I did an interview with Steve Dale, who is a WGN Radio host, pet journalist, and certified animal behavior consultant. His book, Ask the Dog, is about how to approach a dog we don’t know.
Why did you write the book?
Dog-bite numbers are on the rise, and I wanted to do something about that. One thing that, to my knowledge, really hadn’t been addressed in a book was paying attention to what the dog is saying, not what we think the dog is saying.
Dogs are communicating with us all the time. Even the way a dog lies beside you or behaves around you is communication. In our homes, with our own dogs, and outdoors with dogs we don’t know, they’re always telling us things. We often don’t pay attention. We pick up a dog because we want to pet it, or because we feel it’s our right, without noticing that the dog may be telling us, “Not right now.”
From the dog’s perspective, the dog is trying to tell us something. Dogs can’t talk, but they are communicating. Kids especially need to be taught to recognize those signals. If we can do a better job of understanding what dogs are telling us, I suggest dog-bite numbers will decline.
Why is the book called Ask the Dog?
Imagine you’re walking down the street and see a dog you don’t know. What do you do if you want to pet that dog? We’ve been taught that the first thing we should do is ask the person with the dog, “Can I pet your dog?” That’s still appropriate. But we also need to ask the dog.
I tell a story about walking our dog and encountering another dog that was sniffing the grass. The dog’s owner actually encouraged me to pet the dog. But when I looked at the dog, it was pulling toward the other end of the leash and wasn’t making any attempt to interact with me.
I said no. Maybe the dog was hungry and wanted to go home. Maybe it didn’t like interacting with strangers. Maybe it wasn’t feeling well. I don’t know. But the dog was clearly telling me something, and I needed to pay attention.
What is the book about?
The book follows a little girl named Morgan as she walks through a park with her mother. In a city like Chicago, or in any major metropolitan area, you’re likely to encounter lots of dogs—different sizes, colors, shapes and, importantly, different dispositions.
The question is: How do you read what the dog is saying? Sometimes the person may say, “Go ahead and pet my dog,” while the dog is saying, for whatever reason, “Not right now.”
Even with our own dogs, we often don’t recognize that. I know canine signaling and understand what dogs are communicating through their behavior. The book is an attempt to explain that in a way that children can understand.
The book has received some impressive endorsements.
Yes. Although Dr. Jane Goodall never got to see the book, I was told that she was willing to give it a blurb because she knew me and understood the premise.
The American Veterinary Medical Association also gave the book a blurb. To my knowledge, they had never done that before for a book. They have to decide how they draw the line and determine which books they endorse, so I was very honored that they did it for me.
Dr. Patricia McConnell, a revered veterinary behaviorist in Wisconsin, wrote the foreword. It’s only three sentences, but it’s beautiful. And Dr. Marty Becker, who I consider one of the most influential veterinarians in veterinary medicine, also gave me a blurb.
Those endorsements speak well, I hope, of the book and the message in it. I don’t believe this particular idea has really been done before.
What do you hope Ask the Dog accomplishes?
What I want to do is get the word out about the book any way I can, because I believe it can make a difference, particularly for kids. Kids account for a large percentage of dog bites. And even if someone says, “I don’t have a dog, and I don’t care about dogs,” this still affects them.
As dog-bite numbers go up, there are consequences beyond the person who is bitten. There are insurance implications, and dogs could potentially lose some of the freedoms they’ve gained in recent years, such as going to restaurants, baseball games, local stores and other places.
There is also the trauma experienced by the person who is bitten, and the effect on the dog and the human-animal bond. Dogs rarely get up in the morning thinking, “I’m going to bite someone today.” Often, they’re communicating something that we don’t notice. A dog might develop an ear infection, for example, and the family may not recognize that the dog is saying, “Don’t touch me there.”
The dog may not growl. The signaling can be subtle. Then the dog bites, and the human-animal bond is fractured. That doesn’t have to happen. It’s preventable.
What’s one of the biggest misconceptions about approaching a dog?
We’ve all been taught to put out our hand or fist in a dog’s face so the dog can smell us. I don’t understand that. It doesn’t make any sense.
If I see you and you put your fist in my face, that’s kind of rude. And it’s kind of the same for dogs. More importantly, if the dog is predisposed to bite, you’re putting your hand right in front of its face. We don’t need to do that. If you’re standing five feet away from a dog, or four feet or three feet, the dog can smell you. You don’t need to put your fist in its face.
Instead, wait for the dog to come to you. If the dog is coming toward you with its hackles up, growling and snarling, that’s obviously a very different situation. But if the dog comes toward you with its rear end up, its tail going back and forth, or rolls over or leans on you, the dog may be saying, “I want you to pet me.”
Professionals will tell you the same thing: wait for the dog to come to you.
What about hugging dogs?
That’s another problem. Dogs don’t naturally like to be hugged. They may learn to tolerate it, or they may learn that being hugged comes with something they value: attention from us. But they’re not born wanting to be hugged.
People understand what a hug means. It’s something we use to say hello or to comfort somebody. Other primates understand it, too. Dogs aren’t primates. Hugging a dog can be asking for trouble, particularly with a dog you don’t know.
Adults don’t often walk up to an unfamiliar dog and hug it. Kids do it all the time. And that’s another reason this book is important.
