Subscribe
The best in health, wellness, and positive training from America’s leading dog experts
Have you ever had the misfortune of walking into your house to find overturned furniture, inches-deep claw gouges on door frames, blood-stained tooth marks on window sills, and countless messages on your answering machine from neighbors complaining about your dog barking and howling for hours on end in your absence? If so, you’re probably familiar with the term “separation anxiety” – a mild label for a devastating and destructive behavior.
Most separation anxiety behavior happens within 30 minutes of the owner’s departure and within a similar period before the owner’s anticipated return. This is one of the keys to determining whether your dog’s behavior is truly an anxiety reaction or simply a bout of puppy hijinks.
If you can leave and come back in an hour to an unscathed home but four hours puts him over the top, chances are you’re dealing with boredom, excessive energy, or a housetraining issue rather than true separation anxiety. (Some dogs will become destructive in their efforts to go outside to relieve themselves if they are very committed to not soiling the house.)
For more details and advice on ways to prevent and cure canine separation anxiety, purchase Whole Dog Journal’s ebook, Separation Anxiety.
During resource-guarding, dogs exhibit components of ritualized aggression. That is, they have a fairly explicit hierarchy of warnings – accelerated eating, cessation of eating or “freezing up,” glassy/hard eyes, growling, lip lifting, snapping, biting – that they’ll run through to get a competitor (YOU!) to back away from what they have. They’re nervous that you’re there and don’t want to share.
Trainers and behaviorists take these warnings and apply a rating scale, ranging from reactions that pose no risk to humans to those that are extremely serious. A rough eight-level guide is useful for owners and trainers to assess the situation but some dogs don’t follow such a neat hierarchal scale. A dog can move from a growl to a serious bite in a matter of seconds.
Trainers often hear the cry, “he bit without warning!” More often than not, there was a warning, somewhere, sometime – we just missed it.
For more advice on how to recognize the signs of resource-guarding and ways to reduce, eliminate and prevent it, purchase and download the ebook from Whole Dog Journal, Resource Guarding.
There’s sometimes an occasional moment during shelter dog behavior assessments when the dog being assessed makes deliberate, direct, soft eye contact with the person performing the assessment. When this happens to me, my heart warms and I get a little teary-eyed. “This,” I think to myself, “is a dog who has had meaningful relationships with humans.”
What this undoubtedly means is that the dog has learned that there is a value in making eye contact with humans. It’s a behavior that most humans strongly value; it makes most of us feel as if the dog is communicating something to us.
If your dog doesn’t already know the value of eye contact with humans, you can easily teach him. This is an operant conditioning/positive reinforcement exercise, whereby your dog learns his behavior can make good stuff happen:
For more tips to communicate effectively with your dog, check Reading Your Dog’s Body Language from Whole Dog Journal.
Dogs tell us when they feel stressed. The more aware you are of your dog’s stress-related body language, the better you can help him out of situations that could otherwise escalate to inappropriate and dangerous behaviors. Many bites occur because owners fail to recognize and respond appropriately to their dogs’ stress signals. Even aside from aggression, there are multiple reasons why it’s important to pay attention to stress indicators:
The smart, aware owner is always on the alert for signs that her dog is stressed, so she can alleviate tension when it occurs. Owners whose dogs are easily stressed often become hyper-vigilant, watching for tiny signs that presage more obvious stress-related behaviors, in order to forestall unpleasant reactions. If more owners were aware of these subtle signs of stress, fewer dogs would bite. That would be a very good thing.
With each behavior the appropriate immediate course of action is to identify the stressor(s) and determine how to decrease the intensity of that stressful stimulus. In many cases you can accomplish this by increasing the distance between your dog and the stressor, be it a child, another dog, uniforms, men with beards, etc.
If possible, remove the stressor from your dog’s environment entirely. If he’s stressed by harsh verbal corrections, shock collars, and warthogs, those are all things you can simply remove from his existence (unless you live in Africa, in which case warthog removal might prove challenging).
For those stressors that can’t be eliminated, a long-term program of counter-conditioning and desensitization can change your dog’s association with a stressor from negative to positive, removing one more trigger for stress signals and possible aggression. Another strategy is to teach the dog a new operant (deliberate) response to the stressor – for example, teaching your dog that the sound of the doorbell means “Run to your crate to get a high value treat.”
For more tips to communicate effectively with your dog, check Reading Your Dog’s Body Language from Whole Dog Journal.
Old-fashioned training methods can work. Decades of well-behaved dogs and the owners who loved them can attest to that. So why should they bother to cross over to the positive side? The short answer is that positive training works, it’s fun, and it does not have the potential to cause stress and physical injury to our dogs through the application of force, pain, and intimidation. It takes the blame away from the dog and puts the responsibility for success where it belongs on human shoulders.
In the old days, if a dog didn’t respond well to coercion we claimed there was something wrong with the dog, and continued to increase the level of force until he finally submitted. If he didn’t submit he was often labeled defective and discarded for a more compliant model. With the positive paradigm, it’s our role as the supposedly more intelligent species to understand our dogs and find a way that works for them rather than forcing them into a one-size-fits-all mold.
The longer answer is that it encourages an entire cultural mindset to move away from aggression and force as a way to achieve goals. The majority of dog owners and trainers who have fun (and success) using positive methods with their dogs come to realize that it works with all creatures, including the human species. They feel better about training and find themselves less likely to get angry with their dogs, understanding that behavior is simply behavior, not some maliciously deliberate attempt on the dog’s part to challenge their authority.
For more details and advice on positive training, purchase Whole Dog Journal’s ebook, Positive Training Basics.
I cringe internally when a client tells me she free-feeds her dog¬—that is, keeps the bowl on the floor filled with kibble all the time. I’m a strong believer in feeding meals for a number of reasons, in addition to the medical fact that a dog’s digestive system is designed more to gorge than to graze. There are numerous advantages to feeding your dog specific amounts of food at specific times:
For more feeding and training tips, read Pat Miller’s Positive Perspectives 2. Click here to purchase from Whole Dog Journal.
Almost every “Dog Mauls Toddler” headline is followed by an article that includes, among other things, these two phrases:
Both statements make me cringe. Most people who think their dogs are “good with children” don’t realize that many dogs only tolerate children – the dogs are actually stressed in the presence of children, at least to some degree. These dogs usually show low level signs of stress that would warn an observant owner that they really don’t think little humans are all that great after all. Dogs who are truly “good with children” adore them; they don’t just tolerate them. They are delighted to see children, and, with wriggling body, wagging tail and squinty eyes, can’t wait to go see them. Anything less than this joyful response is mere tolerance.
With the very rare exception of idiopathic aggression – aggression for which there is no discernible cause – every bite is provoked from the dog’s perspective. We, as humans, may feel the bite wasn’t justified or appropriate, but rest assured the dog felt justified in biting. In many cases the provocation is pretty apparent from the news article: the dog was kept on a chain; the dog had a litter of puppies; the toddler was left outside in the back yard with a dog who had just been fed. In each case, the dog was stressed beyond his or her ability to control his bite.
Raise your stress awareness. Examine news reports about dog attacks to see if you can identify the possible stressors and provocation in each incident. Then be sure to protect your own dog from those potential bite-causing circumstances.
For more on identifying stress signals in dogs and ways to handle this stress, read Pat Miller’s Positive Perspectives 2. Click here to purchase from Whole Dog Journal.
Everyone in the family, including children, should play with their dogs. Even young children can be suitable playmates for many dogs, with some important caveats. Assuming your dog likes to play, the more humans she gets to play with, the more humans she’ll think are wonderful because they make good stuff happen, and the better socialized she’ll be. Dogs who are will-socialized are far less likely to bite or otherwise engage in behaviors that are likely to get them into serious trouble.
In addition, the more that each family member has fun interacting with the dog, the more likely it is that the dog will stay in that home for her entire life. Play helps build strong bonds, and relationships that support lifelong loving homes for canine family members.
For ideas and advice on the best ways to play with your dog and the benefits to both you and your dog, purchase Pat Miller’s book, Play With Your Dog from Whole Dog Journal.
Your best option for finding compatible playmates for your dog is to identify your dog’s play style and select dogs of similar size, energy level, and play style preference.
Size matters. No doubt there are dogs of significant size disparity who can play well together, but as a general rule, it’s wise to keep the difference in the realm of 25 pounds or less. A playful dog can easily injure a little dog, even without intent to do harm, simply by running over or jumping on the smaller dog. Of even greater concern is a phenomenon known as predatory drift in which something from a dog’s evolutionary past triggers the larger dog’s brain to perceive the smaller dog as a prey object – a bunny or squirrel – instead of the canine pal he’s played happily with for months or years. Often the trigger is the smaller dog running, yelping, or squealing. The bigger dog gives chase, and tragedy ensues.
To avoid this, good dog parks offer—and enforce—separate play areas for smaller dogs, and wise owners of small dogs don’t allow them to romp with canines who are considerably larger. Owners of big dogs sometimes mock owners of toy breeds for their “overprotectiveness,” but the risk is very real. There are plenty of examples of small dogs, especially tough small dogs (Jack Russells come to mind) who routinely hold their own with larger playmates, and lots of tiny dogs live long and happy lives with much larger dogs.
My own 8-pound Pomeranian shared his life unscathed with dogs in our family as much as ten times his size—although Dusty didn’t really play with his large siblings; it was more like a peaceful coexistence. If you’re actively lookingfor playmates for your dog, however, it’s safest to keep size cautions in mind, as well as play styles.
For more ideas and advice on the best ways to play with your dog and the benefits to both you and your dog, download Pat Miller’s ebook, Play With Your Dog from Whole Dog Journal.
The game of Tug has an undeserved bad rap in some training circles, while others, most notably the Agility world, have fully embraced it as an excellent activity to create focus and high arousal. Those two extremes aside, it’s a great game just because it’s fun, many dogs adore it, it’s the perfect play activity for human family members who might otherwise want to get in appropriately physical with the dog and it’s a terrific energy-burner.
One of the most commonly-heard myths about playing Tug is that it makes the dog “dominant.” There’s so much misinformation passed around about hierarchy in dogs – this is just another log on the fire. If you are concerned about what Tug might do to your relationship with your dog, just remember that the definition of leader is “the one who controls the good stuff,” and orchestrate your Tug-play accordingly.
I’m solidly in the pro-Tug camp. I strongly recommend setting rules for canine and human players of the game to protect against the possibility of reinforcing unwanted behaviors, but with those in place, you and your dog can Tug to your hearts’ content. The rules are general guidelines for making Tug a positive training/relationship experience. The calmer and better-behaved your dog is, the less necessary it is to follow them strictly. The more rowdy and out of control your dog, the more closely you will want to adhere to them. By the way, don’t be alarmed by your dog’s growls during tug – it’s all part of the game. As long as his other behaviors are appropriate, let him growl his heart out!
For more ideas and advice on the best ways to play with your dog and the benefits to both you and your dog, purchase Pat Miller’s book, Play With Your Dog from Whole Dog Journal.
Are you in need of some indestructible dog toys to keep your furry monster entertained? I’m right there with you. While no toy is truly indestructible, there are products out there that can provide your dog with a safe and durable challenge.
Even the best “indestructible” dog toys will one day succumb to the efforts of our fluffy destroyers. Here are some guidelines for how to ensure your dog’s playtime is safe, plus when to throw a toy away:
Throw toys away when their structure has been compromised
Here are some qualities to keep in mind when choosing nearly indestructible dog toys for your pup:
Small parts and pieces are just begging to be chewed off. If a toy has legs, horns, tentacles, or any other small projection, your dog will be able to easily fit it in the back of his mouth and saw it off with his carnassials and molars.
Also skip plastic eyes and noses. These parts are easy for any experienced canine surgeon to remove, which both creates a swallowing risk and exposes a weak point for the dog to dismantle the entire toy.
If your dog likes rope toys, keep an eye out for fraying threads. Chewed-off fibers are a choking hazard and could potentially cause an intestinal obstruction.
The ideal toy for your master chewer should yield a little to chomps. Brittle toys are problematic for two reasons: first, they can shatter and create sharp edges that could harm your dog, and second, an unyielding chewing surface can break teeth.
Test toys with your fingernail. If you can mark the surface, it will likely yield to dog teeth. If you can’t, it is probably too hard.
For balls, you want the ball to collapse a little when squeezed, but then bounce back into shape. A round ball will last much longer than a collapsed one that creates folds for your dog to gain purchase on.
Flimsy toys don’t last long with chewers. Skip the dollar bin toys—thin rubber and gauzy fabric aren’t going to cut it.
Dense rubbery toys that feel a little heavy for their size are my favorites for chewers, as well as squeaky toys with a thick outer fabric.
Seams are weak points. One of my dogs systematically checks the seams on a new toy to identify the weakest spot and then proceeds to gut the toy. Fewer seams mean fewer opportunities for disembowelment.
The ideal toy for our heavy chewers is small enough for the dog to get in their mouth, but too big to get to the back of the mouth easily.
A toy that is too small can be lodged between your dog’s saw-like carnassial teeth and molars—game over. Tiny toys can also pose a choking hazard or swallowing risk.
A toy that is too big is impossible to grab or chew at all, and may frustrate or annoy your dog, causing him to ignore it.
Here are some of the most long-lasting toys:
This toy has it all: compact, dense, resilient, tooth-friendly, not a seam to be seen, and comes in multiple sizes. It also floats and bounces and is made in the U.S. from non-toxic materials.
My Rumpus has served two years with a pack of three avid chewers.
The Toppl and Rumbl are both treat-dispensing toys that can be filled with treats or dog food to keep your dog entertained. Freeze food inside for an added challenge for your pup.
I have Toppls of every size both to accommodate different snack sizes and to fit them together for an added challenge.
The Rumbl has been popular as a ball substitute even after my dogs get all of the goodies out.
The best part? They’re top-rack dishwasher safe for easy cleaning.
If your dog is ball-crazy, these are the toys for you! Planet Dog balls are the only balls I trust my dogs to play with without direct supervision. They have enough give that they are fun to chomp and won’t damage teeth, but instantly bounce back into shape so your dog can’t rip off chunks.
These balls come in many variations. Smooth-surfaced options are the hardiest overall. The continents can be removed on the Earth balls, but are soft and nontoxic. The Orbee-Tuff material also smells minty fresh.
GoughNuts makes rubber toys in a variety of shapes and toughness levels. The colored rings are pretty darn sturdy and the black ones are the sturdiest of all. These toys are also made in the U.S.
One really cool thing about this company is that their chew toys have a red inner layer to indicate when the toy has been damaged—if the red layer is exposed, it is time to retire that toy.
The Mighty Dog stuffed toys—such as Mighty Dog Toys Penny the Penguin or Mighty Dog Toys Herb the Hippo—are some of the toughest stuffed squeaky toys. These toys put up a decent fight for our canine toy destroyers.
In my experience, if one of these stuffed toys survives the first 5-10 minutes of play, it will be around for a while. If my dogs breach a seam, I remove the stuffing and squeaker and the “skin” still provides plenty of play and fun for weeks longer.
These adorable squeaky toy collections don’t look as hefty as some stuffed toys, but the GoDog dinos and dragons hold up to some serious abuse thanks to their special reinforced lining. Several of them grace my dogs’ toy box!
