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Dock Diving: A Dog Jumping Competition

By
Terry Long
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[Updated February 6, 2019]

What is this sport? Dock jumping, or dock diving, requires a dog to run with speed to the end of a dock and jump into a pool constructed specifically for the sport. Dogs earn titles based on the distance they cover once they leave the dock.

Prior training required? Sit-stay, love of water, and an obsession about a toy.

Physical demands? On the dog: High. On the handler: Mild.

Best-suited structure? Physically fit dogs of any size.

Best-suited temperament? Confident, high energy.

Cost? High (if you compete regularly).

Training complexity? Low.

Mental stimulation? High.

Physical stimulation? High.

Recreational opportunities? Low.

Competition opportunities and venues? Many in some states, very few or none in others.

Barking dogs, speakers announcing the dog on the dock and who’s on deck, handlers pleading with their dogs to Stay, stay, stay, okay, go get it! SPLASH! The audience cheers, oohs, aaahs, and claps wildly in support of a sport that brings a smile to the face of anyone watching or listening.

Dock Diving Competitions for Dogs

There are a few different types of dock jumping competitions, with new ones being invented all the time. In most events, some aspect of a dog’s leap off a dock into the water is measured, with the highest or longest jump winning the class.

Dock Jumping for Dogs

Photo by howie george

Long jumps and high jumps both start with dog and handler climbing a short stairway to reach the top of a dock measuring about 8 feet by 40 feet (there is some variation to dock sizes). The handler brings a toy, which has been selected based on A) the dog’s obsession with it, and B) the ease and predictability with which it can be thrown beyond the edge of the dock into the pool.

For standard dock jumping (which measures forward distance), the handler leaves the dog at the far end of the dock and walks to the end closest to the pool. She then releases the dog and throws the toy into the pool as far as she can, in order to motivate the dog to leap far into the pool to reach the toy. The current record is 28 feet, 10 inches.

The other common type of dock jumping focuses on the dog’s vertical distance. Depending upon the organization putting on the event, this game might be called Extreme Vertical, Super Vertical, or Ultimate Vertical. In this event, an apparatus that suspends the toy is raised over the pool, and the dog leaps vertically to grab the toy before falling into the water with his prize. The current record is 7 feet, 11 inches.

Organizations continue to add classes in the never-ending search for a variation on the theme of jumping into a pool.

The History of Dock Diving

The sport of dock diving or dock jumping got its start in England in the 1970s. In 1997, the United States saw the sport for the first time at the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge. The sport gained in popularity when ESPN televised it as part of their newly created Great Outdoor Games program. Three companies began offering the sport to the general public between 2002 and 2005 primarily through other organizations such as pet expos, hunting and fishing conventions, and other dog sporting venues.

Each of these organizations now offers separate titling opportunities and public demonstrations throughout the country. Two of them, Splash Dogs and Ultimate Air Dogs, also offer titles available through the United Kennel Club.

Many people see dock jumping for the first time while watching TV or at one of those outdoor events. Some of them are hooked the moment they see it.

Linda Hettich of Arcadia, California, was one of those people. “I first saw ‘Big Air’ on ESPN’s Great Outdoor Games in the 2000. It was the craziest sport, dogs running down a dock and flying into a pool. I told my husband, Randy, ‘Hey, our dog can do that!’ It was the perfect sport for him! Kadin (pronounced kuh-DEEN) loved the water, loved swimming and running, and had a very strong toy drive. I looked on the Internet and, unfortunately, there was nothing even remotely close to Southern California.”

It wasn’t until 2005 that Linda and Kadin got their chance, but she and her husband Randy have been training and competing ever since.

Kadin: A Great Last Year

Kadin was Linda Hettich’s first dog to try the sport of dock jumping. His first try at age seven was in early 2005 where he took 1st place in Novice. Hettich believes dock jumping contributed to Kadin’s quality of life as he underwent treatment for cancer.

“Kadin competed in Dock-Dogs at Long Beach and Del Mar (California). Then he com-peted in Splash Dogs in Orange County, where he made the finals for the first time. Then, Kadin was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Randy and I decided to take him to as many events as he could physically handle. It was what he loved to do more than anything.

“He earned his DockDogs Senior Title with both Randy and me at Cynosports in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was there that he jumped his personal best, 18 feet, 3 inches, while undergoing chemotherapy. His last event was two months later in January 2006 at DockDogs at the Fred Hall Fishing Boat and Tackle Show in San Francisco. He miraculously made the finals, as the 12th seed, and he finished 12th. Somehow, with cancer rapidly spreading throughout his body, he jumped 14 feet. He had just turned eight. We had to say goodbye to him just a few weeks later.”

Tessa: A Dock Jumping Addict

by Linda Hettich

Five months after Kadin passed away, we rescued Tessa. She was two years old, a little Lab, barely 20 inches at the withers — although, when we first got her, she was a very overweight 70 pounds! After we got her slimmed down to 50 pounds, we discovered we had a jumper. We introduced her to a pool and she took to swimming and dock jumping immediately.

Tessa is one of those dogs who would run through a brick wall; her drive is incredible. She starts barking from the moment she sees the dock. And she goes nuts when she sees another dog on the dock. “What are they doing on my dock? GET OFF MY DOCK!”

Tessa barks while waiting in line, and she practically rips my arm off trying to run up the stairs. She runs to the front of the dock and barks when I call her back to the end of the dock, jumping over my head as she tries to grab the bumper that I hold high in the air. She harks and harks! I have to stare her down until she stops barking. She is on edge, barely staying in place, until I get to the front of the dock. I turn and see her body tense up, her eyes wide. When I yell, “GET IT!” she runs at top speed down the dock, a little black blur racing past me, before launching herself in the air and into the water.

Tessa is a natural on the dock, as most Labs are. In DockDogs, Tessa holds a Senior Title, a Masters Title, and is on her way to earning an Elite Title. She also holds a Turbo Title in DockDogs Speed Retrieve and recently won a First Place Cadet in Extreme Vertical, then jumped a personal best 6 feet, 4 inches to move into the Top Gun class. Her personal best is 24 feet, 11 inches.

It seemed unreal when we learned that Tessa had developed a squamous cell carcinoma in her mouth; two dogs with cancer in a row? In a way, it was Kadin — the dog we lost to cancer — who led us to the people who helped us get through this. Because of him, we met our veterinary oncologist, people who have gone through similar experiences and supported us, and people who are devoted to raising awareness and money for canine cancer research. Both of our beloved dogs are why we’re devoted to Chase Away K9 Cancer.

Our vets assured us that Tessa’s chances of beating this cancer were good. We immediately began her treatment with radiation every day, Monday through Friday, for four weeks. Tessa lost weight and developed a urinary tract infection, and on some days she was tired. The radiation caused the fur on her chin to fall out, and the skin blistered. (The fur has since grown back, white.) Two immune system-boosting supplements (Eicosa-Derm and ImmunoSupport) helped quite a bit.

Reaching the one-year mark from the time of her diagnosis was a big milestone. Tessa’s oncologist says she looks fantastic and believes she will be fine.

Which Dogs Make the Best Dock Divers?

What sort of dogs will excel at this sport? “Dogs who are crazy about water and crazy about retrieving,” answers Splash Dogs’ Tony Reed. In addition to the usual complement of retrievers, he has seen everything from Pit Bulls to Chinese Cresteds to Dobermans.

This sport attracts a variety of breeds, but understandably is predominated by Labradors. The DockDogs’ website states that 56 percent are Labs. Golden Retrievers constitute 6 percent of the participants, 4 percent are Chesapeake Bay Retrievers; that means that 66 percent are sporting breeds. This makes sense, given that those breeds should love both water and retrieving.

Hettich’s Kadin exemplified this profile. “Kadin was seven years old when he started. He was a German Shepherd/yellow Lab-mix of about 60 pounds. His name means ‘friend’ or ‘companion’ in Arabic. He was very intelligent and highly trainable. He was also a fast runner, a great swimmer, and an incredible jumper. We’d play Frisbee with him and he could catch it in the air, making these incredibly acrobatic leaps. People would always stop to watch him at the dog park.’

Dock jumping requires quick bursts of speed, leaping into the air, and landing in water. Dogs who are physically fit will have fewer injuries than those who are couch potatoes, but as with many of the physically strenuous dog sports, there is always some risk of injury.

Good Handler Attributes

First, you have to have a high tolerance for wet dogs, dogs who smell like wet dogs, and getting wet-dog residue and spit on yourself. But, if seeing your dog play in the water has always put a big smile on your face, this sport will make you absolutely deliriously happy. All you need to do is learn how to throw that toy with reasonable precision. Or know someone who can.

Hettich remembers, “Kadin’s first jump [at a DockDogs event] was 9 feet, 1 inch. The next day, I was showing my husband Randy how to jump Kadin off the dock, but I threw the Floppy Disc clear out of the pool. Kadin immediately jumped in the water, started swimming, and then tried to jump out of the pool where the Floppy Disc had landed. That was the end of my handling career. Randy took over, and by the time the weekend was over, Kadin had jumped over 12 feet.’

Men and women participate in this sport in nearly equal numbers. DockDogs’ site states that 54 percent are men, 46 percent are women, and 9 percent are between the ages of 7-14. Both DockDogs and Splash Dogs have junior handler programs so the entire family can participate.

Equipment and Supplies for Training Your Dog to Dock Dive

There are not too many things required for dock jumping, but each is important.

The Toy

Ah, the almighty toy. Your dog must be insane about a toy, preferably one that can be thrown with some precision into the pool. Favorites in the sport include all the standard toys for retrievers, including bumpers, balls, and Frisbees.

Hettich reports, “I’ve seen the girl rubber chicken toy in a bikini, the boy rubber chicken in board shorts, and a short wooden stick like a 2×4. The retrieve object must be floatable, not edible, and not alive, or not formerly alive. There is a DockDogs legend that someone once asked if he could throw a raccoon in, and was told that no live animals were allowed. So he said, ‘Well, what if it’s in a cage?’ Uh, no.

A Pool or Lake

If you live near bodies of water, you have it made; otherwise, you’ll need a pool or a friend who has one and who doesn’t mind dog hair in their filters.

Miscellaneous Supplies

Towels, water bowl, and treats. Hettich remembers her first dock jumping event and what she forgot to bring. “Being unfamiliar with DockDogs and dog sports in general, all I brought that day was my dog, a Floppy Disc, a tennis ball, and a leash. I had no water, no water bowl, no towel, no crate, no chair, no food, and to make matters worse, I was wearing long pants. I came home in soaking-wet jeans, with a soaking-wet dog and a first-place blue ribbon!’

Dock Diving Competition Expenses

The biggest expenses are travel and entry fees if you choose to compete over an entire weekend.

Travel and Lodging

Hettich gave this example: “Events are usually Friday through Sunday, so figure $100/night for lodging. Let’s say I have an event in Scottsdale, Arizona: $200 for hotel, $95 for gas for 760 miles round trip, $150 for food/water/beverages: $445 total. Multiply that times the four or five events per year within a 400-mile driving distance.’

Entry Fees

Each dock jumping “wave”(single dive or jump) costs $20. Specialty classes such as Extreme Vertical, Speed Retrieve, etc., may cost $25 to $30 to enter. Pre-registration for classes reduces their cost; onsite registration costs a little more. Hettich typically enters 10-11 classes over a typical weekend.

Dock Jump Training

If your dog doesn’t naturally love water, you’ll need to train him to like it. You can start by having your dog bob for hotdogs in a shallow pool, gradually increasing the depth of the water so that he learns to hold his breath and blow bubbles.

Then, transfer this to the steps of a pool or the edge of the lake. You can carry your dog into the water and feed him yummy treats, only gradually lowering him while you still cradle him, just letting him feel the buoyancy that will keep him afloat.

Once he’s comfortable with that, you can let him swim on his own a very short distance with you nearby to cradle him again. Depending on the dog, this can create a dog who gradually likes water more and more or simply tolerates it.

Your dog must like his toy enough to jump into water to get it. Some dogs are natural retrievers while others must be taught to chase, grab, and return the toy to you. If your dog really, really likes a particular toy, you can use it to increase his motivation to enter the water. However, if your dog doesn’t like toys or water, this is probably not the sport for your dog.

Running and jumping off an elevated surface to chase a toy can help, but be careful due to the added risk of landing the wrong way on a hard surface.

Once your dog has a solid retrieve, you’re ready to transfer the behavior to a pool or lake. In a pool, start by getting your dog on the steps of the pool and tossing the toy a short distance away, gradually throwing farther and farther. Next, try him at the edge of the pool and throw the toy a short distance. Wherever you start, make water fun, throw short distances, build confidence, and then build distance. By the time you have built this foundation, you can add height by building platforms from which your dog jumps into the water.

The biggest challenge for dock jumping addicts is finding a place to practice if they live in an urban area and do not have a pool. As a result, most competitors practice at the events themselves.

“Unfortunately, in Southern California there are no official training facilities and very few venues with docks that allow dogs in the water. We have to do our training during practice time at the events. Some competitors use their own pools or take the dogs to dog-friendly beaches.

“We recently established a SoCal DockDogs club, an affiliate of DockDogs Worldwide, and found a training facility at Lake Henshaw in San Diego County. We have had only one practice session there. We are currently trying to find any lake, stream, pond, river, or body of water where we could get permission to build a dock and train.’

Contact one of the organizations listed on page 9 to find other people in your area for support and practice ideas.

Levels of Competition

Each organization has its rules posted on its website. Each has slightly different classes or divisions and distances or heights to be attained in each class for a variety of colorful titles.

For example, Splash Dogs’ “Dock Jumping”is broken down as follows (and each is split further by size of the dog):

Splash: 0-9’11”
Junior: 10′ to 14′ 11″
Senior: 15′ to 19′ 11″
Pro: 20′ to 22’11”
Extreme: 23′ plus

How to Start Dock Jumping

Go online or call each of the organizations listed on page 9 to find a list of upcoming events. Depending upon where you live, there may be many, few, or none. This is a growing sport; each of the organizations has plans to expand geographically.

When you go to a dock jumping event for the first time, you’ll find the staff and volunteers to be very helpful to newcomers. At some events, they even have a practice pool in addition to the competition dock and pool.

Hettich, a journalist by profession, was delighted when she heard about an event being held near her home. She contacted Mark Stuart, who was putting on the DockDogs event, and asked for an interview. She also mentioned, “And by the way, I have this dog . . .”After the interview, Stuart invited her to bring her dog to the event.

She reports: “After fighting Friday afternoon traffic, Kadin and I got there around 2:45. By 3:30, Kadin was successfully jumping off the dock and into the water; by 4 o’clock, we were competing in our first ‘wave,’ and by 4:45, Mark was presenting us with a blue ribbon for finishing in first place in the Novice Division with a jump of 9 feet, 1 inch.

“By 5 o’clock, I placed a hysterical call to my husband Randy, telling him not only did Kadin jump off the dock, but we won! Randy was suffering from a really bad cold at the time and was probably deathly ill, but I told him we absolutely had to come back the next day because he had to try this. And Kadin? He had this crazed look in his eyes that I’d never seen before. He was hooked and so was I.’

Is Dock Jumping for You?

If your dog loves toys, loves water, and has an owner with car keys who will go to the ends of the country to keep that smile on his face, this sport is for you. You don’t need to compete; this is a sport that welcomes newcomers, whether you come out once a year or a dozen times. And bring the family; they won’t want to miss it!

As usual, have fun, train positively, and revel in the relationship with your dog, not the ribbons on the wall.

Terry Long, CPDT, is a writer, agility instructor, and behavior counselor in Long Beach, California. She is addicted to agility and animal behavior.

Probiotics and Dogs

By
Nancy Kerns
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Curly, a five-year-old Standard Poodle, eats the best food his human can afford. Raw chicken, rabbit, and venison are his favorites. Tina, his two-legged companion, switches the meats every few days, mixing the protein with some sweet potato, carrots, an occasional stalk of broccoli, and always a good fish oil supplement. Plus, to be sure that Curly is getting full nutritional benefit from every delicious bite, Tina always adds a sprinkling of a probiotic and digestive enzyme supplement as a final touch.

Probiotics for Dogs

Everything Curly eats is the best of the best: human-grade ingredients, no preservatives, no by-products. But somehow, despite all of the good lovin’ and great food, Curly is a bit thin, won’t put on weight, and his stool is sometimes dry – making it hard for the poor guy to poop during his daily walks. Tina knows that something is amiss and she is worried. She was told that maybe the probiotics weren’t active, so she tried several different brands. But nothing has improved. So what gives; is it that the probiotics don’t work?

Adding supplemental Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, or other probiotic organisms to your dog’s diet is almost always a good idea. This will support the resident microflora that are always present in Curly’s gut, enhancing digestion and absorption of nutrients, supporting detoxification and elimination processes, and helping to boost his immune system.

The digestive system is the largest immune organ of the body; roughly 70 percent of the body’s immune cells, enterocytes, goblet cells, and other immune warriors reside in the mucosal linings of the intestinal tract.

Probiotics, like those that Tina adds to Curly’s food each day, work in concert with these immune warriors by producing special enzymes and other chemicals that support immune functions at many levels. Probiotics will also help keep populations of “bad guy” pathogens, like Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli, in check. But in Curly’s case probiotic supplements may not be enough. Curly’s digestive microflora need something more.

It may simply be that his digestive tract is host to a different assortment of beneficial bacteria than those included in the supplements Tina is feeding.

One of the fundamental rules of holistic pet care is to always remember that no two animals are alike. Curly may be a Standard Poodle that looks and behaves like others like him, but his inner nature is different from any other dog.

This is true of his digestive flora, too. While Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium bifidum, and Lactobacillus bulgaricus represent some of the frequently encountered residents in the canine gut, not all dogs are host to the same mix. In fact, studies have shown that each individual dog hosts its own, custom mix of these and several other digestive bacteria – and the actual counts of each strain can vary considerably from dog to dog. It is theorized that this is because microflora are constantly evolving and adapting to the nature of the beast they inhabit. Health issues, eating habits, influences such as antibiotic therapies – or even something that was eaten while at the dog park – can affect the way beneficial microbes behave and replicate, or help determine which ones take up residence in the gut. This makes it virtually impossible to create a perfect probiotic supplement, as none can totally serve the needs of every dog’s microflora.

If the probiotic you feed to your dog isn’t diverse enough to replace and support what is already living there, what other supplements can be added to a healthy diet to maintain healthy digestive flora?

Feed the Gut Flora

Curly may need a prebiotic supplement. In the simplest terms, prebiotics are food for resident microflora. They are defined as indigestible food ingredients that beneficially affect the host by selectively stimulating the growth of one or a limited number of bacterial species in the colon – specifically those which have the potential to improve host health, such as Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli.

Probiotics for Dogs

A scant, daily dose will provide the resident beneficial bacteria with the food they need to flourish. It will also feed the bacteria that are in the probiotic formula that Curly the poodle is already eating on his dinner, making the supplement more effective. Prebiotics are a class of carbohydrates known as oligosaccharides – soluble carbohydrates that are naturally found in many foods, including whole grains, onions, bananas, garlic, honey, leeks, and Jerusalem artichokes. In the world of herbs, burdock root, dandelion root, and chicory root are rich sources, too.

Oligosaccharides differ from other types carbohydrates (sugars) in that they are indigestible in the stomach and small intestine. Instead of being broken down by acids, enzymes, and other digestive chemicals in the upper GI tract, they remain intact until they reach the large intestine, where they are finally broken down and fermented by resident microflora. The result is stimulation of the growth and/or activity of bifidobacteria and other beneficial bacteria that dogs need to properly digest their food and metabolize waste.

Remarkably, prebiotics are selective about what is actually fed – good bacteria flourish, while growth of “bad” pathogenic bacteria like Salmonella, Peptidococci, and Clostridia is inhibited. Studies have shown that when bifidobacteria (good guy) counts increase, acid levels in the gut also increase, making the environment less hospitable to harmful strains of yeast (Candida, etc.) and pathogenic bacteria. In the colon, prebiotics may also raise levels of short chain fatty acids (SCFA), which can help protect against carcinogenesis, inflammatory bowel disease, and even some forms of chronic allergy.

Fructooligosaccharides (FOS)

Many pet food and supplement manufacturers are now adding prebiotic fructooligosaccharides (FOS) to their formulas to improve the digestibility of food ingredients. Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are plant sugars that occur in a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and cereals. They are produced commercially by partial hydrolysis of chicory inulin (an oligosaccharide found in chicory root), or from sucrose (sugar) using an enzymatic process.

In addition to improving the digestibility of various food components, FOS may also improve absorption of dietary calcium, iron, and other important minerals. Although many foods contain appreciable amounts of oligosaccharides, questions remain about how much is really available to your dog from food sources. Dogs don’t digest grains, fruits, and vegetables as effectively as humans or herbivores and therefore may not find full benefit from the oligosaccharides contained in the foods they eat.

On the same note, diets comprised primarily of meat will be pretty much void of prebiotic oligosaccharides. This is where FOS offers a big advantage; it is carried directly to your dog’s large intestine, where it is needed. It is very sweet – much like powdered sugar – making it an easy addition to your dog’s food. Only a small pinch (50-100 mg) is needed for the job of feeding the “good guys” in your dog’s gut.

Herbal Prebiotics for Dogs

I prefer feeding prebiotics in the form of an herbal extract formula. Chicory root, burdock root, and dandelion root are my favorites. All contain inulin, an oligosaccharide compound that is highly soluble and easily extracted into hot water. A properly made liquid tincture of any of these herbs will contain appreciable amounts of inulin in a form your dog can fully utilize.

Herbs offer a distinct advantage over isolated sources of FOS in that they provide much more than just prebiotic support. Chicory, burdock, and dandelion are all known by herbalists for their antioxidant properties and their abilities to strengthen various functions of the liver and gall bladder. This in turn helps to improve digestion and aid in removal of systemic waste.

My personal formulation, Prebiotic Plus from Animals’ Apawthecary, contains extracts of inulin-rich chicory root, along with fennel seed (to prevent flatulence). It also includes marshmallow root (Althea officinalis), an herb that contains impressive amounts of mucilage polysaccharides that are known to soothe and lubricate digestive mucosa while stimulating immune functions in the gut.

Probiotics for Dogs

Probiotic Safety

Inulin and fructooligosaccharides (FOS) have been used in animal feeds and supplements for many years. They are considered safe, but overfeeding may cause flatulence and bloating – the effects of intestinal fermentation. This can usually be prevented by feeding only small amounts (e.g., one-half the recommended dose) for a few weeks until your dog’s digestive tract adjusts.

Inulin has a minimal impact on blood sugar and does not raise triglycerides, making it suitable for diabetics and potentially helpful in managing blood sugar-related illnesses.

Greg Tilford is well-known in the field of veterinary herbal medicine. He is an international lecturer and author of four books, including Herbs for Pets, recently released in a second edition. He is president and formulating herbalist for Animal Essentials, a company that produces natural supplements for animals.

Demand Behaviors in Dogs

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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[Updated December 12, 2018]

DEMANDING DOGS: OVERVIEW

  • Identify your dog’s demand behaviors and make deliberate decisions about which ones to keep and which to modify.
  • Embark on a behavior modification program to teach an incompatible behavior and extinguish the unwanted ones.
  • Educate everyone who comes in contact with your dog so they don’t inadvertently reinforce demand behaviors you’re working to extinguish.

Missy sidles up to me as I type and nudges her nose under my arm, lifting my hand off the keyboard. “I want you to pet me, now!” she says. As much as I’m reluctant to reinforce demand behaviors, her rakish one-blue-eyed, one-brown-eyed expression is irresistible. My hand drops onto the soft fur of her head, and I scratch briefly behind her ear before asking her to go lie down. She obliges, curling up under my desk.

I laugh as Scooter, our recently rescued Pomeranian, stands on his hind legs in front of the sofa and waves his front paws at me. “I want up, now!” he says. Because he’s cute, and because I want to reinforce his affiliative social behavior, I reach down and scoop up his furry little body and deposit him next to me.

Demand Behaviors

These are “demand behaviors,” often frowned upon in the dog training world. Yet, from another perspective, they are simply my dogs’ way of communicating their desires to me. There’s a grey area between acceptable communication and unacceptable demand behavior; what’s perfectly appropriate to one dog-person may be annoyingly inappropriate to the next. Who gets to decide what’s acceptable for your dog? You do.

A dog’s mission in life is to make his world work for him to get good stuff. His goal is to get as much good stuff as possible, perhaps including a safe, predictable environment, lots of attention from his human, opportunities to herd sheep or chase rabbits, plenty of bone-chewing time, hikes in the woods, running after flying discs, sailing over flyball hurdles, or a soft bed upon which to lay his body.

Recognizing that those with opposable thumbs are more able than he to open doors, throw tennis balls, and operate can openers, a dog spends a good part of his time figuring out how to manipulate his humans into making good stuff happen. Although he’s never studied B.F. Skinner and the science of behavior, he knows exactly how operant conditioning works. He repeats behaviors that make good stuff happen or those that make bad stuff go away, and controls himself from repeating behaviors that make bad stuff happen or ones that make good stuff go away.

Demand behaviors occur because they make good stuff happen. Initially, your dog may offer a new behavior to see if it works. A dog with a strong reinforcement history for a behavior such as sitting may offer a sit to get your attention. If you, like a lot of humans, are too absorbed in your computer, your book, or your TV program to reinforce your dog for sitting, he may fidget a little, stand up and sit again, or inch a little closer to you.

Demand Behaviors

If he’s just looking for a scratch behind the ear, he may give up and lie down on his bed. But if his need is urgent – say he has to go out to pee – he may woof at you or nudge your arm to get your attention. When he does, you look at him and say, “Oh hi, Buddy, you have to go out?” He dances happily, you get up to let him out, and his brain registers this important note-to-self: woofing (or nudging) gets reinforced. The new behavior strategy gets added to his repertoire – and he’ll happily generalize it when he realizes it works to get other things, like that scratch behind the ear. That’s all fine and good if you’re okay with your dog communicating with you by woofing or nudging. But if you find those to be undesirable behaviors, it’s time to take note and take action.

All Behaviors Are Trained

Every moment you are with your dog, one of you is training the other. Behaviors are constantly being reinforced – or not – and you and your dog are constantly making choices – deliberate, or not – about how to behave, based on which behaviors get reinforced. In general, your relationship with your dog is more successful if you are the trainer more often than you are the trainee – that is, if you’re manipulating your dog’s behavior more often than he’s manipulating yours.

When I realized this vitally important concept, I started paying a lot more attention to what my dogs are doing all the time, and started being more deliberate about reinforcing behaviors that I like, and not reinforcing those I don’t.

While I really don’t mind Missy’s nose-nudge, when she comes and sits by my chair, I do try to notice and pet her before the nudge happens. She also knows that my “That’s all!” cue means petting is done; it’s time to leave me alone. And if the nudge escalates to “paws scratching on my leg” I tell her “Oops!” and turn away.

The “Oops” is a “no reward” marker (NRM). Just as the clicker tells my dog which of her behaviors earned her a reward, the NRM tells her the behavior she just did – pawing at my leg – made my attention go away.

You can avoid having to deal with demand behaviors if you remember an important concept from puppyhood on. The key is to teach your pup from the outset that deference behaviors such as “sit” or “down” will work to get attention, rather than pushy behaviors such as pawing or barking.

If you never reinforce a communication behavior that you don’t want, and you make sure it never gets reinforced by anyone else, or the environment, your dog will have no reason to keep the behavior in his repertoire. The more often a pushy behavior does get reinforced, the more likely your dog will decide it’s a successful behavior strategy, and the more quickly and persistently he’ll offer it the next time.

What is a Demand Behavior?

Before we continue, let’s define demand behavior. Also called “attention-seeking behavior,” Dr. Karen Overall in her excellent book, Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Small Animals (1997), says “Dogs that exhibit attention-seeking behaviors can bark, whine, or ‘talk’ to the client to get attention, or they can use physical behaviors like rooting, pawing, pushing, leaning, jumping, scratching, or mouthing.” According to Overall, “The hallmark of attention-seeking behavior is that it . . . elicits some attentive response.”

Demand Behaviors

The problem with demand behaviors is that they are usually intermittently reinforced (sometimes the behavior gets reinforced, and sometimes it doesn’t), which makes them very durable, or “resistant to extinction.”

This means that if and when you do decide to try to make the behavior go away, it’s difficult to succeed. With intermittent reinforcement, your dog learns to play the slot machine – “Maybe it’ll pay off this time!” – and keeps on trying, hopeful that the next try will win the jackpot. If, on the other hand, a behavior is on a “continuous schedule of reinforcement,” the dog expects to get reinforced every time, and is likely to give up sooner after missing a few reinforcers when he realizes the game is no longer on.

Incompatible Behavior

One way to modify demand behavior is to find an incompatible behavior – one your dog can’t do at the same time as the unwanted one – and reinforce that. Lucy, our Cardigan Corgi, has an annoying habit of demanding her meal – in a very shrill voice – when two of our other dogs get fed first (necessary for pack management purposes). She’s a very vocal dog anyway, but her mealtime barking is particularly annoying.

While you wouldn’t think that “sit” was incompatible with barking, I recently discovered that to Lucy, it is. She doesn’t bark when she’s sitting, only when she’s dancing around, demanding her dinner. So now I ask Lucy to sit-and-wait while I place bowls down for the first two dogs – and give her a treat when I return to her. The dinner-demand barking has stopped, and a reasonable level of calm has returned to mealtime in the Miller household.

If your dog nudges for attention, like Missy, an incompatible behavior might be lying at your feet to ask for attention, or touching her nose to a designated target – perhaps a yogurt lid stuck to the wall near her normal sitting spots. “Sit” is an incompatible behavior commonly taught to dogs who demand attention by jumping up.

Extinguishing Demand Behaviors

The other way to modify demand behavior is to remove all reinforcement for a previously reinforced but now unwanted behavior; say “Oops!” and turn away. This is “negative punishment”; the dog’s behavior makes the good thing go away, and when carried out to its conclusion (the behavior goes away entirely), it’s called “extinction.”

If the dog jumps up, say “Oops!” and turn away. If he persists, walk away, perhaps even through a door, and close the door behind you. Or, practice with him on a tether so he can’t follow you. The behavior of jumping up results in the removal of all reinforcement. If he demand-barks for treats, say “Oops!” and turn away. If he paws at you to demand his walk, say “Oops!”, put the leash down, and sit until he calms, then pick up the leash again.

Demand Behaviors

A caveat about extinction is that when you use “removal of reinforcement” to extinguish behavior you may witness an extinction burst, in which the dog’s behavior becomes worse before it gets better. This is a frustrated canine’s equivalent of a temper tantrum because a behavior that used to work isn’t working any longer. It often happens shortly before he gives up.

As he nudges or paws harder, or barks louder, he’s saying, “Hey! Hey! I want it! I want it now! This used to work, darn it! Hey! Hey! Give it to me!” It’s the equivalent of kicking the soda machine when you’ve put your money in and it won’t give you your drink – before you finally decide to walk away without the soda.

Here’s the big problem with the extinction burst. Many people think the extinction process isn’t working when they see their dog doing the behavior louder or harder, and give in to the dog’s demands. Don’t! If you reinforce the more intense presentation of the behavior, your dog will offer the more intense version more quickly next time. Grit your teeth, turn your back, walk away, and wait for it to stop. Beware the extinction burst!

Positive Reinforcement

You’ll see the best results with your demand-behavior modification efforts if you do both: reinforcing an incompatible behavior and extinction. You’ll get the most bang for your treat if you:

1. Pre-empt the unwanted behavior by asking for and reinforcing an incompatible behavior. With enough repetitions, the incompatible behavior will become the dog’s offered “default” behavior. When it does, be sure to reinforce it, gradually putting the new behavior on an intermittent schedule of reinforcement so it becomes very resistant to extinction. Otherwise the dog may quickly revert to his original demand behavior, especially if the behavior has a long history of reinforcement.

2. Remove reinforcement if the unwanted behavior does occur. If you miss the opportunity to pre-empt the behavior, or your efforts to forestall the behavior didn’t work, your second line of defense is the “Oops!” Remove your attention until the behavior stops and you can reinforce an alternative or incompatible behavior.

Demand Behaviors

3. Reinforce an incompatible behavior. Your dog will be the least frustrated (and you’ll be the most successful) with your extinction program if you also remember to positively reinforce incompatible behaviors. Negative punishment works best when it’s followed by positive reinforce for a desirable behavior.

If Missy starts pawing at my leg, I say “Oops!” and turn away. When the pawing stops I turn back and give her the attention she seeks. I use a “variable schedule of reinforcement” – sometimes waiting longer after the pawing, sometimes only a second or two. I gradually increase the average wait time until she realizes that it’s waiting quietly with her paws on the floor that gets reinforced, not the pawing.

This is an important step, required to avoid creating a “behavior chain” of paw, turn away, get petted. If there’s only a brief pause between the pawing and the petting each time, she’ll still think that pawing is earning the reward of attention and petting.

Remember that consistency is vitally important. If a well-used demand behavior is reinforced even only rarely, it will likely persist. If Dad sneaks a bit of steak to the family dog under the table once a month, the dog will continue to beg for food at the table. If, instead, Dad tosses a bit of food occasionally to the family dog who is lying on his bed on the other side of the dining room, the dog will learn to “beg” by lying politely on his bed (a deference behavior) on the far side of the room. This is much more acceptable to most people than begging at the table.

Remember, you get to choose which behaviors you want to reinforce. If you like a particular demand behavior, be my guest – reinforce to your heart’s content. So yes, I consistently reinforce Scooter’s demand-waving, and the behavior will persist. I intermittently reinforce Missy’s nose-nudging, and it, too, will persist – although in my defense I only reinforce mild nose-nudging. But Lucy’s demand barking? That one we’re very consistently working to modify. Sorry, Lucy!

The “No Reward Marker”

There is some difference of opinion in the positive training world about the appropriate use of the “No Reward Marker” (NRM). Some trainers suggest that simply withholding reinforcement, without a marker, is sufficient consequence to reduce a behavior, and that the use of a “wrong” marker is too aversive. This can be true if the marker is offered in an aversive tone, or if the dog is sensitive to any suggestion that he did the wrong thing.

For example, some trainers use an “eh-eh, no” or “wrong,” as their NRM. All of these can be spoken softly, but they are often uttered in a harsher tone, with a subliminal meaning of “bad dog!” It may be unintentional, but people tend to use a harsher tone when they are even slightly upset.

I do use an NRM for my dogs, to communicate to them exactly which behavior earned the withdrawal of reinforcement. I believe that, like the clicker, it helps the dog identify the behavior in question. I like to use “Oops!” as my NRM; it’s almost impossible to say it in a harsh tone unless you try really hard, and because it’s a humorous sound it tends to lighten the emotion even if the human is upset.

Marine mammal trainers don’t, as a rule, use an NRM. I am told that whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals tend to shut down very quickly if told they are “wrong,” and
that lack of reinforcement is adequate to send them the “try again” message. The same is true with some dogs — and your choice to use an NRM, or not, is wisely based on your own philosophical position on the question as well as your own dog’s response to some kind of “Oops!” marker.

While we call it a “No Reward Marker,” any indication that the dog made a wrong choice is, in fact, a form of negative punishment: the dog’s behavior made a good thing – the
opportunity to earn a reward – go away. So, while it might be more accurately called a “Punishment Marker,” I recently saw it described by noted positive trainer Gail Fischer as a
“Loss of Opportunity Marker,” or LOM. I like that, and think I’ll use it. Thanks, Gail!

Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, is WDJ’s Training Editor. Miller lives in Hagerstown, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Pat is also author of many books on positive dog training.

Dog Fostering Programs

By
Nancy Kerns
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1

DOG FOSTERING OVERVIEW

What you can do…

– Foster a needy dog or puppy if you can! But be realistic about what you are and are not able to take on.

– Make sure you thoroughly understand and agree to the shelter or rescue group’s requirements. If you don’t, you shouldn’t take one of their dogs.

– Be considerate of your own family members. It’s not fair to subject your senior dog to a rowdy pup, or your children to an aggressive dog.

Had some prescient person warned me that I would spend nearly $1,000 on vet bills; miss out on a lot of sleep; experience many worried and tearful moments (and a certain amount of marital strife); and lose untold hours on observing, training, shopping for, and cleaning up after that puppy I was considering taking home as a foster; would I still have done it?

Ah well, it’s a moot point. I did bring a puppy home from my local shelter, with the intention of spending a week or so socializing him to the world of humans (which he seemed to have little experience with), and then sending him back to the shelter to find a terrific forever home. And while I never sent him back to the shelter, I did find him a really wonderful forever home, so the story ends happily. I’m glad I did what I did, and I would love to foster another dog or puppy again someday. Knowing that I made a life-or-death difference for that one darling puppy still fills me with a warm feeling of satisfaction.

Dog Fostering Programs

But, to be perfectly honest, I’d want to be much better prepared before I fostered again. It was an experience I could barely afford – financially, emotionally, and in terms of the time I could spent on the pup. I made it work, but the experience took its toll. I’d want to be far more prepared next time, so as to maximize the joys and minimize the perils of the undertaking.

My loss, your gain? Allow me to give you some helpful tips, in case you are thinking about providing a rehabilitative home, albeit a temporary one, for a needy dog or puppy. I can now share my own experiences, as well as those of a number of other foster providers (see below). If you are properly prepared for some of the worst things that can occur while fostering, you can prevent many of them, or at least be ready to deal with them in a graceful way. And that will make the joy of a successful fostering experience that much richer.

The Goals of Fostering

The idea behind fostering is simple: to provide a temporary home for a dog in need of a lifelong, loving, responsible home. But there is a lot to it, if you do it right. The goal is to help the dog become as healthy as possible — physically, behaviorally, and emotionally – so he’ll be a star in his new home, and (one hopes) never require rehoming again. Here is a partial list of the things that a foster provider should be trying to accomplish in order to help the dog find a solid position in an appropriate “forever” home:

Physical health. Dogs with any sort of health problem will need special help and time to recover; individuals with digestive or skin problems, in particular, are hard to find homes for. A foster provider who can spend the time needed to diagnose and successfully treat a chronic problem like food or environmental allergies is worth her weight in gold.

Socialization. The dog should gain positive experiences with a wide range of humans, including babies, kids, seniors, and people of different races. He should also be exposed to other dogs and puppies. Poor responses (fear, aggression) should be noted and improved through counter-conditioning and desensitization.

Management and supervision. The foster dog should have adequate supervision so as to prevent him from being allowed to practice undesirable behaviors that could damage his potential for placement.

House-training. The foster provider should be ready to spend whatever amount of time that it takes to provide elementary or remedial house-training for the dog; this may be a matter of days, weeks, or months, but it’s critically important. Dogs who are not reliably house-trained are very frequently returned by inexperienced owners.

Ability to be left alone. In today’s society, most dogs have to spend a certain amount of time home alone, whether it’s just for a few hours or a long work day (complete with a long commute time). Ideally, dogs and puppies should be given the opportunity to learn how to entertain and comfort themselves during alone-time in short but progressively longer increments. Food-stuffed Kongs are great tools for this purpose.

Basic training. lf a dog or puppy learns to perform just one behavior on cue – sit! – he’ll be miles ahead of most dogs that prospective adopters see in shelters. And if he knows few behaviors – such as sit, down, and come – he’ll be a genius in many adopters’ eyes. If he knows a cute trick, too, such as “sit pretty” (sitting on back end, waving front paws), “high-five,” or bowing, he’ll find a home in no time at all.

Behavior modification. In addition to counter-conditioning for fear and aggression, the foster parent is ideally willing and able to work to modify other typically unwanted behaviors such as jumping up, mouthing, excessive barking, counter-surfing, and chewing.

Who Pays for Foster Care?

Before you bring a dog or puppy home with you, it’s a good idea to find out who will end up footing the bill for his food and care. Otherwise (if you’re like me), you could end up getting so attached to and involved with your ward that you find yourself spending more than you can really afford on his rehabilitation – which might make you reluctant or unable to foster again any time soon.

Some rescue organizations pay for all the costs associated with their foster animals; their foster volunteers invest only time and love in the animals’ rehabilitation. Other groups rely heavily on their volunteers to subsidize rescue efforts. It’s smart to know before you bring a needy animal home what amount of financial support is available for your fostering efforts.

I’ve fostered twice before. Both times, I agreed to take a needy pup from a nonprofit rescue organization in the San Francisco Bay Area. This particular group rescues animals from local shelters, places them with foster providers, invests in the animals’ medical needs, and then finds them qualified homes. The organization provides food and (if needed) basic dog-care items such as collars and crates. It also manages oversight of the animals’ veterinary care, with paid staffers calling to remind foster providers to make appointments for whatever veterinary care the animal needed. It’s a model of what can be done in animal rescue.

Veterinary visits (for spay/neuter surgery, vaccinations, deworming, and the like) are provided by clinics that work closely with the rescue group; the group maintains accounts with the clinics. Had one of the foster pups become ill, I would have been able to bring the puppy to that clinic for treatment.

The staff members coordinate and track the foster animals, schedule and staff weekly adoption events in the community, manage a website with information about each available animal, and process applications for potential adopters. The staffers also do a tremendous amount of fundraising in order to pay for these very extensive efforts on behalf of a few hundred animals per year.

Many breed and dog-sport clubs run their own rescue networks that operate in a similar, but less-organized way. They keep an ear to the ground for news of dogs in need and maintain a roster of volunteers who can help assess dogs, transport them (sometimes across long distances), and provide foster care. These efforts are sometimes subsidized (in whole or part) by the volunteers themselves, and sometimes supported by the club. Most clubs that rescue dogs undertake yearly fundraising or grant-writing projects that help pay for the care and feeding of their canine guests.

Established financial support structures are critical for groups that take on a significant number of rescue dogs and that depend on repeat volunteers. Few volunteers can afford to personally subsidize extensive veterinary care or the feeding of numerous dogs. Groups that depend too heavily on their volunteers to pay for their foster animals’ care usually don’t manage to keep their volunteers for very long.

Then there are shelters, which tend to run on notoriously tight budgets. Few shelters can afford to reimburse foster providers for any extraordinary care they seek out on behalf of their charges, although there are exceptions, particularly in large cities with large pools of donors.

Like many less-well-funded shelters, my local shelter sometimes makes a project out of a really special dog who has faced extensive challenges, such as severe abuse. But I doubt that they can afford to “go to the wall” for every sick puppy in their care. Had I been completely unable to afford the care I thought the puppy needed, I knew that my shelter would have taken him back – although I’m not certain they would have given him the extensive treatment he needed to recover. I could have asked about partial reimbursement for some of my foster puppy’s medical bills. However, since I frequently donate money to the shelter, I decided that the puppy’s vet bills, instead, would constitute my good canine deed for this quarter.

Helpful Guidance or Oppressive Rules?

A prospective foster provider should also find out whether the rescue group has strict guidelines for its foster parents – or whether it offers any guidance, training, and support at all.

Some groups assume that only experienced, knowledgeable dog owners will volunteer to foster; providers are on their own to decide how the dog will be housed and trained. If their temporary wards exhibit health or behavior problems that are beyond their level of experience, they will probably have to figure out how to deal with it by themselves.

Other groups provide new foster providers with an orientation or basic training session, or give their potential foster providers a notebook full of “recommended” practices or guidelines. This may or may not be backed up with phone or e-mail support from an experienced dog owner who serves as volunteer coordinator.

Then there are the organizations that have formalized the entire fostering process; some of these won’t put a dog into the care of anyone who won’t sign an agreement that compels providers to feed and train the dog a certain way.

I’ve heard of foster groups that require dogs to be fed only the food provided by the group; without fail, these foods have been provided by dog food companies that make what I consider to be low-quality foods. Perhaps even more offensive to me is the prohibition on feeding treats of any kind, even for training purposes. (Personally, I couldn’t care for a dog without using this very powerful tool for training and behavior modification.)

And while I think the ability to be calmly crated is an incredibly important life skill for a dog to possess, I’ve learned about rescue groups that require their foster providers to crate every dog, every night – and for periods during the day, too. I understand that they are trying to ensure that potential adopters will be reasonably assured of receiving a house-trained, crate-trained dog – one that is unlikely to be returned to the rescue group.

I’ve also heard of organizations that require every foster dog to wear a headcollar, whether or not the dog needs or can be comfortably accustomed to that gear. Again, I’m not sure I could agree to such inflexible policies.

Finding the Dog a Home

It’s also a good idea to find out what the rescue group or shelter does to find homes for its wards. Some groups take total responsibility for finding and screening potential adopters. Ideally, they run public adoption events; display promotional fliers at local vets, pet supply stores, and dog parks; and maintain an attractive and frequently updated website; and share their list of adoptable animals with Petfinder.org and other sites.

Even if the rescue group takes responsibility for finding an adopter for your foster dog, you will probably be expected to host “interviews” between the dog and prospective adopters, and to transport the dog to and from various adoption events.

This might sound like a lot of work for you, but groups that do less to promote their adoptable dogs may rely on you to do even more. Many rescue groups do a poor job of promotion and marketing of their adoptable animals, and some rely almost solely on their foster providers to find homes for their wards.

Ask the foster coordinator about the efforts that will be made to find a home for your ward. Make sure you understand what the group expects you to do to help find a lifelong, loving home for your canine foster, and that you can meet those expectations.

Extraordinary Support

Well-established rescue organizations generally have policies and support in place to address whatever sort of emergency might arise with a dog in foster care. In many other cases, though, providers may be left to their own judgment and resources to deal with the emergency.

Dog Fostering Programs

I’ve talked about vet bills for the foster dog, but what about your own dog? Are you prepared to pay the bill if your foster ward infects your pet, necessitating a trip to the vet (or hospitalization) for your dog? A friend told me recently about a vet bill she had to pay when a dog she was fostering for a rescue group attacked her dog, who needed stitches, drains, antibiotics, and extended care.

As my friend’s story illustrated, health problems are not the only emergency that can develop with a foster dog. Serious behavior problems can crop up without previous warning, resulting in a painful bite (or deadly attack) on your own dog, cat, kid, or self.

It may develop that a foster dog has serious behavior problems; many dogs seem to be well-behaved individuals when they are, in fact, so stressed by their changing environment that they are actually “shut down,” responding in a slow, deliberate manner. Sometimes when these dogs become comfortable in a home and begin to relax, they may begin to exhibit behaviors that are beyond the ability of the foster provider to address.

Ideally, a rescue organization or shelter will have ready access to a really experienced positive trainer or behavior professional who can offer further assessment, advice, and support. Be advised, however, that this sort of backup is rare; you may be on your own with serious behavior problems. Which brings me to the final thing to ask about before bringing your foster dog home . . .

Right of Return

Keep it in mind that any foster parent, no matter how experienced, can become overwhelmed by the extraordinary needs of a deeply troubled dog or puppy. Make sure that the rescue group or shelter can take back your foster dog if you find yourself in dire straits.

Remember, you have a responsibility to your own family to consider, too. Despite your best efforts to prevent it, your sick puppy may infect your own dog, and leave you nursing two dogs. (This happened to me, too; Otto “caught” my foster puppy’s “kennel cough.” As a healthy adult dog, he didn’t get very sick, but he had a horrible, raspy cough for a week or so. It was loud enough to prompt several of our neighbors to ask whether he was choking!)

Unintentionally facilitating a foster dog’s aggressive attack on one of your own family members – human, canine, or feline – would be even worse.

As upsetting as it can be for any well-intentioned dog lover to feel forced by circumstances to return a foster dog, it’s even more disturbing when the rescue group lacks the ability to provide a back-up placement. Being stuck with a dog who puts you, your pets, or your family members in jeopardy may well turn you away from fostering ever again.

Beware organizations or individuals who pressure foster parents to “stick it out a little longer,” no matter what problem their foster dog is exhibiting. In some cases, they may be counting on the foster provider to “fall in love” with the dog and adopt it. Many of us have good reasons for wanting to provide foster care, rather than adopting another dog. Groups that take advantage of their foster providers in this way soon find themselves without foster providers.

“The Most Selfless Thing You Can Do for a Dog” — Fostering Stories

Chris Danker, CPDT, of Albany County, New York, has fostered for more than 30 years. “Fostering is more then taking the dog into your home. It is spending quality time with the dog, exposing her to as many situations as possible. I hear stories of foster providers who have dogs living in crates until the ‘right home’ comes along. That is not fostering; it’s warehousing.”

She warns: “When fostering, be ready for anything. The progress these animals make is worth seeing. Be ready to give up your time, sleep, and probably some money.”

Liz Marsden, CPDT, trains in Washington, DC, and Connecticut, and says she has been a “serial foster provider” for many years. “What would I warn people about? Be careful when you say you will foster; you might just end up with 10 or 15 dogs who are former fosters and now yours!”

Leslie Fisher is a positive trainer in Maryland who describes herself as a “failed foster” – meaning she ended up adopting each of the three dogs she originally took on as fosters. “Bridget CGC and Talley are much loved and they both help in my business. Recently I became involved with the Lab Rescue of the Potomac Valley, which is how I met four-year-old Doobie. I think he was a foster for all of 12 hours before I knew he needed to be part of my pack. If you are like me, you cannot help but become emotionally attached during the nurturing process. However, fostering is the most selfless, wonderful thing you can do for a needy dog.”

Saving a life, and making a family happy, are some of the reasons that Seattle resident Dana Mongillo fosters dogs and cats. “One of my first foster experiences, Shelby, was an 11-year-old shepherd-mix with ACL and hip issues plus pneumonia; her age and health would have made her an easy euthanasia at a lot of shelters, but the Seattle Animal Shelter thought there might be a forever home out there for her, and there was! She was with us for six months before we found the ideal family. It was hard to say goodbye, but once we found the right home it felt like the right thing to do.

“Tigger, a Border Collie/Rottie-mix, came to us at nine months. He was wild, but with tons of exercise he turned into a nice dog. We found a great family for him within weeks. Two years later I saw him back at the shelter! I fostered him again, but exercise did not help this time; he now had severe separation anxiety. I found this out when I left him alone in the car at the grocery store. He attacked the dashboard and seats and took chunks out of all four door panels. It was my husband’s car, so I had a lot of explaining to do that night!

“Tigger was a charming, friendly dog, but very anxious when left alone. We had a dozen interviews for him in five months, but once people would see him in his anxious state, it was over. He is now a cherished member of our family – the sweetest, goofiest guy. We can’t imagine life without him!

“Watching your foster dog jump into the car to drive off with his new family is bittersweet but ultimately happy. Every foster dog that you place leaves a space in your home for you to help another dog in need!”

Frequent WDJ contributor Mary Straus shares, “About 15 years ago, I agreed to foster a one-year-old blind Shar Pei for what I thought was to be just a few days. The person who does Shar-Pei rescue in my area was going away for that long and my understanding was that she would take him when she got back. That didn’t turn out to be the case.

“The good part is that it changed my view of blind dogs forever. It was amazing how well Pumpkin got around. The problem was that I already had two dogs, and I didn’t want a third. I waited for almost two months for the rescue person to find a home for him. She finally admitted that she wasn’t really looking to find him a home because she was hoping that I would adopt him. I felt she had used me and been dishonest with me from the beginning. I ended up making her take him back herself (something I feel guilty about to this day), because that seemed to be the only way she would ever find him a home. In the end it worked out. He was adopted by folks I had met at my vet’s office, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. And it was dumb, because good foster providers are a lot harder to find than good adopters.”

In Ohio, Bonnie Becker has fostered Cairn Terriers “almost continuously” for the Colonel Potter Cairn Rescue Network since 2001. “One memorable foster was the nine-year-old female turned over to a shelter by a ‘rescue group’ that bought her at auction from a puppy mill. She had been burned, probably by a defective heating pad in her cage, and had gone for some time without treatment. One of our volunteers is a long-haul trucker who picked her up and took her to a vet in Chicago for treatment. Her skin had been damaged for so long that the vet didn’t know whether enough healthy skin would be left to pull over the area after the dead skin was debrided away. Her treatment exceeded $2,000, but we were able to save her and she became a real beauty. She’s living in Georgia now and gets walks along a river there where there are many birds, squirrels, and other small critters for her to enjoy seeing.

“To anyone considering fostering: Go for it. It’s a wonderful, life-changing experience, and a great way to give back. My lifelong friends in rescue support each other in bad times and cheer with each other in good times.”

Lesley Bastian, of Annapolis, Maryland, has volunteered at the SPCA ofAnne Arundel County for six years. She recently enjoyed her first fostering experience. “I am still giddy! I was fortunate enough to foster a momma Pit/Lab-mix and her eight puppies for two weeks in April. One of those puppies had kennel cough and had to stay with me for an additional two weeks. She had a typical puppy disposition and the energy to go with it, and I showered her with love and attention while she was here. I’ve done many fun things in my life, but I think this has been one of the most rewarding so far.”

Bastian said it was difficult to return the dogs to the shelter to find homes, but says she realizes that “the shelter is a stepping stone into their future. I trust that my shelter has the best interest of the animals at the core of their operation. If I didn’t believe that, I couldn’t have returned my pups.”

Nancy Kerns is Editor of Whole Dog Journal.

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Overdue Praise

By
Nancy Kerns
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0

I have been meaning for some time to sing the praises of the independent pet supply store. There is a time and a place for big box stores, don’t get me wrong. And I’m aware that some of the more responsible chains invest a fair amount in their employees’ education and professional development. But nothing beats a well-stocked shop run by someone with a passion for dogs.

Nancy Kerns

288

I’m lucky: In Northern California, there is a wealth of amazing stores owned and managed by highly educated people. They carry super-premium foods, and can tell you – accurately – why the foods are better. The lower-cost foods they do carry are the best products available at that price point; they don’t carry the lowest-cost, worst-quality foods. They wouldn’t dream of it.

The independent store owners I know travel to one or more of the gargantuan pet industry trade shows each year, looking for new and better toys, beds, treats, supplements, training gear, and more. They invest time and money in their education, and that of their employees, so they can make responsible, educated recommendations to dog owners who come into their stores.

Sometimes I go into big-box pet supply stores to look for and buy items that we do not recommend, so I can photograph and caption them: DO NOT BUY. It doesn’t happen often, but I’m always impressed when an employee at one of these stores looks around furtively and asks, “Um, what are you going to do with these?” If they do, I’m honest and tell them that I’m buying them as examples of what dog owners should not buy. “Oh good!” one such employee told me recently. “I was worried for a minute. I would never give a dog those things!” Usually, though, the employees don’t say anything, or don’t know to say something.

The thing is, a good independent store would never carry an item that they felt was not healthy for dogs in the first place. A few months ago, I called one of my favorite indies looking for one of the devices that allows you to lead your dog on a bicycle. The clerk at the store told me that she was sorry, they didn’t carry it, but could special order it for me if I wanted . . . but added that she, personally, felt they were unsafe. How was I planning on using it? Was I taking precautions to keep the dog safe? Her interest in my dog’s well-being was impressive.

The same week, I traveled to another indie, about 40 miles away, where I had seen that product for sale a month before. When I got there, though, there wasn’t one on the shelf. Disappointed, I asked the clerk about it; she called the owner out to the front to ask about it. While waiting, I tried on a baseball hat with the word, “Grrr” written on it. I was feeling like growling. “I’m sorry, we sent it back,” the owner told me. “We haven’t sold one for a year!”

“Shoot!” I said. “I saw one here last month, and made a special trip here to buy it. And I really needed it today.” “Where did you drive from?” he asked. When I told him, he said, “I’m so sorry! You know what? Take that hat. And call before you come next time and we can tell you if we have whatever it is you need. We want you to come back!”

That would never happen in a big box. And thanks for the hat, Bow Wow Meow, of San Carlos, California.

Train Your Dog to Stop Chasing Cats

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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Dogs are a predatory species. While cats think of themselves as predators, dogs often think of cats as prey. Still, many canines and felines live together in happy harmony. If yours don’t, here are some things to do when Fido chases Felix.

1:Separate dog and cat when you’re not there to supervise. You need to protect your cat from injury or possible death, and you want to prevent your dog from practicing the unwanted chasing behavior. Depending on the intensity of the chasing behavior, you may want your cat behind a solid door when you’re away to ensure protection, or baby gates may be enough to give kitty safe zones to use as she chooses. When you are there to supervise, you still need to manage your dog so he doesn’t get reinforced for chasing the cat. Having something run away when you chase it is highly reinforcing to a dog with strong predatory behaviors.

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2:Counter-condition and desensitize. You can reprogram your dog’s automatic response to chase a small moving creature. Have your dog on a leash when your cat enters the room. The instant your dog notices the cat, start feeding him bits of very high-value treat, such as boiled chicken. As long as the cat is in sight and moving, keep feeding. If kitty leaves the room or jumps up on a high piece of furniture you can stop feeding the bits of chicken to your dog – but keep him leashed!

Eventually your dog’s response to arrival of the cat will be to swivel his head to you with a happy “Where’s my chicken?” look. At some point, it’ll work even off-leash. Note: You may also need to counter-condition your cat to be happier and calmer about the presence of your dog! (For more on counter-conditioning your dog to cats, see “Cats and Dogs Living Together,” WDJ June 2007.)

3:Use a happy recall. If you yell at your dog when he takes off after the cat, the stress and intensity in your voice is likely to increase the intensity of his chasing behavior. If you’ve taught him a solid recall and done some counter-conditioning, your happy recall voice is more likely to succeed in calling him off the chase. If the recall isn’t happening for you, teach an emergency “pause” cue such as “Stop!” or “Wait!” If you teach this as a fun game, with your cue meaning, “Hey, I’ve got chicken!” you can pause your dog long enough for the cat to escape through the baby gate to a safe room.

4:Keep your cat indoors. Indoor living is safer for your cat all the way around, and especially if your dog likes to chase her. Many dogs who live peaceably with their indoor cat friends will still chase moving felines outside. I’m sure mine would. After all, it’s expecting a lot to ask a dog to distinguish between a high-speed squirrel, bunny, or cat. If your cat insists on outdoor exposure, build her a screened-in enclosure, or attach the “Cat Fence-In” containment system (catfencein.com or 888-738-9099) to your fence and let her out in the yard only when your dog is securely contained indoors.

5:Consider rehoming one of them. This is, obviously, a very last resort. Some dogs will never be trustworthy with cats. If you think your dog is really intent on killing your cat and the counter-conditioning doesn’t change his mind, you have two options. Strict management so the two of them never meet (and management always has the risk of failure), or rehoming one of them so they both can live happily ever after in separate homes.

Conditioning Confidence in Your Dog or Puppy

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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[Updated December 26, 2018]

There was once a time when you rarely encountered the word “socialization” in dog circles. Today it’s the new training buzzword; if you haven’t heard it at least three dozen times by the time your dog is a dozen weeks old, you and your puppy must be living in a cave.

A half-century ago, no one talked about canine socialization because they didn’t need to. For the most part dogs wandered freely in their neighborhoods, accompanied kids to the school bus stop, hung out with canine pals all day, and became naturally socialized to their world and the people, dogs, and things they encountered in their daily travels. Sure, they got into occasional scuffles amongst themselves, but they sorted it out. Yes, a kid was bitten every now and then, but it was no big deal. Dogs got hit by cars from time to time, but that was part of life – sad, but one could always find another dog, preferably one who would be smart enough to stay out of the road.

Socializing Your Dog or Puppy

Today a large segment of our pet-owning population is made up of more responsible canine guardians and caretakers. A nationwide paradigm shift has changed our attitudes about our dogs. No longer just “pets,” many of our beloved four-legged family members are kept inside our homes and in safely fenced yards, supervised closely when around children, and only encounter other dogs under controlled conditions – at training class, maybe during a brief on-leash greeting, during scheduled play dates, and perhaps at the dog park. The thought of our beloved dogs running free in the streets gives us heart palpitations, and we grieve terribly whenever we lose one.

On the plus side, this means our dogs live longer, physically healthier lives. On the minus side, it means they no longer benefit from the natural socialization process that occurred when they were allowed to explore their world and figure out how things work on their own. As a result, we’ve spawned a whole new behavior problem: undersocialization.

Raising a Social Dog

Socialization is really classical conditioning – creating an association between two stimuli. Behavioral scientists have identified the period from 4 to 14 weeks as the most important window of time for a puppy’s social development. After the age of 14 weeks that window starts to close, and it closes pretty quickly. If a pup is super-socialized during this important developmental period he’ll most likely believe the world is a safe and happy place. If he’s not well-socialized, he’s likely to be neophobic, which means fearful of new things. This is a common condition in dogs rescued from puppy mills and hoarder situations. It is challenging to own and train a dog who is afraid of everything new he encounters; worse, the neophobic canine is also a strong candidate for developing fear-related aggression. (For more about fearful dogs, see “Reducing Your Dog’s Anxieties,” WDJ April 2007.)

Lack of exposure to new things is one cause of undersocialization; inappropriate exposure is another. If you’re not careful during your socialization efforts you may inadvertently set your pup up to create negative associations with parts of the world around him. In that case you can actually sensitize your pup to the things you’re introducing him to – that is, you can make him afraid of them – the exact opposite outcome of the one you want.

Think of the well-meaning soccer mom who takes the family’s brand-new nine-week old pup to watch her son’s team practice. The entire team suddenly spies the adorable fluffball and charges toward the pup to oogle over him. The terrified puppy screams, pees, and tries to run away when he sees a dozen giant human creatures coming toward him at a dead run. He can’t escape; he’s trapped by the leash, which panics him even more.

Mom sees the pup flailing at the end of the leash and scoops him up in her arms to calm him so the boys can pet him. Now he’s even more trapped! One boy reaches to pat him on the head, and the pup, thinking he may be about to die, as a last resort snaps at the lowering hand that appears poised to grab him. The boy yanks his hand away, and mom smacks the puppy for being “bad.”

How much worse could it get? This puppy now has an extreme fear of children, especially boys, thanks to at least three negative classical associations in rapid succession:

1. Boys/children are scary; they run toward you in large packs.

2. Boys/children are scary; they try to grab your head.

3. Boys/children make bad things happen – when they are nearby, mom becomes violent.

The pup may also have developed negative associations with the collar and leash, wide open fields, being picked up, and mom. In addition, he learned one important operant lesson – snapping is a successful behavioral strategy for making scary hands go away. None of these things are the lessons we want a young pup to learn! And now the puppy is labeled as “not good with children” and a “fear-biter.”

Socializing Your Dog or Puppy

We often talk about how long it can take dogs to generalize operantly conditioned behaviors (if I do “x” I can make “y” happen). In contrast, dogs tend to form classically conditioned associations, especially those that produce strong emotions, very quickly.

The good news is that at nine weeks this pup’s socialization window is still wide open, and if his owner is smart she has time to repair the damage. Unfortunately, most owners don’t realize the importance of taking immediate steps to change a pup’s association if he has a bad experience at a young age.

Socialization is the process of giving a puppy positive associations with the people, places, and things in his world. You need to be sure he’s having a great time, playing fun games, getting good stuff, and protected from scary stuff while you’re teaching him that the world is a safe and happy place.

Socializing Puppies in Their Earliest Days

If you bring your new pup home when he’s 8 weeks old, 4 of his 10 prime socialization weeks are already gone. Since a quarter to a half or more of a pup’s most important socialization time has passed by the time he leaves his mother and moves into his forever home, it’s vitally important that breeders invest time and energy into socializing their litters.

This includes having the pups walk and play on different substrates (grass, gravel, concrete, carpeting, and vinyl); inviting lots of different kinds of people over to play with and handle the pups; exposing them to household objects and sounds (microwave, telephone, television, vacuum cleaner); and making sure the baby dogs have positive associations with all these things.

Sadly, a small minority of breeders do a really good job of it, which contributes significantly to the population of under-socialized dogs in our world. If the breeder of your pup did her part, then your pup is already well-started on his super-socialization program. Now it’s your responsibility to keep it up.

If your pup comes to you from a socially impoverished environment, you’ll already see the signs of neophobia. You have no time to lose, and you may never be able to make up all the ground he’s lost, but you can make him better than he’d be otherwise. Trainers talk about giving pups “100 new (positive) exposures in the first 100 days.” If your pup is already showing signs of timidity or fear, triple that to 300 exposures in 100 days. And get busy!

Puppy Kindergarten Classes

A well-run puppy class is one of the best places to find lots of positive socialization opportunities. Unfortunately, because of their fear of disease transmission, some veterinarians still caution their clients with puppies to keep their young canines safely at home until fully vaccinated, or at the very least until they have received a minimum of two shots, usually by the age of 12 weeks. Twelve weeks leaves only two weeks of critical socialization time – assuming there’s a class starting up immediately after the pup receives his second shot. Not good enough!

We asked longtime positive trainer Gail Fisher of All Dogs Gym & Inn, located in Manchester, New Hampshire, to share her experiences with and thoughts on puppy classes. Here’s her response:

“Regarding the question of puppy socialization versus risk of illness: We have been running puppy classes and play sessions for puppies as young as eight weeks since 1976 (which, incidentally, was before parvo!) In all this time, we have had a total of three puppies in our classes who were diagnosed with parvo (or anything worse than canine cough – a mild upper respiratory infection similar to the common cold).

“The first was a five-month-old Rottweiler (a breed known for having immunological issues – and beyond the age of a typical ‘puppy’ class). The second was a puppy from a breeder that had been in its new home for two weeks and who had received two shots, and the third was a pet shop puppy who had been purchased two days before starting class.

“More importantly, however, is the fact that no other puppies in any of those classes got sick. As soon as we heard from the owners of the sick puppies, we immediately contacted every other puppy owner to tell them to check with their veterinarian for advice on whether to have an additional inoculation. Some did, some didn’t – but no one else got sick.

“So if you’re looking for ‘odds’ – in 33 years, figure (conservatively) 100 puppies a year, more than 3,000 puppies – the odds of a puppy getting sick from a well-run training class is virtually nil (less than 1/100th percent). The risks of illness are, in my opinion, negligible, while on the other hand, the advantages to socialization are unmeasurable.

“I hope this helps in your decision to take your puppy to training class!”

Places NOT to Take Your Puppy

As important as socialization is, it’s equally important to avoid places where there’s a high risk of endangering your baby dog’s health or safety, or giving him a negative association with his world. Here are just a few examples of places you shouldn’t try to socialize your pup:

– Off-leash dog parks, until he is fully vaccinated.

– Any place where he is likely to encounter stray dogs.

– Any place where he is likely to encounter sick dogs.

– Any place where he is likely to encounter aggressive dogs.

– Any place where he is likely to encounter aggressive/rowdy/drunk humans.

– Places where there is an accumulation of feces from unknown dogs.

– Any place he is not welcome.

– Any place where he would have to be left unattended, or in a hot car. (No tying up outside the grocery store!)

– Any place where he will be uncomfortable or frightened (sitting in the full sun while you watch your son’s Little League game, at a July 4th fireworks display, at a motorcycle rally, etc).

– Any place where you won’t be able to devote enough attention to him to ensure his safety, security and well-being.

Genetics and Social Confidence in Dogs

Of course, your dog’s genetics also influence his behavior and social tendencies. Behavior is always a combination of genetics and environment. Nature and nurture. Always.

Genes dictate how easily reinforced a dog is for the things the environment tosses at him during his lifetime. Hence a dog who is genetically programmed to be reinforced by chasing things that move becomes a good herding dog, fox hound, or ratter. The difference is the herding dog is (hopefully) not programmed to be reinforced by killing the things he chases, while the hound and the terrier are.

Pups who are genetically programmed to be reinforced for the consequences of acting behaviorally bold are naturally easier to socialize, even if their first few weeks lacked stimulation, than ones who are genetically programmed to be reinforced for the results of acting timid or fearful. How do you know which behavioral genes your pup has for social behavior? You really don’t.

It’s useful to see your pup’s parents – at least the mother, if at all possible. If Mom is timid or aggressive there’s a good chance her pups will be, too. The pups’ behavior still can’t be attributed solely to genes; pups can learn fearful or aggressive behavior by watching their mother’s response to humans and other environmental stimuli, a behavioral phenomenon known as social facilitation. If you’ve been paying attention you’ll remember that genes and environment both play a role in behavior – always.

Don’t despair if you adopted your pup from a shelter or rescue group. It’s true that if you never see Mom or Dad, you won’t get any hints about their behavior. So how do you know how much socialization your pup needs to overcome any genetic weakness in temperament? You don’t. But you don’t need to. The answer to the genetic mystery is to super-socialize every single puppy, regardless of what you think you know, or don’t know, about his genetics. If you do that, you’re guaranteed to help your pup be everything he can be, socially speaking.

There’s no such thing as overkill when it comes to properly done socialization. You can’t do too much. Pups who are super-socialized tend to assume that new things they meet later in life are safe and good until proven otherwise. Dogs who are very well-socialized as pups are least likely to develop aggressive behaviors in their lifetimes. Pups who aren’t well-socialized tend to be suspicious and fearful of new things they meet throughout their lives, and are most likely to eventually bite someone. You’d better get out there and get started!

Creating 100 Positive Exposures in 100 Days

by Nancy Kerns

Whole Dog Journal‘s Training Editor Pat Miller has long advocated the concept of engineering 100 positive, novel experiences for a puppy in his first 100 days with his owner. The idea is to consciously, deliberately expose him to all sorts of sights, sounds, smells, and other beings in such a way that he comes away from each experience thinking, “That was cool!”

But given the uncontrollable nature of the real world, it’s no small task to devise these encounters so that they always have a positive outcome. Fire trucks may suddenly appear
with sirens wailing. A passing dog may suddenly explode into a fit of barking and barely controlled aggression. And people are unpredictable! You never know when someone will take it upon themselves to do something stupid or scary to your dog, like grab his cheeks and pull him close for what is meant to be an affectionate kiss (but which terrifies your shy puppy).

While it’s clearly impossible to control every aspect of your outings, a certain amount of planning will prevent many overwhelming experiences. Avoid taking your sound-sensitive
youngster to neighborhoods that are home to a fire station or hospital. If you see, coming toward you and your pup down the sidewalk, a dog straining at the end of his leash, or appearing to be overly alert, eyes fixed on your puppy, do a snappy about-face. Jog away with your pup with a cheerful, “Yay! Let’s go!” and cross the street as soon as you can.

Most important, though, is to communicate proactively with the people that you allow to approach or pet your dog. You can usually tell when a person might be interested in meeting your dog, and when they don’t care for dogs. If a person makes eye contact with me in a friendly fashion, or is looking at my dog and smiling, I always say, “Hello, how are you?” If it appears that she would like to pet or greet my dog, I try to subtly prevent her from actually touching my dog (by slowing my pace, or stepping slightly between my dog and the person) until I can say, “He’s a little shy; would you mind giving him a treat?” and I hand her a treat. Given that information, most people will move slowly and greet the dog gently.

(Note: Miller recommends that owners not allow strangers to feed treats to a shy dog until the owner has done a ton of counter-conditioning to the sight of strangers. That way, the dog already has a positive emotional response to strangers, and will accept treats from a stranger safely, with minimal stress.)

No matter how well or poorly they follow instructions, though, I always praise my dog and give him a treat or pet him right after the encounter. When I got him at the age of seven
months, he was shy with strangers; now his tail starts wagging in anticipation whenever he sees someone coming toward us. The sight of a stranger has become a predictable indicator that praise and a treat are on the way.

Start Close to Home and Branch Out

You’ll find many opportunities in your own neighborhood for 100 new, positive exposures, including the mail delivery person, FedEx driver, kids on bikes, a skateboarding teenager, a passing bus, and an elderly neighbor. Go out of your way to approach people who appear unique (to your pup) in some way: their size (extra large, extra small); skin color; mode of transportation (wheelchair, crutches, skateboard, bicycle); and manner of dress (trench coat, hat, beard, backpack, skirt, shorts, pants).

You’ll also want to get into the habit of taking your pup with you to as many other safe places as possible, where he’ll have more opportunities to enhance his socialization. In a
local park, for example, he might have further opportunities to encounter baby strollers, kites, flying Frisbees, and people enjoying picnics. A cafe with tables on the sidewalk might offer a great place for your dog to meet a high volume of people with disparate appearances.

As your pup gains experience and confidence, you can start taking him with you when you run errands at businesses that allow dogs (hardware store, pet supply store, copy shop) or offer walk-up service (bank ATM, post office, or ice cream stand).

Miller suggests that dog owners keep an actual written list of their pup’s socialization exposures, to help ensure that they attain (and, we hope, exceed) the goal of a minimum of one new exposure per day in the first 100 days they spend together. Whole Dog Journal developed a list, too, which you can use to get started. If you put a little effort into it, we’re betting that you’ll get there well before 100 days are up – more likely in half that time!

CREATE A CONFIDENT DOG: OVERVIEW

1. Make a commitment to super-socialize your puppy, and then do it – early. Don’t procrastinate; you don’t have much time!

2. Stay aware of your pup’s body language and help him out of trouble if he looks stressed.

3. Be prepared to take prompt remedial action if your pup has a negative experience during your socialization program.

4. Sign up ASAP for a well-run positive puppy class, where both of you can socialize and have a good time.

Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, is WDJ’s Training Editor. She is 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 Play with Your Dog.

Gail Fisher is the owner of All Dogs Gym & Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire.

High-Energy Canine Competitions

By
Terry Long
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READY? R-E-A-D-Y? GO!

Woof, yap, scream, yodel, bark, yip. Go, go, go!” Dogs on the sidelines and in crates and exercise pens barking at the top of their lungs. Dogs tugging and growling, tugging and growling. Handlers yelling over the din to their teammates. Handlers recalling their dogs over jumps, H-e-r-e! Event officials blowing whistles and announcing the next race over bullhorns or speaker systems, and start-line lights and passing lights flashing on and off.

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Flyball is a cacophony of sights and sounds. It is exhilarating, over the top, adrenalized hyperstimulation. This is not a sport for the introverted, timid, or sound-sensitive dog or handler. The adrenalin level is off the charts and you can hear that from hundreds of yards away.

The first time I experienced flyball was as a spectator at an obedience trial held at a park. Suddenly, shattering the decorum, was an ear-piercing scream followed by rabid barking. Certain that an obedience dog had left the ring and treed a critter, I raced over to watch. No critter. No mayhem. Just flyball. The teams had just set up for their first race and the dogs were ready. I had never seen dogs so keen to get going.

The game
There are four hurdles in a row with the flyball box at the end of the 51-foot lane. The jump height for each team is determined by the height of the shortest dog on the team. These dogs are referred to as the “height dog”. Each team tries to attract someone with a fast, short dog so their team has the advantage of low jump heights. That’s why it’s common to see teams with very short dogs as well as larger dogs.

Each team has four dogs. Two teams race at the same time, 20 feet away from each other. Each team lines up their dogs, ready to release them quickly, exactly when the previous dog clears the last jump. Dogs are taught to pass each other very close to gain a time advantage.

Each handler restrains her dog at the start line, careful not to cause a false start by letting go too early. The typical flyball start-line restraint technique is to hold the dogs in front of their hind legs, crouching behind the dogs.

When the dog gets to the flyball box, he is trained to hit the box with his front feet, grab the ejected ball (most dogs just place their mouths over the opening where the ball comes out), push off the box with his rear legs, and race back.

A member of the team stands at the box to load balls (small dogs might need a small tennis ball) and encourage the dogs to get to the box fast (more screaming). The handler of the dog currently racing stands back, beyond the finish line, usually with a long tug toy, and encourages the dog to race back to the handler, quickly, over the finish line (with more screaming!).

History
In the late 1960s and early f70s a group of trainers in Southern California created a game that required their dogs to jump over some hurdles and pick out a dumbbell with their handler’s scent. They called it scent hurdling. To reward the dogs for taking the hurdles, someone threw a tennis ball at the end of the straight row of hurdles.

Soon, scent hurdling morphed into flyball. The first flyball tournament, however, didn’t take place until 1983. Soon thereafter, 12 flyballs clubs from Michigan and Ontario, Canada, developed guidelines for the sport, and in 1984 the North American Flyball Association, Inc. (NAFA) was born. The first flyball rule book was written in 1985 by Mike Randall, then executive director of NAFA.

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In 2002, the United Flyball League International (U-FLI) was founded. NAFA and U-FLI are currently the only two organizations that sanction tournaments. Their rules and philosophies differ somewhat, but all breeds and mixes are welcome.

The popularity of the sport has grown over the years, with tournaments taking place in North America, Europe, Australia, and other countries. The NAFA website claims 700 registered clubs and more than 16,000 registered dogs.

Attributes of a flyball dog
Flyball is a strenuous, pressure-cooker game. Dogs are rewarded for intense bursts of activity. Racing down a row of jumps, slamming into the box that holds the ball, turning on a dime, and racing back down the row of jumps to their handlers against a backdrop of another teams’ dogs a mere 20 feet away requires a dog to be incredibly focused, physically resilient to the rigors of training, and insane about the tennis ball.

The repetitive nature of some of the training is physically demanding, and a dog must have the temperament to withstand the performance stressors inherent in the game. These include barking and lunging dogs, screaming people, and intense performance pressure from his handler.

Nikki Myers, CPDT, who in 1995 cofounded Woof Gang, a Southern California flyball team, has been competing and training in the sport for 14 years. Her now 16-year-old Silky Terrier is still ranked as the #1 Silky in NAFA, and her newest Silky, Charm, is currently the fastest Silky in flyball. Her Australian terrier, Maggie, is ranked second for her breed in both U-FLI and NAFA. Myers is familiar with many of the dog sports, competing in agility for 15 years and in earthdog for 10 years, and has been a professional dog trainer for the past 9 years. Myers notes that owners should assess the physical, as well as the behavioral, demands of a sport before deciding whether it is appropriate for their dogs.

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“The physical demands on a flyball dog are quite high. Running-jumping-stopping-turning-running can be hard on a body. Larger dogs need to build the muscle to control their added kinetic energy to be able to stop themselves safely. Extra weight on any size dog can increase the chance of injury. Joints get a lot of punishment, so hip and elbow dysplasia or patella luxation, etc., will affect a dogfs performance. As with any sport, a dog should be cleared by his vet if he hasn’t had a very active life so far. A couch potato at five years of age may have some aches and pains if they suddenly start a new sport,” says Myers.

The variety of mixes and breeds that participate in flyball is a testament to the draw of this sport for a broad cross section of dogs. Everything from Airedales and American Bulldogs to the typical slew of herding breeds and terriers are in evidence. There are Chinese Cresteds, Danish/Swedish Farmdogs, Deerhounds, Irish Red and White Setters, a Plott Hound, and even a Black Mouth Cur listed on U-FLI’s website (see u-fli.com/dogbreedreport.php for the complete report).

If you have a high-energy, outgoing, confident dog who loves to retrieve balls, this might be his sport. If your dog is a bit reserved, the sport could help him build more confidence. However, according to Myers, “Flyball can help a shy dog get some confidence, but if the dog is truly fearful of new places, noises, etc., he should learn flyball only as a backyard activity. The dogs who do best in flyball are those with a very high drive. The perpetual-motion kind of dog that can focus on the task of flyball will do very well.”

Handler attributes
In addition to the commitment to training and attending team practices, handlers exert a fair amount of physical effort participating in this sport. In addition to helping set up equipment for practices and lugging all your personal training supplies and dog from your car to the field, flyball can be physically strenuous.

“The physical demands on the handler are varied,” explains Myers. A certain amount of bending and squatting are encountered. After a long weekend of racing, I feel like I’ve done a hundred lunges. My thighs burn and my back aches. Once your dog is really worked up about racing, he also tends to pull hard on the leash around the grounds. (It can be hard to maintain your loose-leash walking criterion!)

“There is also a certain amount of running for the handlers. Think of wind sprints and you’ll get the idea. It really depends on the dog you are running. I run and tug and spend a lot more energy running a Boston Terrier than I do handling a teammate’s Australian Shepherd.”

Equipment and supplies
The equipment needed to practice flyball is not extensive, but it can be expensive, due to one specialized item (the flyball box).

 

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•Hurdles. There are four hurdles, or jumps. These are relatively light-weight, narrow panel jumps. They can be made by handy team members with a Skill saw and white paint or ordered ready-made. Hurdles are pretty inexpensive compared to the box.

•The box. The spring-loaded box that ejects the tennis ball is the major expense for a flyball team. Specifications are set by the sanctioning organization. Many clubs make their own, but the boxes are available for purchase. Plan on spending at least $600 and as much as $1,200.

•Tennis balls and tug toys. Standard-size tennis balls are used in great quantity so it helps to know someone who belongs to a tennis club. Small tennis balls are used for the small dogs and can be purchased from pet stores and online. Lengthy tug toys, usually about 24 to 36 inches long, are used to incite the dog to run back to the handler with the tennis ball. Often, a tennis ball has been woven into the tug toy, as well.

 

Expenses
In addition to the costs of supplies listed above, there are other expenses. If you can find a public class such as the one Myers offers through a city entity, costs are modest and, in most cases, move you quickly toward joining a team where members practice together at no cost.

There are also modest team dues, and members share in the purchase and repair of equipment. Tournament entry fees are split by the team members and vary throughout the country, but average about $90. The cost of travel and lodging is often a flyball handler’s biggest expense. As with many different sports, it is the ancillary costs that mount. These include canopies to protect you and your dog from the elements, treats, toys, crates, blankets, and the list goes on.

Training
Myers, a professional trainer with years of experience teaching with positive reinforcement methods, teaches public classes for the city of Garden Grove, California. Those classes serve as a pipeline for new teammates for local flyball teams.

Although many teams are willing to train people and their dogs from the ground up, it helps if you and your dog have a general training history already established. Clicker training, which focuses on encouraging dogs to “offer” behaviors, can accelerate the training process because dogs learn to see training as a problem-solving game.

Myers simplifies the complexities of training flyball by breaking it down into separate behaviors and then “chaining” them together.

“Flyball is one long ‘behavior chain,’” explains Myers. “There are several links in the chain: run, jump, trigger the box, grab the ball, turn, run-jump-run (now with a ball in your mouth). We teach this chain in pieces. Running down the lane of jumps to have fun with Mama is one of the easiest to teach. Triggering the box to retrieve the ball safely and swiftly is the most difficult. Rarely do we need to teach a dog to retrieve a ball, though there are some dogs that need to learn a retrieve before they start with flyball.”

You can do some training at home that will benefit you and your dog whether you choose to join a team or not.

 

•Toy motivation. Tugging is a great motivator and helps focus your dog on you. If your dog is not toy-motivated, play games that get your dog chasing you for fun and reinforcement. Get a long tug toy and drag it along the ground and encourage your dog to “get it, get it, get it,” and make a big fuss over him when he expresses any interest in it. Gradually, reward only more and more interest in the toy until he is biting at it and then holding on to it.

 

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•Restrained recalls. Flyball dogs must come when called in the face of huge distractions (the park, other dogs, high levels of arousal of other dogs and people, etc.). A speedy return to the handler over the finish line is essentially a recall. Start with one person holding your dog back while you run away, waving a toy. The person restraining your dog delays your dog’s release just a second or two at a time, waiting to feel the dog pulling to get away.

According to Myers, “When you can get your dog to stop barking at a squirrel in the backyard and run to you for a toy or play, you’ve a long way in ensuring a solid recall during competition.”

•Jumping. If you have space in your backyard, a line of jumps is a simple, inexpensive training tool. Encourage your dog to take the first jump and throw your toy ahead. Once your dog is confident and fast with one jump, add another one. Gradually, add others until you have four in a row.

Practicing at home is important, but flyball is essentially a team sport. If you are a loner and do not enjoy group dynamics, this may not be the best sport for you. Some teams practice an hour or two once a week, while others get together three to four times a week.

Myers notes, “Most of the competitors in flyball are members of a team. When a club enters its team in a particular tournament, the members train together and learn to compete together. When a change has to be made at the last minute, it can do anything from simply change the lineup to causing the team to drop from the competition.

”With the addition of the United Flyball League, however, the opportunity has increased for single dogs or just pairs of dogs to race.”

Levels of competition
Flyball dogs earn individual points in each tournament based on their dog’s racing times. Remember, each dog travels 51 feet over four hurdles, hits the box, grabs the ball, and races back over the hurdles across the finish line. This is considered one “heat” of a race, and there can be four to five races in a day. Since a race is made up of three to five heats, your dog may run that 102-foot lane 20 times or more in a day. Now you see why high-energy dogs do well in this sport.

NAFA and U-FLI award different points in their respective systems for each heat. For example, U-FLI awards 30 points to dogs who run that distance under 20 seconds, 25 points for under 25 seconds, 15 points for under 30, and 10 points for under 35. Your dog gets an additional 5 points if your team wins the tournament race. A dog running on a well-trained, consistent team could earn 75-125 points for each race. Multiply that times the number of races in a day and your dog can rack up quite a few points toward titles in a single tournament.

U-FLI titles are awarded based on your dog’s cumulative points. “Top flight” requires 100 points, “top flight executive” requires 2,500 points, and so on until the top U-FLI title of “top flight extreme” with 54,500 points.

Wondering how fast is fast? The NAFA record is 15.22 seconds and was set in 2005 by Spring Loaded, a team with members from Illinois, Michigan, and Ontario, Canada. The U-FLI record of 15.023 seconds was attained by Touch n Go, a team from Las Vegas, Nevada. This means that each dog ran the 102-foot distance in under four seconds. Wow!

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Teams compete in “divisions”, which are established to ensure that teams compete against other teams of similar abilities. NAFA and U-FLI each have their rule books on their respective websites.

How to get started
If you want to compete, make sure you can commit to this team endeavor. Myers recommends, “Look for a local team that teaches. Start asking questions and going to tournaments. Teams want to see that you are interested in the commitment and not just out for the summer.”

If you want to try it out before committing, look for those public classes (which can be few and far between) and for a willing and qualified instructor. Myers has taught people who knew they wanted to compete, as well as those who were just looking for something to entertain their dogs.

”I had one couple who brought their two dogs. The dogs were not all that crazy about tennis balls, but they loved their stuffy toys. We ended up with the stuffy toy at the box instead of the balls. Both dogs learned to come down the lane, get the stuffed toy, and return over all four jumps. That couple really enjoyed their dogs’ version of flyball!”

”Another couple started out in the public class, and then started practicing with Woof Gang. Their shepherd-mix has been competing for a year now. Since then, they rescued another shepherd-mix and taught him to play as well. They recently bought an RV to take to tournaments, and both dogs will be competing together on teams very soon.”

Is this sport for you?
Since flyball is a team sport, whether this sport is for you or not may depend upon where you live. Some areas of the country have no teams and no competitions, while others have many. If this sport appeals to you, go to the websites listed in this article and see if there is a team near you. Contact them and find out when they practice and ask to come and watch. How do they treat the dogs? Are they positive with each other as well as with their dogs? How well do they support new people?

If you have a family that might want to get involved, check out U-FLI. They have a program specifically designed to encourage and support families with children. Find a team that competes in U-FLI and then check out how well that team emulates U-FLI’s philosophy.

Each team is a culture unto itself. Some are inviting of new people and others are not. Some are extremely competitive and put a lot of pressure on members to attend multiple practices and compete at every opportunity while others are happy to build the skills of all members and invite everyone to practice and compete regardless of skill level.

Because flyball is a team sport, the human dynamics of a particular team are critical in deciding which team to join. Many flyball handlers consider their flyball team like a second family. Unlike with your biological family, you have some choice in choosing this one.

As usual, have fun, train positively, and revel in the relationship with your dog, not the ribbons on the wall.

Terry Long, CPDT, is a writer, agility instructor, and behavior counselor in Long Beach, California. She is addicted to agility and animal behavior.

Fear-Free Dog Training Methods

By
Nancy Kerns
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Last month I mentioned how our daily “off” practice paid off when Otto first noticed my friend Leonora’s goats. Otto is fascinated by these animals, which puff up like cats, rear up like horses, and make very weird, scary direct eye contact – very undoglike. As riveted as he was by the goats, every time I said, “Otto, off!” he immediately turned away from the goats and looked at me. Of course, I delivered a bit of hot dog – his favorite treat – right to his lips, each time he so much as glanced at or stepped toward me. It was a calm, drama-free event; no goats or dogs were harmed in the making of that particular scene.

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It was a great testimonial for the effectiveness of positive training in general, and specifically for an all-positive method of training a dog to exert self-control. I wasn’t yelling at Otto, scaring him (and any other creature around), or threatening his general well-being if he made the wrong move. It wasn’t fear of punishment – or fear of me – or some sort of amorphous “respect” that he had for me, or his “recognition” of my “leadership” that led him to resist his desire to chase or otherwise engage the goats. It was simply another step along a deliberately built, assiduously practiced, behavior modification program. “How did you teach him that?” Leonora wondered.

She was particularly curious because she worries every spring and summer about her dogs getting bitten by rattlesnakes (they are very common in this part of Northern California) and the only methods of so-called “snake-proofing” that she had been able to find involved shock collars – which, fortunately, she hadn’t liked the idea of, without really knowing why. I hastened to assure her that shock collars and every other type of punishing aversive were not only unnecessary, but also potentially damaging to her relationship with her dogs. And that the positive approach had many more daily applications than snake-proofing.

I tried to explain how it was an extension of a basic “Don’t touch!” exercise, but the more that I’ve thought about it, the more I realize that it is also emblematic of the relationship-building power of positive training in general.

Choices
First, as a dog owner, you have to realize that a dog is a dog; he possesses natural desires – genetically programmed, most-likely responses to many types of stimuli. You are not trying to teach him about “right” and “wrong” nor about “obeying” you. You are simply trying to modify his natural responses to make them more convenient to you. Positive training not only accomplishes this goal, but also has the side effect of giving the dog a strong desire to do the things you’d like him to do, increasing the odds that he’ll change his behavior in just the way you would like him to. Think of it as team-building!

In a thoughtful positive training program – which is what I strive to employ with Otto – the goal is to teach the dog some basic, all-purpose responses that can be applied in progressively more and more challenging environments, with tiny successes at each level leading to a greater likelihood of success at each and every level of difficulty.

Using the procedure described in detail by Pat Miller in “Request For Leave” (WDJ August 2008), I started teaching Otto the “Off!” or “Don’t touch!” exercise by putting a delicious treat in my closed fist, and holding the fist right under Otto’s nose. He could smell the treat, and licked and nosed my hand to try and get it. The moment he looked away or moved away from my hand (and the treat), I’d mark the moment by saying “Yes!” (Miller uses the click! of a clicker) and give him a treat from my other hand.

Otto quickly learned that the only way to get a treat was to ignore the one right in front of him. As soon as it was clear he got the concept of the exercise, I added a verbal cue: “Off!” (Some people prefer “Leave it!” or “Don’t touch!”) The next step was to open my hand so he could see the treat in addition to smelling it – quickly closing my hand on the treat if it seemed like he was about to grab it. I’d also place a treat on the ground and say, “Off!” If he tried to get it, I could slide one of my feet over the treat to keep him from getting it. And the moment he looked away from the treat, I’d give him a different treat.

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Such a simple exercise – with such powerful applications. In learning this exercise, a dog learns to resist his first instinct (grab the treat) and delay his gratification – not a particularly dog-like thing to do! He also learns that you are highly likely to deliver a more delicious treat, or more of them, if he resists his urge to take the seemingly more accessible one.

I’m fascinated by the fact that, when denied access to the easy treat, most dogs will naturally look at their handler’s face, looking for a clue as to when their reward will come. This glance grows into a gaze, and, when it’s frequently reinforced with meaningful rewards, the gaze itself becomes a default behavior for the dog that precludes him from doing things you don’t want him to do, such as see (and then chase) a squirrel, or see (and engage with) another dog.

Otto and I practice “Off” every day we are together. We practice in highly controlled conditions, such as feeding time, when I don’t put his bowl of food on the floor until he offers a sit and looks at me, and then holds that sit (and gaze) until I put the bowl down and release him to eat. A few times a day, I formally practice and reinforce the puppy kindergarten-level “Off!” exercise, with a treat in my hand,. But I also try to train informally throughout the day. For example, when making myself a sandwich for lunch, I might “accidentally” drop a piece of roast beef and say “Off!” as he’s reaching for it. I’m careful to position myself to be able to quickly block his access to it with my foot or leg, so he doesn’t get reinforced for diving for the food anyway. (He does ultimately get that piece of beef, and more, when he looks away from the fallen piece.)

I say “Off!” when he hears someone walking down the sidewalk in front of our house, and instead of barking, he looks at me. If I don’t have a treat in my pocket, I make sure to raise him and take the time to give him a few moments of scratching his favorite itchy places. I say “Off!” when he looks at the cat as she scratches her favorite scratching post in the backyard; Otto and I both know that she often follows up a scratching session with a wild-kitty dash across the yard, so the “Off” in this case is a proactive preventative.

I also practice the “Off” exercise when we play fetch and tug, and when Otto comes to nudge my elbow as I’m working at the computer. I might tell him “Off” when we are greeting someone on the street, if it seems to me that his proximity is making someone nervous. And I use it a lot on our walks and bike rides. When I see him see something like a feral cat, a squirrel on a wire, a robin hopping along the ground, or an aroused-looking dog running along a fence, I say “Off” and reward, reward, reward him when he looks away from the thing and looks back at me.

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Rewards
Does that mean I’m always wearing a bait bag full of treats? In our first year together, yes, I always wore a bag full of delicious treats when I took Otto out for a walk or bike ride, or brought him to a friend’s house. We’re celebrating our first anniversary together at the end of this year. The bait bag is staying at least a while longer, because if I wasn’t a reliable supplier of rewards that are more valuable to him than whatever else it is that he wants, I’m sure he’d eventually “do the math” and realize that chasing the squirrels or whatever was far more rewarding than my praise alone. When he resists something that’s high on his personal fun scale, I try to reward him accordingly, with a jackpot of treats and perhaps a quick game of tug of war with the leash. At home, in the yard, praise and petting rank high on the Otto satisfaction scale. Out in the world, they aren’t worth as much. It’s like taking dollars to Europe!

I also try to mix it up. Sometimes he wins a piece of hot dog; sometimes I reach past the hot dog to a piece of cheese. Sometimes there are sardines in the bag – wow! Sometimes he gets one piece; every so often I’ll dump the entire contents of the bait bag onto the ground! He’s won the lottery! I think of it like that TV show, Let’s Make a Deal. If someone always knew what was behind Door Number One, it would take the fun out of choosing that option.

This sounds like a lot of work. Added up over our first year together, it is, and yet the daily average is probably less than 10 minutes a day. We’ve had days where I trained, off and on, for hours. And other days when I’ve maybe asked him to do one simple thing all day.

But I’m happy to do the work. I enjoy working with him and seeing his enjoyment at working with me. I love watching his face as he tries to puzzle out what I’ve asked and what he has to do to “win” a reward of food, petting or just my momentary attention. And I’m happy to do the work because I’m highly motivated to help him become a dog that I can take anywhere with ease and comfort, secure in the knowledge that he won’t cause problems for anyone. I plan on having this dog for decade and more, and I consider the time I spend training now to be an investment in our future together.

Nancy Kerns is Editor of WDJ. She adopted Otto on June 13, 2008.

DNA Testing for Mixed Breed Dogs

By
Lisa Rodier
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[Updated January 10, 2019]

The sequencing of the canine genome, accomplished as a public research project in 2004, opened the floodgates to endless possibilities for canine genetic testing. The holy grail for many scientists engaged in this work is the understanding of, and ultimately, the elimination of inherited canine diseases. For many dog owners, though, the most exciting outcome of this serious work is the possibility that they can learn exactly what breeds their mutts are made of.

Though there are already several commercial companies offering products that purport to be able to do just that, our assessment of the breed identification tests is that the results may be just as mixed as the dogs they seek to explain. The test results may be nearly as varied, interesting, and enjoyable as our mixed-breed friends, but it seems that, at least right now, they may not be able to absolutely satisfy the question of your mutt’s parentage. The tests are getting better every day, though! And as the understanding of DNA, the size of the sample databases, and the power of computers grow, it’s likely that the tests will, at some point, truly live up to the marketing hype currently being used to sell them.

DNA Testing for Mixed Breed Dogs

Dog Breed Tests: A History

The first mixed-breed DNA test was born in the laboratory of Elaine A. Ostrander, Ph.D., and Leonid Krugylak, Ph.D., when they were with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Drs. Ostrander and Krugylak were looking for genetic commonalities among purebred dogs recognized by the American Kennel Club (AKC). One goal was to discover the genes responsible for diseases common to both dogs and humans, including several types of cancer. They were also studying the relatedness of about 100 of the AKC-recognized breeds; this led to the discovery that the genetic variation between dog breeds is much greater than the variation within breeds. For comparison, genetic variation between human populations is about 5.4 percent; in dogs, they discovered, between-breed variation is estimated at 27.5 percent.

In 2005, Ostrander and Krugylak signed a commercialization agreement with Mars Veterinary™, a newly created division of the mighty Mars, Incorporated (yes, think candy, gum, pet food, and other foodstuffs), licensing the technology they developed for use in breed identification.

Mars Veterinary wasn’t alone in the race to market a breed identification product. Scientists at MMI Genomics Inc. (MMIG) were also studying canine DNA. In fact, MMIG provided identity and parentage verification services for the AKC, United Kennel Club (UKC), Professional Kennel Club (PKC), and a number of other canine registries and breed clubs. MMIG was originally a division of Celera, and led the private effort to sequence the canine genome. It was also the first to commercially market a breed identification test, in March 2007. MMIG called its product the Canine Heritage™ Breed Test. When it made its commercial debut, the test was potentially able to identify only 38 breeds; the test (“XL”) was upgraded in mid-2008 to identify more than 100 breeds.

DNA Testing for Mixed Breed Dogs

Mars Veterinary brought its test to market just a few months later, in September 2007, as the Mars Veterinary Wisdom Panel™ MX test.

How Do Dog DNA Tests Work?

Each company promotes its tests by saying they are a good way for the mixed breed dog owner to learn whether his or her dog might be susceptible to a particular genetically linked disease if the dog has breeds known to inherit certain conditions. They also say that the tests help with training, by giving the owner insight into the dog’s behavior; the reason why the dog acts the way he does might be explained by his background. At the end of the day, however, company representatives admit that the majority of their customers buy the tests simply out of curiosity and because it’s fun to do.

The DNA tests we looked at draw their databases from the more than 160 breeds recognized by the AKC, and address only those breeds found in North America. Worldwide, it is estimated that there are more than 300 breeds of dogs.

The tests use genetic tools referred to as “markers” to define the concept of a dog breed. A genetic marker is a position in the genome where there is variability in the sequence that is inherited, following the rules of classical genetics. Two common kinds of markers are microsatellites and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

Each company independently developed a set of markers that define the breeds in their databases and utilizes sophisticated computer algorithms to match a given mixed-breed dog’s DNA to that in its database to come up with the best breed match(es) for him. The analysis determines how closely, and to what extent, the mixed breed dog’s genetic patterns match those of purebreds.

There are two very significant players in the U.S. market (MMIG and Mars Veterinary) and a few that are trying to carve out a larger role. EDP BioTech Corp. is very new; a fourth company, DNA Diagnostics Center Veterinary, subcontracts its work to EDP BioTech Corp. There is at least one test (Viaguard DNAffirm™) offered by a Canadian company, Accu-Metrics Ltd., which we did not explore.

Mars Veterinary Wisdom Panel™

The Wisdom Panel MX was the only mixed-breed DNA test to require a blood sample. Initially available only through veterinarians, the test is now available online directly from Mars Veterinary, as well as from veterinarians and select pet supply retailers. It has a suggested retail of $125, which includes free shipping if ordered direct from Mars Veterinary. Nevertheless, a trip to your dog’s veterinarian is still necessitated for a blood draw, which means an extra cost for the vet office visit and procedure, and possible stress to your dog if he doesn’t love the vet office.

The AKC recognizes 161 breeds; the Mars Veterinary database includes 153 AKC breeds in its database, plus four breeds awaiting recognition from AKC, for a total of 157 breeds. To develop its database, Wisdom Panel typed more than 13,000 dogs during test development, completing more than 19 million genetic marker analyses. Mars Veterinary’s database is the largest of any of the three companies we examined, but its test is also the most expensive.

After extracting DNA from the blood sample, single SNPs – or slight variations in DNA makeup – are identified. The test exams 321 points or markers where variations are found, looking to form breed-specific patterns. A proprietary algorithm is then run on the data.

Angela Hughes, DVM, a veterinary geneticist and consultant for Mars Veterinary, explains it by saying the computer then “says” as it looks at the DNA of a particular dog, “If I have to make her one thing, what would be the best match? If two, what would she match, then three, then so on, up to eight. The result is then a statistical score to each ‘tree’ the program builds as to how that dog best matches.” Eight is the magic number as Mars Veterinary’s confidence level is to go back three generations (eight great-grandparents).

The company claims that the test determines breed composition with 90 percent accuracy, defining that as validation testing that has resulted in an average accuracy of 90 percent in first generation cross-bred dogs of known parentage (our emphasis).

As with the competing Canine Heritage test, the Wisdom Panel results are reported in three categories, only Mars Veterinary calls them Significant, Intermediate, and Minor breeds, roughly translating to parent, grandparent, and great-grandparent. For a breed to be listed as Significant, at least 50 percent of the dog’s DNA must have come from that breed (i.e., one of the parents was a purebred or possibly both grandparents were of the same breed); Intermediate, at least 25 percent; and Minor, at least 12.5 percent.

Mars Veterinary expects that if your dog shows a Significant breed, that he will likely display some physical and behavior traits from that breed, unless some of the genes are recessive. For Intermediate, you “may” see some physical and behavior traits of that breed in your dog, and for Minor, it is unlikely that the breed’s physical traits are visually represented in the dog unless some of the genes are dominant.

The company quotes a two to three-week turnaround on test results; test status can be tracked online – and results, when ready, will be mailed to the client but are available online sooner. The only contact information for the company that is offered on the website is an e-mail address; as unhelpful as that is, the website itself offers tons of information.

When we did find a phone number to reach the company, the representative who answered was moderately helpful, although he was more prepared to deal with someone calling to discuss their dog’s test results than with someone looking for in-depth information about the company and its products.

See Wisdom Panel’s products here.

BioPet Vet Lab / PooPrints

The latest entrant into the market is the DNA Breed ID Test offered by BioPet Vet Lab, a division of EDP Biotech Corp. BioPet Vet Lab itself was created in late 2007; its canine DNA test was launched in early 2008 through online resellers. In addition to the breed ID test, BioPet also offers DNA proof-of-parentage testing, DNA pet ID, and the very interesting PooPrints™ program (“match the mess through DNA”).

The company’s goal is to offer a sound, affordable test. It hopes to accomplish this by limiting the number of breeds in its database to 63 – which the company claims represents “about 93 percent of the dog DNA that is in the U.S. according to historical trends in breed popularity” – and pricing the test at $60. Adding additional breeds requires adding more markers, which increases cost; BioPet suggests that it will most likely top out its database at 65 to 70 breeds. This test, too, uses a cheek swab to collect a dog’s DNA.

The company sells its tests through PetSmart, Pet Supermarket, other retailers, and online retailers. Turnaround for results is roughly two weeks, and it does not appear that the company has online tracking capability for test status. They will re-run a test upon request, acknowledging the possibility of human error, but company spokesperson Meg Retinger reported that even in the ones they’ve rerun, they have never seen a test result that was completely different on the second run. The BioPet website has a moderate amount of information, and the company spokesperson was helpful.

Happy Consumers of Mixed-Breed Dog DNA Tests

Ruby, named for her short red coat, was brought home to Rosalie and Leonard Sanchez of Riverside, California, by their 15-year-old grandson, who got her from a lady giving pups away from the back of a pickup truck. The lady told their grandson that the puppy was a St. Bernard mix. Rosalie quickly dismissed his words, figuring that he made up that piece of the story, because Ruby looked nothing like a St. Bernard.

Early this year, she learned about the Canine Heritage test, and was curious to know more about Ruby’s background. She and her husband guessed Ruby was part Boxer. Their veterinarian concurred, because of Ruby’s large paws; his guess was Boxer/Great Dane or Boxer/Mastiff.

When the results came back, Rosalie was floored; her grandson was correct after all! The test showed Boxer and St. Bernard. Although she still can’t get over how Ruby does not resemble a St. Bernard, Rosalie says, “A mixed breed dog is like a box of chocolates. You never know what’s on the inside.”

Dan McCarthy’s girlfriend found Flora lying next to a bus stop, emaciated and covered in fleas. Their veterinarian thought Flora was a Labrador and Springer Spaniel mix, yet she was on the small size, weighing 30 pounds at age two. Other people guessed Border Collie and Jack Russell Terrier.

Dan, a resident of Hollywood, California, wanted to know as much about Flora as he could. “I want to know who her mother and father were, where they are now, and show them Flora has grown up to be a great dog with a great life,” he says. Last summer he ordered the Canine Heritage test. The results showed that Flora’s parents were probably not purebreds — nothing listed in Primary category, just as Dan had suspected. The Secondary level, though, reported German Shepherd and Cocker Spaniel. Dan was amazed. “The Spaniel explains why she is so small, and the Shepherd explains why she is so smart!”

Kitty Cannon of Crystal Beach, Florida, and her husband had always played a guessing game about their dog’s breed makeup. When they learned about DNA testing in 2008, Kitty thought, “Why not? Since we can’t afford to have Fox cloned, maybe by knowing his breeds we can in the future look for another great dog with his traits.” They guessed Fox was part Collie or Sheltie. When their Canine Heritage results came back, they were surprised to get Bernese Mountain Dog in the Secondary category, and Chow Chow “In the Mix.” Only a higher being would know for sure whether the results are accurate, says Kitty, “but we do notice some similarities as to where he got his fur color, ear shape, and jowl line. We know they broke the mold with him and there will never be another.”

Evelyn Orenbuch, a veterinarian from Philadelphia, ordered the Mars Veterinary Wisdom Panel MX for her rescue dog, Pia. “I wanted to know if Pia’s behavior had anything to do with the breeds I thought she had in her. We guessed Border Collie, Whippet, and…?” The results matched at only the lowest levels, revealing German Shepherd and a couple of other breeds. Dr. Orenbuch was somewhat disappointed, as she had hoped to have more information about Pia’s origin. Nonetheless, she says she would recommend the test to clients. “Knowing what breeds are in your dog helps you to understand his emotional and physical aspects. It may not change what you do with your dog or how you treat him, but it may help you to understand him.”

Breed Testing Criticism and Limitations

The Wisdom Panel (Mars Veterinary product) has been criticized because it requires a trip to a veterinarian and a blood draw. This increases the cost of testing, and could stress vet-averse dogs. Critics also suggest that blood samples can be damaged in transit to the lab.

Mars Veterinary defends its decision to use blood by explaining that DNA from a blood sample is the “gold standard” as the quality and quantity of DNA derived is better than from a buccal (cheek) swab. Mars Veterinary’s Dr. Hughes says that the DNA in blood is actually very hardy, and, in fact, the lab has to raise the temperature of the DNA to near boiling repeatedly during the SNP analyses. The company also uses specially designed plastic tubes to protect the blood tube in transit.

Cheek swab tests receive their own criticism. Buccal swabs have a higher failure rate due to variation in owner sampling, such as not collecting enough cells. Also, because of bacteria in dogs’ mouths, there is a potential for bacterial growth if the samples aren’t handled correctly.

Then there are criticisms from consumers. One recurrent theme of unhappy clients is that results of a DNA test failed to find a preponderance of any particular breed in their “very mixed mixed-breed” dogs. (See sections below.)

Another has to do with the fact that some dogs don’t look anything like the breeds that their tests detected. It’s difficult to feel good about a result that doesn’t confirm or explain anything about the dog’s physical appearance or behavior – and the companies’ explanations for this phenomenon may be unsatisfying.

The Wisdom Panel website says, “Many parts of the canine genome are likely to be unobservable or hidden with regard to trait determination. This can happen for any number of trait-determining genes. Simply put, a mixed-breed dog could be a mix of three or four breeds but have few traits evident from one or more of these breeds.”

MMIG’s explains: “Canine Heritage Breed Test only works for the breeds that have been validated. If your pet’s breed composition contains non-validated breed(s) the test may identify breed(s) earlier in your dog’s ancestry. This may cause identification of apparent unlikely breeds for your pet’s composition.” How valid are the results?

To get some perspective from an independent expert on canine DNA, we interviewed Beth Wictum, director of the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Wictum has been with the university for 30 years. She has participated in and witnessed the evolution of the science that makes it possible to identify an animal through the study of its tissue; during her tenure, “state of the art” has gone from blood typing to sequencing the genome.

Asked to comment on mixed-breed ID tests, Wictum emphasized that the tests are only as good as each company’s database; that is, if a breed is not represented in a company’s database, then the test will identify the next closest match. She explains by saying that purebred dogs, especially registered purebreds, have been intensively managed and have a limited genetic pool.

“Most breeds have been created through intense selection over the last few hundred years, so there has not been enough time for them to diverge through mutations,” she says. The differences between breeds lie in the selective breeding by breeders for morphology (structure) or behavior. Therefore, the ideal breed test would be one that looks at those traits that characterize each breed and makes them unique.

“The field of canine genetics is still young; the dog genome was only sequenced about five years ago,” she says. “We are just starting to identify the genes responsible for various traits.”

Like many scientists in this field, Wictum is excited about the potential for identifying the genetic basis for various diseases. She says the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at UC Davis and the Bannasch Laboratory (also at UC Davis) “are identifying the genetic basis of various diseases, which can then be offered as tests to the public. If you know what diseases may occur, you will be able to have your pet tested to see if he carries the mutation.”

Her advice concerning the mixed-breed DNA tests? “While these tests may indicate breeds that contributed to your pet’s genetic makeup, you must realize that they aren’t 100 percent accurate – and I don’t think they claim to be. If you have the money to spend and want to do it just for fun, then absolutely go ahead and do it.”

Some Owners Say Breed Testing is Not Worth It

Laura Pescador of Denver, Colorado, ordered the Canine Heritage test for Misha, her “60-pound, black and tan, square-nosed, short-haired, big-eared, deep-chested, bi-eyed mystery mix” in May 2008. Laura felt the breed combination she was told when she adopted Misha was unlikely (Australian Shepherd/Labrador Retriever); she was also hoping to receive a piece of paper that said that Misha was not a pit bull-mix, “Not because I don’t like them but because of my city’s breed-specific legislation.” Laura was disappointed to receive an “apology letter” with results stating that the test was inconclusive! On her certificate, next to “Primary” was written “Untested Breed,” while the other two categories were blank.

Scamper, Monty, and Rainey are three mixed breed dogs belonging to veterinarian J.C. Burcham, of Olathe, Kansas. In early 2008, she submitted blood samples for each dog to the Wisdom Panel test. Dr. Burcham was pretty sure that Monty was “several generations of mutts breeding to mutts” and had few expectations for his results. She calls Scamper a Jack Russell/Basenji/Beagle mix, so was expecting to see something like that, or even some terrier breed. Rainey was found as a puppy in rural Virginia, starving to death with two littermates, all three of whom looked like Border Collies.

When the results came in, Dr. Burcham was disappointed. “I felt like it was a complete waste of money! Rainey is clearly part Border Collie, and that was about the only reliable result I saw. Two of my three dogs were found to be “too complex” to identify. I could have told you that! That’s why I paid for the test.” Rainey’s results showed “some” Border Collie; however, she showed distant traces of Briard, Cairn Terrier, Great Dane, and Keeshond. Monty’s test revealed distant traces of Alaskan Malamute, Beagle, Bearded Collie, Chow Chow, and Smooth Fox Terrier, while Scamper’s showed trace amounts of Briard, Curly-Coated Retriever, and Shetland Sheepdog.

Dr. Burcham’s primary disappointment was seeing Briard in two of her dogs, which was unlikely, in her opinion. She was also annoyed that Scamper and Monty were dubbed “extremely complex mixed breed dogs.” With just 10-15 percent of mixed breed dogs falling into that category (according to Mars Veterinary), how could she have two of them?

I shared Dr. Burcham’s disappointment with Dr. Hughes, the Mars Veterinary consultant, and she offered to not just look at, but also to rerun the three tests. In the year since Dr.
Burcham submitted the samples, 23 additional breeds have been added to the Mars Veterinary database, and its algorithms have been modified. The company had found that the program was breaking down dogs into a lot of small pieces, “losing the forest through the trees,” resulting in some false positives. Results now are typically a smaller number of breeds and potentially in larger “amounts.”

When Rainey’s test was run again, Briard and Cairn Terrier did not appear; they had most likely been false positives. Border Collie bumped up to the Significant (parent) level, and Great Dane and Keeshound showed up at the Intermediate (grandparent) level. Monty’s results showed Beagle and Chow moving to the Intermediate (grandparent) level; the other breeds still were evident but could not be called with confidence, so they were likely false positives in the first test.

Scamper’s new results still revealed a “very mixed dog.” Curly-Coated Retriever moved to the Intermediate (grandparent) level, and Golden Retriever showed up at the Minor level. Briard and Sheltie were potentially part of her distant history or false positives. Also detected were Anatolian Shepherd and Australian Cattle Dog, which Dr. Hughes felt were more likely than Briard and Sheltie.

Nancy Kerns Weighs In

Of course when author Lisa Rodier proposed the idea of writing an article about the mixed-breed identification tests, [ wanted to have my mixed-breed dog, Otto, tested – you know, just for journalism’s sake! But which test should we order, from which company? We quickly decided to order the most extensive product from each of the two industry leading companies and compare the results.

Otto had a vet appointment coming up, which I used as an opportunity to have his blood drawn for the Mars Veterinary Wisdom Panel. We followed the normal protocol: I paid the vet for the blood draw and the test; his staff sent the sample to the lab, and gave me a test ID number so I could check on the progress of the test using the Wisdom Panel website.

The following day, I brought Otto with me to PETCO to buy a test kit for MMIG’s Canine Heritage “XL” test (this company has since been bought by Wisdom Panel). PETCO’s grooming department staffhave been trained by MMIG to collect cheek swabs. Following the trip to the vet the previous day, Otto was nervous, so I collected the cheek swab myself (but asked a PETCO staff member to pose with the sample and its mailing envelope, you know, for science).

DNA Test Suspense

Waiting for results was excruciating 7 especially since Canine Heritage sent me an e-mail the day after I mailed the cheek swab, confirming its receipt in its Davis, California laboratory (I live about 70 miles from Davis). This gave me the idea that I might receive results soon – but it took a full seven weeks to receive them in the mail! (MMIG says results should arrive in six to eight weeks; it was just the anticipation that made this wait seem interminable. Plus the fact that you can’t get the results online.) I checked the website for the Wisdom Panel results every day. Just three weeks after Otto had his blood drawn, I saw that the results were complete, and I could download the Adobe Acrobat file that contained them.

So? What is Breed is Otto?

The Wisdom Panel results said, “The analysis revealed that Otto is a fairly mixed dog and we have not found evidence of a purebred parent or grandparent.” (I think I knew that!) There were no results at the “Significant” or “Intermediate” level. However, at the “Minor” level, these four breeds appeared: German Shepherd Dog, *Basenji, *Chow Chow, and *Border Collie. The asterisks indicated “Minor amount detected at low confidence. These results are not included in accuracy calculations.” (Me: “Basenji?!”)

The Canine Heritage results showed nothing in the “Primary” category, Chow Chow in the “Secondary” category, and Poodle and Border Collie “In the Mix.” (Me: “POODLE?!”)

My Expectations

I would have guessed that Otto had some German Shepherd Dog in him, and I was even expecting some Chow Chow. He definitely has a GSD-sort of tail and his ears are very Chow. When he’s soaking wet and his hair is slicked down, his body shape looks a little like a Golden Retriever. And I was certain there had to be some terrier breed in him. How else do you explain that fuzz-face?

The shelter that I adopted him from guessed he was Airedale and Border Terrier. (I give them a break; he was only about five months and little when they got him.) Though this breed does not appear in either the Canine Heritage or Wisdom Panel database, author Lisa Rodier was rooting for a Picardy Shepherd (Berger Picard) result; she thinks he’s a ringer for the Winn-Dixie dog. Nobody guessed Border Collie, Poodle, or Basenji.

Why Didn’t the DNA Tests Work?

How can the two companies have such different results for Otto?

We asked Theresa Brady, spokeswoman for MMIG, to address this question. She replied, “Each company developed its test independently, so there are a number of factors that can result in different breeds recognized in a particular dog. During the research phase, each company must identify a set of DNA markers that characterize differences from breed to breed. Then these markers must be characterized in a set of dogs representing the pure breeds.

“Not only are these markers different across companies, but the number and source of the purebred dogs are different. No company can test every purebred dog representing a breed, and every company will have developed software that is used to compare these genetic markers across breeds.

“Some breeds, however, are closely related because they were developed from the crossing of older, more established breeds. For example, Boston Terriers were developed from the crossing of the English Bulldog and English White Terrier. So, depending on the software program, the markers established for the purebreds and the population of breeds in each company’s database, the same dog may test ‘Boston Terrier’ with one company and ‘English Bulldog’ with another.

“Some breeds are related because they arose from a common lineage, such as many of those breeds developed from Asia. Early on, we (MMIG) recognized that the Chow Chow, the Akita, the Siberian Husky, the Chinese Shar-Pei, and even the Shih-Tzu can cluster together as one general breed type so we developed an enhanced program and analysis procedure to split these apart. Thus it is not surprising that the companies may report slightly different results, especially for the breeds that have just a small representation in the mixed breed pet.”

Addressing any results that appear in the “Secondary” section of a report (where they detected Chow Chow in Otto), the MMIG (Canine Heritage) results packet says, “This category reports breeds that might be easily recognizable within your dog. While these breeds may or may not have a strong influence on your pet, each breed listed makes up less than the majority of your dog’s DNA.”

Addressing results that appear in the “In the Mix” section of a report (where they detected Poodle and Border Collie in Otto), the Canine Heritage packet says, “This final category identifies breeds that have the least amount of influence on your pet’s composition. They still appear, at low and measurable amounts, in your pet’s DNA. If your pet’s results only identify breeds in this category, it is possible your pet is composed of so many breeds only small influences from each breed can be detected.”

The Mars Veterinary (Wisdom Panel) results packet explains, “Because of the complexity of genetics and the passing on of dominant and recessive genes from generation to generation, every trait from the breeds we found may not always be visually apparent. It is important to spend time closely observing Otto’s appearance and personality. Think about which of Otto’s traits may reflect a combination of the breeds detected, and which seem to reflect just one of the individual breeds.”

Our Opinion on Breed Testing

I have to say that I found the whole exercise very interesting, but not necessarily worth the cost. Given that the results for my very mixed-breed dog were so weak, the idea that they might help me anticipate certain health or behavior problems linked to the breeds found is not very compelling. But I doubt that’s why most people order the tests; I think most of us are just curious.

Having spent so much time examining and admiring the technological achievements that went into the development of these DNA tests, Lisa Rodier was afraid I would pooh-pooh the science behind these tests because I was so skeptical of the breeds detected in Otto’s lineage. It’s not that; I trust the science. I believe there are traces of these breeds (and many others) in Otto. It’s just that I already knew he was a very mixed dog, just from a (free!) look at him. And if he wasn’t such a mixed bag – if he looked a lot like one particular breed, I’d probably be satisfied with the idea that he was mostly that breed; I wouldn’t spend $100-plus to confirm it.

That said, I must admit I will be interested to see how the results might change in a few years, after these companies put thousands and thousands more dogs into their databases. Which breeds will “fall off” of Otto’s results as meaningless “background noise”? Will the Picardy Shepherd be added? It could still develop that Otto is a limp-eared Picardy who fell out of a French tourist’s car somewhere in the Northern California wine country…We’ll check back with these companies in a few years, and let you know.

– Nancy Kerns

Dog DNA Testing FAQs

Canine mixed breed tests seem to be a very emotional topic. Those who have used the tests and have gotten the results they expected tend to be proponents, while those who received weak results or results that didn’t seem to square with the dog’s appearance tend to regret the purchase. But does that mean the tests don’t work? Here’s a stab at trying to explain some of what might be going on.

Breed results are reported in levels; Why is my dog only getting “minor” or “trace” breeds and no strong hits?

Dr. Hughes explained that most likely the dog’s parents and grandparents were themselves mixed breed, and a portion of the dog’s ancestry can be mixed beyond three generations which, for Mars Veterinary, is the extent of the company’s confidence. There is also the possibility that a breed is not covered in the database (for example, none of the tests’ databases include Rat Terrier) so the test will look for the most closely related breed.

My dog looks like X, but the test says she’s Y…

Dr. Hughes explains that we want to associate a particular trait with one breed, but in actuality, it could be coming from a number of breeds. And when we move across breeds, combinations of genes can create very unusual outcomes.

One way she looks at the issue is first looking at a dog’s traits, defining what genes are necessary to get those traits, and then asking whether we can get those genes in a particular breed? For example, the merle color pattern, very common in Australian Shepherds, comes from a single gene, and a dog need only have one copy of that gene to exhibit that color pattern, And guess what? Dachshunds, Chihuahuas, and Great Danes can all provide that gene.

Black and tan coats are commonly associated with Rottweilers and Dobermans. But Chihuahuas, Cocker Spaniels, Dachshunds, and Poodles all carry this gene mutation. But in this case, it is recessive, so two copies must come together for

us to actually see that color pattern.

Meg Retinger of BioPet also points out that in some very mixed dogs, you might only see very subtle traits, such as the shape of the ear or the eyes. Her son’s dog tested as showing Beagle, yet she looks very much like a Labrador. When she howls, however, she sounds like pure Beagle!

My dog is a Labradoodle (Labrador Retriever-Poodle cross), so why doesn’t the test say she’s a 50/50 mix?

We let Theresa Brady of MMIG address this, as she herself owns a Labradoodle. When she tested her dog using the Canine Heritage test, the results showed that Poodle was a Secondary breed, with Labrador Retriever “In the Mix.”

She explains, “You should know that my dog came from a breeder who claimed that the dog was seventh generation Labradoodle, which means that neither of her parents was a purebred (purebred Poodle or Retriever) and neither of their parents were purebred and so on. It makes sense, then, that she had nothing show up in Primary.” When I asked why the Poodle was Secondary, but not the Retriever, her guess was that the breeder probably crossed back more Poodle, looking for a more hypoallergenic coat. Dr. Hughes adds, “When breeding Labradoodle to Labradoodle, the “amount’ of Lab or Poodle genes passed down is random chance (think of a Pachinko machine). Testing the dog’s littermates may show very different proportions of each of these breeds. That being said, some ‘Labradoodle’ breeders are back-crossing Labradoodles to Poodles to change the size or coat of the dogs. I have seen some really strange looking Labradoodles!”

How can dog DNA tests get better?

Increasing the size of the database, increasing the number of markers, and overall innovations in technology will see the tests become better tools. Also, as research continues on canine genetics, a better understanding of genes and how they relate to various breed traits will play a role in making a better test.

Lisa Rodier lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, with her husband and two Bouviers.

Enjoying Your New Dog as The Seasons Turn to Spring

By
Nancy Kerns
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Spring is here and so is shedding season! Suddenly, every carpet in the house is woven with dog hair. Otto has what can be best described as a “combination coat” (I just made that up). Much of his outer coat is made up of long, stiff, straight hair – resembling that from a German Shepherd, or maybe a Labrador – that seems to wriggle into the carpet pattern itself. My vacuum is helpless in the face of this hair. Admittedly, it’s not a great vacuum, so cleaning the few carpets we have has turned into aerobic exercise.

Enjoying Your New Dog

Otto was not delighted with being brushed and having his hair pulled out, but he did like the attention, affection, and treats; overall the experience was a wash!

Quite some time ago, Black & Decker sent me a new DustBuster (handheld power vacuum) to try. This one is the “Retriever Pet Series Cyclonic Action,” and it plugs in; it’s powerful, unlike wimpy cordless models I’ve owned in my past. Used with its “turbo brush” (spinning rubber bristles) attachment, it’s fantastic at getting pet hair off our couch. But with an approximately three-inch intake, it’s not useful for cleaning entire carpets.

My sister Pam has been telling me I absolutely have to get the same vacuum she recently bought: A Dyson “Animal.” She has three small white dogs and swears that she had enough hair to make another, larger dog out of the stuff that the new vacuum cleaned up on its inaugural tour through her house. “I had forgotten what a dark color my couches actually were!” she reported, incredulous. “And my rugs are beautiful!”

Otto also has a softer, shorter coat underneath, which is coming out by the literal handful – although, curiously, this is not the hair we find so much of in the house. This hair mostly comes out through petting. You can’t pet him right now without inadvertently collecting a pile of loose hair at the end of your handstroke.

The other day, I used a “grooming rake” – a tool with short metal teeth – to loosen and pull out some of this thick undercoat, and quickly amassed a big pile of hair on the lawn. But the tool didn’t remove any of that long, wiry hair on the top of his coat, and it’s shedding, too. I started pulling this long hair – gently! – and found it came out pretty easily. I know that this is an actual grooming technique; I have a good friend who has a German Wire-Haired Pointer, and she’s paid good money to have him professionally “hand-stripped” (as opposed to clipped with clippers). Between the raking and pulling, Otto looks much more sleek.

Trip to the vet
One of the reasons I wanted to clean Otto up was for a trip to the vet’s office. I took him in for a few reasons.

The first is exciting. Lisa Rodier, a regular contributor to WDJ (and who interviewed trainer Victoria Stilwell for the article on page 4 of this issue), is working on an article for us about the new DNA tests that are supposed to be able to determine the genetic contributors to any mixed breed dog. There are two leading companies offering this service; the Canine Heritage Breed Test analyzes some of the dog’s cheek cells (which you collect with a special swab that the company provides in its test kit). The Wisdom Panel Mixed Breed Analysis requires a sample of blood, drawn by a participating veterinarian. For purposes of the article, Lisa and I decided to have both tests done on the same dog, so we could compare the results. And Otto got to be our test subject! (We don’t have the results yet, but will share them with you in an article in the June or July issue.)

Enjoying Your New Dog

The goats didn’t like the looks or behavior of the new dog. They reared and stomped their feet at Otto.

I haven’t taken Otto to any veterinarian since I adopted him last June. In another month, he’d be due for two bits of routine veterinary business, so I combined a trip for the blood draw for the DNA test with a heartworm test and a rabies vaccine.

Heartworm
Where I live, heartworm infections in dogs are common. I’ve lived in parts of California where I made a calculated decision to forego heartworm preventative medication for my dogs, based on the incredibly low prevalence of the disease in those areas.

Oroville, in contrast, seems to offer an ideal climate to mosquitoes – the vital carriers of several life stages of the heartworm. There also seems to be an ample reservoir of the infection in our local wildlife – and perhaps the unprotected dogs of the area, too. Employees of the animal shelter in our town can attest that most dogs who are kept outdoors and who aren’t routinely given heartworm preventatives will contract a lethal infection of the parasites.

As we reported in articles such as “Parasites Within Parasites” (August 2006); “Heartworm: Don’t Take It Lightly” (March 2006); and “Reflections on Heartworm” (August 2002); there are holistic vets and some dog owners who feel that the potential dangers of heartworm preventive medications outweigh the health risks to the dog. Instead, these individuals focus on a two-pronged approach to preventing heartworm disease.

Enjoying Your New Dog

Otto is inextricably drawn to the more defensive goat. Her assertive behavior intrigued him. At this point, he’s more curious than scared.

The first goal is to boost the dog’s immune system – often through biologically appropriate raw diets, and herbal and other supplements. The idea is to increase the ability of the dog’s immune system to detect and kill any larval forms of the heartworm that they are infected with (through the bite of a carrier mosquito).

It’s not as farfetched as it might sound. Researchers are aware that some dogs are somehow able to live long, symptom-free lives despite light infections with adult heartworms. And other dogs seem to be able to resist the infections so well that larval heartworms never survive to maturity; they test heartworm-free in spite of regular exposure to infected mosquitoes.

Other owners take a different (or a complementary) tack: they focus on protecting their dogs from mosquitoes, often with nontoxic mosquito repellents made of strong essential oils.

While I respect dog owners who are able to succeed at these efforts, I’m not brave enough to seek out alternatives to conventional heartworm preventatives; nor am I particularly worried about medication’s side effects. In contrast, I’m scared to death of heartworm infections. I’ve seen dogs with severe heartworms infections, and it’s not pretty. I’ve also seen dogs go through treatment for an infection, and that’s nerve-wracking as well. Immediately following treatment, the dog requires total cage-rest while the dead worms are shed from his circulatory tract into his lungs; complications are common. Treated dogs sometimes need steroids, antibiotics, fluids, and aggressive nursing care to pull through.

Enjoying Your New Dog

The feeling was mutual. Otto repeatedly rushed the fence barking. He seems more scared than predatory, though.

I do administer heartworm preventative to Otto on a slightly longer schedule than is recommended by the manufacturer (as described in detail in the March 2006 article mentioned earlier). I give the medication to Otto every 40 to 45 days.

Most veterinarians require a negative heartworm test each year, before they will renew a dog’s prescription for preventative; that’s one of the reasons I took Otto to the vet. Happily, his test was negative, as I hope it always will be.

Rabies vaccines
Otto received a one-year rabies vaccine in the shelter from which I adopted him, not quite a year ago. Given that he was brought into the shelter as a stray of approximately six months of age, he may or may not have received other rabies vaccines before that.

Administration of the rabies vaccine is a matter of state law. To protect the health of the (human) population from this fatal disease, public health officials in each state enforce laws that decide whether dogs must receive a vaccination against rabies annually, or every three years. California is a three-year state.

Enjoying Your New Dog

He turned away from the goats and toward me each time I said “Off!” Our daily “off” practice is paying, um, off.

The rabies vaccine causes the greatest number of adverse reactions of the most common vaccines that dogs are given. As a result, owners of chronically ill dogs, or those who have had previous vaccine reactions, might want to consider applying for a rabies waiver. However, Otto is a young, healthy dog, and we live in an area where skunks, bats, raccoons, and other wildlife carriers of rabies are common. Unvaccinated feral cats, too, are quite common in this area. Skunks and feral cats were both living under our house before we moved in, and Otto patrols our property nightly to prevent intrusions by these potential carriers of disease. I felt fine about arranging for a three-year rabies vaccine.

Big surprise
Since this was only Otto’s second trip to a veterinarian (and I brought him to a different clinic than the one I brought him to after I adopted him), I came equipped with a bait bag and a lot of Otto’s favorite treats: cut-up hot dogs. I gave him lots of treats for sits, downs, and stands, keeping him distracted from the mewing cat in a carrier across the waiting room.

Enjoying Your New Dog

My friend doled out crackers for all the dogs and goats. Otto was polite, but after hot dogs, the crackers were not yummy enough to hold his interest.

When the cat and her family were called into the exam room, I took Otto over to the scale in the waiting room, and although it took a lot of treats to get him to step on it, I was finally able to see Otto’s current weight. It was a big surprise! When I adopted him last June, Otto weighed 44 pounds, and it has not seemed to me that he’s grown very much. He lost a little puppy flab, and he’s put on more muscle, but he doesn’t seem significantly bigger than when I got him. In fact, he’s 20 pounds heavier!

This wouldn’t be a big deal, except for the fact that I’ve been giving him heartworm preventative for dogs that weigh from 25 to 50 pounds; he should have been receiving a higher dose. I bought a new supply of the larger dose.

I adjust the amount of dry dog food that I feed Otto based on the amount of exercise he is getting and on how his weight looks. I give him a little less on the days when we don’t manage to go out for a long walk or hard run, and give him a bit more on the days when he burns more calories. And when he looks a little heavy, I reduce his portions a bit more. This is pretty unscientific, but the vet who examined him agreed that his weight looks good; he is healthy.

Getting his goat
Otto’s weight gain was my surprise of the month. Meeting a pair of goats was his!

We’ve passed horses on walks before, and his response to them was decidedly ho-hum. So I really didn’t expect Otto’s agitated reaction to the goats.

I recently started going for mountain bike rides with a new friend, Leonora. We’ve met on the trails near my house before, and one recent Saturday, Leonora proposed a ride from her house, which is located about a dozen miles out of town, and higher up in the foothills than the town of Oroville. She also invited me to bring Otto, so he could play with her dogs; they could all hang out together in her quarter-acre, fenced dog run while we went riding. Otto gets along especially well with three-year-old Matilda. He’s slightly less crazy about Leonora’s newest dog, a five-month-old mixed-breed pup named Lena, and he pretty much ignores tiny S’mores, a Chihuahua.

Enjoying Your New Dog

The behavior of the goats, as much as Otto’s continued interest in them, tells me that he should be watched carefully around them for some time to come.

When we got to Leonora’s house, Otto was so glad to see the dogs that he failed to notice the goats for probably the first hour that we were there. Suddenly I heard a loud, “Wooo, woo woo woo!” Recognizing Otto’s “watchdog” bark, I ran around the corner of Leonora’s house to see two very agitated goats and one very aroused Otto facing each other across a wire mesh fence. All three animals had all the hair on their backs standing straight up; I didn’t know goats did that, too!

The goats are familiar with Leonora’s dogs; they even play and are affectionate with gentle Matilda. But they took an immediate exception to Otto; there was something about him that just looked like trouble to them.

One thing that I have learned is that you never know when an opportunity to teach your dog something new will arise, so it’s best to always carry treats. I had the benefit of a bait bag full of cut-up hot dogs, so in a clear voice, I said “Otto! Off!” And because we practice this exercise practically every day, he immediately looked away from the goats and started trotting toward me for the reward he knew was forthcoming. Jackpot! What a good dog. I gave him a steady stream of hot dog bits and praise, and then we headed back to the goat pen to work a little more.

The goats were still on red alert, so Leonora headed into the pen with Matilda, to pet and calm them. If it seemed that Otto might try to attack the goats, I would have put him on-leash, but given that he responded so well to my “off” cue, I felt I would be able to control him well enough to avoid real trouble.

I was so proud of him. I allowed him to approach the fence to get a closer look, and I said “Off!” if he barked or rushed at the goats. Each time I said “Off!” he turned to me for a treat, and even seemed to put his fur down and forget about the strange hoofed animals for a few seconds.

After a few minutes, Leonora came out of the pen and started handing out crackers to all the animals, canine and caprine (the latter means goats; I just learned that). The goats calmed down, and all the dogs sat politely for their crackers. After a few treats, Otto apparently decided that crackers weren’t that great, and he broke ranks to approach the fence again. However, as before, he turned away the moment I said “Off!” and looked to me for some more hot dogs. I decided to end the day’s lesson on that note, and took him back up to the house. The goats still didn’t trust him, and I wouldn’t at this point, either. But I think we made good progress for his first “getting along with livestock” lesson.

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