The Holistic Approach

A while back, a friend discussed her teenage son’s worrisome behavior saying that he couldn’t get up on time to get to school, was having difficulty focusing on the homework, and was overall lazy, not to mention moody and ill-tempered, especially with the family. While my friend assumed much of this was a typical adolescent phase, she also confessed that she punished him for his bad behavior.

This wasn’t the first time a friend had lamented about dealing with their undisciplined teenager, which I of course thought how much easier my life has been, only having to raise dogs who don’t sass back.

But raising a dog or a child is similar in that dogs also go through an awkward teenage phase where the young brain under construction toggles between cognitive development and lack of impulse control, focused on immediate gratification. This is also know as the phase of big feelings, which certainly explains, the testy behavior and why so many adolescent dogs are surrendered to shelters vs human adolescents that no shelter would want :)

Thankfully, adolescent humans become adults, (hopefully) leave the nest and go through this passage with teens of their own. With dogs, obviously, they remain our “children” forever, and as caregivers, we have them, if we’re lucky, through their old age.

You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this, so as usual, I will digress…

It is all too easy to look at what appears as normal, predictive behavior such as the example of my friend’s son, and deal with it accordingly.

With both humans and hounds, there is a tendency to punish what we don’t like, and what we don’t like of course is what we can see such as the child not doing homework or the dog not responding to “commands” when told. What is needed, however, is a much deeper look at the behavior, a holistic approach, if you will, because there is a lot that happens below the surface that can manifest itself in an outward behavior. As an example, pain, fear and disease can be at the root of what we perceive as “bad” behavior, and punishing a human or dog for being sick, is indefensible.

I had a discussion with a potential client who called about her dog who displayed reactivity (barking and lunging) at other dogs while being walked around the neighborhood. I asked if there was a reason to suspect that this senior dog could be in pain, which she responded that the veterinarian prescribed medication, but she [the owner] gave only if needed. After a (way too lengthy) discussion that the dog’s painful hips could be at the root of the dog’s reactivity around other dogs, she decided it wasn’t and basically wanted me to “fix” what they perceived as bad behavior.

Many dog owners, unless they’re savvy, will look for some trainer who will “diagnose” the behavior as being rebellious, dominant or other such labels that get way too much air-time, these days. And their tool to deal with this “bad” behavior unfortunately is using some punitive method.

There are so many factors to consider when looking at animal behavior and from  a professional training and behaviorist perspective, we should use a much wider lens to help our clients, that in my opinion, must begin with an in-depth consultation and a thorough exam with an integrative veterinarian who can rule out any medical issue before we can proceed with a “Do no Harm” approach to learning.

So getting back to my friend’s incorrigible teenage son, it turned out that she found a specialist who diagnosed him with a type of gastro intestinal disease, that produced pain, brain fog and overall malaise! I’m guessing punishing him wasn’t much of a “fix” for his problem, or would it resolve the problem of the dog who suffers from a medical issue.

Be your dog’s advocate and find someone who takes a holistic approach with your animal because there is no training protocol, tool or piece of equipment that can resolve “bad” behavior when the behavior is rooted in illness!

HAPPY TRAINING & ENRICHMENT

© Fran Berry CPDT-KA, UW-AAB all rights reserved 2023