Trouble at the door

Do you have any weird reaction to something that you can’t explain? For me, it’s goatees. I don’t care if you are George Clooney, Brat Pitt, or Johnny Depp, get that goatee away from me! They freak me out! Now something must have happened to me as a child, but I can’t remember. So what would Freud say? (He didn’t have a goatee did he? Now that would really be weird.)

The same thing can sometimes happen with dogs. It’s often really hard to connect what the dog is having a reaction to to the original experience. Dogs who don’t like men, dogs who bite the mailman, dogs who “hate” children, dogs with separation anxiety. Sometimes, try as I may, I can’t find the connection, but I know there’s one out there.

I was extremely perplexed one day while I was with Hero in the puppy yard and I asked my son, who was just inside the kitchen door, to get me a glass of water. He filled a glass, opened the door to hand it to me, and then closed the door behind him. Hero went nuts. She started barking, yipping, whining, and digging. Furiously.

What was that all about? Maybe it had nothing to do with the door, so I asked my husband to recreate the experience. Once again, the opening and closing of the door sent Hero into a frenzy. Okay, I thought, I’ve had this puppy a whole five days and I need to call Kevin. (Better than last time, I only had Athos 10 minutes before I put in the call.)

Once Kevin explained it to me, it started to make sense. The breeder had probably inadvertently created this imprint by taking the mother out of the kennel through a similar door or by some other action whereas the puppies felt a conflict in connection with that place. My puppy unconsciously “relived” that moment when my kitchen door opened. The good news is that Kevin suggested we feed her while someone walked in and out of the door, opening and closing it, over and over, though it only took one time for her to get over whatever she was feeling. Maybe this will also influence Hero to bark at the door, unlike some other dog I know who is suppose to be so intimidating but won’t bark and just wants everyone to pet him! (Athos is just too nice.)

My one mistake with Athos was that I had his crate in the mud room where the cats would walk back and forth; big, fluffy Maine Coon cats, the ones with the really big tails sticking up. Because of this, Athos developed a real magnetic charge for those cats. It took a lot of work to channel all his attraction to the cats into me. Now he peacefully coexists with them, fluffy tails and all.

So I guess that even though I’m doing everything I can to make Hero’s puppy hood as stress free as possible, no one can know or predict every little thing that might create an unwanted imprint. So what I’ve taught myself to look out for is anything that causes her to make any kind of noise; growling, barking, yipping. If I hear a sound, I fix the problem. If I see the puppy scared, overwhelmed, or holding back, I stop what’s going on. If I see conflict of any sort, I get her to focus on something positive. Assuredly, there will be something. Some weird, seemingly inconsequential thing will happen and cause Hero to react in some strange and unpredictable way, and the chances are I will have no idea why it’s happening.

And that’s when I’ll pick up the phone.