Are you Overly Pre-Emptive? Is that possible?

The owner who fails to plan for the development of his dog into an agreeable companion, suitable for his lifestyle, is, I believe, a bugaboo of trainers and behavior professionals.

However, I believe there is also the Overly Pre-Emptive owner who is so terrified of having problems, that their "diligence" actually creates problems. These are the owners who cannot differentiate between normal range of dog emotions & behaviors and abnormal ones. When do you step in? "Nip it in the bud" is a great approach to weeding, but not always effective for encouraging desirable dog behaviors.

Choosing when and what to actively teach, and choosing when to ignore it is part of what is now regarded as the "art" of dog training. Largely, I think, because we don't understand it clearly. We have no large chunks of solid research or data on the subject. (At least, not that I am aware of. Please tell me I'm wrong?)

For my decision-making process, the factors affecting the decision are not now very precise. It's not that the dog is scared/aggressive or not scared/aggressive. It's not black or white. Our decision is not "train if scared/aggressive", versus "ignore if not". The reality of the situation, its greyness, is what makes handling both scared and aggressive dogs very complicated.

The dog is scared, but how scared? (For further research, what body language indicators and personality typing info is Nicole's brain using to quantify "how scared"?) Being scared is part of what keeps animals & humans safe. Some healthy fear keeps dogs from roaming into traffic, being bitten by other dogs, and from exploring other potentially hazardous "unknowns". Unhealthy fear interferes with the dog's ability to learn, eat, move, and process her environment. Unhealthy fear jeopardizes the dog, and dog's owner, in many ways. Imagine a scared mastiff who bolts in a downtown area -- not only is the dog in danger, but also the human rag-doll attached to the leash!

The dog is "grouching", but how aggressive is it? (Again, for more research, what measurable factors do gifted"natural" trainers use to make this call?) An effective growl helps a dog keep an unwelcome or threatening animal at bay. An ineffective growl heightens the stress level of a dog-dog interaction, making injury more likely.

The dog is interested in watching something, but is it obsessed? Curiosity is natural, healthy, and provides the mental stimulation dogs need for a balanced "normal" life. But "locking on" to such stimuli as light can pose a threat to the dog's safety if it's brain is not open to other, potentially hazardous stimuli. I have a former client whose obsession-inclined dog leapt into freezing water mid-winter in response to the "sparklies" he saw on the water, who endangered both himself and his loving owner who leapt in after him.

Every behavior can be too little, too much, or a range of somewhere in-between. One tiny point on that range of in-between-ness is "ideal". There are countless ways the dog can be "OK", even if it isn't ideal. This concept of multiple "right" answers is difficult for most people to accept from their dogs, but imagine extending this concept to our expectations of human behavior...!

Imagine if we demanded that everyone around us think, feel, and behave exactly as we defined ideal -- which, of course, would be exactly how WE think, feel, and behave... But, in a sense, isn't this is how we approach dogs when we insist they never feel fear, they never grouch at rudeness, never show interest in potential distractions?

When an owner is Overly Pre-Emptive, they begin to steer the dog away from in-between-ness. Which, not always, but sometimes, can result in steering the dog TO the extremes. We take a dog AWAY FROM having an acceptable amount of fear/communication/curiosity, TOWARDS the extremes of too much or too little.

Similar to the wisdom of consulting a doctor before starting a diet, consulting with a professional or other very experienced individual is the intelligent way to decide how you are going to proceed with your dog.