When a dog snaps or bites, the behavior is often described as “coming out of the blue.” Dogs are masters of communication, but there’s a definite language barrier between dogs and humans. As a result, many of a dog’s early attempts to communicate his concern over a situation are missed or misunderstood. When it comes to resource guarding the food bowl, knowing what to look for is a key step to catching developing issues before they become more serious problems.
It’s a safe bet we all agree that a dog who snaps at or bites a human when near the food bowl is saying, “Get away from my food!” But fortunately, most dogs are willing to employ a variety of communication tactics prior to the flash of teeth. They include:
Eating faster.
Some dogs always eat fast – it’s just part of their personalities. But a dog who feels threatened when a human approaches his bowl will start eating even faster. “This is MY food! I’m going to eat it all before you can get it!” Some dogs will also try to position themselves between the owner and the bowl, attempting to body-block the owner’s access.
Freezing up.
If the perceived threat persists, a dog will typically change tactics. Now, rather than eating faster, he often freezes. In his mind, there’s definitely something to be concerned about, and he’s trying to decide how best to proceed. The freeze is typically accompanied by what trainers call a “hard eye.” It’s a dirty look that means business. “No, really. This is MY food. I’m not messing around.”
Growl and lip curl.
If the dog still feels threatened, he may decide it’s time to escalate his behavior to include threats of violence. This usually includes a lip-curl and/or growl. Mentally sound dogs do not choose to engage in violent behavior when threats of violence will do. Aggression is costly. It requires extreme amounts of energy and puts the animal at risk. When a dog curls his lip or growls, understand that he’s doing so in an effort to keep from having to escalate further.
Snap or bite.
If the early communication is ignored, and the dog still feels threatened, a snap or bite is next in the communication protocol. The previous three tactics can happen quickly and are easily missed when you don’t know to look for them. This makes it more likely that people believe the snap or bite has happened “out of the blue.” For this reason, it’s important that people learn to read dog body language. The earlier we can accurately interpret a dog’s attempt to communicate with us, the better the prognosis when it comes to modifying behavior problems.
A final note: Remember that growling, while undesirable, is an important piece of information. It’s a dog’s way of telling us he’s uncomfortable with something. Many people are quick to punish a dog for growling. Such actions address the symptom (the growl – which is communication), rather than the problem (what’s causing the dog to feel concerned enough to growl).
Unfortunately, punishment can teach a dog not to growl, but does nothing to change his underlying emotional state. As a result, these dogs sometimes do bite without warning (“out of the blue!”) because the warning has been punished out of them. This creates a much more dangerous and difficult behavior to modify.
There are lots of aphorisms that address the cultural rift between dogs and cats. “Cats have staff, dogs have family.” “Cats rule, dogs drool!” “Cat people vs. dog people.” “Fighting like cats and dogs.” While society likes to humorously polarize dog lovers and cat lovers, plenty of dog lovers share, or want to share, their homes with feline friends. A little planning and a lot of patience can lead to a less hair-raising experience.
How readily will your dog accept a cat friend? And vice versa?
You might remember your childhood dog accepting a feline friend no questions asked, but not all dogs will be as accommodating, nor will all cats be as cooperative.
Breed type often offers insight into the likelihood of peaceful acceptance between species. Although there are exceptions, breeds developed to chase and catch animals (such as terriers and sighthounds) often display natural proclivities that challenge calm co-existence. Age plays an important role, too; it’s often easier to teach young animals to accept each other.
It’s important to be realistic as to the likelihood of your dog safely sharing his home with a cat. It goes without saying that homes with dogs who have previously chased and killed small animals are not likely considered a safe space for feline friends – at least not without a considerable amount of skilled behavior modification paired with carefully crafted, consistent management protocols. Chasing by itself isn’t always a deal-breaker. Many dogs chase stray cats and squirrels for fun while still learning to respect the cats with whom they live.
The cat’s personality matters, too. Cats who are more naturally timid or skittish, or who have previously had negative experiences with dogs, will be harder to successfully introduce to a new life alongside a canine companion.
When considering adopting an older cat, if possible, look for one who has been observed around dogs in a foster situation. A cat whose first instinct is to run will be harder to acclimate into a home with dogs than a cat who is largely unimpressed by dogs or who reasonably stands his ground. We say “reasonably” because a cat who aggressively goes after dogs can engender expensive vet bills just as quickly as a dog who aggressively goes after a cat.
Back to Basics
When considering adding a cat to a household with a dog, it’s wise to make sure that the dog’s simple good manners behaviors are well established. A few basics – such as a quick response to his name (useful for redirection), a solid “leave it,” a relaxed “settle” or “stay” on a mat or dog bed, and respect for baby gates – are extremely useful for keeping the peace when helping a dog and cat learn to live under the same roof. It’s wise to spend some time brushing up on these basics before the cat arrives. Cats can be very exciting distractions for dogs!
Plan to Prevent Unwanted Behavior
The best way to teach a dog and cat to accept each other is to prevent the rehearsal of unwanted behavior. You’ll want to have several management strategies in place to make it nearly impossible for the dog to launch into an excited chase sequence, which is extremely self-rewarding.
It’s also important to understand that even reprimanding a dog – once he’s already initiated a chase – usually does little to prevent him from giving chase at the next opportunity. Why? Because the thrill of the chase outweighs the reprimand. With positive reinforcement training, the goal is not to find a more effective reprimand. Rather, we want to manage situations in ways that help our dogs make the choices we prefer, which we can then reward. Behaviors that are rewarded are more likely to be repeated. Make sure you reward the behaviors you want, and and prevent reinforcement for the behaviors you don’t want.
Preventing the unwanted behaviors will require a combination of management and supervision. The more exciting your dog finds the cat, and the greater his natural tendency to chase, the slower you will progress. Be patient. You should expect that the dog and cat will not be able to have unmanaged or unsupervised access to, or encounters with, each other for several months. If things improve faster (and they often do with young animals), great – but don’t rush it!
Create a Cat-Safe Adjustment Area
There’s no reason to rush introductions. It’s important to remember it’s stressful for any animal to transition into a new home. Establishing a “cat zone” that is off-limits to the dog gives the cat a safe space to decompress from the initial stress of the change, while allowing both animals to begin acclimating to the scent of their new housemates.
Encourage the cat to stay in the cat room by filling it with her necessities (food, litter box, perch, etc.). Close the door to prevent accidental encounters that might trigger a chase. Of course, you’ll want to spend adequate time in the cat room with your new animal friend.
While giving the cat a few days to relax, you can begin helping your dog associate the scent and, in some cases, the sound of the cat, as well as the new routines surrounding the new family member, with good things. Gently rub the cat with a clean, dry dish towel and place it in your dog’s resting area, out of reach, where it can’t become a toy. If your dog knows how to quietly work a well-stuffed Kong or similar toy while on his bed, having the cat-scented cloth nearby can help pair the scent of the cat with the positive feelings he already has about the delicious treats in his Kong.
Be on the lookout for moments when your dog calmly acknowledges the presence of the cat. For example, if he’s lying at your feet and suddenly hears the cat vocalize from the other room, immediately offer a treat. Ideally you’ll be able to feed before the sound piques his interest so much that he gets up and goes searching. Feed multiple treats to keep him with you and redirect his attention away from the cat. You are trying to teach him two things: That the presence of the cat means good things: treats! (classical conditioning), and paying more attention to you, even when the cat is nearby, pays even better (operant conditioning).
Some dogs get so interested in (or distracted by) the idea of a cat behind closed doors that you can’t keep them from obsessing about what’s on the other side of the doorway. In this case, you’ll need to increase your management strategies to include keeping him far enough from the “mystery door” that he can still choose to pay attention to you. This might require a second baby gate or outstretched exercise pen to restrict his access to the hallway leading to the cat room. Yes, this sometimes feels inconvenient, but remember: it’s only temporary, and a wise investment in creating a harmonious relationship between animals you hope will be with you for many years.
If your living space doesn’t allow you to create a designated “cat room,” it’s still wise to set up some initial, temporary separation. If your dog understands how to stay behind a baby gate (an incredibly useful life skill), a gate in your bedroom doorway gives the dog a familiar place to spend some time while the cat explores the main living area. I recommend giving cats a tall cat tree as both an enrichment activity and escape route where the cat can perch out of reach of the dog. Use a leash when you need to lead the dog through the room to go out for potty breaks and when you’re ready to set up training sessions.
Structured Introductions
Initial introductions should be done at a distance and focused on creating positive associations with each other. There’s no need to go nose-to-nose right out of the gate. With the cat safely perched atop a cat tree or other tall surface, bring your leashed dog into the room and feed a steady stream of high-value treats. If a helper is available, have her offer the cat high-value treats, too.
If the cat panics and tries to run, don’t force him to stay in the room. Quickly get your dog’s attention with a handful of treats, moving away from the action if necessary, and ask him to sit. If your dog is so excited by the presence of the cat that he refuses even high-value treats (for example, cooked chicken), he’s not ready for this step. In either case, it’s wise to give everyone several hours to recover from the excitement before trying again. If either problem persists, consider finding a qualified positive reinforcement-based (or force-free) behavior consultant who is experienced in facilitating dog and cat introductions.
If things go well, continue feeding the dog while he and the cat are in the same room for a few minutes, then leave the room with the dog, or ask the helper to remove the cat. When the dog can no longer see the cat, stop the delivery stream of food treats. Repeat this process several times, giving both animals a break from each other between sessions.
While it might seem like the treats serve as a simple distraction, they are far more powerful. When the free-flowing treats are contingent upon the dog seeing the cat, you are classically conditioning the dog to associate the cat with the treats. This helps change (counter-condition) a dog’s initial, aroused response to the sight of a cat (which could easily result in the dog initating a chase) to happy anticipation of the treats, instead. The dog starts to view the cat less as prey and more as a source of pay (treats) from you.
Manage Relaxed Interactions
As your dog begins to offer attention to you (in anticipation of treats) when the cat is present, you can begin to ease into regular relaxed routines with the two animals in the same room. Remember, chasing is a huge reward. Use as much management as is necessary to prevent your dog from being able to chase the cat. One great option is to tether the dog to the leg of the sofa as you watch television and the dog enjoys a stuffed Kong toy; this should prevent him from becoming overly interested in the cat.
Maintaining a “cat room” with a gate in the doorway also allows the cat and dog to get used to each other through a safe barrier.
Maintain Accessible Escape Routes
As your dog and cat learn to navigate a successful inter-species relationship, and you begin to feel confident in your dog’s behavior around the cat, you can reduce the amount of physical management (leashes, tethers, etc.) used. Continue to reward your dog’s good choices and immediately interrupt any lapses in judgment that might lead to high-intensity chases.
That said, your cat should always have access to escape routes via tall surfaces or through cat doors leading to dog-free rooms. Many pet gates include small cat-size doors that allow cats to access an area that’s off-limits to the dog. A small cat door can also be installed in a standard door to limit access by dogs. Both options not only provide important escape routes, but also work well for restricting your dog’s access to the cat’s litter box and food bowl.
Mutual Respect?
We often focus on the dog as the antagonist in the struggle for harmonious dog-cat interactions, but it’s important to be mindful of the cat’s role, too. If your cat is doing her best to get the dog’s attention and your dog is uninterested – or if the cat is flat-out harrassing the dog for her own amusement – it’s wise to step in and redirect the cat just as you would the dog. All members of the family are entitled to personal space and some peace and quiet when they want to relax!
When Patience and Persistence Are Not Enough
All animals are unique. Your cat and dog’s individual personalities and behavioral and training histories have a lot to do with how well they will adjust to a life together. While we want to think in terms of months, not weeks, when looking at training time (especially in challenging cases), it’s also important to realize that, sometimes, rehoming one of the animals might become the most humane option.
This decision should never be made lightly. Nor should it be made as a way to avoid investing the time needed to teach both animals how to peacefully co-exist. Part of responsible pet ownership is a willingness to teach our animals how to succeed in our human world.
Sometimes, though, despite our best efforts, we can’t successfully acclimate a new animal into the home. If several months have passed and an animal is constantly in distress, or in cases where someone’s life is literally at risk, rehoming, while difficult, is the best choice.
With careful planning, a little management of the home environment, and a commitment to thoughtful training, most dogs can learn to accept feline friends and a harmonious household can prevail.
Stephanie Colman is a writer and dog trainer in Los Angeles.
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Once your dog knows a behavior well, and can perform it in many locations and with many distractions, you can fade the use of your marker signal and rewards. In other words, you don’t need to click and treat every time your dog sits for you. However, it’s also important to pay off every now and then to keep your dog in the game and gambling. “This time might be the time the reward happens, so I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing, just in case.”
Here’s an example of how you can fade the use of treats when using a verbal marker while teaching a behavior like “sit”:
Ask your dog to “Sit.”
As his butt hits the ground, say, “Good boy,” give a treat (praise and treat paired together) and release him with a release cue such as, “All done.”
Ask your dog to sit again, but just say, “Good boy,” without the treat (builds anticipation of the treat), and release him.
The next time, give the treat after your verbal praise (score!).
Ask for the sit once again and give the treat again after your verbal praise (score again!).
Use just the verbal praise for a couple of rounds, and so on until your are only using treats occasionally but still getting good responses from your dog.
You can also add in other rewards that your dog likes, such as asking him to sit and when he does, saying “Good boy,” and throwing a ball or playing a little tug. You could also open a door, pet him, or allow him access to something like the car if he enjoys car rides. These are called “real life” rewards, and anything your dog wants or likes can and should become a reward as you progress in your training.
Reducing the use of food rewards should be a goal, but always be ready to go back to using more or better treats when you add more distractions, duration, or distance to a behavior – at least until your dog has a clear understanding that this is the same training as before, just in different context. If a well-trained behavior falls apart when you go out into the world, that’s information for you. It’s time to help your dog by going back to food – usually a high value reward.
Once your dog demonstrates that he can stay focused on the task at hand, you can switch to a lower value food as long as you maintain the successes you achieved with the high-value food in that same location or with the same distractions.
Once you have decided to use fewer treats, bear in mind that never using treats again would be like asking yourself to give up ice cream, cake, or other goodies. There is nothing wrong with using food to reward your dog, just use it to your advantage – to help him get better with his skills. Sometimes it is fun to give your dog a treat, just like it is fun for us to get unexpected rewards. Also, if your dog does something really amazing that you would like repeated, then food is the best paycheck you can give him to keep him in your employment.
For more advice on training your dog, purchase Chill Out Fido! from Whole Dog Journal.
I’ve heard it from a dozen different people in the past few weeks: “Oh my goodness, Nancy, that puppy LOVES you!” In every case, the person who made the spontaneous exclamation was prompted to do so by witnessing the same phenomenon: Seeing my new puppy sit calmly and stare, making direct eye contact with me.
The puppy, Woody, may well love me – I certainly love and adore him! But what’s the true explanation? Does he stare at me because he loves me, or has he developed affection for me as a result of all the reinforcement he’s received for that eye contact?
Honestly, I think it’s the latter. Humans love an extended gaze, and even people who don’t particularly like or understand dogs tend to respond warmly to a dog’s soft, direct eye contact. Woody learned early on that he got more petting and treats when he sat quietly and gazed at me – I noticed him doing it more than the rest of the other eight puppies in his litter, when he was as young as five or six weeks old. He got a lot of treats for the behavior, because it’s one I like to encourage in all of my foster dogs and puppies: It helps them win hearts, minds, and homes from prospective adopters!
Well, I was a little too successful this time! It worked its magic on me!
Researchers have confirmed why we humans love the gaze of our dogs so much. In the April 17, 2015 issue of Science, an article entitled, “Oxytocin-gaze positive loop and the coevolution of human-dog bonds” researchers reported that oxytocin levels increase in both dogs and humans when they gaze at each other. Oxytocin facilitates and strengthens bonding in every mammalian species.
From a training perspective, too, it’s a good thing for your dog to pay attention to you, and your face in particular. Dogs are master observers, and often learn your “tells” – expressions and movements and breathing patterns that reliably predict your next move, whether or not you consciously knew what you were about to do or not! This is why you can’t find your dog right before you were about to load him into the car for a trip to the vet or groomer, why he is so depressed the day before you leave for a vacation without him, and how he knew to wait for you by the door the minute you decided you needed to get out for a walk. You can use this effect to your advantage, by consciously using reliable body language or facial expression cues for your dog’s behaviors that you’d like to increase.
I’m in love with Woody, and I hope Woody loves me – but for now, I’m thrilled enough that he finds it reinforcing to watch me. I want to sustain that behavior forever.
Tinctures are liquid extracts that preserve the medicinal properties of the fresh or dried herbs they contain. Alcohol is the most widely used tincture solvent because it extracts fats, resins, waxes, most alkaloids, some volatile oils, and other plant components, which it preserves indefinitely. Vegetable glycerin, a sweet, syrupy liquid, dissolves mucilage, vitamins, and minerals but does not dissolve resinous or oily plant constituents. Apple cider vinegar does not break down plant constituents as effectively as alcohol or glycerin, but it extracts sugars, tannins, glycosides, bitter compounds, alkaloids, vitamins, and minerals.
My teacher, the herbalist Rosemary Gladstar, recommends using unpasteurized apple cider vinegar for making tinctures, especially for tonic herbs, which are slow-acting regulating herbs that should be taken daily to improve the health of a system or to revitalize the entire body. Examples include dandelion, stinging nettle, raspberry leaf, garlic, hawthorn berry, ginger root, ginseng, pau d’arco, schizandra, fo-ti, and astragalus.
As Gladstar notes, most of the herbal literature warns that vinegar tinctures have a shelf life of only six to eight months, but she has found that vinegar tinctures stored in a cool, dark place can last for many years. For best results, use undiluted vinegar containing five to seven percent acetic acid. Adding water to a vinegar tincture in any proportion or using fresh herbs that are too moist will cause fermentation and spoilage; be sure to let succulent fresh herbs wilt and partially dry before using them in a vinegar tincture.
Garlic-Dandelion Vinegar Tincture
This tincture is recommended for dogs as a general tonic and to help repel parasites.
Partially fill a pint or quart jar with coarsely chopped, fresh garlic and fresh or dried dandelion leaves, roots and/or blossoms in approximately equal proportions. (If using dried dandelion, leave ample room for expansion.) Fill the jar with apple cider vinegar, seal tightly, leave in a warm place, shake gently every few days, and let it stand for six to eight weeks. Strain and bottle, or simply pour off what you need.
Add this tincture in small amounts to your dog’s food, gradually increasing to approximately 1/4 teaspoon per 20 pounds of body weight per day. The dandelion is a tonic for the entire body(it helps improve digestion, cleanses the blood and supports kidney function), while garlic repels internal and external parasites and acts as a digestive and circulatory tonic.
If desired, make a double-strength tincture by straining the completed tincture into a new jar of freshly chopped dandelion and repeating the process. Reduce the dosage accordingly.
Vinegar Liniment
An effective liniment warms and relaxes joints and muscles, increases circulation to the area, relieves inflammation, improves flexibility and speeds healing. Traditional recipes combine skin-warming ingredients and therapeutic herbs with cider vinegar.
For example, combine one pint apple cider vinegar with one teaspoon powdered cayenne pepper, four tablespoons dried (or 1/4 cup fresh) rosemary, and two tablespoons dried (or 1/8 cup fresh) comfrey leaf or root that has been cut or broken into small pieces. Leave the jar in a warm place for a month or longer before straining. Shake well before using.
Massage into tight muscles, bruises, or sore joints, or simply soak a cloth or bandage in the liniment and hold it on the affected area for as long as possible. Keep this liniment away from the eyes and mucous membranes.
None of you actually had any money riding on the question of whether I was going to keep him or not, did you? I hope not.
Yes, I am keeping the puppy, the one I fell in love with from the litter I fostered for my shelter. One of these days, I’m going to go back through all my files and do the math, but I think that if I added up all the dogs I’ve fostered for one shelter or rescue of another in the past 20 years, the total would come to more than 25, and this is the first one I’ve “failed” at fostering. At least, so far. I am still not discounting the idea that, if it turns out that this puppy turns out to be the ideal dog for an ideal family sometime down the road, I could, theoretically, still turn him over to a perfect life elsewhere. Who knows? Maybe he will turn out to be a great service dog or therapy dog, as some of you have suggested. He does have the calmest, most centered personality I’ve ever seen in such a young dog.
And his name is Woody. I wanted a nice, friendly name – even though half of my friends were proposing names based on his size and promise of future bulk, names like Thor and Hercules and Max. My husband usually names all of our pets, and he admired the wood-grained look of the pup, apparently unaware that the brindle coat color is generally just called brindle. It’s never been my favorite coat color, but now that I look at it like wood-grain, I like it. I like everything about this pup so far.
For example, I taught him (within minutes) to put his front feet up on a stool. He decided to go one step further and get up onto the stool, and then sit down on it (sitting is still his very favorite behavior). I thought it was just too cute, and rewarded him richly. The next day, I was working at my computer and suddenly thought that thought you don’t want to have when you have a puppy: “It’s too quiet! Where is the puppy?!” I started to jump up from my chair, and as I did, I looked into the next room – where Woody was sitting comfortably on his little step stool, waiting for me to notice and reward him. Goodness knows how long he had been sitting there, but he got rewarded with treats and an abundance of kisses. He climbs up there all the time now, just to hang out, but he’s not going to fit on the stool much longer, the way he’s growing. I’ve ordered a K9 Kore Balance Disk and Base from TotoFit (totofit.com) for his next “station.”
My good friend Leonora, who was fostering a litter of six tiny puppies (the ones I had for just the Christmas week in addition to the litter of nine I was fostering), has also “failed” at fostering. She kept the smallest of her litter, and she did give him a big, tough name, Samson! We’re both signed up for a puppy kindergarten class with my favorite local trainer, Sarah Richardson of The Canine Connection, starting this week, and we’ll take the puppies to Sarah’s puppy socials, too.
I haven’t owned a young puppy since I was a kid (and didn’t really own the ones my parents kept). As an adult, the youngest dog I’ve owned was my Border Collie, Rupert, bought by my then-boyfriend when the pup was about four months old – and that was years before I knew anything about dogs, years before WDJ. This is my first opportunity to own a dog from as early as possible, and I could not be more excited.
Otto is still not excited, but he knows that where there are untrained puppies, there are more treats and more exercise than usual, so he’s getting on board, slowly. He gets extra compensatory love, too, and I’m taking pains to crate Woody enough so that Otto gets plenty of alone-time. And, fortunately, I am still fostering Maebe the Black and Tan Coonhound, who is absolutely the best puppy-sitter ever. She plays and plays with Woody, helping get him good and tired. Most of the pictures I have been taking of him have Maebe in them; they are just too cute together.
As you may know, I’ve been fostering a litter of nine puppies for about seven weeks. From day 1, there was one puppy who stood out to me as a potentially great dog. One of just two males in the litter, he was the first to learn to offer a “sit” when I was getting their food or medicine ready, and to make eye contact with me any time I looked over the group. He also shows great poise and self-control: He will sit and stare at me, even as other puppies are jumping all over him, trying to get him to play with them, and he will just physically shrug off their very rough attempts to hijack his attention, with his eyes fixed on me the entire time. His devotion makes my heart hurt!
At my shelter, we have one particular veterinarian who comes on Thursdays to spay and neuter. Two weeks ago, she spayed four of the puppies, and they were adopted within a day or two. Then, last week, I said a tearful goodbye to each of the last five pups and brought them to the shelter for their surgeries. I have been considering adopting that one special puppy – but ultimately decided against it. I knew he would be adopted immediately; I just wished I could hand-select a home for him!
I cried on and off all day, even though I knew we had a line of people waiting to adopt the puppies; I had taken portraits of each of the pups and we had posted their pictures on the shelter’s Facebook page, and people had been calling the shelter for days asking when they would be ready to adopt.
At about 5 P.M. that day, I got a text from the shelter director, saying that the veterinarian hadn’t been able to get to all the surgeries they had hoped to get done that day, and the boy puppies hadn’t yet been neutered, and did I want to pick them up and keep them for another week?
So, even though I had decided last week that there is no way I need another dog, and managed to say a painful goodbye to my special puppy, I’ve had another week to spend admiring this guy, and I’m wavering again. I love the other boy puppy, too, but it’s the brindle boy who has just absolutely grabbed my heart. I’m not giving him any more attention than the other puppy, I’ve been treating them the same way all this time, and yet, while the grey pup is interested in me in a general way, the brindle boy is obsessed. He follows me from room to room. When I’m waiting for my coffee to re-heat in the microwave, he sits on my foot. He eschews the comfy dog bed two feet from my office chair in favor of draping himself across the highly uncomfortable hard plastic legs of my office chair. And yes, he follows me into the bathroom and lies down patiently on the bathmat while I brush my teeth or, you know, whatever. Is it my imagination, or is he reading my mind? He seems to be saying, “Look, I’m yours.”
I had an instant-message chat with WDJ Training Editor Pat Miller about the puppy. “Paaaaat!” I whined. “What am I going to do! I don’t need another dog! I don’t particularly like pit-mixes! But he loves me! And I love him!”
I should have known better than to consult someone who generally has five or so dogs herself. She said, “You know, all the years I worked at/with shelters, only rarely did one speak to me like this… sometimes you just have to listen.” In other words, she was no help at all. 😉
I finally had to have a heart to heart with my husband about this last night. He’s come a loooonnnggg way, folks. He’s not a dog person – he would live quite happily with no dogs. And when I told him I was seriously thinking of keeping this puppy, and asked him, “What do you think? Am I crazy?”, he started his answer with, “Well, how many dogs do we have now?” I laughed out loud.
“Two!” I said. “Plus one foster – but she will be leaving sometime. I’m not keeping her!” I have been fostering and training this hound girl, Maebe, for a week or two longer than I’ve had the puppies. I adore and am amused by her, but she really does need to go to a home with younger, more active people in it. Preferably a distance runner who wants a trail companion! Or lots of small children! While I feel confident I will be able to place her somewhere within a month or two, she has been a constant presence on our sofa every night for the past two months, adding validity to my husband’s seemingly silly question about how many dogs we already have.
And to his credit, my husband then asked, “How does Otto feel about this?” That right there shows that for all his seeming gruffness about the dogs around here, my husband is paying attention. Otto’s opinion is important.
The truth is, Otto doesn’t like puppies. He has absolutely no use for them until they get a bit older. He growls in a most fearsome way when the puppies come toward him, and makes the most hideous faces you can imagine, with lots of teeth showing. If they come at him fast, he leaps and dodges away like they have leprosy. But just this past week, down to just the two puppies, he’s been not only holding his ground when they approach, but starting to wag his tail at them. He still growls, but the faces are getting less fearsome, and the tail is definitely wagging. I think as long as it’s clear that Otto is my biggest, deepest canine love, he’ll be okay with the addition of another dog in the family.
I still can’t say that I need another dog. I really don’t. But I also just can’t let this guy go to just anyone. It may develop that I keep him and train him for a few more months until the perfect family for him comes along. We’ll see. This morning, when I take the last two puppies to the shelter for their surgeries, I’m going to let them know that I will be taking the brindle pup home with me again at the end of the day.
I’m fostering a one-year-old hound, Maebe, who has a minor amount of separation anxiety. The other day, I left her in a wire crate for about two hours in the house where I have my office. When I returned, I found that she had escaped from the crate and went on a bit of a rampage in the house. She went “counter-surfing” in the kitchen and ate the better part of a cube of butter and a few English muffins. She found a bag of treats on another counter and ate them, as well as half of the bag itself. She got into the trash in my office. She was on my desk – !!! – and knocked over my computer monitor!
In the past six weeks or so that I’ve had her, she hasn’t been this destructive, even when I’ve left her for longer periods. So, today, when I had to step out of the office for 15 minutes or so, I decided to set up the camera on my laptop to spy on the hound and see what she did while I was gone. I was curious: Would she be upset while I was gone? Frantic? And how did she get the door to the crate open?
I put Maebe in the crate, put a carabiner on the gate as a second level of defense, tossed her a handful of treats, and set up my laptop computer so that its camera was pointed at the crate, and set it to “record.” Otto was in the house, and I left him loose, as I always do. I walked out of the house, and took a short walk, rather than drive away. As I walked away from the house, I saw a mailman approaching my neighbor’s house. I knew that Otto would likely bark a time or two when the mailman put mail in the mailbox, and I hesitated, thinking that perhaps I should wait until the mailman had passed already, so that Otto’s barking wouldn’t affect Maebe. But then the mailman stopped to sort through his bag, and, impatient, and with the camera running, I decided to just keep walking.
I was gone 15 minutes. When I walked back into the house, Otto was standing inside the door, as if he heard me approach the house and was ready to greet me. Maebe was in the crate and seemed calm. I let Maebe out of the crate, stopped the recording on the laptop, and sat down to watch.
There were a few surprises!
Surprise # 1: Perhaps because I walked away from the house, and she didn’t hear my car start up and leave, Maebe was completely calm, not even arising from a “down” position, for a few minutes after I left.
#2: At the one-minute mark the mailman must have put the mail in my box (which is affixed to the wall next to the front door) and Otto leaped off the couch in my office, and ran to the front door, barking up a storm. That much, I expect; it’s his habit. The surprise here was how long and hard he barked. If I hadn’t known better, if I heard only the audio, I would have thought there was someone actually trying to break into my house. And he went on and on! My nearly perfect dog barked at the long-departed mailman with total ferocity for a minute and a half. AND, surprise #3: Maebe never got up during that time!! She was completely calm during Otto’s outburst!
Surprise #4: It wasn’t until the four-minute mark before Maebe got up and started inspecting the crate for weak spots. She stood up and pressed her nose to the ceiling, one wall and then the other, and the gate several times. She pawed at the bottom of the gate repeatedly and whined. Since she had escaped from the crate just two days earlier, I expected her to start trying to escape almost immediately after I left, and to be fairly upset. She seemed only mildly distressed.
At 5:46, she seems to give up on the tampering with the crate, and starts to howl in a disconsolate manner. And at 6:01, in Surprise #5, Otto joins in the howling! WHAT? I’ve never known him to howl before, but there it is on permanent record . . . and the duo went on and on, until 7:34. Then Maebe sits and listens until 8:07, when she goes back to pawing and even biting at the crate door. She alternates between sitting and whining and pawing at the door until 9:23, when she finally lays down again, albeit somewhat tensely.
At 10:07, Otto walks into the room, and in fact, stands in front of the camera, obscuring the view of Maebe. He alternates between looking out the front window, and staring into space, listening. He doesn’t pay one lick of attention to Maebe. At 12:00 he abruptly walks off camera, headed to the front door. Maebe, who at that point was lying down, sits up and fixes her gaze on the door. And for the next three-plus minutes my video looks like a still photograph, with Maebe sitting tense and still, listening intently to (surprise #6!) Otto whining in the front hallway! He whined and then I heard him give a little bark of excitement when I turned the key in the front door. Maebe sat like a statue until I walked in and turned off the camera.
So, while the exercise did, in fact, reveal that Maebe is mildly distressed by being home without humans, and that she doesn’t seem to get much (if any) comfort from the presence of another dog in the house, it revealed even more about my own dog! He is more stressed than I would have imagined about being left home with another dog. So, now I have more experiments to do: Putting the camera on Maebe when she is left home with no other dogs in the house, and when I drive (rather than walk) away, and putting the camera on Otto when there are no other dogs in house, and when I drive away. I may have to set my laptop up to record every time I leave my office with any dogs in it, for any length of time!
Have you ever “spied on” your dogs when you weren’t home? Did you learn anything you didn’t expect?
Almost as soon as I walked into Boomer’s house, I could tell his owner was nervous. This isn’t all that unusual when meeting a new client for the first time. I always have my new clients put the dog in another room so we can get acquainted with each other and have some time to chat without being distracted.
Very often, the clients are uneasy during these initial consultations; I’ve grown accustomed to it. After all, often they have agonized over acknowledging their dog’s issues and their decision to call in a professional. But after a few minutes, I could tell there was something more. I’d been called to help her dog with his reactive behavior. She related that he lunged and barked at some people as they walked by. During our discussion, she seemed unusually pensive and was having difficulty making eye contact with me. So I pressed, “Is there anything else you need to tell me? Whatever it is, you’re safe and can tell me without fear of judgment.” She finally looked up at me and whispered, “I think my dog is racist. He hates black people.”
Race is a touchy subject and most of us try to avoid talking about it. In this case, though, the dog owner was left with little choice. I’m African American, and since I’d be working with her dog, she knew she needed to be up front about it from the start. I responded, “Is that all? I was expecting something bad!” We both started to chuckle, albeit a little nervously, but I felt it was important to try to lighten the mood a bit.
What she didn’t know was that it was far from the first time I’ve heard people describe their dogs as such. In fact, it’s a lot more common than I’d like to admit. But is it true? Can dogs be “racists”?
Racism is an ugly concept and an ugly word associated with an ongoing, systemic problem in our society, deeply rooted in history. True racists generally believe that some races are superior or inferior to others, which is why I’ve always felt the term is used way too loosely even when describing human behavior. People might have prejudices and biases, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are “racist.” More often than not it means they are fearful of, unsure of, have had negative experiences with, or haven’t been exposed to enough of the type of person they are concerned about. And this goes for dogs, too!
Dogs gravitate toward the familiar and seek out experiences that have formerly resulted in positive, beneficial, and/or pleasurable outcomes. They also tend to avoid situations and other beings who look (or even smell) deeply unfamiliar to them. So, in my view, it’s only natural that they can be biased toward or against people of a particular race, nationality, culture, and/or gender. Of course, as understandable as it may be, their fearful or defensive behavior around people who look very different from those they have more experience with can be difficult and downright embarrassing when it manifests.
What can you do about it? Here are my suggestions:
Confront it head on.
It’s understandable to want to just avoid the subject entirely, especially if it’s rare that your dog will come across a person of that particular race. But therein lies part of the problem. We all know the importance of socialization and acclimating our dogs to all kinds of different people, places, and things.
A dog who repeatedly shows fear or reacts negatively to persons of a particular race has probably not been well socialized with people of that race. If you’re fortunate enough to adopt the dog before this issue arises, the most beneficial and proactive thing to do is to make a concerted effort to socialize your dog or puppy with people of every different race or nationality you can think of.
Many dog trainers are familiar with Margaret Hughes’ “Puppy’s Rule of 12s,” which addresses introducing your puppy to 12 different people (outside of family) including children, adults (mostly men), senior citizens, people in wheelchairs, walkers, with canes, crutches, hats, sunglasses, etc. Although the “etc” implies taking it even further, since it doesn’t directly emphasize people of different races, nationalities, and cultures, it’s easy for that to be overlooked, especially if you don’t routinely run into people who might fit into any of these categories. That means you might need to go out of your way, and out of your own comfort zone, to ensure your dog makes friends with a virtual rainbow coalition of people!
Stop using the “R word.”
There’s too much stigma attached to the word. How many times have you heard people say their dog doesn’t like men? Well, they don’t go on to describe their dogs as “sexist.” There are a lot of dogs who also don’t seem to like children, people wearing hats, people in uniform, etc. Dogs have all kinds of biases, and racial/cultural biases are just like any other and should be treated as such. There shouldn’t be anything taboo about this or anything to be embarrassed about.
Don’t assume abuse or mistreatment.
Particularly when dealing with rescue dogs, people often assume that if a dog reacts fearfully or aggressively toward certain people, he must have been abused by people who resemble the ones who triggered his reaction. I would hazard a guess that this is only rarely the case. More often than not it is more a lack of association and positive interactions, not mistreatment.
The problem with this assumption is it excuses the behavior – a disservice to your dog – and inadvertently places blame on the person your dog is apprehensive about. So unless you know with absolute certainty that your dog was abused, don’t attribute his behavior to this.
Seek professional help.
As a canine behavior counselor, the number one dog problem I deal with is reactive behavior, regardless of the trigger, and I’m sure other canine behavior experts would likely say the same. Research shows that reactive dogs can be helped through behavior modification and counter-conditioning exercises, but these exercises take time and a lot of repetition. A behavior professional not only can develop a customized program for your dog, but also can be your extra set of hands and eyes, giving you feedback, tracking progress, and tweaking the program when necessary. She can also facilitate a more predictable environment to work in; this is especially valuable if your dog (and you) are already scared. The last thing either of you need is an unwelcome surprise at any given corner.
Reactive behavior does not disappear overnight. Accept that it’s going to take some diligence and perseverance to see progress. I always advise my clients to expect to take two steps forward, and sometimes one step back, but to keep working. These methods are time-tested, and you’ll be moving full speed ahead again before you know it.
Confront your own fears and possible biases.
I think one of the other reasons people are so reluctant to talk about their dog being “racist” (there’s that ugly word again) is they feel it could imply they, too, are racist. Well, let’s talk about that for a minute.
A handler’s fears, apprehensions, and emotions can travel right down the leash to her dogs, so if you’re harboring some fears of your own about people of certain races, your dog could certainly pick up on it and react. Does that make you a bad person? No, it makes you human.
A very nice lady once told me that her dog wasn’t racist, but he “didn’t like criminals.” I asked how she knew that, and she related how, when she and the dog waited in the car while her husband ran into a convenience store, he always growled at the “young men wearing hoodies walking into the store.” When I asked her how her dog knew those kids were criminals, she couldn’t answer. Obviously the dog doesn’t know anyone’s “rap sheet,” but if she was uneasy when those young men were around, her dog would most certainly pick up on it.
Again, this is nothing to be ashamed of. What will make the difference is if and how you address it. You have a couple of choices. You can shrug it off and act like it’s no big deal, but know that this is not a problem that is going to go away by itself.
Depending on where you live, it’s quite possible you could carry on with life in a vacuum without running into anyone of that particular race or nationality for a while. However, if we take a look around, we can see that the world is getting smaller and our society grows more diverse by the day.
There may come a time when it won’t be so easy to keep your dog in that protective bubble; then what? Preferably, you’ll try to help your dog alleviate his fears, so he can walk with confidence in the world and enjoy all it has to offer. Who knows? If your dog is able to make new friends, you might, too!
A demonstration of how to use counter-conditioning and desensitization (CC&D) for a dog who is anxious about or distrustful of humans with an unfamilar skin color or other appearance. The author, Laurie Williams stands in a relaxed, neutral pose, not staring at the dog. The dog’s owner feeds the dog treats, one after the other, as long as Williams is close by, and stops only when Williams steps out of view. After multiple repetitions, Williams’ appearance at a below-threshold distance should elicit a cheerful “Where’s my treat?” response from the dog. Photo courtesy of Laurie C. Williams.
Counter-Conditioning and Desensitization (CC&D)
Counter-conditioning involves changing your dog’s association with a scary or arousing stimulus from negative to positive. Desensitization is starting with a very low-level intensity of aversive stimulus until the dog habituates to (or changes his association with) the aversive, and then gradually increasing the strength until the dog is comfortable with the stimulus at full intensity.
The easiest way to give most dogs a positive association and to help them become comfortable with a stimulus is by using something they find extremely pleasurable. For a food-motivated dog you could use very high-value, really yummy treats. If your dog is more motivated by toys, you could use his most coveted and desirable toy to engage him in play. Briefly, here’s how a person would use the CC&D process to help change her dog’s reaction to people of a different race or appearance from a fearful or aggressive one to a happy, friendly one.
Ideally, the handler would bring her dog to an environment where she would be assured of seeing the kind of people her dog is uncomfortable with – but where there is room to control the distance between the dog and the people.
It’s important to start with the scary stimuli (in this case, the people of a different appearance) at a great enough distance from the dog so that the dog notices them, but is not yet extremely fearful or aroused (this is called the threshold distance). As soon as and whenever the handler sees her dog noticing someone, she can begin feeding the dog a constant stream of tiny bits of high-value treats, or begin offering play with the toy to the dog. As soon as the scary stimulus is out of view, or far enough away that the dog stops paying any attention to the stimulus, the handler stops feeding the treats or the game.
This process is repeated until the sight of the scary stimuli consistently prompts the dog to look at his handler with a happy smile and a “Yay! Where’s my treat?” or “Are we gonna play?” expression. This is a conditioned emotional response (CER) – your dog’s association with seeing people of the novel appearance is now positive one rather than a negative one. The process is continued, with increasing intensity of the scary stimulus: the handler moves the dog closer to the scary stimuli, or stages the exercise in a location where there are even more of the scary stimuli. Care is taken to keep the dog “under threshold” – happy and comfortable, and never stressed or pushed to the point of having a negative reaction to the stimuli.
Canine education specialist, dog behavior counselor, and trainer Laurie Williams is the owner of Pup ‘N Iron Canine Fitness & Learning Center in Fredericksburg, Va.
When it comes to love, dogs offer all of the devotion with none of the guile. They won’t sign up for a secret account on Match.com, or see another owner behind your back. And that flirtation with the pet sitter … well, it’s harmless. After all, there’s a reason dogs have a reputation for being faithful friends. Reciprocating, though, can sometimes be a challenge. Dogs, you remember, approached our hearth; it has been in many ways a rather lopsided arrangement in the love department since the dawn of time. And with our busy lives and competing priorities, we humans have altogether too few opportunities to return that cupidity in kind – although, given how utterly and completely most of our dogs rely on us, that’s a tall order under even the best of circumstances.
But we can at least try. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, here are some thoughts about how to share the love with the dogs in your life:
Food is love; provide good food!
As any Italian grandmother will tell you, the act of providing a meal is about far more than just calories. Whether you feed a conventional kibble diet or organic, home-prepared fare, study your dog to determine what food she thrives on: What makes her eyes sparkle, her coat shine, her breath smell fresh? Experiment a bit: Don’t buy into the scare tactics that you’ll create an intestinal avalanche if you mix things up. (Of course, if you know your dog has a sensitive stomach, or a medical condition that requires a specialized food, don’t start offering a buffet.) Try different foods, and keep track of what you feed and how she responds to it – write it down!
Once you know what works for your dog, feed it. If your budget can’t support the very best, then feed as high a quality food as you can afford. Don’t feel guilty, and don’t get behind on the mortgage so your dog can eat organic chicken necks. Dogs are generally hardy souls; what’s most important is that you stay healthy, stable, and positive so you can continue to provide the loving home that your dog needs most of all.
Love means never having to say goodbye – literally.
Dogs are dogs, not humans in fur suits. Many of the social rituals we share with our fellow two-leggers aren’t appropriate for dogs. Amping up arrivals and departures as if you are dropping off or picking up from the first day of kindergarten isn’t a display of love to your dog. For many, it’s a great way to seed and feed separation anxiety. If you love your dog, save your displays of affection for another time – one that’s more spontaneous, sporadic, and less likely to become a trigger for a behavioral consult.
I never make a big deal when I leave the house, whether it’s for a snappy errand or an afternoon-long meeting. I crate the puppy, with just one word – “Crate!” – dispensing a treat or chewie when she complies. As I ready my keys and check that I have my iPhone, the adult dogs just sigh, hop up onto the couch, and settle in.
To know him is to love him – also literally.
Dogs are like fuzzy snowflakes – no two are alike. And while the dogs who came before helped shape you into the competent, caring owner that you are today, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that what works for one will work for the other.
I come out of the dog-showing world, where the mark of a great handler is being able to adapt your style to the dog at the other end of the leash. This dog lives for liver, but that one would much prefer a squeaky toy. This dog can handle a little tug on the leash to indicate a change of direction, that one will respond by throwing herself on the ground in a fit of apoplexy. (Saluki, anyone?)
And of course, even within breeds, all dogs are individuals. Sacrilegious as it sounds, there are Labrador Retrievers who hate water, Border Collies who couldn’t care less about sheep, and Jack Russell Terriers who are the very portrait of mellow. (Well, maybe we can’t go that far . . . .) You might acquire a purposefully bred dog because of a certain physical or temperament trait, but that’s no guarantee, and you need to be okay with that.
The greatest act of love you can offer your dog is to accept him for who he is. He certainly does that for you. Don’t get caught up in preconceived, and often romanticized, notions about who he should be. If you always wanted a dog you could take to the dog park, and wind up with one who really doesn’t enjoy being exposed to the attentions of other dogs, continuing to take him there is bound to result in misery, sooner or later; chronically stressed dogs are more prone to behavior and health problems.
Some people have loved a now-gone dog so deeply and thoroughly that any subsequent one is always held up for comparison, often in unhealthy ways. If your grief or unresolved mourning makes even the idea of new dog a piercing reminder of the one who is no longer, do yourself a favor and wait until the wound has healed a bit. Often, opting for a dog of the opposite gender, or a very different physical appearance, can give the distance your heart needs to open just a sliver. That’s all a dog needs to wiggle his way in.
Love on the run.
We love our dogs so much that there’s a temptation to keep them from anything that might hurt them – to cover them in cotton batting, away from any sharp edges. But dogs are hard-wired to want to interact with the world – sniffing, poking, running, jumping, dodging, and otherwise shaking it up in the biosphere.
Suburban dogs, in particular, often live their lives behind a picket fence and on a comfy couch. Enrich their lives as much as possible with car rides, visits to the dog-friendly teller at the bank, walks around the neighborhood, romps in a fenced field, and play dates with other friendly, well-adjusted dogs. Let her indulge any of her ancestral instincts: While most Borzoi no longer course hare, and a good number of terriers have never gone to ground for a rat, there are organized sports – such as lure-coursing and barn hunt trials, respectively – that can simulate it for them. Dock diving, scentwork, agility, rally . . . there is an ever-growing list of dog sports and activities that you and your dog can do together.
After all, what do dogs love – besides us, that is? They love life, and it’s our charge to give them access to it. And if we can strengthen our bond with them in the process, that’s the champagne truffle in the chocolate sampler.
The Big Love.
If you’re really a “dog person,” then you would be happy to see more dogs mingling with humans almost everywhere you go. On some days, it seems like we’re getting there; never before have we had such a progressive and welcoming attitude toward dogs. From puppy kindergarten classes to therapy dogs in hospitals and nursing homes, our culture has come to regard dogs as social partners, as a source of comfort and solace like no other. That’s the good news.
At the same time, our society has come to expect a degree of unparalleled perfection from dogs in everyday interactions – and no one has yet managed to inform dogs everywhere of this new requirement and obtain their consent! The responsibility for your dog’s good behavior in public is yours alone; whether the impression she makes is positive or negative is entirely up to you.
If you truly love your dog – and dogs in general – you’ll never knowingly put her in a situation that makes her feel insecure, or that she’s unprepared for. You’ll work hard to ensure that she’s properly socialized, calm, and well trained. In short, you’ll give her the tools and the confidence to be a model canine citizen – the kind of dog that even non-dog-lovers love the most.
A regular contributor to WDJ, Denise Flaim raises Rhodesian Ridgebacks in Long Island, New York.
Teaching our dogs to look at us is important for training; if we have their attention, we can get them to work with us. If we can keep their attention, we can keep them working with us even in the face of distractions. These things are big accomplishments, but the value of teaching eye contact is even bigger!
I have done behavioral assessments on thousands of shelter dogs over the years. I’ve adopted a few of them, fostered several more, and helped find forever homes for many. Even after decades of shelter work, I am still touched to my soul by the dog who walks up to me, looks me squarely in the eyes, and sends me the powerful, electric message, “I know how to communicate with you.” That’s what teaching eye contact does for our dogs: it opens the door for interspecies communication.
It’s really not natural for dogs to offer direct and prolonged eye contact. In the dog world, direct eye contact is a threat, and the appropriate response to a direct stare is to look away as a deference or appeasement behavior (“I’m not challenging you/please don’t hurt me!”). In many human cultures, however, direct eye contact is considered polite – it means the other is focused and attentive – and it has certainly come to mean that in the dog training world. Like so many other behaviors we expect of our dogs that are alien to their own basic natures, we’ve come to expect our dogs to look at us when we ask them to, and to maintain eye contact for extended periods of time in a variety of contexts.
Eye Exercises
Because eye contact is important for training purposes, we teach eye contact exercises in our classes at Peaceable Paws. Here are some of the exercises that we practice in our basic classes:
Capturing Eye Contact – When dogs come to class for the first time, they are understandably distracted. Rather than letting our students beg and plead for their dogs’ attention, we tell them to sit in a chair and wait. The instant their dog looks at them or even glances in their general direction, they click their clickers and feed their dogs a treat.
You can do the same with your dog. Practice at home first, in the least distracting environment, then when he’s ready, take him out in public. Sit on a chair with your dog in front of you, leashed if necessary, and wait. The instant he looks at you, or near you, click (or use your verbal marker) and feed a high-value treat. You’re reinforcing offered attention – teaching your dog that if he chooses to look at you, he can make you click.
Over time, “shape” for longer eye contact (reward increasingly longer moments of eye contact), and then for eye contact when you’re walking. When your dog is doing well with it, take him out in public and practice there – in a park, on a bench outside your neighborhood pet supply store, in front of the post office, in the lobby of your veterinary clinic . . . the possibilities are endless.
Name Game – If your dog is not offering attention, you can always ask for it – if you’ve taught him that his name means “Look at me for something wonderful!” This is just like “charging” the clicker: say his name, and then feed him a tasty treat when he looks at you. Repeat this game regularly, until your dog instantly swivels his head toward you at the sound of his name. Then practice with increasing levels of distraction. Now you can get his attention if he doesn’t offer it.
Zen Attention – Getting attention is one thing; keeping it is sometimes an entirely different matter. This exercise makes it clear to your dog that eye contact gets reinforced (not just looking at the treat), and allows you to shape for duration. With your dog sitting in front of you, hold a treat straight out at arm’s length to the side. He will likely watch the treat. Just wait.
Here’s the Zen part. In order to get the treat he has to look away from it – back at you. The instant he looks at you (as if to say, “Hey, what’s the deal here?”) you click and feed him the treat. Then do it again. Most dogs figure this out amazingly quickly. When he comprehends that looking at you – not the treat – gets the click (and treat), you can add your “Watch me” cue, and start shaping for eye contact of longer duration.
Me, Not That – Now it’s distraction time. With your “Watch me” cue solidly installed, ask a family member or friend to walk past while you’re reinforcing your dog for looking at you. Use a high rate of reinforcement at first (click and treat a lot) – then decrease the frequency as your dog figures out the game.
If he looks away, use his name or your “Watch me” cue to get his attention back. Click and treat! Gradually increase the intensity of the distraction: Start walking with your own dog toward your human distraction, have your friend whistle, clap his hands or jingle car keys while walking past, then jog, then bounce a ball … get creative!
Take it on the Road – When he’s doing well with his eye contact games, take him out in public and practice there – in a park, on a bench outside your neighborhood pet supply store, in front of the post office, in the lobby of your veterinary clinic . . . the possibilities are endless. With each successful session under your belt, you can plan for a more distracting venue the next time.
Windows to the Soul
If we pay attention to teaching eye contact only for training purposes, we are missing out on one of the most fulfilling aspects of the behavior: our dog’s ability to use his eyes to communicate with us. As behavior science continues to explore and acknowledge the cognitive capabilities of our canine companions, we are realizing that our dogs may possess “theory of mind.”
Theory of mind (often abbreviated ToM) is the ability to attribute mental states – beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc. – to oneself and others, and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one’s own. It is sometimes expressed in “levels” like this:
Level 1 – I know.
Level 2 – I know you know.
Level 3 – I know you know I know.
And on and on…
Although science may not be ready to conclusively grant ToM to dogs, it’s hard to argue that they can’t attain at least Level 1, probably Level 2, and possibly Level 3. When our Kelpie, Kai, sees us packing his training bag and gets all excited, it seems like a clear indication that he knows he’s going to agility class. When he dances happily in front of us, making strong direct eye contact, one might suggest he’s saying, “I know you know we’re going to agility class.” And when he runs to the door and looks purposefully back at us, one could hypothesize that he’s saying, “I know you know I know we’re going to agility class!”
This isn’t just an academic exercise. Humans who have close relationships with their dogs recognize ToM communications in their daily interactions with their canine family members – and it often involves eye contact:
Bonnie, our Scotti/Corgi/Poodle-mix, comes and sits next to me as I type on my computer, looking intently into my eyes. “Oh,” I realize. “She has to go out.”
As we walk toward the back door, Lucy, our Cardigan Welsh Corgi, runs ahead of us, stops in front of the bookcase, looks at me, looks at the top shelf of the bookcase, and looks toward the door. “Oh,” I realize. “She wants me to take her out and throw the Frisbee that is sitting on top of the bookcase.”
I’m assessing a dog at the shelter who looks somewhat stressed and shut down. I say “Sit!” and his eyes light with joy as he plops his bottom to the ground and looks into my eyes as if to say, “Finally! Someone who knows what I know!”
You may have your own examples of this kind of cognitive communication with your dog. To nurture this thrilling connection, pay even closer attention to your dog’s efforts to communicate with you. When he makes eye contact, contemplate what he’s trying to tell you and respond appropriately. By reinforcing his eye-contact communications you will encourage him to communicate more, and you’ll get better and better at translating his messages.
When dogs learn the value of communicating through eye contact, it opens up a whole new door in the relationship between the two of you, and makes your time together even more rewarding and satisfying for you both.
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, is WDJ‘s Training Editor. She lives in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center, where she offers dog-training classes and courses for trainers. Miller is also the author of many books on positive training. Her two most recent books are Do Over Dogs: Give Your Dog a Second Chance at a First-Class Life, and How to Foster Dogs; From Homeless to Homeward Bound.
