If a young pup is separated from its mother prematurely, it tends to fail at learning the necessary social skills for dogs. When that happens, the puppy will find it hard to form friendships with fellow dogs. The worst-case scenario would be such a puppy would develop odd habits that prevent it from socializing properly.
A small dog named Bom has a strange habit of flipping over and showing her belly whenever she sees another dog. In the world of dogs, that is a gesture of showing submission or surrender. However, excessive use of such a gesture can confuse or even scare potential friends.
Bom’s owner admitted that she might be responsible for the dog’s current predicament. The owner was in a rush to adopt Bom, so the puppy was separated from its mother prematurely. As a result, Bom was never taught by her mother how to behave around other dogs.
According to an animal behavior expert, there was another mistake the owner made that made Bom’s behavior worse. The dog was encouraged to flip over because she would always receive praise from the owner when she did that. Hence, Bom thought it was a good idea to do the same thing in the presence of other dogs.
After identifying the cause of the problem, the animal behavior expert proposed an interesting solution to correct the odd habit. The owner was asked to growl at Bom whenever the dog flipped over. Those growls represented warnings or reprimands, contrary to the praise the dog was used to.
The small dog was confused at first by what her owner was doing. It took a while until Bom stopped her habit of flipping over. That habit was eventually replaced by other dog behaviors, such as sniffing and barking.
After solving Bom’s problem, the owner constantly took her to the dog park. Those visits became much more enjoyable since Bom was no longer an odd dog. As a result, the other dogs were much more open to interacting with Bom.
Source: SBS TV Animals via YouTube.
