I recently came across an article about dogs with different greeting styles and the potential for creating reactivity problems (read the post here). The author puts forward the notion that there are two types of dogs - the "My Dog Is Friendly" or MDIFs and the "Dogs In Need Of Space" or DINOS. The article definitely struck a cord with me. Twizzler is certainly a DINOS and has been know to demonstrate "a good offense is the best defense" behaviour - growling and barking at dogs he doesn't know.
This article reminded me of the TV show Glee. There are the popular football players who assault the not so popular Glee club members with slushies. The scene ends, the athletes leave laughing while the Glee club try their best to collect themselves. Later in the series, we see Glee club members walking through school donning rain ponchos in case of surprise slushie attacks - "a good offense is the best defense" tactic.
The difference between Glee and dogs is that Glee members know that their nemesis is the football team. Dogs on the other hand, can become hyper vigilant and may end up needing special behaviour modification. With repeated incidents where DINOS are subjected to unwanted attention, they may start to generalize so that they become reactive to all dogs. Often times, those with uber social dogs are not aware of the impact their dog may have on another dog because their dog is able to easily shake off incidents. Let's face it we all see the world through our own experiences. So those of us with DINOS will think "Why doesn't that person keep their dog in check?" while those with MDIFs will think "What's the big deal? If your dog tells my dog off, it's OK." The point is a dog shouldn't have to tell another dog off.
Back in the days when I was taking puppy class, we were instructed to ask if it was OK for our dogs to meet. I didn't quite appreciate the value in this simple lesson/courtesy until I had a DINOS.
This article reminded me of the TV show Glee. There are the popular football players who assault the not so popular Glee club members with slushies. The scene ends, the athletes leave laughing while the Glee club try their best to collect themselves. Later in the series, we see Glee club members walking through school donning rain ponchos in case of surprise slushie attacks - "a good offense is the best defense" tactic.
The difference between Glee and dogs is that Glee members know that their nemesis is the football team. Dogs on the other hand, can become hyper vigilant and may end up needing special behaviour modification. With repeated incidents where DINOS are subjected to unwanted attention, they may start to generalize so that they become reactive to all dogs. Often times, those with uber social dogs are not aware of the impact their dog may have on another dog because their dog is able to easily shake off incidents. Let's face it we all see the world through our own experiences. So those of us with DINOS will think "Why doesn't that person keep their dog in check?" while those with MDIFs will think "What's the big deal? If your dog tells my dog off, it's OK." The point is a dog shouldn't have to tell another dog off.
Back in the days when I was taking puppy class, we were instructed to ask if it was OK for our dogs to meet. I didn't quite appreciate the value in this simple lesson/courtesy until I had a DINOS.
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