Spot

We brought Spot home when she was 8 weeks old in 2012.  After Daisy died, my husband said, “if we are to get another dog (and I’m not sure that we should) we must get a small dog, a puppy of the ‘right’ age”. By this, he meant 8 weeks so that we could socialise her/him properly.  The next time I went to the Moorlands Rescue kennels there was an 8 weeks old puppy there with her Mum.  Thus, Spot was almost to order, although when Tim heard that she was white, his final resistance was to say “it’ll show the dirt”. Her Mum, a Jack Russell, (by Spot’s look her Dad must be a Staffy) had been picked up in Cardiff virtually in labour and her puppies were born by Caesarean. Spot was the only surviving pup. 

Despite getting her at the right age, socialising her extensively and training her thoroughly, Spot hasn’t always behaved in the way that we might wish…

• Spotty is very impulsive and often she can’t think and simply acts. She’s doing it before she knows she’s doing it. This has meant she is inherently reactive.
• Spotty’s never been that keen on being handled round the head and feet. Impulsive individuals often have body handling issues.
• She gets over aroused around food and has no self-control. She can’t think if she is hungry. Most training guides say ‘start with a hungry dog’ – this doesn’t work with Spot. Just the food issue in itself has made her harder to train than other dogs. 
• Although socially competent and friendly with people and most dogs, Spotty’s not very sociable. As an only pup she’s just not been that motivated to get on with others.

Spotty is a Terrier and a lot of her behaviour is reflective of this. Terriers have been bred as independent, aggressive killers who keep in touch whilst working by barking. They can be easy to arouse and vocal, with a low threshold for aggression i.e. they can bite first and ask questions later! Thus Terriers tend towards being genetically impulsive.

Spotty’s badly bred. Presumably, her parents’ mating was accidental. Spotty and her siblings were too big to be born naturally. Spot has luxating patella’s (or a terrier skip). This is genetic and common in small dogs. Spot also doesn’t have much of an undercoat and is virtually bald underneath her very short topcoat. She gets cold and often snuggles under a blankie. 

Her poor mum would have been very stressed on the street and most likely hungry too.  There is a proven link between maternal stress and impulsivity in people and rats. It is known that the offspring of rats stressed and starved in pregnancy can be unable to code the proteins required to build feel good neurotransmitters.  Their brains are altered before birth by their experiences in utero. Thus, maternal stress and pre-natal stress become embedded in the genetic code ‘epigenetically’.  Spot’s first 8 weeks in rescue won’t have helped either.  

On top of all of this, due to her impulsive nature, when she was about 3, she threw herself out of the back of the car before I could say ‘wait’ and bounced off the tow bar. Since then she has had a chronic pain issue which is exacerbated by her terrier skip. Spot has been on pain medication now for a long time, she has regular hydrotherapy and physio for her back.  

Tim was correct, getting Spot at 8 weeks of age left a good 4 weeks of the sensitive period for socialisation giving us plenty of opportunity to gently expose her to a broad cross section of the things that she was likely to meet in life.  She met lots of friendly dogs, tonnes of friendly people of all varieties and went here there and everywhere.  

As she grew up, in common with many, Spot has also had bad experiences with other dogs on walks and was randomly attacked several times by other dogs when young.  

Spot was always a bit reactive on walks, sometimes barking at people and dogs. She barks at people coming to the house and she loathed the postman! When she was about 6, her behaviour got a lot worse, especially near the house and on local walks. Spot expected the worst to happen and anticipated it due to insufficient ‘feel good’ neurotransmitters and being in pain. She became aggressive towards some small dogs locally as a way to counter her own anxiety. We elected to keep her on the lead.

Staying on the lead has been great for Spot. She feels safer on the lead. In addition, on lead exercise doesn’t exacerbate her bad back.

These days, Spot’s in a great place, she’s happy and we adore her. She’s not a people pleaser but why should she be?  Accepting Spot for who she, ensuring that her needs are met and addressing her pain issues has worked. She’s happy and her behaviour is much better…..oh and she does show the dirt!

People often say to me, ‘I bet it’s always the owners’ fault’, my own personal experience with Spot shows me just how unhelpful this judgemental attitude is.