My husband and I agreed that we’d like another Australian Kelpie. Both of our two prior Kelpie girls were exceptional dogs, and we’re hoping for a repeat experience. Kelpies are rare enough that we know that haunting our local shelters for one is pretty futile. Given our sheltering background, the subject of purchasing from a breeder never came up.
We both started perusing rescue sites at about the same time, without mentioning it to each other. The majority of alleged Kelpies and Kelpie-mixes on those sites looked like anything but true representatives of this compact Australian herding dog, and the few that did closely resemble the breed were too far away. California and Texas offered the most – too far to drive, and we weren’t about to fall into the “sight-unseen” adoption abyss.
It didn’t help that we specifically wanted a red Kelpie. I know color shouldn’t matter, but our first two were red, and there was a strong sentimental pull. We found a red Kelpie in Virginia, but he was dog-reactive, and I really needed a dog who could potentially help with modifying the behavior of other reactive dogs, since one of our dogs has already earned senior-retirement, and the other two may not be far behind. A dog-reactive Kelpie clearly wouldn’t do. Would we ever find our red Kelpie? And if we did, how much trouble would we have negotiating the boulder-strewn road to adoption?
Then, an alert from rescueme.org landed in my mailbox. He was at Joyful Rescues in Cuba, New York – a five-hour drive from our home. He sounded promising: young, red (!), and he supposedly gets along with all humans and other dogs. Although the rescue called him a Kelpie/Setter mix, he looked pure Kelpie to me. I asked my husband, Paul, if we wanted to drive to New York to see a Kelpie. He said yes.
I e-mailed Joyful Rescues and said we were interested in the Kelpie. They e-mailed me an application to fill out, complete with references. Paul said, “You have to fill out an application? Do they know who you are?”
I said it didn’t matter if they did or didn’t; I respected them for requiring an application. I filled it out, and gave my references a heads-up that they might be hearing from the rescue group.
“Really?” they all said. “You have to fill out an application? Do they know who you are?” I laughed. The rescue group approved the application.
We made the trip just yesterday, hoping the dog was as good as advertised. We were one of the lucky ones; the little red dog was exactly as he had been described, and after spending some time with him we filled out the adoption paperwork, and paid the adoption fee. We joyfully led him out to our car, where he leaped happily into his crate and settled down for the trip home. He rode like a champ, sleeping quietly in his crate most of the way, resting calmly awake when we stopped for gas and food – not a peep out of him the entire trip. He handled introductions to the rest of our family with grace, including the pig and the cats as well as our three senior dogs, and is presently lying quietly at my feet while I type.
May every dog you adopt be as wonderful as our little red new family member, Kaizen (“positive changes” in Japanese).
For the first time in several decades, my husband and I are actively seeking a dog to adopt. With our family pack at a long-time low of three dogs, all seniors, it’s time to add a younger set of paws, but now that neither of us works at a shelter, it’s not as easy to trip over a dog who speaks to our hearts. We now find ourselves having to actively look for one – a unique position for us, but one in which most normal, non-shelter/rescue humans are quite likely to find themselves. Having experienced in recent years an exponential increase in clients who adopted inappropriate dogs with significant problem behaviors – dogs who should never have been released by the shelter or rescue group – I know all too well how rocky the path to adoption can be these days. So, we’re taking the advice we’d give to anyone else in our situation in order to prevent a regrettable adoption.
Yes, sometimes adoptions are bad – either for the humans, the dogs, or both. Over the past few years, I’ve seen a veritable parade of clients at my training center for consults regarding adopted dogs whose behavioral baggage was much bigger than their adopters had anticipated. Some clients worked through or learned how to live with their dogs’ difficult behaviors. Others have decided the issues were more than they could handle, and returned or even euthanized their dogs.
Bad adoptions can traumatize entire families and cost everyone involved a lot of time and even money, especially when veterinary and/or behavioral consultations are needed. The stakes are very high! Here are some examples of some difficult adoptions made by people who consulted me afterward for help with their new dogs (names have been changed):
Archie – An adult, neutered Labrador Retriever, Archie was adopted from a local Labrador rescue group by the owner of a construction company. Mark had owned Labs before, and wanted another dog who would ride well in his truck, one that he could take to work with him on construction sites and who could be his constant companion. Instead, he unknowingly adopted a dog with a prior bite history (rescue failed to inform him) who had been returned to rescue after at least three previous adoptions due to his aggressive behavior, who fiercely guarded resources, and who became so aroused by outside stimuli when riding in a vehicle that he would bite his new owner.
After our very sobering initial consult, Mark made the commitment to Archie to do everything he could to make it work. Mark assiduously implemented the protocols we agreed on, and despite being bitten several times, has made it work. He started leaving Archie home instead of taking him to construction sites, and then had to work through some mild isolation anxiety. He implemented counter-conditioning and desensitization protocols for Archie’s resource-guarding and handling issues. Most important: He came to understand that Archie was acting defensively, not maliciously, and was able to stop taking personal offense at Archie’s behavior. Archie has a home for life and Mark loves him dearly.
Maggie – A 7-month-old spayed Tibetan Terrier, Maggie was purchased from a breeder two weeks prior. Her new owner Carol had been my client years earlier with another dog, and she had done an outstanding job modifying that dog’s dog-reactive behavior. The two of them had enjoyed a full life together, and a year after she lost that dog to old age, she was finally ready for a new dog.
Maggie was a little shy at the breeder’s, but when Carol brought her home she discovered that Maggie was terrified of almost everything. The breeder clearly had not done an adequate job of socializing this pup, a problem compounded by the fact that the breeder kept her until she was more than six months old without appropriate exposure to normal real-world stimuli.
Carol made a valiant effort to decrease Maggie’s fearfulness using counter-conditioning, desensitization, and confidence-building exercises (such as those seen in “Be Brave,” WDJ September 2011), but ultimately decided the two of them would never have a fulfilling life together. With my support, she returned Maggie to the breeder, who tried to blame her for the dog’s behavior (I had warned her this might happen). Finally, the breeder did take Maggie back (and did not refund her purchase price).
Rex – A 2-year-old neutered male Rhodesian Ridgeback, Rex was recently adopted (sight unseen) from a Ridgeback rescue group on the other side of the country. His new owners, Jane and Bill, discovered that he was extremely shy, fearful of noises, humans, and other dogs – and in fact, was already on medication (fluoxetine) for his fearfulness.
Unfortunately, this was not at all what they had told the rescue coordinator they were looking for! They had wanted to adopt a dog who would play with their other Ridgeback, Trixie, a vigorous canine play pal. They had described Trixie’s personality to the coordinator, who promised them that Rex was a perfect match. That was clearly not the case.
At the conclusion of our consult, Jane and Bill made it clear they were committed to keeping Rex despite the time-consuming fear-alleviating protocols we discussed, and knowing he may never be the playmate they wanted for Trixie. Recent communication with them determined that his fear of noises and humans is improving, but very slowly. He still does not play with other dogs.
Adopter Beware
These are just a few of the many similar cases in my file cabinets. I wasn’t able to help these clients avoid the pitfalls of adopting dogs who were behaviorally damaged, but perhaps I can help you.
Here are five things you can do to maximize your chances of adopting a dog who will turn out to be all you want him to be:
1. Be willing to wait. Just because you are at the shelter or rescue facility doesn’t mean you have to go home with a dog that day. Staff or volunteers may pressure you to adopt a dog, perhaps even telling you the dog will be euthanized for space if you don’t take him home.
Remember that you, too, have limited space; most of us have space for just a few dogs in our families and lives, and with luck, the dog you adopt will be with you for 10 to 15 or more years. Resist the pressure and the sad eyes, unless the dog you truly want is there that day. You can always come back, and keep coming back, until the dog of your dreams is there.
2. Meet the dog before you adopt. Internet adoptions are all the rage these days, and any good training and behavior professional will tell you “Don’t do it!” Regardless of the descriptions and assurances someone may give you, you have no idea who you are adopting unless you meet him first. If you must adopt a dog from across the country because you fell in love with him on Petfinder or some other website, fly out to meet him, and if he turns out to be your Prince Charming, rent a car and drive him back home.
3. Let your head rule your heart. It’s all too easy to feel sorry for the poor, frightened dog huddling in the corner of her kennel at the shelter. Your heart says, “Oh, I have to help him. If I take him home and love him enough, he’ll turn into a wonderful dog and he will love me for saving him.”
While it’s true that there are some dogs who find the kennel environment overwhelming and are just great outside the shelter, other dogs who behave like this in the shelter may actually be like this eveywhere they are taken.
Ask if you can take the dog outside, or to a room far away from the kennel noise. If he morphs into a friendly, happy, normal dog when you get him away from the kennels, then you’re on more solid ground; you probably have a reasonably normal dog who is on the sensitive side and cannot handle kennel chaos. Even so, keep in mind that he may also be fearful of other busy or chaotic environments.
If, instead, he continues to be fearful outside of the kennels, he may be a pathologically fearful dog who will take tons of work and still may never be even close to normal. Your head should say, “Not for me.” Listen!
4. Ask for a behavior assessment. Many reputable shelter and rescue groups have some sort of process by which they identify various behaviors and characteristics of the dogs they make available for adoption. While these are not necessarily scientifically validated, they can give you more information than you might gain by simply looking at the dog. If the dog has been in a foster home, good foster parents will have notes about his behavior while in their care. If the organization does assessments, or has other behavior information about the dog, they should be happy and willing to share it with you.
An important note: Make sure your own observations are congruent with the information the shelter or rescue group provides. If they tell you the dog hiding under the chair is confident, bold, and outgoing, something is amiss.
5. Engage a professional to help you find a dog. Many dog-training and behavior professionals offer adoption-counseling services. Very few future dog owners take advantage of those services. If you are not confident about your ability to choose wisely, you might benefit from professional assistance.
Adopting Troubled Dogs vs. Easier Dogs
Shelters, rescue groups, and breeders are all implicated in the litany of sad cases that make up my files these days. They all sadden me, but the ones I find particularly tragic are the dogs adopted from shelters and rescues – organizations dedicated to the well-being of the animals in their care. These are dogs who have already failed in at least one home, and their caretakers have an obligation to set them up for the best chance for success in their next one.
I know that I see a skewed population – very few successful adoptions come to me for behavior consults; mostly, I see only the troubled ones. I do know that shelters and rescuers often do an exemplary job of placing great dogs in appropriate homes, and dogs with some behavioral challenges in fully informed homes that are well-equipped to work with them. I also know that there are breeders who do a terrific job of socializing their puppies.
Still, I see many dogs who would have never been made available for adoption during the two decades that I worked in a shelter (1976-1996) and who shouldn’t have been placed in homes today. I understand and applaud legitimate, responsible efforts to reduce euthanasia numbers. Placing badly damaged dogs is neither legitimate nor responsible, and even the “no-kill” movement allows for euthanasia of dogs who are “non-treatable and non-rehabilitatable.”
Those groups who want to save dogs with significant behavioral issues need to be willing to invest the necessary resources to effectively modify the dogs’ behavior before they are placed in homes, and many do. An increasing number of shelters are hiring behavior specialists and even adding entire behavior departments to their organizational structures. And many rescue groups have relationships with behavior professionals to assist them with difficult dogs. I am happy to work with several rescue groups (at a significant discount on my rates) and love the dedication that I see in these groups’ staff and volunteers. We cry together on those rare occasions when we agree that one of their charges is beyond our help.
There are still plenty of reasonably well-behaved, behaviorally sound dogs who are being euthanized for lack of homes – dogs who, with a little effort, can be as perfect as you could want a dog to be. Why not look for one of them the next time there is room in your home and your heart for another canine family member?
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. Pat is also the author of many books on positive training, including, Do Over Dogs: Give Your Dog a Second Chance at a First-Class Life, and, How to Foster Dogs; From Homeless to Homeward Bound.
We tried some dog-friendly (and snake-friendly!) snake-avoidance training exercises with Otto and Ruby, a 4-year-old Ball python. They both did well!
Positive training methods focus on rewarding activities, and they’re fun for dogs and handlers. But mention rattlesnakes and many dog owners worry that positive reinforcement isn’t enough. In order to remain safe around rattlesnakes, some say, your dog may need aversion training with an electronic (shock) collar.
In conventional aversion training, dogs receive uncomfortable or painful electric shocks when exposed to whatever their owners want them to avoid. In theory, the dog will associate the sight, smell, or sound of a rattlesnake or other danger with the pain of a shock and immediately run away.
“But that doesn’t always happen,” says Jamie Robinson, founder of Seize the Leash in Tucson, Arizona. “One never knows what the dog is actually associating with the shock when it happens. I know of several dogs here in Tucson who now attack rattlesnakes after ‘snake breaking,’ since snakes were associated in their minds with the pain received during training. That association caused these dogs to attack rather than run in order to avoid the associated pain. Another dog is reportedly terrified of oscillating sprinklers because they sound like a snake’s rattle.”
While the best aversion trainers introduce shock collars gradually and with concern for the dog’s age, size, history, and personality, no one can guarantee that any aversion-trained dog will never be harmed by whatever it was trained to avoid. Accidents happen. In addition, canine responses to snakes vary. Some dogs are naturally cautious and reluctant to explore new situations; others are eager to inspect, smell, and taste the unfamiliar; and some breeds are more likely than others to chase or attack a snake, poisonous toad, or moving object.
Avoid Snakes Using Positive Training!
Is it possible to teach a dog to avoid snakes without using a shock collar? Like Robinson, a growing number of trainers say YES! Their goal is not to produce a dramatic reaction in which the dog recognizes a rattlesnake and runs or jumps in the opposite direction; their goal is for the dog to recognize the snake (or whatever it has learned to avoid) and stay away.
Robinson’s approach, which she calls Structured Game Training, combines play with purpose, cooperation, and goals. “If you really want a dog to stay away from something,” she says, “you have to make it the dog’s choice, not just a conditioned response.”
Her book Snake Avoidance Without Shock provides detailed instructions for playing games lasting five minutes or less, no more than one game per day, for six weeks. Its themes include self-control, motivation, “leave it,” maintaining close proximity to the handler, “stay” (in a variety of positions), developing a reliable recall, distraction training, perfecting an emergency distance sit/stay, drop on recall, odor identification, targeting, “back up, it’s dangerous,” proofing, and more. Some are familiar obedience behaviors and others completely different, but all work systematically to improve dog/handler communication and canine safety.
Does your dog chase after squirrels, rabbits, cats, toxic toads, lizards, porcupines, skunks, cars, or bicycles? Do you live around dangerous plants, like spiny cactus or poisonous mushrooms? Does your dog vacuum the floor, picking up cookie crumbs, ant traps, prescription drugs, or chocolate? Maybe your pup swallows chew toys and underwear. Our dogs risk life and limb every day, even without the threat of poisonous reptiles, and Robinson’s exercises can help any dog avoid all of those problems.
When it’s time to introduce rattlesnakes, she offers step-by-step instructions using fake snakes and the real thing, provided by a local herpetologist.
“The most important part of teaching snake avoidance does not involve humans,” she says. “The dog must learn what to do when confronted with the sight, sound, and/or smell of a snake even when the human is missing. An estimated 85 percent of all snake bites to pets happen in their own backyard. The key to success in this type of training is that it’s inherently easy and fun for both of you. If it isn’t, it will be a source of stress.”
Robinson’s Seize the Leash training center in Tucson offers eight-week Snake Avoidance Without Shock workshops. She will soon offer classes in Clearwater, Florida, where she moved in March.
In California, trainer Pamela Johnson became interested in rattlesnakes when she and her husband moved to a rural area. “In my opinion, teaching dogs to avoid rattlesnakes is the same as teaching them to do tricks or any other behaviors,” she says. “I build a relationship and use management and common sense to keep dogs safe from all dangerous things, not just rattlesnakes.”
Force-free aversion training can be practiced anywhere and at any time. “There isn’t any fall-out or stress when using positive training methods,” she says, “but it is not a quick fix. It requires commitment. For best results, you have to take the time to work with your dog.”
Johnson teaches specific behaviors and skills using games and play. The relationship-building lessons include handler focus and attention, “settle on the go,” body blocking (trained as a behavior and not by using force or intimidation), a variety of emergency collar-grab games, luring, targeting, leash-walking, impulse control, fun recall games, and stay games.
“I teach owners how to train their dogs to do a variety of tricks, agility skills, and canine-freestyle behaviors that are designed to move dogs away from rattlesnakes,” she explains. “My goal is to show others how to have fun with their dogs and at the same time teach their dogs life-saving skills. The main part of my program teaches dogs to recognize snakes, avoid them, and go to their owners. I introduce sight, sound, and scent by using remote-controlled snakes, fake snakes, snake sounds, and dead snakes (snake skin and snake feces).”
Johnson’s Positive Rattlesnake Avoidance webinar is available from the Pet Professional Guild. This July, her Positive Rattlesnake Avoidance Training and Safety Program DVD will be published by Tawzer Dog. “It is a complete guide to training the behaviors and games,” she says, “and gives insight into rattlesnake behavior, teaches simple ways to tell the difference between venomous and non-venomous snakes, answers questions about rattlesnakes, provides helpful tips on safety, and walks you through a variety of ways to make your backyard safe and rattlesnake-free.”
CJ Puotinen, author of The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care and other books, is a long-time contributor to WDJ. She lives in Montana.
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My friends and family members, close and extended, often ask me questions about dogs. What sort of food should we feed our dog? Where is the best place to adopt a dog? What’s the best breed? How do we train her to stop barking? Should I get the rattlesnake vaccine? Oh, and what’s the best food to feed our dog? (I get that last one a lot!)
RARELY do my family members and friends listen all the way, or take all of my advice. And I know I’m not alone; I’m sure it’s the same with doctors and lawyers and therapists and car mechanics; people hear what they want to hear and do what they want to do.
But when someone I know – a civilian, not a “dog person” – does listen, and take some of my advice, I can’t tell you how happy it makes me.
My husband’s brother and his wife (my in-laws) started asking me last year about dogs. They both love dogs, though neither has owned one for decades. They bought a house in the San Francisco Bay Area a year or two ago, and have been slowly working toward readying themselves and their home for a dog.
The cool thing is, before they just went out and adopted the first cute face they saw at their local shelter, they asked me about breeds and sources. I asked them for a list of attributes they both wanted and did not want in a dog – and they sat down, discussed it, and came back to me with such a list. There were certain traits they liked and certain breeds they were considering. Of the breeds on their list, I felt that one of their first stops should be some Boxer rescue groups, and that they should look for an easy adult dog for their first adoption.
Within a couple of weeks, they brought home Rosie, an adult Boxer who had been fostered by a Boxer rescue group volunteer. Rosie had been hit by a car while running loose on the streets; the Boxer group had paid for surgery for her broken leg, as well as spay surgery. Thought she is a sweet and mellow girl at home, she’s got spunk to spare on the trail, and loves hiking with her new people.
These people, my in-laws, feed her a great food, take her to a fantastic daycare for exercise and socialization (and for dog-sitting when they go out for a long evening, like dinner and a movie), hike with her several times a week, and have just generally done everything right with this adorable dog. I’ve taken a few “tech support” calls – regarding a reaction to a dewormer (that the rescue insisted they give to the dog), Kong toy-stuffing, crate-training, gassiness, heartworm prevention, flea prevention, and food, and they have listened closely, done further research, and have basically done everything I would do for my own dogs.
They recently had a scare; Rosie’s appetite, never great, abruptly ceased to exist. Then she stopped drinking. They took her to the vet, and things snowballed. Long story short, whether it was being hit by a car while a stray the year before, or a sub-par spay surgery after her rescue from the streets (likely both), her spleen was badly damaged, she had developed some adhesions, and her intestines were a mess. My in-laws approved a rather open-ended surgery estimate, and Rosie had one heck of a surgery to repair everything that was awry inside. She recovered from the surgery beautifully – and her owners report that all her fussing over food and gas, and even her occasional discomfort during exercise, has all gone away. I know many people who would have had to think twice about such a big vet bill for a dog they hadn’t owned that long, and maybe it hurt my in-laws, but if it did, I didn’t hear them whining about it. All I’ve heard and seen is how much they love and enjoy their Rosie.
Anyone who is involved with rescue or sheltering can tell you how rare it is to meet committed owners like this, which is why I wanted to write this bit of appreciation. If you are involved with rescue, tell us about some great owners you’ve met!
While today many pet professionals are aware that the company that owns and sells the brand they feed may not actually be manufacturing the food, many dog owners do not. A substantial number of companies “co-pack” their foods, which means that the pet food company gives their formulation (recipe) to a manufacturing company that produces, bags, labels and ships their food. The manufacturer mixes ingredients according to the specified formulations and produces a wide variety of pet foods that are sold under different brand names. So while you may think that P&G or Nestle Purina make the food you feed your dog, in some cases the company that actually puts together the final product is a business you have never heard of such as Ohio Pet Food, CJ Foods and Simmons – none of which would qualify as household names.
This process becomes even more convoluted when one considers that, like many consumer goods today, the supply chain of ingredients may be outsourced to several different middleman companies (consider the sequence from the 2007 disaster – Chinese supplier to ChemNautra to Menu to Pet Food Brands). In addition, pet food companies also may contract food production to several different factories, some of which are located in the US, while others are not. One of the reasons that the Menu Foods recall was so extensive was that Menu Foods specialized in producing wet (canned) products. While many of the large pet food companies own and operate their own dry food factories, there are only a handful of factories that operate as canneries and produce wet pet food. As a result, many companies, including the large corporations, contract the manufacture of their wet foods to another company, typically referred to as a co-packer. Another example is chicken treats, many of which, until the 2012 recall anyway, were completely sourced and produced in China.
Need help choosing a food for your dog? Want assistance wading through the ads, labels, hype and information bombarding you every day? Learn what matters most by reading Dog Food Logic. Buy it today from Whole Dog Journal.
If we’re fortunate enough to have them live to old age, at some point, most of our canine companions begin to lose their hearing and may eventually be, for all intents and purposes, deaf. It’s painful to watch a beloved dog become less and less responsive to his environment because he’s unaware of what’s going on around him, and even more so when it limits your ability to communicate with him. The thought of a hearing-impaired dog wandering off and not being able to hear your calls is frightening. Here are some things you can do if your dog’s hearing isn’t what it used to be:
Use hand signals. Every time our dogs reach the old-age-can’t-hear stage I appreciate having taught them basic hand signals as well as verbal cues. Since dogs communicate primarily through body language, hand signals are easy to teach, especially if you do it when your dog can still hear well. As your dog ages, it’s a great opportunity to expand your visual cue vocabulary.
Some owners use American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with their hearing- impaired dogs.
Run interference at home. This is all about management. If you have a multi-dog household, one or more of your other dogs make take offense when your geriatric pal doesn’t respond quickly enough to their signals – because he doesn’t hear them, and therefore doesn’t look and notice their body language. Manage your household to prevent encounters that cause tension due to his lack of hearing and subsequent lack of response. This often includes keeping potential problem dogs separated when you are not home.
For more advice on ways to live with a dog who losing his hearing, purchase Canine Hearing Loss from Whole Dog Journal.
Owners of deaf dogs frequently relate that their biggest challenge is getting their dogs’ attention, whether at home or out in the world. Here are some tips for getting a deaf dog’s attention (these tips work well with dogs who hear, too.)
Hand signal for his name
Just as you teach a dog to respond to “Max” or “Spot,” you can teach a deaf dog to respond to a signal that means, “I’m talking to you now.” A simple finger point or a wave will each work and are easy to teach, but any signal will do.
To teach that the finger point or wave means “Max,” start by simply pointing or waving at the dog, then offering a reward such as a great treat.
Throughout your daily life, use his “name signal” much as you would a verbal name. If you are about to feed your dog, point or wave in her direction, then walk to the kitchen and prepare his dinner. Before walks, point or wave to your dog, then get out the leash.
Soon the dog will respond to the hand signal just as a hearing dog would respond to the sound of his name spoken verbally.
For more advice on ways to live with a dog who losing his hearing, purchase Canine Hearing Loss from Whole Dog Journal.
Here is how I initially teach hand signals for Down, Sit, and Come. I encourage my students to start with big hand signals, like the ones most people use in obedience competition. No one wants to risk having their dog miss the signal from across the ring!
– Down: Hold a treat in your right hand. With your dog sitting in front of you, stand with both arms relaxed at your sides. Raise your right arm straight up. A second after your arm reaches its full height, fingers pointed toward the ceiling, say your verbal “Down” cue. Pause for another second. If your dog does not lie down, lower your right hand to his nose and lure him down with the treat. Click! (or “Yes!”) and treat. Repeat this exercise until he will lie down for the hand signal and verbal cue without the lure.
When he has done at least a half dozen downs without the lure, give the hand signal (arm raised) without the verbal cue. If he goes down, Click! and Jackpot! That is, feed him lots of treats, one at a time, in special recognition of his ac- complishment. If he doesn’t lie down, do another dozen repetitions with both cues, and then try again with just the hand signal. You will probably be surprised by how quickly he does it.
– Sit: Hold a treat in your left hand this time. With your dog lying down in front of you, stand with both arms relaxed at your sides. Bring your left arm up in a circular motion in front of your chest with your elbow bent, then straighten it out to your left side, parallel to the ground, in a “ta-da!” sort of flourish.
A second after your arm straightens, say your verbal “Sit” cue. Pause for another second. If your dog does not sit, bring your arm down and lure him up with the treat in your hand. Click! (or “Yes!”) and treat. Repeat until he will sit for just the hand signal and verbal cue without the lure.
When he has done at least a half dozen sits with- out the lure, give the hand signal (arm raised) without the verbal cue. If he sits, Click! and Jackpot! If he doesn’t, do another dozen repetitions with both cues, and then try again with just the hand signal. Keep repeating until he gets it. Then practice this from the “Stand” position as well.
– Come: If your dog is well trained, you can leave him on a sit- or down-stay and walk five feet away. If his stay is not rock-solid, have someone hold him on a leash while you walk away.
Turn and face him, with your arms at your sides and a treat in your right hand. Fling your right arm up and out to your side, as if you wanted to smack someone standing behind you. A second after your arm is out and parallel to the ground, say your verbal “Come!” cue. If he does not come, hold your arm parallel to the ground for another second, then bend your elbow and sweep the treat past his nose, ending up with your hand in front of your chest. If necessary, take a step or two back to encourage your dog to get up and come to you. Repeat this exercise until he will come for the hand signal and verbal cue without the lure. When he has done at least six or so recalls with- out the lure, give the hand signal without the verbal cue. If he comes, Click! and Jackpot! If he doesn’t, do another dozen repetitions with both cues, and then try again with just the hand signal. When he starts responding, begin practicing the hand-signal “Come” from increasingly greater distances.
For more advice on ways to live with a dog who is losing his hearing, purchase Canine Hearing Loss from Whole Dog Journal.
File this under “more preaching to the choir,” because I’m SURE that all WDJ readers clean up after their dogs – right?! I’m just wondering what some dog owners are thinking when they take their dogs for a walk without a bag. And how do you get the anonymous, unseen dog walkers in your community to clean up after their dogs?
I admit, I hate these signs. They make me feel guilty by association; just walking my dog past a house with a sign like this on the lawn makes me wonder if someone is inside the house looking out, narrowing their eyes suspiciously, making sure my dog doesn’t poop anywhere in their vicinity. My next-door neighbor has one on her lawn! And I always hope that people walking by realize it’s not MY dog she’s worried about!
On the occasions when I have been caught “out without a bag,” I go out of my way to find something, anything, to pick up the poop. Sometimes you can find a piece of trash nearby – a drink cup or plastic bag. (Unfortunately, where I live, there is as much litter on the walking paths as there is unscooped dog poop.) Way back when I lived in San Francisco, I’ve taken the plastic bag off of someone’s newspaper before; I’ve also taken someone’s newspaper before (just the free kind that gets delivered to every address, not the paid subscription kind!).
I saw a terrific video PSA on YouTube recently; I applaud this kind of creativity – though I wonder whether or not it changed anyone’s behavior.
None of my dogs have ever watched TV. So I was frankly dubious about my sister’s claims that her dogs go crazy every time a certain pizza commercial comes on; she told me that when the dogs hear the pizza commercial music, they come running to the TV, and they leap in the air and whine when the close up shot of the pizza appears, where the single slice is pulled away from the sizzling hot pie and tendrils of cheese are stretched through the air. But why the pizza commercial, I asked? She said they always share pizza with their dogs, and they really like it! Hmm, I said.
Until I was at her house and witnessed the pizza commercial phenomenon for myself. Her two Jack Russell Terriers were snoozing on the couch and the TV was playing in the background while my sister and I talked. Suddenly, both dogs sat up and fixed their gazes on the TV. “Ha! It’s Round Table time,” my sister laughed. The dogs tilted their heads this way and that until the close up, when they both leaped off the couch and jumped in the air in front of the TV, as if they could somehow grab a slice of the pie out of the air for themselves. I was flabbergasted. Did they really recognize the pixelated vision as something they’d like to eat?
Not long after this, I was interviewing a dog owner at her home. She and her two lovely standard Poodles met me at the door, and I fussed over the well-mannered, healthy dogs for a bit. But when we prepared to sit at the dining room table to do our interview, she brought the dogs into the adjoining living room, and turned on the TV. The dogs jumped up onto her sofa and lay down, and she told me, “I’ll just put on a nature show for them. They’ll stay out of our way for a while.” I laughed, not sure if she was joking, but when she tuned the television to a PBS channel showing a forest scene, both dogs sat up, transfixed. They scanned the screen, clearly looking for whatever animal might appear in the scene. And when the camera panned the sky, taking in a picture of a bird flying across the forest canopy, one of the dogs barked in excitement. “Now, now,” my interviewee warned her dogs. “If you get too excited I will change the channel.” They seemed to understand, because both dogs lay down again, and we left the room. Again, if I hadn’t seen it for myself, I never would have believed it.
It was clear that my dog, Otto, had never been in a house before the summer day in 2008 when my husband and I adopted him from my local shelter. He jumped at every household noise, including the change of the washing machine cycles and the microwave’s “ready” ding. But he paid no attention to the TV, until about a week after we brought him home, a commercial featuring the Geico caveman came on. Some noise made him look at the TV, and when he saw the caveman’s hairy face, he jumped to his feet and started backing out of the room, growling and then barking, hackles raised. As soon as the caveman was no longer on the screen, he came back into the living room and lay back down. And he never did this again. The only thing he responds to on TV now is the sound of a doorbell. That will always make him growl and at least look toward the door, if not jump to his feet and bark at the door.
Do your dogs watch TV? Do they have favorite shows?
Did you see this news brief? A shelter in the San Francisco Bay Area is conducting some small studies regarding breed identification and adoption rates. Like many shelters, they are often overrun with dogs of a certain type: Chihuahua-mixes. Wondering whether potential adopters might be biased against Chihuahuas, or might be biased toward a dog who had other desirable breeds “in the mix,” they ran DNA tests on a dozen small dogs in their shelter, and advertised the results with the description of those dogs. And voila! The dogs who were promoted with the DNA test results got adopted more quickly than a control group of 12 other small, brown dogs in the shelter – TWICE as fast, in fact.
As a volunteer in my local shelter, I’ve heard it countless times: “We don’t want a Chihuahua. Too yappy.” But when you show them a sweet, funny, friendly small dog who knows a few cute tricks, and you emphasize the “mix” in “Chihuahua-mix,” they often soften.
The Peninsula Humane Society is calling this DNA test program “Who’s Your Daddy?” and calling out the dogs who have been DNA-tested with a banner over their photos on their website (see here: http://peninsulahumanesociety.org/adopt/dog.html). Staff members have been having some fun with the results, making up cute names for the “breed” of the mixed dogs, including “Mini Shihuahua” (for a Miniature Pinscher/Shih Tzu/Chihuahua DNA test result), “English Chaniel” (English Cocker Spaniel/Chihuahua), and “Frichese” (Bichon Frise/Maltese/Chihuahua). “Free cheese”? That’s just funny, clever marketing.
As the owner of a mixed-breed dog who was DNA-tested and found to display genes from the German Shepherd, Chow Chow, Border Collie, Poodle, Basenji, and I can’t remember what else, I don’t put a lot of stock in the mixed-breed ID tests. But I know people who are super proud of their mixed-breed shelter dogs and tell everyone who asks that the dogs are definitely a certain mix, because the shelter they adopted the dogs from told them so . . . The main thing is, they adopted a dog from the shelter and they love it; who CARES what they say the breed is? Every time I hear one of these dubious pronouncements, I smile and nod and say nice things about the breeds mentioned. “Oh, that’s awesome! I can see that!”
Kudos to the Peninsula Humane Society for experimenting with anything that works to create greater enthusiasm for a population of dogs that are over-represented and underappreciated in shelters everywhere.
(Full disclosure: proud owner of a Chihuahua-mix, the mighty Tito.)
Years ago, I had high hopes for participating in dock diving sport with my now-9-year-old dog, Woody. But it turned out that my high-jumping, strong-swimming dog absolutely hates getting water in his ears!
