Dogs of all ages can learn, but Hekman notes that “the post-socialization brain doesn’t make new learning connections (synapses) as easily as the baby brain.” This is why it’s unwise to wait until the puppy is 4 months old or older to begin training – or to assume she will “outgrow” undesirable puppy behaviors like jumping on or mouthing people. The more she practices these self-reinforcing behaviors, the less likely those synapses will be pruned away, and the more work it will take to replace the unwanted behaviors with the polite behaviors you prefer.
Puppies are often described as sponges due to their ability to soak up information, especially during their critical socialization period, which occurs between 3 to 12 weeks of age. To learn more about what goes on inside the puppy’s brain, we reached out to Jessica Hekman, DVM, PhD, a post-doctoral associate with the Karlsson Lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where she works with the genomics of canine behavior.
“When a dog learns something new, the synapses between neurons become stronger, connecting the neurons more tightly, so that information – in the form of neurotransmitters – flows between them more readily,” Hekman says. This process is part of what builds the brain’s ability to take in information and make decisions based on that information.
One difference between the brains of puppies and adult dogs is that the puppy brain initially makes lots of extra synapses to support the puppy’s ability to rapidly learn about the world. This means there are more pathways available for learning. This age-related increase in available synapses is short lived, as the brain can’t sustain so many simultaneous pathway information exchanges at once. As the early socialization window closes, weaker synapses (those with fewer learning experiences) are weeded out in a “use it or lose it” process known as “pruning.”
This is why thoughtful socialization during early puppyhood is so important. You want to strengthen the synapses for experiences like, “Strange men in hats mean cookies are coming!” due to repeated positive experiences with men in hats, and synapses for “Strange men in hats are scary” to be weak (because the puppy had few negative experiences with strange men wearing hats).
This is why it’s also wise to begin basic manners training as soon as possible with a young puppy. We want strong synapses related to lessons like, “Four paws on the floor brings cookies and petting,” “Running to my person when she calls my name makes her play with me,” and “Lying on this dog bed makes good things happen.” Conversely, we want synapses associated with less desirable behaviors to be weak. When pruning occurs, we’re left with brain wiring that’s better equipped to support behaviors we like and can continue to reinforce.
Hekman explains that, whereas a young puppy’s brain is constantly evaluating situations (which is exhausting), by the time the early socialization window closes, the brain is relying more on its carefully pruned garden of knowledge and can start making assumptions about situations. Ideally, this is when you’ll see a return on your investment in thoughtful socialization via a dog who doesn’t bat an eye around the tall stranger in a hat; the well-socialized puppy’s brain simply assumes it’s fine.
This is also why it’s easier to teach desired behaviors from the beginning than to un-do unwanted behaviors. When a young puppy’s synapses related to “Butt-on-floor brings good things” are stronger than synapses related to “Jump on the human to get what I want,” the brain assumes “butt-on-floor” is the way to go, and we see a puppy who eagerly offers a “sit” in anticipation of good things.
“When you are helping a puppy make good associations during his socialization period, what you are really helping him do is to prune his synapses in a way that is appropriate for the world he’s going to live in,” says Hekman. “We want him to keep a lot of connections and to have them be good ones.”
To read more from Hekman about what’s happening during socialization and early learning, look for her article, “Puppy Socialization: What happens inside the brain?” in the free e-book Growing Up FDSA: Surviving Your Dog Sports Puppy, available from Fenzi Dog Sports Academy at fenzidogsportsacademy.com.
"Catch her doing something right" whenever possible! When you notice your puppy doing anything you like, such as sitting calmly and quietly, or chewing on one of the toys you bought for this purpose, let her know she's being a good dog! Offer her a treat, praise, and/or a little bit of calm petting.
When it comes to puppy training, it’s never too early to start. Puppies are more than ready to learn by the time they leave the litter and transition into a home. After all, they’ve been learning since birth, so why not keep the ball rolling as soon as you welcome a puppy into your family?
It’s our responsibility to teach puppies how to successfully live in our human world, which has a rule structure quite different from what they’re used to with their littermates. There are plenty of options for positive-reinforcement training starting at a young age: a well-run, in-person puppy kindergarten class; one-on-one instruction with a trainer; an online program; books and videos; your own knowledge of training; or a combination of options. No matter what you opt for, starting sooner, not later, is key to success. From the first day you bring your puppy home, have these three basic principles in mind:
1.Have clear goals for your puppy’s behavior from day one and support his understanding of them every day.
It’s important to have some basic training goals before your puppy comes home, so you can create clear behavior contingencies from the very beginning.
Your puppy is constantly learning. From the moment he sets paw in your home, he will be learning which behaviors get him things he wants and which ones don’t. Make it easy for him to get what he wants when he does behaviors you like, and prevent him from getting what he wants when he explores behaviors you don’t want him to practice. The more black and white your expectations, the easier it will be for the puppy to figure out what works for both of you.
So, as just a few examples: If you don’t want a grown, 80-pound dog jumping on you to get your attention, avoid petting the tiny, 8-week-old puppy when he jumps on you. Instead, if he happens to sit or even just greets you with happy eye contact and all four paws on the floor, go ahead and tell him what a good puppy he is and lovingly give him all the petting he wants! If you want a well-housetrained dog, commit to paying close attention to your puppy’s need to eliminate, not giving him a single opportunity to “make a mistake” indoors. And if you don’t want your adult dog to sleep with you on your bed or your nicest sofa, don’t allow the puppy to do so, either.
Gray areas are challenging for dogs. It’s not fair to make exceptions to what we know our rules will be later (because the puppy is so cute!) and then change the rules as she grows. It’s also harder to “fix” unwanted behaviors than to train correct behaviors from the beginning. (For more about this, see “The Biology of Early Learning”)
2. Make your interaction with your puppy rewarding and engaging.
Teach your puppy that spending time with you is fun! Be generous with rewards of food, attention, petting, and play so the puppy is eager to focus on you in anticipation of enjoyment.
Build a strong history of reinforcement (with treats, toys, praise, and play) for behaviors that you like from your puppy; she will strongly associate you with all these good things, helping cement a solid relationship between you.
A great strategy is to aspire to feed more of your puppy’s daily ration of food from your hand than from a bowl. This makes you the primary source of a pretty great thing and gives you plenty of calories to leverage to your advantage by reinforcing any behavior you’d like to see more of.
Be super generous with rewards with a young puppy because, as the puppy matures, environmental distractions will become more interesting, and it’s helpful for the puppy to have a strong history of finding you rewarding. This makes it easier for the puppy to continue to choose you, and what you have to offer, over the environment. No need to worry the pup will end up “only doing it for the food.” Since the food comes directly from you, you gain value by association. Plus, when you pair praise and petting with the delivery of food, the food increases the value of your praise and petting, so it is more reinforcing in the future if you choose to use fewer food rewards in training.
Don’t forget to mix lots of play into your interaction. It’s fun (for puppies and people!), it breaks up training sessions, and studies show following learning with play can lead to improved performance in subsequent sessions, when compared to immediately following learning with an opportunity to rest. Playing with your puppy, in ways you both enjoy, convinces your puppy that you’re a blast to be around because you know how to play all the best games. Who doesn’t like hanging out with the fun guy or gal?
What can you expect?
With frequent, short training sessions, most young puppies can start offering simple behaviors like “sit” in anticipation of “good stuff” as early as 6 to 7 weeks old, even before they leave the litter. If you really want to stack the training deck in your favor, look for a responsible breeder or rescue that provides early enrichment and basic training opportunities to young puppies in an effort to set them up for success when they meet their new families.
If you’re starting from scratch with the basics, it’s still reasonable to expect a young puppy to quickly learn to offer a “sit” for a food bowl or when approaching people, or follow a hand signal to lie down. In fact, in many cases, people report their puppies readily respond to cues for “sit,” “down,” “come,” “leave it” and a parlor trick or two by the time the puppy is 3 months old.
The catch? This degree of understanding is generally limited to the home environment. Sound familiar? “But he does it at home!” is one of the most often heard frustrations among dog owners when attending a group class or otherwise asking the dog to perform seemingly “known” behaviors away from home. Learning to do these behaviors in the face of a highly distracting, enticing world takes a little more time and maturity.
Learning the physical mechanics of the behavior is easy. Adding duration, making the behavior resistant to distractions, and properly generalizing the behavior so the dog understands the same rules apply anywhere, anytime is a process that takes time and patience. Try to avoid thinking your puppy truly knows a behavior until you’ve seen him be successful under a wide variety of circumstances. Until that point, he’s learning a behavior. Working in a new environment, around new people, other dogs, interesting smells, etc. makes it harder for the puppy to perform correctly. People often become frustrated and view the pup as being “stubborn,” when really, he’s just not developmentally mature enough to concentrate for long periods and in the face of distractions. He’ll get there with patience, maturity, and continued training support.
3. Keep training sessions short but frequent.
Like young children, puppies have short attention spans. The most effective training happens frequently throughout the day, but in short sessions each time, and with a high rate of reinforcement. Three to five minutes is perfect for a young puppy.
Try five repetitions of cheerfully saying your puppy’s name when she’s not looking, and rewarding her when she turns to orient toward you. Practice “sit” and “down” a couple of times, changing your position relative to the pup with each repetition to help her begin to “generalize” the behaviors, understanding that “sit” means the same thing whether you are standing right in front of her or next to her.
Bust out a toy for a quick round or two of tug, trading the toy for a treat to begin a “drop it” behavior, then playfully run away from the puppy, encouraging her to follow you with a happy, “Let’s go!” as you take off. Reward her when she catches up to you, with treats or another one of her favorite toys. Aim for three to five short sessions each day. Also, remember every interaction is an opportunity for learning, so be prepared to help her practice desirable behaviors every time you casually interact with her, too.
Formal training sessions that are short and fun keep the puppy’s head in the game. More importantly, they teach the puppy to enjoy and look forward to training sessions, creating a pup who exhibits a happy conditional emotional response (CER) – that is, she becomes visibly excited – when our behavior starts to predict a training session is imminent.
The Big 'A' (Adolescence)
Trainers who teach group classes have seen it a million times: Owners bring their young puppies to “canine kindergarten” classes and are delighted with all the cues and behaviors they and their puppies learn to do. After graduation, a few months roll by, and gradually, more and more of those formerly delighted owners start reporting that their puppies “don’t know anything anymore!” Sit, down, come, stay – all the basic behaviors the pups “knew” when they were tiny seem to be gone! What gives?
The simple answer is adolescence.
Adolescence is a natural part of canine development. It’s generally said to begin when the dog is about 6 to 9 months old and lasts until about 18 months old. (Different breeds mature at different rates. Smaller breeds mature faster than larger breeds. Whereas a toy breed might be fully mature at 12 months old, a giant breed won’t fully mature until closer to 2 years old, so the adolescent phase will vary from breed to breed.)
If you don’t want your puppy to chew your shoes or any other household items, make sure you provide him with a large and varied assortment of “legal” chew items and toys, so he always has “good” choices available.
Dogs go through lots of changes during this time – physical growth spurts, hormone surges, and an increased need to chew in an effort to fully set adult teeth into the skull. These physical changes generally coincide with the secondary fear period, a developmental stage where dogs often react fearfully to things they’ve been fine with in the past.
Much like in human adolescents, a hallmark of canine adolescence is a push for independence. Dog owners often report the adolescent dog is “blowing them off,” “being stubborn,” or otherwise seems to have forgotten everything she’s ever been taught.
Although it can be a trying time, patience is a virtue. Find ways to foster success and prevent failure in training. For example, if your young adolescent is overly distracted by other dogs when in a group class, add distance or use a visual barrier between the dogs to filter the distraction. If the dog is clearly driven by his nose, avoid letting him off-leash in unfenced areas. Avoid scary or painful punishers, as they can erode the relationship you share with your dog. The good news is, this too shall pass.
The Bottom Line
When we bring a dog into our life, it’s our responsibility to teach them how to successfully live in our human world. Good training is a partnership. It’s not something we do to our dog, it’s something we do with our dog. It’s also ongoing. We get out of it what we put into it. With modern-day positive reinforcement training methods, it’s easy to make training an enjoyable way of life that creates treasured companions for years to come.
Life as most of us know it is being severely disrupted by the restrictions and common-sense guidelines being put forth in nearly every community in order to slow the spread of covid-19. Are there any “winners” in this strange new world? Many of our dogs, it turns out, are benefitting from having their owners working from home or caring for kids whose schools and daycare centers have closed. I know of many dogs who are getting more walks and much more family time than ever.
On the other hand, many people whose livelihoods are
dependent on dog-related businesses are definitely worried. I am seeing a lot
of angst in the social-media feeds of dog trainers, walkers, groomers, daycare,
and boarding facilities. Many dog owners are canceling services and appointments,
either because their travel has been suspended or because they are
self-quarantining, or just to protect themselves from possibly being exposed to
the virus in public places.
(I know that there are MANY people whose livelihoods are
taking a big hit right now; I’m speaking only about dog-related businesses
because that’s in my wheelhouse!)
What you can do to help
I know of many small and micro dog-related business owners
and employees who are suffering major hardships at this time. I’d like to
promote a suggestion I’ve seen elsewhere: If your income or job is stable and
your income is NOT taking a hit due to the various virus-containment strategies
in place, consider sending a check to the dog walker, groomer, or trainer you
would have ordinarily seen during this time. Consider it a holiday bonus!
The only dog-related businesses that I’m aware of that are
doing well at the moment? I know that companies who sell food and other
supplies online are getting buried in orders; many are announcing that there
will be delays from their usual prompt delivery times. Also: Trainers who teach
using video or live-streaming. Many trainers are switching to that format to
keep their income (and their clients’ education) on track. If you are stuck at
home and bored, and your dog could use some training, consider asking your
trainer if she’s set up for a video consultation. Or book a training
appointment with a professional on the other side of the country! This is a
perfect time to get access to people who ordinarily would be too busy to book online
appointments with out-of-the-area clients.
At last word, health officials still approve of people getting outdoor exercise, as long as they maintain a distance of six feet away from other humans who are not members of their household. You know what else is six feet long? The best leash for walking your dog! If you are stressed by the news, we’d like to recommend a long walk with your dog outdoors (as long as you are feeling well).
Hang in there, wash your hands, order your dog’s food
earlier than usual, and take care!
What Otto is mostly, I think, is 70 pounds of magnificence. Photo courtesy of Nancy Kerns
It never fails: Every time I take my senior dog Otto into public, people ask what breed he is. And I have to smile and shrug. My standard answers:
“He’s a Disney dog!”
“He’s an Oroville Chickenhound!” (He was found as a stray pup, about four months old, in someone’s chicken coop, and brought to my local animal shelter. When I adopted him at the estimated age of 7 months, I couldn’t believe that such a cute pup had been languishing there for three months. It may have had something to do with the fact that his cage card indicated that he killed chickens.)
Mostly what I say is, “He’s very mixed.”
However, this tend to make people ask “Why don’t you get one of those DNA tests that tell you what he is?”
And I have to say, “I have! Five times! And the results are mixed!”
Otto’s DNA Journey
In 2009, I sent Otto’s DNA to the two companies that seemed to be the most reputable at the time, Wisdom Panel and Petco’s Canine Heritage. The technology was new and the results were a sketchy on details, but both companies detected Chow Chow and Border Collie. Wisdom Panel thought there was also German Shepherd and Basenji; Canine Heritage thought there was also some Poodle. I thought any of that was possible, with the exception of Basenji.
In 2016, I planned to write an updated article about DNA tests, and I again sent Otto’s DNA off to two companies that offered mixed-breed identification, just to see what they had to say.
One of the companies was DNA My Dog. Its results agreed with my “very mixed” assessment, but the breeds they suggested that might be present bordered on ludicrous: Collie, Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, English Setter, and Norwegian Elkhound. Given the rural and economically depressed area in which Otto was found, I think it’s unlikely that any of those four breeds have ever set foot in the area—or at least not in the same generation!
The other company I sent a sample to in 2016 was Wisdom Panel. Shortly after the company received the sample, I received a message indicating that they recognized that they had tested the same dog previously, and that they would test the new sample anyway. Cool! That lent the endeavor credibility.
Wisdom Panel’s 2016 results offered a lot more detail than in 2009. “Basenji” had disappeared (it had been pretty unlikely), and the previously detected Border Collie, Chow Chow, and German Shepherd were still present. However, topping the list were two breeds that had not been reported by any of the companies previously: American Staffordshire Terrier and Australian Cattle Dog. At that time, the company didn’t offer estimates of the contributions of potential ancestors by percentage; instead, it offered a theoretical family tree. Otto’s showed no possible purebred ancestors until at least the great-grandparent level.
I think I might have written a blog post about the results, but I know I didn’t get around to writing a feature article about DNA that year.
Some New Information
In 2018, I asked one of our contributors to write an updated article, instead. I revisited the Wisdom Panel website, knowing that they promised to occasionally “refresh” their results as their technology improved. I also sent a sample of Otto’s DNA to a new player on the mixed-breed identification block, Embark.
In 2018, Wisdom Panel was expressing the contributions of various breeds in the dogs’ DNA as percentages. All of the results in Otto’s 2016 report were the same, but percentages had been added. They indicated that there were about equal amounts of Am Staff, Cattle Dog, Border Collie, Chow, and German Shepherd in Otto.
This was very interesting in light of the results I received from Embark’s 2018 test of Otto’s DNA. Its results were very similar—with a notable exception. Embark identified Otto’s bully breed ancestor as American Pit Bull Terrier, and also indicated that he was more APBT than anything else, as much as 21.2%! This company also found Cattle Dog, German Shepherd, Chow, and Border Collie in Otto, but added some Labrador.
While I have to admit that I’m looking forward to any future testing or updates available, I’m going to stick with calling Otto “very mixed.”
Has anyone else had your dog tested by different companies? How did your results vary?
From past work on articles about canine vaccination protocols, I was familiar with the word “coronavirus” when the stories about coronavirus disease 2019—better known today as COVID-19—began to break.
When it comes to dogs, the phrase “coronavirus disease” has long been used to refer to a highly infectious intestinal disease that mostly affects puppies who are less than six weeks of age. The viral infection can cause abdominal discomfort and diarrhea for a few days, but is usually mild. The disease is most common in puppies who have been raised in crowded and unsanitary conditions—puppies who are also at higher risk of becoming infected with parvovirus. If a pup contracts both viruses at the same time, he may not recover.
There is a vaccination that can protect pups from a coronavirus infection, but it’s rarely administered. Neither the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA, the organization whose vaccination protocol guidelines are followed by most veterinarians) nor the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recommend the coronavirus vaccination for most dogs or puppies.
The type of coronavirus that typically infects dogs is not zoonotic; it doesn’t affect humans in any way.
“Coronavirus” is a sort of generic term for any one of a number of viruses that are named for the crown-like spikes on the surface of the virus when viewed by powerful microscopes. Some coronaviruses affect only animals and some affect humans. The types that affect humans tend to cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory infections—what most of us would consider an ordinary “cold.” However, in vulnerable or particularly susceptible individuals, the viruses can also cause bronchitis and pneumonia.
There has been a certain amount of comparing COVID-19 to “severe acute respiratory syndrome,” better known as SARS. COVID-19 and SARS are actually both coronaviruses (as is Middle East respiratory syndrome, better known as MERS). So far, SARS and MERS both seem to be less infectious than COVID-19, but they both seem to cause a higher rate of fatalities than COVID-19 infections.
What’s Been Reported So Far
Here’s the only reason I (of all people) am writing about this: On February 28, there was a widely disseminated news report that the pet dog of a COVID-19 patient in Hong Kong had been tested for COVID-19 and the test resulted in a “weak” positive detection of the virus.
The health officials who tested the COVID-19 patient’s dog collected oral, nasal and rectal samples for testing; it’s unknown what made them decide to do this. As it developed though, the dog’s nasal and oral samples “tested weak positive” for COVID-19 and the dog was placed in a veterinary quarantine facility for further observation.
A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said the dog does not have “any relevant symptoms,” so the agency will conduct close monitoring of the dog and collect test further to confirm if the dog has really been infected with the virus or this is a result of environmental contamination of the dog’s mouth and nose.
The agency’s news release about the case also state that it has no evidence that pet animals can be infected with COVID-19 virus or can be a source of infection to people. And yet, confoundingly, the release went on to say that to ensure public and animal health, the department strongly advises mammalian pets of patients confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19 virus to be put under quarantine.
However, experts in this country have observed that any swabs of an infected patient’s environment, such as the doorknobs, television remote control, bathroom faucets, and so on, may also produce a positive test result due to “environmental contamination.”
Tragically, within days, there were reports of a record number of dogs and other pets being abandoned in China’s streets, and thousands of pets being surrendered to overwhelmed animal shelters—despite the fact that there is no indication that the COVID-19 virus is zoonotic. Time magazine reports that the crisis for pet dogs and cats is the worst in Wuhan, the capital city of the Hubei province where the first cases of COVID-19 are believed to have emerged. Time reports that when a person in Wuhan is found to have COVID-19, the authorities kill all animals in the home as a precaution.
This report was corroborated by a reporter for the BBC (British news service):
“Volunteers in China say they’re struggling to keep up with the number of animals being abandoned as the country battles the virus outbreak.
More than 2,000 people in China have died and more than 78,000 infections have been reported in the country.
Pet owners who fall sick or are caught up in quarantine can’t take their animals with them, and despite reassurance from the World Health Organization that animals can’t carry the virus, others are being dumped.”
How to Protect Your Dog from Coronavirus
There is no evidence whatsoever to indicate that dogs (or cats) can carry or transmit COVID-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), at present, there is no evidence to suggest that dogs or cats will become a source of infection of COVID-19. “It’s important to remember that viruses can sometimes infect a species but not cause illness in that species, nor become transmissible to others,” says the CDC.
And if you do become ill, you may well contaminate your dog’s coat with droplets from your sneezes, coughs, or nose-blowing. Theoretically, someone else could contract the virus if they were to pet your virus-covered dog! Accordingly, the CDC makes the following practical recommendations:
“You should restrict contact with pets and other animals while you are sick with COVID-19, just like you would around other people. Although there have not been reports of pets or other animals becoming sick with COVID-19, it is still recommended that people sick with COVID-19 limit contact with animals until more information is known about the virus. When possible, have another member of your household care for your animals while you are sick. If you are sick with COVID-19, avoid contact with your pet, including petting, snuggling, being kissed or licked, and sharing food. If you must care for your pet or be around animals while you are sick, wash your hands before and after you interact with pets and wear a face mask.”
But under no conditions whatsoever, should you abandon or surrender your dog due to fears over COVID-19.
The litter of starving, mange-covered pups I fostered in 2018-2019. Photo Courtesy of Nancy Kerns.
Anyone who has ever volunteered in animal rescue can relate: You vow to take a break. Maybe your circumstances have changed in a way that makes it more difficult for you to foster or spend time at the shelter; maybe you are just burned out.
But it’s been months and months since you’ve helped transport an adopted pup to a distant new home or driven hours to transport a dog away from a shelter that had given him all the time they could afford and toward a rescue group that would give him all the time he needed to find a new owner. You can’t remember the last time you brought a donation of canned food or cases of paper towels to the shelter. But eventually, something draws you back in.
Years ago, I volunteered to be my local shelter’s volunteer coordinator in an effort to try to find more people who would commit to coming to the shelter to wash dogs and help them get outside to soak up some sunshine and attention. I recruited a few good folks over the course of a few years, but eventually gave up that role in favor of fostering needy adolescent dogs and large litters of puppies. I found it disheartening to spend lots of time showing people around the shelter, trying to find something that they would like to do (and were capable of doing), only to have them disappear after just a few volunteer sessions.
Helping the dogs directly was far more rewarding for me—even when that was just helping the shelter staff do laundry, picking up poop in the outdoor runs, or washing dog bowls. Oh, and I write and produce the shelter’s newsletter, which is one of its major fundraising tools.
Volunteer Burnout
A deep dive into helping animals in my community following the devastating Camp Fire in November 2018, pardon the expression, really did burn me out. I did as much volunteering in the emergency animal shelter as I could, and, with the fire still burning, took on the fostering of a litter of sick, starving, mange-covered puppies who were brought into my own city’s shelter; otherwise, given the effect the area-wide emergency was having on our already beleaguered shelter, they would have been euthanized. Two of the seven puppies died, which was really devastating to me. Previously, in all my fostering, I had never lost a puppy, and I’ve fostered some very sick pups.
The rest pulled through, though one developed an eye condition that— despite intense treatment and many visits to a prestigious university veterinary hospital’s ophthalmology department (and my learning to spell ophthalmology without even thinking about it)—ultimately resulted in the loss of the eye. This pup, Odin, very nearly became my third dog, when, out of nowhere, a perfect home for him materialized.
That was SEVEN full months ago.
Easing Back into Volunteering
The mom and her 10 healthy pups that my friend is fostering now; I’ll play a supportive role (and sneak in some puppy-enjoyment time). Photo courtesy of Nancy Kerns
So, I guess I was overdue. A trip to the shelter to drop off towels and blankets led to a discussion with a shelter employee about volunteers. Which led to a discussion with a friend who has been volunteering there for years about restarting a volunteer training program. Which led to a meeting with the shelter manager about her needs and wants, which led to her expressing that she had to develop more foster providers. Just that morning, she was trying to find a place for a mama dog with 10 4-week-old puppies, which led to an animal control officer arriving at my house a few hours later with the mom and pups.
I actually am not well set up (yet) for fostering puppies at my “new” house. In this case, I only facilitated the transfer of the canine family from the treatment room at the shelter to a friend’s house. This friend is all set up for containing and caring for a large litter and their mom but didn’t know I had volunteered her for duty until she got home from work that afternoon. (She had just told me, days prior, that she couldn’t wait to foster again! Little did she know, puppies were just around the corner!)
I stepped up as a short-term, intermediate foster spot so we could get the family out of the shelter before the little ones were exposed to the ubiquitous, airborne kennel cough pathogens. As it was, setting up a temporary place for them to be in my office took a few hours of rearranging things (as well as my baby chickens, who were already camped out in a dog crate in my office) and then an inordinate amount of laundry afterward!
My friend lives only a mile from me; I can go to her house daily for the next few weeks to provide a mid-day cleaning and feeding and get a little “fix” of that famous puppy breath. And I’m exchanging emails with my other friend about what we can cook up to bring some more helpers into the mix. It’s time to get back to helping.
Criminals who use computers may save files and photos that could incriminate them on electronic storage devices, rather than their hard drives, since the disks - especially the microSD cards, like the one in the lower right corner of the photo - are so tiny and easy to hide. Fortunately, they are still quite detectable by the incredible noses of our canine pals.
Humans have trained dogs to use their amazing noses to identify all kinds of things – explosives, illegal drugs, bedbugs, cancer, even ancient burial sites. But did you know that dogs can help police sniff out evidence against child pornographers?
It’s true! In 2015, after a lengthy investigation, the home of Subway franchise spokesman Jared Fogle was raided by FBI agents with the help of a black Labrador Retriever named Bear. At Fogle’s home, Bear indicated three finds by sitting in front of their locations, then pointing with his nose to each scent source. One of Bear’s finds was an incriminating thumb drive missed by human searchers containing evidence that helped send Fogle to jail.
For the record, electronic-storage detection dogs (ESD K9s) have no knowledge of the content stored on the devices they seek. They are often called porn-sniffing dogs because those who treasure illicit images usually save them on electronic-storage devices that are small and easy to hide.
A RELATIVELY NEW DOG JOB
In 2011 Jack Hubball, Ph.D., a chemist at the Connecticut Scientific Sciences Forensic Laboratory, discovered that electronic storage devices carry unique scents in their circuit board components, such as triphenylphosphine oxide (TPPO), which dogs can detect. Armed with that chemical key, Connecticut State Police began training Thoreau and Selma, dogs who were too active to complete their training at Guiding Eyes for the Blind in New York.
The officers started with large amounts of the chemical and gradually reduced its quantity, placing devices containing the odor in different boxes and eventually in different rooms. After five weeks of odor detection training and six weeks of training with his new handler, Thoreau, a yellow Lab, was given to the Rhode Island State Police. On his first official search, he discovered a thumb drive containing child pornography in a tin box inside a cabinet.
Selma, a black Lab, worked with the Connecticut State Police Computer Crimes Unit, where she uncovered devices in recycling bins, vents, and radiators while working on child pornography, homicide, parolee compliance, and computer hacking cases.
With those successes, an entirely new type of law-enforcement career for dogs was established.
STANDOUT DETECTIVE DOG
Bear, the dog who helped make the case against Jared Fogle, started life as a pet dog in a family who loved him – but who couldn’t prevent him from jumping on counter tops and eating everything he could reach. When he was 2 years old (the age at which many out-of-control dogs are surrendered to shelters), his owners offered him to Todd Jordan, an Indiana firefighter who trained dogs for arson investigations.
Today, Bear lives and works with his Seattle Police Department Detective partner.
Instead of training Bear to detect fire accelerants, though, Jordan chose to help friends on the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, who were frustrated at not being able to find thumb drives and microSD cards when searching the homes of child pornographers. Inspired by the electronic-storage device detection dogs Thoreau and Selma, Jordan focused on developing Bear’s ability to detect tiny digital storage devices – th ekind that might be hidden in wall cracks, clothing, ceiling tiles, radios, closets, books, boxes, furniture, dirty laundry, or garbage.
Most search and rescue (SAR) dogs are rewarded with toys that satisfy their prey drive, but food was Bear’s favorite reward, and he was highly motivated. Jordan started training Bear in his own garage, hiding USB drives for Bear to find, and eventually began working with task force agents. Soon Bear and Jordan began accompanying detectives on warrant searches, where Bear found thumb drives missed by human searchers.
A few months after Bear’s successful search at Fogle’s home, he helped police gather evidence that led to the arrest of Marvin Sharp, a USA Gymnastics coach charged with possessing child pornography; Bear found microSD cards hidden inside Sharp’s gun safe.
In 2015, Seattle Police Department Detective Ian Polhemus, an eight-year member of the ICAC task force, went to Indiana to learn how to work with ESD K9s. Jordan matched Detective Polhemus with Bear, and not long after, sent Bear to live and work with Polhemus in Seattle. The new partners began sniffing out electronic evidence of crimes almost immediately. In one case, investigators completed their search of a suspect’s home and then Polhemus brought in Bear for another search. In just a few minutes, Bear located five devices, some of which contained child exploitation material, that the initial search team had missed.
Bear trains every day, Detective Polhemus explained in a 2018 KIRO Seattle radio interview. “Because he’s a food-reward dog, he’s highly motivated. So what that means is the only time he eats is when he’s working,” says Polhemus. Bear is fed three cups of food throughout the day, whether he’s working on a case or practicing.
“I’ve got three training boxes with holes in them and only one of them has a device in it that he should indicate on,” Polhemus says. “When he gets to the box that has a device in it, Bear is a passive indicator, which means he’ll sit. I’ll give him a supplemental command and then he’ll shove his nose in the hole and his tail will wag and he’ll sit there and hold his nose in the hole until I reward him with food.”
GROWING DEMAND
Illinois State Attorney Michael Nerheim became interested in ESD K9s when he learned about Bear’s success. “We were seeing a trend here where child pornographers, rather than downloading evidence onto a computer, would download evidence onto a removable device and then hide that device in their house,” he told the Chicago Tribune in 2018.
Subsequently, today, there are at least two ESDs trained by Todd Jordan working in Illinois. These dogs, named Browser and Cache, now work for the Lake and Will County attorney’s offices, respectively. Child exploitation cases are their main tasks, but the dogs can help with any crime that involves computers or computer records.
“Browser has assisted on dozens of search warrants,” says his handler, Carol Gudbrandsen, a cybercrimes analyst. “He routinely performs searches in the jails and has been performing sweeps with the Lake County Probation Department when they do home visits on their sex offenders. Browser and I also do presentations in the schools in Lake County, speaking on internet safety and cyberbullying to students, staff, and parents. When I bring Browser into these situations, he instantly grabs the attention of our audience, and our presentations have become even more effective.”
JOB REQUIREMENTS
To date, Todd Jordan has trained 30 ESDs and nearly two dozen accelerant-detection dogs at his business, Jordan Detection K9. Jordan adapts his training methods for dogs who are ball- or toy-driven, but his primary focus is passive-response (indicating by sitting quietly), food-reward training.
“Our canines are hand-picked, based on their willingness to please and their willingness to work,” he explains at his company’s website, electronicdetectionk9.com. “Most are second-career dogs. We also work closely with several Labrador rescues in order to give good dogs a chance at a fulfilling life.
“We select dogs with high energy and hunt drives. Many of the dogs have failed guide-dog or service-dog school because they may chase after small animals or bark at other animals or other people while working. Although those are instances where a canine would not be good for a person with special needs, they are still great for what we do.”
TRAINING METHODS
Some trainers of law-enforcement dogs use only toys and play as training reinforcers, and worry that using food for rewards opens the way for an abuse of the system, so to speak: that someone could use food to distract a law-enforcement sniffing dog. The human partners of dogs like Thoreau, Selma, Bear, Browser, and Cache beg to differ.
“I had prior canine handling experience with ball- and toy-driven dogs, and had no experience with food-driven canines,” says Special Agent Owen Peña at the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General. “Todd made a believer out of me for the advantages of using a food-driven canine for this type of work and breaking me of my old toy/ball-driven habits. With the canine being food-driven, I feel there is a better bond and connection that I and my family have with our canine, Joey. Now Joey is part of my family and he just happens to have a job.”
Special Agent Joey, of the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General, is another alumnus of Jordan Detection K9’s.
Like other electronic-storage detection dogs, Joey works with just one handler, food is an integral part of his daily practice, and he is well fed in the process. Because the dogs eat only when they find a device, their handlers run trainings every day to keep their skills sharp.
Do they actually offer false indications just so they can steal food? In 2016 Special Agent Jeffrey Calandra of the FBI’s Newark, N.J., Field Office started working with Iris, a black Lab, in cases involving organized crime, drug gangs, and cybercrimes including child pornography. In one search, FBI agents were confident that there was nothing left to find in a room with a desk, but Iris alerted to something in its top drawer. Calandra opened the drawer and didn’t see any evidence. When he said, “Show me,” Iris pushed her nose onto a pad of sticky notes.
Calandra assumed that Iris was faking her response so she could steal food, but when he pulled her away from the desk drawer, she pulled back. This time she picked up the pad of sticky notes with her mouth and flipped it over, causing a microSD card to fall out.
“She was correct and I was wrong,” said Calandra. “Either the individual was concealing it, or it got stuck in the pad and you just couldn’t see it. That’s why the dogs are so good.” False positives are not usually a problem, he added, explaining that he’s more concerned about the dog missing something, though he says that hasn’t happened yet.
IMPRESSIVE FUN
At the Connecticut State Police Forensic Laboratory, Jack Hubbell hopes to identify the lowest detectable scent levels of TPPO, measuring not only part-per-million levels but part-per-billion levels. The dogs’ noses are that impressive, he says, and they consistently out-perform any odor-detecting devices invented by humans.
As far as the dogs are concerned, finding evidence that helps police and the ICAC task force is a series of fun games and all in a day’s work.
When you contact a massage practitioner about your dog, one of the first questions she should ask you is whether and when your dog has been seen by your veterinarian. Be wary of any practitioner who would work on your animal with an illness or injury if you haven’t at least tried to get a medical diagnosis. Because of massage’s powerful pain-relieving effects, doing massage first could delay important medical treatment.
Another thing to watch closely is how the practitioner interacts with your animal. Any attempt to forcibly restrain the dog is a red flag. Massage works closely with the parasympathetic nervous system – the opposite of fight or flight – and anything that counters that relaxation effect will undermine results. Be proactive, and end any session if you feel the practitioner isn’t respecting your dog.
One of my instructors, Lisa Ruthig, told me about a dog she worked on who was prone to behaving aggressively when her neck was touched. The dog had been diagnosed with intervertebral disc disease (IVDD) and was in serious pain. Lisa learned that the dog had been muzzled and forced to endure deep-tissue neck massage from another practitioner.
Lisa used behavioral desensitization coupled with massage to the rest of the body to overcome the dog’s fear. In the end, the dog didn’t need deep tissue massage to relax her tight neck – and deep masssage is contraindicated with IVDD! Instead, Lisa used light massage and myofascial release, which the dog happily accepted. Giving dogs some choice and control over a session is the most humane, fastest way to build a bond of trust and allow the necessary work.
Aimee Johnson of Little Bear Animal Massage (littlebearanimalmassage.com) in St. Paul, MN, reports: One of my clients is a 13-year-old German Shepherd Dog, Izzy, who was referred to me by her traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) veterinarian, Dr. Deb Brown of Pequot Lakes (MN) Animal Hospital. Izzy is a former agility dog and has arthritis in her back, knees, shoulder, and neck. She also has spondylosis, hip dysplasia, and had hip denervation done in 2015. Izzy’s owner, Julie, has incorporated multiple modalities to keep Izzy moving (chiropractic, laser therapy, TCM, etc.). After adding massage to her routine (once a week with me, and nightly sessions by her owner), Izzy is doing the things she loves again. Chantilly
Karen Lachapelle, a massage practitioner and owner of Rub My Belly (facebook.com/rbmyblly) in Lowell, MA, reports: Wendy and Marc had four dogs. The first dog of theirs that I massaged was the oldest guy, Taz. When I first met him, he was about 12 years old with just patches of fur. At first, he was unsure, but by the third or fourth session he liked his massages so much so that he would sleep through the night – and, remarkably, his fur started to grow back. I massaged Taz on a monthly basis for two years until he passed away. Then Wendy and Marc called on me to massage their next-oldest dog, Chantilly. When I massaged Chantilly, Wendy and Marc would comment on the “spring in her step” and report that she would have a good night’s sleep. I massaged Chantilly until she passed away in 2019 at the age of 19. Bella
Ellen Kanner of Framingham, MA, shared this report: Bella is my 12-year-old Shih-Tzu/Poodle-mix. About five months ago, she stopped using her left front leg.Her veterinarian diagnosed advanced arthritis and prescribed an injectable pain killer once a week for 10 weeks. She also advised me that massage or acupuncture may reduce Bella’s pain. I contacted Lisa Ruthig (Lively Animal Massage in Grosvenordale, CT), and she started massaging Bella once a week. Within five days of getting her first massage, Bella started walking on all four paws again! After 10 weeks, Bella no longer needed her injectable pain medication. Bella now gets massages every other week. Recently, she was able to hike at a normal pace for over an hour. Massage turned my older, pain-filled Bella into a much more comfortable “younger” Bella. Maggie
Karen Brothers of Bellingham, MA, shared this report: My 13-year-old German Shepherd, Maggie, has severe arthritis in the lower spine and severe hip dysplasia. Medication helped for a time, then her veterinarian recommended physical therapy or massage. After her first massage from practitioner Lisa Ruthig, Maggie slept through the night – for the first time in a while. I was so relieved! I realized that Maggie didn’t groan as much as she lay down or struggle as much when she got up. She was willing to walk farther than she had been, she didn’t seem as stiff, and her gait was better. Most amazingly, the sparkle came back to her eyes. Over the next two years, her challenges worsened, but each hour-long massage helped Maggie feel more comfortable for the remainder of the week.
The author massages her young dog, Peter. The athletic dog is healthy, but massage helps prevent soreness and injuries from his exuberant activities.
As a newly board-certified canine massage practitioner, I want to encourage everyone who is dedicated to their dogs to consider adding professional massage to their dogs’ healthcare plan. Who needs this? I would suggest every dog. For some dogs, it is essential; for the rest, it will enhance their lives, at a minimum. How so?
Let’s start with young, healthy dogs like my Peter. Practicing massage on him, starting just a few months after my husband and I adopted him, clearly enhanced our bond. I started slowly and found that he enjoyed every stroke and was happy to have me (and my classmates) touch him everywhere. Also, maintenance massage can assist in protecting the bodies of young, athletic dogs from injury and build resiliency.
For newly adopted dogs, particularly those who have had a rough start in life, gentle massage will help relax your dog and allow you to touch him when you need to for other reasons. Just start gently and in areas where the typical dog has fewer worries (e.g., shoulders, base of neck). This has helped me greatly with trimming Peter’s nails.
Several of my fellow students spent their internships in shelters. They reported in words and video how powerful massage is at helping stressed dogs become more relaxed and trusting of humans.
For senior dogs, massage will help to identify areas of soreness and bring some relief. Massage also seems to help older dogs suffering from cognitive dysfunction; maybe it’s just from having their circulation improved and their neural circuits stimulated by novel touch!
For dogs who have had injuries, massage – with the express direction and approval of their veterinarians – can help reduce the formation of scar tissue, soften and lengthen tissue to assist healing, and increase flexibility. It can also help loosen muscles that may be compensating, so more injury does not result. Massage can reduce tightness in areas where dogs have restrictions. Gentle, directed, firm bodywork can stimulate the release of endorphins, with a powerful pain-relieving effect.
Dogs with respiratory conditions may benefit from massage by relaxing and strengthening the rib muscles that support lung function.
Does this all sound familiar? If you have been treated with massage, you may recognize many of these benefits.
WHY AND HOW TO HIRE A PROFESSIONAL
While almost anyone can learn to use some basic massage strokes to relax their dog, a well-educated practitioner can use more specialized massage techniques to effectively address the particular issues that affect your dog.
Massage is one of the modalities that is often considered as a “can’t hurt” practice, but it can be contraindicated. Dogs with certain cancers (e.g., mast cell cancer and osteosarcoma) should not be massaged, and dogs with spinal injuries require special consideration. Dogs who are sick with fever, suffered a recent trauma, or “just aren’t right” should see a veterinarian before massage.
Be aware that there is no consistency in the U.S. regarding the regulation of animal massage. The website of the International Association of Animal Massage and Bodywork (IAAMB) lists the laws pertaining to animal massage in each state: iaamb.org/resources/laws-by-state.
If you are looking for a prospective massage therapist for your dog, I recommend looking for credentialed professionals. I’m biased, because I recently was certified by the National Board Certification of Animal Acupressure and Massage (NBCAAM), which requires a minimum of 50 hours studying anatomy and physiology, 50 hours of supervised hands-on work, and 100 hours of study in other areas (including business ethics, animal behavior, and biosecurity). NBCAAM reviews the education and experience of candidates to ensure adequacy and then administers a board examination. I believe this sort of rigorous credentialing process is a must.
Some veterinary offices and veterinary rehabilitation centers employ technicians who are trained in massage. Even so, I would check the practitioner’s credentials. Was their training program at least 200 hours, and did it include anatomy and hands-on training? There are any number of one-week and video educational programs out there, which are not adequate (in my opinion) to qualify someone to work on my dog! If you feel the same, investigate those credentials!
If you have any uncertainty about the practitioner’s qualifications, ask for references – and check them! Also, if your dog has a specific issue that needs to be addressed, ask the practitioner if she has had experience addressing that issue.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Before the massage practitioner ever touches your dog, she should have you complete an intake form about your dog. It should have room to include information about any physical and behavioral issues your dog has. The practitioner should then spend time reviewing this information with you. If there is an active illness or physical problem, she should consult with your veterinarian before working on your dog.
You should absolutely be permitted to be present when the practitioner works on your dog; in many cases, the practitioner will prefer this, as your dog may be more relaxed with you in the room. Massage may take place in your home or in the practitioner’s office, which should be clean and soothing.
The practitioner may employ a dog appeasing pheromone like the Adaptil (DAP) plug-in; there may be calming music such as “Through a Dog’s Ear” playing, and there should be a freshly covered soft cushion for your dog. I prefer to work on the floor because I think it’s safer and more comfortable for most dogs. But for small dogs, some practitioners may opt for a table. Massage can make dogs thirsty, so fresh water should be available.
Some dogs may enjoy chomping on a Kong or other chew while getting massaged, and the practitioner might offer your dog an occasional treat for staying calm and relaxed. If your dog tends to guard his chews or treats, let the practitioner know so she does not offer him something to chew.
If your dog is shy or anxious with strangers, the first session may mean just getting used to the practitioner and limited touching. It may take a few sessions until the dog is willing to lay still and allow the full extent of the work.
The practitioner should be very mindful of your dog’s body language and never insist on working on an area that the dog has expressed is a no-go. Massage should not be forced – dogs should be allowed to get up and move and come back as their choice. Often, dogs who are not comfortable with being touched in certain areas may, over time, allow massage in those places.
The length of the session will depend to some extent on your dog’s reaction. If the dog is quite accepting, this will allow the bodyworker to move from the warming-up strokes (such as effleurage and compression) to deeper techniques (such as petrissage and direct pressure), and to more areas of the body.
The practitioner may use any of a variety of techniques for your dog’s massage. Swedish massage is excellent for warming up the dog’s tissue for deeper strokes and handling most minor muscle problems. Swedish strokes combine compression with gliding, lifting tissue, squeezing, or vibration, depending on the effect desired.
Trigger-point therapy softens up “knots” in the muscle, often using direct pressure. Myofascial release uses gentle pressure to affect change in the tissue that surrounds muscle. Passive range-of-motion exercises can be very effective to enhance joint flexibility and range.
Some practitioners augment massage with other modalities, such as Tui Na (Chinese massage), kinesiology taping, and acupressure.
Toward the end of the session, the practitioner may also employ some passage range-of-motion exercises. The practitioner will support a joint on both sides and move the limb through its comfortable range of motion and within its proper plane, without forcing. In addition, the practitioner may show you ways to encourage your dog to stretch using treats. These may include neck stretches where the dog follows the treat from side to side, toward either shoulder, or encouraging a bow.
At the end of the session, the practitioner should provide you with her findings, including pointing out any problem areas, growths, or lumps that should be mentioned to your dog’s veterinarian. She may also make suggestions about future sessions.
I love massaging my dog as well as other people’s dogs. I walk away from every session feeling positively uplifted and more connected to my canine friends. The happy comments I receive from the dog owners are icing on the cake.
Massage has the power to transform your dog’s life and even your own. I recommend that you learn more about massage and its benefits and consider a session for your dog.
"What's that noise and where is it coming from?" Dogs' hearing abilities are different from ours - a fact that is frequently and strangely unconsidered in the development of many audio products for dogs.
Dog trainers often recommend smartphone apps and YouTube videos for desensitizing and counter-conditioning dogs who are afraid of specific noises. There are many apps designed and marketed for this purpose, and they typically include recordings of many different sounds. However, the physics of sound production and the limitations of consumer audio present large problems for such use – problems substantial enough to prevent the success of many (most?) conditioning attempts.
WHY MANY AUDIO CONDITIONING PRODUCTS FAIL
If quizzed, most people would likely guess that dogs have hearing abilities that are vastly superior to ours. In fact, it’s a mixed bag.
Humans can hear slightly lower frequencies than dogs can, and we can also locate sounds quite a bit better. But dogs are the big winners in the high frequency range; they can hear tones over about twice the frequency range that humans can. Also, dogs can hear sounds at a much lower volume level than humans can over most of our common audible range. Yet the superior aspects of dogs’ hearing are rarely considered when we decide to use sound recordings in conditioning!
There are four major acoustical problems with using human sound devices to condition dogs:
•The inability of smartphones to generate low frequencies, such as those present in thunder.
•The limited ability of even the best home audio systems to generate these low frequencies in high fidelity.
•The upper limit of the frequencies generated on all consumer audio.
•The effects of audio file compression on the fidelity of digital sound.
There are also common problems with the use of sound apps that can be deduced through what we know through behavior science. These can also make or break attempts to positively condition a dog to sound:
•Lack of functional assessment before attempting conditioning.
•The length of the sound samples used for conditioning.
•The assumption that lower volume always creates a lower intensity (less scary) stimulus.
Some, but not all of the above problems can be addressed with do-it-yourself work and a good plan. But sound conditioning of dogs using recordings will always have some substantial limitations that can affect success.
WHAT IS THE FREQUENCY?
Frequency is the aspect of sound that relates to the cycles of the sound waves per second. Cycles per second is expressed in units of hertz (Hz). I’ll refer a lot to low and high frequencies because they pose different challenges.
To help with the concept of frequency, think of a piano keyboard with the low notes on the left and the high notes on the right. The low notes have lower frequencies and the high notes have higher frequencies. Keep in mind that sound frequency goes much higher than the highest notes on a piano!
Common sounds with low frequencies include thunder, fireworks, industrial equipment, the crashing of ocean waves, the rumble of trains and aircraft, and large explosions. Common sounds with high frequencies include most birdsong, the squeaking of hinges, Dremels and other high-speed drills, referees’ whistles, and most digital beeps.
Motorized machinery generates sound frequencies that correspond to the rotation of the motor. These frequencies can be high like the dentist’s drill or low like aircraft. Motors can also vary in speed. For instance, when you hear a motorcycle accelerating, the frequency of the sound rises as the engine speeds up.
Humans can hear in a range of 20 to 20,000 Hz, and dogs can hear in a range of 67 to 45,000 Hz.
Some sounds don’t have a detectable pitch, meaning they include such a large number of frequencies that you can’t pick anything out and hum it. These are called broadband sounds. A clicker generates a broadband sound.
FRIENDS IN LOW FREQUENCIES
Our human brains are great at filling in blanks in information and taking shortcuts. This makes it hard for us to realize what a bad job our handheld devices do in generating low-frequency sounds. Our dogs undoubtedly know, though.
Many people purchase sound apps in order to try to condition their dogs to thunder. The frequency range for rumbles of thunder is 5 to 220 Hz. Handheld devices generally have a functional lower output limit of about 400 to 500 Hertz. If you play a recording of thunder (or a jet engine or ocean waves) on a handheld device, the most significant part of the sound will be played at a vanishingly low volume or be entirely missing.
When performing desensitization, we aim to start with a version of the sound that doesn’t scare the dog, so this could possibly be a starting point. On the other hand, without the distinctive low frequencies that are present in real thunder, some dogs will not connect the recording (played at any volume) with the real thing.
Home sound systems, including some Bluetooth speakers, can do a better job. They usually generate frequencies down to 60 Hz. This is roughly the lower limit of dogs’ hearing, so it’s a good match. But even the best home system can’t approach the power and volume of actual thunder, and the sound is located inside your home instead of outside. Some dogs do not appear to connect recordings of thunder on even excellent sound equipment to the real thing, or they will respond to recordings with a lesser reaction.
In one study of thunder phobic dogs, the researchers brought their own professional quality sound system to each dog owner’s home; great mention is made of the fact that the sound system was large. This bulk indicates that they were serious about being able to generate low frequencies! In general, the larger the speakers, the better they are at generating low frequencies. The difference today is smaller than it was 15 years ago, however. Sound systems have improved a lot in recent years.
Some of the sound apps for dog training now instruct you to send the sound to a home sound system rather than using the speaker in the handheld. This is excellent advice for any sound. But the bottom line is that you will not always be able to emulate low frequencies well enough to function as desensitization for some dogs.
Table I (at left) shows the difference between the sound of a roll of thunder played on an iPhone 7 versus a home sound system (Altec Lansing speakers). The Blue Yeti microphone I used to capture the sound for analysis was the same distance from the speaker in each case.
The graph in the oval is the approximate range of the rumbles of thunder. The navy blue line represents the sound generated by the smartphone in those frequencies. The red line was from the Altec Lansing home speakers. The speakers generate sound down to 60 Hz (as per their specifications).
In contrast, the output of the phone is virtually inaudible below 300 Hz.
LET’S GET HIGH FREQUENCIES
All consumer audio equipment is designed for human ears. Our handhelds, computers, TVs, and sound systems put out sound only up to the frequency of 22,000 Hz. Humans can’t hear higher frequencies than that. But dogs can hear up to about 40,000 Hz. So again, the recordings are not high fidelity for dogs.
This is different from the thunder situation. The low frequencies of thunder are present in high quality recordings, but our equipment can’t perfectly generate them. With high frequencies, it’s not only a limitation of our speakers. The sounds in “dog frequencies” are not recorded in the first place.
It’s not that it can’t be done. Biologists and other scientists use specialty equipment that can record and/or play back sound in the ultrasound range. The recording device requires a higher sample rate (how often the sound is digitally measured) than consumer equipment and the speaker for playback requires a wider bandwidth for frequency response.
How much does this affect the fidelity of recorded sound for dogs? We can’t know for sure. But virtually all sounds include what are called harmonics or overtones. These are multiples of the original frequency into a higher range. Dogs can hear these in the range from 22,000 to 40,000 Hz, but they are never present in sound recordings made even by very high quality equipment.
Because of this, it’s likely that dogs with normal hearing will be able to easily discriminate between a natural sound and even the best recording of it.
SOUND FILE COMPRESSION
Digital audio files are large. Most files that are created to play on digital devices are saved in MP3 format. This format was created in the 1990s when digital storage was much more limited than it is today. Hence, MP3 files are compressed, meaning that some of the sound information is removed so they won’t be so large.
MP3 is termed a “lossy” compression because sound data is permanently lost through the compression. The compression algorithms are based on the capabilities of the human ear. Sounds we humans are unlikely to be able to hear are removed.
Some of these limitations may be shared by dogs. For instance, quieter sounds that are very close in time to a loud sudden sound are removed. We can’t hear those because of masking effects, and it’s probable that dogs can’t either, although there may be a difference in degree.
However, there are other limitations of the human ear that dogs do not share. For instance, our hearing is most sensitive in the range of about 2,000 to 5,000 Hz, so very quiet sounds that are pretty far outside that range will likely be eliminated. Dogs’ most sensitive range is higher than ours, so sounds they could hear are probably omitted from compressed recordings.
Keep in mind that dogs not only hear sounds that are higher than we can perceive, but they hear all high-pitched sounds at lower volumes than we do.
So the MP3 compression process is another reason that some sounds in dogs’ hearing range that would be present in a natural sound would be missing in a recording of it.
If you make your own recordings, there is an easy thing you can do to prevent this issue: Simply save your sound files in WAV or AIFF formats as discussed below. I haven’t seen a desensitization app that uses these formats, however.
BEHAVIOR SCIENCE CONSIDERATIONS
The problems I’ve discussed so far are caused by the physics of sound and how it is recorded, compressed, and played.
The following cautions have to do with applying what we know about performing classical conditioning to sound without errors.
Lack of Functional Assessment
Trainers who deal with dogs with behavior problems perform functional assessments. They observe and take data to help them understand what is driving the problem behavior. In the case of fear, they analyze the situation in order to determine the root cause of the fear.
In the case of sound sensitivity, a dog may react because the sound has become a predictor of a fear-exciting stimulus, as is the case with much doorbell reactivity. Or the dog may be responding to an intrinsic quality of the sound, in the case of sound phobia. Sound phobia is a clinical condition that requires intervention. Many such dogs need medication in order to improve.
Trainers, working with veterinarians or veterinary behaviorists, can make these determinations. Consumers often can’t. And as the sound apps being marketed to consumers become more elaborate, pet owners who follow the directions have a good chance of worsening some dogs’ fears.
For example, a newer sound app allows you to set up the app to play the sound randomly when you are not home for purposes of desensitization (without counter-conditioning). The instructions show an example of a dog’s doorbell reactivity going away through use of the app (although perhaps not permanently). The app was programmed to play doorbell sounds randomly when the owner wasn’t home. This decoupled the doorbell as a predictor of strangers at the door.
This protocol would give any professional trainer pause. First, the cause of the reactivity – the dog’s fear of strangers – wasn’t addressed at all. All things considered, that is not a humane or robust approach. The dog’s fear is left intact while the inconvenience of their barking at predictors is removed. Second, the instructions of playing a feared sound randomly when the owner isn’t home, even at a low volume (more on this below) could result in a ruinous situation for a dog with a true sound phobia rather than “just” doorbell reactivity.
Following the directions that are packaged with some of the commercial sound apps meant to be used to train noise-sensitive dogs could actually cause more harm than good.
Apps that can play randomized, graduated sound exposures can be a good tool for trainers, as long as the trainers are aware of the limitations here. They should not be marketed or recommended to consumers.
Length of the Sound Stimulus
Many noises in the apps are too long for effective desensitization and counter-conditioning. Real-life thunder and fireworks both have an infinite array of sound variations. If you play a 20-second clip of either of these, there will be multiple sounds present and a sound phobic dog may react several times, not just once.
Classical delay conditioning, where the stimulus to be conditioned is present for several seconds, and the appetitive stimulus (usually food) is continually presented during that time, is said to be the most effective form of classical conditioning. This is the method that trainer Jean Donaldson, founder of the well-regarded Academy for Dog Trainers, refers to as “Open bar, closed bar.”
Delay conditioning would be appropriate to use for a continuous, homogeneous sound, such as a steady state (non-accelerating) motor. But fireworks and thunder are not continuous; they are sudden and chaotic. They consist of multiple stimuli that can be extremely varied.
To offer a visual analogy: If your dog reacts to other dogs and you seek to classically condition him, you might create a careful setup wherein another dog walks by at a non-scary distance and is in view for a period of, perhaps, 10 to 20 seconds. You would be feeding your dog constantly through that period. That is a duration exposure to one stimulus. (And you would try to use a calm decoy dog who doesn’t perform a whole lot of jumpy or loud behaviors!)
But for the first time out you would not take your dog to a dog show or an agility trial to watch 60 different dogs of all sizes and shapes coming and going and performing all sorts of different behaviors, even if you could get the distance right and the exposure was 10 to 20 seconds. That is the visual equivalent of the long sound clip of fireworks. There are far too many separate stimuli!
Also, if you play a longer clip, one lasting many minutes (as has been done in some sound studies), you are essentially performing simultaneous conditioning, a method known for its failure to create an association. The fact that you started feeding one second after the sound started is not going to be significant if the crashes of thunder and food keep coming for minutes on end. You have not created a predictor.
And if you are feeding the whole time but the scary sounds are intermittent, you are probably also performing reverse conditioning, where the food can come to predict the scary noise.
If you are working to habituate a non-fearful dog or a litter of puppies to certain noises, the longer sound clips are probably fine for that. They may even work for a dog with only mild fears of those noises. But the more fearful the dog is, and the closer he is to exhibiting clinical noise phobia, the cleaner your training needs to be. To get the best conditioned response, you need a short, recognizable, brief stimulus.
After you get a positive conditioned response to one firework noise, for instance, you can then start with a different firework noise. After you have done several, you may see generalization and you can use longer clips. But don’t start with the parade!
Volume
Most mammals have what is called an acoustic startle response. We experience fear and constrict certain muscles when we hear a loud, sudden noise. It’s natural for any dog to be startled by a sudden noise. It may be that dogs who have over-the-top responses to thunder and fireworks have startle responses so extreme as to become dysfunctional. For dogs who fall apart when they hear a sudden, loud sound such as thunder, it makes all the sense in the world to start conditioning at low volume, because this practice can remove the startle factor.
But it’s different for dogs who are scared of high-frequency beeps and whistles. These odd, specific fears are not necessarily related to a loud volume. I have observed that, with these dogs, starting at a quiet level can actually scare the dog more. Remember, dogs don’t locate sounds as well as humans do. It could be that the disembodied nature of some of these sounds is part of what causes fear. (Have you ever tried to locate which smoke alarm in a home is emitting the dreaded low battery chirp? Even for humans, it can be surprisingly difficult – and we are better at locating sounds.)
When lowering volume is ruled out as a method of providing a lower intensity version of a sound stimulus, virtually all apps for sound desensitization are rendered useless.
SOLUTIONS
With apps that can do more and more for humans, it seems odd to suggest that in order to help your dog, you might have to invent your own helpful tools. But doing so can help you make recordings of better fidelity and more appropriate length, and if you (or an acquaintance) are at all tech-savvy, you can also alter sounds in other ways besides volume.
Record sounds yourself using an application that can save the recordings in WAV or AIFF (uncompressed) formats. This eliminates one of the ways that recordings can sound very different to dogs from real life sounds. Newer smartphones are fine for this. Even though they can’t play low frequency sounds, they can record them.
Create short recordings of single sounds, especially for dogs with strong sound sensitivities. Or, purchase sounds and edit them down. For instance, you could purchase a 20-second recording of a thunderstorm, and edit out one roll of thunder to use. But be sure that the file you purchase is uncompressed.
Play sounds for desensitization on the best sound system possible, especially if you are working with thunder, fireworks, or other sounds that include low frequencies.
For dogs who are afraid of high-pitched beeps, create a less scary version by changing the sound’s frequency or timbre rather than by lowering the volume. Generally, lowering the frequency works well. You will then need to create a set of sounds for graduated exposures. They should start at a non-scary frequency, then gradually work back up to the original sound.
There are several ways to change the frequency of a recorded sound. You can use video software that has good audio editing capabilities, the free computer application Audacity, or professional sound editing software. You can also generate beeps at different frequencies using a free function generator on the internet.
The one advantage of working with dogs who are afraid of such sounds is that the original sounds themselves are usually digitally generated, so when you create similar sounds the fidelity will be high. (In other words, when a dog is afraid of a smartphone noise, a smartphone is the perfect playback tool.)
HEAR ME OUT
This is not a project to be undertaken lightly, but it can be done if you have tech skills and a good ear. Be sure to use headphones and be at least one room away from your sound-sensitive dog when you start working with recordings of beeps. My dog can hear high-frequency beeps escaping from my earbuds from across the room!
Be aware that with some dogs and some sounds, it will not be possible to play recordings that are similar enough to the natural sounds to be able to carry over a conditioned response. Thunder and fireworks will always present significant problems.
We want to believe that there is always a training solution. But sometimes physics foils our plans and the gap between an artificially generated sound and the generated sound will be too high. In that case, masking, management, and medications will be the best help.
As a lifelong animal lover and the owner of a dog-training and horse-boarding facility, I’ve had countless opportunities to practice multi-species introductions – including many in just the past two years!
About two years ago, my husband and I acquired a Pomeranian/American Eskimo Dog-mix, Sunny. We were told that his previous adopters kept him for only three days because they were afraid he was going to kill their cats. We have two indoor-only cats in our family, but we adopted him anyway. We used gates that have cat-escape doors built into them and kept Sunny on leash for several days. Fortunately, our dog-savvy cats didn’t run from him, so he didn’t chase. It only took a few days of managed encounters and some counter-conditioning to convince him he had better things to do than harass the cats.
Given Sunny’s very strong chase arousal when he sees squirrels outside, however, I have no doubt he would give chase if he encountered an outdoor cat. It is very common for dogs to live in peace with their indoor cats and still chase and even kill an outdoor cat that runs from them.
We weren’t sure what to expect from Sunny when we adopted our pot-bellied pig, Dexter, four months after Sunny joined the family. Our Kelpie, Kai, had lived peaceably with a pig before, so we weren’t worried about his reaction to Dexter’s arrival; for his part, Dexter had lived with dogs before, so we figured those two would be fine. We did our first Sunny-Dexter introduction with Sunny on leash, and discovered that, other than being fascinated with Dexter’s rear end, Sunny was fine with a pig.
We had our biggest interspecies challenge five years ago, when we first brought home Kai, then just one year old. A herding breed, he was quite interested in our full-sized horses, but confined his herding behavior to trotting back and forth at their heels. The horses were accustomed to dogs, so I wasn’t worried about him getting kicked. Also, he kept careful watch on the horses’ hooves. For some reason, though, we had to put a lot more effort into teaching Kai to be calm around our miniature horse, Olivia. Kai barked at and tried to herd her when we led her from the barn – not acceptable. We found an easy fix: We taught Kai to “station” (get up onto, sit, and stay) on a mounting block while we led Olivia to and from her paddock. Eventually Kai’s barking diminished, and stationing was no longer needed.
These were all relatively easy fixes. It takes a lot more work and time to reprogram a dog who has a very strong predatory interest in an other-species family member – or even just a very high level of arousal in the presence of another species.
