Maine Pets

Get Down with S.E.C. or Danger Mrs. Smith!

I was alerted to the "presence of danger" this morning by my dog. When I went upstairs to investigate what she was so upset about, I found Charlee, up from her early morning siesta with hackles raised and body posture alert, barking ferociously at the bird cages. We had covered them after they chose to be particularly squawky and irritating. The birds rarely have their cages covered and this morning we used the closest towel, which happened to have a picture of Simba and Mufasa, from The Lion King.

Imagine my poor dog's surprise to think that lions had snuck in her living room while she napped blissfully on her bed.

Seriously though, I have blogged this to show an example of S.E.C, a very common occurrence in dogs. S. E. C. stands for Sudden Environmental Change and some dogs do tend to have it more than others, especially the herding breeds and dogs that lack early socialization. It is why your dog will not bark at a parade, but will bark at one lone marcher coming down the street. S.E.C. can explain why a dog flips out at the sight of a wind blown flying plastic shopping bag, a lone wagon left in the yard, or anything else of out the usual. It explains why dogs out walking on trash day are fine, but won't go near the same lone barrel your neighbor left out the very next day.

When my clients come to me freaked out that their dog just had a hissy fit over an object they see every day, I explain S.E.C. to them and tell them that to the dog "one of these things is not the like others, one of these things just doesn't belong". Once the dogs identify an object as "safe" they are usually fine.
When Charlee realized that the towels were not actual Lion predators hanging from the Parakeet's and Canaries' cages, she actually looked quite embarrassed.

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