From the first day I brought him home, Caleb has always been very submissive and low key. I'm sure some of that was from being uprooted from Oklahoma, chucked in a crate, and sent flying via loud metal tube to California where nothing and no one was the least bit familiar, but even after making the adjustment and coming out of his shell, Caleb, for the most part, remains my uber chill puppy. Even three year old boys, some of whom are enough to ward off many humans, do not phase Caleb. I was actually relieved to find one thing that did manage to work it's way under my dog's skin (Disneyland fireworks loud and close enough to rattle windows, walls, and the sidewalks unnerved him enough that I had to carry him from the Disneyland Kennel all the way to the car), just because I was starting to think that it just wasn't normal for a dog not to be phased by anything.
Well, I can now rest assured! The other thing that sends my sweet Caleb into hysterics: miniature schnauzers.
Not all dogs, not small dogs, just miniature schnauzers. I do not mean to say Caleb isn't reactive at all to other dogs. I have learned to tell which dogs are neurotic just by looking at how their owners handle them when they see us coming; and some of them, depending on how obnoxious they are and how soon they start barking at him, will get a few barks in return from my usually quiet corgi (I imagine Caleb is telling them to go take a happy pill and leave us alone), and that is it. But when the schnauzers start to bark at him (which they do with much gusto), it's an entirely different story.
As soon as he sees them coming and they start barking at him, Caleb lunges to get at them, barks and carries on like he's going to tear off their bearded little faces and spit them in the gutter, and he hardly takes any correction until he has exhausted himself or they've moved on. I cannot imagine what the few people that have seen these hysterics (some of them out walking with their kids) must think about me and my dog.
So, one evening this past weekend when the hysterics commenced, I grabbed my crazed corgi and marched right up to the nice lady and introduced myself to her explaining that my dog was normally the nicest dog in the world, not at all dog aggressive, but for some reason her schnauzers send him into hysterics and would she mind terribly if I tried to get him calmed down so he could meet her dogs. In all the dog books I've read they say that you are actually reinforcing the barking if you drag them away from what bothers them, and thankfully I could tell this lady had read the same books and figured out what I was trying to do.
We have run into each other twice now, and every time we stop, get our dogs under control, then ask them to tolerate being in each others presence. Caleb and the little girl schnauzer may have reached an uneasy compromise, we'll need to keep working with the Caleb and the little boy schnauzer. Thankfully this morning I had treats in my pocket, so everybody got tiny bits of smelly chicken treats and that helped somewhat. I think I'm still a long way off to getting Caleb to stop reacting so fiercely to the schnauzers, but at least their owner is willing to work with us!
I couldn't help but wonder though, what is it about schnauzers? So, I googled.
Temperament: Very perky and bright-eyed. Loving and intelligent. Energetic, affectionate, and obedient. Playful, happy and alert, they like children. The Miniature Schnauzer enjoys time and companionship from its owner. Without the proper leadership, it can be feisty and fairly dog-aggressive - putting on a show of superiority without necessarily intending to fight. This can be fairly dangerous for the Miniature Schnauzer, who will challenge even large dogs, sometimes bringing more trouble on himself than he really wanted. Socialize this breed well with other dogs when it is still a puppy. If properly introduced, and if the dog does not see himself as pack leader, the Miniature Schnauzer will get along with another dog. They make good companions and family pets. Schnauzers tend to bark a lot, but it does not have a yappy bark it sounds like a low carried-out voice, howl of a voice. They make good guard dogs and mouse catchers. They are excellent watchdogs and are great to travel with. Some can be reserved with strangers, but most love everyone. Socialize well. Do not allow this little dog to developed Small Dog Syndrome, a human induced behavior where the dog feels he is pack leader to humans. This can cause a varying degree of behavior problems, including, but not limited to separation anxiety, willful, nervous, barky, guarding, bold and sometimes temperamental, not hesitating to attack much bigger dogs. A mentally stable dog, who gets enough mental and physical exercise will have a totally different personality. These are not Miniature Schnauzer traits, but rather behaviors brought on by the way the dog is treated by the people around him. It is all up to the humans. As soon as the humans start being true pack leaders, the dogs behavior will change for the better.
Eureka! While this explanation does not make Caleb's reaction to them acceptable, it helps put the reaction into perspective (read: my dog really is not crazy!). If they are barking like they are trying to challenge Caleb, then his response makes more sense. I think I'm going to ask Mark at Downtown Dogs for suggestions. Maybe they have schnauzers in daycare that Caleb can interact with.
The story involving the service dog is much better, comparatively.
To give you a little background, Caleb has won over the entire floor I work on, giving him free reign to run in between the cubicles and play fetch with whoever will throw the ball for him. He never strays very far from me, and is under pretty good voice control...unless there's a dog in the room, then he goes deaf. Lately, there has been a little pug that has shared the floor with him, and while they get along just fine, Caleb inevitably wants to run and chase, which the pug's owner doesn't feel comfortable with (he does not let him off leash), so I've been waiting until he goes home before letting Caleb out to wander.
On Monday, I opened my office door, took a look around for the the pug, didn't see him, and chucked his squeaky ball down the hall in between the rows of cubicles, sending him hurdling after it. He caught it at the other end of the hallway and came thundering back towards me when all of a sudden he dropped the squeaky ball, made a hard right turn and disappeared. I looked to see where he was headed, realized what was happening a second too late, and he ran right through my fingers into a very full conference room with an open door. There was a service dog that I'd never seen in this building before curled up at the feet of his owner, and Caleb had caught a whiff of him in the middle of our game of fetch and wanted to play with him.
Thankfully service dogs are very well trained and he looked up with interest at Caleb, shifted a little bit, but did not engage him. Caleb danced around him and his blind owner like a lunatic. I ran in the room, whispering in such a way that conveyed that if he weren't in a conference room where people were trying to work right now, I would be yelling at him. The room fell deathly silent, I grabbed my dog, apologized profusely and ran out of the room as quickly as possible, disappointed corgi in tow.
Just as I got out of the door the room erupted in laughter. Sigh.
