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.
View at a curious mixed breed dog chasing striped kitten. indoor
In a perfect world, the lion really would lie down with the lamb (or the wolf with the rabbit), but our world isn’t perfect, and introductions don’t always go as smoothly as we might hope.
If either party displays a strong arousal response or strong fear/stress response, you’ll need to incorporate more significant behavior modification protocols into your introduction scenario. The careful introduction process described in the main articlewill prevent any disasters, but if you see significant distress or arousal behaviors from either animal, abort the introduction and rethink your position:
• Am I truly committed to making the effort that will be necessary for this new animal companion to live safely and happily in my family?
• If so, are all members of this family also in agreement and willing and able to do the behavior modification and management necessary to accomplish this?
• If behavior modification is not successful, are we prepared to very carefully manage this environment for the remainder of our animals’ lives?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, then the prospective new family member is probably better off returning from whence she came, or being uber-managed until you can rehome her, if she came from a neglected or otherwise undesirable situation.
The photo that launched an Instagram career. Bob the Golden Retriever and a number of his little bird friends were photographed by their owner, Luis Higa, JR. of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Higa raised Bob (and his next Golden Retriever , Marley) from young pups in the presence of a variety of birds, as well as a Guinea pig and hamster. Phot courtesy of @bob_marley_goldenretriever
When you think about it, it’s a bit of a miracle that animals who would be predator and prey in many environments are often able to live peacefully together in our homes. How does this happen?
Sometimes it just happens, thanks to good luck, but more often it’s a result of careful planning and introduction. Throw in some good behavior modification, and we can improve the odds of a peaceful coexistence well beyond mere chance.
THE CHALLENGE
We know that our dogs are predators – and some certainly seem to be more predatory than others. This is a nature/nurture thing – partly due to genetics and partly due to environment.
Some dog breeds have been genetically programmed to find predatory behavior highly reinforcing. Think of all the various terriers, bred to kill rats and other vermin on a farm. Think of the hounds, bred to chase and kill a variety of different species for the hunter who follows. Then there are the spaniels, setters, and retrievers, bred to locate, indicate, and flush game for the hunter, and retrieve that game gently, with a very soft mouth after it has been killed by the hunter. The herding breeds are supposed to utilize the stalking piece of the predatory sequence but are never supposed to kill the stock they are herding.
Still, there are Jack Russell Terriers who live in harmony with cats and parakeets. Just because a dog has a genetic propensity to find a behavior reinforcing doesn’t mean he will actually engage in the behavior. The terrier who has never been given the opportunity to chase and kill small animals has probably never had the behavior reinforced. If he was well-managed since puppyhood and grew up learning how to behave appropriately around cats and birds in his home, he would never learn that it was fun to chase and kill small animals, so he doesn’t. (It also helps if the cats and birds in his house have grown up with and are calm around dogs, so they don’t offer behaviors that might trigger a chase response in typical Jack Russells.)
Meanwhile, there are Australian Shepherds – dogs who have been genetically programmed to gather and keep track of cattle and sheep without hurting one – who will eagerly chase and kill bunnies.
As you go forward with a plan to integrate your household with a variety of animal species, keep in mind that, even though they share your sofa and Starbucks habit, deep down, dogs are still predators. If given the opportunity to learn that killing bunnies or cats is fun, many of them will enjoy doing it, even if they don’t have a strong genetic propensity to find the behavior reinforcing.
All else being equal, it will likely be easier to convince your Aussie to live peacefully with small animals than your JRT, but both breeds (and representatives of every other breed) can learn to do it, too.
GREAT STARTS
The easiest way to create interspecies household harmony is to start with a puppy and carefully manage her interactions with other animals as she matures. If she is consistently reinforced for calm behavior in their presence and not allowed to play roughly with them (rough play can turn deadly), she will come to see them as family members and learn to be calm with them.
In theory, it’s simple, yet it can take a lot of management and training for some pups to reach maturity with a “small animals are my friends” world view. Until she learns impulse control, your pup needs to be on-leash in the presence of other small animals in your household, so she doesn’t have the opportunity to perceive them as animated stuffed toys.
If, despite your precautions, it appears your pup has an unhealthy interest in the creatures around her, you’ll need to pursue some of the behavior modification protocols that follow, and if necessary, seek the assistance of a qualified force-free professional.
From the other side, it is just as useful to start young with your “other” species, introducing them to dogs early in their lives, and making sure they have good experiences with canines of various shapes and sizes. A positive association with dogs from early on will reduce stress and make adjustment easier for them when you bring a new predator into the home.
New dog, who ‘dis? This large, calm cat can probably hold his own against a new puppy smaller than himself – but this isn’t the point! If the pup suddenly decided to chase the cat, he risks learning that such a chase is super fun! Simple leashing the pup prevents that behavior from being reinforced. So leash up!
INTRODUCING A NEW DOG
Whether you’re bringing a new puppy, an adolescent, or an adult dog into your multi-species home, it behooves you to orchestrate careful introductions to set the stage for a future peaceful co-existence.
Ask for information, but take it with a grain of salt. It helps if you have any history about your adopted adolescent or adult dog’s prior relationships with other species – but don’t rely on the information. Several years ago, some of my clients were assured by a rescue group that the adult German Shepherd Dog they were adopting had lived compatibly with cats. The dog’s ability to do so in their home, however, required several months of dedicated management and behavior modification work (see “Transformation: Predator to Pal,” WDJ July 2013). Even shelters that include dog-dog and/or dog-cat introductions during their assessment processes can’t guarantee that your newly adopted dog will behave the same with other animals in your home as she did at the shelter.
Set up for success. Before you first bring your new family member into the house, shut away all your other animal companions. Your new dog will likely be stressed from the journey – and remember, even happy excitement causes physiological stress. Give her time to settle down before upsetting her applecart again.
If she seems excessively stressed by the change in her life fortunes, don’t even attempt any introductions on the first day. You don’t need to add that level of stress to the early relationship-building process. If, on the other hand, she seems cool, calm, and collected, then you can proceed after a reasonable cool-down period of maybe an hour or two.
Don’t mistake stressed, shut-down behavior for calm. If you aren’t skilled at assessing canine body language, have someone who has more dog experience with you (see “Listen By Looking,” August 2011). Either way, you’ll want to have a second person with you for the introductions, to manage the other animals, and in case things go wrong and you need help separating animals.
Keep contained. With one of you safely holding the new dog on leash, bring in one other animal, also safely contained in some manner – in a cage or carrier, or on leash – and watch your new dog’s body language very closely. Your dog’s ideal response is interested and calm.
Go slow! For this first encounter, your goal is for the two animals to be in each other’s presence without either one getting overly stressed or excited. Keep them as far apart as necessary to accomplish this, and feed treats if necessary, to help each calm down or be less stressed. Even if things go well, do not try to bring them nose-to-nose on the first meeting. Err on the side of caution. You’ve got plenty of time to help them be best buddies – or at least to live in peace.
Gradually, over a period of days, weeks, or even months, bring them closer together and allow more intimate contact, while still using uber-management to make sure only good things happen. If you have several other animals, use your good judgment about how often and how many introductions you do at any given time or in any given period.
Depending on your results, you may be able to relax management fairly quickly, or you may need to keep some management in place forever. Dog and cats frequently become compatible housemates with no management needed. Other small companion animals may need more protection from your canine predator, especially when you aren’t present. Provide multiple escape routes for your small pets, whatever your ultimate level of management.
INTRODUCING A NEW PET TO YOUR “OLD DOG”
Perhaps your dog is a long-term family member, and the new family member in your home is another type of animal. You probably have a better idea of what your dog’s response is likely to be (calm and non-predatory, we hope!), but you still want to give your new pet plenty of time and space to adjust to the idea of living with a predator. Your introduction will be similar to that described above, but in this case, you’ll be paying even more attention to the newcomer, gauging his reaction to his new life situation.
If you are not already familiar with the body-language communication of the new species, be sure to research it well in advance. The less domesticated/more exotic the species, the more likely they are to do a freeze/shut-down response in the presence of a predator, and the easier it is to make a tragic mistake and misinterpret this as calm and relaxed.
INTRODUCING LARGE COMPANION ANIMALS
We tend to think of small animals when we talk about introducing our dogs to new family members, but there are plenty of canines who share their living spaces (indoors and out) with large animals such as pigs, goats, sheep, llamas, emus, horses, and more.
Introductions to these animals, whether the dog is new or the other species is new, is every bit as important as the small pets. Keep in mind that your dog might be the more vulnerable species in some of these relationships (since a horse’s kick or stomp can easily kill a dog, and even a cranky pet pig or llama can hurt an unwary pup).
Your introduction process is much the same as described above – moving more quickly through the procedure if things go smoothly, more slowly if not, and doing behavior modification if necessary.
Consider additional factors inherent with large animals; management alone might be realistic for a dog who doesn’t do well with horses – maybe you just never take her to the barn. However, if you have a miniature house-pig, or a miniature horse working as your service animal, you’ll need to do the work to get them all comfortable and well-behaved together.
BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION
If the challenge looks surmountable and you’re willing to do the work, get started immediately.
Have the whole family participate in the discussion and agree on the rules for management. Consider padlocks for doors if there are small children in the home who will have difficulty complying despite their good intentions. Develop communications systems so it is clear which companion animals are where and when. No “oops” allowed; someone’s life may depend on it.
Discuss and agree on which behavior modification protocols will be used. My first choice is usuallycounter-conditioning and desensitization (CC&D; see next page for step-by-step instructions). Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT) and/or Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT) are other protocols that can be useful. (For more information about both protocols, see “Fear Aggression in Dogs,” WDJ August 2016.) Seriously consider bringing in a qualified force-free professional to help you with these, especially if you are not familiar and experienced with the protocols.
Basic training. Every dog should be the graduate of at least one basic good manners class (and of course, puppies should go to puppy kindergarten!). The communication and relationship achieved between dog and human through training will be invaluable in sorting out your inter-species relationships.
WORTH THE EFFORT
Whether it takes days, weeks or months to accomplish a reasonable degree of inter-species tranquility, it can be well worth the effort. I know how greatly my own life has been enriched by sharing my home and my heart with well over a dozen different species of animals over the years, for many years more than 20 animal companions at a time. It wasn’t always easy, but it was always worth it.
Ask a dog trainer to tell you one of their biggest pet peeves about their training clients, and they will almost always mention the fact that the average dog owner almost seems to actively resist the concept of “high-value rewards.”
I’ve sat in on a lot of different trainers’ classes, and during the first session, all trainers make an effort to describe the treats they want to see their clients bring to puppy kindergarten and beginning dog training classes: extra-special treats, such as fresh meats and tiny cubes of fragrant cheeses. Extra-high-value treats are needed, it is explained, because the group-class environment is so exciting and distracting to the dogs and puppies who are new to this, that the owners will need reinforcers of the highest value to the dogs, to capture and hold their attention in a highly distracting environment. (A training center can also be very stressful for shy, undersocialized, or fearful dogs.)
I’ve heard trainers go on and on, for 10 minutes at a time, about the need for really succulent foods to be used as treats (not just dried treats or kibble, no matter how food-motivated the pup or dog is at home), not feeding the dogs before class (so the pup won’t be full of food already and unable to physically eat much more), cutting the treats into tiny bits (so many of them can be fed in a class), including a variety (not just one type, so the dog doesn’t get bored), and bringing more than the owner thinks she might possibly need, because you will be using many, many tiny treats in a 50-minute beginning dog-training class.
Trainers make such a fuss over the value and type and variety and amount of treats because, again and again, owners arrive to class and are shocked—SHOCKED!—to discover that:
Their dogs are too distracted or stressed to take any but the most over-the-top delicious treats in the class setting.
Their dogs completely disregard the owners’ pouches full of cut-up hot dogs and, instead, go bananas for the trainer’s samples of stinky cheese, tuna bits, roast beef, and freeze-dried liver.
By the end of the class, when the trainer is saying, “Yes! That was great! Mark and reward that behavior!” and the owners often reply, “But I’m out of treats!”
To defend their choices, almost all owners will say, “But he works for kibble at home! I thought hot dogs would be ‘high-value’ enough! And I cut that hot dog into 20 pieces!”
(For what it’s worth, when I use hot dogs as training treats, I cut each one into about 64 pieces: Slice them lengthwise, roll it over halfway and slice it lengthwise again, so you have four long, skinny pieces. Then, holding it together, slice it across, about 16 times, so you end up with 64 or so tiny treats.)
By the end of a six-week class, though, any trainer worth her salt should be able to peek in every student’s bait bag and see a wide variety of scrumptious meats and cheeses and treats, all cut into tiny bits. Success!!
The best and highest-value treats
One of the main points that trainers will make during their first-class discussion is that owners should be prepared with a toy or food treat that is THE MOST valuable to the dog, for reinforcing behaviors that are particularly difficult for the dog, or for when the dog performs extraordinarily well in the face of a particularly difficult distraction.
I recently got a great reminder of how well it works to use especially yummy treats for behaviors that are especially critical.
I used to bring the dogs with me to an office about five miles from where I live; we drove into town most mornings. Last September, my husband and I completed construction of a small outbuilding on our property and then sold the house in town that I had been using as an office (and renting rooms to students) for the past eight years or so. Since then, the dogs and I commute about 50 yards from my back door to my new little office building. It’s great! And I love the new routine—with the exception of how it sometimes clashes with the routine of one of our neighbors.
We’ve been having an ongoing issue with a guy who lives up the road and walks his dog past my property every morning. For what reason, I do not know, but he stops at a certain spot by the fence in my front yard every day without fail, fishes a treat out of his pocket, and feeds it to his dog. And then he stands there for a minute or two, just hanging out. (We’ve introduced ourselves. He’s not just hanging out because he wants someone to talk to because sometimes he is chatty and sometimes he’s not. He sometimes will indicate he is listening to something with his earphones and just wave.)
Woody and Otto race each other when recalled. The competition actually improves the behavior. Image: Nancy Kerns
I don’t know whether it’s just the fact that he stops there (instead of walking or jogging or biking by, like most people do, unremarked upon by my dogs), or something about his dog, the treat-feeding, or the guy himself, but when my dogs are outside and they see him coming along down the rural road I live on, they immediately start barking and run to the fence. Something about his walking/stopping habit drives them nuts.
If no one were to respond to them, my dogs would undoubtedly run, barking, along every inch of the 600 feet or so of the fence line that the guy walks by. But this is a behavior I can’t live with (and don’t want them to practice), so the dogs are never outdoors without someone being alert and ready to call them back to the house at the very first bark we hear. I’m telling you, I don’t so much as step into the bathroom in the morning without calling the dogs indoors first—that’s how much I don’t want them to have a chance to practice charging toward the fence!
On the days that they happen to be outside when “the guy with the dog” comes along, I always call them in, and then give them something to reinforce their prompt response. Sometimes I have treats handy, but sometimes I might have to look in the fridge for some cheese or something. They have even gotten just plain old kibble a time or two.
But after we reviewed canned dog foods for the December issue, I had a small mountain of cans of delicious foods on hand. And if I heard the dogs alert, I whistle or call them, and run for the canned food stash. It didn’t take them long to learn to run from wherever they are on our two acres to where I am in less than the time it takes to pop the lid off a can when they hear one of my two recall cues. And their recalls were already pretty prompt! A consistent super reinforcer has resulted in a super duper recall. Best yet, now, though they still let out a few woofs when the see “the guy with the dog” coming down the road, they usually woof as they run to find me and my super high-value canned food reinforcer. This stuff really works!
Some pet food companies have formulated all of their products without meat meals; others tout their "meat first" formulations. As it turns out, neither of these tactics alone ensures a high-quality product.
A few years ago, we added a new column to the chart full of information that we publish in our annual “approved dry dog foods” list in the February issue. The column tabulates how many dog foods made by each company on the list were made with meat only, meat meal only, and/or a combination of meat and meat meal.
These tabulations do not constitute a judgment about the products listed; they are simply information for dog owners who understand the differences between the terms and the inferences that one can make from that information. But it has come to our attention that many of you aren’t aware of what, exactly, you can infer about a pet food company – or an individual product – from its inclusion of meat, meal, or both on its ingredients panel. So let’s clear this up!
NAMING AND SHAMING
First, though, you need to understand that, for the purposes of this article, when we use the generic phrases “meat” and “meat meal,” we are discussing named meats: chicken and chicken meal, pork and pork meal, beef and beef meal, etc. We don’t include any products on our “approved foods” lists that utilize unspecified protein sources on the ingredients label. When an unnamed animal protein source appears on the ingredients panel, the consumer has no idea of what mammal or type of poultry is in the can or bag.
To repeat: If you see one of the following phrases on the ingredients list of a dog food, you won’t see that dog food on our “approved foods” lists: meat, meat by-products, meat meal, meat and bone meal, poultry, poultry by-products, poultry meal, poultry by-products meal.
Each of these words or phrases have legal definitions when they appear on an ingredient panel. Lacking a word that indicates the species of animal has contributed the “meat” in question, the buyer has no way of knowing what they might be feeding their dog. Is it beef? Lamb? Pork? Chicken? Whatever leftover animal protein source the manufacturer can buy on sale? There is no way to know.
MEATY ISSUES
What we are discussing here and now, though, is the difference between named meats and their named meat meal corollaries. What’s the difference between chicken and chicken meal, beef and beef meal, etc.?
There is a critical clock ticking when it comes to fresh and frozen meats and meat by-products. Refrigeration is costly – and doesn’t hold off degradation of the ingredients for long. Freezing preserves meats longer, but is several factors more costly than refrigeration. Companies that use fresh meats in their pet foods need to get those ingredients into their mixers and extruders quickly; the more time it takes to get from the meat-processing plant to the food-manufacturing plant, the costlier the ingredients become.
If the meat products are not refrigerated or frozen, their quality is heavily impacted by the time and distance it takes them to travel to either a rendering company or a pet food manufacturer. The longer it takes them to be cooked in one form or another, the more bacterial decay and enzymatic breakdown will occur, affecting the quality of the protein and fat.
Pet food makers need to test and control a slew of quality-indicator parameters to make sure the meat-based ingredients are of sufficient quality to be safe, nutritious, and palatable. The quality of the product can be determined by the color and smell of the material, as well as analytical values for protein, available lysine, total lysine, methionine, pepsin digestibility (higher values are equated with higher protein content), peroxide value (higher values mean greater rancidity of the fats), OSI value (indicates the oxidative stability of the fats), ash (more on that in a minute), level and type of amino acids they contain.
MAKE A MEAL OF IT
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Meat meals are made through a process called rendering. The process is named “rendering” as it renders volatile, degradable meats into a more stable form. The animal products are subjected to high temperatures, both in order to kill any pathogens and to drive a certain amount of moisture and fat away from the bone and tissue.
Once the product is in a lower-moisture form (around 10%), it will remain relatively stable at room temperatures for months. Meat meals can be shipped and stored for some time, until the pet food producer is ready to make some food.
For these reasons, the smaller the annual sales of a pet food brand and/or the less frequently a particular product will be made, the more likely it is that the product will be made with meat meals, rather than fresh meats. Meat meals made from exotic species that are in limited supply (perhaps only seasonally) are almost always supplied in the form of rendered meals.
Competent rendering companies can produce meat meals with a range of fat and “ash” content. Pet food companies stipulate how much fat and ash they will accept in the ingredients they buy from the renderer. In general, higher-fat ingredients will cost more than lower-fat ingredients. Lower-ash ingredients cost more than high-ash ingredients.
MEAT-ONLY FOODS
There are companies that have staked their entire reputations on the fact that they use only meats, never meat meals, in their dry dog foods. Is this truly a sign of higher quality?
Actually, there’s something to look out for in those “meat only” (meal-free) dry dog foods: the inclusion (and frequently, the over-representation) of plant-sourced proteins, which have a less desirable amino acid profile than meat (for dogs).
Remember, ingredients are listed on the label in order of pre-processing weight in the food’s formula. Meat contains about 70% moisture and is very heavy, so if it is included in a large enough quantity so as to appear first or second on the ingredient list, it can’t actually be supplying the majority of the product’s protein. This is because the meats that are used in pet food – which actually contain quite a bit of skin, fat, connective tissue, and bone – may contain as little as 8% protein.
In foods that contain both meat and meat meal high on the ingredients list, it’s the meat meal that supplies most of the protein in the product. If there is no meat meal in a dry dog food, it has to have some plant protein sources to boost the protein content to adequate levels. We couldn’t say, then, that we feel these meat-only dry dog food formulations are unequivocally better.
IMPOSSIBLE TO CONFIRM
We’re sorry to say it, but the factors that most affect the quality of the meat ingredients in dog foods are absolutely impossible to confirm. The source of the ingredients, whether they are kept chilled, the distance to the rendering plant or food-production facility, the amount of time it takes for those ingredients to be processed . . . none of these things are verifiable by consumers (or journalists, in case you were wondering).
Giant conglomerate food companies actually have an advantage here, in that many have rendering and/or pet food manufacturing facilities adjacent to their human food processing facilities, sparing the meat and meat by-products a long journey at the local air temperature.
That said, there must be smaller companies that have located their manufacturing facilities conveniently close to their animal-protein suppliers. And we know that some pet food makers do keep their meat ingredients chilled all the way between the slaughterhouse to their pet food mixing and extrusion or canning equipment. But these facts are difficult to verify and subject to change at a moment’s notice. Consumers (us included) are stuck with having to trust the reputation of the company and performance of the products themselves.
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I confess: I am absolutely fascinated with animal behavior and “training.” I think about it all the time – so much so, that I even think about most human-human interactions in terms of basic principles of animal behavior and learning theory. I’m not alone; many trainers I know happily describe themselves as “behavior geeks.”
However, I have observed that many dog owners are not all that interested in schedules of reinforcement or counter-conditioning; they don’t want to have to review their Psychology 101 textbooks or practice for hours to improve the timing of their marking and reinforcing skills. They don’t want to be dog trainers; they just want their dogs to behave better!
But give me two minutes, and I will try to convince any owner that she already is a dog trainer! “Look at the behavior you have already taught your dog!” (There must be something; almost everyone has taught their dog to at least sit on cue.) I’ll say, “Would you feel like a more accomplished trainer if you had taught a duck to sit on cue? Or your cat? And if so, what’s the difference? Why do we get upset or frustrated if we can’t easily teach our dog to do something, but we’d consider it a major accomplishment if we taught our cat or a duck to do the same thing?”
I have a theory: Because we have folded dogs into our lives so thoroughly, because they share our food and beds, we have come to expect much more human behavior from them. We are often dismayed when they display normal canine behavior such as barking, jumping, foraging for food, wanting to run (not walk) everywhere, etc. Maybe we didn’t mind (or even notice) all that doggy behavior 30 years ago, when dogs lived mostly outdoors (or in the garage) and perhaps even roamed freely during the day. But when they act like dogs in our homes – gosh!
Remember, as familiar as your dog is to you, as much as you love him, he’s not a human; in fact, he’s a different species of animal, not unlike a cat or duck. Make sure your expectations of his behavior are realistic – that you allow your dog to behave like a dog (at least sometimes) – and give yourself some credit for teaching him the things he has learned so far. You’re a trainer! Don’t resist learning a bit more, so you can be an even better trainer and enjoy your dog more.
CORRECTION
We regret that two titles were inadvertently left off our list of recommended DVDs in “How to Reform a Reactionary” in the January 2020 issue. They are:
Brown, Ali. “Reactive Dog Classes: On the Road to Reality.” Tanacacia Press, 2012.
Brown, Ali. “Scaredy Dog! Understanding and Rehabilitating Your Reactive Dog Seminar DVD.” Great Companions, 2005.
If you are a dog lover and you spend any amount of time on Facebook or any of those community website/discussion groups such as Nextdoor, you have probably seen some version of the post I saw this morning. Essentially: “I found this dog, he’s really nice, if you know someone who wants a dog please let me know, because I would hate to see him go to the shelter.”
I can’t tell you how crazy this makes me. I can’t help but imagine that one of MY beloved dogs has gotten lost, and I’m haunting the shelter every day, hoping someone has found my dog and brought him in so we can be reunited, but instead, because he’s so nice, someone is keeping him and trying to find him a home with someone else.
An even worse fate: someone “rescued” my lost dog – he was safe in their home – but then he “got away” from them in a panic. He’s now back at risk and perhaps even more wary of strangers than before, all because the finder didn’t want to take him to the shelter.
What Actually Happens to Lost Dogs at Most Shelters
I know that people believe they are saving a dog’s life by not taking him to the shelter. They automatically assume that any dog who ends up at the shelter is at high risk of being put to death. The thing is, in my community – in many communities today – that is really old information. Like, decades old. Any friendly dog who is brought into my local shelter is going to end up on the adoption row – and not all that quickly. He would likely spend at least two weeks or more among all the other “found” dogs before being made available for adoption. And if his owner was looking for him, this is THE place they would look – especially if they didn’t have a computer, weren’t on Facebook, weren’t reading the Nextdoor.com posts, perhaps didn’t even speak English.
I volunteer for my local shelter, and I see how many dogs are brought in as strays, I see how many dogs get euthanized (and there are some). I see that the shelter does not “euthanize for space” and no dogs, even fairly aggressive, hostile dogs – get euthanized in anything like the minimum hold time. In my area, there are people who own dogs who are aggressive to strangers but who are also beloved members of their household (scary but true), so even dogs who show a fair amount of aggression to the shelter staff are held for far more than the minimum time that our state requires they be held, in case their owner turns up. Friendly dogs absolutely will be held for weeks, then put up for adoption.
This is knowledge that I have gained with my own eyes, by volunteering in the shelter. What if I didn’t have the opportunity to learn this? What if I moved to a town and just didn’t know? Well, I would call the shelter and ask for information: “If I find a stray dog, and I bring him to the shelter, how much time would he have before he were at risk of being euthanized? And what can I do to ensure that he not be euthanized, if he’s not claimed by an owner?” I have actually seen the notation on cage cards at my shelter many times: “If not claimed by owner or adopted, (Name of person who found the dog, phone number) will adopt this dog.”
Other Ways to Reunite a Dog and Its Owner
What if you live in a community that is overrun with strays, and the shelter in that community kills dogs on day 5 (or whatever)? Again, you could – and should – at least take the dog to the shelter and have him scanned for a microchip. Then the shelter staff can take his photo and enter his information into their system as a found dog and you can still take him home (and, I hope, not allow him to escape again). This way, if someone comes looking for him at the shelter – which is the one place that most people will look for their lost dogs – the dog and owner stand a better chance of being reunited.
There are many more things you could do to try to find a “found” dog’s rightful owners: putting up signs with a LARGE photo of the dog, is perhaps the most helpful. (I will never forget my brother’s story: When his Ridgeback-mix, Hannah, took off once and hadn’t come back overnight, he busied himself the next morning with putting up “Lost Dog” signs, and came across a guy putting up “Found Dog” signs with his dog’s picture on them. He followed the guy home and said that Hannah looked very surprised and a little embarrassed when he came in the guy’s house to recover her.)
But please, whatever you do: Don’t just rehome the dog!
