The phrase arrives constantly and nobody examines it. A good dog is one that does not jump, does not bark, does not pull, does not beg, does not react, does not object to being handled, and lies down when the household would like it to.
Read that list again and notice what it has in common. Every item describes the absence of an inconvenience to a human being. None of them describes anything the dog is getting.
The quiet dog problem
In a building of flats, the most admired dog is the one nobody hears. Sometimes that animal is relaxed, well exercised and content. Sometimes it is a dog that has learned that its signals produce nothing, and has stopped making them.
Shutdown looks remarkably like good behaviour. A frightened dog in a busy group walks at heel, does not play, does not sniff, does not initiate anything, and comes home and sleeps heavily. The owner reports that it has settled in beautifully.
The same misreading happens with handling. A dog that goes stiff and still while a stranger pats its head is described as tolerant. It is enduring, which is a different thing and one that eventually runs out.
Absence of complaint is not evidence of contentment. In dogs, as in people, it is frequently evidence that complaining stopped working.
Where suppression leads
The practical argument against training by suppression is not sentimental, it is diagnostic. A dog that has been punished for growling still feels what it felt; what has changed is that you no longer get the warning.
Every signal a dog gives is information you can act on. Turning away, lip licking, a hard stare, a growl: each one is an opportunity to change the situation before anything happens. Train them out and you are left with a quieter animal and less to work with, which is why so many serious incidents involve dogs described as having given no warning at all.
A better standard
Judge the arrangement rather than the manners. A dog is doing well if it can empty itself when it needs to, move every day, use its nose, sleep undisturbed for long stretches, eat without being crowded, and be alone without panic. Add one more: it can decline. It can move away from a hand, leave a room, and stop a game, and the household responds when it does.
Against that standard, some very well-behaved dogs are not doing well, and some households with a dog that barks at the lift are doing considerably better than they think.
Manners still matter
This is not an argument for indulgence. A dog that jumps on an elderly neighbour, pulls its owner into traffic, or cannot be handled at the vet is a problem for everybody including itself, and teaching it not to do those things is part of a decent life in a city.
The distinction is between teaching a dog what to do instead, which adds a skill, and suppressing what it is telling you, which removes one. The first produces an animal that is easy to live with. The second produces one that is easy to ignore.
The question worth asking
When somebody says their dog is good, ask what it does all day. The answer is usually more informative than the compliment, and occasionally it is the beginning of a much more useful conversation than the one about manners.
General information for dog owners in Luxembourg, not veterinary or legal advice. For your own dog, ask your vet, a qualified behaviourist or your commune. How this journal is written and checked.
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The dog does not distinguish between the walks you enjoyed and the ones you endured.
Children, dogs and the supervision nobody does
The growl is not the beginning of the problem. It is the last polite stage of it.
