By Pat Robards – Hills Howler Edition: April 2018
Bold
The dog who is bold he has high head, confident, alert ears, relaxed mouth, broad shoulders, high tail, standing four square, some leaning forward.
Shy
The shy dog looks timid, insecure, the underdog with a low head and a hang dog expression, ears plastered back and the mouth drawn in a submissive grin, the shoulders are pinched with the front legs held close together underneath the body, the tail is tucked with a crouched gait. Some lean backwards like a rocking horse if you try touch them.
Zones
Zones are very interesting and are important. The zone is a circle around the dog existing of three distances and each distance tells a story. Space and distance have a MAJOR influence on your dog’s behaviour. How a dog reacts to somebody or something, some contributing factors are genetic, (come from within) or behaviours learned through experience.
Zones range from a matter of inches to distances measured in feet.
Zone One (Neutral ground and the outer circle)
This outer circle represents the flight distance, the dog becomes aware of other creatures and is the distance that a frightened animal may choose to move away. Turid Rugaas has it on her video, the dog saying by signaling to his owner “don’t make me go any closer”. The dog will ignore the other dog or send out dominance/submissive signals, become aggressive or friendly or move on. Say your dog is friendly continue into Zone two, if not, don’t as your dog just said, “Don’t make me go any closer.”
Zone Two (Critical distance and the middle circle)
If the dog is unable to flee it may show fear aggression to make the intruder go away as the dog is forced into making decision of withdrawal or avoidance (fight or flight) or a warning to proceed no further, it all depends on the dog.
Zone Three (Social – the smallest inner-most circle)
Personal Safety Zone or others call it the Intimate distance. It extends from direct physical contact to about 18 inches away. Very threatening, the dog will decide whether it will allow physical contact with anything within this zone and only should be breached if the dog is exceptionally well socialised or knows the person well, in this zone the risk of aggression is very high, if we allow another object/animal/human to get into our dogs faces the dog is forced into fighting, biting or hiding in between our legs.
Reprinted with the author’s permission.
