Dogs don’t know when one year ends and another begins.
They have no idea that in Chinese astrology, this is their year. But it is.
The Year of the Dog starts Friday, which is “known as Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year,” said Mabel Menard, executive director of the Chinese American Museum of Chicago — Raymond B. & Jean T. Lee Center.
“The Chinese Zodiac is represented by 12 animals, and each year is represented by an animal, 11 of which are real (the only fictional animal is the dragon). The Chinese calendar is probably at least 2200 years old (according to written records),” Menard said. “Just like the Western Zodiac, each animal (zodiac sign) represents certain characteristics.”
People born in the Year of the Dog are considered “loyal and honest, but can also be stubborn and stickler to rules (just like real dogs),” Menard said.
Those born during a Year of the Dog include President Donald Trump, Ellen DeGeneres, former President Bill Clinton and Madonna.
Traditionally, Menard said, Chinese people don’t really do anything special with the real animals during their designated year. “They just aspire to the characteristics represented by the animal. It’s really a Western thing to dress up their dogs, for example. Chinese culture has a more ambivalent attitude towards dogs because keeping them as pets was traditionally relegated to royalty and the rich.”
One way for us to celebrate dogs during their big year is to improve our understanding of their sometimes seemingly odd behavior. We asked two local dog trainers to demystify the mystifying.
Kerry Omerza owns the Alsip franchise of Sit Means Sit dog training. With clients across the south suburbs, as well as central Illinois and Northwest Indiana, she said, “I really feel I am more of a lifestyle coach who teaches people how to live with their dogs and use obedience to get their dogs to be the way they want them to be. Seventy-five percent of training is coaching the clients. The dogs are easy. It’s getting the owners to use the obedience” that’s the challenge.
Kristen Phillips has been training dogs for 20 years. She is the owner of Advances in Animal Behavior. Her facility, where dogs come for training and agility, is located on the lower level of Pawsitively Heaven Pet Resort, Inc., in Chicago Ridge.
Most dog owners already love their dogs, but understanding them can make living with them even better, both trainers say.
*Do Americans treat their dogs differently than people in other cultures?
Omerza said Americans coddle their dogs too much and give them too much freedom. “They don’t know how to teach their dogs to work for their affection and so they get dogs that are unruly,” she said.
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“It’s similar to putting no boundaries on a child. If you did that, your children would be very destructive,” Omerza said. “It just takes a little bit of knowledge and training. You only get the treat if you do what I ask.”
There’s a saying, Omerza said, “Treat a dog like a human and they’ll show you very quickly how much of a dog they are.”
She recommends every dog owner find a professional and learn how to properly train their pet.
“If you’re going to own a dog, you should at least take one course, one class, something, to learn how to have a healthy relationship with your dog,” Omerza said.
*What is the most common behavior issue with dogs?
“We get a lot of phone calls for dog on dog aggression and about potty training, even for older dogs,” Omerza said. They’re getting a lot of potty training calls now because a lot of people got puppies for Christmas, she said.
*What are the zoomies?
The zoomies are crazy bursts of energy. Perhaps a dog chases its tail, runs around the house or sprints back and forth across the yard, Omerza said.
“I think they get them when they lack mental stimulation,” Phillips said. “A lot of dogs get them around dinner time when their owners have been gone all day.”
Usually, it means the dog needs a walk or some kind of mental stimulation, Phillips said. “So play a game with the dog, do something with the dog. Or let it have the zoomies. I personally don’t care if my dog has them. But some people don’t like it. If you don’t like it and you know your dog gets the zoomies at, say, 5:30, then walk it at 5:15.”
*How can I get my dog to stop jumping to greet people?
Don’t push them back with your hands, Omerza said. “That’s what it wants. It wants you to touch them.”
All dogs want affection, she said. “And they will do anything to get it. But you have to teach the dog how to earn it.”
So if you ignore them, a lot of times that will help change the behavior, she said. If not, she added, you need more training.
“You have to teach them how to control their excitement,” Omerza said. “I relate dog training to therapy. You go to therapy with a fear or an issue and you learn skills to cope with things.”
*How can you tell if your dog is not feeling well?
If your dog seems lethargic or isn’t eating well and it normally does, that could be a sign something is wrong, Phillips said. Any change in energy levels, eating or symptoms of illness, such as vomiting, are reason to contact a veterinarian, she said.
“If it’s really sick, in shock for example, its gums will be white,” she added.
*Why do dogs run along the fence with other dogs?
Some dogs meet on opposite sides of a fence and simply sniff each other or look each other over. Others run in almost mirror image along a stretch of the structure.
Phillips said either the dogs like each other and want to play or they’re having some kind of a dispute.
“Watch their body language. As long as it looks like fun, as long as they’re in their play bows, with their butt up in the air and their front paws out in front with a sort of happy, dopey look on their face, and they’re not baring their teeth and making aggressive sounds, they’re just playing,” she said.
*Can you anticipate what your dog is about to do by its tail position?
“There are no hard and fast rules. The tail is important in determining how a dog is feeling, but it’s also important to look at the whole dog,” Phillips said.
“If I see a tail standing up really high and wagging very narrow, I think rattlesnake. The more it looks like a rattlesnake, the more it is a rattlesnake,” she said. So be wary.
Other signs that a dog is not friendly, she said, include showing teeth, a stiff body and the animal is standing “high on its toes.”
Phillips added, “A really friendly, submissive dog will approach you from the side, not head on. It’ll lower its head, it won’t stare and make a lot of direct eye contact. Dogs that are worried about people will get upset if you stare. They perceive that as a threat.”
Know your dog’s happy tail set, the way it looks when you come home from work, she said. “That will tell you where it normally carries its tail. A friendly wag is wide and round. A friendly tail is between 90 and 180 degrees. If their butt’s in the wag, such as wiggle, they’re even friendlier,” Phillips said.
*Can you tell if a dog is going to bite you?
First off, Phillips said, don’t pet a strange dog unless it asks to be petted. “You’ll know, it’ll lean against you with soft eyes saying ‘Please pet me,'” she said.
A dog almost always looks where it’s going to bite before it bites there, Phillips said. “If a dog is going to bite your hand, it will glance at your hand a couple of times first, as if to say, ‘I’m getting uncomfortable, I’m getting uncomfortable, what am I going to do, oh, I’m going to nail you right there.'”
The average dog, however, does not bite to do damage, she said. “A well socialized, well bred dog will bite and not leave a mark. How hard they bite is up to them.”
Dogs bite for various reasons, she said. Sometimes it’s bad breeding, or it’s because they were taken from the litter too young.
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“In my opinion, those are the most dangerous dogs,” Phillips said. When a puppy is taken from the litter before five weeks and doesn’t have other adult dogs to hang with, to teach them how to control themselves, they are more likely to bite to do damage, she said.
Puppies learn bite inhibition from other puppies and their mom, she said.
*Can dogs be bilingual?
Absolutely, Phillips said. “They’re so smart,” she added.
They can surely learn, say, both English and Chinese, but, Phillips added, hand signals would still be more important.
“Dogs are not that verbal,” she said. “People believe they are but they’re really not. People will say ‘My dog knows all these words’ without realizing that they’re also using hand signals. If a dog really understands words then you could lay on your back, look at the ceiling and tell your dog what to do and it will do it. Very few dogs can do that.”
*What is something people don’t realize about dogs?
Dogs need to be rewarded more than you think, Phillips said. And punishment, she added, often makes behavior problems worse.
*Are dogs really just happy to be alive?
Yes, Phillips said. Dogs live in the moment. “They really do. They don’t think about the past, they don’t worry about the future, although they can anticipate. If going in the car means going to the vet, they will anticipate something bad but not until the chain of behaviors begins,” she said.
Another thing, she added, “Dogs don’t hold grudges. They’re really awesome that way.”
Twitter @dvickroy