Recently my dog Max had a rough day.
It started out innocuous enough. He and Emmie were just going to get toenails clipped and then we were off to run errands.
The groomer started with Max’s front paws and everything was fine. She got to his back paws and Max had a meltdown.
He was cowering, wimpering, trying to snap at the groomer. Max was mentally and emotionally transported back to a past event in his life. He was no longer in touch with the present reality.
The more he became disengaged from the present, the more the groomer hung on to his back paw. The more she hung on to the his back paw, the more disengaged he became. It was a vicious circle, a no win situation, certainly from Max’s point of view.
I told the groomer to stop and her response was you couldn’t let a dog get away with that kind of behavior. She also said I need to work more with his paws at home.
Max has always let me play with and touch his paws.
I have never understood the philosophy of ‘power over’ an animal. Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand animals are animals, and we need to keep ourselves and the animals safe. I understand a dog always knows where their teeth are, a horse knows how to execute a well-aimed kick. I understand there are times when you need to help an animal through a response or action through consistent, respectful, gentle and effective training.
I simply don’t understand when a human continues to inflict an action on an animal, purposefully escalating a situation, so the animal ‘won’t get away with that behavior’. In Max’s case, he was responding to a situation created by the groomer. He was telling her things were not right, he was not OK with what she was doing. She didn’t listen to Max, she didn’t listen to me. We now have a different groomer.
In life, people are on their journey where they are on their journey. There is not a doubt in my mind the groomer thought she was handling the situation in a most professional manner. Nor is there a doubt in my mind her actions would have worked and probably have worked with other dogs.
I am simply saying that I prefer to work with people who understand the concept of ‘power-with’ animals. After all, We All Do Better When ALL Creatures Do Better.
Harmony,
Janet Roper
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