Mr. and Mrs. Dog: Our Travels, Trials, Adventures, and Epiphanies

Listening to Dr. Dodman

93 ListeningtoDr.Dodman Think about it. You have removed your pet’s need to hunt by supplying food. You have removed his romantic interests by neutering him. You have removed his social need by depriving him of pack interests and competition. He can’t even wander and explore his outside territory, let alone try to resolve his own problems—because there aren’t any. You saw to that. So what’s a poor dog to do? Channel his energies in unacceptable ways, that’s what.—Dr. Nicholas Dodman A re you Max’s?” The vet tech smiled at me. I shook my head no. I didn’t think I belonged to any dog, but i if I did, I’d probably be Luke’s, presently in the car, or June’s. She was beside me in the reception room of Tufts University’s Foster Hospital for Small Animals. June eyed the big and little pet dogs and their humans. June yawned. June didn’t want Donald to be hers: she had enough on her plate. Besides, how would she feed him? A slightly embarrassed human confessed he was indeed Max’s and fol­ lowed the tech to the treatment rooms. I hadn’t heard whether I’d made the United States Team. The dogs and I were traveling to a Vermont trial, and I’d detoured to meet Dr. Nicholas Dodman, the man who’d introduced dogs to Prozac. After the receptionist announced us, June and I strolled to the doctor’s office. Tufts is on a beautiful campus with big tree­lined fields any dog would enjoy. When I unclipped June’s string leash, she dropped her snout to the grass, investigating a scent­world as intelligible to her as it was mys­ terious to me. Dr. Dodman is director of the Tufts Animal Behavior Clinic. His The Dog Who Loved Too Much: Tales, Treatments, and the Psychology of Dogs 94 mr. and mrs. dog (1996), Dogs Behaving Badly: An A-to-Z Guide to Understanding and Curing Behavioral Problems in Dogs (1999), Best Behavior: Unleashing Your Dog’s Instinct to Obey (2004), Puppy’s First Steps: The Whole Dog Approach to Raising a Happy, Healthy, Well-Behaved Puppy (2007), and The WellAdjusted Dog: Dr. Dodman’s Seven Steps to Lifelong Health and Happiness for Your Best Friend (2008) have been best­sellers. He has patents for “treat­ ment of repetitive disorders with opioid antagonists” and “treatment of OCD in animals and humans using NMDA blockers.” He greeted us affably at the front door of his modest colonial house/office. When I wrote to request an interview and a chance to watch him work/ train his own dog(s), Dr. Dodman replied that he didn’t have a dog and, in any case, he was a behavior consultant, not a dog trainer. Problem for me. A couple years back, a woman sped down our lane in a cheerful blue minivan. Ours is a working farm and though I am civil to unannounced visitors, I am no more than civil. My visitor was a fan. She asked to let her Border Collies out. “Sure.” Two dogs ran around and sniffed olfactory messages from the McCaig dog pack. “Well,” my fan asked, “what do you think of them?” I was dumbstruck. I honestly haven’t any opinion of any sheepdog until I see it work sheep. Anyway, Donald­the­dummkopf answered his fan: “Er, you might want to cut back on their food.” In frosty silence, my visitor jumped her plump dogs back into the van and roared back up the hill. Another fan done gone. It’s not that I have too many. I don’t do theories: I’m a crude American pragmatist. I like hearing dog­ training ideas, but absent real live dogs, I can’t evaluate them. Scotsman Derek Scrimgeour’s training theories are unusual, but Derek has won the Scottish National and anyone can watch his superb dogs work. Scrim­ geour’s theory is tested by living dogs. Theories are words. A living dog can or cannot repel an intruder, protect a toddler, have a clean run, be steady to wing and shot, never let up on his tug, or turn a rank old cow. You can or cannot take your pet dog anywhere. But my interview with Dodman would be dogless. Nicholas Dodman Listening to Dr. Dodman 95 is a clever, amusing writer...