Mind you. This was just before retiring and we had stayed up later than usual because we had company over for dinner. We were quite tired, as we teamed up and stripped the bed, realizing that we now had to flip the mattress around. It took too much effort at this hour dealing with the bed, and we had to grovel finding the sheets and blanket that would be enough to keep us warm on these bitter cold nights. Suffice it to say that we were both very angry and cranky, as we put our newest adoptee inside his pet carrier for the night and zipping it closed. I can remember as I finally felt comfortably tucked in, I am going to have to crate-train this dog. It served as yet another reminder that he came to me "wounded."
I say wounded because all adopted animals have some sort of issue (or more likely many issues) that land them in the shelter in the first place. After they are home for awhile, whatever it is usually comes out. Over time and with good care, these issues (or bad behaviors) fade out, but since dogs are conditioned to behave based on routine, most of the bad behaviors have to be extinguished. That means he will likely do it again, unless I condition him to behave differently under the circumstances that motivated him to do it in the first place.
Because it is rare for a dog to mark where they sleep, my challenge is to discover what triggered his behavior to mark there in the first place. No small feat, because I don't speak dog. I wonder, if he could talk, what he would tell me about that night that made him think marking our bed was a behavior that I would think was ok? Especially when he is potty trained really well, and if he does have an accident, he usually goes very close to the door, and it was my mistake for not opening the door for him. The answer is that he wasn't thinking. He was behaving in such a way that he had been inadvertently conditioned back in the day when his first owner had him. It's one of his issues.
But this morning I wasn't thinking about the marking. The problem with Bentley is his biting! He bites when he is playing. People who don't realize he is playing, don't like him because of the play biting. Except that he is young, and spunky, and he likes to play a lot. So when people try to play with him, he bites them, and it is starting to happen all the time. Now, I am not as confident to be able to extinguish this play bite behavior. I have to condition him to know that play does not mean bite! This is no small feat. I mean, think about what happened to Hardy. So today I write as a mini-lecture to those who don't realize the error in rough housing and teaching (conditioning) their dogs to play bite.
It is a mistake to teach a dog to bite a human for any reason. Dogs should never bite their master when they are playing, if ever. Remember your Psychology 101 class learning about Pavlov's dogs? He rung a bell before he fed them every time, and soon after they would salivate upon hearing any bell. To the dogs, the sound of the bell meant food was coming. So it follows, that if dogs are play biting with humans, they've been conditioned to associate biting a human is ok. In the shelter, if a dog is busted for biting a human, they will be put down. I believe they knew this about Bentley, but he snuck through because he was cute and little. So I have another job. Teach Bentley to stop biting. Wish me luck!
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