Bad day!

[Jonathan Finger]

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Kevin: 

 

Exactly right..  And why we're on the subject.  Every piano tech would
benefit from studying dog behavior (seriously) since clearly this is an
issue.  

 

Dogs very often sense our fear of them, and this is why those of us who
get along with them, don't understand why others don't, while they don't
understand how we can like them.  Dogs react very differently to people
based on the person's like, or fear of the animal.  I own an 80Lb.
German Shepherd (a real live one, bred in Germany) who is a Lab stuck in
a shepherd's body.  He has never learned aggression, loves small
children, other dogs, etc.  But, his face is black, and he's a shepherd,
so of course he's scary looking.  Also, Shepherds tend to be very vocal,
which can make them look aggressive.  Well recently we had a friend
staying with us, who had been taking a nap all afternoon.  He had made
it known that he was very afraid of dogs, and didn't like them.  So I
tried to keep "Attila" away.  But he awoke from his nap, and came out
while we were all sitting at the dinner table.  Attila jumped up and
barked, being surprised by this man, and I thought the man was going to
become incontinent.  It was clear to me that the only reason Attila
reacted the way he did, was his sense of the other man's fear.   

 

It behooves those of us who work with and around dogs to understand some
of their basic body language to know if it's friend of foe running
towards us.

 

Just a couple of quick pointers:

 

Good signs: 

 

Tail carriage low

Slow wag

Dog licking his own face/nose  (this is a common calming signal among
dogs, it works if you use it as well).

Dog dropping to elbows and growling  ("Please play with me!!")

 

Bad signs:

 

Tail Carriage high

Fast, erratic tail wag

Eyes wide open

Dog holding breath

Head low, hackles up (the hair behind the shoulders on the back)

 

I know it's off topic, but thought it might help some of us since we run
into at least as many dogs as the post man! :-)  (and we can't carry
cayenne pepper spray with us)

 

 

Jonathan Finger RPT

 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of Kevin E. Ramsey
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2003 6:52 PM
To: Pianotech
Subject: Re: Bad day!

 


FWIW, I get a whole lot of pleasure from the friendships I've made with
piano owners' pets and children during my visits.  Couldn't imagine
excluding them from my practice.

Mike Spalding RPT

 

    Mike, I too have fun with people's pets. I've never met a dog that I
couldn't have playing with me and licking my hand within about a minute.
I don't know what it is, I've had people say "He doesn't usually warm up
to people like this."  Clue, they're just big kids, even the little
ones. They want someone to pay attention to them. 

Kevin


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