Meeting Our Dogs’ Needs

Yesterday I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed when this blog entry caught my attention. I took a few minutes to read it, and it made me think. I talk a lot about finding the right professionals to address all kinds of behavior issues dogs might have, but I’ve never taken the time to mention that sometimes what looks like misbehavior is actually just a reminder that dogs have needs. And we need to meet them.

For example, my daughter and her dogs live with me. One of her dogs, Cooper, is a young, athletic hound. He’s tall and well-muscled. He’s goofy, affectionate, and very smart. He’s generally well behaved…unless he hasn’t been given a chance to run off some of his energy at some point during the day. This dog is FAST and runs figure eights diagonally across the back yard. Sometimes I wonder how he doesn’t crash into the fence, because in order to miss it, he has to turn on a dime.  He always does it gracefully. It’s really something to see. And when his energy is spent, he can come in the house, lay with us on the couch, and be relaxed for the rest of the evening.

When Cooper doesn’t get to run, it’s usually because the weather doesn’t allow for it. When that happens, he’s fidgety, he’s bouncy, he barks, he starts carrying laundry around (usually his mom’s socks) trying to get someone to play tug with him. He’s an all-around pest to everyone in the house, people and animals alike. It’s maddening, until you remember he didn’t get to run. He’s trying to tell us that that his needs haven’t been met, and we need to do something because he’s frustrated. And when he’s frustrated, we’re all frustrated.

If your dog is driving you bonkers because he seems to have no “off switch,” the fix might be as easy as playing fetch or having a playdate where he can run and wrestle with some canine friends. Not every problem is a flaw on the part of the dog. Sometimes the flaw is with us, and we need to make adjustments so that everyone can be happy.

Cooper is the big, brown dog. He’s with Libby the Chihuahua and Admiral the pit bull hoping to share some of whatever I’m eating.