I get more calls about dog bites from Thanksgiving through New Year’s than at any other time of year. What is the matter, you might wonder? Don’t dogs have the appropriate Holiday Spirit? Are they irritated by the seasonal muzak? Why are they so prone to aggression at this time of the year?
There are several factors that combine to create this problem.
- The weather gets cold and it gets dark early. People are busy with holiday parties, shopping and preparations for festivities. The result is dogs get walked less, exercised less, less attention in general.
- More visitors – many households that have almost no visitors all year DO have visitors at the holidays. If the dog is unaccustomed to visitors this can be very stressful, and can lead to bad behavior that ranges from over-enthusiastic greeting to barking and even biting. Dogs who are not accustomed to children often fear and therefore dislike them, and this can lead to biting, especially if the children run around, approach the dog when he is hiding under something, or try to hug him.
- Some owners try to prevent problems with visitors by closing the dog away in another room or a crate – this type of prevention is basically a good idea, but be aware that it can increase the dog’s stress and frustration if the dog is not accustomed to it.
- Another contributing factor is that the owners are often stressed, depressed, and overloaded at the holidays, and this greatly increases stress in the dog, who is an emotional sponge. Dogs always soak up whatever emotion their people are feeling – joy, anger, stress, fear – and then react to it.
- Food is often put out for parties – on low coffee tables, left unattended in the kitchen, in packages under a Christmas tree…the dog takes the food (of course !), and then gets in trouble, which can lead to guarding….and biting. If the owner then punishes the dog, the problem will quickly get MUCH WORSE.
Although by now it is probably too close to the Holidays for you to do much training at this point, you can do some things to prevent and manage the problem, and then work on training the dog for next year. (Hint – call a dog trainer now and book an appointment!)
- Exercise, exercise, exercise! A tired dog is a happy, calm, better mannered dog. Exercise should be both physical and mental. For mental exercise, work on food seeking games, training tricks and obedience, etc. For physical exercise, use dog day care, walks and dog parks or hire a dog walker if you can’t do it yourself.
- Accustom your dog to being closed away behind a gate or door, or in a crate. When the dog is confined, give her food based chew toys (such as a Kong stuffed with peanut butter, etc.) to entertain and reward her.
- If you are going to allow your dog to greet the visitors, but suspect the greeting will be over-enthusiastic (jumping up, etc), then put him on a leash, probably with a head halter (such as Halti or Gentle Leader), and as the visitors come in, tell the dog to sit for a treat. This both rewards the good behavior of sitting and distracts the dog from focusing all his attention on the visitor. Of course, you will first need to spend a couple of days getting the dog accustomed to wearing the head halter before you can use it!
- If the dog is loose…. keep food put away! Don’t put your dog “in harm’s way” by tempting him with easily reached food or trash!If the food is out...put the dog away!
- If your dog does get hold of food or some other forbidden object, DON’T take it away from the dog, or yell or punish the dog in any way!This can quickly lead to a dog bite... Instead offer a trade or distract the dog away by ringing the doorbell. Food and object guarding can be learned very quickly and easily by a dog, and are then hard to undo, so don’t let them get started.
Happy Holidays!
For more info: visit Alexandra's website at www.alexandramorgan.com
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