How to Prevent Your Dog from Biting Out of Fear – Part 2

Posted by Jeanne on October 26, 2009

What makes some dogs into fear-biters?

All dogs undergo what’s called a fear-imprint stage when they’re about eight weeks old, and another one at about fourteen weeks. During this period of a dog’s formative puppyhood, he’s significantly more prone to ’spookiness’: being excessively startled by new experiences and situations. If a dog has a scare during this time which isn’t properly dealt with by the owner (ie, after receiving a scare, he isn’t then taught not to be frightened of that thing), he may develop a life-long phobia towards that object.

For example, if he’s been frightened by a repairman arriving at the door unexpectedly, and isn’t then acclimatized to that person, he may develop a long-standing phobia of men who resemble that repairman (men with beards, men in overalls, men holding toolboxes, and so on).

Some dogs are also just highly-strung and more prone to anxiety because of their breeding. Certain breeds – typically, the more intelligent ones, and the ones emotionally dependent on close, regular interaction with humans – have proven themselves more likely to develop phobias and excessive shyness than other, more emotionally stable breeds. A few of these ‘anxious’ breeds include Weimaraners, Great Danes, and Border Collies.

A history of trauma or abuse is another major cause of fear-biting: many abandoned or abused dogs develop anxiety problems, which, without proper treatment, may progress into fear-biting.

The difference between shyness and fear-biting

It’s quite natural for some dogs to exhibit signs of shyness towards unfamiliar situations. It doesn’t mean that that dog is a ‘difficult dog’, or that he will grow up to be a fear-biter – some shyness is to be expected in almost all dogs at one point or another.

Shyness only becomes a problem when it begins to interfere with the course of daily life: when a dog can no longer be trusted around strangers, for example, or if his behavior is endangering his own safety (scared dogs often bolt, sometimes across busy roads), or when your own life becomes significantly restricted by your dog’s fear.

More information on this topic next week…

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What are the Best Hunting Dogs?

Posted by Jeanne on April 1, 2009

Any dog can be a hunting dog. Some do one kind of hunting better than others, and some will go after anything that moves including mailmen, cats, cars, boys on bicycles, salesmen, and even other dogs. But most trained hunting dogs go after birds and small animals like rabbits, fox, coons, and possum.

With their keen noses, bird dogs like the English and Irish Setters are taught mainly to locate game birds. When they find a bird, they stand a certain way – hunters call it pointing – showing their owners where the bird is. After the bird is brought down, the dog is then sent out to bring it back to his master. This is retrieving. It’s just like the game you play with your dog when you throw a stick in front of you and ask your Fido to fetch it.

Retrievers, like the Golden and the jet black Labrador are especially trained to bring back water fowl that have been shot down over a body of water. They do a good job of retrieving land birds, too. Some hunters like a dog that can find game and retrieve it from both land and water. The Spaniels and the Weimaraner with their webbed feet are such combination all-purpose dogs.

An entirely different group of hunting dogs are the hounds like the Beagle, Foxhound, Whippet, and Borzoi. Hounds are used primarily to hunt for four-legged game rather than birds. One of the best-known hunting dogs is the Bloodhound. This breed is frequently used by the police to track down fugitives from the law. And sometimes little fugitive children who get lost or who run away from home can thank the Bloodhound’s keen sense of smell for finding them.

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