Barking is a subject that people always want to hear more about.  For dogs, barking is one of our forms of communication.  Is it our fault that humans do not understand us?

I suggest that we share the fault equally.  Personally, I think that is being pretty generous, since humans are supposed to have the power to reason.  As we have discussed previously, you already know that dogs do not have a clue as to what you are saying.  To us, your constant talking can be just as annoying as our barks are to you, unless you are telling us how great we are.  Then, we completely understand, and we do not find it annoying.  No matter what you are saying, we listen to your words, and we act like we understand what you are talking about.  Can you say the same when we bark?

For the most part, dogs do not just sit around and bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark…  That is, unless we have something to bark about.  Humans will not always understand that we have something to bark about because you are not capable of hearing and sensing the things that we do.  Often, your dog may be sitting in the back yard and for what appears to be no reason to you, he begins to bark. Some people will listen to the barks for a few minutes, but it is inevitable that someone will stick their head out of a door and yell, “QUIET” or even something more colorful.  Sometimes, that will be followed up by insulting us and calling us names.  It is very seldom that the area humans searches for the reason that a dog is barking.  You should learn to use that power of reasoning to realize that we do not bark just to hear ourselves bark.

For example, perhaps we hear a dog or two barking a few miles away.  Bear with me for a few minutes as we assume that these dogs are sharing directions to a new campground filled with people and discarded food with their barks.  These two things are among the most important to dogs, because we enjoy the company of humans, and food is at least as valuable to us as money is to humans.  Because humans do not hear nearly as well as we do, the “colorful” human did not hear the barks of the dogs located a few miles away.

I would like to share a story with you to illustrate my point.  One of Mom’s former students lived next door to a family that had a dog that lived in the backyard.  The dog was tethered to a fixed object, and we all know how I feel about that.  After many months of living in the backyard, the dog suddenly started to bark, and and he continued barking constantly.  After several minutes, his owners went to the back door and yelled at the dog to cease.  The dog did not.  He continued the constant barking for several hours, and the family began calling the dog “colorful” names and throwing things at him.  Not once did the humans ever bother to go outside and look into why the dog was barking.  They ASSUMED that the dog had suddenly become retarded, stupid, untrainable, bad, ridiculous, loud-mouthed, ungrateful, demon possessed, and numerous other words that contain language I am not allowed to use.  The people that never checked to see why their dog was barking did allow their five year old child in the backyard to play with the dog.  The dog appeared to be his normal self so long as the child remained near the house, but if the child tried to venture into the “dog’s part of the yard,” he barked, growled and snarled to keep the child from approaching.  It appeared  that the dog was guarding a certain area of the yard.  Finally, after viewing such odd behavior when the 5 year old went into the backyard, the adults decided to see what was so important to this dog.  As the man approached a weeded area near the dog, he began barking more and more and even tried to snap at the man, so that the man would not enter.  Sensing that the dog was trying to tell him something, the man picked up a stick and began to poke around in the weeds.  After a few moments of poking around, the man saw the reason for his dog’s odd behavior.  There was a very unhappy five foot rattlesnake sticking its head out of the weeds!

The most important thing about this story is that you should not just assume a dog is trying drive you crazy or to be bad with his barking.  He may, in fact, be trying to save your life!  Mom never told me what breed of dog potentially saved the lives of his family, but I think it is safe to assume that it was not a Jack Russell Terrier.  A Jack Russell would have killed the snake and placed it on the back porch as a present to the humans.

Across the country, many towns, cities, and counties are taking part in a movement to promote better animal welfare.  They are enacting ordinances making it illegal to tether a dog outside unattended.  While it has already become law in some places, it is spreading to be the law in all places.

Chaining a dog or any animal to a fixed object in a permanent manner is wrong and cruel.  Dogs are among the most social creatures on the face of the earth.  They crave contact with other beings, especially their families.  You have probably noticed that I rarely refer to humans as dog or pet owners, but rather their family, because that is what we are, family.  We are not meant to be tied up outside away from human contact.  Can you imagine what a dog in that situation must think?  His scenery never changes, and the only attention he gets is when someone comes out to throw a bowl of food at him.  If he is one of the “lucky” members of the chain gang, perhaps someone gives him clean water a few times during the month, allowing rainwater to suffice in between.

Would you want to live like that?  I bet your answer is no, and some may trivialize the situation by saying, “Oh, it is just dog. What is the big deal?”  Just like you, a dog is a being that feels pain, cold, heat, hunger, frustration, anxiety and loneliness.  Imagine what would happen to someone who treated a child the way many “outside” dogs are.  The parents would be jailed for neglect.  They would be taken into homes and businesses, because it is wrong to leave a human in such a state.  The only expectation that these do-gooders have is a little gratitude or a little praise.  Chances are, that a human will take your good deeds and never look back.  No one would leave a human to suffer any of the stresses that these animals endure. The dog will be there through it all.  He cures his own anxiety, frustration and loneliness by providing companionship to his human.  The pain, the cold, the heat and the hunger?  He will bear it all to provide for his human.

Some of the arguments used by those who oppose the anti-tethering ordinances include

1. The owners cannot keep them in the house or apartment they are renting.
2. The dog is not housebroken.
3. The dog was barking too much.
4. The owners think “It’s just a dog.”

My responses, in order, to these arguments are quite simple.

1. Move.  When the owners moved to the house or apartment, they knew that a dog was not allowed.  If they moved there while they were already in possession of the dog, shame on them.  If they acquired the dog while they were living there, why did they choose to get a dog?
2. Train him.  I know several potty training resources off hand.  In fact, one merely has to click here to find one of the best ones I know of.
3. Putting a dog outside does not solve the barking problem.  It merely exacerbates it.  Outside, there are more stimuli and reasons for a dog to bark.
4. If “it’s just a dog,” why do they choose to sleep indoors sheltered from the rain, snow, cold, and heat?

Regardless of geography, we must stand together to stop the chaining and tethering of animals.  We are not lawn ornaments, and we certainly cannot protect anything tied to a chain all the time.  Take a few minutes to visit the best resource of anti-chaining information on the Internet.  Then, take a look around your own neighborhood to see for yourself how many people tether their dogs outside and thus, much support is needed to end a chaining ban for dogs.

Here in Georgia, I have a lot of work to do.  We have nearly 160 counties, but only the counties of Fulton, Dekalb, Cobb, Clarke, Bibb, Chatham, Cherokee, Douglas, Gwinnett, Liberty, and Rockdale currently have bans against dog chaining.  If you are a fellow Georgia resident and your county is not listed, you know what you need to do.  If you are reading this in another state, contact your county or parish government to inquire whether or not there is a ban.  If the answer is no, get busy!

A small note about this cause:  the signature color is red, so every time you hold or participate in an event in support of a chaining ban, wear your red proudly.  You can even use the color to signify your unity at local government meetings to show your support like we did when we supported the tethering ban in Fulton County, Georgia earlier this year.  Universally, red signifies stop, and enough red will cause politicians to stop and hear you message!

The late Paul Harvey says, “Ever occur to you why some of us can be this much concerned with animal suffering? Because government is not. Why not? Animals don’t vote.”  Lucky for us, animal lovers do, and their numbers grow everyday!

Food aggression is something that I do not put up with in my pack.  When my brother, Tax, joined our family, he was food aggressive.  He would growl and snap when anyone approached either his food or water dish.  I gave him a few days to get used to our family and our place, but I could not have anyone in my pack aggressive about food, so it was time for me to rule with an iron paw! Continue Reading

With two-thirds of Americans believing that their pet communicates to them, if you are not listening, you may be missing out on some important communication between you and your dog.  Many people can read their dogs’ inflection and body language to determine what their buddy is telling them.  Different barks, whines, dances, etc. mean different things.  Since we all cannot articulate (and type), these things are how we are trying to tell you what we want and need.  When you get a chance, have a conversation with your dog about your day.  Not surprisingly, he is probably a good listener, and he might have some advice to go along with it.