Nocturnal Dogs

Behavior
Care
Training
House Rules & Good Manners
House Training

June 15, 2020

Some of my friends have been horrified to learn that my husband and I have chosen, so far, to allow our new dog, Otto, to spend his nights outdoors. From some of our friends’ reactions, you’d think we were turning him loose in the Alaskan wilderness each winter, but the fact is, the decision was made in response to Otto’s own wishes -and our own pressing need for sleep! Allow me to explain.

As I’ve hinted before, Otto is quite nocturnal. Left to his own devices, he would sleep through most of the day, and do his very best to party all night. To his dismay, he’s alone in the wee hours. This is incredibly boring, but he’s game for the challenge of finding things to do, even with so few activity partners at night!

On the few nights when we did try to have him sleep in the house, he paced, whined, chewed stuff up, and nudged me repeatedly (seemingly right after he had gotten a drink of water, and had water all over his beard, every time) as I slept. When we gave him toys and chew-items, he threw them around, clunking them into the walls and furniture. Then he paced and whined some more.

Also, he barked. Because it’s hot where we live, from May through October, and because we aren’t big on air conditioning, we open the house up at night and position fans to bring in cooler air and drive the hot air out of the house. We have screens on the windows, and security screen doors – which means that Otto can hear and see anything that is going on outside at night, but he can’t go investigate. So he barked with his big, booming bark, perhaps as a guarding behavior, but also in frustration. He wanted out.

It didn’t take us long – just a few nearly sleepless nights – to agree that, yes, Otto can go play outside at night. With all the doors and windows open we can still hear when he barks at something -which, thank goodness, is less and less all the time. Because I’m a mom, and have experience with jumping up out of bed to check on a crying baby (albeit 16 years ago . . . these reflexes don’t ever go away, I think), I’m the one who leaps out of bed and goes to the appropriate door to look out and say, “Hey Otto . . . What are you doing?”

Busy, busy, busy
Mostly, what he’s doing is, you know, keeping busy. He looks for random objects to augment his growing toy collection. He collects shoes, tools, and sticks – and of course, anything that we’ve witlessly left untied down – and this fills an hour or two. Tossing those items in the air and carrying them around the yard takes up most of the night.

He chews some things during his nighttime adventures – weird things. He has chewed the arm of a plastic deck chair and the edge of a wooden bench. He loves chewing sticks and scraps from the lumber pile, but his favorite thing to chew is a foam-filled dog bed – yum! He’s chewed up three beds, which I find odd because he also has several soft stuffed toys, and he hasn’t chewed even a tiny hole in any of them.

Due to all the foam-bed-ripping, he’s now down to a single bed, a mat-like fleecy thing that he likes dragging around from the front yard to the backyard and back to the front. He likes to chew stuff up while lying on the mat, but he doesn’t sleep on it. When he does sleep, he either curls up in the dirt or in his (now) bare-floored plastic crate. Go figure.

One good thing that has resulted from his item-chewing and -relocation habits: our yard and deck are now very neat. No one leaves anything out, because we have all learned that anything that’s left outside will be relocated and might be chewed.

The exception to the tidiness is the potting table by our back door; it’s become heaped with a bunch of stuff we don’t want Otto to chew, hide, or roll through the dirt, including shoes, gardening gloves, a paint brush, a broom, Otto’s leash and car harness, his brush, and the toys we want to preserve (or have taken away at night when his tossing them about wakes us up).

As happy as Otto seems to be as a nocturnal dog, we’re trying to convince him that life on the day shift is more fun. Throughout the day, when I see him snoozing in the shade somewhere, I say, “Hey Otto! Wake up!” and engage him in an impromptu training session or race around the house. We give him Kong toys with wet food frozen inside (“Kongsicles”) and rawhide chews or bones to chew on. I invite him into my office, and send him back outside at random intervals. Brian calls him into the house, into his at-home office.

We take him along to the post office – a half block away! We also have been making him exercise a lot. I often take him for an early morning walk or bike ride; we have easy access to some terrific trails where I can let him off-leash and run ahead of my mountain bike. When we walk along the river that runs through our town, he wades and swims a little. About once a week I take him to a dog park for a couple hours of off-leash play with other dogs. And we take him for a long walk or off-leash run every evening. Tiring him out is tiring us out!

“I think it would be easier to put him on a plane and send him to Europe for a week,” I once told Brian. “Maybe he’d come back with jet lag, and get onto our schedule.” I haven’t entirely ruled this out! Still, no matter what we do to try to exhaust him during the day, at around 9 p.m., mellow Otto visibly transforms into Super Otto! His ears and tail go up, and he starts running laps around the house, a toy in his mouth and not a care in the world. It would be darling, except . . .

Oh, the barking!
During his first week with us, Otto barked in short bursts practically all night. He barked when leaves fell onto the deck. He barked when trains went by, as they do about five times a night, about four blocks from our home. He barked when police or ambulance sirens were heard in town, and when a loud truck or motorcycle went by. And of course, he barked when he heard human voices, from people walking by or if he heard loud conversation from any of our neighbors’ homes.

But just at night! During the day, he sleeps through all of it!

Because we got him from our local shelter and his past is unknown, we weren’t sure if previously he had been treated as a watch dog, and perhaps encouraged to bark; had been neglected and allowed to bark; or had lived in a home that was much less stimulating, perhaps in a remote area. What was clear was that he had absolutely no idea that barking at night was not welcome. No matter how excitedly he was barking at something, if I called him, he would turn and run toward me happily.

One of the most basic principles of dog training is that you never, ever, punish or scold or treat in any unhappy way a dog who has come when called, no matter what horrid thing the dog had been doing when you called him. I didn’t want to give him any reason to be reluctant to come to me when I called his name.

Because both of us were sleep-deprived and cranky within three days of Otto’s arrival, on the fourth day, we decided to allow him to stay outside at night. And I volunteered to sleep outside, to be able to call him to me as quickly as possible when he barked. The goal was to interrupt the unwanted behavior – keeping him from practicing something we didn’t want him to do – and to give him something else to do, something we’d rather he do, and to reward him for it. I love to camp and sleep outside anyway, and we have a big, private deck on the side of the house where I could sleep unobserved by the neighbors. And I got a bit more sleep than when Otto was pacing in the house.

Every time Otto barked, I’d whistle or call him as softly as I could, and then pat the foam mattress next to me. He’d joyfully romp back to me and dive onto the bed, rolling over for a belly rub. Sometimes I’d get up and give him a rawhide chew, an interactive toy (he enjoys the plush beehive with the bees that can be pulled out of various openings), or a food-stuffed Kong. Other times, I’d praise him and pet him for a minute, then fall back to sleep.

Within just a couple of nights, Otto stopped barking at all but the most alarming things: people walking by the house in the middle of the night, and cats. I have to admit I’m probably okay with a dog who woofs a time or two when a person is slinking around my house at 3 a.m., though of course I don’t want him barking for longer than that. When I woke to Otto’s barking, and I could see or hear a person or people walking by, I’d let him bark a time or two more, and then call him. “Good boy,” I’d say.

Stray cats: Our nemesis
Cats are another matter. There are a lot of feral cats (and a few wild skunks) that prowl around our riverside town. Prior to Otto’s arrival, at least one of the cats had learned how to enter our cat door and eat our cat’s food in our kitchen. (This was actually a factor in my husband’s sudden decision to get a dog.) Now, with Otto on night patrol, at least one of these cats started hanging out on the sidewalk in front our house, just on the other side of our chain-link fence. Wahoo! Or rather, as Otto puts it, “Wah, woo-woo-woo-woo woo!”

This, I don’t want. If he could chase cats away silently, I’d be all for it, but this is pretty unlikely. When I call him away from a cat, he comes to me, but the second I take my attention from him, he’s amped up to go look for the cat again.

Now, I know from reading 11 years’ worth of articles by Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor, Pat Miller, that one of the major strategies of a positive training program is to manage the dog’s environment to prevent him from being rewarded for behaviors you don’t want him to repeat. Because we have (weather permitting, for now) allowed him to spend the night outside, we’ve eliminated “putting him in the house” as a viable option to prevent his cat-related barking. And we know he’s busy at night, so I’m not eager to try crating him or locking him in my office; I think he’d freak out.

For now, we’ve settled on a compromise: on most nights, we close the gates on the sides of our house, keeping Otto restricted to the backyard. It’s just a matter of time, I expect, before the feral cats figure this out, and start taunting him from the front yard. To try to prevent that, I sometimes leave a side gate open, so Otto can perform random sweeps of the front yard – usually with a bit of barking, of course.

It’s a work in progress; we know we’ll have to adjust things when the weather starts to get cold. I’m still sleep-deprived, but he’s getting better all the time.

Choosing gear
One of the most rewarding things for me in the past few weeks has been compiling some of my favorite bits of dog-care and -training gear. Like many former horse owners, I’ve got an inordinate love for “tack” – leashes that feel just right in the hand, buckles that adjust easily, training equipment that looks good and fits really well, and so on. Finding the right gear to use with Otto has been fun for me.

One of my first challenges was finding just the right collar. I’ve always put leather collars on my dogs, and especially like those made of soft leather in a full-rolled (round) style. However, Otto has an apparent wealth of experience with ducking out of a collar. He needs a “limited slip” or martingale collar, the kind that tightens when his leash is taut, but one that can’t choke him or tighten too much.

I went back through Whole Dog Journal’s collar reviews, including “The Collar of Money” (May 2005) and “Slip-Sliding Away?” (about martingale collars, in October 2000). I remembered that I liked the limited slip collars made by Premier Pet Products, but preferred the soft hemp fabric and wide variety of colors and styles offered by earthdog (the company doesn’t use capital letters in its name). I looked up the company’s website (earthdog.com) and excitedly ordered a red collar with stars.

This collar has been a dream. It has a nice, big ring on it for clipping a leash onto; I hate hunting one-handed for a too-small ring. It fits nicely, hasn’t allowed Otto to slip loose – even when he was trying hard to escape a bath – looks handsome, and washes well.

Very recently, I was admiring a large line of earthdog collars and leashes in my favorite independent pet supply store (Dog Bone Alley) in my old town of Alameda. I decided that because it had been weeks since Otto had tried to slip his collar, I’d buy a regular earthdog collar, in blue, with a matching leash. We’d be the stars of our next training class!

Back home, I switched the tags from the martingale collar to Otto’s new flat collar, and for days, I admired his new look – until one day I decided he again needed a bath, and he deftly slipped his new collar on the way to the hose. Whoops! Now we change collars frequently; I just have to remember which collar he has on before initiating something he’s likely to try to escape.

Nancy Kerns is Editor of Whole Dog Journal. She adopted Otto from a shelter on June 16, 2008.

earthdog is located in Brentwood, TN. See earthdog.com or call (877) 654-5528.

Help for OCD Dogs

Behavior
Impulse Control

Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA

June 21, 2019

You’ve probably heard about people who wash their hands repeatedly until the skin wears off, who pull out their hair until they’re bald, or return home, time after time after time, to make sure the stove is turned off. These are obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCDs).

Sad to say, OCD behaviors aren’t confined to humans; dogs get them, too. Oh, you won’t see your dog worrying about whether the stove was left on, nor will you catch him washing his paws repeatedly in the sink. Dogs have a whole set of potential OCDs all their own, specific to canine behavior. Canine OCDs are just as capable of destroying a dog’s ability to function as human OCDs are capable of affecting human lives.

What is OCD?

MedicineNet.com says this about OCDs:

“OCD is a psychiatric disorder characterized by obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions, such as cleaning, checking, counting, or hoarding. One of the anxiety disorders, OCD is a potentially disabling condition that can persist throughout a person’s life. The individual who suffers from OCD becomes trapped in a pattern of repetitive thoughts and behaviors that are senseless and distressing but extremely difficult to overcome. OCD occurs in a spectrum from mild to severe, but if severe and left untreated, can destroy a person’s capacity to function at work, at school, or even in the home.”

The last thing you want is for your dog to develop an OCD. The more you know about them, the better armed you are to prevent OCDs, and the better able to recognize and take action sooner rather than later – a critically important element of a successful behavior modification program for OCDs.

Are Dogs Really “Obsessive”?

There is some disagreement among animal behavior professionals about applying the term “obsessive” to canine behavior. The “anti-s” declare that the term “obsessive” refers to the dog’s thoughts, and because we can never really know what a dog is thinking, it’s therefore inappropriate to use the term in reference to dog behavior; we should simply call it “Canine Compulsive Disorder.” The word “compulsive” refers to the dog’s actions, which we can clearly see, so it’s okay to use that term in relation to dogs.

Those who favor using the term “obsessive” argue that we know a dog’s brain is similar in many ways to a human’s, albeit with a smaller cortex, and the observed compulsive behavior patterns are so similar to human OCDs that it only makes sense to call it obsessive, even with regard to dogs. A growing number of behavior professionals share this opinion – as do I – and so “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder” is becoming an increasingly used term in dog behavior work.

Noted veterinary behaviorist Dr. Karen Overall suggests that as much as two to three percent of our canine population may be afflicted with OCD. She also identifies it as one of the most difficult canine behavioral disorders to successfully treat, and emphasizes that genetic, environmental, and neurochemical/neurophysiological elements all come into play.

Certain breeds have a clear genetic propensity for specific OCDs. Cavalier King Charles Spaniels are prone to fly-snapping, and shadow-and light-chasing; Doberman Pinschers tend to flank-sucking and self-mutilation from licking; a high percentage of Golden and Labrador Retrievers seem to suffer from pica (eating inappropriate objects); and several of the herding breeds are likely to demonstrate OCD spinning and tail-chasing behaviors (see “OCDs and Breed Predispositions,” below). It’s a good idea to research your own breed thoroughly, so you can be especially watchful for telltale signs of any that may plague your breed.

In addition to the genetic component of OCD behavior, environment plays a significant role. OCDs most often emerge in young dogs, between 6 to 12 months, in dogs who have a genetic predisposition to the behavior, when subjected to environmental stressors that trigger the onset of the behavior. Dogs who may be genetically prone to a behavior may dodge the OCD bullet if they avoid being significantly stressed during this period. Or maybe not.

Early Signs of Canine OCD

The early sign of any OCD is the occasional performance of a behavior out of context. It’s normal for a dog to chase a real fly; it’s not normal for him to start snapping at things in the air that you can’t see. Because well-practiced OCDs are heartbreakingly difficult to modify, it’s critically important to identify and modify OCD behavior in its early stages.

I’ve had two different clients who had dogs with fly-snapping behavior. One was a Bernese Mountain Dog, the other a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Both are on the list of breeds at high risk for this behavior. The Berner’s owners, already Peaceable Paws clients, identified the behavior at its onset and we immediately took appropriate steps to modify the behavior. Leo eventually stopped snapping at imaginary flies. The Cav’s owners also identified the behavior at onset and contacted the breeder, who told them, “Oh, some Cavs just do that. His sire and several of his littermates do it, too.”

By the time Widget reached the age of 18 months and his owners sought professional behavior assistance, the condition was severe. When I visited their home I found a dog in misery, unable to be in a lighted room for any length of time without becoming extremely anxious, eventually snapping nonstop at his invisible tormentors. He could escape his mental torture only by running into the darkened dining room and hiding in his crate. This poor dog required extensive treatment with psychotropic drugs as well as a behavior modification program to bring the debilitating behavior under control.

Our own Cardigan Corgi, Lucy, exhibited tail-chasing behavior in the shelter before we adopted her, both in her kennel and during the assessment process. Note that tail-chasing and spinning are seen disproportionately in the herding breeds. Fortunately for us and for her, Lucy was young when we adopted her (six months). Simply removing her from the stressful shelter environment and providing her with large daily doses of physical exercise resolved her behavior.

Ben, a four-month-old Golden Retriever client in Monterey, was also treated successfully, simply by having his owners remove all reinforcement (getting up and leaving the room) the instant the pup started to chase his tail. His spinning behavior ceased within a month. A Standard Poodle client I worked with in Santa Cruz was not so fortunate. At age three, Giselle’s spinning behavior was well-established; her owners couldn’t even walk her on leash because of her nonstop spinning anytime she was in the least bit stimulated. Like the Cavalier, she required extensive pharmaceutical intervention.

The following are the most common OCD behaviors seen in dogs:

Lick granuloma: Also known as Acral Lick Dermatitis or ALD, this disorder presents as repetitive licking of the front or hind legs, ultimately causing a bare spot, then an open sore, sometimes causing systemic infection. In extreme cases, a limb may need to be amputated.

Light-Chasing

(Includes shadow-chasing.) Likely related to predatory behavior, light-chasing is characterized by staring, biting at, chasing, or barking at lights and shadows. This behavior is sometimes triggered by an owner playing with the dog with flashlights or laser lights.

Tail-Chasing/Spinning

Also perhaps a displaced predatory behavior, tail-chasing often starts as an apparently innocuous, “cute” behavior that is reinforced by owner attention. Only when it attains obsessive proportions do many owners realize the harm in reinforcing this behavior.

Flank-Sucking

A self-explanatory term, flank-sucking behavior is likely a displaced nursing behavior. Similarly, some dogs may suck on blankets or soft toys – behaviors that can be equally obsessive, but are less self-destructive.

Fly-Snapping

No, this one doesn’t refer to dogs who chase real flies – that’s a normal behavior; the OCD version of fly-snapping involves snapping at imaginary flies. Dogs who exhibit this behavior may appear anxious, apparently unable to escape their imaginary tormentors.

While some fly-snapping may be seizure-related, a significant percentage of sufferers don’t demonstrate behaviors typical of seizure activity, and those episodes are characterized as true OCD behaviors.

Pica

While many dogs are happy to eat objects that humans consider inappropriate, dogs with pica do so obsessively. Pica induces some dogs to obsessively eat and swallow small objects such as stones, acorns, and twigs, while others ingest large amounts of paper, leather, or other substances. Pica can cause life-threatening bowel obstruction.

It’s important to note that dogs who are prone to one obsessive compulsive behavior can easily adopt another. I firmly prohibited my husband from playing with Lucy with a laser light, or water from the hose, knowing full well she’d delight in these activities. We didn’t need light-chasing on top of tail-chasing! Ben, the tail-chasing Golden pup, had a more serious OCD problem: he was obsessive about eating pebbles, small sticks, and acorns. At the tender age of four months he had already undergone one emergency surgery for intestinal blockage, and had to wear a muzzle when he was outside, on leash or off, to prevent a recurrence.

For this reason, simply suppressing the behavior through punishment is a dangerously inappropriate approach. Not only does the punishment add stress to a behavior already triggered and exacerbated by stress, it heightens the risk of having the dog transfer to a new OCD. Far better to approach an OCD modification program more scientifically.

Modifying OCD Behavior

There are five key components to most successful OCD modification programs:

1. Increase Exercise

A useful part of almost any behavior modification program, exercise relieves stress and tires your dog so he has less energy to practice his OCD behavior. While physical exercise is hugely important, don’t overlook the value of mental exercise for relieving stress and tiring a dog mentally. (See “A Puzzling Activity,” June 2008, and “Mind Games,” October 2004, for more information on how to keep dogs busy.)

2. Reduce Stress

This is an important and obvious step, given that OCDs are triggered and exacerbated by stress. You will need to identify as many stressors as possible in your dog’s life. Have the whole family participate in making a list of all the things you can identify that cause stress for your dog – not just the one(s) that appear to trigger the obsessive behavior.

Then go down the list identifying any you can simply eliminate (i.e., shock collar for that evil underground shock fence) and commit to removing those from his environment. Next, mark those that might be appropriate for counter-conditioning – changing his opinion of them from “Ooh, scary/stressful!” to “Yay! Good thing!” (See “Fear Itself,” April 2007).

Finally, try to manage his environment to at least reduce his exposure to those that can’t be eliminated or modified.

3. Remove Reinforcement

All too often, owners mistakenly think obsessive behaviors are cute or funny. They reinforce the behavior with laughter and attention, and may even trigger the behavior deliberately, unaware of the harm they’re doing. When the behavior becomes so persistent that it’s annoying, the dog may be reinforced with “negative attention” when the owner yells at him to stop doing it.

As in the case of Ben, the Golden pup, removing reinforcement by having all humans leave the room can work well to help extinguish an OCD in its early stages.

4. Reinforce an Incompatible Behavior

This was also an effective part of Ben’s modification program. When the puppy wasn’t chasing his tail, his owners used a high rate of reinforcement for calm behavior, especially for lying quietly on his bed. Also, look for other calm behaviors to reinforce during otherwise potentially stimulating moments, such as sitting quietly at the door for his leash rather than leaping about in excitement over the pending walk.

5. Explore Behavior Modification Drugs if/when Appropriate

With persistent and well-practiced OCDs, referral to a qualified veterinary behaviorist for consideration of pharmaceutical intervention is nearly always imperative. The selection, prescription, and monitoring of the strong, potentially harmful psychotropic drugs used for modification of difficult behaviors requires the education and skill of a licensed veterinary professional.

You can find veterinary behavior professionals at American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior or American College of Veterinary Behaviorists.

If some of this information has alarmed you – good! Obsessive-compulsive disorders are alarming.

If your dog, or a friend’s, is showing early signs of OCD behavior, we want you to take it seriously, and intervene immediately, in order to prevent the behavior from developing into a debilitating disorder. Dogs like Lucy, Ben, and Leo can lead full and happy lives because steps were taken early to prevent their behaviors from becoming extreme.

If your dog already has a severe obsessive compulsive behavior, do something about it now. Dogs like Widget can lead quality lives because their owners care enough to find solutions for difficult behaviors. Make the commitment to find the help you need so you and your dog can have a full and happy life together.

Pat Miller, CPDT, is Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Hagerstown, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Pat is also author of The Power of Positive Dog Training; Positive Perspectives: Love Your Dog, Train Your Dog; Positive Perspectives II: Know Your Dog, Train Your Dog, and the brand-new Play with Your Dog.

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March 30, 2021

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Building a Healthy Relationship With Your Dog

Lifestyle
Human Focus

Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA

April 24, 2019

Like most positive trainers, I constantly remind my students that, whether they are conscious of it or not, they are training their dogs every moment they spend together. Whatever you choose to reinforce — even when you’re not in a formal training session — will affect your dog’s future behavior. The things that your dog does that you frequently reinforce are likely to increase, so it makes sense to reinforce him as frequently as you can for the behaviors that you enjoy.

Here’s an interesting and powerful side-effect of frequent positive reinforcement: This practice can not only influence your dog’s behavior in a way that you like, but also improve your relationship in a sort of positive feedback loop. When a dog (or anyone!) is rewarded, it makes him feel good – about himself and the person giving the reward. And when your dog feels good about you, it tends to make him want to be with you more, and it motivates him try to earn even more reinforcements. Said simply, frequent positive reinforcements strengthen the relationship between you and your dog.

The Center for the Human-Animal Bond at the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine defines the bond that connects us to our beloved canines as “…the dynamic relationship between people and animals in that each influences the psychological and physiological state of the other.” It also says that “People in the presence of animals are often perceived to be more happy and healthy.” But what about the happiness and health of the animals? If we do a good job as caretakers on our side of the dog-human bond, our dogs should be happier and healthier in our presence as well.

This leads us to the underlying foundation of the positive training philosophy (training without force, pain, or fear) where the goal is to create dogs who are joyful and willing partners in our activities. It also underscores the contrast with old-fashioned thinking: “My dog should do what I ask because he ‘loves’ or ‘respects’ me – not because he might get a treat.” Those who espouse this anti-treat position usually train with prong collars, choke chains, and even shock collars. Ultimately their dogs’ performance has nothing to do with love, and everything to do with pain avoidance and fear of unpleasant consequences.

How simple it is to help our dogs be healthier and happier – and well-trained – by remembering to reinforce them frequently during our interactions with them throughout the day, especially when we take advantage of the wide range of reinforcers available to us. The bond isn’t just about food – although food, because it’s a strong, primary reinforcer for most dogs, is certainly a part of it. Other powerful reinforcers include toys, play, attention, touch, and the sound of your voice.

Relationship-building opportunities
Psychologist John Gottman, a marital and relationship researcher based at the University of Washington, has conducted dozens of studies in which the interactions between a couple are recorded and analyzed, in order to try to predict the ultimate success or breakup of the relationship.

Gottman’s researchers closely observe the subjects’ body movements and posture, facial expressions, tone of voice, and content of their speech, and each minute expression is categorized into either a positive, affirming category, or a negative category.

Further, Gottman and his researchers look for and tally what they call “bids” – moments in which one of the partners attempts to seek out attention or affirmation from the other. These bids can be a verbal question, a look, an affectionate touch, or any single expression that says, “I want to feel connected to you,” says Dr. Gottman. A response to a bid can be a turn toward, away, or against the other’s request for emotional connection.

Gottman stores this data, then tracks the couples over time, to see which ones end up separating or divorcing and which ones stay together. He then analyzes all the data, looking for interactions that predict whether or not the couple succeeds in staying together. He now claims that within five minutes of observing a couple interact, he can predict, with 91 percent accuracy, whether the couple will ultimately separate or stay together. What is he looking for? In short, more positive expressions than negative ones, and more positive responses to the partners’ bids for attention than moments in which these bids are ignored.

Interestingly, Gottman found that people who (consciously or unconsciously) ignore their partners’ bids more often than they respond to them are just as unsuccessful in their relationships as people who are negative with their partners. Husbands who eventually were divorced ignored the bids from their wives 82 percent of the time, compared to 19 percent for men in stable marriages. Women who later divorced ignored their husbands’ bids 50 percent of the time, while those who remained married only disregarded 14 percent of their husbands’ bids.

What on earth does this have to do with positive dog training? Studies of this kind have not been conducted with dogs, but based on my own anecdotal experience, I’m certain that similar statistics would emerge from a canine/human relationship study. I’d be willing to bet the farm that the more frequently a person looks at her dog with a happy, playful, or otherwise positive expression; engages her dog in a way the dog clearly enjoys (petting, running, sitting together); and rewards her dog with something the dog likes (food, praise, toys, play, petting), the more likely the dog is to be well-trained, well-behaved, and secure in that person’s home for life.

Dogs are no different from humans; almost everyone responds positively to others who are attentive, interested, and responsive to us. So, to build a strong relationship with your dog, take as many opportunities as you can to respond to your dog’s “bids” for attention, and reward him for responding appropriately to yours.

Building a Healthy Relationship With Your Dog — 288

These moments don’t have to be big; I’m talking about frequent, small gestures. For example, you can simply say “Good dog!” in a bright, happy tone when you notice your dog looking at you. Toss him a treat when you walk by as he’s lying in the sun. “Catch him in the act” of lying quietly on his bed and rub his chest or tummy, as he prefers. Try to notice when he goes to the door and open it for him right away. Give him something he likes – a toy, a quick play session, a treat – if he comes into the room when you are watching TV and offers a sit and eye contact. The point is to not ignore him during moments of potential interaction; reinforce him, even in a small or momentary way.

Of course, another tenet of positive training is that it’s best to ignore – not reinforce in any way, with any attention whatsoever –those behaviors we would like to extinguish.

So if your dog’s “bid” for attention is jumping up on you, persistently nudging your elbow as you try to work on the computer, or barking at you, the last thing you want to do is reward or reinforce him – even with so-called negative attention, such as yelling at him or smacking him. Ignore him, even if you have to turn away or leave the room to do so. And try to respond positively within a minute or two after he ceases the negative sort of attention-seeking.

Keep a journal
One way to make yourself more aware of the opportunities you have in your daily life to strengthen your relationship with your dog is to keep a journal – even if only for a day. Make a note every time you have a positive interaction with your dog.

If the number of notations for the day is very low – say, less than four or five – it should alert you that you are not being as reinforcing, enjoyable, or significant to your dog as you should be. Try to increase the number . . . try to discover what the highest number of positive interactions you can have in a day!

If you make steady progress in increasing the number of times you have small, reinforcing moments with your dog, you’ll be sure to see his behavior, and your relationship improve.

My husband Paul and I have a pack of dogs – they are impossible to ignore! Seriously, though, we try to make sure that each dog has numerous positive interactions with us throughout the day. Here is a sample journal, so you can see what sort of interactions I’m trying to encourage you to have with your dogs!

6:00 am – The alarm goes off. Time to hop out of bed (or crawl, depending on my mood) to clean stalls and feed horses. As I stumble to the bathroom I pass Dubhy, our Scottish Terrier, lying on his foam pad by our bed. I give him a warm “Good morning Dubhy!” as I stoop to run my hands over his wiry coat, pet his furry face, scratch his ear, and rub his tummy when he rolls belly up for more attention.

6:10 am – I’m sitting on the bed, putting on my socks, and Missy, our Australian Shepherd, wanders over and sits with a beguiling look on her face. “Hi Miss Miss,” I say as I scratch her behind the ear.

6:20 am – Dressed and ready to hit the manure fork, I greet Bonnie (Scottie/Corgi mix) and Lucy (Cardigan Corgi) as I let them out of their crates and we head down the stairs to the landing. There we pause while I trade Bonnie a treat for Paul’s (husband) sock that she nabbed on her way out of the bedroom. “Bonnie, give. Yes!” and treat.

6:20 am – Now we play the “wait!” game on the stair landing while I descend to the bottom of the stairs, occasionally returning to the landing to award treats for good “wait” behavior. (This ritual is to save me from becoming entangled with 16 happy dog legs as we all troop down the stairs.)

Finally I reach the bottom of the staircase and invite them all to come down. Major reinforcement for the “wait” behavior: we’re all headed for the barn!

6:25 am – Similar rituals happen at the back door as Lucy and Missy sit and wait to be let out, and Dubhy and Bonnie sit to be leashed and go out with me.

6:30-8:00 am – Tons of bonding moments, as Paul and I do barn chores. Some of the highlights:

•We kick and throw a ball endlessly for Lucy to chase and fetch.

•Dubhy gets to ride in the empty wheelbarrow (his favorite thing) on return trips from the manure pile.

•Bonnie and Dubhy get treats for waiting quietly while shut in the hay room, hanging out on the hay stack, while we move horses in and out.

•All four dogs park themselves outside a boarder’s stall waiting for us to bring out her food bucket – this horse always leaves a little grain in her bowl and the dog’s delight in cleaning up the bits of molasses-flavored grain when we dump the bucket out on the barn floor.

•Paul kneels and calls Lucy when he returns from feeding horses across the road. Lucy, delighted to see him, charges up the barn aisle and throws herself into his lap.

•I play the trade game with Bonnie again. This time she gets a chunk of dried beef liver in exchange for the fledgling sparrow she’s retrieved from the indoor arena. The unharmed baby bird is stashed in a box until we’re done with chores, at which time he’ll be released to the care of his anxious parents.

•Paul loads water buckets into the wheelbarrow to dump them in the indoor arena. Lucy follows at his heels, eager to play one of her favorite games – “chase the water” as it flies through the air and splashes on the arena surface.

•Missy runs up to me with a sparkle in her eye, inviting me to take a break from sweeping the barn aisle to play “puppy rush” with her. I’m happy to oblige.

•Finally, done with chores, we troop to the tack room for another “wait at the door ritual” and head for the house. I won’t bore you with a moment-by-moment rendition of the rest of the day, but here are a few more highlights:

•Feeding time is happy time! Lucy gets a treat for “woo-wooing” instead of barking as she waits for her meal. Everyone does a sit/wait for food bowl delivery.

•Lunch time. I eat on the back deck and play with the dogs – tossing a disc toy for Lucy to retrieve while playing a “down/wait” game with Bonnie to prevent her from spoiling Lucy’s fun (otherwise she’ll try to play tug with Lucy’s disc toy). Missy and Dubhy get random treats and massage.

•Private client with a reactive dog. Lucy, Missy, and Bonnie get to take turns playing “neutral” dog for counter-conditioning and desensitization practice. They love this game; they get lots of treats, too. Dubhy doesn’t get to play; he has his own dog-reactive issues!

•Hike the farm – a favorite for all of us. Lucy, Missy, and Bonnie get to run off-leash. Lucy and Missy stay close. Bonnie ranges farther afield but checks in regularly for family recall games. Dubhy, on a 40-foot long line, plays recall games in between checking out gopher holes.

•Evenings in the living room. Bonnie and Dubhy cuddle with me on the sofa while I type on my laptop. Lucy, at my feet or on the sofa, gets counter-conditioning treats when a cat enters the living room, or if a dog barks on television. All four cluster around Paul’s recliner when he opens a box of pretzels; they know pretzel pieces will come flying their way. When the pretzels are gone, Lucy claims her favorite spot and falls asleep cuddled in Paul’s lap on his recliner.

•Go to bed. Bonnie and Lucy fly up the stairs to their crates when they hear this bedtime cue. Dubhy waits on the landing for an extra bedtime cookie, and Missy follows at my heels up the stairs to bed.

I give Lucy bedtime treats in her crate, then trade Bonnie treats for the sock she’s taken to bed in hers. Missy gets a last scratch behind the ear along with her bedtime cookie. Dubhy hops up his bedsteps onto the bedspread, waiting for us to climb in and give him his bedtime massage, curled between us as we watch the Tonight Show.

Because I work from home, I’m fortunate to have endless opportunities throughout the day to do things that will enhance my relationship with my dogs. Even still, I sometimes feel I don’t do enough. I should hike with my dogs every day – and I don’t. I should groom each of them every day – and I don’t. I should do formal training sessions with each of them every day – and I don’t. But I always have dog cookies in my pockets. You never know when a bonding opportunity might present itself!

Guilty Pleasure

Editorial

Nancy Kerns

April 24, 2019

Whats your guilty pleasure? Right now, mine is a TV show that I did not have high hopes for: CBSs Greatest American Dog. Its a reality show, sort of, in that the contestants on the show are real people who have been taken out of their ordinary lives and sent to live together in a huge house, with cameras recording much of their days and nights. And its a sort of American Idol contest, with dogs, where the contestants are challenged with various tasks they must get their dogs to complete, and they win various prizes and privileges. A contest at the end of each show is viewed by a panel of three judges, who vote one dog/human pair to be the winner and send one team packing. The ultimate winner of the show, at series end, will win $250,000.

I knew this show was coming to television months ago; a casting agency contacted me and asked if I would audition for one of the judges spots. I couldnt say No, thanks! fast enough or emphatically enough, for several reasons. The first, quite honestly, is that I think Im awful in front of a camera. Secondly, my life is complex enough, and my time in short supply; I couldnt imagine taking on another responsibility.

The third reason? I was scared that the show would be terrible, dogs would be put into stressful situations, and force-based training would be featured.

The show was actually on the air for several weeks before I saw it. My dog-crazy sister Pam was the first to tell me that I had to watch Greatest American Dog. I groaned. Oh boy, I said. Is it awful?

No! she enthused. The people are really diverse, and its interesting to watch how differently they train their dogs and how their dogs respond. And the dogs are adorable!

I was pleased to discover that I could view all of the first episodes, in their entirety, on the CBS website, and I was hooked from the first episode. My sisters review was spot-on. The people and dogs are really different. The show features individuals who are young, middle-aged, and older; athletic and phlegmatic; apparently sane and perhaps a bit unbalanced. (All the dogs, of course, are cute!)

Best of all, from my perspective, most of the training we see is positive. Force-based training does not appear to be a violation of the rules (and thats too bad), but it is criticized by the judges. Even better: its shown in a fairly realistic light. Its apparent that the owners who use the most punitive training have dogs with the most behavior problems, and their relationships are plainly strained. The dogs who get yelled at, or pushed and pulled around, are shown shutting down, tuning out, turning (or running!) away from their owners. Under the challenges and time limits that the show imposes, the pairs with relationship problems just cant perform as well as the competitors who really keep things fun for their dogs. And some of the least-fun owners are getting voted off the show.

I cant vouch for the rest of the season, or say I agree with everything thats allowed on the show. But Ill admit I have to watch Greatest American Dog on Thursday nights, just to see whats going to happen next.

Getting to Know Your Dog

Care
Socialization
Behavior
Stress Signals

Nancy Kerns

June 15, 2020

It’s going to be really difficult to stay caught up with everything we’ve been going through with our new dog, Otto. Every day brings new surprises and challenges, and these experiences are piling on at a quick clip.

Building a healthcare team
In our first week together, I had to deal with something I hope I don’t need again any time soon: finding a good local veterinarian. In articles like “Coordinating Care” (Whole Dog Journal May 2002), “The Importance of Integration” (October 2004), and “Practice Management” (December 2006), we’ve discussed the importance of finding healthcare professionals that you like and that are capable of meeting your expectations – before you actually need them. I wanted to start on this project right away.

In a perfect world, all dog owners would have easy, local access to a vet who is a warm-hearted, well-educated dog lover, a brilliant diagnostician (fully equipped with all the latest diagnostic tools) who is open to (if not familiar with) complementary care. However, in the real world, many of us have to use several different practitioners as parts of a “healthcare team” to meet all their needs, as well as their dogs’ needs.

When providing emergency care for Cooper, my father-in-law’s elderly dog, in what turned out to be Cooper’s last days, I had lucked into an appointment with a practitioner who seemed to be a very good diagnostician with a very well-appointed clinic and laboratory. If Otto ever needs diagnostic or emergency care, I’d go straight to that clinic again. Considering the vet’s skills, I’d consider it only a bit of an inconvenience that his clinic is a good 30-minute drive from my home.

I’ve been asking my friends about holistic practitioners; there aren’t any within an hour’s drive. If I need one soon, I may end up hauling Otto down to the Bay Area holistic practitioner I relied on several years ago to provide care for my darling Rupert. It’s a three-hour-drive, but it’s probably what I’d do.

I’d also like to find a veterinarian with a practice close to my home, one who could provide routine, practical care, such as annual health exams and urgent treatments. My first attempt at finding such a practitioner was not terribly successful.

When I adopted Otto, the shelter gave me a coupon that was good for a free health exam at a dozen or more local participating clinics. I wanted to contact one right away to obtain a prescription for a heartworm preventive; mosquitoes and the infamous infection they carry are rampant in our part of Northern California.

I wasn’t wildly impressed with the veterinarian I took Otto to for this purpose. His technicians were personable and friendly to Otto, but the vet himself expended absolutely no effort to establish any sort of rapport with me or my dog. He even seemed mildly annoyed when I asked him to give Otto a few treats (which I handed to him) before he began his exam, to put Otto at ease.

I had already told the vet technician that I was there for the free exam and to get some heartworm preventive, so perhaps that partially excuses the fact that the vet asked me only a few cursory questions about my dog. He then left the room, saying someone would be in to get Otto’s weight (so we could get the right dose of preventive), and I did not see him again! He neither engaged me in discussion about heartworm, fleas, ticks, diet, or behavioral health, nor outlined his suggestions for future healthcare practices or local hazards I should be aware of as a dog owner new to the area. If I was an inexperienced dog owner, I’d have left the clinic completely clueless as to my next healthcare responsibilities for Otto.

Again, this was a free exam, so what could I expect? On the other hand, a really engaged, proactive vet could have sold me some high-quality dog food; made sure I really understood how heartworm infections occur and how and when to administer the preventive; suggested running a blood test (it’s a good idea to have these results, which can provide a baseline or history in case of future health problems); discussed the prevalence of ticks in our area and the dangers of tick-borne diseases (and sold me a tick-control product); detected and discussed Otto’s mildly irritated skin; and so on.

Suffice to say that I’ll keep looking for another candidate to be our local, “family practitioner” vet.

Diet considerations
Like most dog owners, I really appreciate the convenience of dry food for my dog’s daily diet. If it develops that Otto has special health needs, I’ll consider a wet, dehydrated, or raw frozen diet, all of which are more expensive, less convenient, but healthier than kibble, in my opinion. In the meantime, Otto is going to get a high-quality kibble, with lots of treats, as well as occasional doses of wet food (frozen into Kong toys, representing a part of our “stay awake during the day” program; I’ll write more about this later).

This switch might come sooner than I’d like; I’ve noticed that Otto scratches and chews himself regularly. By regularly, I mean that I see him doing it at least once a day – not in a frantic or obsessive way, but daily nonetheless. His skin looks a little red in some places, and his stools often contain a small amount of hair, confirming that he chews on himself daily.

Otto doesn’t have any fleas – I look for them daily – and I haven’t used any sort of flea control product on him. Shortly after we adopted him, I did bathe him with a gentle, natural shampoo, but I think it’s something else that is irritating his skin. Despite being given four different beds in different locations in and around our house, he sleeps during most of the day (more on this in a minute) in his sandbox (which I described in “Dig This! Not That!” last month), and spends a lot of time at night sleeping in the dirt in our front yard. It’s highly possible that there is something in the dirt – or something about dirty skin – that makes him itch. It’s also possible that there is something in his food that is causing his mild skin problems.

I’m keeping a “diet journal,” writing down what I’m feeding Otto in hopes that I might be able to identify any trend that emerges in terms of ingredients or types of food that aggravate his skin issues. I’m also keeping the ingredients panel from these foods stapled in the journal, and noting any sort of extra itching or redness of the skin I observe.

So far, I’ve fed Otto three different varieties of one company’s kibble, without seeing any major differences in his stool, skin, or enthusiasm for the food. However, I’m also feeding him a wide variety of treats. If his skin issue worsens, I may have to simplify his diet so I can zero in on which (if any) of his foods or food ingredients are contributing to the problem. As we’ve described in “Skin Secrets” (November 2005) and “Walking the Allergy Maze” (August 2004), allergy related skin problems can be challenging to solve, but a strict elimination diet (and keeping a food journal) is the best way to identify the offending foods.

Taking treats
In our first week together, I was concerned that I had inadvertently adopted a dog with a trait that makes reward-based training particularly challenging: a low level of interest in food and treats.

Dogs who are greedy eaters present their own challenges, but in general, dogs who are somewhat food-oriented are the easiest to train. Food treats are what trainers call “primary reinforcers” – something that (most) dogs like automatically. Positive trainers use a lot of treats in the early stages of training for a number of reasons. Here are the most important ones:

Frequent treat ‘payouts’ classically condition the dog to form a positive association with the person who doles out the treats, thus strengthening the dog/human bond.
Dogs pay more attention to people who give them treats; the treats help make the people more significant to the dog than other people.
Treats can be used to desensitize the dog to new or scary stimuli.
And of course, most critically, well-timed treats can be used to reinforce the behaviors you want your dog to repeat.

A good trainer can accomplish all of these things without the use of food, but primary reinforcers like treats definitely speed things up. In order to accomplish all of the above without treats, a person has to find something else the dog likes as much as food – and that can be difficult and time-consuming to do, particularly with a fearful or undersocialized adult dog.

This all explains why I was worried when, in the first week with Otto, he turned away from chicken, cheese, roast beef, tuna, wet cat food, and half a dozen different types of commercial, meat-based treats (freeze-dried and semi-moist). He would sniff each treat carefully, and about half the time, take it from my fingers very gently, chew it halfheartedly, and politely decline a second serving.

Stress case!
Thank goodness, Otto’s reluctance to take food was short-lived, an apparent artifact of his initial nervousness in his new home. In retrospect, I should have realized that it was a sign of anxiety. After all, I’ve witnessed many training sessions and classes with dogs who are so overstimulated and excited that they wouldn’t take even high-value treats from their handlers.

What fooled me into thinking that this wasn’t the case with Otto was the fact that he refused treats not only in highly stimulating environments (such as out on a walk), but also in the quiet of my kitchen or backyard. Plus, he didn’t display the classic signs of stress that I’ve learned to spot, such as licking his nose, flattening his ears, tucking his tail, yawning, and so on.

I signed us up for a class with Sarah Richardson, a positive trainer in Chico, California (and frequent model for Whole Dog Journals’s articles), whose training center is about 20 minutes from my home. I consulted with Sarah before our first class, bemoaning Otto’s delicate appetite for treats. She gave me a few more ideas about treats to try, including string cheese and hot dogs . . . and suggested that Otto was still a bit stressed by his new environment.

Like every owner (or any parent whose child’s teacher made what seemed to be a mildly critical assessment of that child!) I demurred, convinced by Otto’s displays of affection toward me as evidence that he was quite comfortable. I did go to the store to buy hot dogs and string cheese, though. Voila! Hot dogs were the first food item that Otto took readily and enthusiastically, and they seemed to inspire him to give more consideration to other treats, too.

Looking back, though, I realize that my experienced trainer friend was right, of course: Otto was stressed. The signs he displayed, though, were far more subtle than the ones I was familiar with and looking for. Re-reading Pat Miller’s excellent article, “Stress Signals,” in the June 2006 issue, I realized that Otto had been displaying some of the items from Pat’s list of signs of canine anxiety.

In the article, Pat explained that dogs normally display appeasement and/or deference signals as everyday communication tools for keeping peace in social hierarchies. But when these signals are offered in conjunction with other stress-related behaviors, she wrote, they can be an indicator of stress as well. Otto, I now realize, was displaying slow movement; frequent sitting, lying down, or exposing his underside; and avoidance, in which the dog turns away and evades a handler’s touch and treats.

I could see that Otto was nervous when he turned away from or ducked away from a stranger’s touch. But I had been regarding Otto’s freely offered sits and downs as good manners; I hadn’t considered that they could also be signs of social anxiety. And I thought it was smart that he would proceed slowly when he was unsure of what to do. As the adolescent dog grows increasingly comfortable in our home, and gains socialization and experience in the world, I see these signals less and less.

Getting better all the time
As I write this, about seven weeks since we adopted Otto, he now will take just about every treat we give him, although he is more enthusiastic about some than others; hot dogs are still on the top of his list of favorites. When we go out for a walk, a training practice session, or to a class with Sarah, I load a “bait bag” with about five different treats, ranging from kibble to hot dogs. This gives me the ability to vary my reinforcements, saving the best treats for the most difficult or challenging behaviors I ask Otto to display.

Otto will still duck if someone reaches for him quickly, and he’s even growled a couple of times when he was startled by a stranger’s enthusiastic or physical greeting. It’s made me more aware of how unpredictable people can be around dogs, and how alert and proactive a handler has to be with a “soft” or nervous dog.

I try to hand treats to anyone who evinces the slightest bit of interest in my new dog, and ask them if they would give the treats to him. I briefly explain that the dog came from the shelter, is a little bit fearful, and we’re trying to get him past that. Generally, this elicits a bit of sympathy from people and they readily give Otto a treat or two, as well as a kind word.

As a result of consistently receiving treats from just about anyone who focuses on him or talks to him, Otto’s confidence in public and with strangers has really blossomed. My guess is that by the time I write the next installment of this column, he’ll be even more secure in his knowledge that the world is a reasonably safe place, and that he can relax and be friendly toward most people.

Nancy Kerns is Editor of Whole Dog Journal. She adopted Otto from a shelter on June 16, 2008.

Tug O’ War is a Fun Game to Play With Your Dog

Behavior
Fear & Confidence
Training
Tricks, Games, Sports

Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA

March 21, 2019

[Updated February 5, 2019]

TUG O’ WAR OVERVIEW

1. Teach your dog and other family members to play tug by the 10 Rules (explained below).

2. Play the game frequently to help get rid of your dog’s excess energy and to teach him self-control and good manners habits.

3. Use your dog’s tug toy to redirect him from inappropriate behaviors and keep his attention on you around distractions and stressors.

Contrary to conventional wisdom in some dog training circles, tug is a great game to play with most dogs – as long as you and your canine pal play by the rules. Lots of my clients have dogs with aggressive, reactive, and other stress-related behaviors. One of the best ways to help reduce stress is to increase exercise. Tug is great exercise.

I’m constantly encouraging my clients to play tug with their dogs. Inevitably when I suggest it I get a puzzled look and a tentative protest that “some trainer” told them playing tug would make their dog dominant and aggressive. I sure wish I could meet that pervasive “some trainer” some day and convince him/her otherwise. It just isn’t so.

Tug has a lot going for it besides just being good exercise. Most dogs love to tug. Of course, the caveat is that you play tug properly – with rules, which I’ll discuss in a minute. Here are some of the many other reasons this game ranks high on my list of approved activities.

Why Tug is Good for Dogs

1. Provides a legal outlet for roughhousing

Often, one or more members of the family want to play inappropriate roughhousing games with Bruiser. Said family members are usually male. Sorry, guys, but it’s true! Of course, not all male humans want to roughhouse inappropriately with the family dog, but chances are if someone is going to, it’s Dad, Junior, or the Boyfriend. If you can get your male family members to compromise on a rousing game of tug, everyone wins.

2. Strengthens bonds between dog and guardian

Dogs love to tug. Humans love to play with dogs. Anytime you and your dog can do something together that you both love, it strengthens the bond that holds you together through think or thin, good times or bad, until death do your part. The four to six million dogs who end up in shelters every year in this country are a stark reminder of how much those bonds need strengthening.

3. Builds healthy relationships

You control access to the tug toy. “Leader” is defined as the one who controls the good stuff. By playing tug and granting your dog access to the tug toy, you remind him that the toy belongs to you, the higher-ranking member of the social hierarchy, and out of the goodness of your benevolent-leader heart, you let him play with it sometimes. It actually teaches him that deference behavior (sitting and waiting) makes the game happen. (So much for the “It will make your dog dominant” myth!)

4. Offers incredibly useful reinforcement potential

While it’s important to play sometimes just for the sake of playing, play can be a valuable reinforcer for training purposes as well. Agility trainers are well aware of this; they usually have a bag full of tug toys they can use to help maintain their dogs’ enthusiasm. They even use tug-leashes! You can also use tug to motivate a dog to do really enthusiastic recalls. My own Cardigan Corgi, Lucy, would much rather stay outside and play when the farm work is done and it’s time to come inside. I used tug games with her favorite Udder Tug toy to convince her that coming inside could be fun, too.

5. Redirects inappropriate use of teeth

Some dogs, especially some puppies and adolescent dogs, just want to bite something. It can be annoying, painful, and life-threatening (the dog’s life) when dogs bite human skin, even in play. In the positive training tradition, you get better results if you redirect undesirable behavior, telling your dog what you want him to do rather than what you don’t want him to do.

When you play tug to redirect inappropriate mouthing behavior you get two benefits for the price of one – in addition to directing the teeth to an appropriate object, you exercise your dog and tire him out – which also makes him less likely to engage in inappropriate mouthing. (Again, so much for the “It will make your dog aggressive” myth.)

6. Teaches dogs self-control

The rules of tug require that your dog sit and wait when you hold up the tug toy. He can only grab for it when you give him permission. If he jumps to grab it prematurely, you say “Oops!” and hide the toy behind your back. This is negative punishment; the dog’s behavior makes a good thing (the opportunity to play tug) go away. Since he doesn’t want the tug game to go away, he learns to control his jump-and-grab impulse in order to make the tug game happen.

7. Creates a useful distraction

When we first got Lucy three years ago, she took delight in tormenting Dubhy, our Scottie, who hikes with me on a long line because his recall is not reliable. The long blue leash snaking through the grass would catch Lucy’s eye, and she’d latch onto it and drag poor Dubhy around. A tug toy, stuck in my back pocket was perfect for redirecting her desire to grab and pull his leash. You can also use a tug toy to keep your dog’s attention focused on you in the presence of general distractions.

8. Modifies behavior

I normally suggest using a high-value treat for the behavior modification process of counter-conditioning and desensitization (CC&D) – giving a dog a new, positive association with a previously aversive stimulus.

Canned (rinsed and drained) or boiled chicken ranks high on most dogs’ list of favorite treat. I had a client with a dog-reactive Briard, however, who was so overly aroused by the presence of a neighbor’s dog on the next-door back deck that she couldn’t even do CC&D with him in her own backyard; he was too stressed to eat chicken. She discovered that playing a low-key game of tug helped change her dog’s emotional state from anxious to happy, which then allowed her to proceed with the CC&D program using food treats.

9. Builds confidence

You can use tug to help a timid dog become more confident. A dog who lacks confidence may be reluctant to play tug at all, at first. Smear a dab of peanut butter or other tasty-but-gooey treat on the end of the toy, and let him lick it off. Keep doing this until he’s licking eagerly, even nibbling at the toy. When you see him nibbling, gently move the toy a little – not enough to scare him! He should eventually grab onto the toy. You can pull a little – gently! Over time, as he gets braver, he’ll be willing to tug harder, until you can work up to a full-blown game of tug.

Variations on the Tug O’ War

The most common style of tug consists of a dog on one end of the toy, a human on the other. You don’t have to stop there, however. Make or buy a “tease pole” toy for extra exercise benefits: tie a toy on a rope and attach it firmly to the end of a sturdy pole, then swing it around at dog-level to encourage your dog to chase it. When he catches it you can play tug, then ask him to “Give” and play chase again.

If you have two compatible dogs who love to tug you can give them each one end of a toy and let them go at it with each other. The key word here is compatible. Because tug does create a certain level of arousal, dogs who are prone to getting into fights should not be encouraged to tug together. Don’t equate growling and snarling with fights, however – a lot of healthy noise often results when compatible dogs play tug together.

If you have two dogs who can tug together, try a threesome! Find a tug toy with one handle for the human and two ends for the dogs. Tug: a game the whole family can play!

At the other end of the spectrum, you can teach your dog to play tug by himself.

Run a rope through a Kong and knot it so the knot is inside the Kong. Stuff the Kong and tie the rope to something so that your dog can tire himself out by tugging at the Kong. Of course, you lose the relationship value of tug with this variation of the game, but you might increase the exercise benefits!

Tug toys come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and materials, but the best ones have these characteristics in common:

• They are long enough that your dog’s teeth stay far away from your hand. I like toys that are at least 12-24 inches in length for teaching tug (the longer the better). Once your dog knows the rules, you can graduate to shorter toys. For some training purposes, a small tug toy you can stuff in a pocket is ideal.

• They are made of a substance that invites your dog to grab and hold, and won’t easily cause damage to teeth and gums. Braided rope and fleece toys work well, as does rubber. Stay away from wood, hard plastic, or metal.

• They are sturdy enough to withstand significant abuse. Fleece may not do quite as well in this department, especially if you have a very vigorous tugger, but could be perfect for the lightweights. Remember, you’ll put the toy away when you are done tugging, so it doesn’t have to stand up to rough chewing, just tugging.

• The “human end” has a comfortable handle or is otherwise easy to maintain a grip on. This allows you to win most of the time – an important tug rule. If it’s hard to hold onto the toy, your dog will more easily yank it out of your hands.

• They provide good value for their cost. You should be able to find a good sturdy tug toy in the $5 to $25 range, depending on your dog’s size and how energetically he tugs.

The 10 Rules of Tug

There are really only two good reasons not to play tug with your dog: 1) If either you or your dog has some kind of medical condition that rules out this kind of vigorous play (and then you still might be able to play low-key tug) or 2) if you have one of those very rare dogs who just can’t seem to learn to play by the rules, and insists on putting his mouth on you despite your best efforts to teach him otherwise. Barring those, the game is on, with the following rules:

1. Use a toy that is long enough to keep dog teeth far away from your hands, and that is comfortable for you to hold when he pulls.

2. Keep the tug toy put away. Bring it out when you want to play tug.

3. Hold up the toy. If he lunges for it say “Oops” and quickly hide it behind your back. It’s your toy – he can only grab it when you give him permission.

4. When he’ll remain sitting as you offer the toy, tell him to “Take it!” and encourage him to grab and pull. If he’s reluctant, be gentle until he learns the game. If he’s enthusiastic, go for it!

5. Randomly throughout tug-play, ask him to “Give” and have him relinquish the toy to you. If necessary, trade him for a yummy treat. After he gives it to you, you can play again (see steps 2 and 3). You should “win” most of the time – that is, you end up with possession of the toy, not your dog.

6. If, while you are playing, your dog’s teeth creep up the toy beyond a marked or imaginary line, say “Oops! Too bad” in a cheerful voice, have him give you the toy, and put it away briefly. (You can get it out and play again after 15 seconds or so.)

7. If your dog’s teeth touch your clothing or skin, say “Oops! Too bad” and put the toy away for a minute.

8. Children should not play tug with your dog unless and until you are confident they can play by the rules. If you do allow children to play tug with your dog, always directly supervise the game.

9. Only tug side-to-side, not up-and-down (up-and-down can cause injury to your dog’s spine), and temper the vigor of your play to the size and age of your dog. You can play tug more intensely with a 120-pound adult Rottweiler than you can with a Rottie puppy, or a four-pound Chihuahua.

10. When you are done playing, put the toy away until next time. You control the good stuff.

Happy tugging!

Pat Miller is Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor. She is the author of The Power of Positive Dog Training; Positive Perspectives: Love Your Dog, Train Your Dog; Positive Perspectives II: Know Your Dog, Train Your Dog, and the brand-new Play with Your Dog.

Pet Food Politics

Food
Dog Food Information

Nancy Kerns

April 24, 2019

Were you one of the millions of concerned dog owners who struggled to follow and make sense of the pet food recalls last year? If so (and what dog owner wasn’t), I predict that you’ll find Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine to be the most riveting book you’ll read this year. Just released by the University of California Press, Pet Food Politics provides an in-depth look at the record-setting (and not in a good way) pet food recalls in 2007.

Pet Food Politics is authored by Marion Nestle, PhD, an expert in human nutrition and the food industry. Dr. Nestle (rhymes with pestle, not like the chocolate company) is the Paulette Goddard Professor in Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health (an endowed professorship) at New York University, where she was the department chair from 1988 to 2003.

Nestle also holds appointments as Professor of Sociology in NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences and as a Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences in the College of Agriculture at Cornell University. Her degrees include a PhD in molecular biology and an MPH in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Nestle’s credentials in the human food industry transcend academia. She has served as senior nutrition policy advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services and as a member of the FDA Food Advisory Committee and Science Board. In 2004, she was awarded the American Public Health Association’s David P. Rall Award for Advocacy in Public Health for her work to shed light on the impact food and nutrition policies have on the nation’s health.

She is also author of a number of highly acclaimed books on food and the food industry, including Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (2002, second edition 2007, both from University of California Press); Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism (2003, University of California Press); and What to Eat: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating (2006, North Point Press).

Why is this sort of human food expert poking her nose into pet food?

Dr. Nestle says that she was aware that she skipped past the pet food section of the grocery store, so to speak, when she wrote What to Eat, which was otherwise (as the subtitle describes) an aisle-by aisle guide to making food choices in supermarkets. Given that her life partner, Malden Nesheim, PhD, is a retired expert in human and animal nutrition, that omission must have been glaring.

With her work on What to Eat completed, Dr. Nestle cooked up the idea of doing a dog and cat version of the book with Dr. Nesheim. In February 2007, they signed a contract to co-author What Pets Eat for Harcourt – to the puzzlement and dismay, Nestle says, of many of their colleagues in human nutrition; why on earth would they bother with pet nutrition? Who cares?

When the pet food recall starting hitting the headlines the following month, their colleagues’ disapproval melted into wonderment at the couple’s prescience. Because, as it turns out, just about everyone with a dog or cat cares about dog and cat food – especially when some of it turns out to be deadly.

Dr. Nesheim and Dr. Nestle outlined the topics that they wanted to cover in What Pets Eat and divided up the research and writing work. One of Dr. Nestle’s responsibilities was a small appendix, envisioned as 10 or so pages that would appear in the back of the book, discussing the recalls of spring 2007. Her research about the pet food disaster grew in complexity and scope, along with her fascination for the story. Eventually the topic expanded into a chapter, and then took on a life of its own.

The result is Pet Food Politics, a separate book that actually got finished in advance of What Pets Eat – largely due to Dr. Nestle’s insatiable appetite for more information about the dramatic event. “Every question I had led to more questions,” she laughs. “And none of my experience with human food recalls prepared me for how this recall was handled – by the companies involved, government regulators, the media, and the public.”

Genesis of the book
I first met Drs. Nestle and Nesheim at Global Pet Expo – the world’s largest annual pet industry trade show – in February 2008. They were still deep into the research for What Pets Eat (which is due out from Harcourt late in 2009). I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed witnessing their immediate response to their first (and very overwhelming) experience with a pet industry trade show.

Held in San Diego’s enormous convention center, the 2008 installment of Global Pet featured almost 800 vendors, in more than 230,000 square feet of exhibitor space. The couple was fascinated, exhausted, and incredulous at the size and scope of the industry. We compared notes about the companies that were promoting pet food, treats, and chews, and as they shared their observations with me, I began to get a sense that their upcoming books were going to be quite revelatory.

This summer, I was thrilled to receive an advance copy of Pet Food Politics from its publisher, the University of California Press. A publicist for the book asked me if I would read it and perhaps contribute a blurb for its cover. After reading the first chapter, I sent Dr. Nestle an e-mail asking when I could schedule an interview with her to promote the book, because it is great.

Pet Food Politics not only delivers the most complete account of the 2007 wheat gluten/Menu Foods/Chinese ingredient recalls that pet owners will ever get, but also provides critical background information about each of the involved parties and the industry as a whole.

Dr. Nestle presents a detailed timeline of events – including all of the developments we read about in the newspapers, and many that we didn’t – and then analyzes the response of each of the players at each juncture. If you still have questions about the recall, you’re sure to find the answers in Pet Food Politics. And, if the title hasn’t already tipped you off, the book provides a fascinating look at the wider context of the tragic event. All the potential disadvantages and dangers of a globalized food supply were highlighted during the event.

Interview with Marion Nestle
I spoke with Dr. Nestle just before the publication of Pet Food Politics.

Nancy Kerns, Whole Dog Journal: Hello, Dr. Nestle. The first thing I want to say is thanks so much for writing this book! It’s a fascinating read, and full of new information, even for someone who really followed the story at the time. What sparked your interest in the recall?

Marion Nestle: Pet Food Politics was meant to be an appendix to What Pets Eat, a bigger book about the entire pet food industry that Mal Nesheim and I are writing. I was going to write a 10-page summary of the events around the recalls – and then I got caught up in it; it’s such a fascinating story and I could not believe how difficult it was to figure out what on earth was going on.

I was late getting to the story. When the recall happened, I was on a book tour for the paperback edition of What to Eat, and I couldn’t do the kind of tracking that I usually do when some food crisis happens that I’m really interested in. I was all over the country, and barely able to keep up with the travel, so most of what I knew about it was from USA Today. The USA Today reporters, by the way, did a fantastic job with the story.

When I finally sat down to work on what I thought would be an appendix, it was July 2007; the first recall happened in March. Our research assistant had prepared a timeline of the events for someone else, and I asked her for her sources, because it didn’t make sense in a lot of ways. One of the questions I had right away was, “Why did it take Menu Foods so long to issue the recall?” I was so curious about that; it seemed to me a rather long wait, and I couldn’t understand why.

Marion Nestle — Photo by Larry Cohen

288

In trying to sort out the timeline, I went to the PetConnection.com blog about the recall, starting from the most recent posts and working my way back. I spent several days doing that, just reading the day-to-day posts on the events. I couldn’t believe how much information they had there – newspaper clippings, FDA hearings, other blog posts – just an amazing accomplishment.

Whole Dog Journal: You must have felt like you fell down a rabbit hole . . .

MN: Yes and no. The fact of a food recall is one thing. But there were so many holes in the story that was publicly available! The story of melamine, for example. From the press accounts, it seemed as if no one could possibly imagine what melamine might be doing in pet food – or whether it could be responsible for the effects in dogs and cats that had been seen.

Whole Dog Journal: How were you were able to come up with so much information about melamine and cyanuric acid?

MN: I was able to write about the toxicity and use of melamine and cyanuric acid, thanks to my ability to read – and I’m being only a little sarcastic.

One of the things I came across on the PetConnection blog was an abstract from the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA), referring to a study on melamine that had been done in the 1960s. I’m trained in research, and one of the first things you learn when you do research is never to believe what you read in an abstract of a study, or, for that matter, anyone else’s account of what’s in a paper; you have to read the whole thing yourself. I found the study in the Cornell veterinary medical library; it was about deliberately feeding melamine to sheep and finding out that high doses formed crystals that blocked their kidneys.

Whole Dog Journal: One of the first things Dr. Nesheim said to me when I met you two was that he had access to these amazing research tools that hardly anyone uses: books. In today’s world, everyone looks to the Internet, and if what they are looking for is not there, they assume it doesn’t exist.

MN: In this case, the Internet had the abstract, but the abstract didn’t say why they did the study, and the reason they did the study was absolutely crucial. We read the study, and then all the ones in the references, just like they teach you to do in grad school.

The 1960s investigators knew that melamine contains nitrogen, and they wanted to find out if ruminant animals like sheep could use melamine nitrogen to make protein. That would have been a legitimate use if it had worked, but it killed the sheep. But melamine is a lot cheaper than protein, which is why it was used fraudulently by the Chinese wheat gluten manufacturers.

What was amazing about that old research was that the toxicity of melamine was so well worked out by the 1960s. There were incidents of melamine-contaminated feed – fish food – in the 1970s and 1980s. But nobody was talking about any of this. The FDA commissioned a big toxicology review that didn’t cite those old papers.

We submitted the findings of our literature review as a letter to the editor of JAVMA – as an academic exercise, really. One of our Cornell colleagues took us to task over this. He wrote us a “disappointed” letter saying that the old studies didn’t mean anything, that veterinarians were thoroughly aware of the studies; they just didn’t think they were relevant. Well, Mal and I thought they were relevant. The amounts of melamine that killed sheep in the 1960s weren’t all that different from the amounts in the recalled pet foods.

Whole Dog Journal: From the perspective of an average consumer, the initial message that Menu Foods and the FDA put out seemed to be that we were dealing with “contamination” . . . not fraud. The recall was announced on March 16. According to your timeline, it wasn’t until April 6 that the FDA mentioned the possibility that melamine could be a “deliberate adulterant.”

MN: Mal is an animal nutritionist. As soon as we heard that melamine was in the foods, we looked up its structure and saw how much nitrogen it contained. He knew right away that it must have been put there deliberately. Part of it was because he’s of a certain age; we’re really old! (Laughs). He remembers the old days when animal feed was routinely adulterated.

Whole Dog Journal: I have to admit, it makes me angry and frustrated to learn that any animal nutritionists “of a certain age” would immediately understand the potential significance of melamine “contamination” – and yet, no pet food industry people would suggest fraud as a possibility; the industry really closed ranks neatly on that possibility. It wasn’t until the New York Times article – “Filler in Animal Feed Is an Open Secret in China” – came out on April 30 that this was openly discussed.

MN: I’m with you. But perhaps I’m more suspicious than most. I wrote a book about the human food industry, called Food Politics, where I looked at how food corporations influence food choices. They don’t just advertise. They also lobby federal agencies and Congress, and do everything they can to convince food and nutrition professionals never to suggest that people would be healthier if they didn’t eat so much.

Whole Dog Journal: Given your experience with human food companies and government, was the response to this recall different from what you would have expected if something similar had happened to a human food company?

MN: Yes! First, the FDA didn’t really get involved in this in a serious way until they thought there was a potential threat to the human food supply. My initial impression from both government and industry was that they viewed the problem as “just pets.” The pet food companies should have known better. I can’t think of anything more inflammatory to anyone who owns a dog or cat than the expression “just pets.”

The FDA eventually realized that if melamine was in pet food, it could also be in the human food supply. And then, of course, it was. Who knew that surplus pet food was fed to pigs and chickens, or that wheat gluten is in fish food. That was one of the many surprises. The others? One company made more than 100 brands of pet food, from the cheapest to the most expensive. Pet food companies had no idea where their ingredients came from. Lots of the ingredients came from China. And nobody was minding the store.

Whole Dog Journal: Not to brag, but Whole Dog Journal’s readers knew about co-packers. Although the size of that particular co-packer was a surprise even to me.

MN: The scale! One of the things I have in this book is a list of the brands that were involved – not even all the lines made by each brand, just the list of brands – it’s a very long list.

Whole Dog Journal: In terms of the companies involved: What would you have expected if this sort of thing had happened to a human food company?

MN: Forgive me, but some of the companies that were involved are human food companies! We’re talking about Procter & Gamble here! [Editor’s note: Procter & Gamble makes Iams and Eukanuba, which were among the brands of foods that were recalled.]

These companies know exactly what they are supposed to do! They’ve heard food safety experts talk. They know about recalls. You document everything, you immediately go public with everything that you’ve got, you take your licks, and you move on. And the quicker you come clean, the better it goes. This one dragged on forever. From March 16 to the end of May, notices about affected products were still dribbling in. What were people who needed to buy food for their pets supposed to do? And didn’t anyone care? It didn’t look like it to me.

Whole Dog Journal: So what sort of conclusions have you drawn about the pet food industry as a whole?

MN: They have a lot of growing up to do. They have to take what they are doing much more seriously. This is a $17 billion a year industry, soon to be a $20 billion a year industry. This is big.

But I think that the corporate giants see pet food as a relatively small money generator. The pet food divisions are extremely profitable, but they represent just a few percent of the companies’ total revenue. Our next book, What Pets Eat, discusses this issue much further. The level of profit for these pet food giants is hefty. The ingredients are relatively cheap; by-products are waste products and don’t cost much. The companies can package pet foods and market them in all the fancy ways they add value, and make a very nice profit on them.

The other conclusions have to do with the Chihuahua part – the early warning about deep problems with FDA regulation and food trade, especially with developing countries. We’ve already seen that with the recent heparin poisonings.

What I keep hoping is that some good will come of all of this. At the pet food meetings we went to this year, we heard company after company talking about how they were now paying more attention to what goes into the foods, how they are trying to source ingredients from places they can actually inspect, and how they are sourcing better ingredients. Maybe they are doing this because they learned a lesson, or maybe they are just reading the handwriting on the wall: sales are up on foods with no by-products and with sources identified, and lots of people are doing home cooking. That’s not so good for the pet food business, but it may be just terrific for pets.

Whole Dog Journal: Thanks for your time. We look forward to What Pets Eat next year!

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Teaching Your Dog to “Leave It” On Cue

Training
Beginner Dog Training
House Rules & Good Manners

Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA

April 24, 2019

[Updated August 9, 2017]

There’s nothing like a steaming-fresh pile of moist, warm horse manure to convince a dog owner of the vast difference between canine and human sensibilities – or of the great value of a reliable “Leave it!” cue. Since my husband and I share our lives with four dogs and 15-some equines, you can imagine that “Leave it!” is an important entry in our dogs’ lexicon.

You don’t have to live on a horse farm to appreciate the value of “Leave it.” A kitty-litter box can be just as tempting as a stall full of horse “apples.” The “Leave it” behavior, defined as “look away from whatever you’re looking at or coveting at this moment,” is useful in an almost infinite number of possible canine encounters:

• You drop your high-blood pressure pill on the floor. “Leave it! Good dog!”

• Your two-year-old child toddles past with a melting ice cream cone in his hand at canine nose level. “Leave it! Good dog!”

• You see your Irish Wolfhound studying the holiday turkey on the kitchen counter at canine eye-level. “Leave it! Good dog!”

• Your adolescent Labrador Retriever is preparing to offer an enthusiastic greeting to your elderly Aunt Maude who is approaching up the front walkway with the assistance of her wheeled walker. “Leave it! Good dog!”

• Your cat-chasing Jack Russell Terrier spots a black-and-white “kitty” (think skunk) trundling across your backyard at dawn when you let him out to potty as you’re rushing to get to a critically important meeting on time. “Leave it! Very good dog!” You just saved your job!

• You’re walking your dog in the park and spot a half-dozen suspicious-looking balls of raw hamburger at the same instant your dog does. “Leave it! Very very good dog!” You just saved your dog’s life; the hamburger was laced with strychnine.

I could go on, but I’m sure you get the picture. A cue that can divert your dog’s intention to chase, greet, or eat someone or something is a life-saving, sanity-saving, versatile, mandatory part of every well-mannered canine companion’s behavior repertoire. So how do you go about helping your dog acquire this vital skill? It’s easier than you might think.

Training a Dog to Leave It: Step 1

The foundation “Leave it” behavior is so important – and so simple – that we teach it in our Puppy and Adult Basic Good Manners classes. We introduce it in Week 4, and it’s an exceedingly rare dog who doesn’t perform it to near-perfect on graduation night just three weeks later. Here’s how it works:

Show your dog a high-value “forbidden object” – something you’re going to tell him he can’t have. I like to use freeze-dried liver cubes for this – they are high value and durable. (You’ll see why durability is important in just a minute). Let him sniff it, lick it, even nibble at it, but don’t let him have it.

Now say “Leave it!” as you hold up the cube, then immediately place it on the floor under your foot, to protect it. Note: Be sure to wear sturdy shoes. Do not do this exercise barefooted, with open sandals, or in your Sunday-best patent leathers.

Let your dog sniff, lick, and nibble at the treat under your foot. He might even chew at it. If his tongue can reach the cube under your shoe, tip your toe forward so he can’t actually lick it. You don’t want him getting reinforced even by a tiny taste, if you can help it.

Now just wait. Don’t repeat the cue; he will eventually give up. I promise. The split second he stops sniffing, licking, etc. or looks away, even if it is by accident, “mark” the moment by clicking your clicker or saying “Yes!” and give him a tasty treat. He’ll probably return his attention to the forbidden object under your foot after the click and treat, so just wait some more. Don’t repeat the cue. (See why below.) When he looks away again, click and treat again.

If you can, give him another click and treat before his nose returns to your foot. You want to reinforce the behavior of “look away, look away, look away, keep looking away” as much as possible; you’re not looking to create a behavior chain of “look at foot, look away, look at foot, look away (although you will get some of this, at least at first). After several repetitions, pick the cube up from under your foot, show it to him again, now repeat the “Leave it” cue, and place it under your foot again.

When he looks away from the inaccessible cube easily, you’re ready for the next step. Move your foot away slightly to uncover the treat and give repeated clicks and treats as long as his nose doesn’t return to the treat. This communicates to him that he gets rewarded for staying away from the cube, even when it’s visible and seemingly accessible. Keep your foot close! You may want to just keep your heel in place and pivot your toe away from the treat at first. If your dog dives for the food, just re-cover it with your toe to prevent him from getting it. Click (and treat) again when he looks away.

If your dog appears to have completely forgotten that the forbidden object is on the ground, every once in a while you can tap your toe next to it to draw his attention back, but be ready to cover it up quickly! Remember, he doesn’t have to look back at the cube and then look away – you want continuous “look away” behavior.

Eventually you will see your dog’s “Aha!” moment – that golden moment in training when you get to see your dog really understand what you’re asking him to do. With “Leave it” that golden moment happens when he looks at the exposed cube, considers it for a moment, and then looks up at you in anticipation of his click and treat. Celebrate!

Don’t Repeat the Cue!

It is almost irresistibly compelling to repeat the cue when your dog makes a move for that liver cube. It’s hard to resist the normal human automatic reaction to tell the dog what to do even when you know your dog doesn’t yet understand what the words mean. We are a verbal species; our dogs are not.

When you cover the cube with your foot rather than repeating the cue, you’re speaking your dog’s language – using body language to communicate to your dog that the cube belongs to you, and he can’t have it. In fact, the reason this exercise works so well is that when you cover the forbidden object with your foot, you’re resource-guarding. Now that’s a behavior your dog understands – dogs do it all the time!

You also want your dog to understand that once you’ve said “Leave it” you mean “leave it forever.” You don’t want to have to keep reminding him.

Imagine you’re having a cocktail party. You carry your tray of hors d’oeurves into the living room, and as you bend down to place them on the coffee table, you tell your dog to “Leave it!” You don’t want to spend the rest of the evening guarding the goodies; you want your dog to leave them alone for the duration of the party.

ln order to accomplish that desirable end, don’t repeat the cue. Use your foot to protect that liver cube, or body block to send the resource-guarding message. Show your dog with your body language that the cube belongs to you; resist the temptation to tell him. Then when you’re done practicing, pick the cube up and put it away for the next training session, or feed it to him in a different location. Don’t make the mistake of telling him he can have it. Remember, “Leave it” – one cue – means “Ieave it forever.”

Training a Dog to Leave It: Step 2

When you can routinely place the forbidden object on the floor without your dog trying to get it, without having to cover it with your foot, you’re ready for step two – the “Leave it/Drop.” This step starts to approximate some real-life applications of “Leave it.” For example, the situation described in example #1 above, where you drop your medication – or perhaps a piece of chocolate candy (chocolate can be deadly to dogs).

Warm up your dog’s “Leave it” as described above. When he’s easily leaving the cube, stand facing him with the cube in your hand, say “Leave it!” and drop it slightly behind you and slightly off to one side.

Whoops, be careful! A poorly placed drop and the cube can take a bad bounce, landing directly under your dog’s eager jaws. Err on the side of caution, especially at first. Behind, and slightly off to one side. If your dog moves to grab the cube, body block by stepping in front of the dropped object or by covering it with your foot. Don’t yell “Leave it!” or make any other aversive noise. Just protect the object so your dog can’t get it, wait for him to look away from it, and then click and treat.

Now pick the cube up and try again, using your calm “Leave it!” cue with each drop repetition, until you can give the cue and drop the cube without having to make any protective maneuvers. Practice this until your dog will do “Leave it/Drop” without any prior warm-ups. Remember to click and treat each time your dog leaves the forbidden object alone, and to click and treat several times to extend the duration of his leave-it behavior. Now you’re ready for step three.

Training a Dog to Leave It: Step 3

How often do you have the chance to say “Leave it” before you accidentally drop your box of chocolates on the floor? Not too often, I’ll wager. To more closely approximate real life, you need to make one more adjustment to the “Leave it” exercise: the “Drop/Leave it.”

Warm up with several of your step two “Leave it/drop” repetitions. Now switch the order: drop the cube and say “Leave it” immediately after it hits the floor. Again, start with strategically placed drops so you can body block if necessary. In fairly short order you should be able to drop the cube in random locations, followed by a well-timed “Leave it” cue. Practice until your dog will leave it for you after the drop, even on “cold” trials.

Now you can generalize “Leave it” to more real-life situations.

The Generalized “Leave It”

It’s best to start generalization work with your dog on a leash. You’re going to be doing set-ups with forbidden objects that you won’t be able to cover with your foot, so you’ll need your leash to restrain your dog so he can’t help himself to the objects.

On a surface such as an asphalt or concrete driveway, or hardwood or tile floor, set up a “temptation alley” – a line of moderate- to high-value objects. Place the items in a line, five to 10 feet apart. Then approach the first item with your dog on his leash, far enough from the line that your dog can’t reach the objects.

When your dog notices the first item in the line, say “Leave it!” in a cheerful tone of voice, and stop moving. Restrain your dog so he can’t grab the object. You should be far enough from the line that you don’t have to jerk him back to keep him from getting it. Like you did with the liver cube under your foot, just wait for him to give up and look away from the object. The instant he looks away, click and treat, then move forward. If he pulls toward the object when you move forward, stop, give another “Leave it!” cue, and wait until you can click him again for looking away. If he doesn’t look at the object as you move forward, continue to click and treat him for good leash walking, until he notices the next object.

Repeat the exercise with that object. Continue on until you can pass the whole line of tempting items, and he will respond to your “Leave it” cue without ever putting any tension on the leash.

Your goal is to get your dog to reliably respond to the “Leave it!” cue on cold trials (first time you present a new forbidden object) without putting any tension on the leash. When he’ll do that, he’s ready to try it off leash!

Now look for random real-life opportunities to try out his new skill, on-leash or off. Remember to keep your cue cheerful; you’re just giving your dog information (“Look away from that object for an opportunity to be reinforced”). You’re not trying to intimidate him away from the object. If you see any lapses in his real-life random trial “Leave it” responses, schedule more on-leash set-up training sessions. If his training carries over successfully to real life, the two of you have earned another celebration!

With 15 horses on our farm, each producing approximately 35 pounds of poop per day; random groundhogs, deer, toads, and baby birds outdoors; three chaseable indoor-only cats, and a variety of dropped items and other “forbidden object” occasions around the house, “Leave it” is a common household cue for our dogs.

One of my most rewarding stories comes from a client of mine in Tennessee, however, who tells of his dog finding poison meatballs in his own backyard, immediately returning to his owner’s side when cued to “Leave it.” His dog’s prompt response even when tempted by the tasty but deadly morsels likely saved his life.

Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, is Whole Dog Journal’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Hagerstown, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Pat is also author of The Power of Positive Dog Training; Positive Perspectives: Love Your Dog, Train Your Dog; Positive Perspectives II: Know Your Dog, Train Your Dog, and the brand-new Play with Your Dog.

Training Your Dog with Rewarding Treats and Praise

Training
Positive Conditioning

Jean Donaldson

April 24, 2019

Why should training be fun for the dog? Briefest possible answer? “It’s the law.”

How animals learn is the most-studied phenomenon in the history of psychology and is up there with gravity in terms of its lawfulness.

One of the big ticket principles is that anything one tries to teach a new learner (such as a beginner dog) will get stronger in direct proportion to how many times it is rewarded. And (of perhaps even greater interest) every time the new learner does the behavior and is not rewarded (as in, say, “drilling” the same behavior over and over again) the behavior gets weaker. (Not just “doesn’t get stronger” – gets weaker.) In other words, it’s better to do nothing at all than to drill without rewards.

Amazingly, this simple principle has failed to trickle down to people who train dogs. I’m going to lay part of the blame for this client problem at the door of the professionals. How on earth could owners get it right when dog trainers are leading the charge? Dog trainers! Dog trainers are not required to take one undergraduate level course – let alone a semester, let alone a degree – in how animals learn, a relevant topic for those who purport to be experts on changing behavior. This profession can’t get its story straight! The dog-owning public has been sold nonsense for a couple of generations now, even by some of the “good guys” – non-aversive trainers, but incompetent non-aversive trainers.

Dogs do what works for them, period. “Disobedience” has nothing to do with your “relationship,” “status,” how much the dog “respects” you or any other such tripe. I know the idea of determinism (of the genetic or learning variety) is an anathema to our society, but the sooner we grow up and face the lawfulness of behavior, the sooner we will train competently.

So, a question: What person would repeat an action over and over (for example, sit in a chair, get out of the chair, sit in it again, etc.) for nothing – no exercise benefit, nothing the person likes or wants, no “zone” or intrinsic reinforcer (nothing in your body says “ahhh”), and in preference to other things the person might otherwise do with her time? The answer is hardly anyone! But this is the sort of thing people ask their dogs to do all the time!

If training isn’t fun for the dog (if there are no pay-offs), there actually isn’t any training, except what’s called “extinction” – the decreased likelihood of the animal doing the behavior. Trainers must keep training fun for the dog.

Anyone can do it
What are some things anyone can do to keep the training fun? Audition the likely reinforcers, especially ones the owner might enjoy furnishing: roughhousing, fetch, tug, chase-me games, massage/scritchies. How neat would it be to find an activity that both participants love! Then come up with creative ways to initiate these right after nice behavior. Stuff a toy up your shirt, and quickly whip it out when your dog does a smart recall. If you come home and your dog sits rather than jumps up, say “Yippee, I’m-a-gonna-get-you!” and play chase chase chase around the house (alternate chaser-chasee, to taste).

One of the engaging things about dogs (and about all relationships) is finding out the little quirks, small things that float the other’s boat. For instance, I have a foster puppy; having him would have been generic hell-on-earth puppy rearing, but I discovered he likes scritchies right there on his chest. He grooms me when I do it, and gets a milky expression. Mutual reinforcement! He also loves it when I pant at him – makes him grin. Delightful! I can haul these cheap activities out when he demonstrates restraint and doesn’t bite my ankle at the usual time, or sits.

I also advise people to teach more tricks. Trainers need to knock it off with their lists of things “all good dogs should know . . .” What a guilt trip! Let the owner set the itinerary. What could get the dog on “Stupid Pet Tricks” on David Letterman or amaze their friends? It’s very reinforcing for owners to have people go “Wow!” at the dog’s trick or make people laugh.

Keeping Dog Training Fun and Playful

Training
Positive Conditioning

Patricia B. McConnell

April 24, 2019

Dogs are one of the rare species of animals who play throughout their lifetimes; perhaps it’s one of the reasons we have such strong bonds with dogs, because we too play as grown ups.

Humans and canines appear to be what scientists call “neotenous”: as adults, we retain many of the behavioral traits of juveniles. In most species, play is for the young. Think about it: calves and lambs frisk about and chase each other; but how often do you see adult cows and sheep playing with one another?! Dogs and humans, though, maintain high levels of play even into adulthood.

We are also obsessed with toys, or “object play” in scientific terminology. This is very rare in animals, and I think it’s another reason why we are so bonded to dogs. (Look at how much we love balls! There is more time devoted to baseballs, footballs, tennis balls, basketballs, golf balls, and soccer balls on the evening news than there is to world peace, hunger, politics, and our local government . . . Just listing the different “object” related sports could take up a paragraph. We are truly obsessed with balls – we must be Labradors at heart!)

Of course, there are dogs who don’t exhibit an interest in balls, and I empathize with them. I was one of those kids who wasn’t very sports-minded. When I was forced to play softball in elementary school I used to stand in right field repeating “Please don’t hit the ball to me, please don’t hit the ball to me!” But overall, people (and dogs) like me are the exception and there are an awful lot of people and dogs who are crazy about balls.

So, given that play is something both people and dogs love, surely we should use it frequently as a reinforcement in training. Even though I love food, both personally (!) and for training, I think play is often underutilized as reinforcement. I have seen play be even more successful than food in some cases, and play is such fun for both species that sometimes I think it reinforces both species at the same time. That encourages people to do more training, and what a good thing that is! I’m not alone; many other trainers in search and rescue, scent detection, and bomb detection use play as a reinforcement because it is so highly motivating.

I’ve found play to be helpful in some cases with serious behavior problems, with, for example, dogs who are aggressive with other dogs. If you have a dog-aggressive dog who loves to play, one of the best reinforcements you can use for appropriate behavior around other dogs is play: tug of war or chase the ball, for example. Often, the magic of classical conditioning takes place, and ultimately the dog associates the sight of other dogs with the light-hearted emotions associated with play.

Play for Family Dog Training

However, it’s not just professional dog trainers working with serious behavior problems who should use more play in their training: Play can be a cornerstone of positive-based family dog training. Do you want to teach your dog to not run to the door and jump on a visitor? If he likes toys, teach him to go get a toy when he hears the doorbell. Encourage him to bring it out and show it to everybody. Want your dog to drop something on cue? Teach him “Take it” and “Drop it” when you play tug games.

In addition, trick training is a wonderful way to incorporate a playful demeanor into your dog’s life. We all like to show off our dogs’ tricks, and we don’t seem to take it personally when dogs don’t perform up to our expectations like we do with standard “obedience” signals. Think about it: When we teach our dog tricks, we tend to have a cheerful and fun-loving attitude, but often when we’re training something like lie down, we get stern and serious. “DOWN!” we often say with a low, commanding voice, and if our dog disobeys it is tempting to take it personally.

But when we are training a dog to jump through a hoop, it’s more like, “Jump through the hoop, jump through the hoop! Yay! What a good boy! Aren’t you cute?!” Even if our dog doesn’t do it right, we say “Oh well, it’s just a trick!” Of course, we do need to train our dogs to do some things first time, every time, but it’s much more successful if we make it fun for both the teacher and the student!

It’s easy to do: Make asking a dog to sit the most fun game in the world. “Sit! Yay! GOOD DOG! Here, have a tennis ball!” Intersperse “sit” and “down” with tricks – jump through the hoop or “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” (This is one of my favorite tricks. You say “Aren’t you ashamed?” and your dog hides his head under a pillow!) Work on sit and then play tug. Ask for a down, and then throw a toy. You’ll end up with a dog who listens better, instead of tuning in only after the third time he hears the cue: “Sit! Sit! Sit!”

Observation is Critical

A word of warning for a potential pitfall: Don’t confuse your fun with the dog’s fun. In other words, what is enjoyable for you may not be enjoyable to the dog. All dogs are different; they enjoy different things, so you can’t assume that if it’s fun for you, or another one of your dogs, it’s equally fun for every dog.

For example, most dogs love to be petted, but not in every context and not in all ways. Most people like petting their dogs, but some don’t notice that their dogs don’t like being pat-patted on top of the head as reinforcement for coming when called.

Observe your dog carefully; if he backs away from you when you reach to pet him, pay attention! He’s telling you he doesn’t want to be petted – and that if you persist, you are actually punishing the behavior you meant to reward! I’ve seen this scenario repeated literally hundreds (thousands?) of times, when a person calls their dog away from something really tempting – say, for example, another dog who is getting food. The dog leaves a handful of liver, comes back to his owner . . . and the owner happily and enthusiastically pats the dog on the head. The person feels so good and is so happy – “Good dog!” And the dog turns his head away and hates it!

If a dog turns and walks away, that’s invaluable information: he doesn’t like what you did. Even if he just closes his mouth and/or turns his face away, pay attention. That could be your dog telling you, “Um, I really don’t like this.”

Get in the habit of carefully observing your dog’s response to your rewards, but also observe his response to training overall. Does he quickly engage with you any time you initiate a training session? Or does he dodge your gaze and wander off when he hears you call, or sees you gathering your training equipment? If he responds with the latter, you need to rethink your sessions.

Are you training too many times a day? Are your sessions too long? If your dog’s response is anything less than highly enthusiastic, do whatever it takes to make the sessions more enjoyable. If you are training a lot, try reducing your sessions in number and/or length. (In my experience, some motivated trainers tend to overdo it. Try one schedule for three days; then try another schedule for three days. See how the dog does with each.)

Novice trainers more often tend to give up too fast, sometimes before the dog has had a chance to figure out what was expected. Most importantly, ask yourself if you and your dog are having a good time, and if both of you are learning something in the process.

Just Go Play!

There’s so much to talk about on the topic of training, and using play as a part of that – I could go on and on. However, I’d much rather you finished this article, and then go out and play some more with your dog. Let the games begin!

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Whole Dog Journal reviews dog food, dog toys, and dog health and care products, and also teaches positive dog training methods.

What is OCD?

Are Dogs Really “Obsessive”?

Early Signs of Canine OCD

The following are the most common OCD behaviors seen in dogs:

Light-Chasing

Tail-Chasing/Spinning

Flank-Sucking

Fly-Snapping

Pica

Modifying OCD Behavior

1. Increase Exercise

2. Reduce Stress

3. Remove Reinforcement

4. Reinforce an Incompatible Behavior

5. Explore Behavior Modification Drugs if/when Appropriate

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TUG O’ WAR OVERVIEW

Why Tug is Good for Dogs

1. Provides a legal outlet for roughhousing

2. Strengthens bonds between dog and guardian

3. Builds healthy relationships

4. Offers incredibly useful reinforcement potential

5. Redirects inappropriate use of teeth

6. Teaches dogs self-control

7. Creates a useful distraction

8. Modifies behavior

9. Builds confidence

Variations on the Tug O’ War

The 10 Rules of Tug

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• You drop your high-blood pressure pill on the floor. “Leave it! Good dog!”

• Your two-year-old child toddles past with a melting ice cream cone in his hand at canine nose level. “Leave it! Good dog!”

• You see your Irish Wolfhound studying the holiday turkey on the kitchen counter at canine eye-level. “Leave it! Good dog!”

• Your adolescent Labrador Retriever is preparing to offer an enthusiastic greeting to your elderly Aunt Maude who is approaching up the front walkway with the assistance of her wheeled walker. “Leave it! Good dog!”

• Your cat-chasing Jack Russell Terrier spots a black-and-white “kitty” (think skunk) trundling across your backyard at dawn when you let him out to potty as you’re rushing to get to a critically important meeting on time. “Leave it! Very good dog!” You just saved your job!

• You’re walking your dog in the park and spot a half-dozen suspicious-looking balls of raw hamburger at the same instant your dog does. “Leave it! Very very good dog!” You just saved your dog’s life; the hamburger was laced with strychnine.

Training a Dog to Leave It: Step 1

Don’t Repeat the Cue!

Training a Dog to Leave It: Step 2

Training a Dog to Leave It: Step 3

The Generalized “Leave It”

Play for Family Dog Training

Observation is Critical

Just Go Play!