Please try to understand us not choke us

I haven't updated my blog for a few weeks. Ma Maitresse has been busy writing her book. But she said I could borrow ze computer today to write with because I saw something on Twitter this morning which upset me very much.

It was re-posted by my friend @widgetty who is a very nice human bean who understands us animals, but it was about something very bad, so I couldn't stay quiet.

It's about someone who is selling collars which are designed to cut off a dog's air supply to stop them from being "dominant" and aggressive. You can read all about them for yourself here http://leerburg.com/746.htm

Now I am a dog who can be very aggressive, to people and dogs I don't know. And I can tell you quite simply why I am, and why almost every other dog which is called aggressive,is like that. I'm quite simply terrified.

Never mind any of this dominance nonsense. I don't want to be dominant, I want to be small and invisible so no-one notices me and leaves me alone. But when people come near me, I do the only thing I know to make them go away - I bark and growl and snarl. And it works, they usually go away. I don't chase after them and attack them because they've done what I wanted them to do - left me alone.

Now ma maitresse understands my fear and tries to help me. Sometimes she gets things wrong because she is only a human bean and she gets frustrated and even shouts at me. But I know she would never, ever deliberately do anything to cause me any pain or damage.

These collars, it says, are specifically designed to show the dog who is boss by cutting off its air supply. I'm only a leetle French dog, but I can't understand how that is even legal. It is so very dangerous, because it's not just the air to the lungs that can be cut off but the oxygen supply to the brain. Ma maitresse used to do judo and she was telling me about strangle holds, shime-waza, which can cause unconsciousness in a matter of seconds. And serious brain damage if maintained for too long.

I don't read heenglish all that well but I can't see anything in this article which stresses how very dangerous it can be to cut off oxygen supply to the brain, even for a few seconds. I can't see anything which shows people in detail how to avoid putting pressure on a dog's carotid artery, which would do just that. I can't see anything which tells people how long it is suggested that they deprive their dog of oxygen.

And I have to tell you, that in my humble dog opinion, the answer to that is never. Not at all. Ever.

If I bark because I am afraid, choking the air out of me is the last thing I need.

Please, anyone, no matter how desperate you are because of your dog's behaviour, I urge you, do not go down this root. There are lots and lots of nice human beans out there who can show you a different way. Ma maitresse has Grisha Stewart's BAT book, which has helped us both, and likes http://intellidogs.com/ for really simple, practical advice.

I am asking you all please, on behalf of my canine cousins everywhere, just to think hard about this. If your teenage son or daughter was shouting at you aggressively, would you think it acceptable to put them in a chokehold and cut off their air?

And if you answer no, please explain to me why you think it would be acceptable for your dog?

Are you humans really top dog?

It's been a while since I put paw to keyboard. Even though I'm only a dog, sometimes when I hear the things you human beans do to us animals, I am lost for words. So many of you still have the old fashioned idea that all us dogs can't wait to be leader of the pack in your homes, and that's the reason for any and all of our behaviour that doesn't suit you.

I read this very interesting article about someone who had to put right the harm done by people who still believe this so-called dominance theory is correct. http://www.apbc.org.uk/Dog-Whispering-Can-Backfire This Mat Ward sounds like a very nice sensible human bean. I wish there were lots more like him.

Let me tell you a little bit about growling and why us dogs do it. Even though I've been with my human bean for 18 months now, having come from the rescue kennels, we are still learning things about each other, and learning to trust one another. So sometimes I growl at her. And yes, I admit, sometimes I even snap.

But that's not me saying I am top dog in this pack and don't you forget it. On the contrary, that's me saying something really scary is going on around me which I neither understand nor like, and you're pushing me a bit too hard, too fast, to accept it. I'd like you to deal with the scary thing, please, and let me just stay in my corner well away from it. And if you insist I come out and face my phobia, I'll just have to resort to biting you to try to explain how scared I am.

Now my human bean is trainable enough to understand this most of the time and she does her best. But there are still far too many out there who suggest dealing with us frightened dogs by “scruffing” or “pinning” us. Both of these methods seem to involve grabbing us by the neck in a way that hurts and throwing us to the floor. I can't think of anything that would terrify me more, nor make me more likely to bite in self-defence.

Today my human bean clearly had a touch of the sun. She bought a strange machine which made a noise and when she ran it over my coat all my lovely hair finished up on the floor. She said it was to make me feel cooler in the heat. She put my Baskerville muzzle on me, just in case, and explained carefully what she was doing and spoke quietly whenever I growled, so after a while, she got most of it done. If she'd grabbed me and shaken me, I'd have been doubly convinced the machine was dangerous and painful and wouldn't have let her try again. Ever.

There are a lot of “experts” out there who claim to be Dog Whisperers or Dog Listeners. They all seem to share a belief in dominance being at the root of everything dogs do. That means they haven't the slightest working knowledge of the language Canis, which is very complicated. “Grrr” has as many different meanings to dogs as “snow” has to Eskimos. It can mean “I'm going to bite you” or it can mean “I don't want to have to bite you but you're putting me in a situation where I see that as my only option”. Anyone who can't tell the difference is putting themselves and their dog in danger.

Human beans are supposed to be the most intelligent species, yet you persist in wasting time trying to get us to learn your strange language, without taking the trouble to learn even the basics of ours. No wonder dogs have so many problems in your company.

I believe you human beans have to take a theory and a practical test before you're allowed to drive one of your motor cars. What a pity you don't have to do the same before you can have a dog.

If you don't speak Canis, there's no shame in admitting it and getting help from a proper interpreter who does. You only have to look at the APBC website to find one near to you. http://www.apbc.org.uk/ Their people are fluent in Canis, and Equus and Felis, and lots of other animal languages too.

Have you ever had problems in a foreign country when something goes wrong and people are crowded round you all shouting at once in a language you don't understand? Imagine how you would feel if, when you were trying to tell them you simply didn't understand, they suddenly resorted to violence, shaking you by the neck, throwing you to the ground and pinning you there. Then imagine the relief if someone came along who spoke both languages and could explain everything clearly to you and the others.

Sound familiar? Which do you think your dog would prefer?

A bit about me to start with

I'm a French dog, a bordaire collee. I was born in the Cantal region of the Auvergne and for the first two years of my life, I had a very good home. I was well cared for, well trained, beautifully kept, with a clean, shiny coat and thought I had a pretty good life.

Then my owners had a baby. Suddenly everything changed. They said I was "trop vif" (too lively). And before I knew what was happening, I was sent off to the dog's home at a place called Gerzat. It was terrible. I'm only quite small for a bordaire collee and I was stuck in a cage with another dog, surrounded by yet more dogs who barked all the time and I was terrified.

People kept coming and staring at me through the bars and I was so frightened I barked and barked at them until they went away. And so I stayed in my cage for what seemed like forever and I thought my world had come to an end.

Then one day two ladies came walking past. One was speaking French with a strange accent. They looked at me but I barked and snarled as usual and they went on by. They went to talk to the lady in charge and after a while, she brought them across to see me. She told them I wasn't a bad dog, just a very frightened one who was terrified by being in the cage, and said if they took me out of the cage they would see for themselves what I was really like.

The one with the funny accent I found out afterwards she is Heenglish) got a lead and asked me if I wanted to go for a walk. Is the Pope a Catholic? Of course I did! Anything to get away from that place. So we went for a walk, and the funny accent person was saying she was very sad after her last dog died and wanted another one but didn't want another bordaire collee, and not a male, and not more than a year old, and not black and white.

So I had to turn on all my Gallic charm because I understood that she might just take me away from that terrible place and give me my own proper home again. And that's just what she did. And it's wonderful. I can't tell you how happy I am again.

But one day she was looking at a film on her computer and it was making her cry. It was this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlJ5kYIl82Q and it was about something called puppy farming. It was absolutely terrible and made me realise that although the dog's home was bad, it was nothing in comparison to what happens to these poor dogs.

So I thought that maybe if I wrote about it, more people would learn about it and might try to do something about it. How can humans hope ever to treat each other with compassion and respect if they can do something as awful as that to dogs? And what kind of a world is it to bring up children if people think that just because they want something, they have to right to have it with no thought about what happens to make it available to them.

I'm not just going to write about the terrible things in life, there are just too many of them. And my life now is very happy. I'll tell you all about my weekly camping trips, with my very own tent to match my mistress's. And all the good things I have now. But first I'd like to tell you all about the shameful thing that is puppy farming and I hope you'll all find out more about it and try to do something to stop it.

You'll find me on Twitter as @banpuppyfarming and you'll find out a lot more at #banpuppyfarming. It's terrible, the images are dreadful. But only if decent people like you watch them then demand that this awful trade is stopped can we all make the world a better place.

Ci