Dog Behavior Blog

Imprinting And Dog Aggression

Not too long ago, one of my friends mentioned that the she had heard about problems at a dog park. It seems that someone was bringing an aggressive dog who was trying to pick fights with the other dogs. The people who brought their dogs regularly to the park were up in arms. Talking to the aggressive dog’s person was proving to be useless, because his attitude was that dogs should be able to work these things out among themselves, and he was not going to intervene in something that he saw as normal dog behavior. The owners of the smaller dogs were particularly terrified. The aggressive dog was big and could potentially hurt a little dog. No one knew what to do to solve this problem.

I mentioned that I have seen such dogs before. In my experience, a dog who is aggressive toward other dogs has not be socialized properly. This often happens when people get a puppy who is 4-5 weeks old, before the puppy has had a chance to imprint on other dogs.

Imprinting is a form of learning that happens at an early age and lasts the lifetime of the animal. The first person to thoroughly investigate the imprinting process was the Austrian ethologist, Konrad Lorenz, who won the Nobel Prize in 1973 for his contributions to animal behavior. Imprinting takes place during a relatively brief period of time called the sensitive period, after which the information learned during the imprinting process either cannot be or is very difficult to reverse.

Lorenz found that ducklings and geese have a sensitive period shortly after hatching, where they respond to visual and auditory cues by following whatever object that is making sounds. Usually that is their mother. In ducks and chickens, this sensitive period is somewhere between 12-48 hours after they hatch. Through this kind of imprinting, birds learn who their mothers are, and ducks, geese, and quail learn to follow their moms.

The following response is not limited to birds. Imprinting has been shown in a number of mammals as well. The nursery rhyme, “Mary had a little lamb/Its fleece was white as snow/And everywhere that Mary went/The lamb was sure to go,” describes a lamb who was imprinted on Mary.

But another important feature of imprinting is learning what species an animal belongs to, and who to mate with in the future. This phase of imprinting is sometimes known as sexual imprinting. Among social animals, the imprinting tells a young animal not only who its future mating partner is likely to be, but also who to socialize with when the animal starts to grow up.

With birds, such imprinting can be a problem when someone takes a young bird out of a nest and the youngster imprints on humans. I know a person who rescues birds. She has a turkey vulture that she cannot release back into the wild because the vulture imprinted on humans at an early age, apparently because someone took him out of his nest and raised him. Now the vulture thinks that he is human, and directs his courtship behavior at people instead of at vultures. Vulture courtship behavior includes, in part, regurgitating the rotten food that he has eaten at the feet of his intended beloved.

Dogs go through an imprinting process too. In dogs, the sensitive period lasts roughly between a puppy’s 4^th and 12^th weeks of life. During that time, puppies learn who their mother is, and also learn about future mates and their social group.

If a puppy is taken away from her mother at week 4 or 5, she does not have a chance to imprint on dogs as social partners. She does imprint on people, and subsequently thinks of herself as a person rather than as a dog. So when she is placed in the company of other dogs, she has neither the social skills to know how to interact with them, nor even very much interest in going through dog greeting protocols. She sees herself surrounded by alien beings, and responds aggressively.

Fortunately for the dog-human bond, dogs can imprint on both dogs and people during the sensitive period of imprinting. If a dog is allowed to be with his mother and littermates from about week 4 to about week 8, he will imprint on dogs and will learn dog social skills. If the dog is then placed in the company of people during weeks 8-12, he will imprint on the people that he sees around him.

While the effects of imprinting can sometimes be reversed, it takes a lot of work. A dog who was not imprinted on other dogs at an early age can be socialized, but it requires a lot of patience and effort on the part of the dog’s people.

A much better solution is to let puppies imprint on other dogs at an early age, and only take them away from their mothers and littermates when they are around 8 weeks old.

--Con Slobodchikoff

Surrendering Your Dog: Is It The Only Option?

Note from Con Slobodchikoff: This is a post by guest author Nancy Frensley, CPDT, CAP2, who is Manager of Behavior and Training at the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society in Berkeley, California. She will write periodic posts about the behavioral challenges and joys of shelter dogs.

When you work at an animal shelter you encounter people on a daily basis who are struggling with the dilemma of having to give up their beloved pet. Among the main reasons people come up against this decision are the following: housing changes, unaffordable medical problems, behavior problems, and lifestyle changes of various kinds (i.e. age and lack of lifestyle fit). Every one of these reasons is valid when looking to surrender your pet. I find most people really do not want to give up their dogs but are faced with no-win situations. Some people are able, though, with a little extra effort to keep their pets.

Housing changes are one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome. Dog friendly rental housing is hard to find and often comes with size and breed restrictions, as well as prohibitive deposits. The best line of defense in this case is to have a truly well-mannered dog with no history of house soiling or destruction. These are traits you develop from the moment your dog comes to live with you. If you have a well-mannered dog, do your best to get references from the landlord and neighbors as well as from your veterinarian, trainer and boarding kennel. When you move into a new place, show an exceptionally high-level of courtesy and responsibility.

When you have to search for new housing, give yourself a lot of lead time. In the event you absolutely can not find a place for your dog, there might be an opportunity for an organization, such as the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society (BEBHS), to successfully re-home your dog. As long as you have one of those stellar pooches with no major problems.

Lifestyle and housing changes share similar problems. New roommates, fiancés, spouses, and babies can make it difficult to keep a dog. I have received many requests for behavior advice from people with new roommates/spouses. Generally, they find they must change their own and their dogs’ habits to accommodate the new situation. To do less is a formula for failure and strife.

In the case of new babies you have nine beautiful months to change your dog’s habits. With adequate preparation and a dog that you are really committed to, you can subtly change the dog’s habits and apply additional training so the dog is manageable during this most stressful time in your life. If, on the other hand, your dog is not well socialized or is poorly socialized (specifically with children) you may not have a choice about keeping the dog in your home. There is abundant information on the internet about preparing your dog for a baby. Your local humane society, like BEBHS, may offer classes and counseling on preparing your dog for this life-changing event.

Behavior and medical problems are areas that seem to cause people the most anguish when it comes to their dogs. Some behavior problems are easily resolved by managing the dog. House soiling, mild food guarding and a few others fit into that category. Fixing those often means your dog will have to lose some freedoms to which you think he or she is entitled. But, if it resolves the problem and makes everyone more comfortable – it’s worth working on. Aggression and separation distress are the two that are most invoked for giving up a dog. And they are the most difficult to deal with.

In the case of medical problems it is often the cost or the time needed to care for the animal that makes people think about a new home as a possible solution. With these cases, we encourage people to find a friend or relative who has a suitable situation and is willing to work on a treatment plan for the dog.

Very few (if any) shelters are able to take dogs with significant behavior or medical problems. But it is worth taking the time to talk to staff at the shelters to explore the possibilities. You can often get good advice and referrals from experts who can help if you choose to work on the dog’s behavioral issues. There are pretty much four universal choices you can make for dogs who have these problems:

 1. You can live with the problem and manage the dog in a way that the behaviors  

    do not happen.

            2. You can try to change the behavior or seek alternative treatments.

            3. You can give the dog away to someone willing to handle the dog’s problems.

            4. You can euthanize the dog.

The best way to get to the right solution is to be informed. Have your dog evaluated by a qualified professional to see if the issues are surmountable. Expert evaluation can present you with an idea of what might be involved in rehabilitation.

Surrendering your dog is not always the only option. Do not be afraid to be creative and do not give up at the first obstacle. If, however, you come to the conclusion that your dog must go, know there are a number of valid reasons for re-homing a dog and that you have done everything possible for your dog.

Dog Walkers Make Good People

I used to have a neighbor in New Hampshire who was not universally adored. For the sake of community harmony, I’m resisting the urge to go into specifics. However, let me be clear that nothing he did was horrific, but rather just a bit annoying. All of his offenses fit into the category of the usual space and noise concerns that any of us who live around other people must learn to tolerate.

 

This man was not always as thoughtful as possible, and his actions definitely inconvenienced me multiple times. Secretly, I was quite pleased that he lived around the corner and down the street a bit, as the distance shielded me from the worst of his transgressions.

 

Still, I saw him frequently when he took his dog for long walks several times a day, every day. There were other neighbors who walked their dogs regularly, but none were as consistent as this man was.

 

He was like a postal worker whom neither rain nor snow nor heat nor gloom of night (all of which regularly occurred in New Hampshire) could keep from the completion of his appointed rounds. When it was blazing hot, he was out walking the dog with a water bottle they shared. When it snowed, he was suited up with coat, hat, gloves and boots while they walked together.

 

How could I feel anything but respect and affection for a man who cared for his dog in this way? I suspect that the regularity of those walks at least partly accounted for the dog’s perpetually cheerful face, look of complete contentment and overall glow of health. This polite, happy dog, unlike his human companion, would easily have won a neighborhood popularity contest.

 

This man changed my philosophy of neighbors. Rather than dwell on the problems, I embrace the idea that we should all love thy neighbor, especially if thy neighbor always walks his dog in fair weather and foul, several times each day. However much my other neighbors might have disagreed, he seemed like good people to me.

 

--Karen B. London