Meet Sam. He’s a 41/2 year old Border Collie, adopted by Roberta K from a shelter in rural Virginia at the age of one. He’d spent his first year of life in a crate. It seems the elderly couple who purchased him, one wheelchair bound, found him “too much to handle.” (A pause here for us all to take a breath and remind ourselves about the value of compassion, versus our shared and understandable desire to shriek and rip our hair out by the roots.)
Sam was rejected by a number of potential owners after they came to meet the dog attached to the beautiful face they’d seen on Facebook. Something about him leaping repeatedly 10 feet into the air and lunging, teeth bared, at all visitors seemed to have put them off. Not Roberta, surely a true heroine, who knew that Sam desperately needed to get out of there, and felt that her past experience with other rescued Border Collie might give him a chance. She also had another BC at home, Sophie, who needed a playmate, and was grieving over the death of her buddy, another BC who died unexpectedly.
Sam went home with Roberta, and clearly his luck finally changed. From what I can tell, he ended up in the perfect home. He and Sophie became fast friends. Roberta saw early on that Sam is the kind of challenging dog that I call an “alpha wannabee.” In other words, Sam is a dog who appears to need to be in control (insert “D” word here if comfortable with it. Otherwise, forget I said anything…), but who is a puddle of fear deep inside. I always remember President Richard Nixon (does anyone else remember him?), who radiated a deep desire to be in charge, along with none of the personality or skills that could make that happen easily.) Roberta initiated a “no force” policy (see why I love her?), and used positive methods to teach Sam to be polite. No staring into his eyes by her children is allowed, but lots of play and the benevolent use of positive reinforcement to Sam that he can get what he wants by listening, not by biting.
Fast forward to now: Here’s the photo that Roberta sent a few weeks ago. This is Sam guarding a candy bar he had snatched. I was happy to receive the photo, because images of what is often called a “hard eye” are difficult to find. I wrote a blog in July of 2015 titled What is a Hard Eye? in which I discussed what to do when you see one (bottom line: change what you are doing), but I couldn’t find a good photo of “the look” to accompany it.
But here it is in all it’s heart-stopping splendor; the look says that “Make My Day” without a word spoken. There’s more here than that–look carefully at Sam’s muzzle. See how it’s puffed out on the sides? That’s in indication of what I call an offensive pucker. “Offensive” because it tells us that the dog is on offense, not defense.
The great news here is that Roberta’s response was wise and effective. Sam was in her car, but he wasn’t gobbling up the candy bar (which might have been very bad for him). Rather than attempting to use force to get the candy bar away from Sam, she relied on the training she’d done, and sang out “Leave It” as she drove home, interspersed with “telling him stories about playing ball and frisbee.” (She tells me it was only a 5 minute drive.) What a smart response on her part. Force is that last thing I’d try in this case. (Come to think of it, force is that last thing I’d try in any context, at any time.) What worked for Roberta was changing Sam’s emotional state from the primal state of “under attack and willing to fight to the death” to one eased by the repetition of a trained cue, and her light-hearted story telling.
Because that’s what one needs to do when you get a look like this: Change what you are doing, by changing your behavior into something that relaxes or jollies up your dog. While working with dogs whose faces went to the dark side, I’ve done the following:
Said “Wanna go on a walk?!” or “Wanna play ball?” or “Dinner! It’s dinner time!”
Began laughing and saying something like “Oh, you silly boy! What’s the matter? Having a bad day?”
Turned away, gone to get a toy or a treat and began playing with it (toy) or tossing it in the air or on the ground (treat).
Those have been my most common responses, but I suspect there have been more. Most important is to use your knowledge of the dog and what he or she knows. Roberta was wise to chant “Leave It” over and over as she drove home, along with using tone of voice and words associated with play to defuse the tension. That’s the game, in my opinion, to defuse the tension. I know some will argue that such a challenge should be met with force, and that anything else is teaching the dog to win by being aggressive. I strongly disagree. Dogs in this state are emotionally overwhelmed, and nothing good is going to happen if they perceive themselves as being attacked.
Sam and Roberta’s story ended well. He sat by the candy bar all the way home, but didn’t touch it. When they arrived home, Roberta opened the car door and Sam jumped out, leaving the candy bar behind him. Roberta gives lots of credit to her dog training guru Beth Ann Sabo for emphasizing the importance of the Leave It cue. I say HERE HERE to both of them, for avoiding what I guarantee you could have been a very nasty incident.
What about you? Have you encountered The Look or a Hard Eye before? I ran into one person who told me she thought she’d never seen it until she read my post about it in 2015, and realized that her family dog’s eyes went cold and hard right before it lunged for them. Most importantly, what do you do if you see it? I’m all eyes.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm. Brrrr. Nippy. Below zero several mornings, with highs in the single digits, which wouldn’t be bad if it wasn’t for the wind. But it’s gloriously sunny, which is such a joy. Our time outside is restricted to feeding the sheep, canine potty breaks and twice daily fetching sessions with Willie and Maggie. (Maggie fetches a thrown disc, while Willie runs after her with another toy in his mouth. We have to avoid Willie impacting his shoulder joints, so no more real fetching for him. Lucky for us all, he seems fine with this arrangement.)
We’ve spent a lot of time inside these last few days. I’ve obsessed over my winter garden, with spring flowers and amarylis starting to bloom. Thank you White Flower Farm, what would I do without you? And yes, someday I will take down my little Christmas men, but I am quite fond of them and every year I delay packing them up back to the attic.) Here is the “garden” on Friday, with the patchy snow in the background. (It was about 5 degrees F outside at that moment.)
Here it is this morning, with the spring flower basket brimming with color and the amaryllis on the right beginning to open. I obsess over them all multiple times a day. Yes, the “gardens” were expensive, but worth every penny to me. I just feel grateful and lucky that I could afford then at this point in my life.
Here’s what else we’ve done:
Now all I have to do is teach Willie, Maggie and Tootsie to do jigsaw puzzles with us. Tootsie’s only interest at the moment is attempting to ingest puzzle pieces that fall off the table. The BCs lie down at our feet and sigh noisily when we work on the puzzle. We can see speech bubbles over their heads that say BORING.
Here’s hoping the weather moderates a bit. Meanwhile, stay warm (or cool, depending on which side of the globe you’re on!)
Alice R. says
My poodle mix is a good natured, completely non-aggressive personality, and a real clown. I think of the hard eye look as a very clear “don’t you dare!’. You can’t miss the meaning, it’s really a whole body warning. I’ve seen it rarely, ignored it the first time when he was guarding a dehydrated frog, and just took the frog away despite the ferocious growling I’d never heard before. Stupid, huh? Sweetheart didn’t bite, amazingly. When you know better you do better: on the very rare occasion I see it now (luckily almost always indoors), I run in the opposite direction whooping and yelling like a maniac “let’s go get a TREAT!”. You’d better believe that treat is amazing, several pieces of something wonderful given out one at a time. I then throw a ball or something into another room so I can dive in and get the contraband without being seen. Usually, he forgets all about it. If he does remember it, he looks around to see where it went, but doesn’t seem to connect me to the problem. I’m careful to treat occasionally when he’s chewing something in his bed so he knows I only come for good, not to take anything away. Thank you for writing the books that taught me to do better.
Love your little indoor garden. I’m sure it does help. I’ve been stuck indoors after knee surgery and the cold doesn’t help. I’ve been neglecting many things, but maybe I’ll be nicer to my african violets so they bloom for me soon.
Michelle says
Thank-you for this most valuable post! Too many humans believe we have to take on all challengers and WIN, when there are so many better ways to train dogs (and horses, and kids, and, and, and….).
Steph says
What a lucky dog Sam is to have a hooman who not only understands him but also knows how to respond to his communication.
Well done Roberta 🙂 Lots to learn from great people like you.
Mireille says
I have never seen hard eye on my dogs towards me, but I have seen it between them. A couple of years ago they got into a serious fight over a Kong toy and I will never forget the look particularly in Shadow’s eyes. I swear the eyes were red with rage.
We managed to seperate them by both grabbing a collar and just holding them up in the air till they were so out of breath they had to let go. Not a method to recommend, but it happened in the dark, at half past eleven in a yard full of building stuff (new were rebuilding the house) in pitch dark. I only had the light from my headlight and we just did what we did… I am still amazed at the restraint they showed towards us. But when we drew them apart, they threw looks at one another that were hard eyes….
Of that night I have no pictures, but I do have a short clip of the following morning when the tension was not quite gone (ahem). Please feel free to share, it is on youtube https://youtu.be/MTW3EAWp05M
Luckily we managed to get them back on track and they have never fought since that day.
I do have another question that haunts me and I hope you might want to address that in another blog someday? We went to stay at a holiday cottage near friends. They have two dogs, Finnish spitz girls. We thought that that would pose no big problems with my two guys. But the moment Shadow saw the girls, he started to prowl, fixating them with his eyes (he looked like a BC giving eye, but very fierce, I think he looked even fiercer than when he sees a cat he would like to chase…. ). The girls were very submissive, tail between legs, licking lips, halting their approach but Shad would not snap out of it. He was on leash, the girls kept their distance so nothing happened but we were kind of flummoxed by his behaviour. He was coiled like a spring and we were afraid he would attack them. Off course meeting other dogs while on leash is not ideal, but with his initial respons on seeing them (we had just arrived) I did not dare let him off leash.
What I am mainly wondering about is whether I could turn this around an how to go about it, while keeping everybody safe… I have made arrangements with a local dog trainer/behaviourist to see if she can offer any help. She knows Shadow (she gives mantrailing classes) and was also amazed by his response.
Kat says
I saw this look not long ago from Ranger. We were visiting my mother-in-law. She’d had a rotisserie chicken from the store for her dinner and after pouring the grease out of the package it came in had put the package in the recycling. Notice she poured out what would pour but otherwise hadn’t cleaned it. Ranger found it. What red blooded dog worth his salt wouldn’t consider a plastic bowl coated in chicken grease the find of the century? He’d had it for several minutes before I noticed and he wasn’t about to give it up. I started out by agreeing with him that it was indeed the find of the century and telling him what a clever dog he was to have discovered it (mother-in-law keeps her recycling in paper sacks at the end of her counter so he wasn’t even being bad getting into the trash) and adding lots more wow what a smart dog commentary all in the happy and pleased voice. When he relaxed a tiny bit I started earnestly explaining how a little bit of chicken grease was fine but if he ate too much he’d make himself quite ill and reminding him how much he didn’t like having to stay at the doggie hospital before when he was sick all while getting him a jerky treat which I showed him and tossed into the other room. Ranger had stopped licking up grease during my monologue but he wasn’t about to abandon all the lovely grease for a lousy jerky treat. So I offered him a milk bone. He almost never gets these except at ‘grandma’s’ house because she keeps a supply of them for the dogs. I didn’t think it would be able to compete with the grease being a boring dry dog biscuit but apparently novelty adds a lot of spice and he was willing to trade the greasy bowl for a milk bone. All of my mother-in-law’s recycling then went immediately outside into her recycling bin and all was well. My goal is always to defuse the situation and fortunately for me not many things are as high value as a bowl of chicken grease so I almost never see the hard eye and absolute refusal to surrender something.
Beautiful spring flower basket. I’m anxiously awaiting my Christmas Narcissus blooming.
Nicola says
What a lovely dog and such a sensitive and caring owner. Interesting post and just shows how effective positive reinforcement and force free methods can be in situations where a lot of people may be unconsciously tempted to escalate to conflict to resolve the issue. I know the offensive pucker and hard stare very well indeed. We eventually learned to laugh it off and redirect it by exclaiming, ‘oh what a silly sausage! Wanna go walkie/getta treat?’ Or ‘watsis?!’ All in a nice sing song voice of which the tone really seems to help too.
The puffy puckers and hard stares are few and far between these days thankfully. What was driving the behaviour was fear and insecurity and not a desire to rule over us or take over the world. But I do think that dogs naturally and understandably want some control over their own lives and want access to things that matter to them (including choice and space as well as resource holding potential). How we frame this matters I think. We may then choose to redirect the behaviour as opposed to punish it if we understand that anxiety and fear (neurobiology) is driving behaviour and not necessarily a desire or even awareness to control a relationship within a rank.
I have found giving some dogs more choices has really seemed to help relax them too – more sniff walks with choices where to go; choices where to sleep in the house; choices with treats and food too. This is all within what is practicable and reasonable to manage.
I think anthropomorphism has been useful for me in understanding about the fallout of potentially forceful methods in situations where anxiety maybe driving behaviour. Of my two parents, one was controlling, domineering and punitive. I didn’t often feel emotionally safe. I felt judged and belittled. Often I felt anxious in this parent’s presence. As an adult I am still dealing with this due to the impact it had on my developing nervous system as a young child. The other parent, fortunately, was empathic, gentle and loving and helped me feel safe and secure irrespective of whatever occurred. Guess which one I love and adore to this day in middle age and one which I tend to endure and often avoid, even despite me understanding now as an adult that they really didn’t know any better at the time?
I think this experience has helped me try to understand anxious dogs who can’t speak about their feelings. I am acutely aware of how it feels to be not heard or understood and how it impacts on your outlook, wellbeing and resulting behaviour.
I am eternally greatful to the advocates who have given an empathic voice to fearful dogs and promoted empirical training methodologies that aim to heal and/or healthily preserve dogs’ nervous systems and not deteriorate them further.
Speaking of Richard Nixon (too young to remember him but history hasn’t forgotten him) unfortunately reminds me that the cyber sphere can be be a toxic place and an echo chamber of cognitive bias and dissonance. Have had somewhat of a digital detox over the last six months as I am figuring out how and when to use it as I don’t necessarily think all social media is a good thing when it comes to communicating on the web about our opinions, ideologies and beliefs.
But it was this website that helped me on the right track with dog training methodology and helped me to discover a humane world of empathy and education in dog training due to these enlightened people who share their knowledge so am eternally greatful. It reminds me that it is a shining example of how great people can be at communicating passionately yet sensitively on the internet so thanks to Trisha and other colleagues for their tireless compassion for both humans and dogs. And all this is why I am very much looking forward to your memoir!
Crikey, an essay! I got carried away!
Vicki in Michigan says
I have seen that look once. Just before my dog bit me when I was holding him to stop him from “correcting” one of the other dogs. Bossy corgi, with a fixation on telling the omega dog what to do (or not do).
It was an inhibited bite — bruise, no blood — but it left a mark on my upper arm that the nurse giving me a flu shot a few days later felt she needed to ask me about. (I didn’t tell, figuring it was my fault for mishandling him. “Er, um, yes, I do have a bruise, don’t I….”)
After that, when the other dog wanted to run around like a maniac, I crated the corgi, rather than trying to hold him. He would crate up without a struggle, and would sit quietly in the crate while the other dog ran around, so this solution worked for us.
em says
I love your bulb garden! I feel you on the price, but I’ve always felt that live flowers have one of the best cost to pleasure ratios around- as the amaryllis I’m coaxing along on my kitchen table can attest.
As far as my dogs are concerned, I’ve never seen the hard eye directed toward a human, nor in Sandy’s case at anything, though she will do a somewhat softer version-less stiff, less fixed, no offensive pucker, not much more than a slight freeze and a tightening around the mouth and eyelids – when she is feeling something I interpret as ‘annoyed’ usually when another dog is trying to take something of hers.
Otis, will do a similar ‘hardISH’ eye as a warning to other dogs when he wants them to stop what they are doing. The difference between this and the true hard eye seems to me to be the lack of a sense of hair trigger tension. Sandy and Otis seem annoyed, even warningly so, but not on the edge of fear or rage, in control of themselves.
In contrast, there have been occasions, once directed toward an attacking dog, a few times when he’s spotted a coyote, and the experience truly is chilling- my gentle, sweet dog looked absolutely murderous, and even though he never escalated to actual violence, it shook me badly because in the moment I had no doubt that he would, and that at the time there was virtually nothing I could do about it.
I am so,so impressed with Roberta’s guts and presence of mind, getting such a fabulous picture and handling her lucky dog with so much compassion.
Andy says
On a number of occasions Cecil has given me a look that, hard-eye or not, certainly seemed to express annoyance. They seemed to be related to something clumsy I hadn’t realized I’d done – maybe stepped too close and startled him? His eyes were wide and still, and his commissure flat. The funny thing is those expressions usually make me feel affectionate towards him, like getting to see that range of emotion is such a gift. I usually just ask, “what’d I do, buddy?” and get us moved on to something else.
On a related note, Cecil finally figured out how to open the food bin and I caught him chomping away a week ago. My reaction when he “wins” like that is to congratulate him and praise him, and then lead him away to something more delicious. I will admit it’s maybe made him a bit more enterprising than perhaps he should be, but it helps me maintain some control and I really do love telling him how brilliant he is for being such a successful little thief.
Diane M. says
This was a very interesting article. Also, I love happy endings. Got me thinking about my special terrier, Gig, and first dog I owned, way back in 1980. He had been left at a kennel, and the owner wouldn’t pick him up. Wouldn’t even talk to my mom when she phoned to get information about him. Gig was all terrier, and wouldn’t tolerate any guff. When we first brought him home, he would snap, if anyone dropped a hand near his head. After a few weeks, this behaviour completely disappeared, when he realized we weren’t hitting him, which it seemed pretty obvious his previous owner was. Don’t recall if he ever gave us a hard eye look.
Anyway, I am sure that trying to dominate Gig would have not gone well. He needed patience and consistency. He was very smart too. Gig was my friend and partner. He was one of those special dogs Trish talks about. Thinking back now, he could have easily become a problem dog, and most likely was to his previous owner. I was a teenager, and my training skills very green, but we managed together.
Loved your comment about your dogs and the puzzle. We believe that our dog Bridget, is thinking, ” blah, blah, blah”, when we are talking too much. A romp or a walk, is obviously way more productive!
Polly Milliner Ransone says
Sammy the Hugger!
Anna says
I have seen it twice close-up: once in a 3 – 4 month old puppy I was considering to adopt (I changed my mind!), when my husband lifted him up in a park near the foster carer’s place. The pup starred right into my husband’s eyes and growled deep and loud until he was put down again, and then continued his play with the other pups.
The second time was from the pup’s presumed sister, when she was about same age. We had taken her home on a 4 week trial, quite unsure about any of the puppies. One of the first days, she was asleep in our favourite cafe, after roughousing with the cafe’s dog for a while. The cafe owner came by, eyed the pup and said “Awww… How cute!” and lifted her up while she slept. She reacted the same way as her supposed brother had done: with a fixed hard stare straight into his eyes, growling long and deep until he put her down. I had never seen anything like it, especially not in a puppy!
All the around 10 puppies at the foster carer were from the same remote village, offspring of free ranging dogs. They were all different in looks, sizes and temperaments, but all had something “different” about them compared to all other puppies I have met. They were lacking some of the puppyness that I’m used to puppies having. Hard to define. The two supposed siblings (of same size and age, and always hanging out together … like peas in a pod) both had a confident but aloof air about them, largely ignoring people. The male was very active, and the female calm.
We chose to keep the female despite the staring incident NJ, and she is a great dog (Now 5 yo). Independent, intelligent, wise, with a very unique personality, my husband in particular is very strongly bonded with her. She is super tolerant and friendly and loyal to us and anyone she knows, and not at all resource guarding, but has reactivity tendencies towards stranger dogs and sometimes people, and staring tendencies towards strangers. We manage it with treats… She is extremely food motivated, and can usually be distracted with food, so I use that to work with her to try to increase her stranger-tolerance and lessen her dog reactivity. What makes it difficult is that most dogs around here are also reactive, so she constantly gets exposed to angry and intrusive dogs on walkies and has been attacked several times. Often barking and growling dogs behind gates and inside yards go bonkers when we walk by, sometimes throwing themselves against fences in their frenzy. It makes it harder to convince my dog that other dogs are not dangerous!
lee says
Great photos of Sam and kudos to Roberta!
I know you were somewhat kidding about the dominance suggestion, but could it be more that Sam has a low emotional IQ and hadn’t been taught proper manners and the way to handle in a more civilized way his fear and frustration, rather than wanting to control? Or do you really think that some dogs do have a desire to control (D word)? Please feel free to close the can of worms, but I truly would love to know your thoughts. (:
Lovely flowers!
I hope you and your family, fur and furless, have a happy and healthy New Year!
Adrienne Karoly says
We now have a moyen size black poodle in our lives now. The sweetest dog ever. I have never encountered the hard eye on Zasu. However, our previous dog a French Bulldog, Daisy,RIP,( I loved like crazy) often gave me that look. It was downright scary at times. Wish I had this information then. It didn’t stop me from loving her but life would have been better if I had this information. Thank you.
Jackie D says
I have had it from my resource guarding Springer.
(I’ve reduced it enormously by the usual methods, plus not giving her the most coveted items like bones anymore.)
I am not sure whether my other dog (BCxSpringer) does it. He does a border collie eye type fixed staring at other dogs and at people, sometimes accompanied by repeatedly stalking and then lying down. But although his temperament is much more dubious than my Springer, he is definitely more defensive than offensive when push comes to shove.
Jackie D says
PS in emergencies I have found that my Springer will go in her crate on command, taking the coveted object with her. I then wait until she wants to come out herself (if it’s a safe object) or I lure her out with other lovely things (knowing that at least she can’t fight my other dog over it in the meantime) but I don’t let her actually emerge until she drops the bone or whatever first, then I shut the crate door very quickly behind her.
Suzanne Rogers says
I use to have a female Aussie that would challenge you with that hard stare if you touched her to get off the bed. I trained a verbal command of leave it and off which she gladly accepted. I never had to touch her to get off the bed. She didn’t win and I didn’t get bit.
Barb says
Wonderful blog and awesome to have the photo example!! I have probably seen the look, but wasn’t aware of it at the time. We used to have a fear biting stray GSD/Dobe that adopted me one day at work, he had a long 13 year life with us but we often would “trade” good stuff for items he’d taken.
I’m wondering what the path is for a dog that uses this as a frequent go-to response?? Is it a behavior that diminishes as the dog feels more comfortable, or often continues and one should seek professional help from a behaviorist early on??
Lovely flowers, can’t wait to see the springtime farm photos!!
Ellen says
All of us who have super-dominant breeds look at the guru of the “show them who’s boss” school, aka “the dog whisperer” and say “yeah, right, that’s a good way to get bitten”. The first and last time I started to show a bulldog who was boss, she made it very clear what a bad idea that was. My favorite story was about our male Rottweiler from German working breeding and super dominant. We did his nails by laying him on the floor with my husband trimming the nails and me shoving small pieces of bacon into his mouth as fast as I could crooning “dead dog” to him the whole time. Used at least a pound of bacon to do all 4 feet. He loved having his nails trimmed. Eventually when we said “dead dog” he would “assume the position” and it was a great response when he became aggressive.
Anne says
I see it all the time, thank goodness not directed at me, but from my dogs to each other if I give one a bone (or any other great thing) and another one wants it. I don’t do anything about it, as the one who is being warned away just leaves the dog with the bone alone. I learned to give the look myself, as the quickest way to keep them from taking my food off the coffee table.
I had one puppy who was starting to develop food guardy tendencies very young, and I treated this by giving her a few crumbs in her bowl in the crate, then a few more, then a few more, then dropping in something really good like a bit of steak on top her full bowl of food. This was over a week or two. Then I had my kids do the same. She is now 8 and has never been guardy with humans again since that short puppy period.
Mary Hanvik says
Our Aussie shepherd/border collie mix is so smart. We’ve never had the hard eyes but she has figured out that if she grabs something she shouldn’t have, she gets our attention. She usually does this when we’re cooking, reading, have company, etc. I usually walk away from her saying, “I’m going to the kitchen to get a treat.” This always gets her to drop and follow.
nerdycellist says
We were the third owners for the corgi/gsd we adopted, and never once received a hard eye from her, but I have received it from two dogs not my own. The first was a gorgeous petite pittie mix who had been rescued from the street by a friend and his husband. She had not been well socialized and was terrifyingly aggressive so they worked with a “trainer” to fix it – one of those drop your dog off boot camp places that seem to have a vast misunderstanding of the “D” word.
I was invited over to a small dinner party and was given treats at the door to greet the snarling dog with, which I did. I then helped her owner with some of the kitchen prep and she stared at me, rigid, the whole time. She was guarding her owner, and if I made one sudden move there was a growl and a warning. I did my best to keep my own body language neutral, my voice bright, but when she’d get growly her owner insisted on stomping and shouting at her, as that’s what the trainer told them to do, to “show her who’s boss”. She’d quiet down, but it was clear she was on high alert for the whole evening.
When other guests arrived the whole cycle started up again. It was sad, because they also had another dog who was an absolute angel and I really wanted to snorgle him and get generally dopey as one does around goofy dogs, but I knew if I put my face anywhere near dog snout level I was going to leave with one less ear (at minimum). The anxious dog got no pets whatsoever – she didn’t look like she wanted them.
At one point I could hold it no longer and had to excuse myself from the table to use the bathroom and the snarling dog was up in at instant to let me know that my leaving the group was unacceptable. Instead of stomping and shouting as I had been instructed to do, I just shook my head and sighed “Puppy, that is bullshit and you know it!” which confused her enough that she had no problem with my leaving the dining room with nothing more than a quizzical head tilt from her. She seems to be doing fine with her humans and dog brother, but who knows how friendly she’d be if they had found a trainer who didn’t think the answer to aggression was more aggression.
Kathy says
I had a resource guarder (now deceased). He only guarded things he stole (it took me years to figure that out)–never his food bowl or anything you *gave* him. He would give hard looks and the pucker if he had nabbed something particularly valuable, but you could defuse him. The photo of that hard stare brings back memories.
Sandy Wittliff says
Thanks so much for this. The second Que I teach in my classes is Leave It– what no sit or down– Leave it is so powerful and can prevent just the situation you described. I have therapy dogs who are around lots of medications that could hurt them and Leave it can mean life or death to them.
Julie says
This is the look our big hearted, boundlessly loyal little red heeler girl would often give to approaching strangers as they put out their hand, asking, “Can I pet her?” We’d quickly say no, and explain that she’s spooky, or shy, or sensitive. If they ignored us, and kept coming, “Dogs love me!” our Cinnamon Girl would lift her lip into a snarl. Then they believed us. 🙂
Samantha says
I rescued a dog similar to the one in your story. He was afraid of literally everything. I knew that using traditional training involving anything resembling force would end badly for us both, so i taught myself how to do entirely positive training. It worked like magic. No one had ever managed to get this dog to do a basic sit on command before i started doing positive training with him. And in less than an hour, he was sitting on cue and following me like a curious puppy.
I had spent hours and hours teaching him to trust me before i ever tried doing obedience training with him simply because of how damaged his psyche was by the things he went through before i rescued him. I needed his trust before i could teach him anything useful. Once i got that trust and i discovered his weakness for a certain type of treat, it was night and day as far as how fast and how willing he was to learn what i wanted to teach. And he did want to be in control of the situation, especially at first, because he hadn’t had much reason to believe anyone else would do what he needed … until i started changing his mind. He would give me that look a dozen times a day at first. He challenged me every step of the way, for months. But i would give him the things he liked and give him better things to focus on and those challenging looks faded and eventually went away.
I loved that dog very much. Bandit lived with my family for 14 years until old age took him over the Rainbow Bridge. That big, blonde collie-chow-golden retriever mix changed the life of everyone who met him. Strangers always were met with a level of suspicion, even in his later years. And we always had to be careful to teach new visitors what not to do, but it simply became part of our life.
Hazel L. Troendle says
My Aussie. Wild, used to give me the hard eye over bones. I would tell him to leave it and get “that look”. So, I would laugh at him and talk to him about being such a goofy, silly boy. His posture would relax quickly and his warning growls would turn into happy, playful growls. Once he was relaxed and clearly playing with me (even play bowing to me), I could take the bone from him as he would have forgotten about it.
Theresa Spencer says
Enjoyed your article. Thank you. I also have a Border Collie who has some strange habits. Bought her from a ranch last spring. Sometimes when called she’ll come over in a cowering, submissive way. Not sure if in her past she was called over and then scolded. That’s all I can think it might be. She’s not protective of any areas of her body so don’t think she was hit.
Also noticed in your pics that you have 2 amaryllis plants – poisonous to dogs if I am correct.
Kris Ruffner says
Most definitely. Pet sitting for a friend with a very sketchy rescue Rottie. A lot of bluster when I first arrived, but gradually she aired out. She’d be totally fine then all of a sudden, even after having been there more than 24 hours straight, I’d stand up and she’d come at me, eyes hard, barking and lunging. A couple of times, I was walking to let her outside, and she seemed fine, and from behind me I felt her mouth my hand…not sure what that was about (it wasn’t a bite or even a nip), but after that, I always made sure I kept one eye on her.
What I found worked for me was first, getting her attention and cheerfully joking, “Okay, Bella, I’m gonna get up now!” which usually worked. If it didn’t, I’d stand still with a soft body posture (standing at an angle, and tell her, “Oh, Bella, you’re just being silly.” and prattle on lightly until she eased up. Defusing the situation was absolutely effective with her. As a CVT I’ve used this method many times with tough patients in the clinic.
Tracy says
I often wonder how many fear aggressive dogs will turn offensive when they are in the fight or flight mode. I would guess that we have seen this with our, what else, Bordie Collie mix rescue! Raleigh is now 11 and has mellowed but is still what was called fear aggressive. We have used the redirect of get the ball, or let’s go for a ride when he is showing us his teeth. I have always felt that he has a genetic kink of some kind as he has truly scared us on a few occasions. He is very impulsive which I believe is tied to his aggressive behavior. I commend Roberta for taking the plunge and adopting a troubled BC. While we love Raleigh more than anything I would prefer never to have a dog like him again! We have learned a lot over the past 10 years but sadly have not been able to correct some of the handling problems we still struggle with (can’t be handled to trim toenails, or handled by the vet, or to check out a bloody toenail). We are thankful for Patricia’s great books along with Jean Donaldson. Otherwise we probably would be quite ignorant of how to best deal with our growling, teeth baring lover boy!
Amy says
Unfortunately have seen way too many hard eyes. One of the scariest was a very large male rottie, mind you I am around 5’1″ went to get history and weight on the dog. The dog took one step toward me If I would have moved I am sure he would have attacked. Needless to say, had the owner take him to weigh him and muzzled during the exam. Have had others but he was past just hard eyes, it was more like I will kill you eyes.
Lauren says
I saw that photo on your link to the blog on Facebook and thought, “Why is Lucy on Patricia’s blog?” Sam could easily be my Lucy, also a border collie who spent her first 9 months essentially crated because she was too much for the family with 4 children under the age of 8. I have received this look when trying to handle her. Thanks for the reminders on how to help Lucy shift her energy and keep her out of trouble!
Katie Kintner says
My mother’s pommie had hard eye any time she had company, which included her grown family. He even once bit my sister so hard that she has developed a fear of pomeranians. We learned to stay out of his reach. When she moved into assisted living, I had to take the dog into my home. To my surprise, once he got into my car he seemed to realize that he no longer had to be in protective mode and became the nicest little dog almost immediately. He eventually moved in with my brother and lived many more years, still a friendly little dog. His “candy bar” had been my mom! He is gone now but my brother has another pom and I have one too. They are both very sweet dogs but my sister is still wary of them. Oh well, you can’t win ’em all.
Susan Hawkes says
Thanks Nicola for comparing the dominance way of child rearing to the same thing in dogs. Violence of all types begins at home. (Alice Miller, Pat Ogden, Daniel Seigal, Van der Kolk, Cozolino, etc.)
Distraction, redirecting, cajoling are all much more effective because they reduce the fight-flight hormone response in an animal’s panicked brain.
I had the same mix of parents and maintain an indoor pack of 6-8 rescued dogs. One cocker lab mix gets this hard-eyed look just before attacking another dog over human attention. I ignore the other, intruding dog and talk the hard-eyed Pumpkin down off the ledge by assuring him he is not going to have his petting interrupted. Sometimes I can just block his line of sight with a pillow. If that doesnt work, I escalate to redirecting his gaze and attention to a tossed toy, delicious kleenex or other shreddable object.
If all else fails, I yell, Who wants to get in the car?! and start walking briskly to the door. As higher energy dogs tumble outdoors, I separate others to the kitchen for treats. The outdoor others are then invited back in for a treat party. They all know mom hands out treats in an even-Steven circle and become very focused on me while waiting their turn. After a few cycles, my arms go up and I announce, All gone! Then I turn to wash my paws while everyone diperses as a relaxed pack.
Hooray for redirection and equal treat distribution!
Tracy Regole says
I adopted a Border Collie this month with severe aggression issues. He would have been euthanized had I not agreed to try to resolve his issues. He gives me a hard eye almost daily. He attacked me the second day I had him when I tried to get him to go into a kennel run to go potty. I went 100% into tough love from that point forward. He has to sit or obey a task to get anything he wants (I do not force him to sit…but he gets nothing until he does). He gets lots of praise when he responds positively. He is too dangerous to have loose in the house and I get the hard eye many times when I open the crate to let him out. If he doesn’t snap out of it, I just close the door and try a few minutes later. The longest it has taken is three tries to have him come out. It has been almost a month and this looks like a years long uphill battle. He hates my son (who lives with me) and barks ferociously most times he lays eyes on him. My son is calm and non-confrontational about the whole thing. He has tried having him obey a command and then gave him a treat (through the crate), but has had no success in stopping aggression later. Note: in his previous home this dog bit family members four times, the last one leading to stitches. He is only 16 months old, so I am hoping there is still a chance to turn this around. I had groomed this dog twice prior to agreeing to take him and had never met the owners prior to that point.
Katie says
I have a staffy x whippet (possible x malinois, she’s an odd one) rescue who was a Christmas present for a child as a puppy. Same old story, child got bored, Ellie grew quickly and was left to live alone in the back garden with no stimulation aside from guarding the fence from passersby, and no socialising. When she finally came to us with a bite history and resource guarding issues, I got the shock of my life when she flew at my lurcher boy over some drain water she suddenly took a liking to. Everything slowed down and the rescue and I (we stay in touch as we foster for them) celebrated when she started warning when she was stressed rather than just lunging straight away. I will have to look out for hard eye. I don’t really see that in her, it tends to be whale eye defensive. But maybe now I’m looking for it I’ll spot it!
Broxi says
It’s not not only the hard eye look, but the excited, the inquisitive, the play time for frisbee and Chuck it looks too.
I really never knew about the hard eye look until reading this story. But, I do know the look when my Boyz give it to each other, and another family dog. If either one does a resource guard + growll with a verbal yip/bark, with toy or a bone, (nearby to) I take the object away. I tell my Boyz if they are going to do this, then they cannot have it. They cock their heads, and either go lay down, or come sit with me to cuddle.
But, I do have this resource guard problem happen if another dog will run up to us… And it is still a work in progress to have them focus on me when playing off leash and other dogs are around. They are much better now, then they were a year ago. They are 20 months (brothers from the same litter) BC/Heeler mix, but I still keep each on his leash, close to me, when going on walks in the neighborhood because other behind the fence dogs go ballistic when we walk by…. And in the beginning of our training, it was a complete nightmare for us (really for me). Now, my Boyz will ignore the barking, but if off the leash they go ballistic at the fence line w/the other barking dog.
I’m not a natural dog whisper like some ppl, and like my Mom for instance, she is great with dogs, and they love her. My Mother tells me I should go and learn how to be a dog trainer. I guess bc I’m too lenient at times. But hey, we have learned together how to behave and learn frisbee trix.
Thanks for the lesson.
Becky says
My Malamute Zeevie is the hard eye queen, was anyway. In our Malamute group we call it the dreaded Hairy Eyeball. You don’t’ really understand it until you see it firsthand. She is an alpha wannabe. It seems true alphas don’t have to force it, they just are and everyone seems to take note of that fact. Once in a while there may be a fight between two alphas, but I swear the majority of fights are caused by wannabes. Zee is a fearful wannabe. She sucks at leading, really bad. Zeevie and I have worked very hard to overcome her fears with a very good trainer named Bonnie Krupa. Zee can now interact with strangers, even men. She does not immediately “pop” when she sees other dogs.
The hard eye, hairy eyeball, was a brief warning that meant trouble was imminent if I didn’t’ do something to intervene. With Zee, it was “WATCH” and point at my nose. If I could get her focused on me in time, then she could stay on track and the hairy eyeball would slowly dissipate to laser focus on my eyes. Not all dogs like to look people in the eye, she doesn’t’ like it from other people, unless she offers it first. When my other Mallie, Lil’Bit, was suffering health issues, she and Zee would fight. Neither one was alpha material, but with Lil’Bit weakened, Zee felt she was top dog. We had some horrible fights where one, or both were injured, where I was bitten by Zee. (Totally stupid move on my part) They would both give the hard eye. Zeevie’s hard eye would almost immediately morph into what I called losing her soul. Her pupil would explode and take over her whole eye, there was no color, just blackness. A switch would flip in her head and the essence of who Zeevie was would be gone, she was without soul. Zee had morphed into a creature that felt she must fight to live. Once separated, it took 20 to 30 minutes for Zeevie’s eyes to fully return. I think she had no idea what she had just done. I would make her sleep it off overnight to make sure her chemical balance had returned. For her part, after about an hour, she would want to play with Lil’Bit, who, of course, wanted nothing to do with her.
About two years before losing Lil’Bit, Cajun came to live with us. Another Malamute, he is a true alpha. He was 5 mos when Zee and Lil’Bit got into a nasty fight in the foyer. I had a hold of Zee from under her hind legs, pulling backwards slowly. I slipped and she ended up on top of me, still holding onto Lil’Bit’s screaming face. It was a bad place to be. Cajun thrust himself between them, forcing Zee to let go of Lil’Bit. He then backed her away against the door and kept her there while I recovered and got Lil’Bit behind a baby gate. I never heard a growl, never saw him lift a lip. Zeevie’s eyes came back within a few minutes and he started play bowing and engaged her. I was dumbfounded and amazed!! He controlled Zee with his eyes and his posture.
Watch the eyes, but put it with their body stances and movements as well. Your own posture and eyes tell them volumes of information as well.
Chris Redenbach CBCC-KA, CDBC says
I’ve seen this look in many dogs…hazards of the work I guess. I wish more people would recognize it. Too many people think that all dogs who are aggressive do it out of defensive fear and they seek to console. Whatever the neuroscience of it is, the dog is definitely on the offensive and not recognizing this look results in a lot of bad outcomes. The “leave it” is certainly a wonderful tool whether the object triggering the situation is a thing to be guarded or a stranger to be confronted. I too teach a “leave it” which includes a turn away from the object/person and orient to me, and then a bomb proof stay once the desired distance is achieved. One super smart little Yorkie who turned into a demon over any desired object learned in just one week to leave it, come to me, sit and stay while I went to get the object. His first real life test was the very day he went home to his owner and he discovered “some large black thing” in the bushes behind the house. He then ran with his coveted treasure into the house and up to the owner’s bedroom. She didn’t know what it was but knew he shouldn’t have it. From downstairs she shouted, “leave it” and the little guy came flying down the stairs to get his praise and treats. When she went to discover what it was, she found a dead crow on her bed. I truthfully was a bit shocked that this small but mighty dog had actually left such a jackpot of a find. What a great little dog! But the hard look is definitely one to know. I tell my clients that when the dog goes still, the eyes turn hard and the mouth closes, trouble will explode momentarily if the situation is not diffused/defused.
Erin O says
Tucker is a “reformed” resource guarder. He was very bad during his teenage years, then with diligent work became very comfortable with me taking things from him (once he learned that he’d get a treat and usually get the thing back too). However I don’t practice as often as I should anymore so if he has something very high value (stolen trash usually) I will still occasionally get the hard eye. Tucker has a very solid retrieve that he loves to do so even if he has something that he won’t let me take from him, he’ll happily bring it to me and place it in my hand when asked to “bring it!”. I think some dogs just have that knee jerk reaction to guard when you go at them for an item they have in their possession. If you can find a way to get them to drop it without you going in for it I think it prevents them from getting into that possessive mind set, and they’ll give it up much easier. Back before Tucker learned a retrieve command I would pick up one of his toys and just start running around the house swinging the toy around until he couldn’t help but chase after me, leaving the forbidden thing behind.
Jen says
My boyfriend’s Springer is quite a fan of this look. Especially in bed at night or when he has snagged something out of the garbage if he pulls the baby locks open or off the counter or out of the fridge if we leave it unlocked. In the bed is the worst and we differ on the approach. I am a fan of the, “Ok, you want to be an angry dog, fine, off the bed until you can be nice.” approach and otherwise ignore the behavior. Boyfriend tends to hug and pet him, telling him to knock it off. He always calms down and has *never* lunged at me, but it is not a look I am used to seeing directed at myself. My lab is ridiculously non-aggressive, partly personality, partly training, and always having me there to keep him out of situations where people or other animals are pushing his buttons. The Springer is generally very sweet, if naughty and rambunctious, but he just has those moments. Apparently he was a very difficult and aggressive puppy.
Amanda says
As the owner of a reactive aggressive male shepherd, I have seen that look more times than I care to count. I will admit that out of fear myself, I have addressed it inappropriately. I have learned and now know to use the above mentioned techniques.
It is startling and one that takes a certain wherewithal to calm yourself first to best assist in diffusing the tension.
I appreciate this post as this look was something I had never encountered or at least appreciated prior to owning my reactive boy. I think it’s something all dogs, reactive or not, have at some point in their lives. The key is how we as owners react to it and whether our reaction reinforces it or diffuses it.
Millie says
The most memorable “hard eye” I ever saw was some years ago at a boarding kennel I owned in N Michigan. I was the only one in the area who would take pit bull terriers, with the understanding that I had to meet the dogs first in the yard and just watch them interact with the owner, family and me in a strange place.
The family had two, one was a typical doofus type of boy, the other was…different, more aloof, but would come to me and accept petting. I agreed to take them in.
One day my husband cut them loose in the common kennel yard to burn off some energy. I was in the building doing something, came out, took a left down the sidewalk just as Mr. Aloof came around the runs at the corner to the right. He stopped, gave me a look that stopped me in my tracks. Sweet Mother of God, I am about to die was all I could think. He said nothing, did nothing. That was it…stillness. He was considering me for lunch and had that hard eye, not moving a muscle just deciding which part would be most delicious to bite first.
I don’t know where my reaction came from, some self preservation made me decide to do what I have seen preached at classes and books that deal with this. I immediately dropped my eyes and looked to the left so I could keep him in my vision. Slowly went down to a squat, thighs/legs protecting my belly and my hands reached up to link behind my neck to try and protect that. I wondered if it would hurt. I wondered if I would begin to scream and thrash which would fuel him to increase his efforts. I managed to not pee myself because frankly, I truly thought this was it for me. As I went down, I began to babble. “Come here, fella, come and see me! What a good boy! Do you know how pretty you are? Would you like a cookie? Did you have a good time playing in the yard?” Sing song, anything I could think of to deflect his mind from me being prey.
And you know what? He suddenly pranced over to me. “I am a boy, yes, I am a GOOD boy, and yes, could I please have a cookie?” I managed to ungrip my hands and scratched him all over. “Yessss, yess you ARE!” I squealed. He thought this was great. In a couple of minutes, I somehow able to rise, keep up the chatter and get him and Mr. Doofus in the building, threw a handful of cookies into the run and slapped the door and put a latch on it for good measure.
I don’t know what made me act the way I did, but it worked. They stayed a couple f more days, no problems but never loose with humans again. I accepted it all as a very important life lesson, though, so I totally get what you are talking about! I’m sharing this column with my private puppy group on Facebook. You never know when this might come in handy! Thank you for sharing it with us all!
And come to Southern Kentucky. 55 degrees, but really windy today. I left N MI almost 7 years ago and have never regretted it a bit!
Nicole says
Thank you for a great post (as usual). I did not read through all of the comments so forgive me if this has already been asked and answered. Was Sophie in the car at the time? What should Roberta have done if Sophie showed interest in the candy bar, potentially provoking a serious dog fight? If they weren’t riding separately in the car, this could have escalated in seconds while Roberta was driving! Scary.
Maria Blasko says
Wow – that picture actually triggered me. It is the real deal. Thank you for finding it and highlighting the often confusing, scary and mis-interpreted case of fear aggression or reactivity. My first dog was fearful and as a new owner, I did everything wrong at first. She quickly lost trust in me and her fear turned into fear reactivity and then amped up to full-blown fear aggression. She was a “pit bull type” dog, so every professional I met thought she was a danger. She was not but I needed to change. Thanks to a veterinary behaviorist from UC Davis, the right combination of pharma. meds, and a completely new mindset, I was able to rehabilitate her. After a few years, we got to a place where she was comfortable in her own skin. We had meet and greet protocols in place for in my home but outside, I let no stranger meet her. She died quite young of Lymphoma at age 5 but I now think the stress of being so afraid all of the time was the real dis-ease. RIP, Sierra. You taught me all I know.
Margaret says
I saw it once from my sweet, shy, rescued terrier. On a terribly stormy day, he brought a wet and dead baby rat into the house and gave me the hard stare and a frightening growl when I approached him to see what it was. I got delicious treats for him — and tongs which I used to pick up the critter. I assumed he was protecting it as prey and not as his puppy, but I had never seen him guard anything like that before, and I never did again. The dog has passed away, but I have kept those old tongs handy in the garage.
Ellen Barry says
I’ve gotten that stare from my rescue german shepherd/boxer mix–once, when she was new to us. It happened when I wanted her to move and she didn’t want to go. Like your other readers, I immediately clowned around, to let her know this wasn’t going to be a show-down, and she relaxed. We were new to training at that point, but I was lucky to find your books right away and learned so much from your writing that I was able to convince my husband that the CM method of dominance–which felt awful to both of us anyway–would not work with this girl. She is loving and sweet and follows me everywhere, loves every human she’s ever met; other dogs–not so much. We’ve trained so that instead of lunging with fury at every single dog she sees, we keep our distance, and she turns to me for a fun tug session with a toy I carry on walks. There are still 2 or 3 neighborhood dogs (unstable) who are mortal enemies; we simply avoid them.
As for your indoor garden, it is a reminder to me that soon I’ll have to deal with cold and snow–we will be moving to southern Oregon from LA, where my roses are blooming right now!! and the rosemary is covered in bees seeking nectar from its beautiful tiny blue blooms. My Naked Ladies are coming into full leaf; the daffodils are on the way out but their scent lingers. The jasmine will be blooming in a couple of weeks, and also the mock orange. Spring in LA is winter for everyone else, and the fragrance of jasmine is one of its harbingers. I love reading your blog and hearing about your pups. Keep it coming; I wish you’d come to LA for a visit–maybe in March when winter has become just too much to tolerate and you long for sweet scents and sunshine?
Douglas W. St Clair says
The article ‘“Hard Eye,” & What to Do When You See It’ Left me with a question.
The article included the following: ‘[the] offensive pucker. “Offensive” because it tells us that the dog is on offense, not defense.’ My premise is, except for certifiable nut cases, creatures don’t get up in the morning on the offensive. Nor at various times during the day do they decide to go on the offensive for no clear reason except to dominate or subjugate. In there own mind they become aggressive only when they feel threatened. Now your observation regarding the puckering is a good one and I expect it does mean, as you suggest, a dog will become aggressive if pressed in less time than a dog without the pucker. What I am having trouble with is applying the terms defensive and offensive to the presence or absence of the pucker. Am I missing something or perhaps there are better words? Somebody, anybody give me some guidance here.
As an aside I also assume the pucker is part of a string of signals, each of which is intended to be more forceful in communicating the dog giving them wants some behavior on the part of another dog or person to stop. Is there a list of these signals in order I might reference?
Thanks in advance.
Douglas St. Clair and Foster
Lori J Murray says
I’ve never seen this with our Golden Retriever but as soon as I saw the picture it reminded me of “my look” when I’ve had enough. My husband & kids call it “the look”.
Rebecca Owens says
I was attending a two day workshop with a “behavioral” vet who intoned NOT to use the “leave it” cue because it equated to NO and they were all about never using that word. Having used the leave it successfully for years, and recognizing the distinct difference to no (which I also use) I decided not to attend the second day.
Kezia Mason DVN says
I looove reading your blogs, the cute litte conclusions that intro a small, sweet portion of your life, it sound like a relaxing space you have created. on a training note, your words resonate with me, this is the way I was trained. it is soo important to recognise time and place and be in sync with your pooch. I have an entire (for now) 1 yr old shar-pei/Sheppard/american bulldog, he is the sweetest, softest wee pup but I absolutely know the potential risks with him as he is a bundle of nerves deep down. I have an incredible bond with this boy and he trusts me so deeply that he will check in with me when he encounters something stressful. I tell him all is fine”on our walkies” or something similar and off we go. I would hate to break that bond by being forceful and losing his trust. teaching the “leave it” command was the best thing I have done. for us it is a cue to calm down… everything works out okay… time to chill.
Thank you for these blogs, they reaffirm soo many things for me. you are wonderful 🙂
Carol says
Great story, great image. May I have permission to use it? I am giving a seminar on reading body language including facial expressions to a group of local teens next month and this would be perfect.
Mary Ann says
I first saw this look on my adorable 10 week old Australian Cattle Dog puppy, Galen. He is my third dog. My first is a border collie mix (Obi), and my second was a cattle dog mix (Yaddy). Obi has never had this look and neither did Yaddy even though she was a very fearful dog. When I saw the look on my puppy followed by his transformation into a lunging, snarling, biting monster I was absolutely terrified. I called the breeder to ask for guidance. She told me he had first exhibited this behavior at 4 weeks old while being held for too long in a child’s arms. She then proceeded to tell me how to fix the problem. Basically, grab him by the scruff of the neck, lift him in the air, and stare him down until he submits. As soon as he does, praise him. She said that I was teaching him that rage worked as a way to control me and that I had to break him of the habit immediately. Apparently this behavior was nothing new in her dogs. She informed me it was no big deal and that she’d taught her daughter how to do this. I was devastated. First of all, I didn’t want to handle my puppy in this way and I simply didn’t think I could do it. (I have since read your book, The Other End of the Leash, where you said you saw lots of gorgeous dogs with aggression issues. Well, my pup is absolutely gorgeous until he looks like a demon.)
At puppy class, things didn’t improve. The instructor said to pick up the dog and hold him until he quiets down. Galen hated being picked up and following her advise made the situation much worse. I was becoming angry and frustrated. I sought the help of another trainer and I have learned that getting angry/frustrated just escalates the situation. I’m learning to remain calm and redirect his energy very much as described. I am also learning to listen to him and work WITH him. I am now seeing the demon very infrequently and can solve problems without escalation. Galen isn’t easy to live with by any means, but he is a fabulous dog.
Jenny H says
It is very hard to see ‘hard eye’ in a still photograph, because one of the alarming thins about hard eye is the utter stillness of it. Because it is so /normal’ we tend to be unaware of the ‘saccades’ in others’ eyes, including those of our dogs.
When the dog’s eyes go suddenly and horrifyingly still it is time to get out of there.
Big Ted’s eyes used to not only go still, but his soft brown eyes took on a ‘tobacco brown’ colour.
Neither of the photos looks like “hard-eye” to me. The expression on the face of the Border Collie looks quite soft to me — not even the BC “evil eye” (the herding Evel Knievel eye).
As for the other dog, showing the whites of its eyes, it is a scared dog. Ears back. It is a look to take seriously, but not what I know as ‘hard eye.
Morgan Kennedy says
I saw that look from a pitbull who had been rescued and had gotten ferociously possessive over his foster mom (an acquaintance of mine) to the point that her boyfriend had to go stay at a friend’s house. I saw them in the pet store and that dog stopped and went rigid and stared at me. I dropped my eyes and backed away. My friend had to take him out to the car. I have years and years of dog rescue experience. I was pretty scared. Sadly that dog had to be euthanized – He was not a safe dog. Not his fault – it makes us all sad for him and mad at the human who made him that way.
Jenny H says
I suspect that it would be very unlikely to actually find as photo of the “hard eye”. I’ve only seen it in two of my dogs.
Kelly — who had been ‘dog aggressive’ when I was trying to cure her. She would seem to be interacting the another dog quite well ,and then her eyes would suddenly go utterly still. I knew that I then had fractions of a second to turn her around and leave. No time at all the photograph. But people would ask me why I too her away when she was ‘being so good’.
The other dog was her son, Big Ted who was returned to me having failed Police Dog training. He would not attack, but just tried to ‘love the villain up.” However I strongly suspect that they had used an ‘agitator’ with him who grabbed at is belly/genitals, because he was a super friendly dog unless you hand went too near his belly. He’d go very very still and his eyes would take on almost a glow. Time to back down, and I would never ever have had the courage to elicit that look from him for a photo.
You might get I that look on film/video if you were prepared to risk it 🙁
Pauline and Rick says
Enjoyed this so much!
Rick and an I currently have a tiny Chihuahua rescue who has perfect border collie markings all 5pounds of her.When we first took her in she was terrified of everyeone however in just one month she is emerging an alpha wannabe.n
We dearly love her and everyday is a learning expierience.
Pauline and Rick says
Patricia,
We are still hoping to get together with you.
Hopefully winter will be kind.
We are currently up to 6 with our current foster. We are kept busy keeping up on dangerously cold days but everyday is a play day..
Be well!
Susan Cooper says
Great article with great advice. I’ve only had to deal with this once with one of my own dogs and I was lucky enough to go with my instinct and distract. It worked. However, as a groomer, over the years I’ve had a couple of dogs come in and give me the “hard eye” right away. I send them home. I do not have a relationship with these dogs -I do not need to risk my career to groom them.
I love White Flower Farm!! I visit there once a year. I can’t afford them yet but their grounds are so peaceful and beautiful. A friend and I spend a few hours there. I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Pettigrew and his black lab on one visit.
Thank you for all your great advice.
Carolyn Rutter says
oh fer fek’s sake – see it see it once and get it over with – you win he loses and never tries it again!
HVS says
I find this article extremely disturbing. You are essentially saying that it is okay to be afraid of what our dogs may do to us. A dog that is giving its owner a hard eye should be worked with, not worked around. All the dog has learned in this case is that guarding works. Awesome.
Cathy Rich Munro says
If you don’t know your own dog well you might miss the puffed muzzle – but that is a very obvious feature to me when my GSD x becomes fixated on something (usually a cricket or even once a venemous snake he had killed). The whole look is quite scary and I completely agree that to try and ‘outscary’ him by trying to force the issue and dominate him would say more about my ego than sense. Usually I can distract him /bring him down by getting on with other things and then throw in some trigger words like ‘ball’and ‘walk’ and he settles back into daily life. Thank you for your insightful words xxxx
Frances says
I have seen it very occasionally in my dogs, usually dog to dog, but a few times directed at humans. It is an ice cold shock when you do see it – I remember when my first papillon had a large bone for the first time, and I foolishly decided she had eaten enough and reached for it… Forewarned is forearmed, and I put a lot of effort into games of swapsies, Leave it, and turn taking with Sophy and Poppy, so anything more than a mild grumble is now very rare.
There was one occasion, however, when Poppy – a toy poodle and hardly more than a puppy at the time – went into full blown guarding behaviour, although from her point of view it was entirely appropriate. My adult niece had been given a sleeping bag suit, complete with arms, legs and hood, for Christmas, and was sleeping in it downstairs. Early in the morning she came to the bottom of the stairs as Poppy reached the top, and Poppy saw a monster coming to attack her family. My niece saw, not a few pounds of fluffy poodle puppy, but eyes and teeth that stopped her in her tracks. It was eventually defused with apologies and cuddles all round, but it took both of them a while to get over the shock.
Carol says
I so enjoyed this article, also most of the comments were interesting. Having a ‘relationship’ with your dog is vital, in any relationship this can include getting things wrong and learning to do better, just like your your dog has to do! My Standard Poodle boy has only hard-eyed me thus: It was late at night, too late, he was tired, I was putting on his harness to take him out for final potty walk – poor boy growled at me as I hadn’t seen his hard eye! I wanted him up and out though so I pretended that someone had rung the doorbell! He immediately rose to see who was calling (at such a late hour!), leaving me free to quickly finish snapping on his harness, then he was go for quick walk. Another time I ridiculously began a walk on the shore without bringing a ball (duh) and his look was clear: why have you failed me like this, we need a ball!! So I improvised with a plastic bottle that was lying around… all was forgiven. I see all this as part of our relationship, he’s not mean but my dog has to be able to express himself and I want to know what he’s communicating to me, even if that is the occasional hard eye. Really helpful article.
ImageIMP says
Sorry but I’m afraid I’m too “old school” for many of these methods… Most of the pups/dogs described above – when attacking/biting/growling without serious provocation – are most likely poorly bred and/or socialized from the start, or have been abused. Some undoubtedly have breed behaviors that make aggression or dominance more likely (terriers, of course, but herding dogs come to mind…), but I will never tolerate aggression toward me by my own dog, nor unprovoked aggression toward anyone else. I recently did have a confrontation with my 2 year old Pembroke corgi boy, who I actually bred (I have shown and very occasionally bred Pems for almost 30 years). Normally this guy is very sweet and not at all aggressive, but in this case I decided I actually legitimately provoked him to this level. He’s started fussing whenever I get on the phone, and this day he started barking, running around, having a total fit (which is not OK!), but my aggravated reaction was excessive. I was on a very important phone call with my Mom’s doctor about a serious medical issue, and when I got off the phone I stomped up to him, loomed over him, and scruff-shook him. He backed off, looked straight at me and growled… Whoa! I calmed down, and did diffuse the situation by talking in a friendly way as I normally do with him and offering cookies. He calmed down and has been fine ever since… That was my fault! However, if a dog acts that way for no apparent or valid reason I’m afraid we’re going to be headed for a final solution… I simply can’t risk damage to myself or anyone else, and won’t walk on eggshells for any dog! I was a field rep for the Census Bureau for 9 years and worked in very rural areas. I had to go out to farms and homes by myself, at all hours, and leave my car to walk up and knock on the door. If no one was home, I’d leave an explanatory brochure and card… On many occasions, my car was met by a dog or dogs that were not seemingly friendly. Obviously I was trespassing… I would talk to them for a minute, then get out of the car and yes, employ the upbeat and diverting dialogue of “good dog, aren’t you pretty! Where’s your ball? ” etc. I didn’t stare into any eyes, and didn’t even really acknowledge the dogs directly as I walked steadily and calmly up to the front door… I’d end up with dogs bouncing around me – all types and breeds of dogs, large and small – but not acting aggressively. Some seemed a little confused at first, but most ended up pretty relaxed. A number of times, when I did make contact with the owners, they asked how the heck I got past their dogs? I was just good at reading them I guess. Only once in 9 years did I get really uncomfortable and feel I was in danger… A probable lab-mix didn’t “happy up” – didn’t get goofy and look for its ball or calm down. It stood still, looking steadily and “hard eyed” at me, tail held out and slightly wagging but not in a reassuring manner. It’s lips were slightly pulled back, and the entire body seemed stiff with tension… The hair on the back of my neck was up, and I carefully backed away and to my car, looking down and gently talking as I moved, and felt like I’d just escaped a really ugly situation – which I probably had. That dog was doing it’s guard duty very well! But if that dog was mine, and it ever acted like that toward me, we’d be heading for the vets…
Trisha says
Wow. So many great comments here. Thank you so much for your input. A few things…
To Mirielle re Shadow: Hard to know what to say without working with Shadow. It’s so hard to know what was triggering his behavior. In general I’d say try a cue that jollies him up–ask him to look at you, do something to change his internal affect. But kudos to you for recognizing the danger, I would not have let him off leash either.
To Nicola, with gratitude for telling us a bit of your story and using anthropomorphism constructively, as Frans de Waal reminds us we can and should do. Your point is so well taken, that force usually adds to tension and anxiety, and makes any individual less secure and thus often more likely to act out.
Trisha says
Here Here to Sandy for teaching Leave It as the second cue in a class situation. I agree completely that it’s a fantastic skill for a dog to learn, and an incredibly useful one for owners to have. Not only does it result in a useful behavior than can eliminate a lot of problems, but I found that it empowered owners, and taught them instantly that positive reinforcement is crazy powerful, and really fun.
Trisha says
To Tracy who adopted a BC with serious behavior problems. You are wonderful to take on this dog. His behavior sounds so severe I’m wondering if there is something going on with him that is physiological? Just wondering…
To Carolyn and HVS, re your comments that we should “get it over with” and not be afraid of our dogs and “be worked with, not worked around.” Worked with here appears to be the use of force, threat answered with threat. I ask Carolyn and HVS to read the dozens and dozens of comments of those who have avoided a fight, and used other methods to not just defuse the situation, but permanently teach their dogs to avoid being in that state in the future. It may be satisfying to some to “win” a fight, but, as someone who worked with troubled adolescents years ago some of whom were pretty dangerous, I can tell you that force is the last good option anyone has to permanently change behavior, and establish a healthy relationship.
Vicki says
Really found this article so helpful. We have a rescue who I believe is what you describe as thinking she wants to be alpha but really has no skills for it. She was probably never socialized and likely had a bad beginning to her life. She has done this usually following one of her altercations with one of our other dogs and then resource guarding. I initially (because I didn’t know better at the time) yelled at her and physically removed whatever she was guarding or stuck her in another room. Since I have worked on just trying to “change the subject” and diverting her to a happier frame of mind these incidences have lessened a lot.
Tudy Morris says
When my Aussie gets something he shouldn’t have and gives me that look, I say in almost baby talk, “What cha got? Bring it here, let me see.” He then proudly brings it to me and drops it in my hands. Seems it’s a matter of him making the choice to give it to me rather than me taking it away.
Anna says
One of my dogs had a series of appointments at the local vet school. At each exam we would initially meet a new student, then resident(s) and student(s) then head of department, resident(s) and student(s). So many new people. It could get crowded in there! This for a dog who’s previous well dog exams had been done in his own yard!
I would explain the same thing to each new person. He’s a good dog but he’s scarey looking, large, strong and strong-willed (and a BBHD-BigBlackHairyDog)…. If he growls, lifts his lips, stiffens or stares- STOP what you are doing and reassess. He is communicating and telling you it hurts, he doesn’t understand it or he’s not sure if you have permission. Just take a moment; step back, everyone move a bit (shake hair?), breath deep, smile and explain to him with words and gestures. Then act like you KNOW he’s going to behave. If you assume misbehavior, your body language changes and dogs read body language. If you need to, for him, a muzzle is preferable over a correction- especially by a stranger. That permission thing again. As a puppy he’d had “muzzle training”, muzzles should still mean good times ahead.
He did accept everything done to him quite well according to his vets. I felt better because I know who will win a display of force over (to his mind) unfair corrections. Who knows, maybe one of the students learned something new.
Even though I’m sure we startled the students with the warnings, the department head had no issue with my explanations. Turns out we had very similar ideas on communication when growling and muzzle training for puppies.
Some dogs will tell you when you’re wrong. If you don’t listen, they’ll tell you louder and harder. If you don’t let them tell you AND don’t listen, who is really at fault?
Tori rane says
This issue has been a HUGE issue with one of my dogs – with a HAPPY ending. :))
I have a 125 lb Kuvasz who can knock a 6 ft man off his feet, and if I were to try to use force, I would lose. Luckily we have all learned the art of negotiation, mixed with some clear communication.
The problem stemmed from the entire litter being abruptly taken from their mother at only four weeks. As the alpha of the litter, with no adult dog to teach key lessons like bite inhibition, I picked a holy terror up from the professional (widely esteemed) breeder at 7 weeks – I needed/wanted to be able to carry the puppy on the flight home with me – not check the puppy as cargo.
Several trainers recommended by the vet were nightmares. They tried forced alpha rolls, and other force-based methods that made things WORSE. I finally ended up with a 30 year veteran police dog trainer who was wise enough to know he had to appeal to the dog’s intellect and TEACH her the rules: drop it; leave it; etc.
Here’s what works for us.
Start with always having great objects to use in a negotiated “trade.”
#1) she knows if I ask to see what she has in her mouth I will NOT attempt to grab it. In fact I will stay rooted where I stand. If I can i let her keep it and thank her for showing it to me, adding what a good girl she is.
#2)if I need her to give it up I start with “drop it!” Still not advancing. Once she drops it she gets praised for that and we move on to “leave it”
And move as quickly as possible into “trade?” Intjen lure her to walk away from what she has dropped to get the “trade” from me. She truly gets the concept of a trade.
Luckily if it is truly, truly dangerous she seems to be able to tell from my tone of voice that while there will be compensation for the forced surrender, surrender is non-negotiable. In this case I always use a broom to separate her from it because speed in getting it away from her is important (example – razor stolen from the shower because I accidentally left it within reach).
Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES do I reach for something she has dropped and left with my hand(s) if that would be putting my hand(s) in biting range. I don’t tempt her to instinctually snap to attempt to retrieve the object.
I also make s HUGE point of refusing to try to take a ball from her mouth when playing catch with her. She has to literally drop it into my open hand. I will ask her if she is going to “give it” and I wait until she chooses to give it.
My commitment to my dog is for life, so I am very grateful.
Jen Ticsay says
I was discussing with a client the other day what would be the quickest way to change his dog’s emotional state, the client proclaimed, “Squirrel.”
Julie Stokes says
I adopted a BC mix from a shelter in Boise. He was about sis weeks old and the shelter had amputated his leg because it had been broken in three places. He had been found as a stray so who knows what happened. He has been a challenge from day 1. I knew i was in trouble when he growled and barred his teeth at me when i tried to stop him from humping one of my other BC’s(in a nice way)at 8 weeks old. He started to growl and bar his teeth at my husband and I on a regular basis. I sought the help of a friend who was a positive trainer. (Any kind of negative treatment did not work with him and made him worse). Luckily my friend told me how to deal with him in a positive manner always and it really works with him. He improved immensely. Unfortunately he has never liked my older BC male and still goes after him on a regular basis. I do everything to avoid triggers as it is normally associated with Tryke (tripod)resource guarding food, the stairway etc… He does get that hard eye you mention too. I really do not want to separate my dogs and most of the time they are fine but it does get very stressful. He gets along now with people and my other dog an Australian Kelpie and they play all the time. Thank you for this blog post as it really helps to confirm we are doing the right thing.
Bobby G. says
It seems to me that the key idea of this post can be summarized in this quote:
“Change what you are doing, by changing your behavior into something that relaxes or jollies up your dog.”
Roberta’s singing, as well as Trisha’s other suggestions of laughing and telling jokes to the dog seem to require an owner who is very verbal with her dog. I’m not one of those owners. Any suggestions on how to “jolly up” my dog without doing much singing and dancing? I don’t doubt that these tactics work for some people, but, again, I’m just not very verbal with my dog. (In part because of the suggestions in The Other End of The Leash to talk to our dogs less.)
And, yes, I also read the suggestion of Trisha’s to drop treats on the ground. This seems like a good idea, too, but I’m wondering if there are others.
Thanks, all for your time.
Mireille says
@jen: your response made me laugh out loud. Whatever works!
As too the comments by HVS and Carolyn: about fifteen years ago we adopted a Siberian husky named Chenak, aka the king. Chenak was a true alpha and taught us a lot. He was a resource guarder and had to be rehomed because of soiling the house and we suspect biting people.
One day he nicked a bone form the counter and according to the then fashion we decided we had to take it away from him (you know, us having to be “alpha”… or “be boss”). It took both pf us to alpha roll this 19 kilo dog and then we found out that a dog that REALLY wants to keep something, just has to keep his jaws shut. We could not open his mouth. He just lay there, on his back, with his mouth firmly clamped around the bone with a look in his eye “try all you might, but you won’t win”. I have never felt to humiliated and weak in my life. We were VERY VERY lucky that he was such a restrained dog because things could have gotten very ugly very quickly. This story has a happy ending: I surfed the net, found out about resource guarding, communication and found Trisha. We started to build on trust and mutual respect and he had “a good long innings” with us (lived to the ripe age of 14). He died five years ago and we still miss him. He taught us that a) you can’t win from a fully grown “big” dog and B) life is not about winning and/or losing and c) life has to lived to the max 😉 but that is another topic. Or maybe not, I would like to argue that dogs with a high drive for anything, are also the ones more likely to get into trouble of any kind…
When puppy Shadow growled fiercely when I accidentally touched his bowl on his first night here, we knew what to do, because of Chenak. Not ignore it, not punish it, but teach him that giving things up is a good thing.
Avoiding conflict is not about winning or loosing, it is about avoiding a situation where there can only be losers.
@Trisha: off course you cannot discuss a specific dog without having worked with him. I would love to consult you, but it is a bit far ;-). What I meant to ask was, are there any common denominators to look for. For instance, I once heard that polar breeds tend to overreact towards short nose breeds, because the huffing sound the others make, for the polar breeds sound like a dog willing to attack.
Or (why) does excessive submissive behaviour sometimes elicit a correction/snap from another dog. I know my dogs do not seem to like it, I heard it from one other person that her bitch gets really bitchy around very shy & anxious dogs (although it is a very dog-savvy dog in other circumstances)
Are there certain character mismatches to be aware of?
I am working with Shadow now with our local dog trainer/behaviourist, he had his first session last week and I think we have an idea of the problems. The trainer actually thought he did very well, during the training he modified his first “lunge-snap” respons into more normal communication. Which to me is logical: I know he has it in him, it just appears he has started to make the wrong choices due to a variety of causes, one of them some unfortunate encounters with not-so-friendly dogs…
Diane M says
Millie,
Just wanted to say I enjoyed your story immensely. I could picture it all really clearly, the deadly stillness of the dog, and the thoughts flying around your head! And of course, the dog suddenly relaxing, and dashing over for a scratch and a cookie. Our brains often work amazingly quickly when we are in danger!
Alice R. says
It occurs to me today how much of this applies to people as well. I wouldn’t get very far in my marriage if my reaction to dissent or anger was more anger with an “in your face” attitude. I could not in any way be called a permissive parent, but I always made sure my kids knew that I respected their brain and expected them to use it knowing that meant they were not going to always agree with me. We showed each other respect even when we disagreed, and since I was the parent, in the end it was going to happen my way if I thought that was necessary for their own good. This is pretty much a mirror of the way I handle my dogs. In the end, we all end up where we need to be, and we still love each other.
Beth says
Haven’t had time to read all the wonderful comments yet as we’ve been crazy busy, and spending time every day nursing along a very nasty puncture Jack got when another dog came up to him, stood stock-still staring (uh-oh) and hauled off and bit him in the neck with absolutely no provocation. I’ll bet she gave hard eye before she did it, but as it was totally dark out we failed to see.
Anyway. Mr. Jackpot, as a puppy, growled ferociously when I nudged his dinner bowl while he was eating, so we used the ASPCA method to make him think that approaching his food was jolly fun. That worked marvelously and I have successfully pulled chicken bones out of his mouth without a word of protest (he will try to get away or swallow, but no whale-eye and no hard eye and no growling).
He DOES however feel very strongly about toys. You can approach and take away or play with any existing toy, but a brand-new toy or especially something he discovered himself is a treasure and he will give a hard-ish eye if you approach. The difference between the photo and Jack is that Jack does not take his eyes off his prize, but you can see the look go stony and the brow go tense as he stares right at his possession.
With his regular toys, he will not guard but he does not like to give them up either. So what I have done is teach him a very cheerful “Time to tra—aa-ddee. Trade for tre-ea-eattss!” Trading for treats is something we practice every weekend when we get out the really good toys, the kind he can’t keep or he might destroy. We have a very vigorous morning play session and when we are done, I sing out the “Time to trade, trade for treats” line in a lilting sort of way. It’s great fun and we rush into the kitchen and he gets a big dental treat. He puts down the toy and runs back to the living room with the treat. Funny thing is if you tell him time to trade and only have, say, Charlee Bears he looks at you like you are nuts and runs off with the toy.
Because we practice this we can use “Time to trade” to get him away from things he has found but should not have. It is rare that I leave my house with no treats at all so if we are out and this happens, I jackpot him with a big pile of regular treats.
It works well. But again, the key is practice. I do find that one-word commands are best for obedience moves but phrases are better for generating enthusiasm.
Tamie says
Ohhh yes ! I have seen this look. I have two Aussies and a young Border Collie.
When I give them all something like bully sticks, Yankee my female Aussie,
will lay there and safe “guard” hers until all others are gone.
When they have eaten theirs, and they come to look at hers, she kind of taunts
them with her eyes. Makes them keep their distance. Then after a time, will eat hers while they watch.
Sally says
I have seen hard eye only once, and it scared me. A lot. I had just collected a rescue rottweiler from animal services, a dog who had been being trained by a dog fighting ring to become a fighter. The animal control officer could not bring herself to euthanize this beautiful girl, but instead sought out an experienced rottie person to adopt. I did, with the condition that I could return her no harm, no foul, if I was unable to integrate her into my farm family–sheep, chickens, ducks, cats, and multiple dogs. On the way home from the kennel, I looked over and saw a hard-eyed rottweiler who was new to me staring across the bench seat of my pickup. I began sing-song baby talking to her, and a few minutes into my performance she relaxed. I kept her by my side with a lead every minute for about six months. She became a dog of dogs, nursing orphan lambs, herding the ducks in at the end of the day, and my boon companion for thirteen wonderful years, but I learned a valuable lesson that first day: don’t do a rescue without a crate.
Augusta Farley says
I’ve seen this a number of times. One time I’ll never forget. I was standing in the middle of an animal shelter kennel area, deep in thought. Slowly I became aware of being watched. I gradually came to focus on the dog focusing on me. It’s head was dropped, body was still and its eyes drilling me. My immediate reaction was how strange it was to feel the dog’s presence before I saw it. Then I looked up and saw the sign on the kennel, Bite Case.
This dog’s “hard stare” was under a different circumstance, but the effect on me was similar to the one the owner had in this blog. We both got the message. Stop! Come no closer.
Diane says
So many good comments, and I need to read them all (didn’t do it yet after 80 plus responses!. My previous dog was a frightened “wanna be”. I certainly did not know it at the time (poor dog and poor me). One day we came back from a car ride and for whatever reason he started with the hard eye, growling, teeth barred, even frothing. I knew NOTHING at the time, and after trying the hard approach “I said get out…GET OUT” (well I’m sure you all know the routine), I felt that was not working (yeah..no kidding!) Anyway to my credit, I breathed deep, and gave him a sing-songy voice.
“Come on, pal…let’s go!” He was one of those dogs that once the adrenaline kicked it, it took some time for him to calm down. But I saw an immediate response. And after he calmed himself, he just let himself out of the car.
This is before I heard about any kind of dog training, and definitely before knowing you and other positive professionals. So I am going to give me and my instincts credit.
But my point is I totally agree with giving that situation a different twist and not forcing the human CONTROL!
Keep the Santas out for a while. I have garland outside my entrance door that is lighted for the Christmas holidays. I tone it down by removing ornaments and “large globe lights”, but leave it up with subdued lights for as long as I can …..Winter lights, that’s what I call it!
Janice in GA says
I may have told this story before.
My first Aussie, Sasha, would give me hard eye when she was young. At first, the only tool I knew was to try to stare her down to get her to submit. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t work, just made her more determined to keep what I was trying to get away from her. She was a good dog, though, and in spite of the provocation, she never bit me. Growled and stared, but didn’t bite.
Since my way wasn’t working, I went looking for new tools, for another way. I learned I could use a happy voice and could then trade her something she liked for something she had. That worked, and we stopped having stand-offs, and she stopped hard-staring at me, mostly. 🙂 One of her littermates was a little less lucky. He bit one of the folks who’d adopted him. Luckily he ended up with an excellent positive trainer who was able to get him turned around too.
She was a challenging dog, my Sasha, but she taught me SO MUCH. She was my heart dog, and she changed my life. Gone for many years, never forgotten.
Mandy says
This works for kids too ☺
Gregory Riddick says
I experienced a Hard Eye once with our extremely friendly 10-year old golden retriever. I used to rough house with him and he always took it extremely well and was always playful. One time in the course of playing with him, I picked him up and held him upside down on my lap while I was sitting on the floor (he was a large dog, at least 100 pounds). He was completely still and didn’t resist at all but I could see by his closed mouth and taut face that he looked anxious. He then shook his head left several times to touch my arm, basically asking me to let him go. I put him down gently and he sat up facing away from me, then went up on all 4 feet and started to walk out the room. Instead of leaving the room he then pivoted around and major Hard Eye! He stared right at me and lifted his upper lips slightly–clearly very mad! His tail was parallel with his body and wagging slowly and stiffly. Uh Oh, I thought. He walked toward me and right by me but didn’t try to bite. Even golden retrievers have their limits. Lesson learned.
Kelly says
Hard eye…’whale eye’ ? ..my immediate response to this wonderful boy I got as a rehome 6 yrs ago is
“LOOK AWAY from those eyes immediately”
He has what I think is a fear aggression
But also, the so called ‘Bernese’ breeder who I finally found out who bred him a yr into having him when googled came up under a ‘Bordenese” UGH!
And this boy fits 8 out of 9 issues with borders b/c they have brilliant minds and are a working dog.
I have rescued & recently have had very well bred pup of the Bernese Mtn Dogs for past 12 yrs
Yes, they need a job…but nothing like a Border 😊
So a 90lb Berner looking (albeit small) with the mind of a border and all the traits …well let’s just say my sweet boy was a whole different animal than we here are used to 😂
I had a great behavioralist work with him and I
After a bite put me in the hospital for 4 days with possibility that I may loose the use of my hand
Luckily, that wasn’t the case but set me straight and your book ‘The other end of the leash” should be a book that goes home with every rescused, rehomed or new dog owner!! I’ve actually given this book to so many people I’ve found that I need to keep buying a copy for me as it is a very good refresher for even the most knowledgeable owners!!
People are stupid and you don’t know what you don’t know and often that is too late for an injury and then that dog goes to a shelter or put down
And I will tell you that he has had many of his lives extended because he is the sweetest smartest boy and “THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH WAS NOT LISTENING!!”
I don’t put friends or family in harms way but most of all, I don’t put this smart, loving boy in a panic mode
Your video showing you & Jess…teaching ‘enough’ was so good
And the unwanted pushing is not to be rewarded
That is what I use with my Zeusy boy and it really works
He gets overexcited and then it turns to ‘hey I’ve had enough and I’m going to through a growl b/c now I’m uncomfortable and I may bite”
I’ve trained everyone in the house to this for our sake and his as I’ve said and while you can wrap your arms around all of the dogs that have been in my care, I personally, will not even try to pet his backside, I not in the room when he’s examined or try to hold him
I suggest that my vet and the groomer muzzle as needed and this troubles me so much because from the very beginning of this I realized, as having Berners (rescued/rehomed/adopted) over the years the lengths I’ve gone to and the ‘hands on’ need when they turn ill
My vet and groomer only muzzle when needed
Anyway…I saw you in PA and you signed my “The Education of Will” and it was a great day!!
But this video was so great!!
https://youtu.be/F9a2xwziyj8
Thank you for sharing all your knowledge
I look forward to all the new stuff you will share!!
Take care
❤️
Kelly
Daniel says
I’m visiting my mom in rural north Florida. She has a Terrier (not sure what kind) and Lhasa Apso mixed male. He’s an adult dog. When I first arrived, he came out of the house and nipped my heel as I was unloading the car. I was surprised and unprepared so I left it alone.
Today, he was barking, and “nipped” (i.e. put his teeth on without biting down) me as I was coming to open the door for my niece. This “opening the door while he’s incessantly barking at it” situation has happened before in our 4-ish days here without incident. So I was surprised again. My knee jerk reaction this time was to yell “NO!”, stomp after him, and continue with “I WILL EAT YOU!” While funny to me reflecting back, if it happens a 3rd time I should be prepared with a correct response.
I’ve tried to befriend him. I’ve taken it very slow and I haven’t touched or approached him. I’ve stood sidewise, looked away, and given him treats by throwing them to him. Even with that work, before this, he wouldn’t take the treat directly from my hand. (It could be my identically looking older brother. He’s rough, domineering, and sometimes aggressive with dogs. He’s not here this trip.)
I read your memoir and I’m 3/4 of the way through The Other End of the Leash. I might of missed it, but what do you do when it’s someone else’s dog? Should I just avoid him all of the time? That’d be a real pain in the butt.
As it relates to this post, what do you do when you can’t read a dog’s face? His dark medium length hair and small build makes it hard to know what state he is in. I’m still learning a lot about dog language so I can’t rely on that (obviously as per my story). I think his behavior is generally fear motivated. This time, I don’t know. He had enough time to see it wasn’t my mom his owner.
My 3 year old pup Ava also has problems with strangers. She is a Parvo survivor and we adopted her. My question may help her too.
KATHLEEN BARRY says
Just finished reading THE EDUCATION OF WILL and love your writing style. You are an extremely visual writer and the style is just beautiful. I am sorry you no longer work with troubled dogs as we’ve had a rescue wheaten terrier for 15 months now who has come out of her shell to love us and allow us to love her but still is terrified of anyone else, even my neighbors who have tried to be friends. What troubles me is she even growls at little toddlers if we are at a park. She is not at all afraid of fireworks but “jumps out of her skin” at the sound of trucks, cars, or any sudden movement. She loves to play fetch early in the morning or at night but if we try to take her out to potty in the middle of the day we have to carry her or drag her on her leash outside. She would prefer to “hold it” for 10.5 hours rather than go out in the middle of the day. She is so sweet with her house humans now and seems “normal” until anyone else comes by. If one of your other books address this, I’d love to read it. (This is our third wheaten and growing up I trained an Irish Setter for junior handing and a miniature poodle.) You have an AMAZING will and Willie. A pat for your good boy!
Lori says
Great article! yes, I also have a dog like this. He gets overwhelmed easily and can give a hard eye over anything. Luckily, I have had him for 10 of his 11 years and know him well. I also understand it is an emotional state. He doesn’t even really WANT the thing, just feels the emotional need to get into that mode. I’ve take him a “Move” cue to get him to move away and will also play a chase the cookie game to defuse the tension. I am also very careful to feed bones/kongs and anything that will longer than a few moments separately, in his very own room. When everyone is done, up they come.
Elise Strauss says
Thank you for posting this; Sam’s photo brought back very sad memories. I had a Border Collie/Jack Russell mix that I flew to pick up in Canada. I didn’t realize what he was doing when he gave a stranger that wanted to hold him the hard eye at 10 weeks old when we were in the airport. Two years later, after working with a Behavioral Veterinarian and many, many, many months of hard work (“Leave It” and “Can I trade your for that?” were my theme songs) and the final tally of multiple dog attacks, attempted people attacks and finally biting someone in the face, I euthanized him. My heart is broken because I loved that dog with all my heart — I’ve never met a smarter or funnier dog — but he had a cold, broken part that I couldn’t fix. The Hard Eye was a harbinger of loss for me. This was an important article, and I’m so glad you wrote it, and I’m so thankful Sam has a happy home.
Selina Kizildagli says
I call it ‘stink eye’! My cocker spaniel does this when he doesn’t want to get out of the car. I’ve now stopped all car journeys as he was getting too stressed out. I’m hoping to reintroduce the car in 3 weeks times using small steps, but it there anything you would reccomend i do? I’ve tried using treats to lure him out and he knows its a trick, i’ve also used excited tones saying fun stuff, pulling him out (leads to conflict which is horrible for both of us), getting him onto the front seat and picking him up. I’m at a loss with what to do??
Kim Albert says
Why didn’t Roberta just take the candy bar? Roberta should be in charge of what Sam can have and what he can’t have. Period.
Sam trained Roberta imho.
Stephanie says
So I’ve been looking for a way to describe this eye appearance! We had a white malnourished abused female pit dumped off at our house about 4 months ago. We were understandably iffy about her but the day she was dumped off was the first day of a 7 day negative degree frozen snowy week in Texas. We allowed her to stay in our garage and we made her a heated igloo situation with a space heater and dog house and tenting. She’s been here ever since and has blended well with our dogs and family. However, I will catch her starring at me with this look. Her whole body and demeanor is relaxed except that weirdly cold human stare she’s giving me. She doesn’t growl or make any aggressive movements and as soon as I say “hey girl” she snaps out of it. Mostly it’s when I’m in my car backing out of the garage. She will lie on the stairs and just look at me like this. What is this about and should I be concerned? She has never shown any aggression towards me and actually stays with me mostly. If I’m outside she is at my feet. I have no fear of the dog beyond I don’t understand why she stares at me this way. I didn’t want to take her to a shelter because I didn’t want her to be killed simply for being a pit. My dogs love her and she’s great with them!