good reason - they don't deal with the backlash of dog ownership gone wrong unless they take the dog back if it doesn't work out.  And let's face it - most breeders don't do that.  If they did, then animal shelters would probably have a whole lot less work to do.  And, there's definitely a fine line between breeder and puppy mill, but the reputable ones never even think about crossing it.

So, people who buy from breeders - be easier on yourself.  You've done exactly what you set out to do, even if you didn't do it through a shelter.  Go spoil the crap out of your sweet dog.

I'll do the same.

Miles, you're such a good boy.