Ever had a dog who won’t give you his bone or chew toy if you try to take it from him? Or one who gets uncomfortable or growls if you get close to him when he’s eating his dog food? Or snaps at you if he’s on the sofa and you want him off? Or lifts his lip in a snarl if your friend tries to get close to you?
Answer yes to any of the above, and you’ve successfully diagnosed your dog as having a guarding issue. The catch-all, technical term is “resource-guarding,” and can include guarding of dog food bowls (or food), place (dog crate, dog bed, sofa, etc.) items (rawhide, bones, balls, tissues, etc.) and less commonly, people.
Resource-guarding simply means that a dog gets uncomfortable when we (or other humans) are around him when he had “his stuff.” He’s nervous that we’re going to take it away, so he tries to warn us off in a variety of ways, ranging from simply consuming his food faster, to an all-out bite.
One of my favorite things about my dog, Otto, is that he loves and apparently cherishes his squeaky toys. Unlike dogs I’ve known who feel that the only good squeaker is a dead squeaker, Otto has had squeaky toys that have lasted for years with nary a squeak-ending puncture. Sadly, this trend seems to have ended.
It started with a soft rubber pig that made a realistic, low grunty sound – not incidentally the noise-making toy that created more excitement from Otto than any toy ever had. Otto would do anything for that toy, including a long, arduous chain of behaviors, in order to earn a minute of blissed-out noise-making with that toy. But a moment’s inattention led to the toy getting stolen away by Diamond, my former foster dog, who very quickly chewed the pig’s nose off – and with it, the ability of the toy to make noise. When Otto discovered the theft, and attempted to make the pig grunt, he seemed genuinely puzzled by the “whoosh, whoosh” noise it made instead. He would make the noise, put the toy down, look at the toy carefully, nose it around on the ground, pick it up again, whoosh whoosh, again and again. He was disappointed — nowhere near as excited or as motivated by the toy as he had been before. As soon as the novel “Grunt, grunt” noise was done, so was he.
The toy was such a motivator for him, I took a long drive out of my way to return to the only store where I had ever seen the toy sold, and bought him another one. By this time, Diamond was placed in his new home, and Tito the Chihuahua isn’t a chewer, so I felt safe in handing over the new pig to Otto to enjoy. But within about two minutes, to my surprise, I heard a familiar sound: “Whoosh, whoosh.” What? I investigated and lo and behold, the pig’s nose had been chewed off, as neatly as if Diamond had done it.
A few months went by before I was anywhere near that one pet supply store again. I looked at the pig toy, and the price. Did I dare buy another one? It’s a fragile toy. But he used to treat it so gently; the first one lasted for at least six months before its rhinoplasty. I spent the money.
Sadly, the new toy quickly went the way of the previous two. It’s almost as if he can’t help himself. He loves the grunting noise, but he has to bite the nose off the toy. I won’t buy another, and it makes me almost as sad as it’s made him.
I recently had the great pleasure of meeting and interviewing Karen Pryor, who, more than anyone else, pioneered and popularized force-free animal training with the publication of her 1985 book, Don’t Shoot the Dog! At nearly 81 years of age, Pryor continues to inspire people in every behavior-related field to give these kind, respectful techniques a try.
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I was searching online for photographs of Pryor to accompany the article and interview with her (starting on page 8) when I came across the picture below. I clicked on the photo’s link – a 2009 article in an online newsletter from Cornell University; I was curious about the identity of the bright-looking young woman in the photo with Pryor.
The story in the newsletter was about a high school student, Lily Strassberg, a junior at Newton (Mass.) South High School, who was taking a summer course in Marine Environmental Science at Shoals Marine Laboratory, Cornell’s marine field station. The course required each student to design and carry out a scientific study.
Strassberg, a dog fanatic, had recently read Karen Pryor’s most recent book, Reaching the Animal Mind, which describes many training examples from Pryor’s long career with animals. One anecdote in the book recounted Pryor’s effort to train a hermit crab to ring a bell on cue. Strassberg decided that her project for her summer science course would be to attempt to replicate Pryor’s feat with a local crab species: Carcinus maenas.
For the longer version, read the story for yourself at http://news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept09/crabRingsBell.html. The URL gives the story away; to the amazement and delight of the instructor and her classmates, it took Strassberg just three days, a clicker, and some mussel treats to teach the crab to ring a bell on cue.
Strassberg was a work study student; she was working off her tuition for the summer courses she was taking at the Shoals lab by cleaning dorm rooms and helping in the cafeteria. A week after her bell-ringing crab presentation, she was helping serve lunch to a group of alumnae who were touring the lab when she realized she was face-to-face with her idol, Cornell alumna (class of 1954) Karen Pryor, who just happened to be on the tour of the marine lab that day.
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When I tracked down Strassberg, to see if I could use the photo I had found online, Strassberg described the moment to me: “I looked over at her name tag and made a flat-out fool of myself when it registered. I flipped my chair back and literally screamed ‘Oh my God are you Karen Pryor?! Your book changed my life!’ ”
Since that chance meeting, Strassberg has become “great friends” with Pryor; they’ve met a number of times, including at last year’s conference of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants.
Strassberg has since volunteered and worked at a number of shelters and groomers, interned at Duke University’s Canine Cognition Laboratory last year, and is currently majoring in animal behavior studies at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She’s a perfect example of the bright future of positive, passionate, educated dog trainers that Karen Pryor referenced in her interview with me, weeks before I even knew Strassberg existed. And I can’t help but think that Pryor should take great pride in knowing that she has helped inspire trainers like Lily Strassberg.
Every new dog owner looks for a definitive dog vaccination schedule to follow, but the truth is that the best vaccine protocol for your dog is very subjective. Puppy vaccinations are important, but when to vaccinate your dog will always depend on your individual dog’s immunization history and immune function.
I am surprised at how frequently the subject of vaccinations comes up with my dog-loving friends. We often talk about the pros and cons of certain vaccines and look for the latest information. We struggle to understand the complexities, and to sort out the facts from the controversy.
When it comes to vaccines, being an advocate for our dogs may be the most important thing we can do. Being an advocate doesn’t mean being an expert, but it does mean taking action. These tips can help you take action that supports your dog’s good health.
1. Acknowledge the benefits AND the risks of vaccines for your dog.
You don’t need to know everything about infectious diseases, and you don’t need to know every possible risk associated with immunization. But you do need to know that there are both benefits and risks. It is just not as simple as “Vaccines save lives,” or “Vaccines can make your dog sick.”
“Over-vaccination is just as risky as not being protected,” says Evelyn Sharp, DVM, of My Personal Vet in Santa Cruz, California. “Some of the risks associated with vaccines include autoimmune diseases and anaphylaxis.” But Dr. Sharp emphasizes that you can minimize these risks, while still protecting your dog.
To evaluate the risks and benefits, consider the need for a vaccine each time it is due. Vaccines should not be “routine.” Understand that even the core vaccines may or may not be appropriate for a specific dog, at a specific time.
2. Team up with your vet.
Even if you choose a vaccine clinic or to administer vaccines yourself, a discussion with your veterinarian first may help you make the best decisions. Your vet will likely know the diseases prevalent in your area, your dog’s overall health, genetic risk factors, and more. You may want to ask:
– What vaccines do you recommend, and why?
– Are there disease risks that are unique to your area?
– What are the possible side effects of the vaccines?
– Does the veterinary clinic offer titer tests (to determine whether your dog may already possess sufficient immunity to the most common diseases)?
3. Consider your dog’s lifestyle.
Your dog’s lifestyle can influence disease risk. Your vet may want to know things like:
Where you walk your dog or if you go to dog parks.
If your dog goes to dog shows, is boarded or visits doggy day care. (If your dog is a regular at doggy day care, you and your vet may discuss the pros and cons of bordetella – plus, it may be required by the day care facility. But if your dog is never boarded and does not participate in dog activities, he or she may not need that particular vaccine).
4. Check out titer tests for dogs.
Titer tests are both accurate and cost effective, according to Dr. Sharp. “One newer test checks for antibodies in your dog’s blood for parvovirus, distemper, and infectious hepatitis, and the cost is much less than some of the older titer tests.” A titer test can tell you:
– Whether your dog or puppy had a positive immune response to a recent vaccine (basically, did the vaccine do its job?)
– Whether your dog has antibodies (showing immunity) from a previous vaccine (lacking these, you should consider a booster).
– Whether a newly adopted dog has been previously vaccinated.
5. Remember, with vaccines, one size does not fit all dogs.
Each dog has his or her own risks when it comes to disease and to immunization. Plus, circumstances and risks can change. A decision you made for your dog last year may not be the best decision this year.
It is a stretch to think that each of us (no matter how many conversations we have about vaccines with our dog-loving friends!) can be an expert on what our dog needs when it comes to vaccines. But by asking questions, talking with our veterinarians about our particular dog, and considering all options, we can be our dog’s advocate.
Mardi Richmond, MA, CPDT-KA, is a writer and trainer living in Santa Cruz, California, with her partner and a wonderful heeler-mix named Chance.
Domestication appears to have led to genetic changes in dogs that make them able to digest starches better than wolves can, according to a paper published in Nature in January.
Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, a geneticist at Uppsala University in Sweden, led the team that looked for genetic differences between the genomes of 12 wolves from around the world and 60 dogs from 14 different breeds. They found 36 areas in the genome where dogs differed from wolves, but not from dogs of other breeds, indicating changes likely linked to domestication. Nineteen of the regions found involve the brain, and 8 of those are involved with nervous system development that could help to explain behavioral changes that make dogs friendlier, less fearful, and less aggressive toward humans.
Another 10 genes were found to help dogs digest starches and break down fats. The researchers believe that 3 genes in particular make dogs better at splitting starches into sugars and then absorbing them in the gut. Interestingly, most humans have also evolved the ability to more easily digest starches in what appears to be a case of parallel evolution. The researchers suggest that the adaptations in both species are likely linked to the development of agriculture about 10,000 years ago.
These new findings help to support the theory that dogs may have become domesticated by hanging around human settlements and scavenging their scraps and waste. The study does not rule out the possibility of earlier domestication, however, which is supported by fossil records that may go back 33,000 years, or of later interbreeding with wolves. Another scientist plans to analyze fossil DNA to try to discover when these changes first appeared. Changes in digestion may have developed after behavioral changes that could have occurred much earlier, when our human ancestors were still hunter-gatherers.
What does it mean? In 1997, I attended a seminar at Wolf Park in Indiana, where I learned that wolves cannot digest starches very well and require a high-meat diet in order to thrive. The wolves at Wolf Park are fed primarily deer carcasses, but when those are in short supply, the wolves are given Nebraska Brand carnivore diets that are mostly meat with very little carbohydrate content, rather than dog food.
In contrast, most dogs digest starches well, as evidenced by their ability to utilize the calories and nutrients provided by dog food that is high in carbohydrates. Already, some people are claiming this study supports feeding high-carbohydrate diets to dogs, but I disagree. The study says, “Our results indicate that novel adaptations allowing the early ancestors of modern dogs to thrive on a diet rich in starch, relative to the carnivorous diet of wolves [emphasis is mine], constituted a crucial step in the early domestication of dogs.”
Since wolves consume almost no starch, a diet that is relatively rich in starch does not mean that grains and other starchy foods would (or should) make up the majority of the diet. It also does not mean that dogs require starches in their diet, and it does nothing to support feeding a highly processed diet rather than fresh foods. The parallel evolution involving starch digestion in humans and dogs could also help to explain similarities in certain diseases, including diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease, indicating that there could be drawbacks as well as advantages to eating diets that are high in starch.
The flip side is that I do think this study supports the idea that it’s acceptable to include some starch in your dog’s diet, as long as it doesn’t cause problems for an individual dog. For example, I feed my own dog a homemade diet that is high in protein, but I also include carbohydrates in the form of vegetables, fruits, and even grains (she gets a meal of cereal, yogurt, and banana for breakfast every fourth day).
I don’t believe it’s necessary or even advisable to avoid starches altogether unless you have an individual dog who reacts badly to them, and even then, she may do well with some starches, even if she has problems with others. Whole grains are high in some vitamins and minerals and provide fiber (prebiotics) that helps to support beneficial bacteria in the intestines (probiotics). Other starchy foods, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and bananas, also provide nutrients that may otherwise be lacking in a homemade diet.
The study also found a variation between dogs in the number of duplicate genes involved in the production of amylase, a pancreatic enzyme required for the first step of starch digestion. While wolves had 2 copies of this gene, called AMY2B (one of the three genes identified above), researchers found a range of 4 to 30 copies in the dogs they studied, indicating that some dogs (and possibly some dog breeds) are better at digesting starches than others.
As always, it’s important to do what works for your dog. If she has digestive issues when consuming a diet that is high in starch, or shows signs of inflammation, such as from allergies or arthritis, it’s worth trying a low-starch diet or even eliminating starchy foods completely to see if improvement is noted. – Mary Straus
Antifreeze Becomes Safer (Finally) Manufacturers agree to add bittering agent to deter pets from ingesting antifreeze.
On December 13, 2012, the Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA) and the Humane Society Legislative Fund jointly announced that all major marketers have agreed to voluntarily add a bitter flavoring agent to all antifreeze and engine coolant products manufactured for sale in the United States to deter animals and children from ingesting them. This is great news about a change that will save many lives.
Each year, up to 90,000 pets are poisoned by ingesting antifreeze that drips onto our garage floors and driveways, or is left in open containers. Antifreeze has a sweet taste that makes it attractive to pets, livestock, wildlife, and small children. As little as one teaspoon of antifreeze can kill the average cat. The minimum lethal dose in dogs is about 2 ml (less than half a teaspoon) per pound of body weight.
Most antifreeze products are 95 percent ethylene glycol, a potent alcohol that is readily absorbed once it is ingested. Its effects start with alcohol toxicity to the central nervous system, beginning as soon as 30 minutes after ingestion and lasting up to 12 hours. Signs may include ataxia (loss of balance), disorientation, and appearing “drunk.” You may also notice increased drinking and urination. The pet may seem to recover within a few hours, only to get worse again with possible coma or seizures. If the pet survives, the next stage involves cardiopulmonary effects due to severe acidosis and electrolyte disturbances. These generally occur 12 to 24 hours after ingestion and may include rapid breathing and heart rate, depression, seizures, and/or pulmonary edema. Within 24 to 72 hours, the pet goes into kidney failure due to damage caused by calcium oxalate crystals from the breakdown of ethylene glycol in the body. Early veterinary care is essential to survival; failure to properly treat within the first several hours may lead to irreversible damage or death.
Some newer antifreeze products use 50 percent or more propylene glycol in place of ethylene glycol, making them safer than older products, but propylene glycol can still cause alcohol poisoning. Doses of more than 10 ml/kg (about 1 teaspoon per pound of body weight) are considered potentially toxic to dogs.
Seventeen states have passed legislation requiring antifreeze manufacturers to add a bittering agent to their products that makes them unpalatable to animals and children. Federal legislation had been introduced but did not progress. Denatonium benzoate, the bittering agent used, is a common ingredient in many household products and has been used in anti-nail biting formulas for decades.
Although the change takes place immediately, older products already on shelves and in cars will still be around for awhile, so continue to exercise caution regarding the products you use in your own vehicles, and to minimize exposure your pets may have to these substances. – Mary Straus
Purchasing prescription medicines for your dog from your veterinarian is definitely convenient and often necessary from a health standpoint (for example, when your pet urgently needs the drug), but it is usually the more expensive option. The mark-up at veterinary offices usually starts at 100 percent over wholesale prices but it can be 1,000 percent in some cases!
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In defense of veterinary offices, keeping a fully stocked and up-to-date pharmacy is usually not cost-effective. Small practices in particular can’t keep the myriad of medications that might need to be prescribed and used before their expiration dates. Dedicated pharmacies have a higher turnover, receive volume discounts, and thus tend to be less expensive.
My cost-conscious veterinarians are happy to call in my dog’s prescriptions to a pharmacy of my choosing or to provide me with a written prescription; many veterinarians are. To make this a standard of care, the “Fairness to Pet Owners Act” was introduced to Congress in April 2011. The bill would have required vets to provide a written prescription for any recommended medications and to notify clients of the option to have the prescription filled elsewhere. The bill died in committee at the end of 2012, but it will likely be reintroduced. The good news is that many veterinarians already follow the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Code of Ethics, which states that vets should honor a client’s request to have medications prescribed to a pharmacy.
Many of our pets’ prescription medications are the same as those prescribed to humans, and are available at on-line pharmacies, big box stores, chain drugstores, supermarket pharmacies, and specialty pharmacies. What few people seem to know is that almost all of these dispensaries offer some type of discount program for pet medications. An overview of some of the prevalent pet medication saving programs is listed below; new programs are showing up every day, so inquire at your favorite pharmacy for additional incentives.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) offers AAA Prescription Savings. This program is free with membership and covers all members of the household including pets. The discount applies to many of the medications that are also prescribed to humans at an average savings of 24 percent off the pharmacy’s regular retail prices; savings on generics can be even more.
To receive the discount, simply present your AAA card to any participating retail pharmacy. There are more than 59,000 participating pharmacies nationwide (including CVS); to find one near you, visit AAA.com/prescriptions or call (866) AAA-SAVE.
Costco dispenses nearly 100 commonly used prescription drugs for pets, and claims that it has prices lower than those charged by most veterinarians or on-line pet medication suppliers. Costco pharmacies are open to the public; you don’t need to be a member to buy prescriptions there. However, if you are a member, your pets qualify for the no-fee Costco Membership Prescription Program (because they are not covered by your medical insurance, they are considered uninsured and thus eligible). This plan offers specially reduced pricing on select medications, both brand-name and generic. The amount of savings per drug can vary, but usually ranges between 2 and 3 percent.
The Walgreens Prescription Savings Club provides for discounts off the cash price of brand name and generic pet medications (human-equivalents only). Pets can be enrolled as individuals ($25 annual fee) or as part of a family membership ($35 annual fee); if your savings for the year don’t reach the cost of your membership, the difference is refunded. To include your pet as part of a family membership, simply add the pet’s name to your list of dependents.
Target has recently expanded the scope of its pharmacies and has started offering animal-specific medications under its PetRX program. Check out its list of common pet medications, from Alprazolam to Xalatan, at target.com/pharmacy/petrx-dog-medications-alphabetic. This list is not all-inclusive, so call if you don’t see your pet’s medication. Covered generic drugs at commonly prescribed dosages cost $4 for a 30-day supply; a 90-day supply usually runs $10 (may be priced differently in some states).
Kroger Pharmacies has a program similar to Target’s, also with hundreds of pet medications available – including animal-specific drugs – and offers similar $4 and $10 generic supplies. They also offer price matching and sometimes accept special orders.
Many municipalities, including some counties, cities, and organizations, offer prescription discount cards (most of these are administered by CVS Caremark Inc., the largest pharmacy healthcare provider in the US). Major pharmacies accept these cards, which cover both people and pets. There are usually no forms to complete, no age or income requirements, and no restrictions on how may times the cards can be used. They are easily obtained through the organizations mentioned or can be printed from on the many on-line resources such as RxSavingsPlus. Savings through these types of programs tend to range between 13 to 34 percent, depending on the medication.
Be a savvy consumer and check with the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy to ensure you are dealing with a reputable pharmacy before making any purchase. This regulatory board provides a list of accredited veterinarian on-line pharmacies (see http://nabp.net/programs/accredication/vet-vipps/find-a-vet-vipps-online-pharmacy); there are currently 19 on this list. This accreditation means that their licenses have been verified and they comply with all NABP criteria (license and policy maintenance, patient/client information, communication, storage, shipment, and quality improvement programs).
I’ve had great experiences with on-line pharmacies. Most not only offer price-matching, but also guarantee 100 percent satisfaction. Once, I was beyond satisfied when I called to see if there was any chance of returning the $335 worth of antibiotics that had been prescribed for my dog – before we found out that the antibiotic wasn’t effective against my dog’s particular bacteria; the pharmacy actually issued a credit to me immediately – wow! I returned the antibiotics (which can’t be resold, making the credit very noble indeed).
Many on-line pharmacies offer price-matching, so search for the lowest price and then call to place your order and mention the lower price and where you saw it. Don’t forget to factor in shipping and handling costs if ordering on-line or from a non-local source.
A few more considerations At times the recommended dosage for your pet may not be available as a standard dosage. Some medications can be purchased in higher dosages and then the pills split to the approximate dosage. This approach can result in a substantial cost savings, but this strategy is not always possible or appropriate. Medications that are enteric-coated or have sustained release formulations are not generally suitable for splitting prior to administration. Capsules can’t be cut, as their contents can’t be properly divided or contained after opening. Another consideration is the stability of the medication when exposed to air; many decompose rapidly when exposed to air and/or moisture. Always check with your vet to confirm whether your pet’s medication is appropriate for splitting.
If your pet needs a specially formulated or compounded medication, shop around, as costs can vary even from one specialty pharmacy to another. After checking that a pharmacy is licensed by the state board in which it operates (again check the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy), call and ask for quotes. Even with shipping costs, there can be substantial price differences.
When one of my dogs was going through treatment for cancer, she was prescribed the medication piroxicam, which needed to be compounded for her based on her weight. The first prescription of this I had filled for her was done for ease and timeliness; it had been called into a compounding pharmacy that her veterinarian had recommended but it was over an hour away. A 30-day supply was prepared and shipped to me at a cost of $51; when I realized that my dog was going to be on this drug for a long time, I located a recommended compounding pharmacy closer to home. I was happy to receive a 60-day supply (twice the amount) for $56.
There are some medications that are available only from a veterinarian or a veterinary pharmacy. When this occurs and your pet will be on the medication for a prolonged period, ask about getting larger quantities, as the price per unit can decrease with quantity.
It’s important to discuss any potential side effects with your veterinarian before you get your medications elsewhere. Human pharmacists aren’t usually trained to know the specific effects the medication can have on animals, most have no training for veterinary drugs, interaction with other drugs, or the appropriate dosages for pets. Ask your veterinarian whether generic drugs are acceptable, as they are not recommended in some cases (for example, for treatment of hypothyroidism). No matter where you obtain your pet’s medications, always confirm that what you have received are the exact same medications and dosages as your veterinarian has recommended.
Barbara Dobbins is a San Francisco Bay Area dog trainer on hiatus.
In 1985, upon publication of Don’t Shoot the Dog!:The New Art of Teaching and Training, written by the now-famous proponent of canine clicker training, Karen Pryor, some people were confused. Was it actually a dog training book? Because it talked an awful lot about changing the behavior of humans!
Karen Pryor’s books describe why and how positive reinforcement works so well to improve the behavior of any animal species. Her experiences with marine and land mammals, as well as fish, birds, and even crustaceans, are engaging and legion.
Today, Don’t Shoot the Dog! is considered a ground-breaking text. The book helped revolutionize dog training, influenced untold numbers of dog owners and trainers to change their training methods, and helped its author develop a stellar reputation in the dog world. Not bad for a book that wasn’t written solely about dog training!
“This book is about how to train anyone – human or animal, young or old, oneself or others – to do anything that can and should be done.” That is the first sentence of the book’s Foreword. Pryor wrote Don’t Shoot the Dog! in order to share what she had learned about using operant conditioning to effectively, gently, and respectfully alter the behavior of those we share our lives with, whether they are human or nonhuman animals. The book contains many tactics for training dogs, but Pryor also explains how the techniques described in the book can be used to make bosses more courteous, children better-behaved, cats less destructive, horses more compliant, and mothers-in-law more pleasant – all through the use of well-timed positive reinforcement.
The first chapter alone succinctly and clearly explains what positive reinforcement is (and is not), and how it differs from negative reinforcement. Pryor describes how reinforcement (of both kinds) alters the behavior of people and other animals in a variety of common situations, and how every living animal can be influenced – in a force-free way – to voluntarily change its behavior. She explains both how to increase behaviors that you enjoy and appreciate, and how to eliminate behaviors that you don’t like – without shooting the dog, or other negative fallout.
Pryor didn’t originate the principles of operant conditioning and learning theory, but she has certainly thought deeply about them and put them to good and effective use, and she’s particularly gifted at explaining them in an engaging, relatable way. Her background and education have a lot do with that.
Personal History
Pryor was born in 1932. Her mother was an antiques dealer; her father was a prolific writer, authoring fiction (mostly science fiction), screenplays, syndicated newspaper columns, and more. In 1954, Karen graduated from Cornell University (where she majored in English but dabbled in biology, ornithology, botany, and entomology) and married Taylor “Tap” Pryor. Tap also graduated Cornell that year, and immediately joined the U.S. Marines; he served his final months in the military in Hawaii, and was discharged as a Captain in 1957.
The family stayed on Oahu, and Tap took graduate courses in marine biology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. When she wasn’t taking care of their three young children, Karen also took graduate courses at the University. She followed in her father’s footsteps as an author, publishing her first book, Nursing Your Baby, in 1963. (Its fourth edition, still in print and highly praised, was revised and co-authored in 1985 with her daughter, Gale Pryor.)
1963 was also the year that Tap, by then a founding partner in Sea Life Park, an oceanarium and research facility on Oahu, asked for his wife’s help with a project at work that had gotten unexpectedly difficult: training dolphins for a dolphin show.
Years before, the scientific advisor at Sea Life Park had studied a bottlenose dolphin for early research on sonar, hiring a psychology graduate student to train the dolphin. The student, a fan of Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner, trained the dolphin using Skinner’s theories of operant conditioning. Sea Life Park’s advisor asked the same student to write a manual on using operant conditioning to train dolphins for the Park, and the resulting manual was given to the Park’s new employees.
Karen Pryor works with her dog, Twitchett, using a target stick, clicker, and treats, of course! The happy, engaged expressions both trainer and trainee wear are both a goal and a side effect of training with positive reinforcement.
The problem was, the Park employees, hired to put the manual into effect with several species of wild dolphins caught in the waters just off Oahu, found the manual (as Karen describes in her 2009 book, Reaching the Animal Mind) “pretty impenetrable.” She writes, “Three months before the park was to open, there were 10 dolphins, two prospective show arenas, and no shows.” Karen, at least, had trained the family dog and a Welsh pony for her kids, then three, six, and seven. Plus, as the boss’s wife, she wouldn’t cost the as-yet-unopened business anything.
Pryor was quickly fascinated with the manual, operant conditioning, and the dolphins. She employed the techniques and her own good judgment to immediate positive effect with the dolphins, and (to make a fascinating story short) the dolphin shows opened on schedule.
Karen and her daughter Gale in a Sea life Park pool with Haole, a spinner dolphin.
Over the next nine years, Karen continued to work part-time with the trainers and marine mammals at Sea Life Park, as well as kids, ponies, and dogs at home. She also used random opportunities at the park to work any other animal she happened to come across in the research center – such as a tiny octopus and a damselfish – just to see if she could train these species with positive reinforcement, too (she could).
The Pryors divorced in 1972, and Karen left Sea Life Park. She wrote a book, Lads Before the Wind (the title was borrowed from Herman Melville, describing dolphins) recounting her incredible encounters and work with marine mammals (both at the park and those she had in the open ocean while working with marine biologists). The book also explained everything she had learned about training, and Pryor hoped that others would do as she had done: extrapolate how animal training methods could be used to positively influence the behavior of any animal, nonhuman or human – “No more choke chains or yelling at kids,” as she told an interviewer. The book was published in 1975, but was only modestly received, and generally regarded as an animal adventure story of some kind.
Pryor kept thinking about the potential for using operant conditioning in everyday life. She began to organize her thoughts into another book, which was published in 1985 as Don’t Shoot the Dog! It was a watershed event, because the book succinctly clarified the basic tenets of animal behavior and made the prospect of animal training seem not only possible, but also simple.
Versatile theories
After publication of Don’t Shoot the Dog!, Pryor began getting speaking requests from the three disparate groups who were most interested in training and animal behavior: dog trainers, marine mammal scientists, and corporate trainers. Pryor’s interest in behavior and connections with all three communities have provided her with a variety of jobs, public service, and continuing education ever since.
For example, Pryor has conducted research for the tuna industry, to learn how best to prevent incidental dolphin kills while tuna fishing. In the 1980s, she served on the Marine Mammal Commission. In 2004, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the B.F. Skinner Foundation, which publishes significant literary and scientific works in behavior analysis. She is a popular speaker (her speaking requests have increased since the publication of her latest book, Reaching the Animal Mind, in 2009); for instance, she gave the keynote address to the Southwestern Psychological Association in 2010, the same year she gave a seminar at Harvard’s Brain Research Institute.
But perhaps most significant to WDJ’s readers are her many contributions to the evolution of dog training.
Pryor founded Sunshine Books, Inc., in 1998, focusing on publishing and selling books and videos on operant conditioning and positive reinforcement; in 2002, the company was rebranded as Karen Pryor Clickertraining (KPCT). In 2003, KPCT launched ClickerExpo, a training conference presented twice a year, featuring some of the most progressive trainers in the country. Faculty members include carefully chosen, well educated trainers who possess deep experience with operant conditioning, such as Kathy Sdao, Ken Ramirez, Emma Parsons, Kay Laurence, Cecilie Koste, Michele Pouliot, and many more.
2007 saw the launch of the Karen Pryor Academy, “committed to educating, certifying, and promoting the next generation of dog trainers.” Graduates of the Academy are called “KPA Certified Training Partners (KPA CTPs)” – and to date, there are more than 500 of these graduates.
But Pryor has not abandoned her interest in using operant conditioning and positive reinforcement for “training” humans. In 2004, Pryor helped found TAGteach International, LLC, to develop and promote a clicker training-based teaching system (TAGteach™) for humans. (TAG stands for Teaching with Acoustical Guidance.) TAGteach has been used successfully to teach competitive gymnasts, competitive dancers, and Special Olympians; “TAGteachers” have used the TAG protocols to teach everything from physical rehabilitation to team sports.
Karen Pryor gives the opening talk at ClickerExpo, a twice-annual training conference (now in its tenth year).
Click On
In January, I had the privilege of interviewing Pryor at the most recent ClickerExpo, now in its 10th year. Pryor plans and hosts the ClickerExpo events and addresses the attendees on the event’s opening morning and in teaching sessions. At 80 years of age, one might expect Pryor to rest on her laurels, simply enjoying the development of the training methods she has promoted for so long. But as I learned, Pryor is still working very hard, collaborating with friends and colleagues all over the world, and continuing to monitor and study the work of other like-minded behavior analysts.
WDJ: I have to ask you to address the criticism that I hear the most about positive reinforcement-based training: “It’s all right for tricks, but what about real world training problems?”
Pryor: By which they mean that they wish you would address more things that they can’t figure out how to interrupt or stop. Real world training includes teaching my dog to do anything that is possible to teach. But most of the time, people who are hung up on this question really just mean stopping or interrupting unwanted behaviors.
WDJ: I often wonder if they don’t actually mean, “Please give me justification for the time I came unglued and hit my dog! Please tell me that this is okay!”
Pryor: Of course! And I’m full of sympathy for them. I said this morning in my talk, that I used to get impatient with my dog, too, when he was reluctant to get in the car and was taking forever to decide whether to get in. Sometimes I’d get impatient and bam, I’d just toss him in. Not to punish him, just to get going – but for him, it was very aversive. More importantly, it didn’t improve anything!
You do have to stop behavior sometimes. But that’s not a teaching moment for the animal – although it could be one for you. Is there some other way? How can you prevent the same situation in the future? People need to keep in mind that punishment rarely makes a bit of difference; what the animal learns is just that they ought to stay away for you! It’s bad for the relationship.
Fortunately, there are many other techniques to overcome all those things that you don’t want to happen, from eyeing the cheese on the coffee table to terrible aggression in the street.
Pryor and one of her pupils at Sea Life Park in the 1960s.
WDJ: Our Training Editor, Pat Miller, was a very early adopter of dog-friendly methods, and she has helped guide WDJ toward the most effective, progressive dog-friendly training. But not all dog owners are fans of these techniques. Do you get exposed to much opposition or criticism of clicker training?
Pryor: There was a little of that, maybe 10 years ago. There were people who said, “Gee whiz, I can’t give up the tools I’ve already got, so I’m going to use both” – what people called “balanced training.” But what we see now is, in general, awareness on a level that we never expected. More and more we see an amazing level of understanding of and commitment to dog-friendly training in the general public.
In general, we don’t suggest that our trainers get into arguments over training. There are plenty of people who want to use these techniques, so why would you waste your time on people who don’t want to change?
And usually, when we see people who say, “That stuff didn’t work for me,” it’s because they didn’t know how to do it right or where to begin. So we continue to work hard to find the best ways to teach owners how to make good, fast, efficient, and easy use of conditioned reinforcers to get the behavior they want with their puppies and dogs – bing, bing, bing.
Historically, perhaps there has been too much explanation. We have learned to start teaching people the little mechanical skills that will make a big difference to their success, such as carefully watching their dogs (in order to identify rewardable behaviors), and keeping their treat hands still. You have to teach people a new skill bit by bit; you can’t expect them to be ballet dancers from the start. We’ve learned to break down the process more and more, just as we do for the dogs. So we now have more effective ways of getting people into it. Very often they got stuck because they knew just a little bit, or some of what they learned was wrong.
The good news is that positive reinforcement or “clicker training” has become exponentially better understood and accepted. And I think ClickerExpo and the Karen Pryor Academy have helped, by training people to teach with the same technology, and to have them out there teaching all over the world.
WDJ: That’s so great. Do you consider this as the culmination of your life’s work? To pass the torch to so many trainers?
Pryor: Well, it is great. But I have to say that the dogs are just one part of what I do. I was really aiming at parents, and society, when I first wrote Don’t Shoot the Dog! It’s not about dogs at all – though dogs have been a gateway animal (laughs). I’m happy with the progress in this area, but I’m not through yet. We haven’t gotten yet to the school systems, or the prisons, the medical profession, the researchers in the labs. . . .
It’s not just about being nice to other beings; it’s about how to be more efficient in getting the behavior you want, whatever that might be. We are often so inefficient – and inadvertently unkind. The school system, as just one example, is full of built-in unpleasant things for the children, making things punitive rather than reinforcing what they are trying to learn. . . .
WDJ: What percentage of your time these days is spent with dog training and how much with your other work?
Pryor: I don’t do much hands-on teaching anymore. I am more interested in seeing the community grow, especially the portion of the community that works with humans, such as TAGteach.
The comparable work with teaching humans, I’d say, is about 10 years behind the dog training – though it’s spreading. I spend a lot of time interacting with behavior analysts – people from the branch of psychology that is interested in this kind of learning.
WDJ: How many children and grandchildren do you have? Are any of them involved in this kind of work?
Pryor: I have three children and seven grandchildren. And none of them are directly involved in a career with behavior. One son is a builder and an artist. His wife is a special needs teacher, though, and she and I enjoy spending time talking about this stuff. I recently visited them; they have an 11-year-old who is good at training their family dogs, so we had some fun with that.
My daughter is a writer and an editor, married to an architect, and she does a lot of work with nonprofits; right now it’s a hospital in Uganda. She is quite a good trainer, though! My oldest son is a banker, and he and his wife run an executive placement company. I would say he’s the least infected (laughs). So, no, none of my kids are in this line of work exactly, but they are all great parents, really thoughtful, kind, attentive, and realistic, and I think it comes from being exposed to this.
Still communicating with and learning from animals in 2013.
WDJ: My son was five when I got this job, and he’s almost 21 now. I feel like WDJ and he grew up together; what I learned about dog training dove-tailed with how I wanted to raise and educate him. He’s always had to model for the magazine, and learned a lot about dog training in the process, he’s a terrific dog trainer! And now he’s working with kids in a part-time job; he’s a junior in college. But when I observed him at his job as a camp counselor last summer, I was amused to hear him speaking to one child like a dog trainer might: “Sam, sit! Sam, stay here.” He defended the tactic, though; he told me that he learned with that kid that if he used too many words, the kid couldn’t really hear him!
Pryor: That’s wonderful! In TAGteach, they have learned that you have to keep it down to five words or less! It doesn’t matter whether it’s a person or an animal. If you are using more than five words to make the “TAG point,” you lose the student.
WDJ: You seem to have a lot of great people carrying the flag of this work, both with animals and humans.
Clicking with someone everywhere she goes!
Pryor: Thanks! I do have a great staff. That’s not an accident and that’s not easy. My business partner, Aaron Clayton, has done a great job, and between us we’ve tried hard to find the right people. And the people who are coming into the dog trainer professional course – they are amazing! They are already professionals, they are trainers, they are psychologists; we’ve got PhDs going through the course! They usually have a dog-related reason to take it, and they are wonderful, creative, intelligent, professional people. And it’s a positive company, so everybody gets along well.
WDJ: That’s important to maintain. I often hear people allege that some so-called positive trainers can be very negative. . . .
Pryor: That’s a sign that someone hasn’t fully gotten the message, because learning to use positive reinforcement with a goldfish or a horse or a kid in your class is one thing, but failing to generalize it to your life means you haven’t yet gotten that far! If you’re still grumpy and complaining and suffering and yelling and whining about your life and everything in it, you haven’t learned enough yet.
WDJ: While reading your books, it strikes me again and again how these methods are so very respectful . . . .
Pryor: Yes. That’s a beautiful word.
WDJ: It’s clear how much respect that you have for the intelligence of every species you work with, and lovely to see how you don’t presume anything – you don’t seem to have expectations of the animal ahead of time, but just seem to start working with the goal of communicating with the animal.
Pryor: I think you used a very important word: expectations. We don’t have them. Instead, let’s see what happens.
I have a friend who is a psychologist/behavior analyst who works with special needs kids, and is married to a dolphin trainer. He told me once that it took him a while to realize that the overwhelming difference between them was that when his wife steps up to the dolphin pool, she has no expectations. If she gets the behavior, great. If she doesn’t get the behavior, she changes strategy. Whereas with kids, there is that perpetual leaning on them, which doesn’t help. It’s freeing to enter into a conversation with another being without expectations, and it helps in relationships, too. It helps you see the difference between what is really happening and what you thought ought to be happening.
WDJ: Speaking of relationships, why do think people seem to expect their dogs to understand what is said to them?
Pryor: I think it’s all what we call superstitious behavior; if the dog acts like he understands sometimes, then he’s expected to behave as if he understood all the time. Also, many people are completely ignorant of natural dog behavior.
WDJ: It just seems to me that people try so much more with a dog than they would ever do with another species. Why are people so comfortable physically manipulating them? I mean, no one would walk up to a zebra or an elephant and try to push its bottom onto the ground or yell “Sit! Sit! Sit!”
Pryor: (Laughing) Actually, they do! There is conventional elephant training, too, where the elephants are hit if they don’t “obey!” Well, I know what you mean. Dogs are so extremely domesticated, they put up with an awful lot from us. They tolerate almost anything we do to them, more than almost any other animals.
WDJ: The most common justifications I hear are, “If we don’t get through to this dog, he’s going to be put to sleep! And this positive stuff takes too long!”
Pryor: Again, that’s because they really don’t know how to do it. Training with positive reinforcement is actually a lot faster. It’s simple but it’s not easy. If someone doesn’t have the tools, they tend to fall back on punishment when their poorly executed positive reinforcement doesn’t work. And when you fall back on corrections, you lose the animal’s cooperation; he becomes merely compliant. An animal who gets punished will stop trying to learn, and will just try to stay out of trouble; that slows things down to zero. And that can be the reason why people complain that these methods are too slow.
WDJ: More than anything, I love the moment when a dog suddenly understands the training game and realizes that he knows how to figure out what will earn him a reward. The dog often looks so engaged and happy, as if he’s thinking, “At last! A human who makes sense!”
Pryor: I agree. For many dogs, the human world is a completely confusing, arbitrary place, but then suddenly they can control something. It’s a great moment for them, and obviously very gratifying.
WDJ: How long do you want to keep doing this? Do you anticipate retiring at some point? Is the work fulfilling enough to just keep going and going?
Celebrating her 80th birthday at ClickerExpo in May 2012.
Pryor: Well, I’m an artist and a scientist. And this is my art and my science. So why would I stop? I have already stepped back from teaching, from the company’s day-to-day operations. I think I have another book to write. I just accepted an invitation to go to China for a month in 2014. I travel a lot with my family.
It’s not a question of slowing down, but of rearranging my priorities. I’ve been getting a lot more attention from the scientific community than I’ve had for a long time, thanks to the 2009 book, Reaching the Animal Mind. That brings me speaking invitations I like to follow up on, though I can set my own pace. I don’t plan to stop, but I might change the emphasis a little bit. There is still a lot of work to do.
There is great value in having a solid understanding of dog facial expressions and their accompanying body language and behavior. The following are some of the more common canine communications offered by those very expressive furry faces. Keep in mind, though, that when drawing conclusions about a dog’s facial expressions, it’s important to factor in the rest of the body language in order to get the whole message.
Add this lexicon of dog facial expressions to what you already know about canine body language and you may be able to qualify as an expert dog listener. It just might have a positive influence on your relationship with your own dog. It may enable you to interpret for humans who haven’t yet learned to understand what their dogs are saying. It really is quite a useful skill to have.
Dog Expressions With Their Eyes
A dog’s eyes, like a human’s, are capable of conveying a multitude of meanings and emotions. Here are common eye expressions in dogs.
Soft Eye Contact
This is a dog who is social, confident and friendly. The eyes are round or almond-shaped and soft, with the pupils dilated appropriately for available lighting (small pupils if light is bright, large if light is dim). Often accompanied by affiliative (distance decreasing) behavior such as a relaxed tail wag, and body curved or even wiggling.
Soft Eye Contact
Hard Eye Contact
This is a hard, direct stare which, if you are good at reading dogs, gives you the chills. It is not friendly. The eyes are piercing, and there is often little or no body movement. Accompanying body language is usually assertive – dog is standing tall and forward, tail erect and still or wagging stiffly. This may be part of a pre-aggression “freeze” where the dog goes completely still. If this warning is ignored, the dog is likely to bite.
Hard Eye Contact
Squinty Eyes
This is a sign of appeasement, which is often a good thing, if it is simply the dog’s nature to be appeasing. However, appeasement can also be a signal for fear, which is not such a good thing. If the dog is squinting and approaching, it’s a friendly, social expression, and it is probably safe to interact with him. If the dog is squinting with his body posture back and lowered, it is likely fear. If you approach he may feel threatened, and bite.
Squinty Eyes
Avoiding Eye Contact
While the human species prizes direct eye contact as a measure of someone’s character and honesty, in the dog world, direct eye contact can be perceived as a threat. Often, unless a dog has been strongly reinforced for making and keeping eye contact, he will look away when you look at him. It’s a deference behavior – his way of saying he doesn’t have any desire to challenge you.
He’s doing his best to be polite and non-confrontational. Unfortunately, humans often perceive a dog as being sneaky if he won’t look them in the eye or your dog is looking sideways – a totally off-base interpretation of a very sweet canine trait. If you want your dog to make eye contact with you more, avoid body language that suggests to him he needs to defer to you, and spend lots of time reinforcing him for looking you in the eye.
Avoiding Eye Contact
Dog Whale Eye
This is a dog trainer term for when a dog shows the whites of his eyes. While it is often a warning sign and precursor to a bite, dog whale eye really just means the dog is looking sideways while his nose is pointing forward. It is often seen with resource guarding because the dog is keeping his nose pointed at the valuable resource while watching you to gauge how much of a threat you are.
Again, the rest of the dog’s body language is key to knowing when whale eye is an aggression signal and when it is not. If the body is relatively still and forward, it’s aggression. If other body signals indicate relaxation and play, then it is likely not aggression.
Whale Eye
Whale Eye
Dog Expressions With Their Ears
A dog’s ears can tell a lot about how they are feeling, but don’t forget to look at the other parts of their body to get the context of their emotional state.
Ears Pricked Hard Forward
This is a dog who is aroused and alert. The ears alone don’t tell you if it’s excited-happy-aroused/alert or aggressive-aroused/alert. If the eyes are soft and the body is wiggly, it’s the former; if the eyes are hard and the body is tense, it’s the latter.
A dog’s ears are like semaphore flags – they send clear signals to anyone who knows the code. Fortunately the dog ear code is considerably simpler than semaphore. A dog with dropped (droopy) or (heaven forbid) cropped ears can be harder to read, but the signals are still there.
Ears Pricked Hard Forward
Ears Relaxed
For a prick-eared dog, the ears are still up and forward, but not hard forward, and may even swivel to the side. For a drop-eared dog, the ears are hanging flat against the side of the face instead of pulled forward. Relaxed ears generally mean a relaxed dog.
Ears Relaxed
Ears Pulled Back
Regardless of ear style, ears that are pinned back against the head can mean one of several things. It can be happy appeasement, fear, or stress. As with the squinty eyes, the rest of the dog’s body language will give you clear clues as to which it is for the dog in front of you, and you can adjust your own interaction with the dog accordingly.
Ears Pulled Back
Dog Expressions With Their Mouth
Dogs may smile, pant, lick or show other expressions with their mouths. Looking at your dog’s mouth and facial expressions can be one of the telltale signs as to how they are feeling.
Relaxed
Your dog’s mouth, when relaxed should closed, or slightly open. If closed and relaxed, the skin around the mouth will be wrinkle-free, with possible exceptions for the wrinkly and bracycephalic (short-faced) breeds.
Relaxed Mouth
Tense
If your dog’s mouth is relaxed and open, and he slowly closes it, his body goes still, and there are lines around his mouth, he is not happy. Use caution, especially if his body also goes still. This is often part of the freeze sequence that is the precursor to a bite.
Tense Mouth
Open, Panting
A dog can pant for several reasons. He may have just been exerting himself, and is panting to cool off. He may be overheated, in which case emergency cooling measures are called for to prevent heat stroke or even death. Or he may be stressed. Again, evaluating the rest of his body language, as well as knowing what activities he’s been recently engaged in and taking into account the ambient temperature, will help you determine which panting is happening. Also, acute stress and distress panting is often very fast and shallow, as opposed to relaxed panting which is often slower and deeper.
Open Panting Mouth
Licking
Sometimes dogs lick to greet. Sometimes dogs do appeasement licking. Sometimes dogs lick their lips to get the last bits of flavor from the last tasty thing they ate. Sometimes dogs lick themselves persistently because of allergies or some other medical issue, or because of a canine compulsive disorder. And sometimes dogs lick their lips because they are stressed. Sometimes canine professionals have a tendency to overreact and call any lip-licking stress licking. It’s not necessarily. It might be. Let the rest of the dog’s body language help you decide if it is or it isn’t.
Yawning
Sometimes dogs yawn because they are tired. Sometimes dogs yawn because yawning is contagious. Sometimes dogs yawn because they are stressed. Again, look at the whole dog – and then decide.
Yawning
Commissure
This is just a fancy word for the corners of your dog’s mouth. Take note of how the commissure looks when your dog is calm and relaxed, and remember it for comparison purposes. There are two significant variations on the commissure. If the corners are pulled forward and the commissure forms a “C” shape, the dog is being offensively aggressive. If the corners are pulled tightly back, forming a “V” shape, the dog is being defensively aggressive. Either way, watch out!
Commissure
Snarl
As clumsy as some people are at reading canine body language, this one is pretty hard to miss. When the lips curl up and all those shiny white fangs are exposed, the message is usually pretty clear. The snarl is usually accompanied by very hard eyes, while the ears may be pricked hard forward or pinned back, depending on whether the dog is being offensively or defensively aggressive.
Snarl
Dog Expressions With Their Facial Muscles
You probably never gave much thought to the fact that a dog’s face has muscles – but of course it does. Without them, dogs would be unable to create all the adorable facial expressions that we love so much – as well as the ones that aren’t so cute. You know what the cute ones are. There are a couple of places where facial muscles create tension lines, and these are the ones you want to watch out for.
Submissive Grin
Often mistaken for a snarl, the submissive or appeasement grin is a bit of a mystery in canine communication. It is only seen very rarely in dog-dog interactions, but is not uncommon for dogs with soft, appeasing personalities to offer to humans. One theory is that the dogs are actually mimicking human smiles! At any rate, it’s a lovely behavior that can get dogs in trouble because people think they are being aggressive when they most certainly aren’t. If you’re not sure, quickly check the rest of the dog’s body language to clues as to which it really is. I say “quickly” because if it really is a snarl, prompt evasive action may be required on your part.
Submissive Grin
Lack of Brow Lines (calm)
A calm, relaxed dog’s brow is as smooth as a baby’s bottom (again, with those wrinkly-dog exceptions).
Lack of Brow Lines
Mouth Lines
You can also see tension in the lines around your dog’s mouth. A relaxed dog’s lips are flat and wrinkle-free.
Want to learn more about the way dogs communicate and about dog body language? Check out these Whole Dog Journal sources:
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 author of many books on positive training.
As our lives increasingly unfold in the glow of computer screens and are signaled through the dings of iPhone texts, our connection to the outdoors may become more and more disjointed. Workdays grow longer, so our walks with our canine companions often take place before dawn or after sunset, especially in the winter months. And when we are outdoors, concern about skin cancer leads us to limit our solar exposure.
Of course, the weather isn’t always so glorious, but when it is, it benefits the whole family to get outside! Sunshine has many health benefits for dogs and their humans.
As a result, direct exposure to the full spectrum of the suns rays is often the exception rather than the rule, particularly for those dogs in big cities with limited access to the outdoors.
In contrast, the ancients had an intuitive understanding of the healing power of the sun. It is no coincidence, for example, that the Greek god of medicine, Asclepius, was said to be the son of Apollo, god of the sun. The Greek physician Hippocrates (he of the eponymous oath, considered the father of modern medicine) had a sunroom at his sanitorium on the island of Cos, and sunbathing was used to treat a range of ailments, from metabolic disorders to obesity. “Sol est remediorum maximum,” wrote the Roman author Pliny the Younger. The sun is the best remedy.
Indeed, say some veterinary experts, making sure your dog has adequate sunshine can have a positive impact on his health and well-being. Just like giving him the opportunity to have his paws grounded to Mother Earth and to get great big lungfuls of fresh air, letting him bask in the suns rays not only feels good, it can also boost his mood, immune system, and his healing capabilities.
Overall Wellness
Stephen Blake, DVM, of San Diego, California, notes that sunlight has been shown to have many benefits in humans, from lowering susceptibility to colds and viruses to improving joint problems and arthritis. A 2011 study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, for example, found that prolonged sunlight exposure increased lymphocyte production, suggesting that it might stimulate the immune system.
If we see these benefits in humans, maybe a certain percentage of them also apply to dogs, Dr. Blake says, noting the many biophysical parallels between our two species. ”Lack of sunlight doesn’t often cause acute disease, but it can cause chronic disease. Its usually a gradual process. It’s like not getting enough calcium; you’ll see the results of that deficiency over time.”
Glass and plastic filter the full spectrum of light. So, while sunbathing in front of a window or patio door may feel nice to your dog, it isn’t imparting the most important health benefits that unfiltered sunlight has to offer.
Indeed, giving dogs access to sunlight just makes sense on a visceral level. Without benefit of double-blind studies or peer-reviewed journals, the late herbalist and natural rearing pioneer Juliette de Bairacli Levi drew that conclusion from the natural world around her.
Without sun there can be no life, she wrote in her book, The Complete Herbal Handbook for the Dog and Cat, first published in 1955. ”The maximum of sun for all animals should be a kennel rule, with ample shade provided too, so that the dog himself can choose his own natural sunbathing hours or seek shade, as he desires. Sunlight is not merely a tonic and restorative and a potent destroyer of bacteria; it is also a vital food.”
Feelin Groovy
Theres a reason why sunshine on your shoulder or anywhere else, for that matter makes you happy: Sunlight stimulates the production of endorphins and neuotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, which regulate mood.
”I think you need sunlight to feel good in your brain,” says Ihor Basko, DVM, author of Fresh Food & Ancient Wisdom: Preparing Healthy & Balanced Meals for Your Dogs (Two Harbors Press, 2010), who practices on the sunny island of Kauai, Hawaii. Those neurotransmitters are involved in keeping you at an even keel in terms of emotion.
“When humans don’t get enough sunlight, they can develop Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, a mood disorder nicknamed winter depression. While its not possible to ask your dog if he’s feeling a little blue, how do you know that at some level he couldn’t be happier?” Dr. Basko asks. ”When you don’t get enough light exposure, you could have a grumpy dog, one with a low-grade headache, who is anxious or irritable.”
Dr. Basko notes that to have sunlight exposure generate any appreciable effect and create a sustained sense of relaxed well-being, you have to keep it going for a while to get the level up. Taking your dog out a couple of times a week for a dose of sunshine isn’t going to cut it; exposure needs to be regular a lifestyle, not a quick fix.
I’ve Got Rhythm
Light doesn’t just signal to the brain that its time to secrete those happy-go-lucky neurotransmitters. ”Sunlight in general will also stimulate the pineal gland and other parts of the brain to regulate the production of melatonin,” Dr. Basko explains. A hormone that is involved in the sleep-wake cycle, melatonin causes drowsiness and lowers body temperature. When sunlight hits a dogs retina, it tells the pineal gland to stop making melatonin; when darkness falls, the body resumes production of the yawn-inducing hormone. Keeping this process in balance helps maintain your dogs normal circadian rhythm the cycle of sleep and rest, waking and activity that is his body clock.
Demian Dressler, DVM, author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide (Maui Media, 2011), notes that one of the risk factors for humans that increases cancer rates significantly is melatonin deficiency. “You need to have full darkness between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., which is when the pineal gland is supposed to be secreting melatonin. But if erratic exposure to sunlight upends your body clock and has you up watching reruns of The Office in the middle of the night, your trusty dog beside you, that’s not good for either of you.”
”Blue-wave light is pretty effective at suppressing melatonin levels, and where are we at night? In front of computer screens and big-screen TVs, with our dogs nearby,” Dr. Dressler says. ”And that may be impacting cancer levels in both of you.”
Under My Skin
One of the biggest boons that humans get from exposure to natural sunlight is the production of vitamin D, which is synthesized in the skin.
Despite the fact that they have fur, dogs do produce vitamin D in their skin.
“Dogs just can’t make enough vitamin D for what their body needs, so they still need to get it in their diet,” explains Dr. Dressler. “Sunlight does hit their skin, and they can synthesize vitamin D. It’s just that dogs are not as efficient in converting 7-Dehydrocholesterol, which is the precursor to vitamin D, as other species.”
Regardless of just how much vitamin D sunlight imparts to your dog, what’s clear is that the vitamin plays an important role in the body’s functioning. “If you look at humans, there’s a whole variety of health issues associated with inadequate sunlight, and not just seasonal affective disorder,” Dr. Dressler says. “It’s suspected that low vitamin D is the culprit for increased rates of several kinds of cancers.”
Because it is so important in calcium absorption and bone development, vitamin D is a must for growing puppies. If a puppy does not have an adequate supply of vitamin D, which is necessary for calcium assimilation, he is at risk for the bone-weakening condition known as rickets, resulting in bowed legs and a curved spine.
Juliette de Bairacli Levi was a strong advocate of the importance of sunshine, particularly with puppies.
“Sunlight is essential to natural puppy rearing; there is no substitute for it, not electric sunlamps or anything else,” she wrote her book. “Puppies reared indoors in apartments or sometimes even below ground level in basements, as often happens in big cities in America and elsewhere, can never possess true health, and their disease resistance is very low.”
Sunning dogs should have access to water and shade, too, so they can decide when enough is enough.
Solar Healing
In many cases, the best place for convalescence is not the fluorescent-lit recovery room of your veterinarian’s office, but – weather permitting – the sunny expanses of your own backyard.
“Sunlight speeds up healing,” Dr. Basko explains. “It increases the production of endorphins, which are good for pain. Dogs can lick their wounds and sometimes make things worse. The positive emotional effect of sunlight in itself will make your dog feel better.”
Sunlight also has an important anti-bacterial role, he notes. “Sunshine can kill the extraneous yeast and bacteria that can grow in wounds. Anaerobic bacteria like the dark and damp, and sunlight helps dry out wounds and helps kill microscopic fungi.”
If your dog must be hospitalized, inquire whether the veterinary practice has full-spectrum lighting in the recovery area. These “grow lights” mimic unfiltered sunlight, and impart some of its benefits.
Let There Be Light
How much sunlight is enough for your dog to reap its health benefits? Dr. Basko recommends 20 to 30 minutes twice a day for most dogs, and 40 minutes twice a day for large breeds.
Dr. Blake points out that being outdoors is beneficial to your dog even if he is not in direct sunlight, because of light’s reflective qualities. “You can get sunlight even if you’re in shade,” he says. “It doesn’t have to beat down on you.”
And when experts advise that dogs should get out in the sunshine, they do mean out. Glass and plastic filter out ultraviolet rays, which prevents the full spectrum of light from reaching your dog. So, while sunbathing in front of the picture window or patio door may feel nice to your dog, it isn’t imparting the most important health benefits that unfiltered sunlight has to offer. “If you don’t get out in it,” Dr. Blake says simply, “you don’t benefit from it.”
The solution for housebound dogs is to replace fluorescent or incandescent bulbs with full-spectrum lighting, which is readily available at most hardware and home-improvement stores.
“Have the full-spectrum light on in an area where your dog spends a lot of time – near his food bowl, or his bed,” he suggests. And – keeping those circadian rhythms in mind – be sure to turn it off at bedtime.
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Of course, use common sense when exposing your dog to sunlight. Dogs with black fur will overheat more quickly because their dark coats absorb the heat, while white or light-skinned dogs are more prone to sunburn. Care must also be taken with brachycephalic, or short-faced breeds, which have difficulty cooling off in hot conditions.
Dr. Basko suggests consulting the UV index, an international standard that measures the strength of ultraviolet radiation from the sun on a given day. The index ranges from 1 to 11 and over, with 7 being about the median. “Anything higher than 7, and certain animals are going to be prone to skin cancer,” he says. If you live in a part of the world where the ozone layer is depleted, such as Australia, you might have to limit your dog’s exposure accordingly.
Building up antioxidants in your dog’s skin is one way to safely increase his tolerance for the sun. “You could increase your dog’s resistance to sun damage by getting antioxidants from green tea or vitamins A, C, and D,” always with a veterinarian’s supervision, Dr. Basko says. “Topically, you can also apply green tea mixed with aloe or marigold extract.” And many vegetables, including dark leafy greens, are rich in antioxidants, and “all have what you need to protect your skin.” (When feeding raw vegetables to dogs, whose digestive tract cannot break down cellulose, remember to pulverize or pulp them sufficiently so your dog’s body can utilize all their nutrients.)
Martin Goldstein, DVM, of South Salem, New York, author of The Nature of Animal Healing (Ballantine, 2000), points out that sunshine is not the main culprit in diseases such as skin cancer. It’s merely the catalyst.
“I do not believe that the sun causes problems, any more than I think shoveling snow is the cause of heart attacks. It’s not the sun, it’s the stuff that you put into your body that causes disease – the sun is just an instigator, a trigger,” he says. “Why would God make the light of his own house hurt his own children? I soak in the sun beyond what you can imagine. I love, love, love, the sun.”
Dr. Goldstein recalls the time he went to Jamaica for a restorative vacation. Eating mostly fruit and bicycling around the island, “I got to a point where I was in the Jamaican sun six to eight hours a day,” he recalls. “After two weeks, I looked 25 years younger.” But the night before he departed, he gave in to temptation and attended a Rita Marley concert. In the spirit of the occasion, he downed a number of the island’s famous cocktails – only to find the benefits of his healthful respite undone. “I woke up the next morning,” he says, “and I had puffy eyes, crows feet, and wrinkles.”
Like most things, including reggae-laced vacations, sunlight is a balancing act: Your dog needs just enough, but not too much. What he eats and his state of health count for a lot in how his body reacts to those doses of the sun’s rays. But it’s important that your dog get some exposure, ideally every day. “If we didn’t have the sun, we’d be dead,” Dr. Blake concludes. “The importance of sunlight has been ignored because you can’t patent it and sell it on TV.”
And that’s the wonderful thing about the healing power of the sun: Just walk out the door, and there it is, free for the taking – provided, of course, the weather gods comply.
Back to the Basics
Sunshine seems such a simple requirement for a healthy life for your dog. But there are other obvious ways for our dogs to connect with the world around them – and us– that we sometimes forget.
Dirt on his paws. How often do your bare feet make contact with the earth? While dogs don’t wear shoes (at least not most of the time), the increasing amounts of time they spent in buildings and on artificial surfaces cuts into this vital connection with Mother Earth, too. Putting paw to earth reconnects your dog with the earth’s ground energy – also known as “earthing” – and, its proponents say, rebalances the body.
Fresh air. Oxygen is oxygen, right? Well, not really. Our increasingly airtight homes and workspaces can trap toxins, mold, microbes, and other microscopic nasties. Your dog’s lungs will benefit from access to fresh outdoor air in all but the most polluted environments. And to keep the air quality in your home the best it can be, open windows often and air out your house daily, if only for five minutes.
Fresh water. Dogs should have unlimited fresh water available all the time, to keep their bodies well hydrated. Plan ahead if you are traveling or out for the day, and bring water and a bowl for your dog. Offer the best-quality water you can; if you don’t drink the tap water in your home, don’t offer it to your dog, either. And if your dog is raw fed, don’t panic if he drinks only sparingly: Raw-fed dogs get a lot of hydration compared to their kibble-fed brethren, and will head to the water bowl much less frequently.
Real food. Most of us slip up and have a Twinkie (or a Milkbone) every now and then. But as with humans, dogs benefit from diets that are as natural and unprocessed as possible. Raw-food diets are the most bioavailable in this regard, but not everyone will choose to take the route, for a variety of reasons. If that’s the case, consider home cooking (like a home-prepared raw diet, this gives you total control over the sourcing of your dog’s food, an important consideration in this age of commercial dog-food scares). Or research canned or dry food for brands with the highest-quality ingredients.
Sunbathing with a friend builds bonds, too.
Companionship. Dogs, of course, provide unparalleled companionship for humans, and the psychological and even physical benefits to our species have been well documented. But as pack animals, dogs need their social needs met, too. If you have a single-dog household, arrange regular playdates for your dog. Getting involved in canine sports like agility or canine freestyle (also known as doggie dancing) is one way for you to build your bond with your dog, and satisfy another basic need, which is . . .
Exercise. We know what a regular exercise regimen does for our well-being, and the same applies to our dogs. Keeping your dog’s body moving will improve mood, keep weight in check, reduce anxiety and expends energy that might otherwise be directed at the legs of your antique sofa. And remember that exercise can be mental, too: Toys that engage your dog’s problem-solving skills will give her brain a workout, too.
Three companies have reported that we made errors concerning their products in the “Approved Dry Foods List” in the February issue of WDJ.
Ainsworth Specialty Brands’ product, Back to Basics, is manufactured only in Ainsworth’s plant in Meadville, Pennsylvania.
The manufacturing location of Canine Caviar was also reported incorrectly. Canine Caviar is currently manufactured at Hi-Tek Rations in Dublin, Georgia.
Merrick Pet Care’s newest product lines were misidentified. What were previously called Merrick 5-Star foods are now called Merrick Classic, and there are seven of those products. Products that were previously called Before Grain are now called Merrick Grain Free, and there are four products in that line. The “sample variety” we highlighted has been reformulated; the first six ingredients in Merrick’s Classic Real Chicken Brown Rice + Green Pea Adult are deboned chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal, brown rice, peas, and barley. It contains 30% protein and 15% fat.
We regret any inconvenience these errors may have caused.
We also received (and are still receiving) mail from our subscribers regarding the dry food review. We received many inquiries about foods that readers thought should be on our “approved foods” list but weren’t. Here are a number of potential reasons for this:
1. The food a person is curious about IS on the list; check the name of the company that makes/sells the food.
2. We’ve never heard of it. Encourage the company to send us some information about their products.
3. It doesn’t meet our selection criteria, which is described in the review. Check the ingredients on the label of your food, and compare it to our criteria. It should be easy for you to determine by comparing the ingredients to our selection criteria.
4. It may meet our selection criteria regarding ingredients, but the company does not disclose its manufacturing location (which is also one of our selection criteria).
5. The final possibility is that it does meet all of our selection criteria, we have heard of it, but we have been reluctant to add it to our list because the product is sold in a way that makes it difficult for a dog owner to reach the company. There are some worthy products sold through a multi-level marketing strategy that we haven’t added to our lists for this reason: In our opinion, it’s critical that a consumer (say, a person with a sick dog) is able to reach a person who has direct control and responsibility for a product – not a pyramid of people without answers.
Finally, we were ready to hear that we have “sold out” since we included products from Hill’s and Eukanuba on our “approved foods” list. Here’s part of one letter we received:
You have changed??? Why?? . . . I was VERY disappointed to see them on your cover and to read your article backing them up. . . WHO BOUGHT YOU OUT????? I will never stock your magazine in my four stores nor subscribe to you ever again. You’re changing sides and doing it quickly.
I responded: We haven’t changed, but the industry is changing. I hope you read the whole article to understand why it is that the products made by the “big guys” are on our lists: they meet our selection criteria, which have not changed. And the article says our criteria will change, they need to change, to raise the bar again, so that products from any pet food maker that contain any possibly inferior ingredients don’t end up on the list again.
The problem is finding criteria that accomplish what you want them to do. Until recently, it was easy enough to eliminate the big companies from our list by simply saying “no by-products, no unnamed species, no artificial preservatives or colors, etc.” But the big companies now make foods that meet all of those old criteria. If we say, “No products from big companies,” then how big is too big?
I discussed these issues in the article, and hinted at what’s next: trying to discover a way to identify the companies that use only “human-grade” or “edible” ingredients. Right now, there is no legal way for a pet food maker to say this, unless the food is made in a human food plant, with all human-grade ingredients.
In the article, there was a section with a sub-headline “More Can Be Better,” which discussed the various reasons why there has been such a proliferation of SKUs. I wasn’t at all trying to say that the proliferation was a good thing; I was simply trying to explain why the market has exploded. It’s “better” in that some of the big companies now offer foods that meet our criteria (in addition to all the ones that don’t).
Our publisher is the same, owned by the same people, and I sure haven’t been bought or bribed! But it was high time that I address the fact that more food companies make products that meet our criteria – which is good for the nation’s dogs – and discuss the challenge to finding criteria that can be applied across the board to identify the better products out there. Believe me, I’d like to find some new criterion that could divide our current list into super-premium and “good” sections.
Until there is a legal (and therefore verifiable) definition for “human-grade” ingredients, I don’t know what else to do to raise the bar and make our selection criteria tougher. I’d welcome whatever input you’d like to offer.
Here’s the response I received:
I wish your article had reflected what you just wrote me. Instead you featured something much different on your cover! I get why you must include the big guys but you need to write about it like you did in this letter instead of making them out to be great like you did in the article?
I’m not trying to hide anything, I’m not changing my tune, I don’t have to include the big companies. I included the ones I did because so many people have asked about new products that meet our criteria. P&G and Hill’s now have products that meet our selection criteria, they “feature ingredients that are comparable to those found in ‘super premium’ pet foods.” I also said that this means we need to toughen our criteria – and explained why this will be difficult.
I went to a very large benched dog show recently. I haven’t been to one for five or six years, so it was slightly overwhelming. So many dogs, so many people, so much stress! But it was interesting to observe the event in a neutral way; I didn’t know anyone there, and wasn’t attending with a specific task in mind. I took my camera, took some pictures (to use as stock photos for potential use in WDJ), and took my time with whatever I wanted.
It was also interesting to see how my own feelings about and observations of the dogs were very different than they were the last time I attended a show like this. I felt much more aware of canine body language and behavior – and perhaps more judgmental of how unaware of their dogs many of the handlers seemed. I felt really sorry for the “hairdo” breeds; the dogs who had to endure hours and hours of fussing with their coats. That has to be very depersonalizing! All day long, I saw so much more yanking dogs around than I have become accustomed to, and handlers physically pushing and pulling dogs into position, as if the dogs were completely inanimate objects, and that did not feel good.
But when, in the minority experience, I saw a handler who seemed genuinely emotionally and mentally connected and communicating with a dog, it really stood out — a beautiful thing. Sometimes, it seemed to me that I was seeing an intense dog/person bond. There was one gorgeous young Weimaraner, for example, who seemed smitten with her handsome gentleman handler. But there was one woman who stood out to me again and again over the course of the day – handling several different dogs of different breeds! If I had to guess, I’d say she was not the owner of any of those dogs, just a very gifted canine communicator. All the dogs she handled looked keen yet comfortable. I loved watching her and the dogs she showed; she was the best thing I saw all day.
Another observation: After taking pictures of dogs in the conformation ring for a couple of hours straight, I saw something that I had never really noticed before. Almost every dog did the same thing after being handled by the judge, and before really getting into the required gait away from and back toward the judge: he or she shook all over, as if shaking off the experience of being examined by yet another stranger. I know that dogs often shake off like this when they are stressed by something, but I wouldn’t have thought that very experienced show dogs would be even mildly stressed by what must be a very commonplace experience for them. And yet, about 19 out of every 20 dogs did it (I actually counted).
The worst thing I saw all day: German Shepherd Dogs. While the long, smooth, floating trot they have been re-designed to perform is admittedly beautiful to watch, when that floating dog slows to a walk, and then comes to a halt and stands, the exaggerated hind-end conformation that produces that flying gait looks, to my eye, freakish and crippled – especially in contrast to the German Shepherd’s more athletic-looking cousins, the Belgian Malinois and Belgian Tervuren. I know I’m not the first to make this observation, but wow. Seeing a dog stand on his hocks rather than his feet; how can that be desirable?
When you hear hoof-beats coming over the hill in Wyoming, think horses, not zebras. While it could absolutely be that there are zebras – or albino miniature ponies with pink ribbons in their manes – coming, the first and most obvious thing to rule out is horses.
When it comes to dogs who don’t do well with other dogs there are some common rule-outs that account for the bulk of cases. These are:
Dogs that come on too strong. They appear hyper-motivated and have coarse social skills. Then this type presents along with an impoverished play history, I’m going to refer to them as “Tarzan”.
Dogs that are sensitive to the proximity of other dogs. They may present with frank fearlessness or more subtly, as asocial animals that get snappy if a dog gets too close or makes social overtures.
Dog-dog resource guarding
Harassment, i.e. bullying or “hazing” of other dogs.
Play skills deficits – dogs that play but lack some of the features of normal play, causing frequent tipovers of their play into fighting.
Strong genetic predisposition to compulsively fighting
I’ve had a number of older owners book lessons with me lately—more than half a dozen individuals and couples in their 70s and even 80s, all wanting some training help with their new dogs or puppies.
