When you think “leash,” chances are you think of a four-to-six-foot strap made of nylon, cotton, hemp, leather, or (horrors!) chain, with a snap that attaches to your dog’s collar at one end and a handle for you to hold at the other. You use it to keep him close to you when you take him for walks or other places where he has to be under control. But a leash can be so much more than that!
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Let’s think outside the box. There’s no law that says leashes have to be a certain length, made of a particular material, or be limited to one snap and one handle. There are all kinds of things you can do with non-traditional leashes. Heck, there’s even a good use for the grocery store chain leash.
Long and Short Of It
It’s true that four to six feet is a good length for normal leash-walking. That’s long enough that you can leave slack in the leash, as is desirable when your dog is walking politely by your side, but short enough you don’t have a large wad of leash-spaghetti in your hands when you want to gather it up so no one steps on it. However, shorter can be good sometimes. So can longer. The following are descriptions of some other useful leash lengths, and what they have to offer.
–Tab: A tab is a three-to-six inch bit of leash that makes it easier to snag your dog in a hurry, if necessary, without grabbing for his collar – a move that many dogs consider rude or intimidating, and that sometimes can elicit aggression. You can leave a tab on your dog at home to corral him easily if the doorbell rings, or make it easier on all parties if he gets tense when you reach for him for any husbandry or management purposes. Sure, you’d like to desensitize him to collar grabs (see “Stay in Touch,” February 2011), but in the meantime a tab can keep you both happy.
A tab can also be useful at an off-leash training class, or at the dog park – again, if you want to quickly get him under control with minimum tension. Agility people use them a lot.
You can buy tabs commercially; I like the ones from sitstay.com (800-748-7829). Or simply cut an old leash to the desired three to six inches. You can also make one from scratch. The more tense your dog is about having his collar grasped, the longer you might want to make your tab.
Note: The tab should be removed from your dog’s collar for safety reasons when he’s not under your direct supervision.
–Drag line: A drag line serves a similar purpose as the tab, only more so. This is a four-to-six-foot (or longer) light line that stays attached to your dog’s collar when he’s in the house. You can step on it to prevent your dog from dashing out the door, jumping up to greet a guest, “surfing” the counter, or leaping onto an off-limits piece of furniture. Or, step on it to interrupt a game of keep-away when he has something he shouldn’t (after which you cheerfully trade him something wonderful for the forbidden object, of course.) You can probably think of additional uses for your own canine challenges – perhaps gently inviting your uncooperative pal out from under the bed. Drag lines are available commercially in strong, light materials such as parachute cord (petexpertise.com; 888-473-8397) or you can make your own. Remember to remove the line from your dog’s collar when no one is home to supervise!
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–Long line or light line: These can run anywhere from 15 to 50 feet, and are for outdoor use. They are most frequently used for teaching reliable recalls at increasing distances (see “A Line on Insurance” on the next page). But they can also be used as an outdoor dragline for backup insurance when you’re not quite sure about your dog’s recall, and to give your dog more hiking freedom when you know you can’t yet trust his recall.
The long line is generally heavier – flat nylon or cotton canvas or marine rope – while the light line is usually parachute cord or some other strong nylon. (I like the ones from genuinedoggear.com; 813-920-5241.)
It takes some skill to manage long and light lines without turning them into a knotted mess, but it’s worth the effort. Although popular because they offer the easy convenience of self-rewinding, retractable leads have far too many drawbacks to be considered a viable training tool.
Caution: If you’re using your long line or light line as a drag line and your dog runs off, he can get tangled around trees and brush and need rescuing because he won’t be able to return to you. Be careful!
Design Makes a Difference
Is there a better mousetrap in the world of leashes? It all depends on what your needs are. A standard leash is certainly the workhorse of the leash-walking set, but there are others that just might be perfect for you and your dog. We’re not talking about the endless variety of designer colors and patterns to match every outfit and holiday; we’re talking function here.
There are couplers that let you walk two dogs without tangling leashes. Leashes that attach your dog to your bicycle. Leashes with two handles, one near the collar, that give you instant control if you suddenly need it (like the ones from fetchdog.com; 800-595-0595). There are hands-free/multi-function leashes that can change length or double as a coupler or a tether (thedogoutdoors.com; 513-703-0210), and non-slip grip leashes that give you added traction, even in the rain. (Check out the ones from ruffgrip.com; 800-547-3966. I’ve had one of these for a long time and love it!)
Agility folks even use special leashes that have been designed to contain their dog’s special reinforcers: tug toys! Clean Run (cleanrun.com; 800-311-6503) has a whole line of leashes that are designed for tugging.
Don’t forget the T-Touch Balance leash, with a snap at each end and a handle in the middle on a sliding ring so you can attach it to a collar and a harness (available from ttouch.com; 866-488-6824). You use the two ends of the leash almost like reins on a horse, to send subtle, gentle communications to your dog. A similar leash sold by Wiggles, Wags & Whiskers with their Freedom No-Pull Harness functions the same way (wiggleswagswhiskers.com, 866-944-9247).
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Speaking of no-pull and thinking outside the box, here’s a handy tip: You can take that basic six-foot leash (any material other than chain), attach it to your dog’s collar, run it from the back of his neck, down behind the elbow, under his rib cage and up the other side, slip it under the leash where the clip is, around the front of his chest and bring it up under the leash on the other side, and you have an instant emergency no-pull harness.
Material World
Nylon, cotton, hemp, and leather are the materials most commonly used for training leashes. Some trainers prefer leather because it is less abrasive to your hands if your dog pulls. Nylon leashes tend to be the least expensive, with cotton and hemp close behind.
Long lines and light lines tend to be made of parachute cord and other light-but-strong nylon fibers. You can find cotton long lines, but some people complain about how heavy cotton gets when it gets wet (as when it gets dragged through wet grass).
Chain leashes have the most potential to cause significant injury to your hands. However they do have a narrow niche in a training toolbox: they can be useful for dogs who chew on (or chew through) their leather or fabric leashes.
Chain leashes can also be used to discourage a dog who tries to tug on his leash when you prefer that he not. With a non-chain leash, when you resist your dog’s pulling (you can’t just drop the leash and let him go!) he gets reinforced for his inappropriate leash behavior (it’s fun!) – so his leash tugging and chewing may persist and even increase. Most dogs find biting on metal chain mildly aversive, so they learn to keep their teeth off their leash while you work to reinforce more appropriate behaviors.
The other critically important piece of your leash or long line is the snap. You want a leash with quality hardware that won’t rust, corrode, freeze up, or otherwise fail you in an emergency. The last thing you need is a snap that pops open or breaks at the exact instant your dog reaches the end of it. Extra soft, strong, nylon webbing leashes and long lines fitted with very sturdy brass hardware are available from White Pine Outfitters (whitepineoutfitters.com; 715-372-5627).
It’s well worth spending more for well-designed, good quality leash equipment that can last the life of your dog, and might save your dog’s life one day. One of my favorites is the well-made 30-foot light line at Genuine Dog Gear. At $22.95, that’s less than $1.50 per year for a dog who lives to be 15, or four tenths of a cent per day. Another is the 50-foot soft web long line from White Pine Outfitters. At $55.60 that’s still only $3.70 per year, or a penny a day. Isn’t he worth at least that?
How should you select a food for your dog? Over the years, we’ve spoken to literally thousands of owners and industry experts – and they have at least a few hundred different approaches to the task. We’ll briefly discuss some of the most prevalent factors used by owners to support their dog food buying decisions – and then we’ll tell you how we recommend choosing your dogs’ food.
Price – There is a correlation between the price of a dog food and its quality, but it’s most accurate at the low end, and less certain when you get to the upper price points.
What is certain is that inexpensive food is not what’s healthiest for your dog. Think about it: Cheap food is made with cheaper ingredients. We shudder to think of what sort of ingredients go into a product that sells for 25 cents a pound. Think about what is commonly called “4-D” meat: animals that are dead, dying, diseased, or disabled. Think about grain by-products of unknown provenance being shipped all over the planet – rejected for use in human food and languishing in warehouses while ingredient brokers try to find a buyer.
Good- and top-quality ingredients cost more, and the companies that use them have to charge more, so a high price can be an indication of quality. But higher prices can also be indicative of a company’s advertising budget, or the higher costs associated with running an independent pet supply store in a remote area.
At the top of the price range, there’s a bit of wiggle room. We’ve seen hamburger-quality foods that are sold for filet mignon prices. The market tends to correct matters if a company leans out too far, seriously overrepresenting its quality and overpricing its mediocre foods. Such a product can’t perform as well as one that’s really that good. Even just a few dozen owners whose dogs have persistent diarrhea after eating a really expensive food can stir up quite a storm on the Internet.
Ingredients – We hope that you do use the ingredients list to help you choose the food. But there are people who look at ingredients differently than we do.
For example, some owners insist on buying only those products whose manufacturers can provide proof (or at least, allege credibly) that all the food’s ingredients are domestically sourced – no ingredients from China. In the wake of the melamine recalls, I don’t blame those people one bit. There is no doubt that there are some really crummy food ingredients steaming across the oceans heading for American pet food plants.
On the other hand, we’ve also had pet food companies exhaustively describe the quality controls they employ to ensure that their Chinese-grown chicken (as one example) is as safe, wholesome, and less expensive than any fowl grown in North America. As a result, we can’t justify making a blanket recommendation for or against food based on the country of origin of their ingredients alone. In our view, this is a matter that has to be considered case by case. If a company won’t either confirm the origin of its major proteins and grains or explain the quality control processes it employs to guarantee the purity and wholesomeness of its foreign-sourced ingredients, we’d take a pass on its products.
Then there is the concept of “no” – as in “no corn, wheat, or soy…” “No fillers.” Or our personal favorite: “No allergens” (that’s impossible, folks).
There are a few ingredients that are commonly identified as undesirable in dog food: corn, wheat, and soy, most frequently. Some authors (or competing pet food companies) go so far as to allege that dogs can’t digest these ingredients, which is just plain silly; dogs digest these ingredients every day. None of these ingredients is inherently unhealthy for all dogs. Each has some benefit – for some dogs, in moderate amounts, and in the least-processed form possible. A certain percentage of dogs – a minority, for sure – may be allergic to (or more likely, intolerant of) one of the those ingredients. This doesn’t mean the ingredients don’t offer some value for most dogs. That said, we like to see them serve in a supporting, not a leading role. The protein and fat they offer have more nutritionally valuable (and of course, more expensive) counterparts in other ingredients. Their appearance in any of the top few places on an ingredients list signals a less-expensive, poorer-quality food. But their presence in a food lower down on the list doesn’t “kill” that food for us – unless we are feeding a specific dog who doesn’t tolerate one of those ingredients.
We’ve also seen screeds against beet pulp, tomato pomace, alfalfa meal, and other ingredients. Each of these ingredients offers some nutritional or functional benefits, such as helping to regulate the dog’s stool quality. Again, we don’t mind seeing them serve a supportive role in an otherwise healthy food.
Finally, there are a number of other factors having to do with ingredients that some people use to make the buying decision for their dog’s food. Some owners look for food with ingredients that are organic, local, non-GMO, or humanely raised and killed. Each of these can be found in some products; each raises the price of the finished food exponentially.
Our view is that if ingredients of this quality are important to you, you should forget about kibble; you could certainly prepare a more healthful diet for your dog using fresh ingredients. (Installments of Mary Straus’ series of reviews on the best books about various types of home-prepared diets were published in the December 2010 and January 2011 issues of WDJ; the next article will appear in the March issue.)
Past history – This is another place where we may differ with some of our readers. Some people won’t buy any product that has ever been recalled, for any reason. Other people won’t buy foods that are manufactured at a plant that made another food that was once recalled. After all, accidents can be an indication that the company’s quality controls are lax.
We certainly understand the fear that drives the consumers who make buying decisions based on a company’s recall history. And yet, we’re aware that sometimes, it’s the folks who have made a costly mistake who do the best job of ensuring that they won’t ever make another one. Companies tend to make huge investments in training and safety protocols after a recall.
Any company can suffer one manufacturing accident. That said, if accidents or recalls happen more than once . . . well, where there’s smoke, there is often fire.
Size of the company – Some people don’t trust corporate giants like Procter & Gamble (owner of Iams, Eukanuba, and more recently, all of the Natura Pet Products foods) or Colgate-Palmolive (owner of Hill’s Science Diet).
It’s the nature of manufacturing that always seems to pit quality against production efficiencies. We love the care and attention that small pet food companies can put into procuring top-quality, local, organic (or at least sustainably grown) ingredients. We appreciate their relentless drive to innovate healthier foods for dogs. But we worry about the manufacturing irregularities that can result in small plants (which are often running outdated equipment and inadequate quality control tests). We’re also concerned about products that are formulated by amateurs in animal nutrition and marketed without enough feeding trials to determine that the foods will perform as well in the dog as they did in the nutrition software.
In contrast, the giant food companies can put some of the most educated veterinary nutritionists to work in their research and development departments, furthering the industry’s knowledge of animal nutrition. They have the resources to build and maintain glistening state-of-the-art food manufacturing facilities, and hire, train, and retain armies of food production workers that produce consistent, safe products. But they don’t usually develop and support top quality products.
Either way, we consider the size of the company that’s behind each product we buy for our dog and retain the information as background when considering its potential merits or faults. But the company size doesn’t make the buying decision for us.
Company-owned manufacturing plant vs. “contract manufacturer” – As recently as a few years ago, pet food companies who used contract manufacturers (also known as “co-packers”) were often reluctant to admit they didn’t make their own products. But there are some real merits to not owning the plant, especially for small companies – precisely the ones who often bring something new to the industry or who have formulated unique and/or atypically high-quality foods. The costs associated with buying, equipping, and maintaining pet food manufacturing plants are enormous, but paying a co-packer for a bit of time on their machines can benefit both parties.
The challenge, though, is keeping a close enough eye on the co-packer, to make certain it uses your specified ingredients in the specified amounts, keeping accurate batch records, keeping your product separate from the other products in the plant, etc., etc. A pet food company’s reputation is incredibly vulnerable if it fails to monitor and audit its co-packer (though the co-packer will surely be blamed for anything that goes wrong with the food, even if it followed its client’s instructions to the letter).
Is it better, then, if the company owns its plant? In some cases, yes. But only if the company is big enough to maintain the plant well (we’ve seen some incredibly scruffy little manufacturing plants). And as we previously discussed, sometimes the biggest, cleanest plants produce some of the lowest-quality foods around. They do it well, though.
For these reasons, the actual ownership of a pet food’s manufacturing plant isn’t a selection criterion for us, though it is something we want to be aware of.
Method of confirmation of nutritional adequacy – Most veterinarians come out of school promoting the superiority of foods that have undergone Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) -compliant feeding trials (versus those that have been “formulated to meet the nutrient levels” recommended by AAFCO). It’s no wonder; veterinary nutrition textbooks have been written and/or published by the company whose products are all tested in these very expensive trials.
But the fact is, foods should be tested on dogs before they go to market; some products that seem brilliant in theory just don’t perform well in actual dogs.
All foods that purport to be “complete and balanced” (as opposed to “for supplemental of intermittent feeding only) must bear a statement on the label that indicates which method of confirmation was used to support the claim. (The type might be really small; look carefully!)
When buying a food confirmed as “complete and balanced” by the AAFCO “nutrient levels” method, ask the maker of your dog’s food whether and how the product was tested on dogs – for how long, and on how many dogs. Some companies conduct their own (non-AAFCO-compliant) feeding trials on dogs that they maintain in private kennels; others use a network of breeders or shelters who volunteer for these tests (free food!). (For a more complete discussion of the relative merits and faults with the various methods for proving nutritional adequacy, see “Take It With a Block of Salt,” WDJ February 2007.)
Picking a food for your dog
We’ve discussed a lot of factors we don’t necessarily use to choose our dog’s food. So how do we make our selection?
First, we try to shop locally. (This may not be possible for people who live in remote areas, but there is always online shopping and mail order, and fortunately, there are numerous companies with good products that available via direct shipping.) We try to scout out every location that sells pet food in our area, to get a sense of which ones carry which foods. We also talk to the shop owners or staff, in order to get a sense of which stores seem interested in serving our type of dog owner: motivated, educated, and willing to spend more than the average customer for really good food.
Then we look at the product labels, examining the ingredients lists. We use the criteria outlined below (“Hallmarks of Quality” and “Signs of Corners Cut”) to determine which (if any) of the foods carried by the store are in the range of quality we’re willing to pay for.
We note the products that meet our selection criteria, and write down the names of any companies we’re not familiar with, so we can do a little more research on them once we’re back home.
If there are stil several products in the running, we then look for the one that best matches our dog’s needs for protein, fat, and calories, using his body condition (fat, thin, or just right?) and activity level (highly active or couch potato?) to choose a product in the appropriate range. Unless he’s emaciated or obese (and in need of a high-calorie or “light” food, respectively), we look for a product whose calories, fat, and protein levels are in the middle range of the products that are still in the running.
At this point, we’ve decided which brand and variety to buy, but before we grab the bag from the top of the pile, we look for the “best by” date on the bag. Most naturally preserved dry foods are given a “best by” date that is 12 months from the date of manufacture. Try to find a bag that is as fresh as possible, rather than one that is near, at, or past its “best by” date. If every bag of food of the variety you selected is nearing its expiration, we’d recommend choosing another variety, or asking a sales associate when she expects a new shipment to arrive. This stuff is too expensive, and your dog’s health too important, to buy potentially rancid food.
Make a note on your calendar when you start feeding a new product to your dog, and note any changes in his health. Adjust accordingly.
“Approved foods” Click here to see this article in its entirety with Whole Dog Journal’s 2011 list of “approved foods”. Please note that we have listed the foods alphabetically by company; they are not rank-ordered.
Some companies make several product lines. We’ve listed each product line that meets our selection criteria from each manufacturer. We’ve also highlighted one product from each company as a representative, to show what sort of ingredients and macro-nutrient levels (minimum amounts of protein and fat, and maximum amounts of fiber and moisture) are typically found in that maker’s foods. Be aware that some companies offer dozens of different products with varying nutrient levels and ingredients. Check the company’s website or call its toll-free phone number to get information about its other varieties.
We say this every year, but it bears repeating: What if your favorite dog foods don’t meet our selection criteria? It’s up to you. If you have been feeding what we would consider to be low-quality foods to your dog, and she looks and appears to feel great, good for you! She’s one of those genetically lucky animals who can spin straw into gold, digestively speaking. But if she has allergies, chronic diarrhea, recurrent ear infections, or a poor coat, we’d recommend that you upgrade.
Have you ever stopped to think about how many times a day you do something to your dog that involves physical contact? I’m not talking about petting him when he nudges up against your leg; I’m talking about grasping his collar, putting his leash on, picking him up, wiping debris from the corners of his eyes, wiping the mud off his paws, trimming fur somewhere on his body, and many more “husbandry” procedures that require various degrees of restraint and touch. Chances are you really only think about it when your dog protests, but chances are he thinks about it every time you reach for him.
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If you’re lucky, he’s thinking good thoughts. This happens when he has a generally positive association with the outcome of your touch. These are the procedures he loves. Good associations can happen incidentally (Leash = going for a walk – Yay!) and you can create them deliberately (Touch collar, feed a treat; collar = treats – Yay!). If you’re not so fortunate or proactive, your dog may have negative associations with some of your procedures. These are the ones he avoids or actively resists.
Your dog will tell you An owner who is skilled at observing and reading her dog’s body language is usually well aware when a canine pal is even slightly uncomfortable. (See “Say What?” WDJ November 2005). That’s “note to self” time; an opportunity to help change a mildly unhappy association to a very happy one, to avoid trouble down the road. Many owners, however, don’t notice until the dog is putting up major resistance. At that point it’s a much larger project to change the now well-established negative association. Once again, prevention is better than cure.
If you’re working with a pup or a young dog who doesn’t have many associations yet, don’t let him become even slightly uncomfortable. Treat every new procedure as an opportunity to make wonderful associations with all the handling procedures you may perform with him over the years. Procedures
Here are examples of some of the procedures you can help your dog learn to love:
Reaching for the collar: Bet you can’t even count how many times this has happened to your dog, whether it’s reaching to put on a leash, to restrain him as a jogger goes by, to put him in his crate, or to hold him while you do something else to him. Most of the time grabbing for his collar is more reinforcing for you than for your dog, and he learns to shy away when you reach. This can be a serious safety concern, especially for those times when you have to grab him to protect him or prevent him from doing something inappropriate that could get him injured.
We do an exercise in our basic “good manners” classes called “Gotcha!” in which we teach the dogs that someone reaching for the collar consistently means something wonderful is coming. “Wonderful” is most often a tasty treat, but can also be a toy, a ball . . . or a leash and a walk.
The “Gotcha!” exercise is intended to desensitize your dog to having his collar grabbed, and to teach you the correct way to grasp a dog’s collar. This will help him enjoy having you reach for him, and greatly reduce the risk of a bite when you must take hold of your dog in a tense situation, since he will have learned to associate a collar grab with a reward.
Begin with your dog sitting in front of you. Say “Gotcha!” and feed him a treat. Repeat this until he brightens up when he hears the word. Then circle your hand over his head, say “Gotcha!” and feed him a treat. Repeat until he is calm when you do this, and happily anticipating a treat. Then touch his collar under his chin with the “Gotcha!” and treat.
Over several training sessions, gradually increase the intensity of your touches until you are grabbing the collar with the “Gotcha.” If at any time your dog flinches or tries to pull away you have moved forward too quickly. Back up a few steps in the process and start again.
Apply medication: When we found Dubhy, our Scottie, as a stray (some 10-plus years ago), he had badly infected ears and wanted no part of treatment. The dilemma when the ears are already infected is that no matter how much you add treats to the program, there’s still a negative association with the pain the treatment inevitably causes. Fortunately Dubhy is a forgiving soul, and in just two days the treat-association far outweighed the pain for him; the sight of his medication bottle would send him running to his mat in the kitchen to await treats – and treatment.
Most owners wait until ear cleaning or infection time to worry about how the dog will handle it. Wise owners spend a moment or two each day initially touching ears, then feeding a treat. Over time they increase the stimulus to rubbing the inside of the ears, feeding a treat; pressing a finger into the ear canal, feeding a treat; touching the inside of the ear with a moist cloth, feeding a treat; and even doing the same with a medication bottle and some benign liquid or gel, until the dog thinks nothing of having his ears invaded.
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The same holds true for similar procedures: administering eye drops, brushing teeth, removing debris from the corners of your dog’s eyes, applying topical flea and tick preventatives . . . Start small, well before the procedure is actually critically important. Associate your movements and the various tools and accessories with really good treats, and when the day comes that you really do need to treat or clean your dog’s ears, he’ll be happily waiting on his mat for treatment, just like Dubhy.
Lifting: Lots of small dogs get picked up – a lot. Many of them don’t much like it, but are pretty helpless to prevent it, unless they snap and snarl. Just imagine how off-putting it would be to have a creature as much as 10 to 20 times your size (or more) swoop down and snatch you off the ground without warning, whenever it pleased.
When Scooter, our 10-pound Pomeranian, first joined our family two years ago, he was very resistant to being lifted. Even approaching him with lift-intention body language was enough to elicit a snarl. With a gradual association between good stuff and touch, then pressure, then lifting, he began to relax about being picked up. At that point we introduced a “Ready?” cue – in essence giving him notice of the pending lift, and the choice to be picked up.
Now, when I say “Ready?” I can feel him gather himself to be lifted, and when I say “Okay!” and pick him up he gives himself a small boost off the ground, as if to help. If I don’t feel him gather himself but I lift anyway, he will snarl. He still doesn’t appreciate being lifted if he is lying down, and I respect that. If he’s lying down and I need to pick him up I’ll invite him to stand, and if he declines I toss a treat to get him up. Treat consumed, he’s usually more than happy to play the “Ready?” game.
Wiping paws: Many dogs have negative associations with paw handling, in part because paws are most commonly touched and held for nail trimming – a procedure that creates a very negative association for lots of dogs. (See “Do My Nails, Please!” March 2009).
As with the “Gotcha” procedure, begin by just moving your hand near your dog’s paw and feeding a treat. When his eyes brighten and he looks for a treat as your hand moves toward him, add a brief, gentle touch before you treat. Gradually increase the length of time you touch, and then the amount of pressure. As things proceed well, eventually add small movements, working up to vigorous ones that approximate the movements you would use when toweling off his paws.
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Over the same time period but in different sessions, introduce him to the towel. Show him the towel, feed him a treat. Repeat until you can tell by his response that he’s convinced towels make treats happen. Let him sniff the towel, and feed him a treat. Touch him with the towel on other parts of this body (assuming he’s comfortable with that) and feed him treats.
When he’s happy with both parts – the paw touching and the presence of the towel, you can put them together. Start with a brief gentle touch of the towel to his paws, and feed a treat. Gradually work up to a full, vigorous paw-toweling, making sure to keep the positive association as you progress.
Putting on a jacket: This is a complex procedure that may necessitate a considerable amount of canine cooperation. As with “wiping paws,” this one has two parts: the part where you create a positive association with touching the dog’s body parts, and the part where you create a pleasant association with the jacket (or Thundershirt, Anxiety Wrap, or other garment).
Visualize the process of putting on the jacket or other apparel. What parts of your dog must be touched, lifted, or moved in order to get the jacket on? Some have straps, buckles, buttons, zippers, or Velcro that reduce the amount of actual manipulation needed; others require that you pull paws through sleeves and the dog’s head through an opening. Make sure your dog is happy to have you touch, push, and pull on those various parts. Touch, push, and pull = treats!
Then look at the article of apparel itself. Velcro makes a potentially scary ripping noise; be sure your dog thinks Velcro-at-a-distance makes tasty treats happen before you even think of ripping open the straps right next to him. Button fumbling, zippers zipping, snaps snapping, raincoat rustling . . . all need their share of positive association-time to ensure a happy fashion ensemble for your canine pal.
Kind of in this same category is the dreaded Elizabethan collar or “cone.” I had neglected to anticipate the need, and failed to give our Corgi, Lucy, a positive association to one of these before she injured herself. When she had to wear one after her ACL surgery, she hated it. In fact she offered to bite me when I tried to put it on her the first time. We called a truce. In a workable compromise she grudgingly accepted a soft collar instead of the cone.
Grooming: A myriad of procedures fall under the heading of “grooming.” For each one, identify the tools used, and the body parts that need to be touched or held, and give your dog positive associations with all of them. For example, to scissor the long hair over your dog’s eyes, you may need to grasp his muzzle with one hand while you manipulate the scissors with the other. If he’s learned to accept the muzzle grasp (makes treats happen!) and with noise of the scissors, you’ll get a much straighter cut than if he’s flailing around while you try to trim. And you’re much less likely to poke an eye out!
Try an operant approach All of the above procedures rely on classical conditioning – giving your dog a positive association with the pieces of the procedures so that he loves them rather than just tolerating, or even hating them. You can also incorporate “operant conditioning” with your positive associations, where your dog makes deliberate behavior choices in order to get good stuff, thereby reducing the need, in some cases, for annoying procedures.
Take wiping paws, for example. Another way to clean your dog’s muddy paws when he comes in the house could be to teach him to walk through a foot bath of clean water, and wipe his own paws on a mat that you provide for that purpose.
Lifting is another procedure that often suggests an operant solution. Your little dog hates to be lifted, but has to be carried upstairs every night to go to bed? Teach him to hop into his crate on cue, and then carry his crate up the stairs. Mission accomplished!
You can even trim your dog’s nails without ever touching a paw. Trainer Shirley Chong of Grinnell, Iowa, originally came up with the idea of creating a giant nail file for dogs, and the concept has spread like wildfire.
Take a board, 8 to 12 inches wide and 24 to 36 inches long, and cover it securely with coarse sandpaper, or with the slip-proof tape used to provide traction on wooden stairs. Place it flat on the ground or at an angle, depending on your dog’s preference. Then simply teach him to paw at the board with his front paws (easiest with clicker and shaping), kick at it with his hind paws (as if after defecating), and he’ll file his own nails!
According to Chong, dogs tend to get so happy about doing it that you have to put the board away or they’ll file them down to bloody stumps. Apparently dogs don’t mind quicking themselves! (See Chong’s website at ShirleyChong.com for more information about this solution.)
Another way to do a restraint-free nail trim is to teach your dog to stand on a board with his nails extended over the edge. If the board is on a slight incline forward, it works even better. You can clip off the exposed ends of the nails in mid-air, without ever touching the paw. Of course, you still need to give your dog positive associations with standing on the board, the pressure of the clipper on the nail, and the sensation of clipping, so don’t put those treats away yet!
Pat Miller, CPDT-KA, CDBC, is WDJ’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Pat is also author of several books on positive training, including her latest: Do Over Dogs: Give Your Dog a Second Chance for a First Class Life.
In some training circles, it’s still a sacred cow: the idea that the only way to get a dog trained to near perfection and utter reliability is to teach him that he “has to” comply; it doesn’t matter if he “wants to.” Adherents of this school of training believe that in order to create a dog who responds reliably when first “commanded,” force-based training techniques must be used.
Fortunately, more and more trainers are realizing this sacred cow is a bunch of bull.
Positive reinforcement training has made significant inroads among much of the dog-owning population. However, many handlers involved in precision-based sports such as field work, obedience, and Schutzhund, along with many pet owners of “strong” breeds such as Rottweilers, Dobermans, and so-called “bully” breeds, still believe a healthy dose of compulsion is necessary to convince the dog he must perform as “commanded” (as opposed to “cued” or “requested”).
The trainers of working police dogs generally feel that their dogs – and their jobs – also require the use of force-based techniques; a majority of law enforcement dog handlers still rely on compulsion. Fortunately, a growing number are beginning to realize that positive reinforcement not only produces reliable dogs, it also decreases dog-handler conflict and creates stronger working relationships.
Among the “serve and protect” leaders of the movement toward positive training is Seattle-based trainer Steve White. A sergeant with the Seattle Police Department, White has more than 35 years of experience as a canine handler.
White’s early dog training experiences were spent in the U.S. Army as a patrol dog handler at Lackland Air Force Base, a joint forces military installation in San Antonio, Texas. At the time, military dog training methods were based largely on the early work of Col. Konrad Most and William Koehler, and can best be described as a “carrots and sticks” approach.
“They taught us to praise our dogs by making us face and praise a rock,” White says. “They made you stand at your rock, get goofy and excited . . . ‘That’s a good boy, that’s a good dog, that’s a good baby!’ At the same time you were practicing praising your rock, you were practicing leash corrections on a chain link fence. You got both sides of it.”
Most behaviors were taught using negative reinforcement, a technique where the handler applies physical or social pressure in an effort to coerce or force the dog to alter his behavior – for example, pushing on a dog’s backside to elicit a “sit” or using a collar and leash to drag a dog into a “down.” In both cases the dog learns that compliance relieves the pressure; he works to avoid the uncomfortable situation.
Punishment in Dog Training Creates Conflict
For many dogs, especially those who are deliberately selected for their high-drive personalities and strong physical and emotional make-up, these techniques routinely create a conflict between dog and handler that results in a bite.
For White, the bite came after working with “Astro,” his first canine partner. The dog was willing to acquiesce to sit and perform heelwork, but was all too ready to fight back when White attempted to force him into a “down.” In an intense battle of wills, White sustained a bite that sidelined his training for two weeks. He returned to work a different dog and went on to finish the program as a Distinguished Honor Graduate.
“(Getting bitten) was common enough that they taught you how to deal with it,” says White. “They taught you how to protect yourself . . . to string up a dog. If the dog came at you, you lifted up on the leash and kept the pointy end away from you until the dog stopped fighting. It wasn’t an act of training; it was an act of self-defense until the dog could no longer offer an offense.”
One of the dangers of punishment, aside from the potential for physical harm and its ability to erode the dog-handler relationship, is the tendency for the handler to escalate out of frustration or a misguided desire for revenge.
“They taught us how to “airplane” (the dogs) so that you picked them up and started to spin around so they’d be off balance and couldn’t come after you,” White explained. “Some dogs could withstand being suspended by their neck longer than your arms could stand keeping them up there and then what do you do? Some people would walk over to the nearest fence and suspend the leash from that and hold the dog up. That would get carried away because now that you aren’t getting tired, and you’re a little ticked off, some people would succumb to the temptation to keep the dog up there longer.”
Thankfully, according to White, this didn’t happen often at Lackland, but sadly, it does sometimes happen in the name of police canine “training.” In August 2007, then Trooper Sgt. Charles Jones of the North Carolina Highway Patrol was unknowingly videotaped by a fellow trooper as he hung his Belgian Malinois “Ricoh” from a railing and kicked him repeatedly for failure to release a training toy.
Photo by Senior Airman Christopher Griffin.
The video ended up on YouTube, sparking a public outcry that resulted in Jones losing his job. However, in November 2010, North Carolina Superior Court Judge James Hardin Jr. ruled that Jones was improperly fired and should be returned to his position as a canine officer, along with receiving back wages and attorney’s fees. The judge ruled that although Jones’ actions were not specifically part of the agency’s standard techniques, they were no worse than its accepted methods.
A similar video shows a Baltimore Police Department officer repeatedly lifting and throwing his canine partner to the ground in the name of training. For nearly three minutes, the officer battles with his dog while at least one bystander (assumed to be a supervisor or trainer) offers encouragement and instruction on how to show the dog “who’s boss.”
Another media report recounted how, in June 2006, a frustrated Miami-Dade Police Sergeant, Allen Cockfield, delivered a lethal kick to his canine partner, “Duke,” in an ill-fated training session.
A More Reliable Way to Train
Fortunately, early in his career, White realized there were better ways beyond the force- and fear-based methods of his first experience. In the mid 1970s he began exploring the works of Leon Whitney (author of Natural Method of Dog Training), Ray Berwick (How to Train Your Pet Like a Television Star) and Patricia Gail Burnham (Playtraining Your Dog). These three books served as a trilogy of concepts that was later supported by Karen Pryor’s Don’t Shoot the Dog, and set a path toward a training future based on positive reinforcement.
White’s first post-military canine assignment came with the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office in Washington State, and he later joined the Seattle Police Department. He now also runs i2i K9 Professional Training Services, a consulting and training business operating out of Rivendale Learning Center, a “No Force – No Fear”® training company owned and operated by Steve and his wife, Jennifer.
White learned that one of the problems with negative reinforcement and punishment is the ability to create conflict, as his Army dog, Astro, so aptly demonstrated. He also learned that, conversely, positive reinforcement and negative punishment (removing access to what the dog wants following an incorrect response) are more likely to foster increased cooperation as the dog learns to trust the handler, and the team develops a stronger working relationship.
“With positive reinforcement training, you front load the effort,” White says. “There’s a lot of stuff to get the wheels turning. The curve is really steep in the beginning, but after a while it levels out and the workload is not as high. With negative reinforcement, you get full, finished behaviors quickly, but maintenance work afterward is high because the dog figures out the name of the game is ‘only work as hard as it takes to get this guy to leave me alone.’ With positive reinforcement, especially with substantial amounts of free-shaping, the dog figures the name of the game is ‘work as hard as I can to get this guy to pay off.’ The fundamental paradigm changes in the dog’s mind.”
Bob Eden shares White’s desire to transform police canine training. In 1991 Eden, a retired Delta Police Department (British Columbia, Canada) canine handler, founded the K9 Academy for Law Enforcement and the International Police K9 Conference, dedicated to positive reinforcement education for canine handlers around the world. With a team of 20 positive reinforcement-based instructors (including White), Eden’s organization demonstrates the effectiveness of positive reinforcement training to about 150 police agencies each year. Eden’s mission is inspired by the little-known fact that statistically, canine handlers are involved in more gunfights than any other members of their department as a result of the suspect-oriented work they do.
“My goal as a retired police officer is to make sure that police officers who work with dogs go home to their families at the end of their shifts,” Eden says. “I want to make sure your dog is a precision animal that you, as an officer, don’t have to worry about on the street. If I’ve got my dog in the car and I end up in a confrontation with a suspect, I don’t have to worry about what my dog is doing. My attention is not divided between my dog and the person I’m dealing with. When I’m telling my dog what I need to have done, I know it will happen because my foundation work has been good. A policeman cannot afford to be a dog trainer on the street.”
Train the Positive Police K9 Way
Whether training a strong-willed Shepherd or a creampuff Cavalier, the art and science of learning theory and behavior modification remains the same. White offers the following five tips designed to improve training results:
1. “For big results, you’ve got to think small. Always look for, and reinforce, the littlest increments on your way to the end behavior.”
A finished behavior is the sum of its parts. For example, when training acceptance of nail trimming, remember to start with basic foot handling — without clippers, and at a level your dog can tolerate. That might mean touching one toe, with one finger, for one second. Work up from there.
2. “Street-reliable skill sets are narrow and deep. Concentrate on fluency and generalization of the few behaviors you’ll need on the street.”
Watch out for the “jack of all
trades, master of none” phenomenon, where your dog can sort of do a lot of things, but lacks a solid performance in any of them.
3. “Over-train wisely. Build levels of fluency, generalization, and resistance to distraction beyond what you’ll need on the street.”
ln training classes, we practice stays while remote—controlled cars pulling miniature wagons filled with treats zoom past. If your dog can do that, he’s more likely to successfully handle sitting patiently as you prepare his dinner. Be creative in your training, but always work at a level that is fair to your dog.
4. “Failure is information. If the dog does not perform as expected, it’s just because you asked for something you have not yet fully trained.”
Remember that behavior change doesn’t happen overnight. Persistence, patience, and practice are key.
5. “If it ain’t fun, it ain’t done. As soon as training becomes a drudge for either end of the leash, stop, rest, and find ways to bring the joy back into it.”
Smart trainers know that dog training can – and should – be fun. Many pet training classes now use fun games like Hide & Seek and Red Light, Green Light to encourage a joyful, playful attitude while training. Good training should leave you and your dog wanting more, not feeling like it’s a bore and a chore!
“Emergency Brakes”
While White no longer uses punishment as a standard training technique, he offers an honest assessment of its use:
“Through the years, the more positive reinforcement I use, the fewer aversives I use,” he explains. “I’m not 100 percent pure positive; I sometimes need to use an emergency brake (such as a verbal reprimand or leash correction) – but I no longer use aversives as a teaching tool.”
No form of training will produce perfect dogs 100 percent of the time. In law enforcement, if a police dog makes a mistake, people (or the dog) can get hurt.
“Police dogs do something other dogs don’t,” White says. “They consummate the urge to bite, and then are asked to voluntarily stop something that is either highly reinforcing in a positive way by being fun, or negatively reinforcing by vanquishing a life-threatening adversary. It’s a demand that is unique to law enforcement and military dogs.”
When lives are on the line, if the dog fails to respond appropriately to a cue, handlers must have a way to stop the dog.
“Emergency brakes are just what the name implies – for emergencies only. They are not a training tool, but an emergency management tool.” says White.
Note: In pet dog training, whether it’s your walk-in-the-wood companion or your competition obedience star, if you find yourself frequently using aversives, it’s a strong indication that your reinforcement history is weak.
Shaping A Dog’s Behavior
Eden and White utilize the training principle of shaping, an operant conditioning technique where the dog is encouraged to discover (and then be rewarded for) the correct behavior on his own rather than physically manipulated or lured into the desired behavior. In the early stages, the handler’s job is simply to manage the training environment in a way that prevents the dog from self-rewarding undesired behavior. Eden calls this letting the dog teach himself.
“If we get a dog into training that we allow to teach himself, the benefits are exponentially greater than what we had under the old system of negative reinforcers and compulsive training,” he says. “We found that it was so much better and the results were at the point where we had very little recidivism.”
Many trainers (both in law enforcement and the civilian world) maintain a strong belief that incorrect responses must quickly be corrected. Through shaping, Eden and White turn this concept on its head, setting up training scenarios so that the dog, who initially does not know what the correct response is, experiments with different behaviors in an attempt to earn his desired reward; for most police dogs, it’s the chance to bite and tug the sleeve. The trainer must construct the exercise so that the dog is unable to perform undesired behaviors that are self-rewarding. For example, in the early stages of training, the handler might keep his dog leashed to prevent him from prematurely launching himself at the training decoy’s sleeve. The excited dog might bark, whine, and lunge in an attempt to get what he wants, but the handler allows the dog to bite the decoy only after the dog lies down.
“When he does what you want and is rewarded, it modifies the behavior so that he continues to achieve his reward by consistently doing the same right thing over and over again,” Eden explains.
For canine officers, one of the most difficult behaviors to train is the “out” or bite release, especially from a training sleeve. Handlers are required to maintain clean bite release work in training and on the street with suspects. If the team is ever involved in litigation, they must prove the dog is responsive to cues in all settings. Most police dogs are high-drive and equipment-oriented; they live for the chance to fight a decoy’s protective sleeve. Convincing them to let go is a challenge.
Traditionally handlers deal with non-compliant “outs” by issuing a strong correction on a choke chain, pinch, or shock collar. While this often offers results in the short-term, the added conflict eventually sends most dogs into a state of avoidance where, as they see the handler approaching, they begin to rotate away from the handler, positioning themselves on the far side of the decoy in an attempt to prolong the bite and delay the correction.
In contrast, White and Eden teach the dog that releasing the sleeve results in more fun and another opportunity to engage in a bite. An important characteristic of the training is that the difficulty level starts low and is gradually increased as the dog’s behavior improves. For example, in the early stages, the decoy remains calm and the only fight comes from the dog rather than a fighting decoy that further arouses the dog. When the dog engages the sleeve, the static decoy and the handler wait; they know the dog can’t maintain the bite forever (although White tells the story of once waiting 18 minutes before seeing his dog-in-training begin to waver). When the dog begins to fatigue, the handler might cue an extremely reliable behavior (such as “down”), and upon getting compliance, rewards the dog with an enthusiastic game of tug. Or the decoy might slip out of the sleeve, leaving the dog with a fight-less piece of equipment, only to don a second sleeve and fire up when the dog releases the lifeless sleeve on request. In both examples, the lack of punishment results in a calmer, more clear-headed animal.
Compulsion creates stress and often, as Eden explains, the stress level becomes so high that the dog literally cannot achieve the mental process necessary to open his mouth and release the sleeve. This lack of compliance causes the handler to escalate the force, which adds more stress and creates a vicious cycle that can, as one officer described it, result in “one dumb animal beating another.”
Shaping VS. Luring
When it comes to positive reinforcement training in law enforcement, White and his colleagues rely on shaping, a training technique that involves initially rewarding an approximation of the desired behavior, and gradually rewarding better and better approximations en route to the finished behavior.
Another popular method of positive reinforcement training is luring. In lure-reward training the dog follows a desired item (food treat or toy) into position to earn the reward. White says both methods have a place in the well-rounded trainer’s toolkit, but both require skill and judicious application. He offers the following overview:
METHOD
PRO
CON
Lure-reward
Can quickly achieve the topography (physical shape/action) of a behavior.
Easy for handlers of all skill—levels.
If lures are used too long they can interfere with the dog’s understanding of the behavioral concept (what it’s for).
Extended use of lures can create a lure—dependent dog who focuses more on the lure than the desired connection with the handler. This often results in handlers using the reward as a bribe rather than a teaching tool. To use effectively, the lure must be eliminated as quickly as possible.
Free-shaping
Promotes desired problem—solving as the dog must initially experiment with different behaviors to determine what ” pays off.”
Puts greater emphasis on the behavior than the reward. The dog still works for the reward, but without the salience of having it directly in front of him. As such, many report that shaped behaviors seem to “stick” better.
Requires more effort at the front end to get the wheels turning. Can take longer to achieve finished behaviors.
Requires a keen eye for observation and an astute sense of when to raise criteria to the next level. Often challenging for beginning trainers.
The Old Way to Handle K9s: Compulsion Wears Out Fast
When Phoenix police officer Vince Bingaman joined the department 10 years ago, compulsion was the name of the game.
“With the types of strong dogs we deal with, that’s how you got an animal to do something,” he says. “He was forced to do it and there was a negative repercussion if he didn’t. When the dogs did well we praised them, but we were really into compulsion to force strong-willed dogs to do what we wanted them to do – and it led to a lot of conflict.”
The conflict between dog and handler led to many handlers sustaining serious bites. The idea of compulsion and punishment leading to increased bites is not limited to working police canines. Many pet dogs react the same way, especially when punishment techniques are employed in an attempt to modify aggressive behavior. The agency eventually turned to Bob Eden, who, over three months, helped transform the canine department with amazing success.
“Compulsion adds a lot of stress to a dog and we had difficulty getting ideas across to the animal,” says Bingaman. “With compulsion, because the dogs were forced to do what we asked them to do, the results were quicker, but they weren’t long-standing. It was a cycle. The dog would work for us for a while and then there would be some negative side effects of the dog falling back into his old ways and then the compulsion would have to come back in and the dog would comply and the cycle would continue. When we trained the dogs in a more positive environment, the training stuck.”
Like White, for Bingaman, a major advantage of positive reinforcement training is the ability to achieve reliable behavior that, at its core, allows the dog to not only comply with the handler, but to feed his own satisfactions and desires. “That’s the beauty about operant training,” Bingaman says. “The dogs do what we want them to do, but actually they do it because they think it’s their decision.”
Change isn’t easy, especially for police officers who, by way of the job description, are fault-finders. (When’s the last time an officer pulled you over to reward you for not speeding?) Initial concerns within the department centered on the fear that a positively trained dog would lack respect for the handler. Police agencies specifically select strong-willed dogs who love the fight and have been trained to bite from early puppyhood. This sometimes results in a dog challenging the proverbial pecking order.
“When a dog says, ‘Hey, I don’t want to do that,’ and he tries to eat you, there’s some compulsion in that, but it’s remedied quickly,” Bingaman says. “Like any training, there has to be a balance and once we got the balance right, we all realized it’s quite a pleasure working a dog with operant conditioning and the conflict was eroded.” He estimates that training is now approximately 80 percent reinforcement and 20 percent punishment whereas historically, those numbers would be reversed. Further, because of all the operant groundwork, when punishment is deemed necessary, it’s dispensed at far lower levels. Once he switched to positive reinforcement training, Bingaman was able to work his last dog in the field without needing a single correction for the remainder of the dog’s career. “This new dog, I can go out and run his control work and his obedience and everything without any collar on,” he says.
He often marvels at the pet owners he encounters who claim that negative reinforcement or punishment is necessary to handle their own dogs. “If I can run a hard dog using (positive reinforcement-based) training methods 80 percent of the time, I don’t know why people couldn’t train their pet dogs with at least 99 percent (positive reinforcement) training.”
Positive Training Pays Off in the Long Run
Smart dog training is simple, but that doesn’t make it easy. One of the biggest mistakes pet owners make is thinking their dog “knows” something long before he really does. When the dog’s behavior falters, some owners choose to punish the dog (which often results in a desired behavior change, but usually only temporarily) while others blame the technique, declaring it ineffective. In today’s instant gratification society, it’s hard not to demand desired results right away, but as the Phoenix Police Department found, diligence and patience are valuable virtues.
“It’s a very time-consuming process for us,” admits Bingaman. “At the compulsion end we could have dogs up and running in a couple months or less, but the long-term effects were shorter and we continually had to put in more training. With the operant training, our (maintenance) training hours can be reduced and we have dogs who, if we didn’t do any training for weeks, can still come out and work because they’ve learned (the tasks) for the right reason.”
One of the biggest advantages of the agency’s switch to positive reinforcement training has been removing conflict from the dog-handler relationship.
“Nobody wants to fight with their dog. Most of us have been at this job long enough to have been on the receiving end of the bites while in training – it’s part of the job,” Bingaman says. “Nobody wants to be in conflict with their partner. As soon as it was realized that we could train with minimal amounts of compulsion, everybody bought into it. These dogs are an investment for us, not only monetarily for the city, but for us emotionally – we become attached to the dogs.”
The dramatic reduction in compulsion also helps protect their investment by lengthening the dogs’ careers. In compulsion training, all the corrections on a pinch or choke collar come from the neck, which can breakdown vertebrae and eventually shorten or end a dog’s career.
Check Your Ego at the Door
Ego often interferes with good dog training. Much of the often inhumane actions inflicted on dogs are based on the handler’s need to feel dominant over the animal.
“You can shoot yourself in the foot if you take it personally when the dog doesn’t listen to you,” says Bingaman. “If a dog’s not listening, I need to step back and look at how I need to adjust my training – it’s the human end of it that’s missing something. The dog is a simple-minded animal. There’s no conspiracy going on in the dog’s head, no matter what people think.”
The problem with ego is compounded by the general human misunderstanding that dogs have the logical capability to know right from wrong to a degree that they can make a logical decision. Dogs make behavioral decisions, not logical ones. The dog will only do what the dog wants to do. As White often explains it, whenever you ask a dog to do something, the first thought that goes through his mind is, “What’s in it for me right now?”
“The dog has to have the desire to do it,” reiterates Eden. “If he doesn’t get a reward for what he’s doing, he’ll only do it to avoid punishment. When you have a dog who’s constantly under stress and doing things to avoid punishment, he won’t work as intensely, as efficiently, or as stress-free as one who does it because he understands and knows what he needs to do to get the desired result.
“A dog who loves to go out and work is closely bonded to his handler because they mesh together as a team. If it looks like they understand each other – it’s because they do. The handler has figured out how to work the dog at the dog’s level. Many people don’t think at the dog’s level; they expect the dog to think at their level.”
It’s a Slow Process
Dog trainers have a saying: “The only thing two dog trainers can agree on is what the third dog trainer is doing wrong.” In attempting to transform the world of police canine training, this trio of dedicated trainers and their colleagues are careful not to be too heavy-handed in their efforts to convert others. The success of agencies like the Phoenix Police Department, combined with the public scrutiny made possible by the proliferation of phone-based video cameras and YouTube, have helped White become even more hopeful that more agencies will begin to explore positive reinforcement training.
“The word is getting out there,” says Bingaman, who, thanks to a supportive management team at Phoenix Police Department, routinely travels to demonstrate positive methods to others, including several other agencies throughout Arizona. “It comes down to them (the law enforcement dog handlers). We can show them what it takes to get the dog off compulsion, but it comes down to the work they want to put into it. People see our dogs and know the success we have in our profiles, but ultimately it boils down to the individual – they have to want to do it.”
Both White and Eden caution against the tendency of some positive reinforcement trainers (professional or pet owners) to openly bad-mouth the use of other methods, recommending instead that they focus that energy into training their dogs and the dogs of clients to show – not tell – how their method is better.
“The positive reinforcement community has been talking about this now for a long time,” White says. “The time has come for us to put up or shut up – to produce a result that other people want so badly, they beg us to show them how we got it.”
It’s what Seattle, Phoenix, and a handful of other police officers and agencies have done. “My successors are doing it. I feel really proud that the guy who’s in charge of the unit I was part of for so long is moving in the right direction,” says White. “The tipping point will come if we continue to pursue it.”
Like any good shaping plan, success doesn’t come overnight. It’s all about learning to recognize small successes en route to the end result. Baby steps in a positive direction.
K9 POSITIVE TRAINING: OVERVIEW
1. Do your best to eliminate compulsion from your training. Look for every opportunity to reinforce your dog for increasingly better efforts.
2. Support your local police canine foundation; they’re often a source of funding for police K9 units.
Stephanie Colman is a writer and dog trainer in Los Angeles. She shares her life with two dogs and actively competes in obedience and agility.
Denise Mankin, DVM, was on duty late one night in a Des Moines, Iowa, emergency veterinary clinic when Yeller, a Labrador Retriever, was rushed in sporting a fresh wound to his back. Yeller had been shot after escaping from his rural home.
Photo courtesy Hemopet.
After stabilizing Yeller with IV fluids, antibiotics, and pain medications, Mankin opened up the dog’s abdomen to find blood filling his abdominal cavity. A bullet had perforated Yeller’s small intestine in five different locations, and two of the sites were hemorrhaging profusely. Within moments, his blood pressure plummeted. As Mankin worked desperately to tie off the blood supply to his damaged bowel, Yeller went into cardiac arrest. Cardiac drugs restored Yeller’s heart beat, and donor blood, having been warmed for transfusion, was pumped into him.
If your dog were to require an emergency blood transfusion, would your veterinarian have access to blood to save your dog’s life?
Veterinary medicine has become increasingly sophisticated, with trends paralleling those in human medicine – including the increased demand for canine blood and therefore formal blood banking services. Well-equipped private emergency clinics often maintain their own blood banks. Smaller clinics may rely on local blood donor programs or banking services might be provided by university veterinary teaching hospitals. A few commercial and non-profit animal blood banks also have been established.
However, according to world-renowned veterinarian W. Jean Dodds, CEO and founder of Hemopet in Garden Grove, California, “Despite these efforts, most of the country’s needs are not being met. The demand exceeds supply and the individual clinic programs may not be standardized to ensure safety and efficacy. A coordinated national effort is still an essential next step to maximally utilize what is available and set appropriate procedural standards.”
The University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine in Athens is one of many vet schools that has a canine (and feline) blood donor program. Its program utilizes thoroughly screened donor dogs belonging to veterinary school staff, students, and faculty. Producing close to 400 units of product per year, the UGA blood bank serves only critical care patients who are treated at the university’s small animal hospital; it does not provide blood to outside veterinary clinics. Despite this volume, the UGA blood bank can’t completely meet the demand from the university’s veterinary hospital – blood products expire, sometimes demand is too high – so it, too, will occasionally order from a national canine blood bank.
There are advantages and disadvantages of obtaining blood or blood products from a local donor and blood banks. According to Dr. Dodds, “As long as the local donor is blood type compatible and screened for infectious diseases, this blood – if properly collected and prepared – is just as beneficial as blood obtained from the handful of commercial veterinary blood banks in the country, large veterinary emergency clinics and institutions such as the Animal Medical Center in New York, or veterinary school blood donor programs that serve their clinical teaching hospitals.
“The advantage of the products from an animal blood bank are proven quality, prepared according to generally acceptable veterinary transfusion medicine standards or regulations (California only), and availability. Blood from these blood banks can be stored refrigerated for up to 46 days (packed red blood cells) and frozen for up to 5 years (fresh-frozen plasma).”
Blood Products and Their Uses
There are a number of acute and chronic conditions that call for your dog to be treated with blood or blood products. “Acute conditions include trauma, surgery, acute hemolytic anemia, or bleeding from accidents such as rat poisoning or from an inherited bleeding disease,” says Dr. Dodds.
“Chronic conditions include chronic disease, cancer, chemotherapy reactions, immune-mediated blood cell destruction, recurrent bleeding from an inherited condition, liver failure, bone marrow failure, or kidney failure.”
Blood transfusions don’t come cheap. At UGA, some canine blood components cost $150 to $300 per unit, and up to $500 for whole blood. A dog suffering from an acute crisis can require $1,000 worth of blood products, alone, in one day.
The most commonly used blood components are whole blood, packed red blood cells, fresh and frozen plasma, and cryoprecipitate. One of Dr. Dodds’ missions is to educate the veterinary community about efficiently and safely utilizing this precious resource, including using blood components, rather than whole blood, for transfusions.
Whole blood is collected directly from a donor animal. It can be used immediately or chilled for future transfusion or separation into blood components. Whole blood contains red blood cells, coagulation factors, and some white cells and platelets – but only when used within 24 hours of collection. Whole blood is generally reserved for use in acute cases in which the patient has lost a great volume of blood.
Packed red blood cells (PRBCs) are a concentrated source of red blood cells. This is the preferred source of red blood cells for most medical needs; PRCBs have a longer shelf life than whole blood, avoid the risk of “fluid volume overload” in compromised patients, and pose less risk of adverse immunologic reactions to plasma proteins.
Fresh plasma is essentially blood from which the red blood cells have been removed; it’s sometimes referred to as “platelet-poor plasma.” Fresh frozen plasma is the same thing, only frozen. Platelet-rich plasma is just what it sounds like; platelets (also known as thrombocytes) play a critical role in blood clotting. If a dog has too few platelets, excessive bleeding may occur. Platelet-rich plasma may be given to dogs with platelet dysfunction, or to sustain oncology patients whose platelets have been damaged by chemotherapy. Cryoprecipitate is a plasma concentrate indicated for treatment of severe bleeding (or in anticipation of surgically caused bleeding) caused by deficiences of plasma factor VIII, von Willebrand factor, or fibrinogen.
Your Dog’s Blood Type
Most of us are familiar with the concept of blood “type” – the phrase is going by the way in favor of the phrase blood “group.” In dogs, there are at least 12 different canine blood groups; 6 are fairly common. Blood groups are determined by the presence or absence of different antigens on the surface of the dog’s red blood cells; these are known as Dog Erythrocyte Antigens (DEA) and are identified by numbers, such as 1.1, 1.2, 3, and 4. To make matters even more confusing, a dog can have more than one group; for example, he can be “typed” as DEA 4 and 7, or DEA 1.1, 4, and 7!
As with humans, there is a “universal donor” blood group for dogs: DEA 4. If the emergency is not life-threatening, commercial animal blood products such as packed red blood cells and fresh-frozen plasma can be ordered by your veterinarian for overnight delivery anywhere in North America. These blood products typically come from so-called “universal donor” dogs; true universal donor blood is automatically compatible with the red blood cell type of any recipient dog patient.
Also like humans, dogs can suffer adverse reactions to transfused blood or blood products from dogs with types that are different from their own. Transfusion reactions rarely occur upon the first transfusion – but a transfusion from a dog with a different blood type than the recipient will sensitize the recipient’s immune system to that type. Subsequent transfusions with the same type of blood in the future will cause an adverse transfusion reaction. This is why blood typing for “repeat customers” is very important.
Vet emergency clinics generally keep in-office blood typing equipment on hand, so they can type your dog’s blood before giving him an emergency transfusion, but these kits are less reliable than tests conducted by veterinary laboratories. Having your dog’s blood sent to a lab for typing is highly recommended by many veterinary experts. It’s inexpensive and easy, and having the information ahead of time could be incredibly helpful if your dog had a serious medical emergency or trauma.
“It is always medically sound to know the blood type of the donor blood, and if not from a universal donor, the blood type of the recipient patient should also be known,” says Dr. Dodds. “Even if an emergency transfusion was given between two dogs of unknown type, the donor and recipient can always be blood typed after the fact for future reference.”
“Crossmatching” is another laboratory tool that can determine serologic compatibility (or incompatibility) between a donor and recipient. In a crossmatch, donor red cells are mixed with plasma from the recipient. If antibodies exist in the recipient plasma to antigens on the red cells of the donor, transfusion reactions can occur. Previously transfused dogs should be crossmatched prior to subsequent transfusions, even if the transfusion is from the previous donor.
Donor Dogs — Do You Have What It Takes?
Commercial animal blood banks in California are closed colonies of dogs (or cats) and are regulated by law through the State Department of Food & Agriculture. These blood banks are licensed and inspected annually by the state.
In the state of California, commercial sale of volunteer donor blood from privately owned pets is not permitted.
W. Jean Dodds, DVM, established the first private 501(c)(3) non-profit animal blood bank, Hemopet, in July l99l. Dr. Dodds’ goal was to do for animals what the American Red Cross did for humans: develop a national blood bank and education network. Today, Hemopet services more than 2,000 veterinary clinics in the U.S., Canada and Hong Kong.
Hemopet’s licensed facility houses a colony of healthy, canine donors – all Greyhounds rescued from the racing industry – of universal blood type (DEA 4). Commercial animal blood banks in California are regulated by law through the State Department of Food & Agriculture. Hemopet’s Greyhounds are maintained in an outstanding environment, screened for an inclusive list of pathogens, current on all vaccinations, and neutered. They also have access to on-site 24 hour-a-day veterinary care. About 200 donors live in Hemopet’s new, large facility, and are part of a novel rescue-donor-adoption program, Pet Life-Line.
You should ask your veterinarian or call your local veterinary emergency hospital to see if they have a volunteer donor program. Your dog could be a volunteer blood donor if he or she is at least 50 pounds, of stable temperament, a young healthy adult, and, if female, preferably spayed (to avoid heat cycle influences). To qualify as a donor, a complete health exam is performed along with lab testing for CBC, serum chemistry, bleeding disease screening (e.g., for Von Willebrand disease), heartworm check, and screening for more common infectious diseases transmitted by blood.
Registered veterinary technician Anna Santos has been with the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, Small Animal Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Athens for 13 years. She cares for thousands of critical care patients yearly at the hospital, and heads its donor and transfusion program. She explains that canine blood donation is not a big deal for the dog — although the right temperament helps! The time from when a needle is placed (to draw blood) until it is removed is only about eight minutes. Santos describes it as very similar to the experience of donating blood at the Red Cross, all the way down to the “cookies” provided to patients post-donation! Each appointment takes less than a half hour, but the donor dog’s caregiver must be willing to make a significant commitment to the program: UGA requires that the dog come in every two months to donate over a period of one year. This is not an uncommon requirement made by canine blood banks.
The Gift of Life
After two hours in surgery, and an additional four hours on a ventilator, Yeller (the Labrador who’d been shot) made a full recovery. The combination of expert veterinary care and donor blood saved his life. Dr. Mankin says she has never lost a patient due to lack of blood availability; her clinic has always had blood on hand or had a donor dog nearby for blood collection if their stock was depleted. How many lives has she helped save with donor blood? “Wow, there are soooo many stories!”
CANINE BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS: OVERVIEW
1. Talk with your vet about having your dog’s blood typed. Keep a permanent record of the results in a safe place.
2. Find out in advance if blood would be readily available — and from where — for your dog should she require an emergency transfusion.
3. If your dog is young and healthy, consider signing her up to be a blood donor. Understand that she will be thoroughly screened for temperament and health, and that you’ll be signing up for a significant, but worthwhile, commitment. Your dog might save another’s life!
Lisa Rodier is a frequent contributor to WDJ. She lives in Alpharetta, GA, with her husband and a senior Bouvier.
Your dog grabs your stuff and runs away either because she knows you’re going to take it from her and she doesn’t want you to, or she’s inviting you to join in her a fun game of “Catch me if you can.” In either case, chasing after her is usually the least effective way to get your stuff back. Besides the obvious “management, to prevent her access to your stuff,” and “exercise (mental and physical) to keep her happily otherwise occupied,” here are five suggestions that will maximize your chances of getting your precious thing(s) back quickly, relatively unscathed.
When your dog steals something, try these tricks:
1. Run the other way
Really. Chasing after your dog almost guarantees she will run away. If her motivation for stuff-grabbing is to get you to play, she may be just as happy to chase you. Let her chase you into a reasonably small space, close the door, and then employ Suggestion #3, 4, or 5 to convince her to give you your stuff back. (If her motivation is to get and keep stuff rather than get you to chase after her to play, this one probably won’t work. Go on to Suggestion #2.)
2. Quietly follow your dog
If your dog wants to keep your stuff rather than play with you, any noise and fury on your part will cement her intentions and make it infinitely harder to get the thing away from her. You risk triggering aggression in a dog who already guards, or teaching it to one who doesn’t yet. Be calm and cheerful. I know; it’s hard to be calm and cheerful when your dog has your valuable heirloom keepsake. Do it anyway. When the opportunity presents itself, engage in Suggestion #3 or 5, but carefully. Suggestion #4 may work, but is less successful when your dog’s motivation is keeping rather than playing. Because the dog in this scenario is likely to be guardy, any pressure on your part may cause her to hold onto the item more intensely, or even bite you. Don’t corner or trap her; that could increase the risk of aggression. If she takes the item into her crate, do not reach in to get it until you have successfully negotiated her out of her crate.
3. Trade for treats
Now that she’s not running away, your best chance at getting your thing back unshredded is to have your dog give it up willingly. If you try to grab it you’re likely to end up in a game of tug, and your stuff will suffer. To trade, simply convince your dog to drop your thing in exchange for something irresistible. Every room in my house has a container full of “something wonderfuls” just in case I need them. My favorites (and my dogs’) is Canz “Real Meat Treats.” I get them from dogcatsupply.com. They are top quality ingredients, moist and meaty, and need not be refrigerated.
If your dog won’t trade for a treat in your hand, drop some treats on the ground. When your things are safely back in your own possession, vow to train your dog to give up objects happily on cue.
4. Throw a toy for your dog fetch
If your dog is more into tennis balls or plush toys than treats, engage her in play with her toy to get her to let go of yours. Keep at least one very favorite toy on a shelf in every room. The sound of her squeaky toy, or the mere sight of her beloved ball or tug rope, is usually enough for a toy-fanatic to drop your possession so she can go after hers. After all, she just wanted to play in the first place. Be sure to play for a while, so she doesn’t get wise to your scheme.
5. Use diversion tactics
What else does your dog love to do? Go for a walk? Ride in the car? Eat dinner? Get the squirrel? If you have stock phrases you use with your dog that will trigger an immediate, wildly enthusiastic response, try one of those (you have to sound genuine!) to see if you can get her brain to switch gears. At the sound of an excited “Get in the car!” she may well drop your thing and head for the door. Of course, then you are obligated to take her for a ride. If you lie to your dog, sooner or later your karma will come back to bite you!
Pat Miller, CPDT-KA, CDBC, is WDJ’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Pat is also author of several books on positive training.
A few months ago, I wrote about the British Kennel Club’s registration of two special Dalmatians over the objections of the breed clubs there (WDJ June 2010). These two dogs were the result of a breeding project begun in 1973, in which a single outcross to a Pointer was made in order to reintroduce the normal gene for uric acid back into the Dalmatian bloodline.
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Fourteen generations later, more than 99.98 percent of the offspring’s genes are identical to those of a purebred Dalmatian. The one critical exception is that, unlike every other dog registered by both the British and American Kennel Clubs, these dogs are no longer at risk of forming urate bladder stones, a painful and potentially deadly condition caused by a genetic mutation carried by all Dalmatians.
Since that article was written, there have been some new developments. First, an update on what has been happening in Britain: Fiona (Fiacre First and Foremost), the first low uric acid (LUA) Dalmatian registered with the Kennel Club, has been winning at shows. While naysayers claimed her first win was “fixed,” Fiona’s group win the following week proved that these dogs are indistinguishable from other Dalmatians, and worthy of inclusion in breeding programs.
Meanwhile, back here in the States, theAmerican Kennel Club (AKC) Health & Welfare Advisory Committee submitted a report with the following recommendation:
“Because the introduction of the low uric acid dogs into the AKC registry gives Dalmatian breeders a scientifically sound method of voluntarily reducing the incidence of the condition, this committee strongly recommends some controlled program of acceptance of these dogs. Where the strict health and welfare of the breed is the over-riding concern, no other argument can be made.”
Despite these findings from its own committee, the AKC board voted in November to defer a decision until after June 2011, when a vote of the Dalmatian Club of America’s membership would be held. Since the breed clubs in both Britain and the U.S. have remained staunchly opposed to registration of LUA dogs, it seems unlikely that this vote will show them putting the welfare of their breed above their concerns of genetic purity. While AKC says it will “consider this vote, along with other factors in reaching its final decision,” don’t hold your breath in hopes that they will do the right thing.
In the meantime, another dog has paid the ultimate price for the breeders’ shortsightedness. Armstrong, a seven-year-old Dalmatian who worked as a therapy dog at the children’s cancer unit at the Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, was put to sleep due to uncontrollable urate stones.
Armstrong had previously undergone multiple surgeries to remove stones, followed by a urethrostomy, where the dog’s urethra is rerouted away from the penis to a new, surgically created opening. Even after such a drastic measure, Armstrong continued to form stones, requiring two more surgeries just five months apart.
His owner, Shelley Gallagher of Sandy, Utah, had been feeding Armstrong a low-purine diet, giving him extra fluids to help dilute his urine, letting him out to urinate every few hours (including every night at 2 am), and obsessively monitoring him – all, ultimately, to no avail.
If you’d like to let the Dalmatian Club of America know how you feel about this, email its president, Meg Hennessey, at president@thedca.org. For those interested in LUA Dalmatians, they are currently registered in the U.S. only with the United Kennel Club (UKC). – Mary Straus
There’s a new dog coming into your life who needs to learn her name. A puppy perhaps? Or maybe an adult rescue “do-over” dog? You might even have a dog who’s been with you for a while, but just doesn’t respond to her name as promptly as you’d like. If you’re eagerly anticipating the arrival of a new canine family member, be sure to put “teaching the name response” on top of your dog to-do list. And if you’re frustrated that your current dog doesn’t appear to know who she is, don’t fret; it’s never too late to teach this very important behavior.
How to Name Your Dog
We humans develop a personal attachment to our own names at a very early age. I am Pat Miller. Your WDJ editor is Nancy Kerns. Even a young child, when he hears his name, registers a “that’s me!” response. Our dogs, probably not so much. Although we can’t know for sure unless and until some day we can actually get inside their heads, it’s likely that a dog just learns to associate the sound of her name with (we hope) “good stuff” in the same way she associates other things (a ball, a leash, the car keys, the clicker) with good stuff.
Looks can be deceiving. When I say “Lucy!” only our Corgi gets excited. If I call “Scooter!” our Pomeranian does the happy dance. Our Scottie comes running if I call “Dubhy!” while we’re doing barn chores, while the rest of our dogs continue about their business. It sure seems that they know who they are! However, the simplest and most likely explanation, is that each of them, over time, has learned that good stuff happens for them when they hear their name sound, but not the other name sounds. That doesn’t mean they grasp the “I am my name” concept that we humans seem to instinctively understand.
Here is the key to teaching your dog to respond to her name: Name = good stuff. It’s almost as simple as that. While teaching your dog that her name means good stuff, you also need to be careful not to send her a mixed message. If you sometimes use her name to yell at her in anger, she’s likely to stop and weigh her options. “Let’s see… I wonder if a good thing will happen this time, or if a bad thing will happen. Hmmmmm.”
If she has to stop and think about it, it’s too slow. You want that unpoisoned, instantaneous, automatic “Yay! Good stuff!” response when she hears her name-sound. So, as you go forward teaching your new dog her name, be sure to keep it always positive. If you must yell at your dog, do it without using her name. If you think your dog’s name is already poisoned, consider giving her a new one, and then teach her that the new name is the best sound in the world.
Choosing a Good Name Can Improve Your Dog’s Training!
As a child, I was enchanted by TS. Eliot’s The Book of Practical Cats, especially his poem, The Naming of Cats. I had the whole thing memorized at one time, and can still recite parts of it, starting with, “The naming of cats is a difficult matter — it’s not just one of your everyday games And you may think I’m as mad as a hatter when I tell you a cat must have three different names.”
Eliot may have thought naming cats was difficult, but I think naming dogs is infinitely harder. The wrong name can be a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom, while the right one can steer a dog onto the road to success. “Killer” and “Stupid” are obviously poor name choices, while “Champ” and “Hero” are clear winners. Dogster.com breaks down dog naming nicely here.
But it’s not always as clear cut as that. The owner who gets a new puppy at Christmas and names her “Noel” or “Snowbird” may realize too late that the unfortunate inclusion of the sound “No” in her dog’s name can create a strong negative name-association rather than the positive one we strive for — especially if it’s an owner who hasn’t fully bought into positive training and uses a strong aversive “No!” reprimand. Check your prospective dog name choices for any negative sounds and toss out any that might have a bad association.
In a multi-dog household, it’s best to avoid redundant name sounds. We made the mistake of naming our Scotty “Dubhy” (pronounced “Duffy”) while Dusty, our aging Pomeranian, was still with us. Although we vowed never to do that again because of the confusion it caused, we currently have a “Missy” and a “Lucy” – close enough that it can also create “mistaken identity” incidents between the two.
Multi-syllabic names are usually shortened to nicknames, so that’s not a problem: “Footloose and Fancy Free” becomes “Lucy,” and “Bonnie Wee Lass” is just Bonnie. Even nicknames are fine – a dog has no problem with happy associations with many different name-sounds. “Lucy” is also “Lulu”; “Dubhy” is “Doodles”; “Bonnie” can be “Bon-Bons”; and “Scooter” is also quite happy to respond to “Scootie Man.”
Clients often ask me about changing a dog’s name. Of course, many shelter and rescue dogs arrive without names. They may be given temporary names by staff and volunteers, but adopters often choose a different name once they get their dogs home – and dogs do just fine with that. Some people spend hours trying out different names to see if the dog responds to any of them, but that’s not necessary. In fact. if you have reason to suspect your new dog may have any kind of negative association with the name he came with – abuse, neglect, or harsh training methods – you are better off changing it.
Like many dog owners, we like to select names for each of our four-legged family members that have some special significance. We had a cat for 18 years named “Gewurztraminer” because that’s the kind of wine we were drinking when we found him. “Dubhy” means “dark” in Gaelic – appropriate for our Scottish dog. My husband, Paul, wanted to name our current Pomeranian “Harley,” because we have great times together on our motorcycle. “But,” I said, “He’s too little to be a Harley. He’s more the size of a scooter.” So “Scooter” he is.
Teaching Dogs the Name Response
Remember that your dog’s name does not mean come. It simply means “Look at me and wait for further instructions.” It’s important to make this distinction. There will be times when you want your dog’s attention but you don’t necessarily want her to come running to you. If she’s on the other side of the room and you want her to lie down there, you might say, “Lucy,” and when she looks at you, say “Down.” The more you aspire to advanced levels of communication and training with your dog, the more important it is that each cue has a very clear and specific meaning.
In order to train your dog you must be able to capture and retain her attention. Teach your dog to respond to her name by associating it with a click (or a verbal marker such as “Yes!”) and a food reward. At first, when your dog is already looking at you, say her name, click, and offer her a treat. Do this several times to create an association between the sound of her name and the resulting click-and-treat.
Teach her to continue to focus on you by clicking and giving her a reward several times, for time periods that gradually increase in length, as she continues to look at you.
You’ll have the most success with this if you start off with a high-value treat. If I wanted you to look at me instantly when I say “Fribbit,” I might say “Fribbit” and hand you a one hundred dollar bill. That would get your attention! If I give you a one hundred dollar bill every time you hear me say “Fribbit,” you’ll probably become pretty consistent about looking at me for “Fribbit.” In time, even if you don’t get a hundred dollars for every “Fribbit,” you’re still going to look, in hopes that this”Fribbit” might be a winner.
Now think about your response if, instead of a hundred dollar bill, I gave you a penny every time I said “Fribbit.” You probably wouldn’t care much, if at all. You’d quickly get bored with pennies and look for something more rewarding and interesting to do. Find your dog’s equivalent of a one hundred dollar bill. It might be dried liver, cheese, anchovies, bits of canned chicken . . . try a variety of foods to find the one that immediately captures your dog’s rapt attention.
You can also use life rewards for teaching the name response. If your dog is a tennis ball nut, say her name, and when she looks, toss her the ball. Life rewards tend to slow down the repetition process (it usually takes longer to deliver repeated life rewards – you have to get the ball back before you can do it again), but if it’s something your dog really loves you can make up for lost repetition time with the enthusiasm of the response and the faster positive-association time.
When you think the association has been established between your dog’s name and the high-value treat, wait until she glances away, then say her name. (You might have to hide the treats behind your back, stop making eye contact, and wait a while to get her to look away.) If she looks back at you right away when you say her name, click and give her a treat.
If she doesn’t look at you immediately, don’t say her name again; instead, make a “kissy noise” (very technical dog training term) to get her to look at you; then click and treat. If you have to make the kissy noise several times in a row as you repeat the exercise, back up and spend more time creating a stronger association between the name and the click-treat while she’s looking at you, before trying again when she looks away.
Adding Distractions to Name Training
When you’re getting a very prompt and consistent “snap” of your dog’s head back to you at the sound of her name, you’re ready to start adding distractions. Start with small distractions at first; you want to set up your dog to succeed, not flunk the first test. Ask a family member to make a small noise on the other side of the room. When your dog glances in that direction, say her name, and when her head snaps back, click and give her a treat.
If she doesn’t look back at you immediately, use your kissy noise to get her to look. When she looks, click and treat. If you have to “kiss” to get her to look several times in a row, go back to working without distractions again for a while, and/or find a higher-value reinforcer.
When you’re getting a reliable snap-back name response with low-level distractions, gradually increase the amount of environmental interference. First, increase distractions in your own home environment with more sound and/or movement of other family members, including four-legged ones, then up the ante by taking the show on the road. Play the name-response game when you’re taking your dog for a walk around the block, hanging out at your son’s soccer game, and playing at the dog park.
If you lose your dog’s response at any step of the process, back up to your last level of success, spend some more time working at that level, then move forward again, perhaps in smaller steps. Eventually you’ll have a rock-solid name response from your dog that, along with reinforcement for increasing length of attention, will serve you both well as you live and learn together for many years to come.
NAMING YOUR DOG: OVERVIEW
1. Consider carefully and choose wisely if you are naming (or renaming) your dog.
2. Commit to giving your dog a very consistent, very positive association with the name you choose. Name = good stuff. Always.
3. Protect that positive association for the rest of your dog’s life so her name never becomes “poisoned” by you or by anyone else who comes in contact with your dog.
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, is WDJ’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Pat is also author of several books on positive training, including her latest: Do Over Dogs: Give Your Dog a Second Chance for a First Class Life.
Interest in homemade diets has never been greater, especially since the huge pet food recall of 2007. Last month, I reviewed books that explained how to feed a homemade canine diet based on raw meaty bones (RMBs). This month, I’ll look at books about boneless diets – by far the largest category of books.
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Unfortunately, I found a lot of bad books out there. Many of the recipes provided in the books are nutritionally inadequate! There’s no harm in using them from time to time, or to replace a small portion (up to 25 percent) of a commercial food diet, but anyone who relies on these books to feed their dogs a homemade diet is likely to end up with issues that could range from dry skin to crippling orthopedic conditions.
Calcium, in particular, is often mentioned only in passing or left out of recipes entirely. As just one example of the problems this can cause, I heard from one person who relied on four popular homemade diet books, none of which stressed the importance of added calcium, to create a diet for her puppy. As a result, her pup developed nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism, a metabolic disorder caused by lack of calcium that can lead to bone deformities and spontaneous fractures. At one point, her puppy’s bones were so soft that when an X-ray was being taken, the technicians actually bent the leg bone. I’m happy to say that the pup appears to have made a full recovery once she began adding calcium to his diet, but this could have resulted in irreparable damage.
In contrast with the RMB books, the books reviewed here provide recipes rather than just diet guidelines. Most of the food is cooked; only two books suggest using raw meat (and only one requires it). Some recipes are simple, consisting of a few, basic ingredients, while others are indistinguishable from human recipes, with multiple ingredients, seasonings, and preparation steps. All diets include grains, though the percentages of meat, grains, and vegetables varies considerably.
Whichever one you choose, please read the whole book, not just the recipes. All of the books I recommend contain essential information in the text about substitutions, supplements, and more. Using the recipes without reading the rest could lead to critical errors in the overall diet.
Unless a book says specifically that the recipes are approved for puppies or for all life stages, assume that they are meant for adult dogs only. Puppies and pregnant or nursing females have special nutritional requirements; if you want to feed them a homemade diet, you must make sure it will meet their needs.
Except where noted, all of the books listed below are available from Amazon.com and other bookstores. Many are also available from Dogwise (dogwise.com; 800-776-2665).
These reviews are directed at homemade diets only. Many of the books contain additional chapters on such topics as herbs, homeopathy, grooming, and more. My recommendation of a book’s diet does not mean that I endorse anything else that the book may say.
I’m saving the best for last: three books that have analyzed all recipes to ensure that they meet the latest NRC guidelines. Each of these books offers recipes for diets with and without raw meaty bones, so whichever type of diet you want to feed is covered. Two of the books focus on raw, grain-free diets approved for all life stages (cooking is permitted), while the third offers cooked and raw recipes, with and without grains, designed for adult dogs only. This review will be published in an upcoming issue.
Home-prepared pioneer Dr. Pitcairn was an early advocate for homemade diets for dogs, publishing the first edition of Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats way back in 1981.
The latest edition (2005) offers several improvements. The recipes have been revamped; most are moderately higher in both protein and fat and lower in carbs than before. For example, the Doggie Oats recipe increased the amount of meat from two to three pounds and decreased the amount of oats from eight to five cups. The amount of bone meal to add to each recipe has been clarified, as different products vary in how much calcium they contain.
A wide variety of foods are recom-mended, including various meats, liver, eggs, dairy products, grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruit, along with garlic, yeast, and flavorings as soy sauce. Some ingredients, such as liver and fish oil, are discussed in the text but are not included in the recipes. Supplements include vegetable oil; bone meal; vitamins A, D, and E; and Healthy Powder (a mixture of yeast, lecithin, kelp, vitamin C, and bone meal).
Pitcairn stresses the need for variety and suggests substitutions for meats and grains in his recipes. Four of the recipes are vegetarian, but they use eggs and dairy products for protein, which is acceptable. While his recipes are higher in carbs than I prefer, with 36 to 61 percent in the regular meals, they have an adequate amount of protein, ranging from 23 to 33 percent. According to Pitcairn, “You may also feed any of the basic cat recipes to dogs,” a good choice if you want to feed meals that are higher in protein and lower in carbs. Special recipes are provided for dogs with kidney disease, allergies, and weight loss; the latter are high in carbohydrates (not ideal).
Despite the high carbs, this is still one of the better homemade diet books around. You can rely on these recipes to provide complete nutrition for your dog.
Another updated classic The 2000 edition of Holistic Guide for a Healthy Dog has been completely reorganized, but the diet presented in the book is virtually identical to the original version. A single recipe is provided, split into two meals: a cereal meal that makes up 25 percent and a meat meal that makes up 75 percent of the diet. Cottage cheese is substituted for meat one day a week, and there is a half-day fast (modified cereal meal only) one day each week. The diet is 35 percent protein, 17 to 20 percent fat, and 34 to 39 percent carbs on a dry matter basis.
Much information is unclear in this book, including the amount of bone meal to use, which appears to be too high. The problem is that bone meal can vary greatly in how much calcium it contains. I finally found the brand of bone meal used buried in Appendix 2. I looked it up online and discovered this particular brand has just 720 mg calcium per teaspoon, half the amount found in many products. With no guidance in the text, however, I’m sure many people would get this wrong.
Volhard recommends feeding only beef meat, as she says “testing thousands of dogs through kinesiology for over 20 years has shown me that the majority of dogs prefer beef.” Variations are provided only for dogs who cannot tolerate or will not eat the regular meals. There’s simply no reason to avoid variety, and many reasons not to.
There are other errors and ambiguities in the text, such as the statement that corn oil “contains only a tiny amount of linoleic acid.” You are advised to use blood tests to monitor the diet, but blood tests will not show nutritional deficiencies or excesses unless they are extreme (and often not even then). Many people have had success with this diet, but some dogs don’t like the cereal portion, and the supplements are complicated.
A tad complicated Better Food for Dogs is one of the better books that use human-style recipes, though that says more about the quality of the competition than about this book itself. Recipes average 40 percent protein, 45 percent carbohydrates, and 15 percent fat on a dry matter basis, which is acceptable.
Variety is stressed, with variations for some recipes provided, but I have a number of reservations about the recipes. Neither liver nor heart is included. Canola oil is added but no omega-3 fatty acids. Some recipes are overly complex.
I like the fact that tables are provided showing the average nutritional analysis for each set of recipes compared to NRC minimum requirements. However, they expect you to use these tables to calculate the amount of bone meal and other vitamin and mineral supplements to add.
As with many books co-authored by veterinarians, you are frequently urged to consult with a professional. I find many of these recommendations unnecessary or impractical, such as, “Giving your dog omega-3 fatty acid supplements should only be undertaken with the guidance of your veterinarian.” and “When purchasing [a daily multivitamin-and-mineral supplement intended for humans], use the charts in Chapter 7 and consult with your pharmacist to ensure that you are adding the proper supplementation without reaching toxic levels.”
All in all, I think this is a better book than those whose diets are higher in carbs and omit calcium, but the recipes and supplements may be more complicated than some people want to deal with.
Eat with a friend I first read Carol Boyle’s book, Natural Food Recipes for Healthy Dogs, in 2007, when she participated in the sample cooked diets portion of my series of homemade diet articles (“Reality Cooks,” WDJ July 2007). I liked Boyle’s approach to sharing your own meals with your dogs so much that I began incorporating some of her ideas into the diet I feed my own dogs.
Rereading the book now, I’m still impressed. Boyle has a practical, common sense style that makes home feeding seem simple. She calls it “the scatter-shot theory” of good nutrition, using variety, moderation, and balance over time to ensure that her dogs’ nutritional needs are met. She recommends feeding a diet that is two parts protein to one part carbohydrates by volume, with added servings of sweet potato, dairy, and eggs. She recommends feeding two to three meals a month of liver, and the same for canned fish.
It’s important to read Boyle’s text and not just look at the recipes, which are for individual foods rather than for meals. Boyle gives guidelines as to how to combine these foods into meals to create a complete diet. She also stresses the need to add calcium at the rate of 1,000 mg per pound of meat, and gives instructions on using ground eggshells to supply calcium. Note that some recipes include onions, which Boyle advises be removed before serving to dogs.
Boyle suggests feeding a percentage of your dog’s body weight daily. She provides little guidance on supplements, advising that you add vitamins C and E, fish oil, and possibly a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement.
Boyle’s book is a good choice for those who enjoy cooking. You may find it even helps you improve your own nutrition!
Fifty recipes My name is on the cover (as a contributor) of The Healthy Dog Cookbook. Isn’t there just the tiniest conflict of interest having me review my own book? Fair point – except it’s not really “my” book.
In 2007, I heard from an editor in England who had been contracted by TFH Publications to produce a homemade diet book for dogs. The editor asked if I would be willing to provide recipes for the book. I declined, as I prefer to give diet guidelines rather than recipes. The editor asked if I would write the introduction, and I agreed, provided that the recipes met my criteria: at least half animal products (meat, eggs, fish, dairy); organ meat (particularly liver) included in small amounts; no vegan recipes; and an appropriate amount of added calcium. To my surprise, they agreed.
In the end, I wrote not only the introduction, but also the information presented with each recipe, which included portion sizes (which I now feel are too high) and the amount of calcium to add. My introduction includes sections on the need to provide calcium, variety, and balance over time; protein, fat, and carbohydrates in the diet; food preparation; amount to feed; and supplements. I was paid a fee for my contributions; I do not receive royalties from its sale. I was not aware that they called me a “canine nutritionist” until after the book was published or I would have asked them to change it.
The recipes in this book use what I consider to be appropriate proportions, include a variety of foods, and aren’t complicated to make. Ingredients include various types of meat and fish, liver, heart, eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, pasta, oatmeal, barley, quinoa, brown rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, pumpkin, spinach, carrots, green beans, peas, asparagus, beets, tomatoes, peanuts, and fruit, plus herbs (parsley, dill, mint, thyme).
While this is not the book I would create myself, I think it’s better than many of the recipe books available, particularly those that do not include calcium.
Do as she does, not says I found myself intrigued by the diet that Joan Weiskopf, author of Pet Food Nation, feeds her own dogs. In her introduction, she describes breakfast five days a week of chicken liver, heart, and gizzards, sautéed in coconut oil. She adds string beans, zucchini, yogurt, and a fish oil gelcap, plus grains in winter. Two mornings a week, she feeds eggs for breakfast. Lunch consists of a raw chicken neck. Dinner is meat, including fish two days a week, plus seasonal vegetables, and sometimes rice or grains as well. So far, so good.
Unfortunately, it was downhill from there. Weiskopf’s book is disorganized, with similar but not always consistent information scattered among different chapters. Weiskopf recommends a diet that is 65 percent protein and 35 percent grains, vegetables, and fruits. Recipes are designed for dogs weighing 20 pounds; she gives no other guidance on portion sizes. While she recommends variety, she does not offer any substitutions in her recipes.
Calcium guidelines are jumbled, and only five of the nine breakfast and dinner recipes include calcium. Note that chicken necks are listed as “Dog Snack/Lunch” that she indulges her dogs in only if they are “particularly active (and insistent).” Supplement recommendations are similarly unclear. She includes “⅛ tsp. probiotic liquid” and “1 fish oil capsule” in her Monday-Friday breakfast recipe and “multivitamin/mineral for dogs” in three of her dinner recipes.
Recipes for dogs with kidney disease are overly restricted in protein. All of the recipes for dogs with health issues are high in fat.
Joan Weiskopf is listed as “MS, Veterinary Clinical Nutritionist,” but she is not a veterinarian. While this book is better than some, due to using appropriate ratios of protein and carbohydrates and including proper amounts of calcium, it is disorganized, sometimes contradictory, does not stress variety, and gives very little guidance regarding supplements. This diet won’t harm your dog, but you can do better.
Could have been simpler All of the information in Simple Cooking for Dogs 101 is acceptable, but even more details would have been helpful. Human-style recipes are designed to last a few days to a week. All recipes state how many cups they make, and a table gives portion sizes for dogs in eight weight categories. Calcium is not included in the recipes, but is described in the text with appropriate guidelines. Recommended supplements include Missing Link, garlic, canned pumpkin, fish oil, ground flaxseed meal, yogurt, probiotics, digestive enzymes, and various herbs. Guidance may not be specific enough for a beginner.
Mary Straus does research on canine health and nutrition topics as an avocation. She is the owner of the DogAware.com website. She lives with her Norwich Terrier, Ella, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
1. When doing early crate-training, don’t let your dog out of the crate when he’s whining or barking. Even if you’re certain he really needs to go potty, try to wait for a few moments of silence before opening the door.
2. Use the crate as a rewarding place, not a punishing one! If you use it consistently for “time-outs” rather than “time in with a Kong,” your dog will start to resent and avoid it.
I am a huge fan of crate training for dogs. I think the ability to spend an extended amount of time in an enclosed space quietly and calmly is a valuable life skill for dogs. And it certainly has dozens of benefits for us, too.
1. Dog has safe space where he can’t be bothered by other dogs or household pets or people.
2. Dog has a safe place to enjoy a bone or food-stuffed Kong, without worrying about having it taken away from him.
3. Dog has a comfortable, enclosed place to nap or sleep – somehow reminiscent of the canine’s evolutionary den.
4. In an emergency or in the case of an injury that requires the dog to be kept quiet, the dog can be safely contained, keeping him out of harm’s way in a familiar, comforting environment. This point is really important to me. In California, I’ve lived in areas that suffered week-long floods and fires that burned tens of thousands of acres. I was living in San Francisco when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck in 1989, sparking fires that destroyed dozens of homes. I have friends in the Bay Area who had to evacuate their neighborhood after a gas pipeline explosion a few months ago. I haven’t yet needed to evacuate my pets, but I could if I had to – and I wouldn’t have to worry that my dog was traumatized and freaking out because he was put into a crate. I also feel much better knowing that if he’s ever confined to a crate for a hospitalization or recovery from an injury, he’ll be absolutely content and comfortable.
5. If the dog is boarded or has to stay overnight or for an extended stay at a veterinary hospital, he’ll be much less anxious if he’s well habituated to his crate. My friend and trainer Sarah Richardson, of The Canine Connection in Chico, California, puts it this way: “It’s like eating at McDonalds in a foreign country – a familiar place where they can relax and know what to expect.”
Richardson also operates a daycare and boarding facility. She says there is a striking difference between dogs who are crate-trained and those who are not. “Daycare and boarding can be exciting for a dog, but they can also be stressful. Crate-trained dogs always seem grateful for some rest and relaxation in the midst of a stimulating stay here, and they come out of the crate refreshed and ready to play again. The crate has become their cue for relaxation. It’s much more difficult for dogs who aren’t crate-trained to fully relax and sleep well when they are in unfamiliar surroundings.”
Benefits to an Owner of Crate Training:
1. Peace of mind in an emergency (again, fires, flood, etc.).
2. Peace of mind that a comfortably crated dog can’t destroy one’s house or car.
3. As a testament for all the reasons to train your dog to perform a rock-solid sit, trainer Ian Dunbar often cites a list of things that a dog can’t do when it is sitting, such as jumping up, humping your leg, getting in a fight, etc. The list of things a dog can’t do while crated is even longer, and includes chewing through electrical cords, stealing your socks, getting into the garbage, tormenting the cat, and peeing behind the sofa. Also, I was caring for a friend’s dog once, and left him in my car for a short time while occupied with something else. When I came back, I found that he had chewed through every seat belt in the car. I don’t leave dogs uncrated in my car any more!
4. Crates are a valuable tool for house-training a dog. Few dogs will soil their crates if they can help it. After each stint in a crate, take them directly outdoors to potty. If they don’t go, bring them back inside and pop them right back into the crate. If they do potty, reward them lavishly, and allow them to be free in the house for a while – but only about as much time as it might take for them to need to go potty again. At that point (and it depends on their age, when and how much they eat and drink, and other factors that you will know best), take them back outdoors. If they go potty, reward them again. If they don’t, back into the crate they go.
See “How to Potty Train A Dog” for more information on a potty training program for puppies, or remedial training for adults.
5. A crate and crate-trained dog ensure that you and your dog will be welcome at most friends’ and relatives’ homes. I recently stayed at a friend’s house over the holidays, with my foster dog! She doesn’t have enough training or self-control to abstain from chasing a strange cat, eating the cat’s food, chewing on the furniture, or stealing food off the table, but none of these things happened, because she was happy to spend all of her unsupervised time in their home in her crate. My friend commented, “We’re crate-training our next dog, for sure!”
6. Crates enable me (and others) to foster dogs from the shelter. I can say in all confidence that at least five dogs have found really great homes because I took the time to house and train them, and find just the right family to adopt them. If I didn’t have a safe place to put an untrained dog at night, or even just while I run to the grocery store, I wouldn’t be able to provide this service.
Prepare for Crating
You’ll need a few things to get started on the crate-training project.
First and foremost, you need the right crate. There are three major types that are appropriate for training: plastic (or aluminum) airline-style crates; wire crates (they look like cages); and “furniture” style or “fashion” crates that are disguised to blend in with your decorating motif. Most dog owners choose a utilitarian (and affordable) plastic or wire crate; the aluminum and fashion models cost upwards of $500. (There are also “soft” fabric crates; these are appropriate only for dogs whose crate-training is rock-solid, since a determined or panicked dog can very easily chew or scratch his way through the mesh and escape.)
Each of the two most popular types offer one major benefit. Plastic crates seem to evoke the “den” feeling for the dog; many dogs accept being in a solid-seeming structure more readily than being in an airy cage. Wire cages offer more flexibility in where you can put them; most have at least two doors and some have three. This helps you position the crate in just about any corner or cranny in your home. Dogs will generally accept either type of crate, if you introduce the dog to the crate properly and don’t abuse or overuse crating.
The crate you buy needs to be large enough to permit your dog to comfortably enter, stand, turn around, and sleep in his favorite position. If he can’t get comfortable, the odds of his acceptance of the crate are poor! Measure your dog’s height and length; don’t rely on your memory and estimation of his size when ordering. If you’re in doubt, get the next size up. More room is always better, with the following exception: buying a crate for your medium- to large-breed puppy.
Knowing that your pup is going to stand 26 inches or so at the shoulder, and weigh 80 or more pounds, you select a very large crate. It’s good to plan ahead, right? Yes, but in the here and now, instead of providing a snug little studio apartment, we’ve supplied that puppy with a vast loft, complete with what he may perceive as a backyard bathroom. In other words, if he has just enough space to feel comfortable, he’ll make an effort to “hold it” in order to keep his bed clean. If he has too much real estate, he’ll probably start using some of it for going potty.
Most wire crates can be ordered with a divider panel that allows you to “fence off” some of that extra space while the puppy is little, and gradually expand the room he needs. I’ve never seen a plastic airline crate that offers this feature, although I’ve known owners who actually bought a small crate for the pup, and a larger one when he was older, larger, and already reliably crate-trained.
Next, find a good place for your dog’s crate. It should situated in a place that is neither too hot (next to a heater vent or in direct sun from a window), nor too cold (on a concrete floor in a chilly room or in a breezy, unheated hall). Remember that the dog will be stuck in that one temperature zone; you are depriving him of the ability to get up and move to a more temperate location, so the spot should be pretty comfortable.
Consider, also, your dog’s temperament and the traffic flow in your home. If your dog gets overstimulated by the sight and sounds of your kids’ playing and running with their friends, put the crate somewhere out of the flow of traffic. But if your dog gets a little anxious when he’s left alone, put his crate close to the center of action in your home, so he can be reassured as much as possible by the sounds of someone cooking in the kitchen or the television.
Note that if your dog displays serious anxiety when separated from the family, and hurts himself, destroys the crate, eliminates in the crate, and/or vocalizes nonstop, you’ll need the services of an experienced animal behavior professional to help properly diagnose and treat the behavior. See “Serious Separation Anxiety Calls for a Different Approach,” below.
The next thing you need to do is make sure that the crate is an incredibly cozy and inviting space for your dog. It should be equipped with a thick, comfortable bed or pad – not a thin little towel. The only exception to this would be for dogs who chew, eat, or otherwise destroy their beds; then you might have to experiment to find something that is comfortable but resistant to chewing. My dog is attracted to chewing up foam-filled beds, so I bought two of the thick, fuzzy “EcoNap” mats (not one of the many thin imitations) from West Paw Design. Otto is comfortable and the washable beds are still intact and attractive after two whole years.
The only acceptable reason (from my view) for not providing your dog with a thick bed in his crate? Very young puppies and a few adult dogs sometimes prefer peeing on a soft surface; you might have to eliminate padding for them, which means you have to keep the crate somewhere warm (in cold weather). You also should shorten the time you leave these individuals in a crate so they don’t feel the need to eliminate in their dens.
The last things you need for successful crate-training are a good supply of safe and attractive chew items and/or food-stuffed toys, such as Kongs or one of the stuffable “Busy Buddy” toys from Premier Pet Products.
Don’t Crate Dogs With Severe Anxiety
It’s a dilemma: A dog with severe separation anxiety may destroy their homes in a desperate effort to distract and console themselves when he is in the midst of an attack of separation anxiety. He may eat couch cushions, claw his way through drywall, attempt to crash through windows, and/or urinate and defecate all over the house. Sound like a dog you’d like to put in a crate? Actually, probably not.
Some dogs actually suffer worse symptoms when they are not only left alone, but also, when locked in a crate, are deprived of the things that might make them feel a bit better, like lying on your bed or sofa, or being able to look out the living room window from time to time. Most trainers have heard at least one sad story from a desperate owner whose dog mutilated himself — with bloody paws or even broken teeth — in an all-out panic to escape a crate.
“Crating is completely inappropriate for many, if not most, dogs who have true separation anxiety,” warns WDJ’s Training Editor Pat Miller. “Those with lesser levels of stress behavior about being left alone may be able to tolerate the close confinement of a crate, but for dogs who are truly panicked about being by themselves, crates seem to intensify their anxiety. Crating can worsen the separation anxiety behavior, and the dog can injure himself seriously, or even be killed, in his desperate attempts to escape his prison.”
A dog whose symptoms of separation distress are this severe will require some professional help, perhaps in the form of anxiety-reducing medication and the help of an experienced veterinary behaviorist.
Start the crate-training program by giving your dog some really over-the-top, delicious treats in the crate. Or, if he won’t go in, feed him the treats at the crate’s entrance. Slowly lure him into the crate with these treats, reinforcing each approach with praise – but don’t close the door! In his first dozen or so experiences with the crate, he should be free to enter and exit at will. If you slam the door on him before he even knows what it’s all about, he’ll be double-wary of approaching again. There is no hurry.
As soon as your dog is enthusiastically entering the crate in anticipation of goodies, ask him for a sit or down before you give him the treat. After a few repetitions of this, ask for a sit or down, swing the door closed for a few seconds, and then open it and pop that treat into his mouth. Good dog!
Your goal is to reward him for increasingly longer stays in the crate, but don’t increase the length of every visit to the crate. Keep the duration unpredictable, and the rewards variable.
At this point – but in a whole new session, not when he’s already stuffed with treats – prepare a really special food-stuffed Kong or other toy. Layer it with several yummy, stinky foods, such as anchovies, cream cheese, and bacon. Show this wonderful concoction to your dog, and then make a show of carrying it to the crate. Place it in the crate, far enough inside that your dog can’t snatch it and run out.
If your dog enters in a relaxed manner and picks up the toy and starts chewing, go ahead and close the crate door. Stay close, though; it’s too soon to leave him all alone in there, even if he’s absorbed by the food in the toy at the moment.
If he doesn’t go right in, close the door to the crate, locking him out of the crate and preventing him from eating the delicious food that you stuffed into the toy. In the best case scenario, he walks around the crate, trying to figure out how he can get in and get that treat. If he goes in the next time you open the door (and pick up the toy, and maybe even let him to lick it before putting it back in the crate), great. Close the door and proceed as above. If he still doesn’t go in, go back to the high-value treats and the shorter trips in and out of the crate. At no time should you forcibly drag, pull, or push your dog into the crate.
Depending on your dog’s comfort in the crate, have him go in the crate to enjoy a special treat (such as a big meaty bone, his favorite bully stick, or a food-stuffed toy) for increasingly longer sessions, several times a day. At first, stay close by while he’s locked in. Enter and exit the room, but gradually increase the amount of time that he’s in the crate in a room alone. Build the sessions to the point where you can actually leave your home for short, and then longer errands. As long as he seems happy to enter the crate and comfortable once in there, keep building on these sessions. If he’s reluctant to enter, or gets so preoccupied by his captivity that he starts whining or pawing at the gate, keep the sessions shorter, the treats high-value, and stay closer.
Here’s an important point: When you let your dog out of the crate, don’t make a big deal out of it. If you treat him like the three-month survivor of a raft at sea, he’s going to look forward to getting out of the crate so he can be the star of that particular newsreel. Instead, don’t make eye contact as you approach the crate, casually open the door, and ignore him for a few minutes when he comes out. You might even find that he doesn’t come out; that means you are really on the right track with the whole “comfortable in the crate” project.
What about the dog who barks, whines, or paws at the door during his longer sessions in the crate? You have to use your best judgment. Does he seem completely panicked or just a bit upset? Does he have to go potty immediately, or not at all? If you ascertain that he’s putting on a big act – he’s not panicked, just not happy, and he doesn’t have to go potty – then you will have to steel yourself for listening to a bit of fussing (or even some unpleasant barking). If you let him out in the middle of a frustrated tantrum, you will have just reinforced tantrums, and the next one may well be louder and longer.
Instead, lurk close by so that you can leap to release your dog when his whining or barking stopped for a few moments. Try your hardest to reinforce him for longer and longer periods of silence.
Crate Safety Considerations
I don’t want to scare you away from crating. But if you are going to employ this valuable management tool, you need to do so in a responsible manner. Take steps to avoid whatever hazards that crating may present to your dog.
Use an ID tag pouch, or an alternative to conventional, dangling ID tags — but don‘t forego identification.
lf I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would have been skeptical that it could even happen, but my most recent foster dog caught her lD tag in the slats of a plastic crate. It’s a testament to her acceptance of the crate that she neither panicked, fought, nor even whined. I opened the crate the other evening and realized she was sitting with an odd, hunched posture. I thought, “Uh oh,” but I was thinking about bloat. l patted my leg to encourage her to come out of the crate. She wriggled, but maintained her odd posture. I got down on my knees to take a closer look — and that’s when I saw that her ID tag was stuck, wedged in one of the crate vents; she was being tightly held there against the wall. I’m a huge advocate of having ID on a dog at all times, but now I feel that it’s best if the dog wears a breakaway collar, or that some sort of alternative to a dangling tag is used.
Maintain safe temperatures for your dog.
It’s your job to make sure that your dog doesn’t roast or freeze in his crate, because there is precious little he will be able to do to help himself get cooler or warmer when he’s locked into a small space.
Provide water.
There are only a few reasons to withhold water from a dog in a crate – and no valid reason to keep him
without water for more than a couple of hours. Often, people who are trying to housetrain a puppy don’t want the pup to be able to “tank up” and later urinate in their crates. It’s safer to set your alarm to let the puppy go outside and pee once in the middle of the night than to prevent him from drinking for eight or more hours in one stretch — especially in hot weather.
If you’re concerned about the water spilling and making a mess, try one of those hamster-style water bottles that dogs have to lick to get a drink (available at pet supply stores) — or better yet, give the non-spilling Buddy Bowl a try. Your dog can flip this bowl completely upside down and still the water won’t pour out. The Buddy Bowl is widely available at pet supply stores and Internet sites.
One last point: Don’t overcrate your dog. Crates are a great tool, but they can be overused. When you walk toward the crate and your dog suddenly runs the other way, you need to increase the fun of crating, and decrease the time he spends in it. Also, keep in mind that puppies can’t “hold it” for all that long. A rule of thumb for pups during the day for up to one hour longer than they are months old. (A three-month old puppy should be able to hold it for four hours.)
I said at the beginning of this article that the ability to calmly spend time in a crate is a valuable life skill. And yet, in an average month, my own dog doesn’t spend much time (if any) in a closed crate. Why? Because he spends so much time in his open, well-padded crate that I rarely need to close its door!
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