A Day in the Life of a Behavourist

Description: The small terraced house looked perfectly normal just like the many others I had visited in my years as a dog trainer and behavioural counsellor. Of course other than what your client tells you on the phone, what lies on the other side of the door can often come as a surprise, which can be hilarious, sad, or just plain bizarre.

On this appointment I had been asked to come and look at two Dobermans, a male and female that were apparently hyperactive, rushing about all over the place and knocking over the children and even the adult’s. I had been told they had low attention spans and could not concentrate or settle, they were also nervous and stressed.

I should have known this was not going to be an ordinary call, when from the hallway I spotted taking pride of place next to the television an enormous gleaming racing motorbike. My client proudly announced that he had raced this very machine in one of the Isle of Man TT races.

It fleetingly crossed my mind that I would probably have a difficult time convincing my wife to allow a motorbike of any description to take pride of place in our house.

These clients were an absolutely lovely couple, with two young children, a number of rather unusual pets and a few problems with the Dobermans. The dogs were in the kitchen and enthusiastically greeted me as I passed, barking, jumping and spinning round, we were separated by a child gate and I observed them for a couple of minutes on my way to the lounge.

Suddenly the male stopped spinning and ran over to his bed grabbed the blanket and twisted part of it into a tight ball and started sucking on it like a baby’s dummy. This is not uncommon in certain breeds and I had certainly seen quite a number of Dobies do this before.

The blanket and the sucking acts as a calming agent almost like a child’s comfort blanket, which soothes them when they are tired or stressed. In some cases it can become all consuming and turn it into OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) which may require treatment.

In the corner of the lounge near the motorbike not visible from the hallway was an enormous birdcage and sitting on top taking pride of place even over the motorbike a stunning and very large Brazilian Scarlet Macaw, with the largest bill I had ever seen on any parrot. It fixed me with a baleful stare and told me in no uncertain terms to “p*** off”. I thought that somewhat premature as it had not had the chance to get to know me yet.

My clients warned me not to get too close, apparently it did not take kindly to strangers. A vicious glint to its eye told me to believe them; it sat there glaring whilst cracking whole walnuts as easy as shelling peas. I just knew if it wanted to it could also remove fingers with consummate ease.

We got down to business and I asked the owners about the dogs and what were the main problems. Once I had confirmed all the relevant information I asked them to release the dogs from the kitchen.

They came hammering in the room and screeched to a halt when they saw the Parrot. At the same time the parrot leapt onto the floor and starting moving towards them in an exaggerated swagger it almost marched like a drill sergeant swinging it wings like arms. You could almost imagine it saying “left right left right”. However what it was actually saying or should I say screaming was “Sit” “Down” “Walkies” “Shut up” and “Get Out” in an exact replica of the owner’s voice. Terry my client said matter of factly, “the bloody parrot is always doing that!”

After I got the confused and terrified dogs out of the room and everything settled down, I asked if there was anything else they should be telling me. Madeline said, “Terry did you mention the snakes”?

“Ahhhhh” said Terry! “Yes that is a bit of a problem.” He proceeded to tell me he had three giant anacondas in a large vivarium at the end of the garden, he was very concerned the dogs would get in there, as the smallest was 14 feet long and could easily kill and eat the dogs. He wasn’t half as concerned as I was when he suggested he show me them.

I was shown into the vivarium which was a converted garage turned into what appeared to be a miniature rainforest. Incongruously someone had dumped a couple of pink baths into this beauty spot, and two of the snakes were coiled up in these. “Keep away from the one over there Stan,” pointing to a particularly large specimen “he is a nasty little so and so” said Terry, “it’s a trip to hospital if he gets hold of you. The others are OK though” and he proceeded to pull the closest one from a large tree branch and drape it over my shoulders.

I do not have a fear of many animals including snakes, which I used to keep as a child, but this thing had a head that appeared bigger than a crocodiles and seemed to be 100 foot long, the weight of it was enormous I almost staggered when he put it on me. Terry assured me it was only 15 foot. Who was I to argue? However when we were finished I was more than happy to leave his little patch of tropical rainforest.

After my escape from the vivarium, I sat down to business proper with the family, and laid out what must be done. The vivarium must be fenced and separated from where the dogs exercised in the garden, both for the safety of the dogs not to mention the children, and to assuage the constant worry that Terry had regarding the snakes killing the dogs, this worry and concern I was sure was being picked up by the dogs.

I then recommended lowering the Parrot cage so that it was not looking down at everyone, (Parrots are also pack orientated just like dogs) the height of the cage has an impact on the birds psyche and behaviour which has an effect on how they perceive their position, rank, and the world around them. There is an avian behaviourist in the UK that just specialises in parrots and parakeets and their unwanted behaviour.

I also recommended they keep the dogs away from the parrot. The constant screeching and threatening behaviour clearly unsettled them; not to mention the confusion that was caused when the parrot started issuing commands in the owner’s voice.

They were clearly terrified of this enormous bird, that was certainly not helping with there stress levels. I also got them to set some basic obedience commands on the dogs, such as sit, stay, down and wait, which allowed far more control in the house. It also allowed the dogs to focus and be praised for certain actions.

Up until now most of the owners dialogue with these two over-excited young dogs had been negative, they were so stressed out they could not think straight and constantly barged about in confusion. They had been yelled at and ordered about not only by the owners but by a psychotic parrot as well.

So by putting in place a training program that was based on praise and reward, helped boost their self esteem and confidence. I pointed out that if they were going to reprimand the dogs do so sparingly and never use the dog’s name when doing so.

Imagine if for 50% of the time of the time when people said your name you were chastised, it would not take long before you said like many dogs do “ look at my paw cos my face ain’t listening”

The last I heard of this happy but somewhat chaotic family they were all living in harmony with all their pets.
Submitted: 03 Jan, 2008 (Edited 27 Jan, 2010)
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