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Tail-Wagging Training

By
CJ Puotinen
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Training, says Massachusetts dog trainer Donna Duford, should be fun, not work. Her seminars are such upbeat, tail-wagging events that the dogs seem to be having a party. Look closer and you’ll see a serious class, with participants taking notes as Duford reviews the laws of learning and defines classical conditioning, operant conditioning, positive and negative reinforcement, positive and negative punishment, continuous and variable reinforcement schedules, and other fundamentals of behavioral training. An internationally recognized lecturer, consultant to rescue groups, and former co-director of the exclusive dog training program for Tufts Veterinary School, Duford brings the theories of behavior modification to life with lively demonstrations.

“The secret to getting your dog to do what you want,” she says, “whether it’s learning a new trick, stopping an unwanted behavior, or improving performance for competition, is to understand why dogs act the way they do. Dogs are honest, and they do their best to communicate with us.

“Dogs do what works,” she continues. “They are obedient to the laws of learning. If you want your dog to do something, find a way for it to make sense to her, and she will respond. Dogs are easily distracted by the world around them. You have to be more exciting than the floor, other dogs, someone else’s treats, and all the other sights, smells, and sounds that compete for attention. Once you understand the laws of learning, you can break any behavior into its component parts and understand it from your dog’s point of view. As soon as you present what you want in a way that makes sense to your dog, it’s easy to change her behavior.”

Duford, best known for her work in musical canine freestyle, the new sport of dancing with dogs, is the author of Agility Tricks for Improved Attention, Flexibility and Confidence. Don’t let the title mislead you. Her book’s tricks and the lessons they teach are just as valuable to obedience competitors, show dogs, therapy or service dogs, canine athletes, and family pets. At a recent two-day seminar sponsored by Skyline Agility Club in Haverstraw, New York, Duford showed how correctly timed positive reinforcements can be used not only to improve the performance of dogs competing in agility but also, to solve problems of every description.

Find the key to YOUR dog
“There is no single training strategy that works for every dog,” Duford told the group. “If your dog isn’t motivated by food, you won’t accomplish much with treats. The same is true for toys, praise, petting, and other rewards. Some dogs are excited by movement and like to chase things, or they love to run and play. Some are chow hounds. Some love to carry a toy. You have to find what works for your dog – or more accurately, what reward your dog will work for. The more your dog wants something, and the more clearly he understands that the right behavior will bring that reward, the faster he’ll learn.”

Dogs respond in different ways to physical manipulation, says Duford. Some are helped by gentle physical prompts, but others are stressed by tugging, pushing, pulling, and physical positioning. If your dog dislikes or is distracted by physical handling, use other methods. Some dogs enjoy learning new things and are willing to try just about anything, while others find the learning process stressful and work best with short training sessions, frequent positive feedback, and frequent repetition.

Emotional sensitivity is another consideration. Sensitive dogs are like sensitive people; they take everything personally! “It takes patience and understanding to train sensitive dogs,” says Duford, “because they are affected by voice, mood, facial expression, and body language. Their training works best when you give lots of positive reinforcement and keep your mind on what you’re doing because insufficient encouragement, outside distractions, or your own impatience can cause a sensitive dog to shut down and stop working. Less sensitive dogs are often easier to train because they bounce back no matter what mistakes you make.”

Another way in which dogs are different is in their response to cues and signals. Some dogs are more attentive to sound and focus their attention on voices and other auditory cues, while others are more visual and do better with physical signals.

“By far the easiest way to train a dog,” says Duford, “is to observe its natural behaviors. Most dogs already do some version of what you want. It’s just a matter of capturing and expanding on that behavior.” Once owners take the time to understand what motivates their dogs, says Duford, they can plan a sensible training schedule that incorporates all of this information. “In general,” she says, “dogs do best with short training sessions. An hour-long class is convenient for people, but dogs learn faster in five-minute sessions scattered through the day. In fact, too much training can be counterproductive.”

Shaping behavior
Donna Duford’s seminars have a party atmosphere because dogs and handlers use treats, praise, and other rewards to explore positive reinforcement. “To capture or shape a behavior,” she says, “you need a way to communicate quickly.” Duford uses a hand-held clicker because it pinpoints timing exactly, but she uses other cues as well.

“I like the word ‘yes’ because it’s easy to remember, appropriate, and easy to pronounce,” she says, “but you can use another word or a visual cue. Whatever you use, start by showing your dog that it means something positive.” This exercise involves food treats, toys, and other motivating rewards. Give a click or say “Yes!” while handing your dog a treat or toy, then repeat it until he associates the sound with a reward. No wonder tails were wagging around the room.

“A conditioned reinforcer is anything you pair with a primary reinforcer,” Duford explains. “The conditioned reinforcer is the cue. The primary reinforcer is whatever your dog enjoys enough to work for.

“To create a conditioned reinforcer, present it first. This means click or say yes, then immediately give the primary reinforcer, which is the treat, toy, or whatever your dog wants. Repeat this several times, then wait for your dog to look away and focus on something else. Click or say yes, and if your dog comes back and gives you an attentive look, she is making the connection. As soon as she associates the two stimuli or events, you have started training.”

In the seminar, Duford worked with dogs of every age and description. To teach an exuberant Portuguese Water Dog to nod, Duford waited for his head to dip even a small amount, then she clicked and gave him a treat. Soon the dog was bobbing his head so enthusiastically that everyone laughed and applauded. Then he began prancing forward and back while bobbing his head. “I have mixed feelings about this,” Duford told the crowd. “Freestyle is my first love, and this dog is a natural dancer. If this were a freestyle seminar, we’d almost be ready to choose the music. But today all I want is a nod of the head, so I won’t reinforce the dance steps. I’ll just ignore them. Because prancing doesn’t generate any clicks or treats, he’ll soon stop.” As though he understood what she was saying, the dog stood still, nodded his head, and wagged his tail as soon as this simpler behavior produced a click and treat.

Timing, as Duford demonstrated, is everything. “For a reinforcement to be effective,” she says, “it must be immediate. A reward given too late or too early won’t just fail to reinforce the desired behavior, it can reinforce something else entirely. Your dog will focus on whatever she was doing when you gave the reinforcement, and that may not be what you intended at all.” Duford recommends alternating reinforcers (a clicker, the word yes, verbal praise, visual signals, and other reward indicators), so you always have a way to communicate quickly and efficiently.

At the beginning, follow the cue with a reward every time, but when a behavior is well established, reward every other time, then on a random schedule.

“If you and I get the same reward every time we do something, like when we turn on a light switch or put money in a Coke machine, it becomes a mindless routine,” says Duford. “If we don’t get the reward we expect, we know the machine is broken or the power is off and we stop trying. But if we get a positive reward only some of the time on an unpredictable schedule, like from a slot machine, we’re more likely to repeat a behavior in hopes of getting a prize. Dogs respond the same way.”

This is why random reinforcement works so well to improve performance. When dogs are motivated to get something that might come on the next try, they try harder.

“If you want speed, wait until your dog moves faster or sooner,” says Duford, “and reward that. If you want a different improvement, like a deeper stretch, higher head position, or straighter body alignment, reward that. Reward familiar behaviors on a random schedule, but reward improvements as soon as they take place. And if the improvement is significant, increase the reward by giving a jackpot, which is a bigger or better prize than usual.”

Teaching fun tricks
Tricks are amusing, but according to Duford, the lessons they teach build a sound foundation for serious training and problem solving. Teaching your dog a new trick requires careful observation and quick responses. The more accomplished you become in timing rewards, finding the right rewards to motivate your dog, and matching your training methods to your dog’s personality, the easier it will be to tackle anything from her entry to an agility course’s weave poles to improving her retrieve or come-when-called command.

Using your hand or an object as a target is an easy way to get started. Most dogs will sniff a hand held out to them. As soon as your dog’s nose touches your hand, give a reward. Repeat this until your dog turns to touch your hand wherever it is. If your dog loses interest, make your hand more interesting by holding it behind your back, inspecting it, talking to it, kissing it, or pretending to eat something from it. Using one hand as a target helped seminar participants teach their dogs how to turn in circles, spin, shake their heads from side to side, bow, and walk while weaving in and out of their owners’ legs.

For tricks in which the dog was further away, they used a small piece of transparent plastic as a target. Other popular targets are sticks or wands. “I like transparent plastic,” says Duford, “because it’s hard to see, which makes it easier to eliminate once it’s no longer needed.” Throughout the seminar, she emphasized the importance of removing targets, rewards, and other aids as soon as possible. “Some trainers are systematic,” she says, “and they follow a scientific schedule. I’m fond of shortcuts and use them whenever possible. If your dog doesn’t need something any more, why use it? Try doing without it once or twice, and if she doesn’t understand what you want, go back to using the target, lure, or reward until she does.” Duford is quick to raise her standards. As soon as a dog seems to catch on, she withholds the conditional reinforcer, which motivates the dog to repeat the behavior faster, more decisively, or more often.

“When you and your dog understand this approach to training,” she says, “it’s incredibly exciting. It’s tempting to keep adding one more thing or try the behavior one more time, but the best you can do is keep the session short and stop while you’re ahead. As soon as your dog seems confused, tired, slow, or stressed, do something simple and end on a high note.”

A step backward can help
Duford emphasizes the importance of temporarily lowering your standards whenever you introduce something new. “Your puppy may have learned to sit on the living room rug,” she says, “but take him outside and he’s clueless. That’s because the environment is completely different, and he’s distracted. Whenever you make a trick more complicated or introduce a new distraction, your dog may seem to forget the behavior. Be patient, give him lots of praise and rewards, and lower your criteria until he catches on again.

“Focus on one thing at a time,” Duford advises. “If you’re working on speed, ignore everything else, even if the dog is out of position. When she’s moving faster, go back to body alignment, understanding that as soon as you do so, her speed may suffer. Ignore speed until her alignment improves, then return to speed. With each change of focus, lower your standards. Click for small improvements. The same is true for distractions, which is why it’s important to be patient when your dog is working in a new location and contending with new sights, smells, and sounds.”

To those who felt frustrated when their dogs’ attention wandered, Duford asked whether any had ever walked into a room and forgotten why. This produced nods and chuckles. “Or have you ever driven your car from one place to another with no recollection at all of how you got there?” More laughter. “Maybe you even drove to the wrong place,” she said. “Were you being willfully disobedient?”

Relax, she says. Forgive your dog, forgive yourself, and enjoy each other. If you aren’t accomplishing anything, take a break. It’s better to interrupt a training session and try again later than insist that the dog repeat an exercise that isn’t working.

Wave hello!
Waving one paw in the air is a fun trick that impresses people, gives the dog something useful to do, provides a healthy stretch, and illustrates the versatility of Duford’s approach.

She explains – and better, quickly demonstrates with a student’s dog – how to master the wave with one paw, and then suggests ways that you could build on the simple behavior. When the dog can wave with either paw, she suggests, have her do it while standing rather than sitting. Then have her do it lying down. Teach your dog to give both paws at the same time. Have her wave when you give a visual signal by itself or a voice command by itself. Or work on distance. If she waves reliably at three feet, step back and try six or ten feet, or give the command from across the room.

“My dogs never know what to expect,” says Duford, who lives with a Border Collie and Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen. “I’m always trying something new, or trying to get them to do something faster or better. Both of them offer all kinds of behaviors because they know something will earn a reward sooner or later.”

Solving problem behavior
To Donna Duford, problem behavior is simply an unsolved puzzle. “The behavior, whatever it is, makes sense to the dog,” she explains. “It’s the person who hasn’t figured it out yet.” Whether the problem is house training, bad manners, separation anxiety, incessant barking, or a fear of the see-saw on an agility course, Duford approaches it systematically.

“We think of going to the store as a simple operation,” she says, “but stop for a minute and think of all the steps involved. You put appropriate clothes on, get your car keys and whatever else you need, check your list, go out the door, lock the door, walk to your car, unlock the car, get in, adjust the seat, turn the radio on, adjust the rear-view mirror, put the key in the ignition, turn the engine on, and release the brake – and you still haven’t gone anywhere. A lot of behaviors are involved in taking you to the store, and each of them can be examined in detail. When you’re analyzing a dog’s behavior, you have to think in similar terms.”

Once you isolate whatever triggers the behavior you don’t want, you can replace it with something else. A dog that charges the door whenever the doorbell rings can be rewarded for holding a quiet down/stay of increasing length and increasing levels of noise distraction. A dog that whines when his owner goes out of sight can be rewarded for staying quiet for two seconds, then five, then increasingly long periods.

“When training is the problem,” says Duford, “it’s usually because the handler is trying too much too fast or is simply inattentive. Break the trick or command into small components and reward these little things instead of insisting on a complex finished behavior. Many trainers raise their criteria too rapidly, before the dog really understands the command, or they complicate the picture by asking for several things at once. Remember to work on one component at a time, and eventually the pieces will come together. Sometimes trainers raise their criteria without meaning to, such as when they try a trick outdoors for the first time. Go back to the most basic parts of the command and start from scratch.

“When a specific behavior is a problem,” she says, “you have to examine it from the dog’s point of view as well as your own. A dog will repeat a behavior that served a useful purpose in the past, even if the situation that caused it happened only once or no longer exists.”

In the agility seminar, Duford sometimes sounded like a detective, asking owners detailed questions about what, when, how, and where a problem occurred. The same approach that worked for these agility competitors works for household pets and dogs in other circumstances.

“I don’t claim that every owner can solve every behavioral problem with fun training methods,” says Duford, “but for most dogs and most people, learning tricks with positive reinforcement can transform the dog/handler relationship and lead to all kinds of exciting adventures. It’s an excellent place to start.”

-By CJ Puotinen

Author CJ Puotinen is an herbalist, holistic pet care expert, the author of Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care, and a frequent contributor to WDJ.

Telepathic Communication With Your Dog

By
Nancy Kerns
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Have you ever looked up suddenly and seen your dog staring at you intensely, longingly – a look that grows no less pleading when you offer treats, a walk, or a scratch behind the ears? Or perhaps you’ve seen your dog leap up at some seemingly nonexistent noise, sniffing and whining for no reason you can imagine. Have you wished that you could know what your animal wants, understand what he’s thinking? Or have you ever wondered, when your dog mysteriously disappears at bath time, if he knows what you’re thinking?

Some people believe it is possible for humans and other animals to bridge the gap of spoken language and understand each other. Ape language studies and the development of animal behaviorism as a science have both contributed to our knowledge of other species’ minds. But another, more controversial group of people, who usually call themselves “animal communicators,” believe that the key to understanding our animal companions lies not in science, but in spirituality. Could they be right?

Dr. Doolittle’s heirs

Doctor Doolittle, hero of the children’s fantasy stories, could “talk with the animals” – and they, in turn, could speak to him and be understood. Hugh Lofting, author of the Doctor Doolittle books, may have been inspired to create his character after serving in World War I, where he was disturbed by the killing of horses injured in battle: “If we made the animals take the same chances as ourselves,” he wrote, “why did we not give them similar attention when wounded?” Sadly, he came to the conclusion that to develop horse surgery as effective as human surgery “would necessitate a knowledge of horse language.” Lofting went on to create a character who could not only understand horse language, but was also fluent in dog, pig, parrot, monkey, and crocodile.

Doctor Doolittle may be the fictional world’s first “animal communicator,” but to his real-life counterparts, the good doctor’s achievement is no fantasy. Animal communicators do not actually bark at dogs or whinny to horses; rather, they believe they can send and receive images, ideas, or even words telepathically.

An inborn ability
Penelope Smith, one of the best known animal communication specialists, is considered a pioneer in the field. She has written two books on what she calls “interspecies telepathic communication,” publishes a newsletter called Species Link, and travels the world, speaking and teaching workshops on communicating with animals. Smith lives in Point Reyes, California, with her menagerie of two llamas, two Afghan hounds, three cats, three chickens, and a rabbit. A lifelong animal lover, Smith began her career as a professional animal communicator in 1977, but she remembers feeling an intuitive connection to animals in early childhood.

Smith believes all children are born with the ability to “hear” animals’ thoughts and feelings, but learn to suppress or hide what adults label an over-active imagination. She worked as a human counselor before concentrating her practice on animals, but Smith feels both are essentially the same work. “We’re all connected,” she says, and in working with animals, she believes she’s also helping people.

Smith says she believes many of the behavior problems we see in dogs are actually the dog’s attempt to communicate something. Domestic animals, Smith notes, have been taken out of a natural environment and expected to cope with human rules and inconsistencies. As house pets, they’re subjected to peoples’ emotions, family conflicts, indoor environmental pollution, and food that bears no resemblance to their hereditary diet. These stresses may cause some behavior problems, while in other cases, what we see as “bad” behavior may be a misunderstood attempt to please us.

For example, in her book Animal Talk, Smith tells the story of Tip, a dog who had begun scattering droppings from the cats’ litter box, as well as soiling the rug. Tip’s owner tried punishing the dog, but he persisted. Smith “talked” to Tip and discovered that he had observed his owner scooping out the cat box, so he thought she’d be pleased when he joined in the game. He also decided, since his owner was so interested in the cats’ droppings, that he would leave her some of his own to play with.

Sonya Fitzpatrick, an animal communicator and author of What the Animals Tell Me, tells the story of a client who came to her in distress because her cat had stopped using her litter box and seemed to spend much of her time hiding in a closet. Moving the litter box to the closet helped at first, but then the cat began having accidents inside the closet. Fitzpatrick “asked” the cat why she was not using the box, and learned that the client’s husband mistreated the cat and had been throwing shoes at her while she was in the closet, frightening her so that she had accidents. When she told the client what she had learned, the client confirmed that her husband disliked the cat. Plausible? Yes. But not necessarily proof of psychic powers. Dr. Nicholas Dodman, Director of the Behavior Clinic at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, offers another view of the story. As a behaviorist, he says, he might walk into the client’s house, learn that the cat was soiling, and notice that the husband doesn’t seem to like the cat. He might then deduce from the circumstances that the cat was being abused and was soiling out of stress. Perhaps, he suggests, animal communicators are in fact using a combination of intuition, observation, and common sense to get inside animals’ minds.

Finding Sebastian
Probably one of the most terrifying experiences a loving pet owner can face is the loss of an animal. When a pet is missing, worry and uncertainty may turn even skeptics into believers, and people who would normally scoff at the idea of psychic phenomena may find themselves working with an animal communicator. That’s what happened to Richard Caparco of Coventry, Rhode Island, when his family’s beloved collie, Sebastian, disappeared one day after a run on the dunes. Sebastian was lost on April 25, 1998. He was found more than six weeks later. And he was found, says Caparco, thanks to the help of animal communicators Alison Hamilton and Sonja Fisher.

Alison Hamilton owns Pet Sitters, a pet-sitting service in Newport, Rhode Island. Sonja Fisher, a registered nurse, has worked as a facilitator of One Brain and Three in One Concepts, a holistic practice using body energy. Using kinesiology techniques (also known as muscle testing), Hamilton and Fisher have taught workshops in animal communication, and they have worked in private practice with people and animals. On several occasions, Hamilton says, they have helped to find lost animals, including a cat lost in the baggage area of an air terminal, but Sebastian’s story was the most dramatic. Richard Caparco took the two family Collies, Sebastian and Samantha, out to some open sand dunes, as he did every day. On April 25, for some reason, Sebastian took off. Caparco looked for hours and called the dog, but couldn’t find him.

He returned later in the day and spent at least 10 hours combing the dunes and the woods for Sebastian, but found no sign of him. Caparco’s daughter, Michelle, was distraught: Each day, says Michelle, she would tell her father: “Go out and find the dog!” Samantha, the female dog, was also distressed by Sebastian’s absence. Caparco kept looking, he says, putting up posters and asking people if they’d seen “a Lassie dog,” calling police and dog pounds throughout the state, but after weeks had gone by, he had almost given up hope. Then one day, he got “a phone call from the psychics,” Sonja Fisher and Alison Hamilton. “They told me they were going to help me find this dog,” Caparco relates. “They never asked for a penny . . . they were happy just to help.”

Fisher and Hamilton encouraged Caparco to continue the searching he’d been doing. They told him that they had been in contact with the dog, and Sebastian was alive. In fact, they said, Sebastian told them Caparco had driven by him several times. The psychics looked at a map and pinpointed an area in rural Exeter, Rhode Island, where they said the dog was living. Caparco would find Sebastian, they said, because they had received a message that the dog was coming home.

One day, on a sudden impulse, Caparco drove to Exeter, about nine miles from where Sebastian was lost, and an animal ran into the road ahead of his car. Initially, his daughter thought it was a fox, but Caparco jumped out of the car and screamed the dog’s name. It was an incredibly emaciated Sebastian, still wearing his collar, his coat matted and full of ticks and fleas. After more than six weeks in the woods, the collie had lost 33 pounds and was near death, but he survived, and today is a healthy, loving, beautiful dog.

Caparco found Sebastian exactly where the psychics had told him the dog would be. “I never really believed in that stuff,” he says, but after finding Sebastian, “I had to change my mind.”

Communication and health
Dr. Liz Campbell, a veterinarian at the Wolf Rock Animal Clinic in Exeter, Rhode Island, offered a seminar in animal communication at the clinic, featuring communicator Nedda Wittels. The clinic offers holistic care, including acupuncture and herbal remedies, as well as traditional medicine. The staff members try to be sensitive to animals’ emotional needs and comfort, providing a quiet, calm atmosphere when possible.

“We really try to focus our energy on the fact that we are healing them and try to let them know that. We’ve always done this,” says Dr. Campbell, “but after the seminar, it’s been working better, and it’s amazing. Instead of just saying the words to the animal, you have to put the words through your body and into your heart and out your heart . . . if it comes from your heart, I think it goes into the animal.”

Sensing what the animals feel is more challenging. “I’m not so sure that it’s easy to hear them – that’s a little harder. It takes a lot of concentration to hear them, but we did learn to better project what we’re thinking and feeling through the seminars.” She believes that some people can “hear” animals’ thoughts, and says that she has heard some impressive stories from her clients and from other holistic veterinarians.

However, Campbell cautions that dog owners must use their own judgment about what the communicators report. She said that some of the psychics who offer telephone consultations end up giving more general pet care advice than doing actual psychic work, which “is great if you want to pay a dollar a minute to talk to someone about the best way to give your pet a pill or how he wants his bed fluffed.” What they are doing, she suggests, is telling clients what they think an animal might want, rather than actually communicating with the animal. Their advice isn’t necessarily wrong, but it isn’t any more valid than the animal care tips an owner might get from a good dog care book or a holistic veterinarian – and it may be more expensive. Though skeptical of some of the commercial psychics, Dr. Campbell still thinks the concept of animal communication has validity, and said she and Beverly Shear, technician at the clinic, have had success using nonverbal communication to help animals feel less threatened. Shear is particularly good at this, says Dr. Campbell. “I find that when she holds an animal, the animal calms down so quickly, it’s amazing.”

Beverly Shear says she has been using some elements of animal communication working with animals at the clinic. In addition to body language (gentle handling), she tries to send mental messages to animals: for example, asking permission before beginning a treatment, “Is it all right if I help you through this?” She says the animals often look at her and seem to respond with their bodies; occasionally, she adds, a dog will turn his back on her. “I take that to mean, ‘no!’ ” she laughs. Shear believes animals can pick up on our energy and our intentions, and when an animal is getting medical treatment, it’s especially important for the owner to communicate calm, positive feelings.

Veterinarians’ mixed reactions
While holistic veterinarians may be more open to the idea of animal communication, Kate Reilly, an animal communicator in Aiken, South Carolina, says she has been consulted by all kinds of veterinarians. Some veterinarians with traditional medical practices do consult animal psychics, just as police use human psychics, she explains, but “it’s not something they care to publicize” for fear of ridicule.

Reilly, who has been offering her animal communication services for 11 years, studied with Penelope Smith and Jeri Ryan, another California animal communicator. She now offers small workshops in her home. She does consultations over the phone, and says she finds this works best for her, because she’s not distracted by physical cues. It’s easy for her to get in contact with the animal, she notes, but she works hard to maintain the connection long enough to get the information the owner needs. She likes to “check in” with the animal at different times of day, to get inside them and feel what their bodies are feeling. Reilly says she can tell what kind of animal she is “speaking” to just by the animal’s way of thinking. Horses, for which Reilly has a special affinity, are “the most sensitive and desirous of a relationship with humans;” cats are philosophers; and dogs are easygoing and blasé. Reilly says she was drawn to her work because of her love for animals: “I have the best job in the world,” she says.

While some animal communicators, like Reilly, may be asked to consult with vets, sharing their perception of an animal’s feelings, their advice should not be seen as a substitute for a trained veterinarian’s care. A “Code of Ethics for Interspecies Telepathic Communicators,” designed by Penelope Smith, expressly states, “It is not our job to name and treat diseases, and we refer people to veterinarians for diagnosis of physical illness.”

Beyond human perception
Historically, dogs have been seen as having a “knowingness” beyond human understanding. Folk wisdom even holds that they can sense when someone is evil or dangerous. In her book, How to Talk to Your Animals, author Jean Craighead George, tells the story of Orion, a Malamute, who was walking with his owner on a dark Alaskan road one night.

A young man in a sports car stopped, seemingly to offer a ride, then sped away just as Steve Wood, the dog’s owner, went to open the door. Wood shrugged and kept walking, but a few minutes later, Orion jumped on his chest repeatedly, finally knocking him into a snowbank on the side of the road. He lay there, puzzled by his dog’s bizarre behavior, when suddenly, the same car came racing down the road again, headed straight at the spot where Wood had been standing. “Apparently Orion had sensed something crazy about that kid,” Wood told the author, and when he heard the car returning – long before a human could – he forced his owner off the road. “He saved my life,” Steve Wood stated. “I’m convinced of that.”

Rupert Sheldrake, a British researcher who taught biochemistry at Cambridge University, also believes dogs possess extrasensory abilities. His new book, Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home, outlines his theory that dogs and other animals can communicate with humans or with each other through telepathy. Drawing upon surveys and interviews with more than 1,000 people who own or work with animals, Sheldrake describes lost dogs and cats finding their way home through unfamiliar territory; pets who seem to know, even at a great distance, when their owners die; animals who predict earthquakes, bombing attacks, and other disasters; and, as the title suggests, dogs who know when their owners are coming home.

Sheldrake conducted a study using a terrier named Jaytee, simultaneously videotaping dog and owner as they spent a typical day apart, the owner at work and Jaytee at home. The tapes often showed Jaytee getting up and going to the door or window at the same time when his owner, miles away, decided to come home.

Sheldrake and his videotape appeared on the television show 20/20 in September, 1999, as did Dr. Nicholas Dodman, who took a skeptical view of Sheldrake’s methods and conclusion. The experiment was not completely randomized, Dr. Dodman pointed out, and it did not take into account the many times Jaytee got up and went to the window or door when his owner was not coming home. And when Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire tried to replicate the Jaytee experiment under controlled conditions, Wiseman said he found no evidence of telepathy.

Still, Sheldrake claims his results are significant, even when visits to the door or window for other reasons (barking at passing dogs, sitting in the sun) are included. In an interview with the British journal New Scientist, Sheldrake says, “More than half the dog owners we surveyed think their dogs can read their minds or pick up their thoughts . . . I think so many people claim their animals can read their minds because sometimes their pets do read their minds, they are picking up their intentions.”

Explaining the inexplicable
Whether or not dogs have a sixth sense, they certainly are better than humans at using the five senses they do have. Dogs have been known to “predict” thunderstorms, earthquakes, and fires.

Now dogs are even helping people with epilepsy and other seizure disorders to predict when seizures will occur. By sensing the coming seizure minutes ahead of time, the dogs allow patients to get into a safe position and call for medical help.

A research study at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine confirmed that dogs do alert their owners to seizures; researchers there are now seeking funding for a larger study to find out why and how the process works. The dogs may perceive unconscious behavioral changes that precede a seizure; they may, with their powerful sense of smell, detect changes in a person’s odor brought on by neurological and chemical changes (as in the popular expression that dogs can “smell fear”); or they may, in some way not yet understood, be able to sense a disturbance in the electromagnetic pulses of the person’s brain.

All of this is remarkable, but does it mean dogs have ESP? “It’s not extrasensory perception,” Michael Goehring of the Great Plains Assistance Foundation in North Dakota told the MSPCA publication Animals. “It’s extraordinary sensory perception.” Dr. Nicholas Dodman of Tufts agrees: “Before a seizure, a person’s affect changes. Dogs are very sensitive to physical changes.”

“Dogs are past masters in the sensory world,” says Dr. Dodman. With hearing, smell, some aspects of sight, and a directional sense that far surpass those of humans, dogs are exquisitely attuned to every aspect of their physical environment. While humans have evolved into a cerebral, speculative world of abstract thinking and symbolic language, often shutting out our environment, dogs remain grounded in physical reality.

“We live in a world of language and we think animals are a little silly because they can’t sit down and write a letter or speak,” Dr. Dodman says, yet dogs have their own form of intelligence, and the ability to use senses we’ve lost. Dogs often have an inborn sense of dead reckoning and are able to construct “mental maps” of territory. This accounts for some dogs’ legendary homing instinct and the many instances of dogs who find their way home from great distances. This ability, however, is not telepathy; it is a natural instinct which is “innate and biologically appropriate.”

Dogs have other natural advantages in the world of the senses. They can detect changes in barometric pressure, they can hear frequencies of sounds undetectable to human ears, and they have eyes perfectly adapted for night vision and detecting motion. Their sense of smell, Dr. Dodman says, is amazingly acute: “If you spread out the smell organs in the human nose, the total area of sensitive tissue is about the size of a thumbnail.” In a dog, he says, “It’s more like a pocket handkerchief.”

Dr. Dodman, while emphasizing dogs’ great natural abilities, discounts any claims that they have supernatural abilities. He is similarly skeptical of humans who claim to be able to communicate telepathically with animals. “They believe they can” talk to animals, he says, “but I don’t believe they can.” Dr. Dodman feels that the current interest in animal communication is just another example of the tendency of humans to attribute supernatural powers to things they don’t understand.

“Once we thought (animals) were gods, then demons. Now some people think they can talk. What’s next?”

-By Kathryn Kulpa

Kathryn Kulpa is a freelance writer from Middletown, Rhode Island. This is her first article for WDJ.

 

The Many Uses of the Kong!

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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I still have the very first Kong I bought 20 years ago for my Australian Kelpie, Keli. The indestructible black toy looks like it could have been purchased yesterday, despite 14 years of intensely hard use by typically obsessive herding dogs. Pre-dating the popular sport of Kong-stuffing by more than a decade, Keli was dedicated to chasing the four-inch, hollow, beehive-shaped rubber object as it bounced and boomeranged erratically across the asphalt at the shelter where we worked. Dang, it was almost as much fun as herding sheep!

Twenty years ago the Kong – originally available in just one size and color – was a novelty. Today it is made in numerous sizes, shapes, colors, and chewing densities, and is a “must-have” staple in the tool kit of most dog trainers and many wise dog owners. Dog care professionals have invented an almost endless list of uses for the innocuous-looking rubber object.

This amazing dog toy can distract a dog suffering from separation anxiety, entertain a bored dog who otherwise gets into trouble, train an under-motivated dog, etc. etc. You wouldn’t think that a mere toy could go so far as to help us cope with canines who might otherwise be labeled difficult dogs, or worse, end up on the discard pile at the local animal shelter, but Kong can do.

Top 10 uses for a Kong:

The Thrill of the Chase
This was the original application of the Kong. Because of its unique shape, the Kong bounces every which way but straight, providing intriguing quarry for the prey-oriented pooch. I doubt I would have survived the Kelpie-owning experience without engaging Keli in several intensive Kong-chasing sessions every day. Watching your dog bound and rebound after the elusive rubber prey is guaranteed to entertain you for hours on end as well as your dog.

Caveat: Herding breeds, especially, are known for literally running themselves into exhaustion. If you have a Kong-crazed dog, be careful not to induce heat-stroke or physical collapse (as I inadvertently did with Keli on two occasions) with too much Kong fun!

Puppy Distracters
Many of the more recent Kong applications involve Kong-stuffing (see “Stuff It!”, next page). Puppy distracting is one. Play-biting and inappropriate chewing are common complaints of new puppy owners. An ideal solution to perfectly normal but undesirable puppy mouth explorations is to provide an irresistible alternative to human flesh or wooden table legs – a Kong stuffed full of tantalizing treats.

Crate Training
The crate, or kennel, is a vital dog behavior management tool, and one often slighted by dog owners because of an initial poor crate training experience. (See “Crate Training Made Easy,” August 2000). When Pal is trained to the crate properly and positively, the kennel becomes his den, a haven of security and comfort. A well-stuffed Kong combined with an appropriate training program can help your dog decide that his crate is a wonderful place to be.

Cure for Cabin Fever
A few years ago, during a rain-soaked, endless El Niño California winter, our four dogs were getting seriously edgy with signs of a full-blown case of cabin fever. Stuffed Kongs to the rescue! Silence soon settled over the troubled household as our snarling canine siblings settled into their separate corners, gnawing contentedly on their respective rubber pacifiers.

Stress Reduction
Stress is the underlying cause of most canine aggression. For a dog who is uneasy with houseguests, a Kong stuffed with doggie delicacies can help change the response to visitors from negative to positive. Stress is an involuntary response – the dog can’t help it. The dog’s body reacts without conscious thought in the presence of the negative stimulus, with an immediate “Visitor – BAD!!” response. We can use the stuffed Kong as part of a well-planned counter-conditioning/desensitization program to change his involuntary response from “Visitor – STRESS” to “Visitor – OH GOODIE!”

Someone’s At The Door!
Another great visitor-related Kong application, this basis for this one is suggested by positive trainer Donna Duford. Dogs who want to greet guests too enthusiastically at the front door can be taught to fetch a toy instead. The knock at the door or the ringing of the doorbell becomes the cue to fetch the Kong, stuffed (if you know company is coming) or empty. Pal may then either retire to his rug to chew his treasure as your visitors enter, unmolested, or greet your guests politely at the door with his mouth filled with Kong instead of company. Caveat: If your dog is a food or object guarder, this may not be a good Kong application for him.

Destructo-Dog
Destructive behavior can range from simple high-spirited puppy fun to full-blown separation anxiety. By providing ample exercise for your dog, you can deplete the excess energy sometimes that leads to ruinous house-romps. An intelligently Pal-proofed environment (crate, puppy pen, safe room) can minimize the destruction that occurs during your absences. And one or more stuffed Kongs often keeps dogs happily occupied and their home damage-free while their owners are away.

Note: Crating is generally not recommended for dogs with true separation anxiety (SA) behavior disorders. While Kongs can be a useful element of a complete SA behavior modification program, this complex and troubling behavior should be addressed with an in-depth, punishment-free behavior modification program, usually under the guidance of a competent dog trainer or behavior specialist.

Hide-and-Seek
This game is an extension of the destructive behavior application of the Kong. You can occupy Pal’s mind as well as his mouth by teaching him to look for and find his stuffed Kongs before he can chew on them. Start by hiding the Kong in plain sight and asking him to “Find it!” Praise him when he does, and let him chew on it for a while. Then play the game again, hiding the toy partially behind a chair or table leg. Gradually make the hiding places harder and harder, until Pal learns to really search for his prize. Now you can hide two or three Kongs before you leave, tell him “Find It” as you walk out the door, and your dog can keep himself occupied for hours, finding and emptying his Kongs.

NOTE: Hide your Kongs wisely. If you bury them in the sofa cushions or under the bedcovers you can expect to come home to an unmade bed, and strewn cushions…or worse.

In The Swim Of Things
Here’s another good exercise application that combines Kong fun with a favorite canine activity – swimming! While most Kongs sink, the company makes one model that has a polypropylene rope tied to it, and contains a chunk of bouyant spongey material inside, so it floats like a dream. The floating rope makes the “Cool Kong,” as it is called, easy for owners to throw (swing it around and fling!) and easy for dogs who have trouble getting a whole Kong in their mouths to retrieve. It’s a durable, ideal fetch toy for the dog who already loves to swim, and the perfect training tool for the Kong-loving dog who is a bit hesitant about getting his feet wet. (See “In The Swim,” August 2000, for non-force methods of teaching your dog to enjoy the water.)

Boredom Barking
In my backyard, at this very moment, is Princess, a little stray Beagle-mix that my husband I found on the highway. She is clearly an accomplished escape artist, as evidenced by her constant running of the fenceline and her determined efforts to squeeze through our fence. Thwarted in her efforts to escape, she has taken to non-stop barking to express her displeasure at being effectively confined while we try to contact her owner. Time to bring out the stuffed Kong! Princess is now happily licking cream cheese out of the Kong, and peace has returned to the neighborhood.

There’s no doubt in our minds that this versatile toy deserves to be called “King” Kong. You can find them in almost every pet supply store and catalog – not to mention anywhere dogs are happy! In fact, we’re betting that some of you have come up with some other very creative uses for Kongs yourselves. We’d love to hear them!

Pat Miller is a freelance author and a professional dog trainer in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Compression Techniques for Muscle Strength

By
C. Sue Furman
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All dogs love a gentle pat on the shoulder or the rump. To them it can be a signal of a job well done or simply an indication of our affection. Touch strengthens the bond between dog and owner and is a basic building block of the canine-human relationship. We have already considered effleurage, the open-hand technique that resembles smooth petting strokes yet does so much for the dog’s circulation, relaxation, and balance. Compression, another open-hand technique, also affords enjoyable physical contact between you and your dog while providing important health benefits to your canine friend.

Do your neck and shoulder muscles ever get tense and sore from sitting at the computer too long? How do your hip muscles feel after you have over exerted at some activity that you undertake only occasionally such as biking or working in the yard? Dogs can suffer from the same type of muscle fatigue and stiffness. It can be brought on by over-exerting at play or by participating in a demanding sport like lure coursing, agility, obedience, or fly-ball. On the other hand, our muscles and our dog’s can become sore from lack of activity and fitness. Being a couch potato can be hard on a body, because the dog doesn’t get the physical and mental exercise necessary to stay fit. Compression is a move that can relax, tone, and refresh tired stiff muscles.

Releasing tension

Compression is a rhythmic pumping motion pressing the “belly” of the muscle against underlying bone to create a sustained increase in circulation and muscle relaxation. It is very effective on the large muscle groups of the shoulder and upper foreleg and on those of the hip and thigh. The hand does not move from side to side. Instead, it pumps gently in a slow 1 – 2 – 3 motion. Use light pressure for the initial compression on the first stroke. Increase the pressure slightly with each pumping motion for strokes 2 and 3. Each move should be slow and deliberate. Perform one to three repetitions of the three-stroke motion at one location on the muscle. Then move your hand an inch or so along the length of the muscle and repeat another set of pumping compressions. Continue until you have covered the length of the muscle belly. You should be able to feel the muscle tissue soften as the circulation increases and the muscle relaxes in response to the gentle compressions.

When working on the large muscle of the shoulder or hip, place one hand gently on the dog to maintain contact and to monitor body position and reactions. This hand should tell you if the dog is relaxing, tensing, or otherwise responding to the work being performed. Place your other hand, your working hand, gently on the area to be massaged and begin the slow rhythmic compressions of muscle against underlying bone. You should feel the tissues soften as the muscle responds to the work.

Compression is a very effective tool for the large muscles of the upper limbs but requires a little caution. To massage the upper forearm, first place one hand under the limb for support. You must be careful not to press on the muscles of the limb in a way that stresses the shoulder joint. With proper support for the limb and joints, place the second hand on the large muscles on the surface of the arm and begin the slow rhythmic compressions. You can massage muscles on both sides of the long humerus bone by gently compressing with both hands. The slow rhythm should be maintained. After completing a few repetitions on one area, slide your hands along the length of the muscles and repeat the motion. Continue until you have covered the length of the muscle belly.

Compression of the large muscles in the upper thigh require the same precautions as those of the upper foreleg. One hand should be used to support the leg to protect the hip joint from inappropriate or abnormal pressure. With this precaution in place, one hand can be used to apply compressions to either the lateral (upper) or medial (lower) thigh muscles. Or, rhythmic compressions with both hands can be applied to massage both surfaces of the thigh simultaneously.

Timing is everything
So far a slow rhythmic motion has been stressed when employing the compression technique intended to foster a relaxed and softened muscle. Compression can also used before and after athletic competitions to excite or stimulate a dog. Massage should never be used to replace a warm-up before a competition or a cool-out afterward, but it can be used to enhance or sometimes shorten these important routines.

Pre- and post-competition massage should be performed on a standing dog. The idea is to stimulate, not encourage relaxation. Again the compressions are rhythmic pumping motions applied to large muscled areas. However, the timing involved is very different. The slow deliberate motion that encourages relaxation is replaced by more rapid compressions. Now the rhythm should be a staccato 1-2-3 or “cha, cha, cha,” like the beat or the Latin dance. Not only should the compressions be quick, they should be brief! Deliver one set of three compressions (cha, cha, cha) to an area and move to the next. Massaging too long on one area will increase the blood supply to the area to such an extent that it softens and relaxes muscles thus defeating the purpose of a stimulating the dog and preparing it for competition. After a demanding workout in competition, compression is an excellent move to help rid the muscles of lactic acid and other accumulated metabolic wastes.

Whether your intent is to use compression to calm, relax , and release muscle tension or to excite and stimulate, remember to massage both sides of the dog. It is important to leave the dog feeling balanced. Also, remember to thank the dog!

-By C. Sue Furman

Author Sue Furman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, CO. In addition to her academic career, she is active as a free-lance writer and teaches equine and canine massage classes. This article is adapted from material in her new book, Canine Massage, that will be available in spring 2000.

Extending Your Dog’s Life Holistically

By
Nancy Kerns
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Some dogs have a rough start in life. Consider BP, the 50-pound black-and-tan Shepherd-mix owned by Lucia Colbert of Cordova, Tennessee. BP was dumped in a neighborhood and left to fend for herself until rescued by Colbert in 1988. Colbert took the thin and sickly dog to the vet: BP had a host of internal parasites, including heartworms; part of her tongue was missing; and she had a chest full of buckshot (discovered later on a chest x-ray). “I knew she’s hadn’t had a piece of cake for puppyhood,” says Colbert.

Once adopted, BP thrived. She enjoyed a good life with Colbert, a professional tennis player and triathlete. BP jogged daily with Colbert and sat by the tennis court while she taught.

BP’s new life wasn’t without challenges, however. All her adult life, the floppy-eared mix was plagued with severe allergies. BP suffered hot spots, and chewed and licked herself constantly. Life was a parade of visits to allopathic vet clinics ( including specialists); her medical file was three inches thick. “She was constantly on antibiotics, and then they’d give her cortisone shots,” says Colbert.

Colbert fed BP whatever her veterinarian recommended, usually a high-priced food sold at the clinic. “I thought, I’m buying the best thing here. This has got to be it,” she says.

As Colbert saw it at the time, BP’s only other health problem was some mild arthritis. However, the condition responded fairly well to Rimadyl, an anti-inflammatory drug prescribed by the veterinarian.

Crisis leads to change
Allergies and arthritis aside, Colbert thought her canine companion was fairly healthy. But in 1997, Colbert noticed her jogging companion wasn’t running as well and was coughing at night. Subsequent veterinary examinations saw BP diagnosed with congestive heart failure, with a grim prognosis for the future.

“Well, I didn’t like that,” says Colbert, who began researching congestive heart failure. She also consulted with a friend who was a holistic nutritionist. Colbert’s efforts prompted her to change BP’s diet immediately to Flint River, a commercially prepared food that is free of artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors, and contains better-quality ingredients. She added a fresh blend of oils (flax, sesame, evening primrose) to give BP the right balance of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. “The allergies went away within a month or two,” says Colbert, “never to return.”

Colbert also stopped giving BP Rimadyl, replacing it with a glucosamine and chondroitin supplement. With the help of these far more benign supplements, she still displayed a small amount of stiffness, but did not get sore and achy.

The new diet and supplements improved BP’s heart condition, to the point where she could resume her runs with Colbert. Eventually, she was back up to her old mileage, easily jogging with her athletic friend for as much as 10 miles at a clip.

The improvements were so dramatic, that Colbert herself began taking some supplements for her own health, with great effect. “I take a few supplements for my health and endurance, too,” she laughs. “I’ve gotten fascinated with all these things.”

Not yet the end
In summer 1999, BP began experiencing another downhill slide. With the onset of hot Tennessee summer weather, even with a vastly reduced exercise schedule, the senior Shepherd began having a difficult time breathing. Colbert’s veterinarian told her that this was to be expected of a 15-year-old dog. “She’s just getting old,” the vet told Colbert.

But Colbert decided to do some more research. Her efforts to improve the dog’s health with a better diet had strengthened her belief that there was probably more she could be doing to help her beloved dog.

Colbert bought a copy of a book written by holistic veterinarian Martin Goldstein, The Nature of Animal Healing: The Path to Your Pet’s Health, Happiness and Longevity (Knopf 1999). Dr. Goldstein, a graduate of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and owner of a veterinary clinic in South Salem, New York, offers an alternative approach to healing in his book. The author’s premise is that the best way to treat an sick pet is to help the animal heal itself.

Colbert was thrilled with the veterinarian’s approach, and took the book’s message to heart. She also contacted Dr. Goldstein’s brother, Robert Goldstein, who is also a holistic veterinarian, for help with BP.

Since Dr. Bob and Susan Goldstein’s Holistic Veterinary Center is located in Westport, Connecticut – quite a distance from Cordova, Tennessee – an office visit was out of the question. But the Goldsteins, like many holistic veterinarians, offer consultations by telephone, e-mail, and/or fax, usually in conjunction with the client’s hometown veterinarian.

One of the most frequently employed services of Dr. Robert Goldstein’s clinic is his use of what he calls a “bio-nutritional analysis” of the patient’s blood tests. Generally, the client will have his or her own veterinarian draw blood and submit the samples for specific tests according to Dr. Goldstein’s directions. Goldstein or one of his associates at his clinic then analyzes the results and makes recommendations for changing the dog’s medication or supplements accordingly.

Colbert’s local veterinarian supported the plan, and drew blood from BP so the analysis could take place. After the results of the tests reached Dr. Goldstein’s clinic, Colbert received a call from Dr. Brian Wessels, an associate at the Westport clinic. One thing the tests revealed was a problem with BP’s liver. “Her liver enzymes were out the roof,” says Colbert. A normal count is 200-300, says Colbert. BP’s were 1200.

Dr. Wessels made several recommendations for BP. The “to do” list included adding some 19 nutritional supplements, and some homeopathic and herbal remedies to bolster BP’s various weaknesses (heart, arthritis, liver). He also suggested adding raw and cooked vegetables, garlic, and brewer’s yeast to her natural dog food. Two further steps were also recommended for strengthening BP’s immune system: discontinuing administration of BR’s heartworm preventive and any vaccinations.

“I had been using a Band-Aid approach to using herbs and things to help BP, to some extent, it worked,” says Colbert. “But with the analysis, they were able to zero in on what she needed. They would say, ‘OK, the garlic is good, this one is good, but hold off on that one . . .’ It helped me target the best supplements.”

However, adding 19 different things to BP’s food, “took a little getting used to,” admits Colbert. “At first, I used to mix all the tablets and powders into a half a cup of plain, non-fat yogurt, and she’d eat most of them, but I’d find a few things around the house that she had spit out. The I bought one of those little baby Cuisinarts, and mix everything in there – the supplements, the garlic, carrots, broccoli, and what I call the ‘enticer,’ a spoonful of tuna, salmon, egg, or chicken – and then mix the whole concoction into her kibble. She’s a chowhound, so she cleans all this up.”

Colbert was more reluctant to implement Dr. Wessels’ recommendation of stopping the heartworm preventive because of her past bout with the condition. However, garlic and brewer’s yeast is believed to help repel mosquitoes from some animals so Colbert followed doctor’s orders.

BP’s health improved. “Within two weeks I could tell a huge difference,” says Colbert. “Her whole body language changed. We re-tested her blood again in about two months and the liver scores were down to 600; the other numbers were coming into line and she was much, much better.” Colbert will continue having BP’s blood tested every six months to monitor her health and enable her to change anything in the protocol as necessary.

Maintaining the program
Colbert is extremely happy with BP’s new lease on life. “I think the holistic treatments added years to her life. I really do. Because most people look at me like I’m nuts when I say she’s 16. I don’t know how long she’s going to live, but I know she’s way healthier than she was.”

Colbert will also admit that it takes a lot of commitment to follow through on a program that is this complex. It’s also very costly. “The bloodwork and the evaluation is not that bad, but the supplements themselves are very costly,” says Colbert. “I appreciate everything they have done for us, and I will continue to consult them regularly, but I’m not rich! I’ve made it more affordable by finding a lot of the supplements (14 of the 19) on my own; the rest, I buy from the Goldsteins’ clinic.”

Colbert says the Goldsteins accept this readily. “They say it’s OK if you get these things on your own, but there are a couple I can’t find anywhere else!” she laughs. “But those ones, fortunately, are not the most expensive ones.”

Colbert wishes she had learned about a holistic approach sooner; but hindsight is 20-20. “For years I thought I was such a caring owner, which I am,” she says. “But I was unaware of the problems with putting her through all that cortisone, all those antibiotics, all that crummy food. Had I known that years ago, she wouldn’t have had to go through all that. There’s so many people who think they’re doing the right thing by doing that. But they’re just not doing their pets any favors by using the ‘quick fix’ medications. They don’t understand it takes the food, supplements, and consideration of the dog’s medication, and exposure to toxins. . . it takes time.”

Colbert says she realizes that giving BP Rimadyl in the earliest days of her arthritis didn’t do the dog any favors. “I probably overran her because of the Rimadyl,” she says regretfully. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but it masks the pain; that’s what enabled her to do more than she should have. I’d look at her and she’d look OK, she didn’t seem to be hurting, and I’d take her running when she probably shouldn’t have gone.” Today, Colbert uses the medication in a very low dose (half a tablet three times a week or so) to help the Shepherd stay mobile, but is careful that the dog doesn’t overdo it. Though greatly improved, BP is a senior dog and experiences some limitations that go along with that stage of life. “She can’t run anymore,” says Colbert, “but can do a great one mile walk.” Today, BP is happy to sit court-side while Colbert teaches; that’s her job now.

Colbert isn’t sure how much longer BP will live, but all indications are she has a ways to go still. Even Colbert’s conventional veterinarian is impressed with the elderly dog’s condition. Colbert reports, “Recently I was at the vet here in town and he made a comment that really made me feel good. Keep in mind this is the guy that three years ago told my husband to get ready because BP didn’t have long to go . . .

“In our most recent visit he examined BP and looked at me and said, ‘BP is going to outlive all of us. She is doing just fine!” He also said, ‘You know, there is something to all this stuff you are doing.’ ”

As if Colbert didn’t know!

-By Virginia Parker Guidry

Virginia Parker Guidry is a freelance writer from San Diego, CA.

Choosing Canine Supplements Wisely

By
Nancy Kerns
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Everything I read says give this herb or give that supplement – garlic, lecithin, vitamins, yeast. But what should I give my dog on a regular basis? In order to do everything the books say, I would have to give about 15 pills or supplements. Is it OK to give all that? What is too much?

We turned over this question to Dr. Nancy Scanlan, a veterinarian for 30 years, who has integrated holistic medicine into her practice for 12 years. Dr. Scanlan is also the author of Stop That Itch! Dr. Scanlan’s practice is located in Sherman Oaks, California.

I’m glad the subject of supplements has come up in this general way. As they learn more about nutrition and holistic health care, a lot of dog owners worry that they should be doing more to feed their dogs in the most healthful fashion.

dog supplements

You’re right; if you feed your dog every supplement that you ever hear about or read about, you could very well end up giving the dog 15 different things. You could also inadvertently cause as many problems as you had hoped to solve. And just because you have read an article about the wonders of a certain supplement, doesn’t mean your dog will benefit from that supplement. You have to take these things in context.

Do all dogs need supplements?
There are three main reasons to add specific nutrients to the dog’s diet. The first is to compensate for a known or suspected deficiency of the nutrient in question.

Sometimes, the deficiency is discovered when a blood test is performed for the purpose of analyzing the dog’s nutritional status (although, in my opinion, there are some problems with this methodology (see “Blood Testing for Deficiencies,” next page). In other cases, a dog owner might know that the diet he feeds is deficient in a certain nutrient, and he supplements rather than changes the formulation of the diet. For example, dogs who are fed a diet based on raw meats and vegetables, but who don’t receive fresh ground bones, are more than likely to be deficient in calcium.

When a dog is deficient in a certain nutrient, and he begins to receive the optimum dosage of that nutrient, his health will markedly improve. Sometimes, correcting a deficiency of even a very small nutrient will make improvements in dogs that already seem fairly healthy. Very often you will see that the coat has a better sheen to it, a little bit of dandruff might go away, a greasy coat will turn nicer. The holistic nutritionists say this is because these little micro-minerals have been depleted from the soil, so the grains and animals that are the dog’s major food sources (cattle, sheep, chickens) don’t have them, either. It’s difficult to show deficiencies from these things, because the animals don’t die, they can still reproduce, they look pretty good, they live about the same amount of time. But they will have a little better look and have a little bit more spring to their step if you add it to their diets.

“Optimizing” nutrient levels
The second reason to supplement a dog’s diet is less compelling, but not a bad idea: to cover suspected deficiencies as insurance. Dog food manufacturers will tell you, “We made these foods to contain everything a dog needs, so why are you giving them anything extra?” The answer is, “Because what is now called an ‘adequate’ dosage may not be the optimum dosage.” Many people (including a growing number of veterinarians) feel that the values set forth by the National Research Council for minimum daily requirements of vitamins for dogs are inadequate. The levels for the major minerals seem to be fine.

We know that for humans the minimum daily requirement is not always the optimum daily dosage. It is simply the minimum that is required to keep signs of major deficiencies from appearing. In the human field, many nutritionists now consider the optimum dose for a lot of things, including the “micro” minerals and vitamins, to be about double the minimum daily requirement recommended by the National Research Council.

From my experience, I suspect the same is true of animals. In cats, for example, we know that for years and years we didn’t have a good number for the amino acid taurine; it takes years for signs of taurine deficiency to show up in cats, and it took years and years to prove this. The amount that is recommended now is more than twice what it was in previous years! This can occur because the studies for supplementation are often of a duration that is only long enough to raise an animal from birth to reproductive age and let them have a litter; if all of that works they consider the study sufficient. But some problems take years – or even generations – to show up.

So, in my opinion, giving a dog who eats standard commercial foods a vitamin supplement – one that contains no “mega doses” of any nutrient, and no extra calcium or other minerals – can be a good idea. All good quality commercial dog foods seem to contain sufficient quantities of the major minerals such as calcium, iron, copper, and zinc; I wouldn’t add any without a specific reason.

Therapeutic dosages
The third reason to give a dog supplements is to try to optimize the dosage of certain nutrients for therapeutic or preventive effects. Please note that I used the word optimize, not maximize. Over-supplementation can cause many problems, which I’ll discuss below.

Therapeutic supplementation would include, for instance, feeding a dog with specific health problems – allergies, say – higher doses of those nutrients which can help the body deal with that condition more effectively. For example, giving a dog with pollen allergies extra doses of the antioxidant vitamins C and E during the peak season for those allergens.

Preventive supplementation is an attempt to prevent the onset of disease. However, this only makes sense when the disease is expected, and when that supplement has proven capabilities to help prevent that disease. One example is the use of iodine supplements to prevent hypothyroid disease in Golden Retrievers, among whom the disease is very common.

Problems with dog supplements
Though there are many cases where intelligent and appropriate supplementation literally saved a dog’s life, Unfortunately, there are many ways that people can do actual harm to their dogs with supplements. Here’s a great example: I once saw a dog who had been seen previously by another vet for kidney stones. As we’ve discussed in a previous article (“Urine Trouble,” November 1999), kidney stones can be caused by too-acid urine or too-alkaline urine. First the dog had the kind caused by overly acid urine. The vet changed the dog’s diet so the dog would have more alkaline urine. That went OK for a while, and then the dog got the kind of stones from over-alkaline urine.

Now the vet was up a creek; what can you do if you can’t shift the diet very far in either direction? The vet was so baffled, she decided to get a second opinion and sent the owner and the dog to me. I was puzzled, too, so I started asking a lot of questions. I asked about supplements – and hit the jackpot. She was giving three different kinds of calcium supplements. All we had to do was cut out the calcium supplements and the dog never had a problem again.

Here are the most common mistakes made when supplementing:

• Over-supplementing
One of the most dangerous ways that people can over-supplement is with minerals, especially in growing animals. People can cause all sorts of bone deformities in young dogs by feeding over-doses of calcium, for instance. Also, other minerals can actually cause mineral poisonings if they are over-dosed.

The place where you can get into the biggest trouble is with the minerals that are required in the greatest quantity: calcium, iron, copper, and zinc. Over-supplementation of calcium in the large and giant breeds can cause joints to break down; also, calcium can bind with other minerals and cause problems. I have seen studies with large and giant dogs where they decreased the calcium to where it was just below the amounts in regular pet foods, and have actually had dogs with healthier joints.

I have also seen copper toxicity and zinc toxicity. Copper binds zinc, so sometimes you won’t see copper toxicity, but you will start seeing a zinc deficiency – not because the diet is deficient in zinc, but because the copper is binding up the zinc and interfering with the zinc in the animal’s body.

With other nutrients, diarrhea may be the least of the problems you can get from over-supplementing. If you feed high enough doses of antioxidants, they can actually change from being antioxidants to pro-oxidants. Some of the anti-cancer supplements can be poisonous in high doses.

One of the most common ways that people inadvertently over-supplement is when they feed their dogs one of the “kitchen sink” supplements, one that has everything you have ever heard of in it, and then feed additional single-ingredient supplements as well. You have to read all the fine print, go over the ingredients to make sure that you are not over-supplementing.

Some nutrients do build up in the animal’s system; minerals can cause problems over time. A nice, steady, moderate dose of antioxidants is pretty safe, even for long periods of time, but if you are feeding maximum dosages for enough time, they can actually promote cancer.

• Imbalances
Some nutrients have to be fed in a proper ratio to another nutrient, or it can cause imbalances that can harm the dog. The best known example is the calcium/phosphorus ration, which should be between 1–1 and 2–1. If it’s not, it can cause rickets in young growing animals, and “rubber-jaw” or osteoporosis in the older dogs.

• Negative Interactions
Very dangerous drug interactions can result from mixing certain medicinal herbs with certain medications. To use both types of medicine safely, you have to consult someone who is familiar with both the drugs and the herbs. One example is willowbark, which interacts with aspirin and also with butazolidin and Rimadyl, and causes what is essentially an aspirin overdose, with intestinal and/or stomach bleeding. Vitamin E and Digoxin (Digitalis) also interact badly; vitamin E can cause a Digitalis overdose, even when the animal is receiving a normal dose of Digitalis.

• Long-term effects
Artificially supplementing an animal with certain nutrients – especially if you are using the maximum recommended amounts – can cause the animal to cease its own production of the nutrient. For instance, dogs manufacture their own vitamin C. If you feed a dog a maximum dose of vitamin C daily, the dog will stop making its own vitamin C. And if you were to suddenly stop that maximal dose, you might even see a temporary case of scurvy!

Managing dog supplements
To supplement intelligently, you have to understand exactly what is in each supplement you feed, and have compelling reasons to feed it. A lack of knowledge can lead to all kinds of problems. For instance, I saw a lady who had an arthritic dog. She had read about the benefits of GAG supplements, and had accordingly bought five different kinds – and was feeding all of them to the dog. An excess of glucosamine will sometimes cause an upset stomach, and sure enough, her dog’s appetite had decreased. Plus, she was wasting an awful lot of money.

When considering giving supplements to your dog, you have to ask yourself, “What is going on with this dog?” and prioritize the issues. If you have a basically healthy animal and your major concern is disease prevention, then you would take one path. If your dog has cancer, or a genetic predisposition to cancer, you would take a different supplementing path. If your dog has terrible arthritis, then concentrate on the supplements that can help with that.

Basic supplement rationale
In general, if your dog is less than six years old and seems basically healthy, there are just a couple of things I would recommend. The first is a trace sea-mineral supplement that supplies the tiny little trace minerals that are no longer present in our soils; these are not the ones that appear on anyone’s list of “required” nutrients. (There are two products I like: one is Source, the other is one I helped PetNutrition develop called “Life Energy Supplement.” The other types of supplements that are helpful for most dogs are digestive enzymes and probiotics like acidophilus. I think most dogs do better if they have the digestive enzymes all the time; I suggest adding probiotics occasionally.

If the dog is more than six years old, then you should start thinking about warding off degenerative conditions (arthritis and joint problems) that start happening at about that time. That’s when I tell people to consider giving a glycosaminoglycan (GAG) supplement, and vitamin C and E.

Outside of these basic suggestions, I give additional supplements only to dogs with problems. For example, if your dog has intestinal trouble, you might want to think about probiotics and/or digestive enzymes. If there is any problem involving anemia, then a B-complex would be a good thing to add. Supplements for treating cancer should be given only to dogs with cancer.

Then there are health problems that are more complex, that are related to the dog’s general level of wellness. The theme here is to do the fewest number of things that will have the most benefit. In these cases, it’s always advantageous to add antioxidants, especially vitamins C and E. Fatty acids, especially the Omega-3 fatty acids, are often lacking in prepared foods, and are helpful for many conditions, including any skin and heart problems, cancer prevention, circulation, and problems with the nails.

Vitamin C has numerous benefits and can help many diseases and prevent other diseases, so that’s a good one to add. But if you look at something like IP6, which has recently shown to have an anti-cancer benefit, with some other benefits suspected but not proven, then I wouldn’t add that unless your dog has cancer. Don’t add supplements unless you have a specific reason for doing so.

Say you have an older, arthritic, cancerous dog. If an animal has multiple ailments, then multiple supplements may be good. It should definitely receive more supplements than a young, healthy animal.

However, even if you have the best reasons in the world for adding a lot of things to an individual’s diet, you will run into certain problems. For example, you can make a dog refuse to eat if his meals are overly laden with all sorts of supplements. Also, you can cause digestive upset – nausea, vomiting or diarrhea – with a lot of supplements; this happens with chronically ill human patients, as well.

Again, try to at least get the things that will do the maximum good into the dog, those supplements that can help with all the dog’s symptoms. And start with the things that are research-proven, like glucosamine for joints. Address the conditions that are more likely to threaten the life of the dog. Fighting a life-threatening cancer tumor may be more important than fighting arthritis, for example. And then, if you still need more, you can gradually add them in. But give everything enough time to start working before you add the next thing in, depending on the supplement, between a week and a month.

Most importantly, I suggest working closely with your veterinarian when making decisions about supplements. If your vet is resistant to the idea of using any supplements, don’t be surprised; many veterinarians have so little experience with nutrition that they just don’t know how to deal with the concept. Find a different vet, one who has advanced education and experience in nutrition, if possible.

The use of “nutraceuticals” to influence your dog’s health can be powerfully positive or negative. Make sure you have someone who can help you best utilize this powerful tool, keep a close eye on your dog for signs that your approach is working or failing, and change it accordingly.

Much Ado About Muzzles

By
Nancy Kerns
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Let’s be clear about one thing right from the start. A muzzle won’t train your dog. It will not teach your dog to stop biting or chewing, nor will it teach him to love small children, tall men with beards, hats and umbrellas, or your veterinarian. A muzzle is a behavior management tool, properly used as a temporary measure to protect humans (or other dogs) when dogs have to be handled in situations that are too stressful for them to tolerate. A muzzle is also a flashing neon warning sign that it’s time to do some serious counter-conditioning and desensitization so the dog in question can be handled in normal situations without resorting to muzzling. Dogs should not have to be muzzled for basic vet exams, grooming, nail-trimming, or other routine maintenance procedures. (See “Dreading the Vet,” WDJ June 2000.)

However, there are times when muzzles are useful. Muzzles can keep our animal care professionals safe when an aggressive dog must (regrettably) be treated prior to the successful completion of a behavior modification program. (Bear in mind that this is likely to cause a setback in the training program.) Even a well-socialized, friendly dog may bite when in pain, so a muzzle is always appropriate when handling a dog who is injured. Muzzles can also provide a safety zone within which we can implement desensitization and training programs for aggressive dogs without risking our own lives and limbs. Note: a dog who will wear a muzzle as part of a training program needs to be acclimated to the muzzle in the same way we would acclimate him to a head halter. (See “Head Halters Right and Wrong,” WDJ June 2000.)

Since we do need to use muzzles sometimes, we thought it appropriate to review some of the products currently on the market to determine what we like and don’t like about them. There are two basic types of muzzles – soft muzzles and basket muzzles – and a few that fall into a “miscellaneous” class. The important qualities of a muzzle are:

• Comfort for the dog
• Safety for the dog
• Ease of application and adjustment
• Security once in place on the dog
• Effectiveness in preventing biting
• Durability for long term use
• Cost

We evaluated eight different muzzles based on these criteria. In general, we found the soft muzzles far superior to the basket muzzles. Across the board, our test dogs all accepted the soft nylon muzzles much more readily than the basket muzzles. While none of the dogs looked happy about wearing something on their faces, most of them made active attempts to remove the basket muzzles, and just displayed a general air of gloom when wearing the soft muzzles. (We did not acclimatize any of our test dogs to any of the muzzles prior to testing.)

Safety first
Before we comment on individual products, we need to discuss the use of muzzles as it relates to our selection criteria. “Safety for the dog” is one of our most important considerations. However, we have ranked each muzzle for its safety to the dog if used properly. ALL muzzles present a high risk to the dog if used improperly.

None of the soft muzzles we examined seem to present a risk of injuring a dog who was trying to remove them, but all of the soft nylon muzzles restrict a dog’s respiration, which greatly compromises his ability to cool himself through panting. These muzzles should not be left on the dog for longer than 10-15 minutes at a time, less if the weather is warm and/or humid, or if the dog naturally has respiratory problems (such as the short-faced breeds, like Pugs.)

Advantages of fabric muzzles
Speaking of safety, we found it interesting that all of the soft nylon muzzles had packaging that contained instructions for proper, safe application and fitting, as well as appropriate warnings about not leaving muzzles on dogs unattended, or for long periods of time. In contrast, none of the basket muzzles came with any safety warnings or fitting instructions.

All of the fabric muzzles we examined are made of durable, washable nylon, with a simple nylon strap and plastic buckle that snaps close behind the ears. They can all can be shaped to stay open while the dog’s nose is slipped into the cone. If you adjust this type of muzzle to the dog’s approximate size before you slip it onto the dog’s nose, you can tighten the strap with relative ease while the muzzle stays on and prevents biting. When properly fitted, it is very difficult for a dog to remove any of the soft nylon muzzles we tested.

The soft muzzles are designed to allow the dog to eat and drink to a limited degree. This makes them ideal for use in behavior modification programs, since the dog can open his mouth just enough to accept treats. However, it also means that if a person were extremely incautious there is the possibility that the dog could pinch flesh with teeth and break skin, although probably not inflict a severe bite unless someone actually stuck their fingers in the dog’s mouth.

Fabric muzzle ratings
We can’t really say that either of our two top-rated muzzles is significantly better than the other; they both have unique features that we appreciated. Between these relative equals, we’d pick the Mikki Muzzle, which is widely available for a few dollars less.

The Mikki Nylon Fabric Muzzle, is made by Classic Products of Oxnard, California. The dog’s comfort, of course, is one of the most important selection criteria for a product such as a muzzle. The Mikki Muzzle scores high on this mark. While the product’s nylon is slightly stiffer than some of the other brands, this muzzle also has a soft strip of padding sewn on the inside of the front opening which offers an additional degree of comfort. As with all of the open-ended fabric muzzles, a dog wearing this muzzle can still eat treats and lap water.

The Mikki Muzzle comes in nine sizes, including one for Boxer-type brachycephalic dogs. The product is the least expensive of all the soft muzzles we examined.

However, the Cozy Quick Muzzle, made by Four Flags Over Aspen of St. Clair, Minnesota, may be more comfortable for the dog. Four Flags makes slightly greater provisions for the dog’s comfort, including the use of a softer (less stiff) nylon fabric. Also, the upper rim of the “sleeve” that fits over the dog’s nose (the part of the muzzle that rests below the dog’s eyes) is lined with a comfy piece of synthetic sheepskin to prevent rubbing. While the faux-sheepskin fluff could possibly get in the eyes of a shorter-muzzled dog, this can be remedied by trimming the fluff with scissors while still leaving ample padding on the inside of the muzzle.

The Cozy Quick Muzzle is available in an impressive 16 sizes; this wide range provides for a secure fit on any dog. While this product is slightly more expensive than the Mikki Muzzle, it is still reasonably priced.

Four Flags Over Aspen also offers a product called the Quick Muzzle – basically the same product as described above, without the coziness; we prefer the cozier model. This product lacks either the padding at the nose-end that the Mikki Muzzle offers or the sheepskin at the eye-end of the higher-priced Cozy Quick Muzzle. Like the Cozy Quick, this muzzle is constructed of softer nylon than the Mikki Muzzle. The Quick Muzzle, however, is offered in 18 sizes, including two sizes specially designed for short-faced dogs. Only the higher price keeps this product from our top rating.

The Pro-Guard Softie, made by the Custom Cable Company of Brooklyn, New York, offers the first big differences seen in the fabric muzzles. Instead of an open-ended cone, this product ends with a nylon mesh cup that fits loosely over dog’s nose. Because this muzzle has a screen sewn over the nose opening of the muzzle, it does not have to fit the sides of the dog’s muzzle as snugly as the other products we examined. However, the screen totally precludes its use as a positive training tool, since the dog cannot eat treats. For this reason, the Pro-Guard Softie would be a good muzzle to use for emergency protection, but not for a behavior modification program.

The design offers other advantages. First, the closed end minimizes the small potential for biting present with the open-ended muzzles. Plus, the looser fit allows for greater ease of panting than the more tightly fitting conical soft muzzles.

On the other hand, the product is available in only four sizes, which limits the accuracy of its fit. And in terms of durability, the design makes the product vulnerable to rips to the mesh screen, which would negate the muzzle’s value in bite prevention.

About basket muzzles
While the soft nylon muzzles seemed to be more comfortable – as judged by the reactions of our test dogs – basket muzzles offers one advantage to the dog that learns to accept them calmly: These products are designed to fit much more loosely around the dog’s muzzle, enabling him to open his jaws more widely to pant and breathe, while continuing to offer protection from bites. But dogs cannot drink easily while wearing basket muzzles, so, as with the fabric muzzles, these products should not be left on the dog for extended periods.

One danger of these muzzles – one not seen with the fabric muzzles – is that because of the pattern of openings in the wire, a frantic dog could easily get a toenail caught in the wire and rip it off. None of the basket muzzles we reviewed were accompanied by any safety warnings.

The biggest disadvantage of the basket muzzles is that most dogs object to wearing them much more strenuously than to the fabric muzzles, given that basket muzzles are rigid, and tend to bang around on the dog’s face as he moves.

Basket muzzle ratings
The banging action is least objectionable from the Polypropylene Basket Muzzle offered by J-B Wholesale Pet Supplies, Inc., of Oakland, New Jersey. Because this product’s basket is made of plastic, it wears more lightly on the dog’s face. It’s too bad that the product is available in only four sizes, especially because adjusting the fit is more difficult than it should be due to the use of a plastic slip buckle instead of a plastic snap. This could prove tricky with a struggling dog.

Once securely fitted to the dog, however, the Polypropylene Basket Muzzle offers a double safeguard against biting in the form of a plastic insert in the end of muzzle. A second layer of mesh, positioned about a half-inch from the end of the muzzle, puts a double layer of distance between the dog’s teeth and his intended victim. It does, however, make it very difficult to feed treats to the dog through the mesh, so its application as part of a behavior modification program is limited.

Unfortunately, while we liked this muzzle in terms of comfort for the dog (for a basket muzzle), its lightweight construction is much less durable than the metal baskets. Our test model arrived in a box with two of the plastic bars already broken. A dog who really fought this muzzle “tooth and nail” could probably destroy it pretty quickly. On the other hand, it was the least expensive of the basket muzzles we evaluated; you get what you pay for.

The Wire Muzzle offered by Jeffers Pet Catalog, a plastic-coated wire basket that fits loosely over dog’s nose, is more typical in terms of durability (good) and weight (too heavy). The product has a leather loop on the underside of the muzzle that a (narrow) collar would go through, and a leather strap that fastens behind dog’s head. Despite the extra fastening point, the weight of the metal basket caused our test dogs noticeably more distress than with the plastic basket. This could probably be overcome to some degree with proper desensitization before actually using the muzzle.

This product is available in only four sizes. The metal tongue buckle requires even more fussing to close than the plastic slide buckle on the Polypropylene Basket Muzzle. Also, the plastic-coated wire bars are spaced far enough apart that treats could be dropped through more easily than the plastic basket muzzle. (It would require some practice on the part of both dog and owner to perfect their treat-dropping/consuming technique). While this is a good thing in terms of using the muzzle for behavior modification, it also means that someone could conceivably stick a finger through the bars and be bitten.

We found more problems with the Wire Basket Muzzle sold by Drs. Foster & Smith, a bright silver-colored metal basket muzzle that fits loosely over the dog’s nose. Our test dogs hated the faux-leather strap that attaches to the top of the basket and goes straight up between his eyes over the top of his head, attaching to his collar. Another strap fastens around the dog’s neck. This is the heaviest and bulkiest of the basket muzzles, which must have had something to do with their strong objections.

We had objections, too. In our opinion, the wide gaps between the wire bars could rip a toenail or even trap an entire paw. And with only three sizes available, getting a secure fit might be difficult. Once on, it would probably prevent bites as long as you didn’t insert your fingers between the bars.

Other muzzle designs
In addition to the tried and true styles of muzzle design discussed above, we occasionally see muzzles with unique designs come onto the market – but we haven’t seen one worth its purchase price.

One such product is the Velcro Muzzle made and sold by Drs. Foster & Smith. It’s just two long Velcro straps connected by a wide, short elastic strap. One strap fastens around dog’s neck, the other fastens around the dog’s nose. Due to its minimal nature, our test dogs resisted this muzzle least of all the ones we tested. They could eat, drink, breathe – and we’re sure they could bite without impediment. The nose strap fits so high up on the nose that it does little to restrict biting. The only danger would arise from too-tight application of one or both straps. There are no instructions for use included in the packaging.

Perhaps this product would be useful when a muzzle is required by law (such as on public transportation) but absolutely not necessary (as with a well-socialized, well-traveled, friendly dog.)

Also With This Article
Click here to view “Training Your Dog to Comfortably Wear a Muzzle”
Click here to view “Dog Muzzles Are Useful Tools When You Use Them Right”

-By Pat Miller

Pin-Sharp Puppy Teeth

By
Nancy Kerns
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You brought this wonderful puppy into your home and very quickly discovered two things: He has needle-sharp teeth. And he bites! Now you have two burning questions: Why does he do it? What should I do?

A puppy’s gotta chew
Why does your puppy bite?

 

The simple answer is that puppies bite because they are genetically programmed to do so!

Remember, not too long ago (in evolutionary time) dogs were predators and scavengers who lived in groups. Puppies had to learn to use their teeth, mouth, and jaws as their most valuable tools for survival. They had to learn what is food and what isn’t, how to kill prey, and how to chew and otherwise extract nutrition from solid food. Some tasks were more complicated and took a lot of practice to get them right, so Mother Nature endowed the dog with the insatiable desire to use those teeth and jaws.

Puppies also used their teeth and jaws as communication and social tools. They used their mouths to get another living creature’s attention – just clamp those needle-sharp teeth on the nearest flesh and apply some pressure! They also learned to wrestle with other puppies by using their teeth to grab, hold, and move around their playmates. Some puppies learned that if their littermate had a scrap of food or a bone they wanted, they could apply enough pressure with their teeth so that the other puppy would drop it.

Of course, our dogs today are no longer living in wild packs. But the genetic urge to use and practice their mouth skills is still with them; they can’t help but chew and bite everything around them – including you!

Given that most dogs eat commercially prepared food that is served to them in a bowl daily, dogs today don’t really need to practice their chewing and gnawing skills in order to survive. But they still have to learn methods and rules of proper canine communication – both with other dogs, and with their human “packmates.” Sadly, few puppies have the opportunity to grow up in a social setting where they can learn these important skills from their mother, siblings, and other grownup relatives.

Critical lesson
One of the puppy’s most important lessons is learned at this trying time: how hard they should and should not bite, usually referred to by dog trainers and behaviorists as “bite inhibition.” They learn this from their littermates through trial and error. If you have ever watched puppies at play with their siblings, you’ve seen this lesson in action. The puppies roll around with each other, biting each other wherever they can get a grip. If they bite too hard – and with needle-sharp teeth and jaws strong enough to crack bones open, too hard is not very hard at all – their brother or sister will do two things: let out a loud shriek of pain and quit the game, leaving the biter alone and puzzled. Game over.

(Incidentally, young children do much the same thing: they grab their playmates, wrestle, and play-fight. It is extremely rare that they really hurt each other. Usually, they learn how to play so that they can get what they want and have fun. If they are too rough, other children cry and stop playing with them. Puppies learn the same thing.)

What pups learn by play-biting people
After a few dozen repetitions, even the slowest puppy learns that good things come to an end when you bite your friends too hard. It’s a lesson that will be with them throughout their lives – and may even save their lives someday.

You see, bite inhibition is what keeps a dog who does bite someone – another dog or a human – from biting hard enough to seriously injure the victim. All dogs are capable of ripping another dog’s throat open, or slashing your arm to the bone; they have all the equipment needed to do so. But when a dog with proper “bite inhibition” bites, the result is a hard pinch rather than a bloody tragedy.

A dog with poor bite inhibition, on the other hand, may spend his entire life as the most beloved, trusted, calm, and loving family companion, but if or when he decides to bite, the bite is severe and awful. Many a bewildered family has put their beloved dog to death because they couldn’t understand how or why a usually perfect dog could inflict such a terrible bite. These poor dogs never learned how hard they should bite if they do bite; they lacked the subconscious knowledge of exactly what kind of bite pressure will do the job of controlling their immediate social environment.

Just because your puppy didn’t grow up in a litter of playmates, however, doesn’t mean he can’t learn this critical knowledge. By simulating the proper responses, you can teach bite inhibition to your puppy.

Never say never
Unfortunately, this means that at first, you’re going to have to let your puppy bite and chew on you! (But not hard – I’ll get to that in a second.) If you, instead, tell the puppy, “NO!” every time he tries to bite or chew on you, you will deny him the opportunity to learn how hard social bites should be. This knowledge will be nowhere in his conscious or subconscious. And when the day comes that he is in a social setting (with other dogs or people) where he feels overwhelmed and upset beyond his ability to cope, he’ll bite – because that’s what dogs are genetically programmed to do. And that bite will be a bad one.

So, from the very first, you let your puppy bite and gnaw on you – but not hard! When your little friend bites to the point that it hurts you, do what another puppy would do: Say “Ouch!” loudly and quickly, and end your petting or play session. Get up immediately, turn away from the pup, and pay no attention to him for a minute or two. Then, return to your normal interactions with him.

This can be done from the first minute you interact with your puppy until he decides play biting you isn’t very rewarding. With patience and consistency (you’ll have to train all your friends and family to do this, too), your pup will gradually learn not to bite as hard and then not to bite at all.

Please note that I said gradually. It usually takes a few weeks of following the correct procedure before you see a big improvement in this behavior. The reason is simple. Play biting is such an important, natural behavior, that we can not change it immediately unless we use harsh punishment. Don’t use punishment to stop puppy biting. It will undoubtedly stop the biting – but it also may make your puppy fearful or aggressive (that is, act in self-defense, which we often interpret as “aggressive”). It can also end all his opportunities to learn good bite inhibition.

A little relief
Hopefully, you now understand why your puppy should be allowed to gently bite and chew on you for a critical period of time when he is young. But you hope there is something you can do right away to get your puppy to bite less, right? Happily, there is. While your first job was to teach your pup to inhibit the force of his bite, your next task is to work on reducing the frequency of his play-biting.

If you know that your puppy wants to interact with you whenever he has a chance, you can give him something else to do with you besides play biting. All puppies benefit from learning a few simple requests. Sit, Stand, and Down can all be taught in a positive manner using lure and reward, clicker, or any other positive, non-punishing method. If you are prepared, you can start training your pup before he starts to play-bite you. Some pups will play-bite every time they get a chance, some pups will do it only during high-activity periods. Pay attention to your puppy and always be prepared to engage him in a fun training session rather than letting him decide that nipping you is the best way to get your attention.

Start out by taking a small handful of your puppy’s food. Sit in a comfortable chair, rest your forearm on your thigh, say “Take it!” and give the puppy one piece of food. Close the rest of the food in your hand and say “Off” in a calm, gentle, sweet manner. Your puppy will probably try to get at the food by mouthing and/or pawing. Just keep that hand closed and wait. After a short period of trying to get the food, the pup will take his mouth off of your hand for a few seconds. When he does this, just say “Take it!” and give him a different piece of food from your other hand. It becomes very clear to the puppy in a short period of time, that when you say “Off,” if he does not touch your hand for three to five seconds, you will reward him by saying “Take it” and giving him a piece of food.

You are in the process of teaching your puppy that “off” means don’t touch. After a few days of this exercise, you can start telling your puppy not to play-bite by saying “Off” before he gets a chance to put his mouth on you. It is very important that you give him something else to do at this time. Don’t just keep saying “Off!” The puppy wants to play with you. Because you are using positive training methods, the puppy knows training is play and will be happy to have you start a training session. Make sure you do lots of short training sessions whenever your puppy gets to have some of your precious time!

What if this doesn’t work?
If these methods don’t seem to make any difference to your puppy, then you have to figure out why he is still play-biting too frequently or with too much force. Here are some possible reasons and solutions:

• You are saying “Ouch!” in a manner that excites your puppy and causes him to play- bite even more – or saying it in such a normal tone that it’s indistinguishable from your normal interactions. Experiment until you find the pitch and tone that makes him stop.

• You are not spending enough time training your puppy and he just has to get your attention. Have more training sessions. Teach everyone in the family to train the pup.

• Your puppy is too overstimulated or over-tired. If you are doing lots of short training sessions, don’t feel guilty about doing a time-out. Puppies are like children; when they get overstimulated or over-tired, the best solution is a time-out. Take the puppy out to potty, put him in his secure area where he can’t play-bite you or anyone else, let him rest up in peace and quiet for a while, and then he will be prepared for the next fun training session and so will you!

Stay positive!

 

-By Joel Walton

Joel Walton, a founding member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, is a canine behavior consultant in the Washington, DC, area who specializes in aggressive behavior cases. His second book, Labrador Retrievers for Dummies, co-authored with Eve Adamson, contains lots of positive pet training advice.

Teaching Your Puppy Critical Social Skills

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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If you are ever in California, you might want to make it a point to visit Carmel Beach, at the end of Ocean Avenue in Carmel Village, Monterey County. Carmel Beach is a canine utopia. Dogs are allowed, even encouraged, to run off-leash along a breathtaking Pacific Ocean backdrop. On any given day, at any given time, you’ll see Golden Retrievers racing along the sand after tennis balls, Labradors fetching sticks from the surf, Border Collies herding shorebirds, and any and all varieties of mixed-breeds and purebreds romping together in happy groups. Rarely, if ever, does a fight happen. Oh, an occasional brief scuffle maybe, as two ball-obsessed Aussies squabble over possession rights. But it’s hardly ever serious.

Thus the community of Carmel was shocked two years ago when a Pitbull terrier attacked and killed a small Poodle. What happened? Why was there bloodshed on the normally peaceful Carmel Beach?

Dogs are pack animals. Their wild ancestors necessarily had to get along for the very important purpose of survival. Even after thousands of generations of domestication, most dogs still play well with others of their species. When they don’t, it’s usually for one or a combination of three reasons: genetics, learned behavior, or poor socialization.

It’s in the genes
Sadly, humans have bred some dogs for dog aggression, most notably the Pitbull. Dogfighters deliberately selected for dogs who were willing and eager to fight with their own kind until, over time and generations, the quality that they call “gameness” was deeply instilled in the gene pool. A litter of puppies from fighting lines must often be separated by the age of seven weeks or they will fight with each other and cause serious harm. Chances are the tragedy on Carmel Beach was a result, at least in large part, of those genetics.

Other types of dogs were bred for the exact opposite quality. Because they hunt in packs, scent hounds such as the Beagle, Bloodhound, and Foxhound were bred to be exceptionally amenable to pack life. (This is one of the reasons Beagles are often the breed of choice for research colonies.) Other breeds fall on a continuum, from the relatively gregarious sporting breeds like Labrador and Golden Retrievers who are generally good with other dogs, to the guard-type dogs like Rottweilers and Chows, who have a greater tendency to be dog aggressive.

Learned behavior
To some extent, the natural tendencies bestowed by a dog’s genetic package can be influenced by learning. Beagles can be made to be dog aggressive under the right (wrong!) circumstances. Some Pitbulls can be raised peacefully with other dogs, providing care is taken to avoid exposing the individuals to incidents that might turn on their fighting “lightbulb.” This is why it is critical to raise your dog in an environment that doesn’t allow him to be teased, tormented, or attacked by other dogs. Tying a dog up or fencing him in a location where other dogs can agitate the confined one, is a classic recipe for dog aggression.

Poor socialization
But by far the most common cause of inadvertently induced dog aggression is lack of proper socialization. While some veterinarians still urge their clients to keep their young puppies cloistered until they have completed their vaccination series at age four to six months, more and more animal care professionals are recognizing the importance of early socialization with other puppies and dogs in a controlled environment.

Playtime with other puppies and non-aggressive adult dogs gives a puppy the opportunity to learn how to talk and read “dog-ese” through appropriate interactions with and responses to other dogs’ body language. If this doesn’t happen during the pup’s critical learning period, well before the age of six months, you may end up with a canine social nerd whose inept use of the dog’s physical and postural language consistently gets him trouble. This happens either because he sends inappropriate messages or fails to respond appropriately to another dog’s message.

As with virtually all dog behavior problems, prevention is a far better approach than rehabilitation. If you have the luxury of working within your puppy’s critical learning window, you are light years ahead of the game. The more your pup’s breed characteristics and individual personality predispose him to dog aggression, the more critical it is that he be socialized during the learning period. The following steps can maximize his opportunities for socialization while minimizing his exposure to disease:

• DO keep him current on his vaccination schedule. (Some people vaccinate their dogs far more aggressively than others. See “Current Thoughts on Shots,” August 1999 and “Reduced Vaccination Schedule,” September 1999. Also, see sidebar below.)

• DO invite friends over with their healthy puppies and gentle adult dogs to play with your puppy.

• DO enroll your puppy as soon as possible in a well-run puppy class where classmates are allowed to play together. Again, people vary in their willingness to vaccinate their dogs. Most trainers require proof of vaccinations for all participants. People who use fewer than the usual number of puppy vaccinations may have difficulty finding a trainer who understands and accepts this approach.

• DO talk to the trainer and watch the class first. Puppy play should be closely monitored to avoid bullying of small or timid puppies by bigger, older ones. The facility should be clean indoors and out, and training techniques involving the use of choke chains, prong collars or physical force should not be permitted.

• DO intervene if another puppy starts to bully yours. A pup can learn to be defensively aggressive if he is frightened by the intensity of another pup’s play.

• DO intervene if your puppy starts to bully another. A gentle interruption of the behavior every time it occurs combined with brief time-outs if necessary, offset by praise and treat rewards when he is playing well with others, can keep him on the right track. A time out is what behaviorists call “negative punishment.” The puppy’s behavior (being too rough or aggressive) makes a good thing (playing with other puppies) go away. If you are consistent he will learn that he has to be nice if he wants to keep playing.

• DON’T intervene if two pups are engaged in mutually agreeable rough play. Rough play is perfectly acceptable if both pups are enjoying it. Do keep an eye on the participants to make sure they are both having fun, and gently intervene if the tone of play starts to change.

• DON’T take your puppy to dog parks or public areas where lots of dogs congregate. He faces a much greater risk of exposure to disease in those environments.

• DON’T allow your puppy to sniff piles of feces from unknown dogs when you take him for walks around the block.

• DON’T allow your pup to interact with any dogs or puppies who don’t appear healthy, and don’t allow the owners of sick dogs or puppies to play with yours.

If you follow these simple guidelines, your chances of having a well socialized dog are high, and your disease risk is very low. Remember: Far more dogs face tragic ends to their lives due to poor socialization than to illnesses encountered in well-monitored puppy play groups.

Predictors of success
What if you’re not so lucky? Maybe you already missed your puppy’s learning period, either because you weren’t aware of the importance of socialization, or because you adopted a pre-owned older dog. If this just meant that the other dogs wouldn’t play with yours on the playground, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But the most common behavior problems manifested by a dog who is poorly socialized with other dogs are fear and aggression.

Is she doomed to a life of isolation from other dogs because she responds intensely and negatively when she sees other dogs, or because there have been incidents of aggression when you have allowed her to play off-leash with others? Not necessarily. The following factors will be key to the success of a rehabilitation program for your dog:

1. How old is she? The younger she is, the better the prospects for rehabilitation. The older she is the more likely that the behavior has been happening for a long time and is a deeply ingrained habit.

2. How intense are the fights? The more serious the intent to do harm, the more difficult the behavior will be to change, and the more at risk you are (and other dogs are) when a fight does occur.

3. How capable are you of preventing fights? If you cannot control the environment to prevent her from getting into fights while you work to correct the behavior, chances of successful rehabilitation are low. If the kids leave the gate open and she gets out, or if you aren’t willing to curtail your off-leash walks and she continues to get into fights, she is reinforcing the undesirable behavior far more effectively than you are working to change it.

4. What are her breed and temperament predispositions? A submissive young Beagle whose occasional bouts with other dogs are triggered by fear and defensiveness is easier to rehabilitate than a poorly-socialized but dominant Pitbull, Rottweiler, or Akita with a history of violent encounters.

5. How much time are you willing to dedicate to changing your dog’s behavior? This is not an easy fix. Successful aggression behavior modification through counter conditioning and desensitization takes time and patience. Beware of any trainers who offer to fix an aggression problem overnight. Chances are they are likely to use coercive techniques that may drive the aggression underground temporarily but not truly change the dog’s mind-set about other dogs. You must be willing to invest a significant amount of time and effort, maybe even money, if you want to succeed.

Remedial socializing
The more positive answers you had to the above five questions, the better your chances are of ending up with a dog who “plays well with others.” If the problem is still in its embryonic stages you might be able to accomplish the desensitization and counter conditioning on your own. If the problem is more serious, you might want to make use of the services of a competent professional who uses positive methods to work with aggression problems. You will need to be realistic about your goal. Most dogs can be taught to walk calmly on leash around other dogs. Some will eventually be safe off-leash around other dogs, but not all.

Caveat: If at any time you don’t feel confident in implementing the next step of the following training program, you should seek professional help. Similarly, if you feel you are not making progress, or if your dog’s aggression or fear reaction is triggered frequently, look for a trainer to help you. Some trainers offer group classes specifically for dogs with aggression and socialization problems. (See “A Class of Their Own, February 1999.)

Step 1: Counterconditioning
You want your dog to think that being around other dogs is a wonderful thing, not something to be feared. Start by finding a location where you can control the distance between you and your on-leash dog and other dogs in the vicinity. A training class in a park is perfect – you know the dogs will stay in their class location and you can position yourself as far away as necessary. Another potential location is a large parking lot outside a pet supply store.

Find the distance that is far enough from the other dogs that yours doesn’t feel threatened. Setup a lightweight lawn chair (or sit on a park bench) and hang out there for at least 20 minutes. If there is likely to be canine foot traffic passing by, set up signs politely asking people to keep at a distance with their dogs because you are training yours. DO NOT do this in a location where loose dogs are likely to run up to you.

While you are sitting in your chair, toss your dog a steady stream of the most irresistible treats you can find. Take a huge supply with you so you don’t risk running out. Right now, she is conditioned to think that dogs are dangerous, something to be feared. By pairing the presence of other dogs with extra-yummy food, we can counter-condition her to think that the presence of other dogs is a good thing.

At this point, don’t wait for “good” behavior or pair the food with a reward marker such as a Click! or a “Yes!” We are not trying to train a behavior, we are just trying to change the way her brain involuntarily reacts to the presence of other dogs.

Note: Many dog-aggressive dogs will get so tense and wound up over the sight of other dogs that they will ignore your usual treats. This generally means two things: First, you also might have to work a little harder, or be a little more creative in your search for irresitable treats. Then, if especially yummy treats such as pieces of hot dog, meatballs, ham, or smelly cheese aren’t working, it’s a sign that the situation you have built is still too stressful. Increase the distance between your dog and the other dogs until he will take the treats, or consider finding an entirely different, even less stressful environment in which to work.

Also, some dogs will become so stressed by the mere sight of distant dogs, that they will forget their usual treat-eating manners and snap at the treats, endangering the treat-feeder’s fingers! Rather than put yourself in a position where you might feel compelled to verbally “snap” back, toss the treats on the ground in front of the dog. Or, if he’s too preoccupied with the other dogs and doesn’t notice the treats on the ground, wear gloves when you hold the treats near his muzzle! Remember: you want this to be a pleasant experience for the dog. Don’t “correct” his lapses in behavior at this point; it will only confirm his negative feelings about other dogs.

Step 2: Densitization
Desensitization is the process of gradually increasing the intensity of the stimulus that causes a reaction. It often goes hand in hand with counter conditioning. When your dog is eagerly looking forward to her trips to the park, very gradually start moving your chair closer to the training class – or other controlled source of dog presence – until you can sit next to the class and watch without a negative reaction from your dog.

The speed with which you do this will vary, depending on your dog’s response. If she starts acting uneasy when you move five feet closer, you may need to move in one-foot increments. If she is totally sold on the concept of “treats + other dogs = great stuff,” then you can move more quickly. You will still shower her with treats to continue the counter conditioning. You can also, at this point, Click! and reward specific good behaviors, such as a tail wag or happy glance at you when she sees another dog. The reaction we are looking for is, “Cool!! There’s another dog!!! Where’s my treat?”

Step 3: Interacting with others
If and when you get to this point, find a friend with a very calm, easygoing dog, and introduce the two off-leash, in an enclosed, controlled, neutral environment. Many dogs will fight on-leash and be perfectly fine off-leash. This is due in part to something we call restraint frustration (when the frustration of being restrained by the leash raises the dog’s level of arousal, making a fight more likely) and in part to the fact that the owner’s control of the leash inhibits a dog from displaying normal body language signals.

Your dog should now be relaxed and happy when other dogs are around. Let her see the other dog with both dogs on leash, and if her reaction is positive, release both dogs and let them greet each other.

Note: We suggest that you put soft nylon muzzles on both dogs before releasing them for the first time, as an added precaution. Both dogs should be conditioned to wearing the muzzles prior to meeting, so the extra equipment doesn’t add stress. If there is a scuffle with muzzles on no one will be hurt, and you can give them a bit of time to work through the disagreement. If it doesn’t resolve itself after 10-20 seconds then break it up and remove the dogs.

This first meeting should be relatively short. You want to end on a high note so your dog goes away with a positive experience. It is important that you remain calm during this interaction and that any verbal communications with your dog are done in a relaxed tone of voice. This is not easy to do when you are wound tight in anticipation of a possible fight, but any tension in your body or voice will be transmitted to your dog, and increase her level of tension.

Assuming positive results from the first interaction, schedule several more of gradually increasing length. Meanwhile, seek out people with dog-friendly dogs, people who are willing to participate in your training program. When you find yourself relaxing while your dog plays with her first canine friend, it is time to introduce her, one-at-a-time, to other play partners. Once she has several congenial friends you can try a threesome, then gradually increase the size of the playgroup.

Your dog’s reaction to the increased levels of arousal in larger groups will help you decide if she will ever be ready for off-leash play at Carmel Beach, or if discretion dictates that she restrict her recreational activities to pre-screened pals. Whichever you decide, she will have come a long way from where she started, and be able to reap the physical and mental benefits of interactions with others of her own kind.

-By Pat Miller

Pat Miller is a freelance author and a professional dog trainer in Fairplay, Maryland.

Who’s in Charge of Pet Food Manufacturing Regulations?

By
Nancy Kerns
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While most dog owners are certain that “someone” is in charge of regulating the manufacture of commercial dog food in this country, very few people know who that mysterious official or agency might be. But somebody’s gotta be making sure that dog food doesn’t contain any harmful ingredients and does contain what dogs need to survive, right? The FDA? Department of Agriculture? Someone?

Unfortunately, the answer isn’t as clear-cut as a simple, “Yes, it’s all taken care of.” There are numerous government and industry agencies that oversee and purportedly regulate various aspects of pet food production, but there really is no single office that provides seamless overall supervision of the industry. So is there anyone making sure that a “lamb and rice” food really contains lamb and rice? Or testing the food to see whether it really contains a minimum of the 20 percent protein it claims in its “Guaranteed Analysis”? Maybe, but probably not. There are many opportunities for dog foods to fall between the cracks of testing and enforcement. A walk through the many halls of pet food regulation reveals why a reliance on some branch of the government to ensure a food is “nutritionally complete and balanced” is pure folly.

Top dressing

Many people assume the Federal government has some sort of control over the production of pet food. Not really. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enforces the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. A division of the FDA called the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) is responsible for regulating animal drugs, medicated feeds, food additives and ingredients, and pet food, making sure that they conform with the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

This Act requires that pet foods contain no harmful substances, and be truthfully labeled. However, only in extreme cases does the FDA or the CVM get involved in an investigation of a food maker, and generally, only as a last line of enforcement. Meaningful regulation of pet foods occurs at the state level.

Each individual state has its own regulations and its own Department of Agriculture, which oversees the production and sale of pet food within its borders. Before a new brand or a new type of dog food can be sold in a given state, the maker is required by law to register the new food in each state in which it will be sold.

The state’s feed control officials are responsible for examining the food’s label claims and the food itself. Some states have very proactive feed control officials, who aggressively examine and test new foods being sold or made within their states’ borders. Kentucky, for instance, has a reputation for thoroughness when it comes to testing pet foods. California, in contrast, has a reputation for absolute laxity. We’ve been told that unscrupulous food makers often ship products that have failed tests (or that they know will fail tests) to California for sale, with full knowledge that the California feed control officials do not test foods.

What might the states test for? Not as much as you’d think. The main area of focus is the Guaranteed Analysis (GA), which the FDA requires to be printed on every container of pet food. The states can (and most do) test for everything that is included in the GA. The only things that are required to be in the GA include the minimum percentages of crude protein and crude fat, the maximum percentages of crude fiber and moisture in the food; that’s all. Some companies include more information in their GA, adding minimum levels of certain vitamins, fatty acids, or other nutrients they believe the consumer will appreciate. This is going out on a limb for the maker, because it just about guarantees that the states – the proactive ones, anyway – will test for these items, too.

Advisory committee
Before we discuss other tests or standards a pet food might be held to, we have to introduce another organization, one that influences the states’ policies on pet food.

Many people have heard of the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), and assume that this is the agency that polices the pet food industry. But AAFCO has no regulatory role whatsoever; it doesn’t have the power to approve or ban foods. Rather, AAFCO is a non-government, voluntary organization of feed control officials (FCOs) from each state, and its role is advisory. AAFCO exists to address issues of quality and standardization for animal and pet food, to suggest nutritional standards for pet foods, provide guidelines for food manufacture and labeling, and outline a course of action for regulators.

AAFCO influences the production of pet foods only in that many states (25) have adopted its “model” regulations, in whole or in part. AAFCO is the place where the state feed control officials can go to discuss issues of feed safety, animal health, and inter-state commerce with other people who have expertise with these issues. Then they go home and set policy for their states.

In order to obtain the best information about every imaginable aspect of pet food formulation, AAFCO invites certain experts from many different fields to join the conversation, as it were, to educate the Association in the finer details of associated specialties. Some of the liaisons come from the USDA and the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, but many come from the commercial pet food industry, as well as the grain and feed industries, the rendering industry, laboratories, farm co-ops, and other groups with an interest in AAFCO’s decisions. My organization, the Animal Protection Institute, has had a liaison position on the Pet Food Committee and Ingredients Definitions Committee for several years. Many of these invited experts participate in AAFCO subcommittees as members and liaisons; there are committees on botanicals and herbs, environmental issues, feed safety, ingredient definitions, state/industry regulations, and many more.

A watchdog, not a pawn
The presence of so many vested experts, all of whom would like to influence the feed control officials to benefit their own aspect of the industry, worries many animal welfare activists, and some even regard AAFCO as a sort of pawn of industry that does not have our animals’ health at heart. However, only the state feed control officials (and on some committees, the FDA and USDA representatives) are voting members of AAFCO; the liaisons are there in an advisory role only. At AAFCO meetings, which are held twice a year, the liaisons often speak on issues where they have an interest or stake in the outcome. Comments are taken under advisement by the FCOs and then the issue is voted on by the FCOs. In my experience, the FCOs are definitely not pro-industry; they take their role as industry watchdog very seriously.

As an example, a few years ago the rendering industry pushed to have the official feed term “by-products” re-named “animal proteins.” This was debated in the Ingredient Definitions Committee (IDC). The proposal was turned down, because the IDC felt it was anti-consumer, and that the new term was being requested not because of a change in the ingredient itself, but to obscure and confuse the issue for consumers.

In spite of that defeat, the renderers approached the IDC last January with another request, this time to change the name “poultry by-products” to “poultry and bone meal.” As a new liaison to that committee, I argued strongly against this change, as did representatives from two major pet food companies and others. The IDC voted unanimously against the change.

Inadequate standards?
Perhaps AAFCO’s biggest legacy to the state feed control officials has been the development of two tools for the standardization of pet food formulation. Most states have adopted these development tools.

The first standard is the AAFCO Nutrient Profiles, an effort to identify the minimum (and a few maximum) levels of “macronutrients” (protein, fat, and fiber) and the “micronutrients” (vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids) that research has shown to be necessary for maintaining the health of dogs and cats. Years ago, pet food makers manufactured foods to the nutritional standards set by the National Research Council, but feed control officials found numerous faults with the studies that produced that set of suggested nutrient levels, and, over time, AAFCO developed and adopted new, better standards.

Although the Nutrient Profile system has done a lot to standardize the business of pet food production, the system is not without criticism. There are studies that suggest some nutrient levels may be too high, and others too low. The Nutrient Profile system of formulation does not address the issue of ingredient quality whatsoever. One critic of this method of feed formulation designed a “food” that met all the AAFCO nutrient profile requirements – even though the food was primarily formulated from old shoe leather, sawdust, and motor oil, with a multi-vitamin-mineral supplement. Obviously, there would be no guarantee that any animal would eat such a food, or could digest it, even though it contained all the vitamins, minerals, protein, fat, etc., that the Nutrient Profiles required.

The second method for pet food formulation addresses those concerns – but contains some loopholes, as well. AAFCO has developed a protocol for feeding trials that can be used to determine whether a food can sustain life in a target test population. One is a six-month test for “maintenance” of adult dogs (or cats); the other is a shorter (10-week) test for young dogs (or cats) in a “growth” or “lactation” phase. The growth/lactation protocol is much shorter than the maintenance test, but requires more extensive blood tests for analysis. A food must pass the growth/lactation test in order to receive an “all life stages” clearance.

Whichever feeding trial is undertaken, the test population is fed nothing but the food in question for the requisite period. If the subjects test normal on a few minimal health parameters, the food passes.

The feeding trials method at least would help a maker demonstrate that the food is palatable and digestible enough to maintain life in the test population – something the Nutrient Profile system doesn’t do. This method is good if a feed maker has some brilliant research that indicates the levels of certain nutrients in the AAFCO nutrient profiles are inadequate for promoting maximum health, and they can formulate a food that they think is better; they can conduct feeding trials to prove their food works.

However, the feeding trials involve only eight test subjects, and require that only six finish the trial. Many nutritional deficiencies or overdoses would not appear in this short period; the feed’s true ability to maintain longevity, or reproductive or multi-generational health would not be demonstrated.

These two systems necessarily miss a lot of potential problems. A food meeting the Nutrient Profile may or may not pass a feeding trial; not all foods that have passed a feeding trial meet all specifications of the Nutrient Profiles. Clearly, it would be possible for a marginal food to pass these tests, yet fail to provide adequate nutrition in the long run, and in fact such problems are well documented. In generational studies, where animals were kept on the same food for three to five generations, researchers at the University of California at Davis found that some foods that pass feeding trials still won’t support animals over the long term. They estimated that, of 100 foods that pass AAFCO analysis criteria, 10 to 20 would not pass the feeding trials, and of those, 10 percent would not be adequate for long-term feeding. A former FDA nutritionist emphasizes, “The formulation method does not account for palatability or availability of nutrients. Yet a feeding trial can miss some chronic deficiencies or excesses.”

In the case of minimum requirements without a corresponding maximum, some foods contain significant nutrient excesses that may actually be dangerous in the long run. The Kentucky feed control official analyzed test data from all pet foods tested during 1994 and 1995, and found that certain nutrients, such as magnesium, iron, and manganese, were present in most dry dog and puppy foods at 200-400 percent or more of their AAFCO Nutrient Profile values. Their conclusion: the AAFCO profile for certain nutrients is not a reasonable indicator of the actual level present in many products. An excess of many minerals, including copper, magnesium, and iron, may produce signs of toxicity over time.

And here is a big wrench in the works: according to both of AAFCO’s methods of certification, manufacturers are allowed to test one food of a similar “family” of foods, and apply that certification to all foods in that family. There is no way for the consumer to know which foods were actually tested for the Nutrient Profiles or Feeding Trials certification.

Up to the states
If a food has met either AAFCO requirement, it may state on the label that the food is “complete and balanced.” These label statements are why many people are under the mistaken impression that AAFCO actually regulates the food industry.

But, remember, it’s the states that are in control – and they are in control of only the pet food manufacturers who try to sell food within their borders. Only the state’s feed control officials have the ability to approve or deny the right of a manufacturer to sell a particular food in their state, or to punish manufacturers for labeling infractions. And the only way they can make these decisions is to test the various foods that the makers register for sale there.

As we said above, some states test only the Guaranteed Analysis information (protein, fat, fiber, moisture). Others test individual nutrients (amino acids, vitamins, minerals) as well. California has a reputation for testing nothing. Kentucky tests nearly the entire AAFCO Nutrient Profile. Nearly every manufacturer has had one or more foods fail various tests at one time or another. Many foods fall short, usually on the stated protein levels. Even more ominous is the failure of tests for major minerals such as phosphorus or calcium. The manufacturers assert that tests on any particular batch or lot of food may not be representative of all their foods, but because such failures are so widespread, from the cheapest generic to the most specialized and expensive foods, it is a very disturbing trend.

Oddly enough, there is no way to test a food to see if it actually contains the ingredients listed. Only DNA testing of the raw ingredients – before a food is made – could determine whether the protein source was really chicken meat, for instance, and not a mixed poultry by-product. Once the food is cooked, the DNA is destroyed and testing is futile.

Failing tests
State feed control officials can and do enforce violations of their states’ regulations, but this process is not sweeping and surely not swift. Depending on the nature of a problem they discover with a food, there are numerous levels of notification and correction; in the mean time, tons of non-compliant food can be sold and consumed by our dogs. Each state compiles an annual report which lists the violations; these documents are public record. Many states publish this data; a few, like Missouri, and Indiana, post it on the Internet.

Regulation and enforcement of the pet food industry varies widely from state to state. Some states have adopted very tough legislation, and others have minimal pet food laws. Some states scrutinize foods carefully, and others hardly at all. And you can’t assume any coordination between the state’s regulatory aims and its follow-through on enforcement. California, for example, has one of the nation’s most restrictive pet food production Acts in the country, the “Pure Pet Food Act of 1969.” It prohibits 4D meat and other bad stuff in pet food. However, the Act isn’t enforced at all. Texas has adopted the AAFCO nutrient profiles, tests the Guaranteed Analysis, and enforces everything. The annual feed report from Texas averages around 100 pages (in very fine print) of violations and actions taken. There are almost 30 pages just listing Stop Sale orders of animal feed and pet food!

In reviewing the states’ reports, it’s obvious that every food fails something somewhere, some time. But the most striking trend is that the foods with the most problems tend to be locally produced and regionally marketed; there are numerous small pet food companies that make foods that are sold in one state only or across one state border only. The national manufacturers stick closer to the rules; if they ship nationally, they pretty much have to make their products to whichever state standards are the strictest.

Worrisome
If you’re like us, the more you learn about the pet food industry, the more you feel you should worry about your pets’ food! The kind of regulation and oversight that many of us assume is present over the industry as a whole really doesn’t exist. Instead, existent regulation and the vicissitudes of the market itself tends to promote the better products, and weed out the “bad actors” over time. It really is amazing that the industry is as “clean” as it is – but this isn’t, perhaps, saying much. In an ideal world, every food in the country would have to pass feeding trials and lab tests that prove sufficient (and not harmful) nutrient levels on an ongoing basis. But in this world, our dogs represent the “test dogs” and we are providing the feeding trials.

Also With This Article
Click here to view “Pet Food Labeling Regulations –Know the Facts”
Click here to view “Problems with Artificial Preservatives in Dog Food”

-By Jean Hofve

Dr. Jean Hofve is the Companion Animal Program Coordinator for the Animal Protection Institute, located in Sacramento, California.

Training Your Dog Not to Jump Up On You

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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I have a 1 1/2 year old Labrador Retriever. She is very smart – and very stubborn! My husband and I have been to puppy school, obedience school and we have also worked with a personal trainer. She does the “normal” puppy things – jumping up when I come home from work and when people come to visit, etc. But one of the reasons we went to the trainer was because she seemed to be exhibiting some aggressive tendencies.

When I come home from work I always play with her. We also fenced our yard so that she could run and play freely. However, when I sit down she barks and nips at me. A few times she got really into it and jumped up as she was nipping. She is very strong and I was getting bruised where she would catch me with her mouth. She never broke the skin and I was confident that she would never hurt me, but I was afraid that if she did this to someone else they might get hurt or scared.

The training school we went to told us to walk away when she did this. The problem was that she would follow and keep nipping or just start up again when I returned. Saying “ouch!” in a high-pitched voice was also suggested and did not work. I didn’t know what to do and as she got bigger and stronger – the bruises got worse. So we contacted a personal trainer. I told him it really just happened when I sat down on the couch. If I got up to do dishes or something she would often just rest on the floor near me, but once I sat down, she started in. He suggested a Tri-Tronics collar. Now of course I was not thrilled with this idea, but since nothing else worked I tried it.

The collar worked. I did test it on myself to make sure I wasn’t putting her through a lot of pain – which I wasn’t – but I still don’t like it. She still occasionally gets into these moods and the only way I can stop her is to put the collar on. I rarely need to shock her anymore because she is “collar-wise” and knows when it is on.

Do you have any idea how I can get her to stop these nipping fits once she gets going so that I don’t have to use the collar?

-Debbie Poetsch
via email

 

We asked our Training Editor, Pat Miller, to handle this question. Miller, a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, offers private and group dog training classes from her base in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Miller answers:

I appreciate your resistance to using the shock collar for basic training. Yes, shocking your dog can work, to a point. As you say in your letter, Guiness has become collar-wise and knows when it is on. So you really haven’t trained her not to nip; you’ve only taught her that if she nips when the collar is on, she will get hurt. Don’t kid yourself, by the way, if the collar didn’t hurt her, it wouldn’t stop the behavior.

The question is, do you want a relationship with your dog that requires the threat of pain and shock to keep her well-behaved? Obviously not, since you wrote this letter.

The school you went to gave you good advice, as far as it went. The way to make a behavior go away is to prevent the dog from being rewarded by it. Walking away from a dog who does this often works – except when the dog just follows you and continues the inappropriate behavior. When that happens, a tether can be a good solution.

Too bad, time out!
You will need a six-foot nylon-coated cable with snaps at both ends. Snap one end to an eye-bolt screwed into a wall, or loop it around the leg of a heavy piece of furniture. Put a soft dog bed at the tether location, with lots of enticing chew toys, and have a stuffed Kong handy on a nearby shelf . Hook up the tether in the same room as you, but far enough away from your chair that Guiness won’t be able to reach you. Sit in your chair. If she starts to bark at you, say “Oops, time out!” in a cheerful voice, walk her over to her tether, hook her up, and give her the Kong. Go back to your reading. Now if she barks, just ignore her.

Sooner or later she will pause in her barking, if just to catch her breath. When she does, Click! a clicker or say “Yes!” and toss her a treat. Keep rewarding her for pauses in the barking, and gradually wait for increasingly longer periods of quiet before clicking and treating. As the periods of quiet get longer, start rewarding random periods of quiet – sometimes shorter, sometimes longer – so she can’t anticipate when the next reward is due.

When you can see that her arousal level has diminished – when she is lying calmly on her bed on the tether – walk over to her and quietly release her from the cable. This part is important. She needs to know not only that barking and nipping earns her a time out, but also, that calm behavior wins your attention and her freedom. If she cranks up and starts barking and nipping again, do another “Oops, time out!” and tether her again. If she stays calm while off the tether, remember to occasionally give her attention and praise for being calm and quiet.

Remember that dogs learn through repetition. You want Guiness to learn that “not barking” gets your attention. Once she figures that out, she will “not bark” as hard as she can to get you to look at, talk to, touch, or play with her.

The tether does several things. It controls her inappropriate behavior so you don’t have to keep interacting with – and inadvertently rewarding – her for it. It allows you to repeatedly ignore her for the unwanted behavior and reward her for the acceptable behavior. It teaches her to control her own behavior, rather than relying on physical punishment or the threat of punishment that can damage your relationship with her. And it allows you to do it all without pain or anger on your part, which helps maintain a relationship of mutual trust and respect between you and your dog.

Stubbornness is not a dog trait
I do want to take issue with the description of Guiness or any other dog as “stubborn.” The term “stubborn” is pejorative, and implies a malicious intent that I don’t believe dogs are capable of. I prefer to describe them as persistent – a quality that we are likely to admire. Dogs simply do what works. Guiness has figured out that when you are up and doing dishes you are too busy to pay attention to her, but when you are sitting down your time is hers. When you try to read, she barks and nips at you to remind you that now you are supposed to be paying attention to her, not reading. Because you do respond to her when she barks, or at least did respond at some time in the past, she learned that barking and nipping works.

When we ignore a behavior that has worked in the past, dogs commonly display an “extinction burst” – that is, a very strong exhibition of the behavior that has worked in the past. They try really hard to get the previously successful behavior to work again. By putting her on a tether, you put yourself out of harm’s way, which allows you to ignore the extinction burst without getting irritated by it, and reward the first glimmerings of the desired behavior – in this case, calm and quiet.

 

Pat Miller, Peaceable Paws Dog Training, Chattanooga, TN. Small classes and private training using primarily positive reinforcement training methods. Ph (423) 326-0444. NOTE: You can now cyber-talk to Pat Miller, Peaceable Paws clients, and other positive dog owners and trainers on the Peaceable Paws e-mail list. Subscribe by sending a message to: peaceablepaws-subscribe@egroups.com.

How to Raise a Well-Socialized Dog

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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Monica and Tess had an inauspicious start in life. Half Rhodesian Ridgeback and half Beagle, at age five weeks they were on display in a cardboard box at a Salinas, California, yard sale, under the ubiquitous “Free to a Good Home” sign.

They were too young to be leaving their mother and siblings, and adopting two puppies at the same time is rarely advisable, but 83-year-old Marie and her dog-loving caretaker, Eleanor, were concerned that the pups might end up in less-than-caring hands, so they scooped the pups up and took them home to their Pebble Beach estate. There, they were assured of regular meals and a secure home, and safe from deliberate cruelty or abandonment.

Unfortunately, that’s not quite everything dogs need in life to thrive in this world. The elderly Marie wasn’t physically able to work with two energetic youngsters, and Eleanor was too busy with her caretaking duties to pay them much attention. The puppies were completely unsocialized to any humans other than the two women, and not very well socialized to them!

By the age of 10 months these puppies were tightly bonded to each other to the exclusion of human relationships. They had never been collared, and would go into a total panic at a hint of restraint. Any quick movements by humans sent them scurrying into the safety of the juniper bushes. They were well past time for spaying, and Marie and Eleanor knew they had to get them to the veterinary hospital for vaccinations and surgery soon. But how, when they couldn’t be restrained or walked on a leash?

They’ve got to be taught
Dogs aren’t born full-fledged “man’s best friends.” As with all baby animals, there is a period of time in their lives when they must learn about the world in order to survive. This critical period is a window of opportunity for socialization – a time when puppies learn what is safe and good and what is not. Opinions differ as to how long the window is open, but it falls somewhere in the period between four and 20 weeks. After the window closes, anything not previously identified as safe will automatically fall into the unsafe category. Dogs must be socialized to the human world during this time, or they will forever be fearful of – or, at the very least, anxious about – new people, sights and sounds.

Dogs who are well-socialized receive lots of gentle human contact and handling from the time their eyes open on into adulthood. Guide Dogs For The Blind and other service dog organizations who must produce the calmest, most socialized dogs possible send their puppies to live with 4-H families, where the participants try to take their service puppies with them everywhere they go. As they get older (eight to 20 weeks) they are given careful exposure to other stimuli, such as visits to the vet hospital and groomer, walks in town, rides on elevators and escalators, sounds of cars, motorcycles and skateboards, people of different ages, sexes, and ethnicities, people who dress, talk and move in strange ways, people with umbrellas, crutches, and wheelchairs.

Proof positive
Have you ever marveled at the ability of service dogs to remain calm and responsive to their handlers’ requests in the midst of a noisy, bustling environment? Then you have witnessed proof that such a thorough, positive exposure to the outside world really does result in a more confident and well-adjusted dog, and one who will easily accept new stimuli, even without prior exposure to that specific experience.

Unfortunately, there are many poorly socialized dogs around us. Some of them, like Monica and Tess, are the result of benevolent neglect – dogs who were never going to go anywhere and whose owners didn’t anticipate the need for them to be socialized (such as routine or emergency medical care, or even emergency rehoming, if something happened to their caregivers).

More unsocialized dogs, however, are ordinary dogs whose owners simply never knew about or bothered with this important aspect of their dog’s care and training, such as dogs who live with elderly people and freak out and bite when the grandchildren visit, or dogs who the ones whose families raise them in the country and then move to the city, where they overreact to the bustle of urban life and the neighbors complain about their incessant barking. An unsocialized dog is a canine social misfit, and a tragic story waiting to happen.

An ounce of prevention
The easiest way to avoid this problem, as with most serious dog behavior challenges, is through prevention. While your veterinarian, concerned about diseases, may caution you against exposing your new puppy to the real world, failure to do so can result in a poorly socialized adult dog. And, in the long term, lack of socialization can be a bigger threat to your puppy’s well-being than the risk of disease.

The answer to this dilemma is to expose a properly-vaccinated (see “Current Thoughts on Shots,” in the August 1999 and September 1999 issues of WDJ) young dog to a controlled social environment. Take her to a well-run puppy class, where she can meet lots of different people and lots of healthy puppies. Invite friends of all ages and races over and have them dress up in odd clothes, hats, umbrellas, sunglasses, etc. Invite children over to play gently with her and to feed her treats.

The more positive encounters a dog experiences while her socialization window is open, the more well-adjusted, confident and gregarious she will be as an adult.

A positive pound of cure
But wait, you say: I’m the owner of an unsocialized adult dog. Don’t despair. Frequently, steps can be taken to make the world a less terrifying place for unsocialized dogs. The quality of their lives can be improved with desensitization, and with training that gives them confidence and helps them make sense of the world around them. It takes a lot of work and a patient owner, but it can be done.

It should come as no surprise that the methods used to rehabilitate an unsocialized dog must be positive ones. The poor pooch is already terrified of the world. Progress is slow in the best of circumstances, and once she starts taking tentative steps to emerge from her shell, the tiniest correction can send her scurrying back to safety. Each dog will progress at her own pace – some far more quickly than others. You must be patient. Pushing an unsocialized dog too quickly can destroy weeks, even months, of painstaking progress.

Here are the steps to take to encourage courage in an unsocialized canine:

1. Teach your dog a bridge, or reward marker. A bridge is a word or a sound that tells your dog that she has earned a reward. The clicker, a small plastic box that makes a clicking sound when pressed, is often used as the bridge in dog training. Your unsocialized dog may be sound sensitive. If so, you may want to start with a one-syllable bridge word, such as “Yes!” instead of the clicker. “Good Dog!” is not a good choice for a reward marker. It’s too long. A dog can do several behaviors during the time it takes to say two syllables. Which one is getting rewarded? Besides, we tend to say “Good dog!” to our dogs all the time just because we love them. We need a marker that only means “a reward is coming.”

To teach your Timid Tess the bridge, just say “Yes!” (or Click! the clicker if she tolerates the sound), and immediately feed her a small but very tasty treat. She doesn’t have to do anything special to get the Yes! and treat at first, but do try to avoid marking and treating if she is doing something you don’t want her to do, like jumping on you.

If Tess is unsocialized even to you and won’t come close enough to eat treats out of your hand you can toss the treats to her at a distance or scatter treats all over the ground, and Yes! or Click! every time she picks one up. Once she knows that the marker means “Treat!” you can, for the rest of her life, click! (or yes!) and treat her every time she does something good; this will reinforce that behavior and increase the likelihood that she will do it again.

2. Reward-mark her entire meal.
Let this be the only way Tess gets to eat – by being in your company and eventually, when she’s brave enough, by eating out of your hand. She needs to learn that you are the source of all good things. Reward-marking won’t work as well for a free-roaming feral dog – she will have access to other food sources and won’t have to tolerate your presence to find food. Please note – we absolutely do not advocate starving a dog in order to get her to take food from you. You will need to find an environment where Tess feels comfortable eating in your presence – if necessary a large enough room or yard that she can be fairly far away from you at first while she picks treats up off the ground and gets marked.

3. Reward-mark her for calm behavior around others. Once Tess knows that the bridge means “Treat!” you can Yes! or Click! and treat anytime she is being brave. If she is normally afraid of children and she sits quietly next to you on a park bench while a child walks by, Yes! and reward. Look for very small, rewardable behaviors. If she glances at a child and doesn’t react, Yes! and reward.

4. Make a list of her fear triggers. You probably have a good idea of what the things are that frighten Tess. These are her “fear triggers.” Make a list, and include everything you can think of. Ask other family members to help. Then prioritize your list. Now decide which trigger you want to start with in her desensitization program. Start with something achievable. For your dog’s sake and for yours, it’s important to have small successes throughout the process. You might need to take a big trigger and figure out how to break it down into smaller pieces.

For example: if her Number 1 Trigger is tall men with beards and cowboy hats, you might start with tall, clean-shaven men. Start leaving cowboy hats around the house in conspicuous places, and occasionally put one on yourself. Other family members and people who are well-liked by Tess can do the same. Once she accepts tall men, you can advance to clean-shaven tall men with cowboy hats. Meanwhile, work at desensitizing her to short men with beards. Then try tall men with beards without cowboy hats. When you have desensitized her to all the of the pieces, then you can finally put them together as tall men with beards wearing cowboy hats.

This takes time and patience. If you skip steps you may undo all of your painstaking training progress and have to start over.

5. Use counter-conditioning and desensitization. Desensitization is the process of gradually acclimating a dog to the things she is afraid of. Counter-conditioning means replacing her undesirable reaction – fear – with a more desirable one that is incompatible with fear, such as the eager anticipation of a tasty treat.

Let’s say Tess is afraid of strangers. Since we can’t control a stranger’s behavior, we need to create a stranger who will work with us. Get a friend to act as your stranger, and brief him ahead of time. Set up a system of simple hand signals so you can let him know if you want him to stay where he is, come closer, go farther away or move to the side. If your dog’s fear threshold is 30 feet – that is, if she starts acting stressed or scared when strangers are 30 feet away, start with your stranger at 35 feet.

You should be sitting comfortably, with Tess on a leash next to you in a controlled environment. You don’t want some real stranger to wander through and mess up your carefully staged training session! While your dog is calm about the stranger’s presence just beyond her threshold, feed her lots of tasty teats. Handfuls!!!! Then have your stranger gradually move closer . . . very gradually . . . a few inches at a time if necessary.

It helps if your “stranger” is talented enough to act natural, not be furtive or suspicious. Also, he should avoid making any eye contact with the dog. A direct stare is a threat in canine body language, and is especially threatening to a dog who is already stressed.

If the dog starts to get nervous at 29 feet, signal the stranger to stop. Feed Tess more treats until she relaxes, and then end the session. Have the stranger walk away (another huge reward for Tess’ good behavior). Schedule another session for the next day. (I told you this could take a long time!) During the second session you might have your stranger move laterally at a distance of 29 feet to vary the experience. If Tess continues to stay relaxed as the stranger moves around and approaches, give her lots of rewards and stop the session at a reasonable distance before she gets stressed. Don’t push it. Success in slow increments is the key. Slow success is far more important than fast progress. You want Tess to know that the presence of strangers makes good things (lots of treats) happen.

NOTE: In order for desensitization and counter conditioning to work you need to be very good at recognizing your dog’s signs of stress. The book On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals, by author Turid Rugaas, is an excellent resource for learning how to read your dog’s body language signals.

6. Reward-mark while others feed treats. If Tess is more tolerant of people than in the scenario described in Step #2, you can have other people feed her treats when you reward-mark, or they can reward-mark and treat. The ultimate goal is to have Tess believe that people are safe and good, not scary and dangerous. The more she will accept treats from others, the more she can associate them with good things, not just you.

7. Teach her to target. “Targeting” is teaching your dog to touch a target with her nose on cue. It’s easy to do, and it’s a great confidence builder for timid dogs.

To start, hold a target object – such as your hand, a pencil or a short (2-3 foot) dowel – in front of you. Use something that won’t frighten her. When she touches it with her nose, Click! or say Yes! and feed her a treat. (If she won’t touch it, rub a meaty-flavored treat on it so it smells irresistible.) When she is eagerly touching the target, add the cue-word “Touch!” as she does it. Continue to Click! and treat. In short order she will be eager to touch the target when you ask her to.

Dogs love this exercise. It’s like a treat vending machine – they push the button, they get a treat. By placing the target, which they love, near something that they are leery of, you can get them to approach the scary object. When they get clicked and treated for touching the target near the object, they soon decide that the scary thing isn’t so bad.

Don’t ‘protect’ the dog
You must avoid coddling your skittish dog through this process. As tempting as it may be, do not allow yourself to coddle and comfort your Timid Tess. You will be rewarding and reinforcing her timid behavior, not giving her confidence, like you might think. If you act concerned, she will be even more convinced that there is something to be afraid of. You’ll do better to act matter-of-fact, jolly her up and let her know there’s nothing wrong. The target stick works really well in place of coddling.

It’s important to always remember that your unsocialized dog is not acting out of spite or malice. She is truly afraid, even terrified, of the things that she reacts to. Don’t blame her. It’s not her fault. Be patient, and help her to slowly learn that the world is not such a frightening place after all.

Well worth the effort
This process really works. I know it works through numerous personal experiences – as well as from the example of Monica and Tess, the puppy sisters who were taken home from the yard sale and allowed to grow up fairly “wild” on a large estate. When their owners realized that they would never be able to get the puppies to a veterinarian’s office for shots and spaying without professional help, they began calling trainers, and eventually I heard about their plight. I worked with Monica and Tess and their owners in their home. Their progress was slow but very encouraging. At the end of two months, the sister dogs knew the “Yes! and reward” system well. They could sit and lie down on cue, were wearing collars, and were learning to accept the pressure of leash restraint. They had come to enjoy my attentions, and Marie and Eleanor had started inviting more people over, specifically to socialize the dogs. It was working, slowly. Ultimately, Monica and Tess will probably be able to live a reasonably fear-free life in their own home, and will be able to be taken to the vet without causing harm to either themselves or their handlers.

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