The phone call…
I received a phone call this week. It went like this:
“Hello, are you the dog trainer?”
“Yes, I am. How can I help you?”
“My name is John and my dog has issues. Can you fix him?”
“Okay, why don’t you tell me about the issues?”
“Well, it’s a long story. He barks all the time. Like when I go out he barks a lot, but he also barks when I am at home. He will bark at anything—birds, sounds and people going past. It is driving me crazy. My next-door neighbour told me to put an electronic collar on him. It worked for a while, but now it doesn’t. It cost me a couple of hundred bucks. I think it’s made him worse.”
“Okay. What else is your dog doing?”
“Well, he bit a guy a few months back. I don’t know why. He has always been a bit iffy with males. We were walking and the guy came over to pat him and he nipped him. He didn’t do much damage. I took him to the vet and they said he didn’t have a pack leader. They showed me how to be the alpha dog. I have to pin him down and lay on him with my body until he stops trying to get up.”
“Oh, okay,” I say.
“Yeah, they said he doesn’t have a clear pack leader. He thinks he is the dominant dog. But the problem is now he tries to bite me when I pin him down.”
“Okay, go on,” I say.
“Well, there is one other thing too. He destroys everything when I leave him by himself. I have to go to work and he has eaten part of my door. Then I started to leave him outside instead of inside and he jumped the fence, but in the process got his foot stuck in between the picket fence. He broke it and I had to take him to the vet.
“That was a couple of thousand dollars because he had to get operated on. So after all of that, I called the breeder I got him from to see if she could help me. She said to give him this stuff called ‘Behaviour Stop’ or something and I just order it online. Well, it did nothing. So can you fix my dog? He has cost me a fortune so I don’t have much money left.”
Wow, what a journey this poor dog and man have been through. This is not an uncommon phone call and I would say I receive a couple of these types of phone calls each week.
Well-intentioned, the male owner sought advice from his neighbour, his vet and the dog’s breeder to try to help his dog. He clearly understood that his dog had issues and tried to get him the help he needed.
SO WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
Well, the problem is he did not seek advice from a professional—someone who was qualified, knowledgeable and experienced to do so.
Of course, I understand that it is hard as an owner to know who that would be.
So naturally, this man took advice from his neighbour. They had a relationship and had been living next to each other for years. He thought the electronic collar seemed like a good idea. He wanted to help his dog, so he went out and bought one.
Then he went to his vet. Unfortunately, this vet had no qualifications in behaviour and recommended he pin down his dog. He trusted the vet and did what he was told.
Lastly, he called the breeder. The breeder gave him advice about products he could buy online. The people he received advice from were not qualified to provide it. They were not qualified to advise him about the dog’s behavioural issues.
THE PROBLEM IS, THE DOG SUFFERS!
And here lies my problem: this dog has continued to suffer because these people, with probably well-meaning intentions, gave advice they shouldn’t have.
Now, some people might disagree with me here.
But as Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.”
What this dog needed was help from a veterinary behaviourist or a vet who had undertaken further studies in behavioural medicine. I could have followed suit and told him I could help his dog, booked him in for a consultation and taken his money.
Instead, I recommended that he have the dog assessed and diagnosed by a veterinary behaviourist. From the information he gave me, it looks like this dog possibly has a medical condition—an anxiety disorder is a medical condition.
Dog training is based on science, not opinion.
A medical condition is a medical condition.
Training issues are training issues.
And I completely understand that these people wanted to help this man and his dog.
We as human beings want to fix people’s problems and help them. We feel it is okay to give advice to help someone’s dog.
But think closely about that.
GIVING OPINIONS DOES DAMAGE
What if you had recommended that the owner pin his dog down—basically sit on his dog—until the dog stopped trying to get up, and the dog stopped breathing and died because of your advice?
What if you had recommended that the owner put an electronic collar on the dog and he did this, resulting in the dog becoming so severely traumatised that the dog had to be euthanised?
What if you had recommended that the owner give the dog a certain type of formula that would help with his behavioural issues, and the dog had a reaction to it and was left brain-damaged?
GIVING ADVICE IS INNOCENT UNTIL IT’S NOT
Does that owner then have the right to sue you for giving advice that you were not qualified to give, which directly led to the death of his dog? I am not sure. I am not a lawyer, but it could very well be a possibility.
I am not a heart surgeon, so I don’t give advice to people with a heart condition.
I am not an electrician, so I don’t give advice to people about wiring their house.
I am not a psychiatrist, so I don’t give advice to people about their mental illnesses.
There has been a rise in the past few years of people giving dog-training advice on social media platforms. Keyboard warriors see themselves as fit to give advice about dog issues, but when someone mentions that they shouldn’t—oh dear, the knives come out.
For dog owners, think carefully about the advice people give you, regardless of how well-meaning it is. Your dog cannot speak for themselves and relies on you to keep them safe and be their advocate. Always seek professional help from someone who is qualified to provide it.
If you need help with your dog, please reach out through our Training and Behaviour page. We are more than happy to help!
Dogaholics Dog Training and Behaviour Services
Dogaholics is a dog training and behaviour service located in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie area of NSW.
