after Creepy had to get four stitches in her neck last fall, my sister, my mom, and i realized we had some aggression problems with the spayed female dogs in our household.

thanks to Aloff’s book, i am becoming aware of some obvious and not-so-obvious calming and alert signals Maddy displays. in essence, her book is teaching me to speak “dog”. and it’s amazing.

last night, we met the (younger, smaller) dog across the hall. i never really worry about Maddy socializing with other dogs, but i always supervise her closely when it comes to initial greetings. some dogs have bad manners or don’t understand their own language. confusion can very easily lead to a fight-or-flight response in one or more of the dogs. and Maddy has often learned that growling at a younger or smaller dog achieves her desired end quickly and painlessly: the other owner snatches their dog off the ground to safety and out of her face.

but last night went great. i was able to consciously note the calming and alert signals in both Maddy and Tyler and monitor the progress of their “friendship”. it helped that my neighbour is an extremely tolerant, calm, and knowledgeable dog owner. she didn’t freak out when Maddy was snorting at Tyler’s submissive belly-up position. and the dogs were able to “communicate” just fine.

after about two minutes of “getting to know each other”, they tore up and down the hallway taking turns tackling each other into the walls and likely disturbing each of our neighbours on both sides.

i am a big believer in (safely!) socializing dogs of all types at all ages. every successful encounter Maddy has with another dog that i can praise and reward her for, is another lesson in doggy etiquette.

i highly recommend this book to ANYONE with a dog. even if you don’t think your dog has aggression problems, it’s an amazing course in why dogs do the things they do and how we can interpret their language.

other things we are learning from Aloff’s book include: dog-on-dog approaches on leash on the street, calm greetings for people, and when to stop barking at the delivery guy (or skateboarder or small kid running awkwardly). i think the most challenging lesson will be a “cease and desist” when it comes to squirrels.

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