The key to bringing a puppy into your home is to think things through well before the big day.
Most people spend months preparing for the arrival of a new baby. They’re just as likely, however, to bring a baby dog home on a whim, without any preparation at all. Small wonder they find themselves playing catch-up for weeks, months, years, or even “getting rid of” the dog as they struggle to recover from the mistakes made in the pup’s formative months. The wise puppy-owner-to-be puts much thought into pre-puppy preparation.
It’s never too soon to start researching the corps of professionals who will help you raise your puppy right. That list will include her veterinarian (or veterinarians, including an emergency hospital, holistic vet, and “regular” vet), training instructor, and perhaps a groomer, pet sitter/walker, doggie daycare provider, and boarding kennel. Grab your phone book, make a separate list for each category, and check them out.
For more details and advice on pre-puppy prepartion, purchase Whole Dog Journal’s ebook, Puppy Basics.
So, two days before my birthday, a large box, addressed to me (not The Whole Dog Journal) is delivered to my front door. It’s been sent from an “expediting” company; there is no return address or name of the person who sent it to me. It’s a vacuum – actually, it’s THE vacuum, the one that’s been lurking on my internet searches and Amazon.com wish list: The Dyson Animal DC 23.
I ask my husband. “Aw, honey, did you buy me a vacuum for my birthday?”
“Are you crazy?” he responds. “You can’t buy a wife a vacuum for her birthday! I’d never live it down!”
He had a point – but I was conflicted. This was the vacuum of my DREAMS! My sister (the one with three little dogs) has had a Dyson Animal upright model for years, and she raves about it. She’s talked several of her friends into buying one, and they’ve raved, too. But ouch! They are expensive!
I didn’t know where the Dyson came from, but I couldn’t take the suspense any longer. I opened the box, and assembled the pieces, including the “turbine head.” I took it right to my living room, the room with the patterned Berber carpet, mildly woven with Otto hair, the hair/rug combination that has previously resisted every other vacuum’s suction. My husband said, “What if it was a mistake? What if it’s not really for you?” I couldn’t be stopped. I turned the Dyson on and started vacuuming. And it was like a miracle.
The amount of hair (and dust) that the Dyson was able to get off the rug was incredible – and a little embarrassing. I had just vacuumed a few days before. Otto hangs out with us in the living room only in the evenings for a few hours, as my husband plays guitar or we watch a movie. But a look at the transparent canister told the tale: There was a TON of hair in there. I couldn’t believe how much. It made me want to vacuum our tweedy fabric couches, immediately. And so I did, with the “mini turbine head” attachment. And I almost fainted when I saw the debris and hair I’d recently been lounging on, concentrated in the vacuum’s canister.
Please don’t get me wrong: I keep a pretty clean house. My dog is not allowed on my couch, though our ancient cat is permitted to be anywhere she’s comfortable. If I see a dust bunny floating down the hall, I whip out a vacuum, a broom, a mop – whatever it takes to get the floors looking clean again. But the Dyson was able to clean our rug and sofa to a level no other vacuum has been able to.
Long story short: It was no mistake. The birthday connection was just a coincidence. The Dyson company sent me (and, probably, many other pet publications) the Animal DC 23 to review, no strings attached. (In fact, it took them a week to send me an email that explained the arrival of the vacuum.)
In a normal Whole Dog Journal product review, we’d take several products of a similar type and compare them to each other. But I don’t see any other vacuum coming into this house or my office for a long time. They will have to pry the vacuum wand out of my cold, dead fingers. I love this vacuum.
Look for a less passionate, calmer review in an upcoming issue of Whole Dog Journal. In the meantime, you can find more detail about the DC 23 at dyson.com.
My neighbor’s house was condemned this week, declared a public health threat. Unbeknownst to the rest of us, she’d been hoarding animals. It made no sense. How could none of us know? How could it happen “here” in our bucolic neighborhood—a rural, picturesque area with large upscale homes surrounded by pastureland and horse farms? A helicopter hovering literally above my house made me realize that something was very wrong.
In this case, a single woman in her 40’s lived “alone” in a once-lovely, half-million-dollar brick home. By the time authorities intervened, gaining access to her house only after securing a search warrant, she had amassed 113 cats, 14 dogs, 23 dead cats, and 1 dead dog. She was living in squalor, and the only reason she was discovered was that an observant neighbor, after smelling foul smells on and off, went to investigate. He stumbled upon crated cats left on her driveway, and quickly called authorities. That, as it turns out, was only the tip of the iceberg.
Authorities said feces and trash filled the rooms. Seven officers, clad in haz-mat suits and respirators, worked through the night to empty the house of the animals, most of whom were suffering from dehydration and other medical problems. I am grateful to these people who worked so hard on behalf of these animals.
But I am also ashamed. Ashamed because I didn’t know. I live a stone’s throw away, and have done virtually everything in my power to give my own dogs a good life, yet so many animals so close to me were suffering horribly. I remind myself that the dogs and cats were all living inside her enormous, brick house, so how could I know? I do not personally know her, have never met her, and dense woods separate us. Her house is not visible from the road. It’s set far back down a gravel driveway, hidden by a thick growth of woodland.
I’m mad, too. So many animals suffered. Some have already been euthanized, and my guess is there are many more to follow. Our county’s animal shelter is already strained in this horrible economy; how can it be expected to cover vetting, housing, and feeding of so many animals? The shelter director estimates that it’s costing taxpayers more than $1,200 a day to do so.
What are the other costs to our community? The hoarder is awaiting a court appearance. Who pays for that? Who pays for the cleanup of the home? Who pays if the house must be razed? Who pays for her rehabilitation? The recidivism rate for hoarders, they say, is 100 percent if not treated.
Tragically, a local volunteer humane society had placed many cats with this woman for fostering. They “inspected” her home in June . . . but neglected to go inside the house. They have since been shut down, at least temporarily.
The once lovely home has been condemned. Today, a no trespassing sign hangs across the drive.
My only take away, right now, is that we need to pay attention, to be aware of our surroundings. If we see physical signs that something’s not right, and have that feeling in our gut that something’s not right, we’d do well to investigate, and call authorities if necessary. Hoarding is everywhere, folks. My world is still rocking as I process this horrific turn of events. What would you do if you suspected a hoarder in your midst?
Have you ever had the misfortune of walking into your house to find overturned furniture, inches-deep claw gouges on door frames, blood-stained tooth marks on window sills, and countless messages on your answering machine from neighbors complaining about your dog barking and howling for hours on end in your absence? If so, you’re probably familiar with the term “separation anxiety” – a mild label for a devastating and destructive behavior.
Most separation anxiety behavior happens within 30 minutes of the owner’s departure and within a similar period before the owner’s anticipated return. This is one of the keys to determining whether your dog’s behavior is truly an anxiety reaction or simply a bout of puppy hijinks.
If you can leave and come back in an hour to an unscathed home but four hours puts him over the top, chances are you’re dealing with boredom, excessive energy, or a housetraining issue rather than true separation anxiety. (Some dogs will become destructive in their efforts to go outside to relieve themselves if they are very committed to not soiling the house.)
For more details and advice on ways to prevent and cure canine separation anxiety, purchase Whole Dog Journal’s ebook, Separation Anxiety.
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I think I’ve mentioned before that my dog, Otto, is nervous about slippery floors. That’s why I don’t bother bringing him into pet supply stores, a little field trip that many other owners enjoy with their dogs. But it’s not a debilitating problem. He’s comfortable on the vinyl floor that’s in our kitchen and dining room, and just fine on the parquet wood floors in my office. And though we have laminate floors in our hall and living room, the main traffic areas have been covered with rugs. Until recently.
My husband, Brian, liked the carpet runners in our long, narrow hall, but they’ve driven me crazy. To me, they function as a trap for dog hair and dust. I’d rather have bare floors, which can be quickly swept or damp-mopped. Two weeks ago, I negotiated with my husband for a trial period without the runners, and I removed them. My husband had to admit that it’s easier to keep the hall floor clean without the rugs. The only one in the family who is not happy with the situation is Otto.
Otto is highly motivated to use the hall, even though he’s afraid of walking on the bare floor; he has to walk down the hall in order to join us in the living room. He likes hanging out with my husband in that room when Brian practices the guitar, and when we watch movies on the television. And in order to follow us out the front door, he’s got to first navigate the hall.
Otto has a few different tactics for completing the journey. Sometimes he walks super slowly, like he’s walking on thin ice, and he may fall through it at any moment. Sometimes he runs as fast as he can, as if running away from a cliff that is crumbling into the ocean. At other times, he walks on the very edge of the floor, as close to the wall as possible. There are problems with each of his tactics. His slow walk sometimes stalls out, and he freezes in fear, with trembling legs. His fast attempts leave him skidding and sliding, running in place as his legs flail like a cartoon dog. And walking on the edges makes him lose his balance, which leads to more flailing.
Brian and I are trying to help Otto deal with the floor. Brian spent 20 minutes with Otto the other night, walking up and down the hall off-leash. Brian gave Otto bits of his favorite treat (hot dogs) every few feet, and stopped frequently for petting and encouragement. He made a big fuss of Otto’s success. By the end of the session, Otto was walking more or less normally up and down the hall. But then the next morning, Otto was stalled out again – declining to even attempt a single trip down the hall. When Brian called him from the living room, Otto glanced down the hall, and then ran out the kitchen door into the yard.
It’s just a small setback. There really isn’t any urgency to solve the problem. We’ll just keep working on it slowly. I know one tactic we are NOT going to try: flooding. That’s when you force someone to deal with his or her fear. This approach can work is some situations with humans, because it’s paired with counseling, in an effort to engage the person’s intellect in the recovery process. In animals, the tactic tends to result in a helpless submission – not learning, confidence, nor trust. Instead, we’re going to keep up the patient use of systematic counter-conditioning and desensitization. And perhaps solving this hallway crisis will enable us to visit set supply stores in the future!
Aggression. It’s a natural, normal dog behavior, but it’s also a scary word that evokes images of maulings and dog-related fatalities. The term “aggression” actually encompasses a long continuum of behaviors, some of them very appropriate and critically important to successful canine communication. If your dog has ever displayed the slightest sign of aggressive behavior, it is incumbent on you as a responsible owner to learn as much as possible about the causes of – and of course, solutions for – canine aggression.
Photo by Penelope Brown
The Scope of Aggressive Dog Behaviors
The broad spectrum of “aggressive behaviors” is technically called “agonistic behavior” and is defined in ethology as, “pertaining to the range of activities associated with aggressive encounters between members of the same species or social group, including threat, attack, appeasement, or retreat.” So, while a growl-lunge-bite sequence would be easily recognized by most people as aggression, more subtle agonistic behaviors such as a freeze, a hard stare, or even a lack of eye contact, may go unnoticed (and unaddressed).
Aggression is probably the most common behavioral problem in dogs seen by behavior professionals and the most dangerous one seen in companion dogs. While the number of dog-related fatalities (about 30 per year in the U.S.) pales in comparison to accidental death by other means, the number of annual reported bites is staggering. According to the Dog Bite Law website: “The most recent official survey, conducted more than a decade ago, determined there were 4.7 million dog bite victims annually in the U.S. A more recent study showed that 1,000 Americans per day are treated in emergency rooms as a result of dog bites. Dog bite losses exceed $1 billion per year, with over $300 million paid by homeowners insurance.”
Cultural Shifts and Dog Aggression
In my opinion, our culture has become oversensitized to dog bites. Once upon a time, if a kid was bitten by a neighbor’s dog, his mom generally asked the kid what he was doing to the dog that he shouldn’t have been. Today she reaches for the phone to call her attorney, or, if it’s her dog, dialing up a behavior professional, or worse, dropping the dog off at her local shelter. We’ve turned into a nation of aggress-a-phobes.
Behavior professionals mull over the causes of what looks to be a huge and growing problem. Theories about the contributing factors abound:
The population shift away from rural living and toward urban and suburban homes may have lessened our general understanding of animal behavior.
This lack of understanding manifests as inappropriate human behavior toward dogs, which triggers more aggressive behavior, as well as a lower tolerance for bites – even minor ones.
A more responsible dog-owning population keeps dogs at home, rather than letting them wander, and as a result dogs may be less socialized – and more likely to bite (see “Light Bite,” WDJ June 2010).
There has been an increase in popularity of dog breeds that contribute to our cultural sensitization – large, powerful breeds who can do serious damage if they bite, such as Pit Bulls and Rottweilers – as well as breeds who are sensitive to violations of their personal space and have a lower tolerance for inappropriate human behavior, such as Border Collies and Australian Shepherds.
Finally, the appropriately diligent efforts of animal control authorities to quarantine dogs who bite (for rabies control purposes) and craft dangerous dog laws (for public safety purposes) have probably fueled the alarmist reactions to even minor dog bites.
I’m not saying aggression isn’t a serious behavior. But there’s aggression, and then there’s serious aggression. In a perfect world, all humans would recognize and take appropriate action at the lower levels of agonistic behavior. If that happened, we would rarely see serious aggression – in fact we’d rarely see any bites at all. Until that time, we can only work, one dog and one human at a time, to expand human understanding of canine aggression.
Stress in Dogs
Across the board, with one tiny exception so rare it’s barely worth mentioning, aggression is caused by stress. Whatever “classification” of aggression an owner or behavior professional chooses to use, the underlying cause of the aggression is stress. There is usually a triggering stressor; when a dog bites a child, it’s a good bet that child was a stressor for him – but there is also a background noise of other stressors that pushed the dog over his bite threshold with that child on that particular day. These may be stressors that we don’t even notice. And because cortisol, a stress hormone that plays a role in aggression, can stay in the system for at least two days, they can be stressors that occurred yesterday, or even the day before!
Think of it as canine road rage. In humans, road rage might look like this:
Stressor #1: Our subject jumps out of bed in the morning realizing that his alarm didn’t go off and he’s late for work.
Stressor #2: He dashes through a cold shower because his hot water heater is on the blink.
Stressor #3: As he hurries out the door his eye falls on the foreclosure notice that arrived in yesterday’s mail because his mortgage payment is overdue.
Stressor #4: He jumps in his car, starts the engine and sees that his gas gauge is on “E.” He’s already late and now he has to stop to get gas.
Stressor #5: As he pulls onto the freeway his cell phone dings to remind him of an important meeting in 15 minutes – and his commute is 25 minutes.
Stressor #6: He remembers that his boss warned him that if he’s late for one more important meeting he’ll be fired. If he speeds, maybe he can make it.
Stressor #7: Traffic is a little slow, but if he uses the commute lane, maybe he can make it. Just as he starts to pull into the lane a car cuts him off and then pokes along in front of him below the speed limit. It’s the last straw. Over threshold, he reaches under his seat pulls out his loaded .357 and . . .
In dog, canine road rage might look like this:
Stressor #1: The dog has a little isolation distress, usually mitigated by the presence of his canine sibling, but today his brother got dropped off at the vet hospital when his humans went off to work, so he’s all alone.
Stressor #2: A UPS delivery arrives, and dog has a “thing” about delivery people.
Stressor #3: Just before noon a thunderstorm passes through. The dog is thunder-sensitive, and owner didn’t give him his thunder medication this morning.
Stressor #4: Pet walker is supposed to arrive at 1 pm, but is late and doesn’t get there until 2:30. Dog is stressed by change in routine and by urgency of a very full bladder by the time the walker arrives.
Stressor #5: Humans arrive home at their normal time but they are stressed because there are dinner guests due at 7 pm and they have to get ready. Dog is stressed by his humans’ stress, and the fact that they rush though his evening routine, feeding him hurriedly and skipping his walk to the dog park for exercise.
Stressor #6: Visitors arrive, and while the dog is fine with adult visitors, he is not especially fond of children, and there are four in this family. All through dinner, the dog hears the high-pitched children’s voices laughing and arguing, and he occasionally sees them staring at him.
Stressor #7: After dinner the kids are running around the house. The dog tries to stay out of their way, but eventually one corners him in the kitchen. Over threshold, he pulls out his loaded mouth and . . .
Stress is an emotional and physiological response to a stimulus. The foundational underpinning of aggression is based on classical conditioning; your dog’s emotional and physical response to a stimulus that causes him stress: fear, pain, anger, and/or some other strong emotion. He can’t help his emotional response any more than you can when faced with something that scares or hurts you.
Aggression also has an operant component; your dog learns that he can deliberately act to make scary stressors go away. When he growls, barks, and lunges, perceived bad things tend to leave – so his aggressive behavior is negatively reinforced (dog’s behavior makes a bad thing go away), and increases over time.
Dog Aggression is NOT Dominance
There’s a widespread misconception held by many dog owners, perpetuated by unfortunate television drama, that aggression is all about dominance, and that the appropriate response to any display of aggression is to force the dog into submission. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, a very mild, easily resolvable display of aggressive behavior can quickly become a significant behavior problem if the dog’s human responds with aggression.
The concept of dominance in a social group has been so widely misunderstood and distorted that many knowledgeable behavior professionals hesitate to even use the term. In fact, dominance has little to do with aggression, and a lot to do with access to desired resources: the concept of dominance strictly refers to an interaction or a series of interactions between two individuals in which there is an outcome in favor of one member of the pair.
That outcome is largely determined by a submissive or yielding response from one of the individuals and not through overt conflict or escalated aggression. Someone who is truly higher ranking in social status doesn’t need to resort to aggression to get what he wants. Violent behavior between group members is inappropriate and unacceptable in social interactions. These precepts hold true for social groups of all species, including humans.
Using violent behavior against a dog who is aggressive adds additional stress to his stress load. With force, you may be able to suppress his aggressive behavior in that moment. However, your actions will increase the probability of his future aggression – and possibly more intense aggression. There are far more appropriate and effective ways to manage and modify aggressive behavior than aggressing back.
Aggression-Modifying Action Plan
So what do you do when your dog exhibits aggressive behavior? Remember that stress, not any desire to take over the world, causes aggression to erupt. The first thing to do is educate yourself about dog body language so you can be aware of your dog’s more subtle agonistic behaviors. (See “Signs Your Dog Has Stress,” June 2006.) Then be aware of your dog’s stressors and stress levels, and avoid putting him in situations where he may be compelled to bite. When you do see stress signals, even subtle ones, remove him from the immediate proximity of the stressor to help him cope with the situation.
When you’ve identified something that appears to be a stressor for him, figure out how to remove it as a stressor in his life. If it’s something you can get rid of, simply get rid of it. If you can manage it, by removing the dog from the environment when you know the stressor will be present, do it. If it’s too present in his world to get rid of or manage, take steps to change his opinion of that stressor through counter-conditioning, or change his behavior in the presence of that stressor through operant conditioning.
There are bound to be some low-level stressors that he’ll just have to live with. As long as they aren’t significant enough to put him near or over his bite threshold, he can live with some stressors. We all have some stress in our lives!
Here are some examples:
Get rid of it: Anything aversive that causes unnecessary pain or stress, including shock, choke, and prong collars; penny cans; or throw chains. Even head halters, considered by many to be positive training tools, are aversive to some dogs.
Manage it: So, your dog isn’t fond of small children and there are none in your life and he doesn’t encounter them regularly in your neighborhood. Even so, you can manage him the one time each year your sister comes to visit with your young niece and nephew, by keeping him in another part of the house when the kids are awake and about.
Change his association: Convince him that something that stresses him is actually very wonderful by pairing it consistently with something else wonderful. If your dog is stressed by men with beards, you can convince him that men with beards always make chicken happen, by having a bearded man appear, and feeding bits of chicken to your dog, over and over and over again, until he wants furry-faced men to appear so he can have more chicken.
The key to successful counter-conditioning, as this process is called, is to always keep the dog below threshold; you want him a little aware of and worried about the aversive stimulus, but not quaking in fear or barking and lunging.
Teach him a new behavior: Perhaps your dog becomes highly aroused by visitors coming to the door. He’s not fearful or aggressive, but the high arousal is a stressor. You can teach him that the doorbell is his cue to run get in his crate, where he’ll receive a stuffed Kong or other doggie delectable. (See “Unwanted Barking at the Front Door,” February 2010.) Or you can teach him that visitors toss toys for him to chase if he sits politely when the door opens.
Live with it: So you’re a little (or a lot!) stressed because your work isn’t going well, or the school just notified you that your teen-age daughter has been skipping school. While I encourage you for your own well-being to take steps to reduce your own stress as much as possible, this is one your dog can live with, especially if you remember that when you are stressed, it pushes your dog a little closer to his own bite threshold.
When Your Dog Does Bite
What if you misjudge a situation and something happens that puts your dog over threshold and causes him to display seriously aggressive behavior, perhaps even bite? First, don’t panic. All dogs can bite, and the fact that yours has doesn’t make him a Cujo. You will need to:
Move him away from the scene. Stash him in another room, stick him in your car for a moment, or hand his leash to someone he knows who is not at risk for being bitten and have them take him away.
Apologize. A good apology is, “Oh, I am so sorry you were bitten! (or your dog was bitten, or your child was bitten).
Examine the bite site. Take a couple of quick photos if you can. If the bite broke skin, offer first aid (if you have it). If the injuries are serious, make sure that the victim has a way to access medical care.
If it’s clear that your dog was the sole offender, you may want to offer to pay for medical or veterinary care. A pre-emptive discussion with your attorney about this possibility is a good idea, to prevent yourself from taking on more liability than is appropriate, while still doing the ethical and reasonable thing. If it’s unclear who “started it,” be wary of immediately accepting responsibility for the incident.
Prepare for a visit from animal control. In most of the country, if a dog bite breaks human skin, the dog must be quarantined for at least 10 days. Have your current rabies certificate handy – they will ask to see it; a rabies tag isn’t enough.
In many jurisdictions you may be able to quarantine your dog in your own home. If not, find out if your dog can be kept at a vet hospital for the required period; it’s usually a safer, less stressful place than a shelter.
If animal control insists on taking your dog away for quarantine, do not sign anything until you have read it carefully and are sure you understand it. Some dog owners have unknowingly and tragically signed their dogs over for euthanasia when they thought they were just agreeing to quarantine.
Prepare for “dangerous dog” legal proceedings. Depending on the laws in your area, your dog may be declared “potentially dangerous” for acting aggressively, or “dangerous” for actually biting someone. It’s good to read your local ordinance now, even if your dog never bites anyone, and for sure after a bite happens. If your dog is designated dangerous or you do get called to a hearing of some kind in relation to your dog’s aggressive behavior, you’d be wise to involve your attorney.
Bite Prevention
Basic training and early socialization can go a long way toward inoculating your dog against future aggression. Your observational skills and ability to mitigate stressful situations for your dog are excellent booster shots. At the point, however, when you become aware that your dog’s behaviors are inappropriate, traveling along that continuum of agonistic behavior verging on overt aggression, and are resistant to your efforts to manage and modify them, it’s time to call for help.
Remember that a good behavior professional won’t come riding in like a white knight, push your dog around a little, and declare him cured. A good behavior modification protocol is not dramatic, but rather a slow, low-key program that will help your dog learn to better cope with his world.
Your behavior professional won’t need to see the actual aggressive behavior; she will trust your description of your dog’s reaction to the stressors in his world, and help you figure out how to keep him far below his bite threshold. Like most behaviors, aggression is far easier to modify sooner, before your dog has had time to practice and get good at it.
Counter-Conditioning for Aggressive Dogs
This technique involves changing your dog’s association with a scary or arousing stimulus from negative to positive. The easiest way to give most dogs a positive association is with extremely high-value, really yummy treats. I like to use chicken – canned, baked, or boiled, since most dogs love chicken and it’s a low-fat food. Here’s how the process works:
1. Determine the distance at which your dog can be in the presence of the stimulus and be alert or wary but not extremely fearful or aroused. This is called the “threshold distance.”
2. With you holding your dog on leash, have a helper present the stimulus at threshold distance X. The instant your dog sees the stimulus, start feeding him bits of chicken, non-stop. (Note: If your dog is too excited to eat the chicken, then you have the stimulus too close. Back it way up until your dog is calm enough to take the chicken, but still notices the stimulus.)
3. After several seconds, have the helper remove the stimulus from your dog’s sight, and stop feeding the chicken to your dog.
4. Keep repeating those first steps until the presentation of the stimulus at that distance consistently causes your dog to look at you with a happy smile and a “Yay! Where’s my chicken?” expression. This is a “conditioned emotional response” (CER). Now your dog’s association with the stimulus at threshold distance X is positive instead of negative.
5. Next you will increase the intensity of the stimulus. You can do that by decreasing the distance between your dog and the stimulus; by increasing the movement of the stimulus at distance X (if the stimulus is a child, for example, ask the child to skip or swing her arms); by increasing the number of stimuli (two or three children, instead of one); increasing the visual “threat” (a tall stranger instead of a short one, or a man with a beard instead of a clean-shaven man); or by increasing the volume (if it’s a stimulus that makes noise, such as a vacuum cleaner).
I’d suggest decreasing distance first in small increments by moving the dog closer to the location where the stimulus will appear, with your dog achieving the intended CER at each new distance, until your dog is happy to be very near to the non-moving stimulus, perhaps even sniffing or targeting to it.
6. Then return to distance X and add intensity of your stimulus (move the vacuum a little; have two children instead of one; have the man put on a hat, or a backpack), gradually decreasing distance and attaining CERs along the way, until your dog is delighted to have the moderately intense stimulus in close proximity.
7. Now, back to distance X. Increase intensity again, by having your helper turn the vacuum on briefly (while you feed treats the instant it’s on). Then turn it off and stop the treats. (Or turn up the volume, or add more children, etc.)
8. Repeat until you have the CER, then gradually increase the length of time you have your dog in the presence of the increased-intensity stimulus, until he’s happy (but not aroused) to have it present continuously.
9. Begin decreasing distance in small increments, moving the dog closer to the stimulus, consistently obtaining the desired CER from the dog at each new distance.
10. When your dog is happy to have the higher-intensity stimulus close to him, he’s ready for the final phase.
11. Return to distance X and obtain your dog’s CER there, with a full intensity stimulus – a running, moving vacuum; multiple children laughing and playing; a tall man with a beard wearing a hat, sunglasses, and a backpack. Gradually decrease the distance until your dog is happy to be near the full-intensity stimulus. He now thinks the stimulus is a very good thing, a reliable predictor of very yummy treats. In the case of a human stimulus, you can gradually work up to actual interaction with the human(s) at this stage, by having the person(s) drop treats as they walk by, then letting your dog take treats from their fingers – without direct eye contact, and eventually working up to normal interaction.
The more complex the stimulus and more intense the fear or arousal response, the more challenging it is to modify the behavior. Anxieties and phobias generally require a great commitment to a long and in-depth modification program.
Pat Miller, CPDT-KA, CDBC, is WDJ‘s Training Editor. Miller lives in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Pat is also author of several books on positive training, including her latest: Do Over Dogs: Give Your Dog a Second Chance for a First Class Life.
1. Bring your “A” game to puppy class. Get a good night’s sleep before a morning class, get up early for coffee — whatever it takes!
2. Try not to get caught up in conversation with other puppy owners during class. You need to pay attention to the instructor — and your own puppy!
3. Practice daily at home, so you and your puppy have mastered each week’s material and are ready to learn new skills when you come to class.
You’ve got a new puppy and are about to start puppy classes (or are planning ahead for your new pup – even better!). You know good puppy classes are an integral part of helping you and your dog invest in a long and harmonious future. Congratulations!
Once you’ve selected a class that meets your needs (see “How to find the Best Dog Trainer for Your Dog,” for help selecting the right class for you and your dog) and you’ve signed up to ensure your place in class – you are all set, right? Wrong!
Puppy classes aren’t magic. Just signing up, paying, and attending aren’t enough. You have to train and practice and build your relationship with your puppy. It will last a lifetime and the effort you put in now will pay off multifold. But keep in mind that the bad habits that you and your puppy develop now will also give you payback many times over! So let’s assume you have really committed yourself to rearing a puppy well, and talk about how to get the most out of your puppy classes.
Paying Attention in Puppy Class
In today’s economy, most of us want to be sure we get the most bang for our bucks and that’s true for the cost of puppy classes. Carefully select your class in advance. Of course, we want you to find an experienced positive trainer. But you also need to find a class in a location that’s convenient enough and offered at a time of day to ensure that you’ll actually attend. If the class that you want is offered only at 7 pm on a weeknight or 8 am on Saturday morning, and you are usually tired at these times, you may have to look for another option – or plan to have an espresso early enough before class to get you there and keep you alert.
Alertness is critical in any educational setting. If you are too tired to be attentive to what the instructor is saying, or to cheerfully interact with your dog (who, thanks to the many distractions in class, may be at his worst), you won’t get as much out of the class as you could.
Does this sound easy? It’s not! It’s difficult to pay attention to two things at once (your puppy and the instructor) while surrounded by other cute and active puppies and their owners. And if you happen to be seated next to an especially gabby owner, or excitable puppy, it can be even more difficult. If you are talking to someone, you can’t properly hear the instructor or attend to your puppy. If you are watching your puppy play with another pup, you can’t pay attention to the instructor. You paid for the information being provided. Don’t waste these critical puppy-rearing moments (or your money) by failing to focus.
I don’t need to mention that mobile phones should never be present in class, do I?
At the same time that you are listening to the instructor and watching her demonstrations, it’s essential that you are also aware of what your pup is doing. These are golden opportunities for you to reinforce behaviors you like, such as looking calmly at the other pups and people in class, and especially, for “checking in” with you with eye contact. You may also have to distract your puppy and prevent her from practicing behaviors you don’t want, such as barking, whining, pulling on the leash to go visiting, chewing the leash, chewing on the mat, pawing at you, mugging you for treats, or mouthing you.
Treats are Your Greatest Tool for Cooperation
Speaking of treats, it’s vitally important that you bring an ample and varied supply to class. You don’t want to run out before the end of class, or to have to scrimp on reinforcement because you are afraid you are going to run out. It’s best if you have at least three or four types of treats in your bait bag; this keeps your puppy guessing what delicious treat might be next, and keeps him from getting tired of (and undermotivated by) any one type of treat.
Ideally, you should include treats of a varying level of interest to your puppy, too: treats he likes, treats he’s crazy about, and some treats he’d stand on his head for! Use the highest-value treats for rewarding the most difficult behaviors you ask your pup to perform, new behaviors, or for “easy” behaviors performed against a backdrop of distractions. You may have to try a lot of different types of treats at home in order to identify treats of these varying levels of “value” to your dog.
The treats you bring to class should also be tiny! – especially if you have a small dog. That’s because you’ll be feeding a lot of them in class, and you don’t want him to fill up too soon, so pre-cut those treats into pieces the size of a pea or smaller. It also helps to bring your pup in on an empty or near-empty stomach so if class is scheduled around your pup’s meal time, feed only half the usual meal and bring the balance as healthy, delectable treats for class. Consider using cut-up pieces of boiled lean chicken, turkey, beef, or pork.
You need to deliver those treats to your puppy quickly so you want the treats easily accessible to you. I suggest using a “bait bag” or treat pouch to keep the treats handy; there are lots of great ones on the market. Other good treat holders are fanny packs, carpenter aprons, and loose vest pockets. Ziploc bags are horrid! Just about as hard to use as jeans pockets.
Being a Good Puppy Class Student
In class, during practice times, PRACTICE! When the instructor comes around to see how you and your puppy are doing, make sure you take the opportunity to demonstrate the behavior you are supposed to be practicing at that moment. Generally, the instructor circulates to every dog/handler team and watches for a repetition or two, gives some feedback, and moves on. If you haven’t been able to get your pup to perform the behavior yet, don’t just say that; show the instructor how you’ve been going about it so she can see what’s wrong and show you a different way to do it. Everyone should get pretty equal time by the end of each class and no one should monopolize the instructor. So play fair!
Usually there are question periods during each class. Help use the class time well by preparing a priority question or two in advance. What are you most stuck on or confused about? Ask the question as concisely as possible. This is not the time for a long story about your pup’s adorable antics at home. Your classmates have also paid for class and it’s their time, too. Use it constructively. If your issue is something unique to your household or situation, ask if you can speak to the trainer about it before or after class or perhaps email or telephone for a brief discussion. Classes are for general topics and issues.
It’s helpful when your entire family participates in training the family dog, and when all of you use the same cues to elicit the various behaviors you learn in class. It follows, then, that it’s also helpful for the most interested family members to attend training class. That can include kids, but make sure you bring only those kids whose attention spans are long enough and behavior is good enough, so that they don’t disrupt the class. Or bring a second adult or responsible teen who can take the kids out of class as needed for breaks.
Practice What You Learn
I can’t stress this enough: Practice, practice, practice every single day!
Practice is rather like preparing the ground before transplanting a plant. It would be a shame to put a lovely purchased plant into soil that hasn’t been prepared in advance; it won’t be as successful as the plant that gets thoughtful fertilizing, watering, and of course is a good match for the soil and sun in the first place.
Between classes, it’s all up to you. Practice teaching your dog the behaviors you’ve learned in class many times a day – every day – in short, positive sessions. Puppies have short attention spans, so practice for a total of at least 15 to 45 minutes a day, in at least three sessions sprinkled throughout the day. Short and more-frequent sessions are better than fewer, longer ones; three 5- to 10-minute sessions provide better training than a single 15- to 30-minute session.
“Capture” and reward behaviors whenever you can. Is your puppy running to greet you? Super! Label it “Rover, come!” and reward her lavishly when she gets to you. Walking down the hallway with the puppy at your side? Label it “heel” (or whatever you’ll call nice, loose leash walking) and reward it! Keep working on your puppy’s name recognition, too, by brightly saying her name and rewarding her interest and attention with a delicious treat, a few moments of the kind of petting she likes best (belly rubs, neck massage, a nice scratching session at the top of her tail), and/or warm praise.
Use your everyday routines to remind you to practice with your puppy. Going to the end of the driveway to get the mail from the box? Bring your puppy on her leash.
That means an opportunity to sit nicely for attaching her leash and for opening the door. It also gives you the opportunity to reward her for reorienting (eye contact to you) after you’ve both stepped through the doorway. Then she gets to practice nice walking with you all the way to the mail box and back (with some cued sits, downs, eye contact, etc. along the way). When you get back to your door, you have another chance to have your puppy sit to await the cue to go through the door. And then she can offer a polite sit on the other side of the door before you let her free in the house again.
Wasn’t that a lovely little training session? Look at all the things it included as well as some nice exposure to a brief trip outdoors where the pup may have seen pedestrians, vehicles, birds, squirrels, airplanes overhead, etc. to give you a chance to reward her for calmly noticing things and turning her attention back to you. Playing with your dog in your fenced yard? Ask for some sits, downs, come, and some eye contact! Your dog’s reward might be a chance to chase a ball or chase you!
Most puppy training classes give the participants written homework to help them focus and remember. Use it. Don’t pull it out the night before class (or the hour before) and try to “cram” – that’s not how you’ll get the habits installed in your puppy. Practice every day in multiple short sessions.
If your puppy class doesn’t include everything you wished it did (and what class ever does?), read up on those other things and work on them yourself.
The class should teach you the principles of positive training with your puppy. Start applying them to behaviors beyond those taught in class! Puppies are like little sponges and learn so easily once we learn how to be clear with them and make it all fun.
Use your class time well and use your home time even more wisely. It’s an investment in your future with your dog. Unlike many of today’s investments, this is one almost guaranteed to bring rich returns for life.
The Value of Training in Everyday Life
Training starts the moment you bring your pup into your car to head home with you. How will your pup travel? Has the puppy ever been in a car before? How will you make this first car trip as safe and comfortable as possible?
Then there are all the rules the puppy has to learn about living with a human family in a human’s house: when and where it’s okay to potty, what furniture is off-limits, what a puppy is allowed to chew on and what she is forbidden to investigate with her mouth, how much and what times of day vocalizing is acceptable — it’s endless.
My point is this: Puppies are always learning. We consciously teach them what to do and what not to do only some of the time. In order to be as successful as possible in teaching your little pup to grow tip into a good canine citizen, you’ll need to make the most of every opportunity for your puppy to do the things you want him to do — and give him few or no opportunities to practice naughty behaviors. This means training whenever you can, and managing his environment carefully when you can’t be there to train.
Caryl-Rose Pofcher is a dog trainer based in Amherst, MA. As well as running her own dog training business, My Dog, LLC, she also trains for her local shelter, Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society, and for the Collared Scholar dog training center. See “Resources,” for contact information.
We have had great fun over the past year and a half, taking a look at 16 different canine sports. The breadth and diversity of activities people undertake with their dogs is truly amazing. Activities that started out simply as something fun to do with your dog have been turned into formal sports complete with rules, regulations, and ribbons.
Freestyle Photo by Brenda Cutting
You can swim to boaters’ rescue, pull a load of freight, toss plastic discs high into the air for your buddy to catch or, if the mood strikes, dance with your dog. Some sports involve dogs and humans working closely together toward a mutual goal while others provide the dog an opportunity to work independently. Some sports require physical exertion that gets human and canine panting, while others tax the minds more than the bodies of the participants. There’s something for everyone!
If you have never tried a dog sport, we encourage you to do so. Over and over again, people we talked with about their chosen sport reported that their relationships with their dogs grew deeper as they worked and played together. To help you decide which sport might be best for you and your dog, we have listed the 16 most popular dog sports, comparing aspects such as prior training required, physical effort, training complexity, cost, and so on. The table on the next page is sure to include at least one sport that will pique your interest, fit your budget, and put a smile on your dog’s face.
Rainbow River Photography
Let’s say you have a bad knee and your dog is getting on in years and doesn’t like to be around excitable dogs. Agility might not be your first choice. However, nosework might be the ticket. On the other hand, maybe you have a ball-obsessed herding dog mix you adopted from a shelter whose adoptions counselor confessed that the dog had been adopted out twice and returned because “he has too much energy.”
In that case, you might want to look into flyball. But not if you yourself don’t play well with others: Flyball is a team sport in which you train and compete as a team. If you are more of the solitary type with a dog who loves to swim, you might enjoy dock/splash dog. It’s just you and your dog up on the dock.
When you look at the ratings for each sport, keep in mind that although all dogs benefit from being in good physical condition, some sports put a lot of physical demands on dogs. If you choose a physically demanding sport, your dog will benefit from crosstraining (swimming, jogging, etc.), as well as canine massage, chiropractic, and other modalities to keep him in tip-top shape. As dog sports have become more popular – and competitive – more and more information has become available about diets, supplements, and canine sports medicine (now a growing veterinary specialty) to help our canine buddies play the games they love and stay safe and live long, healthy.
Remember that dog sports are just like any other endeavors. There will be people whose primary goal is a good time with their dog and camaraderie with other people who enjoy spending time with their dogs, and there will be people who are “serious” about the game. Get to know people and find where you and your dog fit best. If you try one sport and your dog doesn’t seem to like it, then try another. If you don’t want to compete, still join in the fun. Any time spent with your dog is a good expenditure of time, isn’t it?
LLC
Terry Long, CPDT-KA, is a writer, agility instructor, and behavior counselor in Long Beach, CA. She lives with four dogs and a cat and is addicted to agility and animal behavior.
One of the most common mistakes that people make when feeding a home-cooked diet is the failure to add calcium. You must add calcium when you feed a diet that does not include bones.
Adult dogs need around 800 to 1,000 mg of calcium per pound of food fed. They also require the calcium to be supplied in a proper proportion to phosphorus.
The ideal calcium: phosphorus ratio in the canine diet is between 1:1 and 2:1. Meat contains a lot of phosphorus, so the more meat a diet contains, the more calcium will be required to reach the correct calcium:phosphorus ratio. Adding 800 to 1,000 mg of calcium will provide the correct calcium:phosphorus ratio even for a high-meat diet, unless you use a calcium supplement that also contains phosphorus. In that case, moderately higher amounts of calcium may be needed to balance out the additional phosphorus contained in the supplement.
Ground eggshell can be used as a calcium supplement. Rinse eggshells and dry them on a counter overnight, or in the oven, then grind them in a clean coffee grinder. One large eggshell provides one teaspoon of ground eggshell, which contains 2,000 mg of calcium, so add ½ teaspoon ground eggshell per pound of food fed. Don’t use eggshells that haven’t been ground to powder, as they may not be absorbed as well.
For more information on Home-Prepared Diets for Dogs, purchase any of Whole Dog Journal’s ebooks on the subject:
It’s always interesting to call pet food companies to ask for information about their products. Some have answering machines and ask you to leave a message; some of these companies return those calls, but others don’t. Of course, it’s most rewarding for us consumers when a person answers the phone. But even then, there is a lot of variation in what can happen next.
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Pet food makers are required by law to share only a small amount of information about their products – the ingredients in the food, listed in order of weight; and the minimum percentage of protein and fat, and the maximum percentage of moisture and fiber that their foods contain. But what about those of us who want more?
I love it when pet food makers have every bit of information about their products’ nutrients and ingredients listed on their websites. Finding the information I need on a company’s website makes me feel really good about that company. I expect them to have the information, and appreciate it when they are professional enough to keep it public and current. I recently needed to learn the ash content of a number of foods (why? see page 10). On other days, I’ve wanted to determine the number of calories in a certain food, or the ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acids, or some other minutiae.
I can’t tell you what a bad feeling I get when I contact a food manufacturer and am told that someone will have to get back to me with that information. This happened to me several times when I was trying to compare the complete amino acid profile of various foods. You’d think that information about the food’s protein quality would be important enough to a pet food maker that current laboratory test results would be laying around everywhere. But some companies took a week or more to get back to me with that information.
But I’m not sure which is worse: a company that can’t find the information about its products, or one that won’t tell consumers certain bits of information about its products.
Take ash, for example, and take, say, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc. I wanted to include a Prescription Diet weight-loss formula among the foods we examined for author Lisa Rodier’s excellent article on carbohydrates in this issue (see page 6). To compare the carbohydrate content using the same method we applied to all the other foods we examined, we needed the ash content of the food. It’s not listed on the company website. Lisa and I both tried to get this information out of the customer service representatives who answer the phones at the corporate giant – no dice. They don’t release that information, we were told. (We did finally find a workaround method to determine the ash for our purposes.)
But wait, there’s more. On its websites, Hill’s expresses all of the nutrient values for its foods as “dry matter” (rather than “as fed”). To make sure we applied the same methodology for the Hill’s food as the others, we needed to learn the moisture content of the food. It’s usually 10 percent for kibble, but there can be variations.
Again, no luck. Reps told us that they didn’t have the exact figure for each food, because Hill’s prefers to use dry matter figures; they are more accurate. It’s true; dry matter values are much more accurate than the rough calculations we were making. But . . . really? You won’t tell us the moisture content – the one that’s on the product label? One rep conceded that it was probably safe to use 10 percent as an average.
On the other hand, the Hill’s websites offer much more detail about the carbs in its foods than most of the other companies, including breakdowns for soluble and insoluble fiber. Why dig in its heels at ash, or moisture, for crying out loud? I just don’t get it.
If we’re fortunate enough to have them live to old age, at some point, most of our canine companions begin to lose their hearing and may eventually be, for all intents and purposes, deaf. It’s painful to watch a beloved dog become less and less responsive to his environment because he’s unaware of what’s going on around him, and even more so when it limits your ability to communicate with him. The thought of a hearing-impaired dog wandering off and not being able to hear your calls is frightening. Here are five things you can do if your dog’s hearing isn’t what it used to be:
1) Purchase a disaster whistle and condition it as a recall cue, by pairing its sound with high-value treats. The Storm Whistle, reported to be twice as loud as any other mouth-blown whistle in the world, is available in stores, catalogues, and from stormwhistles.com (314-436-3332). We used a Storm Whistle as our recall signal when our aging Kelpie, Katie, lost her hearing; it worked like a dream. Instead of having to walk the fenced backyard looking for her, we could just blow the whistle, and she’d come trundling out from behind the garage. Blow the whistle, and give your dog a high-value treat until your dog gets the whistle-equals-food association. Then you should be good to go. By the way, you might want to first try the whistle outside, and cover your ears or use earplugs. It’s really loud.
2) Use hand signals. Every time our dogs reach the old-age-can’t-hear stage I appreciate having taught them basic hand signals as well as verbal cues. Since dogs communicate primarily through body language, hand signals are easy to teach, especially if you do it when your dog can still hear well. (See “What’s Your Sign?” in the February 2009 issue of WDJ.) As your dog ages, it’s a great opportunity to expand your visual cue vocabulary. Some owners use American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with their hearing-impaired dogs.
3) Run interference at home. This is all about management. If you have a multi-dog household, one or more of your other dogs make take offense when your geriatric pal doesn’t respond quickly enough to their signals – because he doesn’t hear them, and therefore doesn’t look and notice their body language. Manage your household to prevent encounters that cause tension due to his lack of hearing and subsequent lack of response. This often includes keeping potential problem dogs separated when you are not home. (See “Peace in the Pack,” July 2002.)
4) Run interference in the real world. There are many situations outside your home where your increasingly hearing-impaired dog may run into trouble. If you’ve been casual about letting her be off-leash near traffic, tighten up the reins. She may no longer be able to hear oncoming cars, and a misstep could be deadly. Same thing if you hike on bike paths and sidewalks; you may not be aware of the extent to which she has relied on her hearing to move out of the way of approaching bikes, skateboards, and joggers. She may also need help around other non-family dogs, since she can’t hear them coming either. You could try scheduling supervised play dates with a small circle of appropriate canine friends instead of trips to the dog park, where you have little to no control over her dog encounters.
5) Make reasonable accommodations and give her the benefit of the doubt. Keep in mind that she’s not ignoring you; she can’t hear you! It’s easy to get cross when your dog doesn’t respond to your cues. Condition her to an unexpected touch from behind (touch makes chicken happen!) so you can let her know you’re there and need her to move – or go around her. And if you feel yourself becoming annoyed with your dog, take a deep breath and remember that she probably didn’t hear you. Heck, if it’s age-related hearing loss she could be losing her vision too, so she may not even see as well as you think. Don’t be annoyed if she doesn’t move out of your path as quickly as she once did, or she fails to come flying to your call. She’s doing the best she can; be patient with her.
Pat Miller, CPDT-KA, CDBC, is WDJ’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Pat is also author of several books on positive training. See page 24 for more information.
I’ve had a number of older owners book lessons with me lately—more than half a dozen individuals and couples in their 70s and even 80s, all wanting some training help with their new dogs or puppies.
