Homeless, but not hopeless

Though I work with dogs and their people throughout the entire Bay Area, I live in Downtown San Francisco. Being a large city, there are a number of homeless people around, and almost daily I see some of them who are caring for pet dogs.

I’ve always been amazed at how well-behaved and calm these dogs are. While I didn’t get a photo of him, just the other day I saw a man on the center median of a very busy 4 lane street with a sign asking for money. This person had a large dog that could have been anywhere from 1 to 5-years-old with him. Despite the busy traffic, and even a dog in a car stopped at the light barking at him, this dog was calmly sitting with his person, off-leash.

The love and devotion these people, who can scarcely take care of themselves, show to their pets is a

mazing. They make incredible sacrifices to keep their animals with them. There’s no way they can get into a shelter for the

night, and probably don’t use the number of dining rooms available to the homeless for meals.

But why are their dogs

so good? I seriously doubt that they can afford to hire dog trainers or take their dogs to class. I don’t see many of them reading books about training and behavior, and I’m willing to bet they aren’t spending their

time at the library surfing the internet looking for training tips. I wonder how many of these dogs actually know more than a few commands?

I think it boils down to the fact that these people have an absolutely consistent relationship with their animals. They aren’t receiving conflicting ad

vise on how to handle or care for their dogs. They seem to act on intuition. It’s that consistent relationship that creates the bond of trust between the dog and human. This is why these dogs are so calm. Of course it helps that the people are with their dogs pretty much 24/7, but having a calm and content animal doesn’t have to require decades of professional experience or a degree in animal behavior. Did some of these dogs come to these people with behavior issues? Since many of them had been strays themselves, I’m quite sure they did.

If your dog is having aggression issues, anxiety issues or just doesn’t seem calm or focused, don’t let anyone tell you that it’s a complex or complicated matter to correct. It doesn’t have to be, and often it isn’t.