Puppies chew to explore their world as well as to relieve the pain and irritation of teething. What many dog owners don’t seem to realize is that while puppies sooner or later get beyond the stage where they feel compelled to put their teeth on everything they see, mature dogs also need to chew to exercise their jaws, massage their gums, clean their teeth, and to relieve stress and boredom. It comes as an unpleasant surprise to many owners that chewing doesn’t end at the age of six months when all of the dog’s adult teeth are grown in.
Puppies develop substrate preferences for elimination in the early months of their lives, and they similarly develop chew-object preferences. Hence the inadvisability of giving your old shoes or socks as chew toys.
If you give your baby dog the run of the house and he learns to chew on Oriental carpets, sofa cushions, and coffee table legs, you will likely end up with a dog who chooses to exercise his jaws and teeth on inappropriate objects for years to come. You’ll find yourself crating him frequently even as an adult dog, or worse, exiling him to a lonely life in the backyard, where he can chew only on lawn furniture, loose fence boards, and the edges of your deck and hot tub.
Instead, focus your dog’s fangs on approved chew toys at an early age and manage him well to prevent access to your stuff. In this way, he’ll earn house privileges much sooner in life. By the end of his first year, you’ll probably be able to leave him alone safely while you go out to dinner or shopping – or even while you’re away at work.
For more details and advice on pre-puppy prepartion, purchase Whole Dog Journal’s ebook, Puppy Basics.
We just took possession of an extended member of the family: a four-year-old Chihuahua-mix named Peanut. He belongs to my 23-year-old niece, who recently relocated to this coast and is staying with other relatives in the Bay Area while she looks for work and then her own place. Unfortunately, one of the relatives she’s staying with is highly allergic to dogs, and Peanut had to relocate for a time.
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As the youngest child in my family, I got to witness my three siblings’ early forays into the adult world: college, first apartments and roommates, jobs, relationships, etc. I also got to take care of a number of their dogs as the dogs were returned to my parents’ house, picked up for a year (or a semester) here and there, and then returned again. The reasons were varied: dogs not allowed in dorms (who knew?); can’t find a place that takes dogs; landlord complained about dog damage; no time for the dog between work and school; boyfriend is mean to the dog (should have been a big hint for my sister about that guy’s unworthiness, right?); etc., etc. My parents had a big place in the country and were always willing to welcome the dogs home. In a few cases, the dogs came back to “grandma and grandpa’s house” permanently.
So I’m used to the concept. It’s hard enough for young adults to get a start in this economy and job market without the added difficulty of finding an apartment that will allow dogs. I’m happy to welcome Peanut to the fold.
He’s a very nice little dog – but admittedly has a few issues we’ll have to deal with. His housetraining went a bit backward since he’s been shuffled around. He’s very hand-shy and guarded with strangers (us); we’ll be using Pat Miller’s suggestions from the September issue to build his confidence. He also needs to learn that our beds are off-limits, but he’s welcome to the couch, and that he doesn’t need to guard his food bowl from Otto or the cats or chickens (who are 30 feet away minding their own business).
I’m also happy to have a place and a budget that allows me to take him on. My local shelter is absolutely packed with owner-surrendered dogs right now – a sad testament to the ravages of the economy. We’ve got dogs from families who lost their homes or jobs, and from people who couldn’t afford the vet care their sick dogs needed. My shelter has taken to sending dog food home with the people who come to the shelter and say they can’t afford to feed their dogs anymore; it’s less expensive for the shelter than taking that dog away from his family and keeping him indefinitely as we try to find him a new home! The shelter has also started waiving fees for dogs who have been picked up as strays if their owners say they can’t afford the fines and we should just keep the dogs. If they WANT the dogs, we work with them. Sometimes we find they DON’T want the dogs; in those cases we suspect that turning the dog loose was less painful than bringing them to the shelter – or maybe they were irresponsible. There is no way to know.
As WDJ readers know, the cost of keeping a dog is much more than the cost of his kibble. We’re coping with a flea epidemic, so even though he came to us flea-free, he had to have some protection applied. He hasn’t been tested for heartworm or received heartworm preventative; he has to have that here. Our county is ground zero for heartworm in northern California. (There are thousands of acres in swampy rice production here in this part of the Sacramento Valley. Mosquitoes abound.) He needed a collar and walking harness; I already have ID tags with my name and number on them (I reuse them for any foster or guest dog who lacks sufficient ID). Responsible care for dogs adds up fast.
Anyway, welcome home, Peanut. We’re happy to have you for as long as you need us.
On occasion, an adult dog who has been trustworthy with his chewing habits may suddenly surprise you with an oral foray into the forbidden.
This may be a stress response to something environmental happening in your absence, such as a burglar trying to break into your home, loud equipment working in the street in front of your house, or stray dogs romping through your yard. Sometimes even something like a compelling need to urinate or defecate can stress a well-trained dog into inappropriate chewing.
If you can determine the nature of the stressor and control or remove the cause, your dog should quickly revert to his prior good chewing behavior. He might also need a refresher course in the crate, after a veterinary exam to rule out possible medical causes. (Anytime there’s a significant behavior change in an adult dog it’s important to rule out – or treat – any possible medical contributors to the undesirable behavior.)
A return to inappropriate chewing may be a result of inactivity and pent-up energy. Perhaps the weather’s been bad or your workload extra heavy, curtailing your normal exercise sessions with your canine companion. That energy has to go somewhere – and for some dogs, it goes right to their jaws. The solution here is a renewed commitment to provide adequate exercise, with the addition, perhaps, of mental exercise into your dog’s daily routine.
I think I may make this announcement every fall: I’m sorry that some of the articles that we’ve been promising (seen in the “What’s Ahead” column on the back cover) have not yet appeared. And other, unheralded ones have popped up. Even after nearly 50 years on earth, I can’t seem to manage my summer schedules properly.
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It’s not all my fault. July was a terrible month for many of the people I know and rely on to help me with Whole Dog Journal. Many of us took informal family leave breaks from our work to deal with sick or dying pets or other family members. I’ve been unable to devote as much time as I need to finish my research for the wet food review. Two articles (the one that will discuss chemotherapy for dogs and the one describing giardia and other water-borne, parasitic infections) have been delayed by their writers’ need to look after extremely ill family members. I’m not an extreme enough editor to insist that these articles come in on time, no matter what – but I do apologize for the delays. They will appear soon, I’m certain.
Also crummy for me personally is that the writer of the giardia article is also my agility instructor, and her family emergency is taking her out of state! Cindy Rich and her husband are moving hundreds of miles away in order to care for a family member. I have total empathy for her situation – but I’m also more than just a tad selfishly bummed; Otto and I were just starting to get somewhere with agility. I was even entertaining fantasies of actually going someplace to compete in a fun agility event. Ack! I’ll really miss Cindy and our classes.
I’ll have to find a new instructor or club – or just develop some self-discipline and practice on our own. I still have an informal goal of competing somewhere before the end of the year.
It’s not that I’m eager to appear in public with my scruffy dog and my dirty sneakers. It’s just that Otto has so much fun doing agility; his eyes just light up when it’s our turn to run. He approaches the whole task with exuberance and creativity – although I suspect that last trait is maybe not going to be rewarded at agility trials anytime soon. When I’m less than clear about giving him direction, or just too darn slow, he’ll often “freelance” along the way, taking an extra obstacle in order to let me catch up, or just in case it was that one I wanted him to jump, instead of this one. Or maybe he’s just having fun being athletic – like when we’re supposed to run past the A-frame to the tunnel, and he runs up a third of the A-frame and leaps off the side of it into the tunnel. He’s also apt to jump over the tunnels he’s supposed to run through; he really likes jumping.
Anyway, I’m hoping September sees everyone I know recovering. I also hope we’ll see cooler temperatures around the country; I know that would help this un-air-conditioned editor think and work faster and get back on track. And maybe into an agility show ring, too.
Thank you for Lisa Rodier’s excellent article on breed discrimination in the insurance industry (“No Insurance,” June 2011). I am fortunate to live in Pennsylvania, one of the states that forbid such discrimination, but it still exists here due to ignorance and some shady maneuvering on the part of the insurance industry.
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For several years at my previous job I held a Pennsylvania Property & Casualty Insurance Agent’s license. I wrote surety bonds, not homeowner’s or renter’s insurance, but the license and its associated educational requirements are the same. In order to obtain my license, I had to study a 5-inch thick manual, attend a multi-day instructional seminar, and take an exam which lasted about two and a half hours, as well as agree to fulfill several credits of continuing education per license term.
Not once during this journey was it mentioned that Pennsylvania is a non-discriminatory state – but the “risk” associated with certain dog breeds was. It was not until I became actively involved in dog breed advocacy that I learned that breed alone was not a legal basis for declining to insure in this state.
The problem is, the legal language forbidding denial of insurance coverage based solely on breed of dog is not contained in the insurance laws; it’s buried in the Dog Law portion – specifically the Dangerous Dogs section – of the agricultural statutes (Title 3 P.S. PA ST Ch. 8, § 459-507-A . . . right below another good-to-know subsection forbidding municipal breed bans!). As a result, this information is conveniently omitted in the education of insurance agents. Further, because it is buried in the “Construction of Article” section and somewhat hard for the casual researcher to find, insurance companies who are “in the know” about it bank on members of the general public not knowing their rights and standing up for them. Folks who don’t know the law simply swallow the insurers’ tale that they are uninsurable hook, line, and sinker.
When the mother of my best friend (and co-founder of our organization) decided to change insurers for her renter’s coverage, the first agency she called asked her if she owned a dog; she answered in the affirmative. The next question was, “What breed?” Upon honestly replying, “a pit bull,” she was told they would not insure her. The next day, when my friend called and angrily pointed out the unlawfulness of their decision, he was told that the agent his mother had spoken with was “inexperienced” and that they would gladly provide coverage . . . Fortunately, they had already obtained a policy from Allstate, whose agent wasn’t concerned (in fact, hadn’t even asked) about what breed their dog happened to be (the agent himself owned Dobermans!).
Breed discrimination – not only insurance discrimination but also breed-specific legislation – does nothing to punish the irresponsible owners who are to blame for most dog bite incidents; instead, it hurts responsible, law-abiding dog owners who want to do the right thing. Further, I suspect it actually encourages insurance fraud and misrepresentation by forcing consumers to lie about their dogs’ breeds in order to obtain policies.
Lori Zimmer, president and co-founder BAD PRESS Breed Anti-Defamation, Protection, and Rescue Society, Inc. badpress.org
The next letter is in response to “What Do You Think? ” (July 2011), in which Pat Miller discussed a presentation on anthropomorphism by Alexandra Horowitz, PhD. Dr. Horowitz devised studies to determine whether a person’s expectation of a dog’s “guilt” resulted in the person’s interpretation of a dog’s behavior as “guilty.”
I agree that dogs more often look “guilty” because of our body language and tone of voice – until this happened:
I have an extremely bright Border Collie-mix I adopted from our local Humane Society. I caught him once eating off the counter and used the “ah-ah” correction. He was so terrified of people that I have never used anything more harsh than “ah-ah,” and even that correction is rare. He has had a lot of positive training/clicker training, work with a behaviorist, and a course in “control unleashed” in which he learned “doggy Zen’ and other self-control techniques.
Long story short, I had made some cornbread and set in on the stove to cool. I stepped outside for a moment to say goodbye to a friend. When I came back into the house, only one of my dogs greeted me. Normally, both dogs act like I’ve been gone forever even if it’s only been a minute or two. I was a little puzzled, but thought no more of it until I entered the kitchen and saw my smart little BC cross peeking in from the dining room, head held low, whites of his eyes showing. He slinked in to greet me. I had no idea why he was acting so strange until I saw that he had eaten the top off the corn bread.
I gotta say, I could hardly keep from laughing – but now I think some dogs do feel guilt. I have absolutely no other explanation for his behavior. This dog is the brightest dog I’ve ever owned, so maybe that has something to do with it. But there you have it.
Pat Emmerson Via email
I have to say, I’ve heard more stories from friends about their dogs’ guilt. My friend Maureen, for example, insists that family dog Carly (a former neighbor and frequent model, in her youth, for WDJ) is waiting to greet her just inside the front door when she gets home from work every day – except on the days that Carly has gotten into the garbage. Then Carly hides upstairs. Maureen says, “There is no way I’m cueing her to be anxious; I don’t know whether she got into the garbage or not until I’ve entered the house.” Pat Miller has explained this to me, saying something along the lines of, “Carly has formed a negative association between garbage strewn around the house and Maureen’s unhappy behavior; that’s all.” I just don’t know. It’s sure interesting to observe, anyway.
Having just finished the article about more assistive products for dogs with mobility problems (“Even More Support,” August 2011), I love the idea of putting down cheap runners for elderly dogs for no-slip solutions. However I must point out that many yoga mats as well as cotton fabrics have toxic materials in them and can be hazardous to a dog’s health. I feel your readers should be aware of this when searching for this type of solution for their elderly pets.
Sharon Via email
Regarding your editorial in the August issue: We all have been told that Consumer Reports tests everything they report on. They eat peanut butter, test cars, and paint rooms, for example. Since dogs can’t report true quality, the question is this: “Who at Consumer Reports gets to eat the Gravy Train?”
With tongue-in-cheek, Jackie Malcolm via email
Yeah, take a look at “meat and bone meal” and tell me you’d eat it. Whereas, I would not be a bit frightened to eat some of my dog’s food!
Regarding “Noses and Toes Gone Wrong” (August 2011): I am thrilled and honored to have my Blissful Dog Nose Butter mentioned in this amazing article. Thank you so much. I have said one of my missions is to eradicate this heinous condition from dog noses and helpful articles such as this one really help spread the word to pet owners. There is relief for this condition.
Kathy Dannel Vitcak theblissfuldog.com
I appreciate that Greyhounds’ corns were included in “Noses and Toes Gone Wrong” but felt the small side box and limited information regarding corns was less then helpful. The true cause of Greyhounds’ corns is still very debated as are various treatment methods including the duct tape method discussed in the article. The topic of Greyhounds and corns could easily be an entire article! Thanks for acknowledging us Greyhounds owners struggling with corns, but please dig deeper on the topic!
JoShannan Kimpel Arlington Heights, IL
We’ll see what we can do; thanks for the suggestion. There are so many conditions that can plague our dogs, and so few pages in which to discuss them!
In “Time to Step It Up” (WDJ July 2011), we described one small study that showed only Advantage Multi was 100 percent effective against the MP3 strain of resistant heartworms after a single dose. The report was true as far as it went, but new points have emerged that make this a more complex story and one for which we do not have all the answers yet.
The MP3 heartworm strain was isolated from a dog in Georgia in 2006 and kept in the laboratory for study, but has apparently not been found outside the lab since. More recently, studies have identified additional heartworm isolates with “reduced susceptibility” (the term researchers prefer to “resistance”) in the lab to heartworm preventives. These strains were taken from dogs in the Mississippi Valley region who developed heartworm infections despite being on monthly preventives. Unpublished laboratory studies show that none of the existing heartworm preventive medications, including Advantage Multi, were 100 percent effective against these isolates.
It’s important to emphasize that all of the heartworm preventives are still effective against most heartworms, even those from potentially resistant strains. In fact, further unpublished results from the MP3 study showed that all four of the heartworm preventives tested (Heartgard, Interceptor, Revolution, and Advantage Multi) were 100 percent effective against this strain after three consecutive monthly doses were given.
Heartworm resistance is not a reason to discontinue monthly heartworm preventives; in fact, the opposite is true. It’s more important than ever to give heartworm preventives year-round, and to have your dog tested for heartworm infection every year. Because it takes larvae about six months to mature into adult heartworms that can be detected by heartworm tests, the best time for testing is in the spring, six months after the start of cold weather (for those in warmer areas, testing can be done at any time).
Potential heartworm resistance is still believed to be geographically limited to the Mississippi Valley, from Missouri to Louisiana. As discussed in July’s article, those who live in this area may also want to consider giving heartworm preventives more often or at increased dosages, if their veterinarians agree that it is safe to do so.
– Mary Straus
For more information Heartworms and Resistance: Truth or Fiction?
bayeranimalhealthsymposium.com/blagburn_heartworm.shtml
I adopted my greyhounds, Cleo and Ramses, from Personalized Greyhounds in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania on April 11, 2009.
In May of 2009 Ramses was running in the backyard and tore one of his toenails off in the grass. The quick was exposed and it was bleeding profusely. The vet sedated him and then trimmed and wrapped his foot and prescribed an antibiotic. After several months the nail cap began to grow back, but as soon as it did it was scaly and immediately sloughed off. The quick was no longer raw so it didn’t bother him.
Everything was good until December 2010; Ramses had just turned 6. While getting his toenails clipped at the vet’s he yelped and jumped off the table when the vet tech was beginning to clip a nail. He was bleeding and the vet was called in to take a look. The nail cap was standing up; it had split up the underside of the nail. She clipped it off and bandaged his foot. That started a downward spiral which for several months required a lot of vet visits. Right away Ramses started getting loose nail caps; they would split up the back and hang by a “thread” on the top of the foot. This made walking painful so he was bandaged most of the time. He lost all the nails on that foot.
I emailed Peggy Levin, the president of Personalized Greyhounds, to ask her if she had ever had this problem with other “greys.” She told me about SLO; I immediately contacted my vet. Ramses by this time had started to lose nails on his other front foot. We began a treatment plan for him. Aller G-3 capsules: 2 caps 2x/day. Niacinamide 500mg: 1 tablet 3x/day. Vitamin E 400 I.U.: 1 cap 2x/day. Doxycycline 200mg: 2x/day.
We started this regimen in January 2011. Eventually Ramses lost all of his nail caps. During this period as the nails were becoming loose and falling off he experienced a lot of pain. He received Tramadol HCL 50 mg: 1.5 tabs 2x/day. His feet were bandaged when the quick was raw and bleeding. After a month Ramses could not tolerate the antibiotic. He had loose stool, vomiting, and loss of appetite. The vet took him off of doxycycline and administered a Covenia injection. Ramses immediately perked up and began eating again.
By the end of April all of the nail caps were gone but now he started to lick his feet and if they weren’t bandaged he would lick them raw. The vet suggested laser therapy – 6 treatments every 2 days – and 1 percent silver sulfadiazine cream on the raw spots and bandages. After two laser treatments the feet began to show improvement. He still insisted on licking so I bought baby socks with grippers on the bottoms. I put these on his feet and hold them in place with adhesive tape. The laser treatments did wonders. All the hair grew back and the sore spots healed.
Ramses now has nail caps on all of his nails. They are thin, scaly, and deformed, but they are there. He can now walk a complete circuit around our neighborhood and is a happy boy. We discontinued the antibiotic injections in June and he remains on the Aller G-3, niacinamide, and vitamin E. He wears socks all the time; when it is wet outside I cover his socks with Glad Press n Seal.
This is a painful problem and the cure is long. I will probably keep socks on Ramses for the remainder of his life. He will take the meds forever, too.
Dog nails aren’t supposed to fall off, thought first-time dog owner Terrie Huberman some 18 months ago. That’s when she first realized that finding one of her Pug-Poodle mix’s nails on the floor of her Sherman Oaks, California, apartment wasn’t an isolated incident.
“My nails could do what?!” SLO is a painful condition that can cause your dog to limp, or to resist having to exercise at all, especially on hard surfaces.
It all started when, after coming in from a walk, Terrie picked up what would turn out to be the keratin shell from one of Bonzo’s claws. At the time she thought it was something he’d tracked in from outside. Only later did she learn the shell was a telltale sign of Symmetrical Lupoid Onychodystrophy, SLO for short.
SLO is an inflammation of the nail matrix where the nail is formed. The pattern of inflammation is similar to lupus, giving the condition its “lupoid” designation. The inflammatory reaction at the nail matrix results in abnormal nail development and growth, resulting in compromised claws that lift, separate, and often fall off. Flare-ups are painful and many owners first notice a problem when the dog begins favoring or nursing an affected foot.
While SLO can affect all breeds of dogs, some vets report seeing far more cases among certain breeds. “When I think of SLO, I think of German Shepherds, Miniature Schnauzers, Rottweilers, and Corgis,” says holistic veterinary practitioner Frank Bousaid, DVM, of Harmony Animal Wellness Center in Monroe, Washington. “In the German Shepherd, it seems to be worse, with more toes involved, in males than females.” His experience supports further anecdotal evidence found online, which cites German Shepherd Dogs as being predisposed to the condition.
A dog’s claw is made up of three distinct layers. The visible outer portion that must be routinely trimmed is hard, dead material. The innermost layer – the “quick” – is comprised of nerves and the blood supply; this is what bleeds when the nail is trimmed too short. Initial nail growth occurs at the root, located deep in the toe. In dogs with SLO, damage takes place at the root level about three to four months before the nail becomes visible. When affected nails emerge, they are misshapen and can also be hollow, soft or brittle, or discolored.
Onset is typically acute, with one or two claws initially being affected. “One of the hallmarks of SLO is multiple claw lesions,” says Alexander Werner, VMD, Diplomate of the American College of Dermatology. “If I had a case that came in with a single digit where the claw was abnormal, Lupoid Onychodystrophy would not be high on my list. SLO by definition affects multiple nails.”
Both vets agree the condition is relatively rare. As a veterinary dermatologist, Dr. Werner estimates he treats fewer than 10 patients per year.
Diagnosis Achieving a definitive diagnosis can be tricky because it requires a biopsy of the nail matrix, which must be accomplished by removing a piece of the third phalanx – the last part of the toe. This surgical procedure, much like a de-clawing of a cat, has a painful recovery and results in a malformation of any nail growth that follows (since the nail matrix has been surgically altered). For owners looking for an absolute diagnosis, dogs with affected dew claws are considered the best candidates for biopsy.
Due to the highly invasive nature of the biopsy, vets often make an initial diagnosis based on the characteristics of the disease, or, because treatment is well tolerated by most dogs, many vets will begin treatment on the suspicion of SLO, watching for signs of improvement.
Treatment Both traditional and holistic practitioners agree on the core treatment protocol for SLO. High-dose essential fatty acids (EFAs), specifically omega-3 and omega-6, along with a generally well-tolerated antibiotic such as tetracycline or doxycycline is the most common approach. Antibiotics are used to try to save affected nails while preventing nail bed infections, which can get into the bone and lead to the loss of the toe. Nail bed infections also affect circulation to the feet. EFAs are used for their anti-inflammatory properties.
SLO almost always affects more than one nail. German Shepherd Dogs are the most commonly affected, but a dog of any breed can develop the condition.
“In SLO, there is an unexplained inflammatory process that is happening at the cuticle level,” explains Dr. Bousaid. “There’s an infiltrate of inflammatory cells into the nail bed. That’s the immune-mediated part; this huge attack by the immune system on the nail bed. Omega-3s and omega-6s act as an anti-inflammatory to help calm down the overactivity.”
When it comes to EFAs, Dr. Bousaid strongly recommends salmon oil dispensed in free-fluid form rather than processed and encapsulated for convenience. “I like salmon oil specifically; I think it’s the gold standard of fish oils in dogs,” he says, noting that salmon oil has an ideal ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 for dogs. He recommends clients stay away from cod liver oil , which is frequently manufactured in China and can be months or years old by the time it’s purchased and consumed in the U.S. He does not recommend the use of flaxseed oil, which is often popular with vegetarian clients looking to avoid animal products. He cautions that Omega-3s and omega-6s from non-animal sources such as flaxseed oil are poorly utilized by dogs.
In addition to antibiotics and high-dose fatty acids, Dr. Bousaid also incorporates vitamin B (specifically niacinamide, not niacin or nicotinic acid), vitamin E, and plain gelatin.
“Vitamin B serves as a natural free radical scavenger for anything that’s collagen based – skin, nails, etc.,” he says. “It has to do with the development of the dermal layer and aids in the foundational structure of the nail. I use vitamin B for its nail-strengthening properties. It aids in the development of the nail matrix that will harden and become part of the nail. Vitamin E also helps the nail matrix, playing a role in healthy nail formation.” It’s believed that the fatty acids and vitamins work in tandem. Fatty acids help reduce inflammation and vitamins B and E serve as tools to help rebuild the nail.
Long-Term Challenge One challenge with treatment is that much of the disease activity takes place before nail growth is even visible. Additionally, the disease is often cyclical, so many vets opt for lengthy treatment plans.
Bonzo’s nails responded well to treatment, but it took a year of taking antibiotics in addition to an EFA supplement and vitamin E. His owner will continue the dietary supplements for life, in hopes of warding off future SLO attacks.
“I usually follow a treatment protocol of four to eight weeks,” says Dr. Werner. “The four weeks is just to make sure things are going well and to see that we’re starting to get some good re-growth of lost nails and no additional nail loss. At eight weeks we’ll get a sense of how well the nails are doing. This disease can wax and wane and I want to make sure we’re not in a waning phase before I withdraw a drug that might be helpful. Because the therapy is so well tolerated, inexpensive, and benign for long-term use, I usually go six months before thinking of changing the therapy.”
Many vets, especially those who rarely encounter cases of SLO, will prescribe a steroid such as prednisone in an attempt to reduce inflammation. Both Dr. Werner and Dr. Bousaid consider this ill-advised, noting the host of secondary problems that can arise from steroid use.
“In situations where a vet has prescribed steroids to treat suspected or confirmed SLO, a referral to an animal dermatologist is very important,” says Dr. Werner. “One of the reasons people see dermatologists is to get dogs off steroids for skin conditions. I think steroids are overkill; you may produce a lot of systemic problems by using a potent medication that may or may not be necessary. I think it’s pulling out a big gun when you need a sharp shooter.” Steroid use can result in increased thirst, appetite, weight gain, and muscle loss, and can have negative effects on the liver.
“In extreme cases, short-term steroid use may be needed, but given a choice, it’s best to use something else,” cautions Dr. Werner.
Prognosis While not curable, most dogs tolerate treatment well and once it stimulates new nail growth, antibiotics can often be eliminated from a maintenance regimen of EFAs and vitamins. when flare-ups occur, booties or restricted activity are recommended to help protect the affected claws. Many patients report success with bathing the feet in a saline or diluted antiseptic solution after walks.
“I don’t think it’s curable, but it’s controllable and most dogs do very well,” says Dr. Werner.
Such is the case with Bonzo. One year into treatment, the veterinarian successfully dropped antibiotics from Bonzo’s treatment plan; Terrie continues to give Bonzo EFAs and vitamin E daily. An energetic bundle of youthful energy, his quality of life remains unaffected, except for occasional flare-ups, which fortunately are nowhere near as involved as the initial presentation of the disease.
“His nails are looking much better,” she says. “The SLO is totally manageable now. When he has a flare-up, mostly in the summer, we avoid going hiking. I feel like it has stabilized, and I’m not nearly as panicked about it.”
– If you find yourself getting frustrated during training, stop. Don’t risk taking it out on the dog.
– Take time to evaluate the situation. Use management to prevent unwanted behavior as you decide what to do next.
– Consider seeking outside help from a professional, positive trainer.
– Try to think of ways to vent frustration that don’t involve your dog.
Some people grit their teeth or hold their breath. Others clench their fists or rattle off a string of expletives that would make Pacino blush. When the frustration of daily life comes to a boil, people respond in myriad ways.
Dog training comes with many opportunities for human frustration. You wanted a dog. You didn’t realize that “dog” was potentially code for “eats everything in sight, jumps on the kids, barks like a jackhammer, and if given the chance, leads you on a wild goose chase around the neighborhood as your recall word falls on deaf ears.”
Training a dog, regardless of the method used, is bound to bring about moments of frustration. Addressing unwanted behavior can take time, and today’s modern family often finds spare time to be in limited supply. In the midst of juggling busy personal and professional lives, it’s easy to suddenly find yourself at the end of your rope when it comes to dog training.
The problem with frustration is that, when left unchecked, it can lead to an emotional outburst. Ever lash out with harsh words directed at your kids or spouse after a particularly challenging day at work? We are only human. It happens. In dog training, these emotional outbursts often manifest in strong verbal reprimands, leash pops, and other physical corrections.
Interacting with your dog in an angry or physically forceful way carries the substantial risk of damaging the dog-owner relationship. It can also create an anxious dog, or one who “shuts down” when uncertain what to do. In extreme cases it can become abusive. Additionally, there’s a dirty little secret about losing one’s temper and responding to the dog in a vindictive manner: behaving this way can be rewarding.
How can something as unpleasant as yelling at or jerking the dog’s leash be rewarding? After all, very few of us feel good about losing our temper and resorting to violence (no matter how mild). But even a moment of lashing out (verbally or physically) serves to vent our frustration, and worse, it can alter the dog’s behavior. Pain or fear may temporarily suppress the dog’s unwanted behavior. In the moment, this can feel like a “win” for the handler . . . but this sort of emotional outburst on the part of the handler generally doesn’t result in a lasting behavior change in the dog.
How to Get Past Frustration During Training
It’s infinitely easier to teach a dog what you want as opposed to what you don’t. That’s why positive reinforcement training can be so effective. It’s built on a foundation of recognizing and rewarding correct behavior – not waiting for the dog to make a mistake. It’s proactive, not reactive.
I freely admit to having moments of frustration while training. Despite the years of effort I have put into building strong, trusting, positive reinforcement-based relationships with my dogs, I still sometimes find myself gritting my teeth when things aren’t going as I’d hoped and my dog can’t seem to correctly perform a behavior we’ve spent generous amounts of time training.
The trick lies in learning to manage the frustration in ways that don’t involve taking it out on the dog. The following strategies can prove helpful:
Relax and remember to breathe. Sounds easy enough, but frustration and stress can inhibit our breathing, which affects our body language – something our dogs are keenly aware of. By concentrating on slow, deep breathing, you take in more oxygen, and the shoulders, neck, and upper chest muscles are used less in the breathing process. This helps relax your body posture, which sends a different picture to your dog.
Pay attention to your dog’s behavior. Dogs often respond to stress with one of many fine-tuned signals. Yawning, lip licking, sniffing the ground, and averting their gaze are behaviors dogs use with each other to reduce stress and defuse potential conflict. If you notice your dog engaging in these behaviors during training, take note. He may be aware of your rising stress level even before you are. These signals can be a sign your dog is attempting to self-soothe in the presence of a stressed handler.
It’s okay to stop. When things aren’t going well, sometimes the best thing to do is call it quits for the day. People often feel the need to end on success, and keep training as things start falling apart. According to legendary animal trainer Bob Bailey, whether or not you end a training session on success does not affect the animal’s ability to successfully learn the task at hand.
“Ending a training session on a ‘high note’ is of little significance in itself,” says Bailey. “This assumes that the session more or less randomly ends with a success or a failure.” However, he cautions against creating training scenarios where the dog consistently fails and then shuts down – a poor precedent for the dog.
Remember how patient and forgiving your dog is of you. That’s advice from professional trainer BK Grice of Muncie, Indiana. “Take some time to just hang out with your dog. Break off training and share an ice cream together. Remember that there may be other dogs in your life, but there will only be one Rex or Lassie. When you’ve calmed down, look at what you were doing and see if you can make some changes.
Take notes. In her book, Tales of Two Species: Essays on Loving and Living with Dogs, Patricia McConnell talks about the importance of being patient, and recognizing that training takes time. In an example of teaching impulse control to dogs, she writes, “It takes growing humans about 20 years to learn to control their emotions … so be patient with your dogs, and think in terms of months and years when training, not days and weeks.”
In an age when popular media aims to convince dog owners that behavior dramatically changes in the course of an hour, this reminder is a refreshing dose of eye-opening honesty that should be considered.
Feeling like your dog’s behavior is not improving can be a major source of frustration for people. Often, he is getting better, but owners who are deeply embroiled within a training program might have difficulty recognizing the incremental changes.
“I often get clients who call me to talk about how they aren’t progressing in their training programs. Then I go out and find a dog who is so much improved, it’s amazing,” says Louise Kerr of Elite Pet Care & Education in New South Wales, Australia. “Clients often cannot see the small changes.”
Learning to recognize and appreciate the “baby steps” along the way to complete problem solving can be a valuable tool in reducing human frustration. Organized trainers routinely keep training logs and journals that document results of each training session. Analyzing the data offers concrete information about a dog’s rate of progress, and helps trainers fine-tune training programs when necessary.
Styles of record-keeping are as varied as the trainers using them. Sometimes I keep track of how many times we practiced something and how often my dog was correct. Other times I jot notes about what issues I discovered during the training session, which directs my focus for the next session.
Even something as simple as a happy or sad face drawn on the calendar – denoting an overall “good” or “bad” day in training – can prove helpful. When working to modify problem behavior, it’s easy to forget where you started. A quick glance at the ratio of happy to sad faces on the calendar can provide the confidence boost you need to keep pushing forward with what feels like a slow-moving or stalled training program.
The Magic of Behavior Management
Many of the routine problems clients ask trainers about can be prevented with management: not letting the dog practice the unwanted behavior in the first place. If your dog is reactive to people and dogs walking past his territory, he shouldn’t have unsupervised access to the front room of the home, where he perches atop the sofa, ready to sound the alarm at the first sign of passersby. Nor should he be unsupervised in the backyard where he launches himself at the fence. Of course, you need to spend time teaching an alternative behavior, but if you aren’t prepared to actively train, the next best thing is to prevent what you don’t want.
“When possible, don’t let the dog make the mistake in the first place,” says trainer Gail Rhyno of Prince Edward Island, Canada. “I didn’t get this right away, and looking back, I likely could’ve prevented a few behaviors from becoming problems in the first place. Much of my frustration appears when I’m not training – when I’m tired and I don’t have a plan. The unwanted behavior would happen and I wouldn’t have a response ready and the frustration wells up; I’d feel like all the work I’d done the days before was wasted.”
As an example, Rhyno says, “With my little dog – who’s on high alert all the time – I make sure I’m ready, or I don’t put her in the situation to make mistakes. I don’t have to take her out into the yard every time I go. I don’t have to go to the places in town that I know are full of things that will set her off. I can put her on-leash in the house so that when guests enter, she doesn’t have the chance to jump of them. Things like this have really helped me get around myself. I can’t train all the time; I get tired of it, so in order to not get tired and frustrated, I have to find a way to not let my little pooch make the mistakes in the first place.”
It’s Not Personal, But You Do Need to Own It
It’s sometimes hard to not internalize your dog’s misbehavior and take his noncompliance as a personal affront. Factor in any perfectionist tendencies you may have, and it can be a real test in emotional self-control to keep from feeling like your dog is purposely pawing his nose at you when things aren’t going as planned – especially when training in a group. You’re being watched. The heat is on. “Please, for the love of dog, will you stop jumping around and just sit?!”
Emotions are tricky. We know on a logical level that noncompliance isn’t personal, but this can be tough to remember in heat of the moment. One of the greatest gifts I’ve gained in training dogs – especially my own, where the emotional involvement can intensify my perfectionist tendencies – is the ability to accept my training mistakes, recover, and move on. It’s easy to blame the dog. “He knows this,” or “He knows better,” or even, “He did it right yesterday at the park.” It’s harder to look at how our own actions likely contributed to the dog’s inability to perform to your expectations or hopes.
It’s easy to underestimate how a simple location change can affect a dog’s ability to perform correctly. Clients who primarily practice behaviors with their dog at home and during dog class often report that their dog struggles when asked to work in new, unfamiliar surroundings. This is a normal part of the training process, and why I encourage my clients to not believe their dog “knows” something until they’ve had training success in several different locations away from home. Be aware that certain environments will be more challenging than others, and gradually raise your expectations at a level that is fair and appropriate for your dog.
It’s also important to look at how your behavior might affect your dog. If you primarily lure your dog into positions like sit and down by using treats, you might believe your dog “knows” down, only to be surprised by his inability to perform correctly in the absence of the treat. Sudden behavior changes on your part – such as switching from treat to hand signal, or even changing how you present a hand signal – can reduce the dog’s ability to be correct, which can lead to frustration. Make changes like this to your training program gradually.
Finally, don’t forget that dogs can get frustrated, too. My Golden Retriever reserves a specifically pitched bark for when I suspect he feels that I’ve failed to provide clear direction while running agility. More often than not, he’s right and my body cues were incorrect. “Dang it, woman!” he seems to say. “Where exactly do you want me to go?”
We’re Only Human
Do I still get frustrated? Of course. I’m only human. I’ve been known to call my dog a creative “pet name” or two, or rattle off something to the effect of, “It’s a good thing you’re cute,” as I re-set an obedience jump bar that he just knocked down – again. My secret? I deliver my monologue in a happy, upbeat voice, and often while delivering a stream of treats or tugging with a toy. I release the necessary steam and hope my dog is none the wiser. I’m far from perfect, but this trick often helps me keep my emotions in check so I’m not as apt to unfairly direct frustration toward my dog.
I often think about something an agility judge once said during a pre-run briefing. I don’t remember her name, but her words will stay with me for as long as I choose to share my life with dogs. “Run every run like it’s your dog’s last,” she said. Powerful words. Our dogs are never with us long enough. I want to fill my memory bank with joyful interactions, not frustration-filled memories that potentially led me to treat my dog with less than the respect and compassion he deserved.
After all, as an anonymous author is widely quoted, “He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.”
Stephanie Colman has been training dogs in Los Angeles for 10 years. She actively competes in obedience and agility with her Golden Retriever, Quiz, and enjoys spoiling her retired Whippet, Zoie.
If you feel your training has stalled, consider the following:
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Get help – If training on your own, consider enrolling in a class or booking a private lesson for one-on-one attention. You aren’t expected to have all the answers yourself. All dogs are different. Even if you’ve trained previous dogs on your own, a little professional guidance might be just what you need to jumpstart success.
Seek a second opinion – There are lots of ways to train different behaviors. If you feel you’ve hit a wall with one approach, don’t be afraid to look for new ideas from other trainers who follow similar underlying principles (for example, using reward-based training versus punishment). However, it’s important to do your homework and give each new idea adequate time to work before dismissing it and looking for something else. Even with diligent practice, you can expect it to take weeks and months for behavior to change.
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Know your limits – Consider your dog training philosophy and know where you stand on the use of various forms of compulsion and punishment. While more and more people are using positive reinforcement to initially train behaviors, many well-meaning people still suggest punishment-based techniques for problem solving. It can be easy to be tempted by the seemingly “quick fix,” especially in the heat of the moment when your frustration is running high. A little honest soul-searching away from training can help you hold tight to your beliefs.
Table it – If a specific behavior really has you stumped, step away from it for a while. If needed, manage the dog’s environment to prevent rehearsal of unwanted behavior and concentrate on things that allow you to celebrate success.
1. Select a menu of strategies from those offered in this article, and start working with your dog.
2. As you try them out, determine which strategies work best for the two of you, and discard the ones that don’t.
3. If you don’t seem to be making progress, seek the help of a qualified, positive behavior professional.
4. If your dog is extremely anxious and fearful, through discussion with your behavior professional and in consultation with a veterinary behaviorist, explore the use of anti-anxiety medications to help improve your dog’s quality of life.
There are a lot of things in our world that have the potential to frighten our dogs. How is it that some dogs deal with these stimuli without batting an eye, while others cower behind their owners with little or no apparent provocation? The Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz seems to say it all in one simple word: “Courage!” But it’s really not so simple. Why do some dogs seem to be consistently brave, while others are timid? Even more important, absent Dorothy and a wizard, how does one go about helping their timid dog get brave?
We’ve written (a lot!) in the past about using counter-conditioning and desensitization to help dogs change their association with fear-causing stimuli in order to change their emotional response. (As just one example of step-by-step instruction for a counter-conditioning program, see “Reducing Your Dog’s Anxieties,” WDJ April 2007.) That’s still good information, and I urge you to review the article to refresh your understanding of that important behavior modification protocol. This article, however, is going to introduce you to several other complementary exercises you can do in addition to counter-conditioning, to help your timid dog learn to cope with a scary world.
Some of the exercises that follow we’ve introduced in other training contexts. Some come in the “change behavior to change emotional response” category by doing fun stuff your dog loves; some have more to do with management; and some do both. If you’ve already taught some of these to your dog it will be easy to apply them in situations where he’s acting fearful. If you haven’t already taught them, there’s no time like the present!
Note: Be vigilant and protect your dog. During the confidence-building period, you must protect your dog from becoming overwhelmed by things that scare him. If, for example, you force your timid dog to accept the attentions of bearded men while he is still fearful of them, or you stay at an event that turns out to be noisy with your noise-phobic dog, he may become sensitized to the scary stimuli, making his behavior worse, instead of better.
Basic Good Manners Training
You don’t have to do a lot of fancy stuff to help your dog become more confident in his world. Simply teaching him basic good manners – to respond appropriately to your cues – will make his environment more predictable. It builds confidence to understand what you’re asking of him, and to understand the consequences of his behavior. Of course it goes without saying that you will use positive reinforcement-based training with him so the consequences are happy ones. Nothing can destroy a timid dog’s confidence faster than the application of verbal or physical punishment; this will convince him he’s right to think the world is a scary and unpredictable place.
Combine his positive reinforcement good manners training with structure in his routine and stability in his life and you will have taken a large step toward increasing his confidence. But of course, you want to do more to help your dog get brave. Happily, you can do that simply by doing fun stuff with him, such as:
Targeting
Targeting means teaching your dog to touch a designated body part to a designated target. (For in-depth information on teaching a dog to target, see “Train Your Dog to Target,” February 2006.) That description doesn’t do it justice; targeting is tons of fun! Many dogs love targeting, partly because it’s easy to do, and partly because it pays off well – “push the button (the target spot), get a treat.”
Since dogs naturally explore the world with their noses and paws, nose and foot targeting are the two easiest. Nose-targeting draws your dog’s eye-contact and attention from a worrisome stimulus to a pleasant one, so that’s the one I find most useful for timid dogs, although foot-targeting can work too.
It’s an embarrassingly simple behavior to teach. Hold out your hand in front of your dog, at nose level or below. When he sniffs it (because he’s curious!), click your clicker (or use a verbal marker, such as a mouth click or a word) and feed him a treat. Remove your hand, then offer it again. Each time he sniffs, click and treat. If he stops sniffing (boring – I’ve already sniffed that!), rub a little tasty treat on your palm, to make your hand smell intriguing, and try again.
You’re looking for that wonderful “light bulb” moment – when he realizes he can make you click and treat by bumping his nose into your hand. His “touch” behavior becomes deliberate, rather than incidental to sniffing your hand. When you see him deliberately bumping his nose into your hand, add the “Touch!” cue as you offer your hand to him. Encourage him with praise and high-value treats. Make it a game, so he thinks it’s the most fun in the world. You want to see his eyes light up when you say “Touch,” and you want him to “bonk” his nose into your hand, hard! Start offering your hand in different places so he has to move to touch it, climb on something to touch it, jump up to touch it.
When he loves the touch game, occasionally ask him to touch twice; tell him he’s a good dog after the first one, and click and treat only the second one. Gradually decrease your rate of reinforcement, until he’ll touch several times before he gets his click and treat. Then click and treat several in a row. Mix it up, so he never knows when the click will happen – but the click and treat always happen eventually!
Now try playing touch when your dog is a little bit nervous about something. Scary man with a beard and sunglasses passing by on the sidewalk? Hold out your hand and say “Touch!” so that your dog takes his eyes – and his brain – away from the scary thing and happily bonks his nose into your hand. Click and treat. He can’t be afraid of the man and happy about touching your hand at the same time. He also can’t look at the target and stare at the scary man at the same time.
Ask him to touch several more times, until the man has passed, and then continue on your walk. If you do this every time he sees a scary man, he’ll decide that men with beards and sunglasses are good because they make the touch game happen! By changing your dog’s behavior – having him do something he loves rather than acting fearful – you can manage a scary encounter, and eventually change his emotional response to and association with something previously scary to him.
Help Raise Confident Dogs With Confidence-Building Games for Dogs
“Find It”
Like targeting, “Find it” is a behavior many dogs learn to love, and another game you can play to change your dog’s behavior in the presence of a fear-causing stimulus, eventually changing his emotional response. This is also another ridiculously easy and delightful game that any dog can play.
Start with your dog in front of you, and a handful of tasty treats behind your back. Say “Find it!” in a cheerful tone of voice and toss one treat a few feet to your left. When your dog gets to the treat, click just before he eats it. When he comes back to you say “Find it!” again and toss a second treat a few feet to your right. Click – and he eats the treat. Do this back and forth, until your dog is easily moving from one “find it” treat to the other. Then toss them farther each time until your dog happily runs back and forth.
Now if a scary skateboarder appears while you’re walking your dog around the block on his leash, play the find it game, keeping the tossed treats close to you. Your dog will take his eyes off the scary thing and switch into happy-treat mode. You’ve changed his emotions by changing his behavior.
Targeting and find it can also work to walk your timid dog past a scary, stationary object, like a manhole cover, or a noisy air-conditioning unit. Play touch and treat as you walk past, or toss find it treats on the ground ahead of you and slightly away from the scary thing, to keep him moving happily forward.
The Emergency Escape Game
An emergency escape game gives you a “run away” strategy when you know an approaching stimulus will be too much for your worried dog. However, because you’ve taught it to your dog as a fun game, he’s not running away in panic; he’s just playing one of his favorite “get brave” games that just happens to move him farther away from the scary thing.
Teach this game to your dog in a safe, comfortable environment when he’s not being afraid of something. As you are walking with him on-leash, say your “Run away!” cue, then turn around and run fast, encouraging your dog to romp with you for a squeaky toy, a ball, a handful of high value treats at the end of the run, or a rousing game of tug – whatever your dog loves most. The key to success with this exercise is convincing your dog that the “run away” cue is the predictor of wonderful fun and games. Again, you’re teaching him a new, fun behavior – “Run away!” – that you can use to change his emotional response in a scary moment.
Playtime
You can use any behavior your dog already loves – a trick, a toy, a game, anything that lights up his face – to convince him that good things happen in the presence of something scary. If he loves to roll over, ask him to do that. If he delights in snagging tossed treats out of the air, do that. High five? Crawl? Do those.
The key to making any of these games work to help your dog be brave is to be sure you keep him far enough away from the scary thing, at first, that his brain is able to click in to “play” mode. You will always be more successful if you start the games when you see low levels of stress, rather than waiting until he’s in full meltdown. (To learn to recognize how dogs show stress, see “Signs That Your Dog Has Stress,” June 2006.)
If he’s too stressed or fearful, he won’t be able to play. If he’ll start to play with you while the scary thing is at a distance, you’ll be able to move closer. If he stops playing and shuts down, you’ve come too close. Depending on your dog and how fearful he is, you may find some of these play-strategies work well enough to walk him past scary stimuli the first time you try, or you may have to work up to it.
“Get Behind”
“Get behind” is more of a management strategy. Timid dogs often try to hide when they’re afraid. If you teach your dog a cue that means “hide behind me,” your “body shield” can help him get through scary moments. To teach this behavior:
1) Have your dog in front of you, with an ample supply of small, high-value treats in your treat pouch, or in a bowl on a nearby table.
2) Say “Get behind!” and lure your dog behind you and into a sit. Click and treat.
3) Repeat several times, until he lures easily into position.
4) Now say the cue and pause, to give him a chance to think about it and respond. If he moves even slightly, click, lure him into position, and treat. A tentative movement is sometimes a question to you – “Is this what you want?” If you answer with a hearty “Click (Yes!!)” and treat, you can move the training forward more quickly.
5) Keep repeating the cue/pause, gradually reducing how much you lure, until he’s moving into position on his own when you give the cue.
Alternatively, you can shape the “get behind” behavior by clicking and treating small movements toward your final goal. (For more information about shaping, see “Fun Dog Training Techniques Using Shaping!,” March 2006.)
You can start applying this strategy in real-life situations early on in the training, even if before your dog fully grasps the concept, simply by luring him into his safe position as the scary thing passes.
“Treat and Retreat”
“Treat and retreat” is a procedure to help timid dogs get brave. Its development is attributed to two well-known trainers: Dr. Ian Dunbar, veterinary behaviorist and founder of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers, of Berkeley, California; and Suzanne Clothier, who trains in St. Johnsville, New York. While Dr. Dunbar claims credit for introducing the concept, Clothier is generally credited with popularizing the procedure under the “Treat and Retreat” appellation.
To use treat and retreat, start with your dog a safe distance from a person who worries him. Have that person toss a piece of low-value kibble over your dog’s head. Your dog will turn and walk away to get the kibble, then turn back to look at the scary person. When he turns back, have the person toss a high-value treat in front of the dog, in the approximate place the dog was originally. (You may want to use some kind of marker to help your tossing-person’s aim.)
When the dog comes forward and eats the high-value treat, have the person toss another low-value treat behind the dog, then another high-value treat in the original spot. As your dog gets more relaxed about coming forward for the high-value treat, have the tosser gradually decrease the distance, so the dog is going closer to the scary person to eat the treat. If you see increased signs of reluctance with the decreased distance, you’ve decreased the distance too quickly. Go as slowly as necessary to keep your dog happy about this game; you want him moving toward the person tossing the treats happily and voluntarily.
CAT, developed by Kellie Snider and Dr. Jesus Rosales Ruiz at the University of North Texas, uses operant conditioning and shaping (dog does deliberate behavior to operate on his environment) to convince a dog that his old behavior, in this case acting fearful, no longer works to make a scary thing go away. In the presence of a scary stimulus, the smallest sign of relaxation or confidence now makes the scary thing go away – until the dog learns that acting confident (and becoming confident as a result) is a better behavior strategy.
BAT is similar to CAT in some ways, but focuses on having your dog move away from the scary stimulus rather than having the scary thing move away from the dog. Developed by Grisha Stewart, CPDT-KA, CTP, of Seattle, Washington, BAT uses desensitization together with a functional reward for calm behavior. You begin at a distance where your dog can see the fear-causing stimulus (scary man with beard) without reacting to it. When your dog offers any form of calm body language you move away from the bearded man as the functional reward.
BAT defines “functional reward,” as “what your dog wants to happen in that moment.” In the case of a fearful dog, what the dog wants is for the scary thing to be farther away. According to Stewart, a good functional reward for a dog’s calm behavior can be to move away from the scary thing. Similar to CAT, if you teach your dog that calm behavior makes scary things get farther away, your dog will learn to be calm, confident, and not fearful in the presence of those things.
A newer version of BAT simply has you keep your dog on a long leash at a sub-threshold distance from the stimulus until he habituates to its presence, then gradually move closer as his behavior and body language tell you he ready to do so.
LAT stands for “Look At That” – a protocol developed by Leslie McDevitt, CPDT-KA, CDBC, author of Control Unleashed, at her training center outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In LAT, the key is to keep your dog below threshold (quiet and calm) while teaching him to look at a scary stimulus, then rewarding him for looking at it. To train LAT, click and reward your dog the second he looks at the bearded man, as long your dog doesn’t react adversely. If your dog is too close to threshold with the scary stimulus at any distance, start with a neutral target and click as soon as he looks at it. When your dog is offering a quick glance toward the target, name it “Look!”
Your dog will quickly start to look at his scary triggers when you give the “Look!” cue, and turn back to you for a reward. If your dog does not turn quickly, he’s probably too close to or over his threshold. Increase the distance between you and the bearded man and try again. Gradually decrease distance as your dog learns to do the “Look!” game with things that are worrisome to him.
Many of the above games and strategies are compatible with each other. CAT and BAT tend to be mutually exclusive because one moves the dog away from the scary thing, while the other moves the scary thing away from the dog. Other than that, the more of the above strategies you apply, the more tools you’ll have at your disposal to help your dog cope with fear-causing stimuli in his world, and the more confident he’ll become.
Coddling and Cuddling
There is an unfortunate myth floating around in some parts of the dog training world that if you give reassurance to a fearful dog you will reinforce his fearful behavior. Therefore you must ignore your dog when he’s trembling at your feet in fear.
Hogwash. Think back in your own life to a time when you were very frightened or upset. Did it help (or would it have helped) you feel better to have someone you trusted come and put his or her arm around your and calmly reassure you that everything was going to be alright? Of course it did. Our dogs are no different.
At times when emotions run high, we are more concerned with helping our dogs get those emotions back under control than having him respond perfectly to our cues. In fact, when a dog is very afraid, the emotional part of the brain — the amygdala — takes over, and the thinking part of the brain — the cortex — doesn’t work well. The over-threshold dog isn’t even capable of connecting his behavior to reinforcement, which is why we try hard in our behavior modification protocols to keep the dog below threshold — so learning can happen. If he is shaking in fear, your calm voice and slow, gentle petting can be hugely reassuring to him; fast rubbing and an anxious tone, however, are not.
The term Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) describes a group of complex developmental brain disorders whose symptoms may appear in infancy or later in childhood, affecting speech and behavior. ASDs affects an estimated one out of every 110 children, with boys outnumbering girls three or four to one. In the United States, an estimated one out of every 70 boys is diagnosed with autism.
According to the Mayo Clinic, the symptoms of autism include:
Lack of Social Skills Failing to respond to one’s name, having poor eye contact, appearing not to hear conversation, resisting cuddling and holding, being unaware of others’ feelings, playing alone, and retreating into one’s “own world”
Language Problems Developmental delays, starts talking later than age two, unable to make eye contact when making requests, speaking with an abnormal tone, rhythm, singsong voice, or robot-like speech, unable to start a conversation or keep one going, and repeating words verbatim without understanding how to use them
Behavior Problems Performing repetitive movements, such as rocking, spinning, or hand-flapping, developing specific routines or rituals, becoming disturbed at the slightest change of routine or ritual, moving constantly, being fascinated by parts of an object (such as a toy car’s spinning wheels), and being unusually sensitive to light, sound, and touch but oblivious to physical pain
Having Temper Tantrums or Melt-Downs Screaming, crying, striking out, hitting, etc.
While there is no cure for ASDs, educational and behavioral interventions, medications, and other therapies have been shown to improve symptoms, especially if intervention takes place early.
