Disciplining Other People's Pets

Slacker & Steve's Blog

Disciplining Other People's Pets by Slacker and Steve , posted Aug 21 2012 10:35PM

Producer Dave was fishing and brought his dog to the lake. She was acting up, so Dave disciplined her by smacking her butt. Later, when someone else was watching his dog, she did the same thing. Dave got upset and said she shouldn't have disciplined his dog. Slacker said that if you replaced the dog with his son, he would choke the person out. Steve said that’s not fair either because if your child is acting up it means you’re not doing a job as a parent. Both Slacker and Steve hate that people today treat their animals like they are children. They said it really depends on what the pet is doing, but if the cause of discipline is you neglecting your responsibility as an owner, anyone should have the right to correct your dogs behavior. Is it okay for someone to discipline another person’s pet? (Photo Courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net) Tags : Topics : Human Interest Social : Human Interest People : Pets - Producer Dave Back To Blog
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08/21/2012 8:34PM

Disciplining Other People's Pets

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08/22/2012 12:47AM

Discipling other people's pets

I'm a professional dog behaviorist and trainer with Tao of the Dog, Inc. While I agree that there are times, unfortunately, where you have to step in to remove your dog from a situation, touching someone else's dog can be problematic. Animals communicate with energy, and your energy in that situation is negative (frustrated, irritated, angry, etc.). This can cause a dog to become aggressive, greatly exaserbating the situation. Instead, there are things we should do in advance to protect our dogs. Just prior to the dog park visit, take your dog on a long, forward-motion walk. No sniffing (pottying is ok), no distractions, just exercise. This will bring your dog's energy down so that the higher-energy, pent-up dogs aren't as attracted to his energy. Before entering the park, take stock of who is there and what's going on, and of course direct your dog to an area where there are calmer dogs. If someone else's dog does get overly excited with yours and the other human is oblivious or illl-equipped, have a small spray-bottle of water with you, so that you can squirt the other dog enough to distract it, so that you may then step between it and your dog, using your body language and CALM energy to move the dog away (this is the ONLY time a spray bottle is ok). Unfortunately, people take their dogs to the park thinking they're giving them exercise opportunities, when in fact it's Chuck E. Cheese, so there is a lot of pent-up energy. You can't control everyone else, so be sure you have a handle on what you can control.