Cooper to the rescue

I've written before about Teddy, the extremely shy beagle mix who now lives with Cooper (American Bulldog).  Teddy stopped coming indoors with the other dogs at night.  After we got him in hand last weekend, he managed to slip out the door without his leash again this week.  He was still in a fenced yard but wouldn't come back inside or into the kennel.  The adopter and another woman spent a good 20 minutes watching Teddy run circles around the yard, refusing to come to them or into the kennel.  Once he gets into a pattern like that his brain locks in on the current behavior and he might well have kept it up until they gave up and left or he dropped dead from exhaustion. 

Fortunately, Cooper came to the rescue.  They let Cooper out of the house and he appraised the situation and saw what needed to happen.  He did what no human is fast enough to go, which was to corner Teddy against the fence and break the circling pattern.  The humans just watched Cooper do his work and said that they could see a light go off in Teddy's head.  He stopped running and allowed them to approach and leash him again. 

Since that time when Teddy is out in the yard and she wants him to come in, he goes to the door and sits on a mat next to it.  She can approach and open the door to let him in and he does so.  Everyone is hoping that this behavior sticks. 

I have another friend, also an adopter, who worked with human students who had behavior problems.  Her most recent adoptee, a rottie, was also exhibiting behavior problems with strangers.  I went to her house one day and we worked out an arrangement for introducing the new dog to new people.  She told me later that what we had done was to create a BIP, a behavior intervention plan, not unlike what she used to do with students.  In case of her rottie, when a new person came to the house both dogs were put outdoors.  The first dog would come in and greet the new person in a friendly, accepting manner as he always does.  The second dog would observe this through a glass door, seeing that the first dog accepted the new person.  Then the second dog would come in and meet the person, who would distribute treats as a goodwill gesture.  This BIP stopped the problematic behavior that the second dog had been exhibiting towards strangers. 

Hopefully Cooper and Teddy and the adopter have worked out a BIP that works for Teddy.  She's hanging in there still and Cooper has proved that he's worth his weight in gold.  No one can communicate with a dog like another dog.  Cooper not only communicated effectively with Teddy dog-to-dog, he bridged the human/canine communication barrier, accurately interpreting the adopter's needs and instantly creating a behavior intervention plan that worked for Teddy.  I think dogs understand a lot more about us than we do about them.