Sometimes you have to be the alpha
Dillon this weekend cut his paw open on an unknown sharp object in the river. This resulted in his first operation - a worrying time for any dog owner that thankfully so far as gone well. The incident aside we knew that taking the bandage off was going to be one heck of a chore. I’ve already written about Dillon’s ‘paw issue’ thanks to a previous injury. All the hard work we had done in trying to get that back looked like it again was going to be wasted with a go back to square one as another paw injury occurred.
Last night was shall we say stressful and not the best night ever, as both Simon and me attempted various methods to get this bandage off his paw. We did the bribery, the grab and hold, the everything we could think of. The end result was half of it off and that was as far as we could get before Dillon was just getting too stressed. He had been backing himself into corners and attempting to growl - I say attempting as he’s a what Simon refers to as ‘chicken shit’. Let’s just say he’d be playing the cowardly lion in the wizard of oz.
Today I was left with the dubious task of ninja like sneak and grabs on the rest of the bandage. It really was not something I was looking forward to. After a few moves that the ninja gods would have shaken their head in despair at, I was left with a growling grumpy pup. So, I had a minor brain wave… you growl at me so I growl at you. As soon as I did he stopped with a most puzzled look on his face. Let’s just say I was also very glad nobody else could witness my doggie impression - sometimes you just have to go with the fact that you are going to be embarrassed. At that point he had shut up, so I got myself over his body and began to remove it again. After a bit more was removed, Dillon remembered he didn’t like it and went for another growly mutter. I replied with another growl and was able to get the rest of it off to my surprise without any further growls.
This really proved to me the common thought that dogs are naturally submissive and more deal-able with if you adopt and enforce the alpha position. The misconception is this is the alpha male - you do not have to be a man to make this work. By taking control of the situation his stress was reduced, the situation dealt with and resolved. Of course, this has to be done in moderation - it’s the key to being an alpha you know when to be benevolent and when to be dominating. Dillon is due to working from the start, quite a submissive male compared to many. He is ‘undone’ and a teenage male with bits in tack can be somewhat of a challenge - we are starting to reap the rewards of working on making sure he knows where he belongs in the pack though. It’s not always easy and although I did do it in the end, it was not the easiest thing to do. The point is that in the end he didn’t ‘win’ and it came off despite his growling. This is a strong lesson to him and in turn the method I could do it by was a strong lesson to me.