An Ethogram of the Shelter Dog - C.L.A.S.S.

This article first appeared in The APDT Chronicle of the Dog, copyright 2008, The Association of Pet DogTrainers, www.apdt.com, 1-800-PET-DOGS.Wide Panting:When the dog’s mouth is parted extra wide, withouthaving his lips retracted while he breathes with his mouthopen.Yawn, no teethYawn — Regular:When the dog yawns.Yawn With Teeth Exposed:When the dog yawns and flashes all or most of the teethin his mouth during the widest part of the yawn.I was recently watching an episode of Meerkat Manoron Animal Planet, and was thrilled and astounded tosee the first reference in any mammal, to anal marking.It was described as an “attack” and considered part of adominance take-over by one meerkat to her injured sister.Although there was no biting or actual injury, the onemeerkat repeatedly anal-swiped and shoulder rubbed allover the other meerkat.Scent Marking and Resource Guarding:I also see a strong correlation between these “scentmarking”behaviors and dogs who fail the resourceguarding portions and sometimes the stranger tests.It seems to me that whether it is a human-to-humanrelationship or a dog-to-human relationship, the healthiestand least risky relationships are ones based significantlyon respect, friendship, love, shared joy, etc. and the mostrisky, least healthy relationships are ones where themajority of the relationship is based on treating the otheras property, or as if the other is “owned.” I wonder if, whena dog shows no sociability, but scent marks the tester andthe furniture in the testing room throughout, whether heis claiming these as his own property, tagging them asresources to guard.Most Dangerous Profile:An Ethogram of the Shelter DogCommon Clusters of Behaviors:The Scent Marking Cluster:I frequently see Shoulder Rubbing, Flying ShoulderRubs, Shoulder Stance and all the Anal Touching/Swipingbehaviors occurring together. These behaviors tend tooccur in the least sociable dogs, and commonly in dogswho fail one or more portions of the test. I interpret thesebehaviors as a form of scent marking.Anus Behaviors:Initially, I began to notice merely that some dogs wouldsit on my shoe during testing. Then I would notice thatsometimes this would “gross me out” or disgust me, whichI found interesting since I am usually not in any waydisgusted by dogs. I then noticed that the dogs who saton my shoe and disgusted me would position themselvesin such a way that I could feel their anus on the top of myshoes. Other dogs, with whom I was not disgusted, wouldposition their tails or rear legs in such a way that they couldsit on my shoe without their anus making contact. It hadnothing to do with tail set, tail type, or tail carriage. ThenI began to notice that the dogs whose anuses made contactwere typically the least sociable dogs who commonly failedone or more parts of the full assessment. The most sociabledogs hardly ever touched their anuses to me or any otherplace in the testing environment. Anal glands are knownfor scent marking in dogs, and it seems to me that a dogwho swipes his anus all over the tester and furniture in thetesting room, could, like graffiti, be tagging his signature,claiming ownership of all these things.www.APDT.comI consider the large, muscular, non—sociable dogwho shows many “scent marking” behaviors as themost dangerous type of dog. I believe dogs that are bothphysically large and strong, as well as show no attachmentto humans, but rub on them with their shoulders andanus, have the most potential for harm. To me, these arenot in any way “pet” or “companion” dogs, but ratherpredators. I also believe that it is, in part sociability (alongwith training, relationship, bonding, and bite-inhibitiontraining) that helps a dog inhibit his bite if and when thedog was to get aggressive.Pediatric Spay/Neuters:As a very new observation, one that I am still just aspectator of, is I see an abundance of what I consider“scent marking” behaviors in adolescent and adult dogssuspected of, or known to have been, a pediatric spay orneuter. Pediatric spay and neuter I define as sterilizationperformed before six months of age. I haven’t seen enoughsuspected or known pediatric spay/neuters to really amassenough observations, except that I have, so far, been prettyconsistently making these observations on the ones I dosee.Intense Sniffing and Dog-to-Dog Aggression:I have noted that dogs who sniff one spot for threeseconds or longer and do so more than once duringtesting, are more likely have dog-to-dog aggression issues.I have noticed during behavior consultations as well thatdogs who have issues with other dogs are most likely tocome into the consultation room and [continued on next page]November/December 2008 • The APDT Chronicle of the Dog • 45