You Think Your Dog is Trying to Dominate You?

Science. Studies show that while punishment (so-called dominance/pack leader training) will reduce overt undesired behaviors in the short-term, it causes a ton of long-term behavior fallout that usually results in increased risk of your dog biting you — and thus increases the risk of your dog being euthanized for behavioral issues. Science demonstrates, through peer-reviewed published studies, that using Positive Reinforcement methods (R+) works to train all behaviors, deal with all behavior issues, creates long-lasting, consistent results, and does not risk the behavior fallout that results in strained dog-human relationships. And, in fact, positive training reduces the risks of bites to familiar people and reduces the likelihood of behavior-related euthanasia.

Watch this 10-minute trailer for the full-length movie “The Case Against Dominance/Pack Theory.” It's great and filled with several of the giants of the animal behavior world.

~ certified professional dog trainer and behavior consultant Jody Epstein, MS, CBCC, Nutz About Mutz head instructor, The Academy of Pet Careers 

Col. Potter Training Tip: Being an "until" mom

FOSTERING

I'll hold you until you're not afraid to be touched,
I'll pet you until you're no longer afraid of hands,
I'll feed you until you know you can count on your next meal,
I'll be your mom until I trust someone else to love you,
I'll love you until… always.

-- Author Unknown

Fostering a dog is a wonderful and awful experience. It’s wonderful to bring the pup into your home and heart, helping him find new confidence and security. Watching him overcome shyness or fear, and teaching him how to communicate his needs can fill you with awe. Saying goodbye, as he leaves for his forever home, can give you a sense of pride -- and an awful hole in your heart. “I’ll love you until… always” can hurt so much.

In my experience, Col. Potter Cairn Rescue Network has excellent support and education resources for fosters. Experienced and caring volunteer staff members are always willing to lend you advice or a shoulder to cry on. CPCRN provides accessible online files with info on almost every behavior challenge. Their shop carries a book, Adopting a Dog? A Sound Beginning, that is full of handy guidance. But I’d recommend one more book for anyone who is fostering, or is thinking about fostering: How to Foster Dogs: From Homeless to Homeward Bound, by Pat Miller.

Pat is a positive trainer and dog behavior consultant who focuses much of her work on the scientific conditioning processes. So she not only explains how to do something; she explains why. For instance, in her chapter on “Helping Your Fearful Foster Dog Find Courage,” Pat points out that there are actually three related behaviors: fear, anxieties, and phobias. Fear is the reaction to presence or proximity of an object, individual, or situation. Anxiety is caused by an anticipation of real or imagined danger. And phobias -- the most difficult to resolve because they are irrational -- “are persistent, extreme, inappropriate fear or anxiety responses.” Pat goes on to explain how to use counter conditioning and desensitization to change the dog’s fears, anxieties, and phobias.

We all wish that love and good intent alone could resolve a rescued dog’s many challenges, whether the problems are based in genetics or by abuse. But we know better now. The compassion shown by an “until mom” is strengthened by informed approaches to problems.

If only dog behaviorists could find a way to eliminate a foster parent’s tears on the “forever” day...

I was smiling on this foster dog's "forever" day... until he and his forever mom drove away.

❤❤❤

If you'd like to foster, please apply here. The joy almost always outweighs the tears.

Thursday training tips: Planning for sick days and beyond

Do our dogs know when we are sick? I had some surgery last week, and my dogs behaved like angels while I was recovering at home. No barking to demand walks, no in-and-out to the backyard, no roughhousing… Each one of them (I have five) gave me gentle nudges, kisses, or cuddles. I swear, they took turns lying quietly by my bed, giving me comfort.

"I'll just play quietly while you rest, okay?"

I’ve read articles with various theories on how dogs read our health and our emotions, but I’d love to see some scientific research on it. In the meantime, though, I love my dogs even more for their sensitivity to my recovery. (Of course, now that I’m substantially recovered, their goofball antics have resumed.)

Even though my surgical procedure is a fairly common one, I couldn’t help but worry just a bit. On top of the quiet fear that something could go wrong, those of us with dogs are concerned about them. What will happen to them if I need to spend a couple of days in the hospital? What would happen if something more dire occurred?

You never know when you are going to have a medical emergency, so it’s good to be prepared ahead of time, as much as possible. Let’s start with the easy stuff…

My surgery was in and out at my local hospital, and they told me I’d be able to leave by 5 p.m. That would give me enough time to give my dogs their evening meal, but I knew I’d be taking pain killers. With dogs ranging from nine months old to 12 years old, and with various allergies and preferences, the meals can be a little complicated – and certainly beyond my capability at the moment. So I prepared their dinners ahead of time, put name tags on each bowl, and stored them in the fridge. I also made sure that their medications and supplements were included in the appropriate bowls. Then, knowing I might want to sleep in the next morning, I did the same for their breakfast.

Now, who was going to feed them and make sure they had access to the backyard? One of my collies (5-year-old Rosie) does not like strangers in the house, so I called on friends who had already developed a friendship with her. Fortunately, I have GREAT friends who came by during those first hours and days and helped me with the dogs.

What would have happened if the surgery didn’t go well? Or if I was hit by a bus walking to my car? What would have happened to my dogs?

Everyone should have an advance directive for your own medical decisions, and you should also have an advance plan for your dogs. Petfinder has an excellent information sheet that will help you plan for your dog’s future without you. The site explains the pros and cons of using a will, a trust, or power of attorney, as well as other vital considerations.

And finally, for your very long-term planning, remember the words of Will Rogers:

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”

❤❤❤ 

Thursday training tips: A sidewalk not taken

The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

When you stop to think about, our dogs don’t have a lot of choice in their lives. We tell them what they can eat, and when. We tell them where they can play, and when. We tell them to sit, stay, look at me, go lie down. We do this mostly for their good, and to make our homes as safe and comfortable as possible. Still, it seems that one area where we could give them more choice is during their walk.

CPCRN foster Professor Hawking loved to walk with my senior collie, Eddie.

I live in the suburbs, and our neighborhood has sidewalks for about half the blocks – people have to walk in the street for the other blocks. So, to keep me and my dogs safe, I had a regular route that we followed when we went on our walks. I always assumed that my dogs would want to revisit the trees, hydrants, and bushes that they sniffed yesterday, so we would automatically head south when we reached the sidewalk. But then I read an article suggesting that dogs get bored walking the same routes every day. Perhaps my dogs want to sniff new areas, to walk on a sidewalk not taken.

Now, when we get to the sidewalk in front of the house, I give them a choice. Do you want to go north or south? I actually say it. “Where do you want to go this morning?” I love seeing my dog lift her head, sniff the air in both directions, and then set off in the direction she wants to go, tail wagging. And I give her another choice at the corner, east or west?

Sometimes, though, walks can be miserable, even if you allow them to make choices. I’m referring to reactive dogs, of course. My collie Rosie was so reactive – to other dogs, to people, to unfamiliar sights and sounds – that we spent time and money attending some of the nation’s top reactive dog workshops (Pat Miller’s Reactive Rover workshop and several of Suzanne Clothier’s workshops, like this one). Both Rosie and I learned a lot, but our walks were still challenging. She and I both anticipated and tensed up as we passed certain yards with barking or charging dogs, and I couldn’t find a route where there weren’t any triggers for her reactivity. And then a trainer told me she was at a seminar where another trainer made a common sense solution: don’t walk the dog in the neighborhood!

The people and dogs who triggered Rosie’s reactivity, her barking and lunging, weren’t going anywhere, and it didn’t matter how many treats I gave her (“good things happen when you see a husky!”) or how quickly we turned around when a loose dog came bounding up. Rosie’s anxiety was reinforced every time we walked in the neighborhood. Her high cortisol levels, heightened after every incident, never had a chance to recover. (It can take up to 72 hours for cortisol levels to drop back to normal.) So we didn't walk in the neighborhood. For three months, we got in the car and went to the park. I gave her a chance to re-wire her brain and hormones, to forget the neighborhood triggers, to truly relax. It worked for us.

I’d be lying if I said we went to the park everyday. I was working full-time, and many days we just didn’t have the time. So was (am) I a bad owner? (This is another example of my "au contraire" thinking, because I honestly don’t think so.)

Dogs Today Magazine, in the UK, had an insightful article on the subject:

“When it comes to feeling guilty about our four-legged friends, the most common reason for owners feeling guilty is when they haven’t walked their dog everyday of the week. Most training books, websites and professionals will tell you the number one rule of dog ownership is you must take your dog for at least one walk a day, everyday…. 

“...However, there are many things you as a dog owner need to consider before taking your dog for a daily walk. Not all dogs love going for walks and can even find them stressful. Some dogs are too scared by things in the outside world, such as cars, bikes other dogs and people. Although they might not seem hugely distressed because they are not pulling to go back home – although some do – there will be other signs that your pooch is not enjoying their outing…”

I highly recommend that you read “Does not walking your dog make you a bad dog owner?” Like Robert Frost, you and your dog may decide to take the sidewalk “less traveled by,” or to make the walks less frequent. It can make all the difference in your dog's happiness.

Thursday training tips: Give her time

How early is too early for training our dogs? I made the mistake of waiting too long to train one of my dogs, so naturally I want to avoid that mistake with delightful 8-month-old Peaches. But is there such a thing as “too early” for her?

I especially started thinking about this when I saw a photographer’s advertisement for dog portraits for the holidays. “Dog must have a reliable sit or down / stay.” Peaches knows how to sit, she learned “down” this week, and she will sometimes stay.

Collie Rosie is helping Peaches learn her sit/stay.

I am reading The Puppy Primer (Second Edition), by Patricia B. McConnell and Brenda Scidmore. It is keeping me realistic about what I should strive for, and what can be accomplished without breaking a puppy’s spirit.

“Asking a puppy to sit still without getting up while distracted is like asking a toddler to sit quietly while all of his friends are running around in the same room. However, teaching a solid stay is actually not hard, if you have realistic expectations and approach it as a game that your puppy can’t lose. Young dogs need time and maturity to develop the emotional control needed to stay in place when distracted, but you can start now and create the foundation of a solid stay that will eventually do you and your dog proud.”  

And again they stress, “Asking your pup to sit and stay at the front door when guests arrive is like astrophysics to your puppy. Don’t expect graduate work out of a first grader!”

McConnell and Scidmore also point out additional behaviors that require a certain maturity:

• “It can take 2 years to get a solid off-leash recall in the face of major distraction.”
• “Guard against expecting a lovely heel from your pup at this phase, and avoid trying to force him to walk quietly by your side on his own.” (Note: you want to teach the pup to enjoy staying with you, not forcing him.)

How many of us feel like failures when our pup seems to forget her housetraining? I have a feeling I’m not alone in this. I was surprised to learn that puppies don’t have full bladder control until they are about 7 months old – or older, in the case of small breeds like cairns and Westies. Until then, according to McConnell, we need to try to take our pups outside every hour or so (while they are awake). Personally, I find that to be an impossible standard, but at least I understand why Peaches is still having accidents in the house. It’s not her fault, and she isn’t being “stubborn.” She is being a puppy.

I remember the first time I had a puppy. I think I was yelling “nooooooo!” at least 7 times a day. (Moses B. Beardog, forgive me!) I recently picked up a copy of As a Dog Thinketh, by Monique Anstee, and I love the approach she espouses:

“When you have a young puppy in your home, he should rarely hear the word “no.” Almost every bad behavior stems from a lack of management. Reward all of the wonderful things that you see, redirect him before he gets into trouble, and exercise the snot out of him as you show him the world. Enforce naptime, too, so he is not overstimulated. Having a young puppy should be a fun experience that leaves you exhausted from all your efforts.”

Anstee definitely has that “exhausted” thing right!

Thursday training tips: Crazy dog people!

I recently saw a post on Facebook, asking if people “spoiled” their dogs. It listed a number of ways you could tell. For instance, your dog may be spoiled, the post said, if you cancelled plans because of your dog. I may be hanging out with a bunch of crazy dog people, because all of my friends have cancelled plans at one time or another because of their dog. Accidents, upset tummies, medication schedules, or even thunderstorms are all more important than a lot of the plans I make.

The list got me thinking about the little things we do to make our dogs’ lives more comfortable or fun. I guess people without dogs might think we’re crazy dog people for doing these things (but that’s probably saying more about them than about us).

Those of us of a “certain age” remember buying a puppy from a kid with a cardboard box on a street corner, and then letting that dog run free in the neighborhood, following us kids as we banged screen doors going in and out of the house. Ah, those were the days! They were also the days of dogs getting hit by cars, or dad taking them to the “farm” (ahem) because they were too much to handle. We want our dogs to live longer, healthier, and happier in a more complicated time and in more crowded areas; so, as non-owners look askance, we are doing some crazy (good) things.

How are you doing on the “crazy” scale?

Give yourself a point for taking your dog to puppy kindergarten, and another point for basic manners classes. We know that many cairn terriers are “earth dogs” or love to do tricks, so give yourself a bonus five points for driving through snow storms to take your dog to advanced training classes.

Cooking your dog’s meals from scratch, while you eat some boxed pizza, is worth three points. Don’t worry, though, you can still get points if you use commercial food. Award yourself one point for dehydrating organic meat for a special holiday treat, and another point for baking doggie cookies or biscuits. Organizing a dog cookie swap with like-minded crazy people is worth five points. And it's worth ten points when your dog isn't feeling well so you serve him his dog food and water while he lays on the sofa.

If there isn't enough space on the couch for both you and your dog, you get two points for moving to the floor. Take a bonus point if you don’t dare move a toe in the bed because you don’t want to disturb the dog.

Major points are available to people who design their home improvements with their dog in mind. For instance, if you're redoing your kitchen and you get a textured floor so your dog won't slip on it, give yourself 15 points. If you are building a custom home, and you have included space for a dog washing station and a grooming area, take 50 big points! (These are true, BTW. Do I have crazy-great friends, or what?)

Do you leave your dog at a kennel or with a friend when you go on vacation? That’s good management, but it doesn’t win you any points on the crazy scale. Taking him with you on vacation is worth two points; and taking him to his rescue reunion party every year even though it is six hours away and in another state is worth six points – one point for every hour traveling.

And while we’re on the subject of travel, you are expected to use a harness, tether, car seat, or crate as appropriate for your vehicle, so we award no crazy points for safety. However, we did hear of one man who cut thick foam to fit the back seat of his car and covered it with a quilted comforter so the dog has a cushy seat to lay on instead of cup holders and seat belts. Bonus ten points!

You can win extra crazy points in the sweltering summer, you know. If you keep your AC turned to 66 so your dog is comfortable (while you wear a sweatshirt), take five points. If you drive around the block a few times so the car will be really cool when they get in, take another five!

Give yourself two points for providing a dog bed that cost more than your mattress set. Give yourself extra points for providing doggy beds in every room he spends time in.

You get points for providing dog beds... even if your new foster pup doesn't quite understand the concept yet.

If you know more about the different pet insurance companies, deductibles, and percentage covered than you do about your own health insurance, give yourself ten points.

Somehow, people have gotten the strange notion that when your pup is scared or feeling poorly, the adult in the room should not comfort the dog as “it will only encourage the dog” to be fearful. If you have that misperception, I really hope your loved ones don’t ignore you when you need a shoulder to cry on, or a helping hand. Give yourself twenty points every time you sit on the floor and cuddle with your dog when he needs you.

How many points did you score? Frankly, if you do anything on this list, you are certified dog-crazy and you deserve the best award there is! Doggie kisses and tailwags...

Thursday training tip: Au contraire!

It seems to me that we should have figured out our dogs by now. It’s not like we’re not trying to understand them. If you search “dog” in the Amazon book section, you come up with over 80,000 titles. Oh, but that includes books like “Lassie” and “Old Yeller,” you say. Reading inspiring novels about dogs saving Timmy from the well doesn’t really help with our little stinkers’ challenges, you explain. Okay, let’s search for “dog training books.” There are 20,000 results! And yet we still haven’t solved the mysteries of dog behavior.

I think I’ve found one answer. Perhaps we need to be a little more contrarian. Maybe if we say “on the contrary…” to some of the accepted maxims, we’ll be better able to discover the solutions that work best for our individual dogs.

This really hit home with me last week when I took Peaches to her cardiac exam. I found out how dire her heart defects are, and how high her risk is for sudden death. All of the articles I had read about subaortic stenosis stressed that the dog shouldn’t get excited. Ummm, Peaches is a Westie. And she’s a puppy. How in the world am I supposed to control her excitement?! Au contraire, the cardiologist explained. He and I have agreed that our goal is to let Peaches live a happy life, for as long as she has. Thus, his recommendation: “Please allow Peaches to set her own activity limits.” And she does!

Peaches lets me know that she tires easily on walks, so we use a stroller. Here, she makes a "rest stop" where she happily explores lots of doggie smells!

That got me thinking about other times I tried -- and failed -- to follow the accepted practices for controlling dog behavior. For instance, for the first five years of her life, my collie Rosie has barked at the mailman every single day we get mail. And Rosie knew she was doing her job; never once did that mailman succeed at burglarizing our house! At every obedience class, and at every dog behavior workshop, I’d ask how to stop Rosie from barking at the mailman, and the answers were the same as I had read in dog training books: 1) ignore her; 2) give her a “time out” isolated in another room; 3) install some blinds and make sure Rosie doesn’t see the mailman; and/or 4) keep music on to drown out the sound of the mailman. But especially #1 -- don’t “reward” her with any attention when she barks! (You will note that I never considered any correction that was painful, harsh, or scary. We can talk about some of those “alpha” techniques in another blogpost.)

After five years of Rosie barking at the mailman, I decided to go with my contrarian premise. I went against all accepted wisdom that had been passed to me. When Rosie barked, I went to the front door, looked out the door’s window, and said “Thanks Rosie, it’s okay now.” And she stopped barking. All these years, she was trying to get me to acknowledge the threat at our door. All these years, she must have been so aggravated that I never understood that she was trying to warn me. Now – you may not believe this, but it’s true, I swear – Rosie rarely barks at the mailman. She knows I have it covered.

Peaches and Rosie have a lot to teach me.

Dog trainers, behaviorists, and veterinarians all have a wealth of information that we need to pay attention to. We should remember, however, that our dogs also have a wealth of information, if only we listen to them.

❤❤❤

Thursday training tip: I have flying monkeys!

MISS GULCH: That dog is a menace to the community. I’m taking him to the sheriff to see that he’s destroyed.
DOROTHY: Destroyed? Toto? Oh you can’t, you mustn’t. Auntie Em, Uncle Henry, you won’t let her, will you? Toto didn't mean to. He didn't know he was doing anything wrong. I'm the one that ought to be punished. I let him go in her garden. You can send me to bed without supper.
MISS GULCH: If you don't hand the dog over now, I'll bring a damage suit that'll take your whole farm! There's a law protecting folks against dogs that bite!
AUNT EM. How would it be if she keeps him tied up? He's really gentle — with gentle people, that is.

— Wizard of Oz

I have a plaque that I keep on my desk: “I have flying monkeys, and I’m not afraid to use them!” There have been times when I’ve been tempted to release them, like when I discovered my chewed up reading glasses. “Fly, fly!!” But I’m joking at those times. Other times, our consternation is more serious, more reminiscent of Miss Gulch’s complaint against Toto.

Well-meaning and loving folks are sometimes at wit’s end when they bring a new foster or adoption into their home. The new dog attacks the household dogs; or growls at a child; or lunges for an arm; or bites a witch. It happens all too frequently and, when it does, chances are high that returning the dog to the rescue organization is on the list of options.

In her book, Bones Would Rain From the Sky, dog trainer Suzanne Clothier points out that “normal, healthy dogs do not suddenly go berserk or ‘turn on their owners,’ or act aggressively without reason.” She suggests that owners look deeper into the dog’s feelings. Perhaps you are the (unwitting) cause?

Here are two scenarios, both of which actually happened, although with different rescue organizations. They illustrate how the dog experiences what you yourself experience: the last straw! Or, in dog training parlance, “stacked triggers.”

Scenario #1
Dog Artie (not his real name) was a wonderful, loving dog at the shelter and with his foster, getting along well with the foster’s dogs after gradual introductions. Within a couple of days of his adoption, his new owner was complaining that Artie “was not happy with the attention [from bigger dogs at the dog park] and started snarling when the other pups wouldn't leave him alone.” Yet the owner continued to subject Artie to the dog park and other “social” activities, despite Artie’s obvious discomfort.

Despite Artie's obvious discomfort, his owner constantly put him into the dog park.

In the following weeks, the owner reported that Artie had started to react to people (“he turns into a lunging, barking psycho”) so the owner started tightening the leash as she forced Artie to walk by the person who was setting him off. Within two months, the owner was posting on Facebook: “Artie didn’t try to bite me today.”

Scenario #2
This happens in foster care way too often. Dog Betsy (not her real name) was in the shelter when the rescue group got her. Betsy spent a week at the vets, getting the spay, vaccinations, and other care she’d need for a healthy start to her new life. Betsy was then transported by plane for several hours, then by car for several hours more. The foster parent was so anxious to socialize Betsy with her own dogs that she immediately took Betsy out of the crate – in the same room with her own two dogs, who were excited and happy to meet a new dog. Tired and scared, Betsy attacked both dogs.

In scenario #1, Artie had to face situations that made him uncomfortable, day after day after day, until he started responding in the only way he could get acknowledgement from his owner. Let’s face it, not every person is an extrovert, and not every dog is either. We need to consider our dogs' comfort levels and give them the life THEY need, not the one we imagine for them. Be your dog’s advocate. If he doesn’t like the dog park, don’t take him to the dog park. If he’s nervous about passing a stranger on a walk, increase the distance from the stranger and cross the street if you need to. (Tightening the leash just tells him that “stranger = unpleasantness.”)

In scenario #2, Betsy was way past her stress threshold. After weeks of being poked and prodded, she endured a long trip, only to find herself in a strange place with strange people... and then she had to deal with strange dogs pushing their noses over and under her. It was the last straw, and Betsy had to call a “time-out” in the only way she could. Imagine how much nicer it would have been if she could have relaxed in a room by herself for a few days while she got acquainted with her new owner and her new situation, and then met her new dog companions slowly.

“When a dog goes to their foster home, or to their new adoptive home, we have to assume the dog is stressed,” explains Sandy Tiller, CPCRN foster home director. “The dog is experiencing new people, a new home, new sounds, and new smells.”

“The dog may be fine with the first stress – the new environment – and be able to handle that, but then we add new dogs, new freedom, and new commands.”

Each of these stress points are called “triggers” because they cause a reaction in the dog. The reaction may be obvious, or the dog may internalize it. When these triggers start stacking up, the rescued pup may act “aggressively” when he wouldn’t normally do that if he was allowed time to handle/de-stress after each trigger or, in scenario #1, if Artie wasn’t constantly forced into uncomfortable social situations.

“When dealing with aggression in any form, we need to tread carefully, alert for the stumbling blocks of our own (often false) assumptions,” Clothier writes. “If we truly seek to understand a dog’s behavior, then we cannot ever forget that all dogs are dogs.”

We need to understand our dog’s stressors, and we need to learn how to avoid them, manage them, and hopefully overcome them.

We may also need to find qualified professional assistance. Dog behaviorists are almost always a better option than winged monkeys.

Thursday training tips: Are we setting our dogs up to fail?

I admit it. I sometimes read through the hundreds of Facebook comments in response to someone’s question about how to handle an issue with their dog. When it’s a medical issue, I usually just want to scream “TAKE YOUR DOG TO THE VET!” Facebook discussions about behavior problems can also send my blood pressure soaring, like it did earlier this week. A terrier owner was asking for advice on what to do to prevent her new puppy from chewing electrical cords, and one group member advised “Command him sternly to “leave it!” Sure, like a new puppy knows what those words mean… Following that advice, the owner would be setting her puppy up for failure, which can lead to frustration for the owner and the dog. In this case, it could also lead to a fried dog, literally.

Our goal should be to aim for the highest quality connection between our mind and and our dog’s mind. There are a lot of factors that go into that, but one of the most important is to be thoughtful about our commands. That begins with one of the most commands: Come!

Being thoughtful has helped me with 7-month-old Peaches. For instance, since I’m not yet confident that she will respond to my “come!” if she is observing a butterfly on the other side of the yard, I try to make sure that I always have her attention before I call her to me.

Trainers Patricia McConnell and Brenda Scidmore are quite explicit about this in their book, The Puppy Primer:

“Be thoughtful about when you call your dog to come… Avoid calling your dog to come if he’s intensely focused on something else. Your goal is to create a foundation of coming every time he’s called, so don’t set your dog up to fail (and to learn to ignore you when he feels like it).” 

So what do you do if your dog ignores you? Do you shake a can full of pennies in her face, or spray her with water from a squirt gun? Well, you know those aren’t appropriate responses, don’t you?

I was discussing this issue with some lovely friends who share my belief in positive training. 

Gail G. tells me that one of Maryland’s best trainers, Cindy Knowlton, explained that “if you ask your dog three times to do a known behavior and he doesn’t do it, assume that he can’t do it.” 

Was she referring to a behavior that was known to the dog? Like asking him to sit (when he's done it all his life) and he doesn't do it?  

“Yes, a well known behavior,” Gail confirmed. “The environment might be too stressful, the dog’s behavior might not be as well-learned as you thought, or maybe sitting is painful -- or something else.” 

So I guess that means we shouldn’t keep screaming at a dog to “come” when he’s having a meltdown. It also means that a trip to the vet may be necessary. Or, as another friend pointed out, we need to “remember that we often think a behavior is ‘known’  when it isn’t -- or at least not known in the way we think it is.”

Nan M. used one of her dogs as an example. 

“Maybe you think you know which cue will trigger the behavior you’re asking for, but you can be wrong,” Nan said. “I knew my labrador was at great risk for blindness, so I thought I had taught her every behavior carefully using verbal commands. When she became blind it turned out I was mostly right; she could do all sorts of complex behaviors and even competed in freestyle. But she couldn’t do one fairly simple ‘known’ behavior. So I had myself video taped. When I said that word, my right hand moved slightly at my side. It turns out, she knew the hand twitch cue, not the word I was so sure she knew.”

Eileen B. added an important reminder. “My dog’s trainer told me that dogs often forget a learned behavior the first year after you think they’ve nailed it,” she said. “He told me to reinforce training regularly.”

Following all of this great advice, Peaches and I are having fun learning the basics, and I have no doubt it is setting us up to succeed.

Thursday training tips: It's all in the voice

Training should be a positive experience… If you are not getting the results you want, especially when you begin training, it is probably because the dog is confused rather than because he has decided to ignore or defy you. Always assume at first that the dog does not understand, and help him learn. Even when you are certain that the dog does understand and is making the decision not to obey, your attitude should calmly convey to him: ‘Perhaps you didn’t understand me, but that was a command and not a request. Let me help you.’ Then, when it does as you ask, praise the dog lavishly, reward and play with him and go on to something else. 

 -- Daphne S. Gentry, The New West Highland White Terrier

I know people's hearts are in the right place when they thank me for adopting a “special needs” dog, but really, as so many others in a similar situation can attest, no thanks are necessary. The pleasure is truly all mine. Peaches may have a severe heart defect, and her energy may not come close to what we usually see in a Westie puppy, but her love of life inspires me every day.

Just as we all have to discover the activities that best suit the temperament of our individual dogs, I’ve been spending our first couple of weeks trying to find the activities that will fulfill Peaches’ natural terrier spunk without overtaxing her heart. Fortunately, she is such a gentle explorer of backyard shrubbery that "go to ground" would be absolutely foreign to her.

"Be very afraid, I am the great white hunter!"

One of our biggest challenges is with an everyday activity: a walk. Peaches and I tried to take a walk down the block – she is so good on a leash! – but she asked to be picked up and carried after going a couple hundred feet. Peaches’ heart is not being fair to her nose, which wants to smell all the “richness” that a typical suburban neighborhood can offer. So, we found a solution. Her very own custom-decorated buggy.

Peaches loves to see and smell the neighborhood from the convenience of her buggy.

I thought I’d have to slowly condition Peaches to accept her buggy, to sit still, to not jump out as we stroll down the boulevard. Well. Peaches loves it! I think there are two reasons for that. First, this little girl has the normal terrier courage and curiosity, and the buggy is a new and fun experience; second, I used a happy voice in a high pitch when I introduced her to the buggy. Most dogs have a positive response to the high pitches and happy voices of their owners, as CPCRN Foster Director Sandy Tiller recently reminded me.

A note from Sandy:

Have you ever read The Other End of the Leash by Pat McConnell? I am reading it now. One of the things she talks about is our tone and how we say words to our dogs. She suggested that you use short, crisp words or sounds (smooches, clicks, “come, come” in a high voice) to get a dog to come to you or follow a direction and to use elongated words like "noooooooo" in a low deep voice when you want them to stop doing something. 

Well, I had to try it with my little mix, Monty, to see if he responded – and I’ll be darned if it doesn't work! When I want him to come, I now say "come, come" in a high voice and clap my hands. He instantly runs to me! He used to meander and take his time coming – not anymore. He was barking at a deer he could see through the chain link fence and I just said, "Montyyyyyyyyy noooooooooooo" in a lower tone and really drew the words out and I’ll be darned if he didn't stop and turn and look at me.

Monty recognizes the tones of Sandy's voice

I am really enjoying McConnell’s book. Now I just need to remember: short, quick words to get Monty to do something, and long, drawn-out words to get him to stop!

This great tip – with the proper nuance adjusted for your dog – came in handy today, when I was walking a neighbor’s collie, a wonderful and smart dog who loves children. We saw a mom and her toddlers walking towards us. I could see that the mom was uncomfortable with the possibility of meeting a strange dog, so we crossed the street to walk on the other side. Even from across the street, the collie was so happy to see the children that she started jumping in delight, putting the mom in high alert. I tried to calm the collie down with my high-pitched happy voice. “No, no sweetheart, let’s be good!” WRONG. The words weren’t making sense to her (what does “let’s be good” mean to a dog???) and the tone of my voice told her that I was joining in her fun. I lowered my pitch a bit and gave a command she understood. “Lassie, COME!” She stopped jumping, and she came to my side and looked up at me as if to say, “lady, all you have to do is ask.”

What do you think? Have you observed this with your dog? Please feel free to add your thoughts to the comment section, below.

Thursday training tips: Is my dog stupid (or is it me)?

“People frequently assume that certain breeds or types of dogs are stupid, smart, stubborn, lazy, aggressive, friendly. And their beliefs shape their actions, sometimes most unfortunately for the dogs involved. Very often, what we label as stupid or stubborn has little to do with the dog’s level of intelligence. What we really mean when we say that a dog is stupid or stubborn or lazy is that he’s not in agreement with us, that he’s not doing what we want him to do. When we try to force a dog to accept our particular methodology and ignore what he tells us about its unsuitability for him, we are really saying that our toolbox does not contain a teaching approach that will work for him and that we don’t really care.”

-- Suzanne Clothier, Bones Would Rain from the Sky

The ritual has been the same for the last 19 years… Wake up (or, more accurately, get woken up by a wet dog nose in my face), do a quick check to straighten out my bedhead, and then head for the backyard so the pups can have their morning pee. This week, I was surprised that instead of heading out the door with her four companion collies, Westie pup Peaches veered off to the dog crate I keep on my back porch. She squatted, and started to pee in the crate. Well, how stupid is that?? Everyone knows you put a dog in a crate so she won’t pee.

My question should have been: how stupid am I? Peaches was only doing what she had done for the first formative months of her life in a puppy mill -- where she likely lived, ate, pee’d, and pooped in a crate. Her past life required me to re-think our housetraining, to go against crate-training orthodoxy. So, I’ve locked up the crates. I’ve also cancelled events where I’d be gone more than two hours, at least for the next week, so we can focus on “let’s go potty!” timing and treats. I don’t think it’s my imagination that cairns and Westies, more than a lot of breeds, will try to get away with eliminating indoors -- if we let them. And it sure doesn’t help when a rescued pup was restricted to a crate, or was left outdoors, or had their noses pushed into feces or urine when they had an accident. (I remember back in the 1970s, when my first husband threw our puppy against the wall after she pee’d on the floor. Sadly, that was a fairly accepted "training" method back then.) Now, there is no end of advice on housetraining, so our job is to find the positive method that works best for us and our pups.

BTW, while we’re on the topic of positive approaches, I’d like to share a tip that works for us when we have especially onerous challenges. I reserve special high-value treats for special tasks. The pups only get that treat when they perform that specific task. For instance, the collies get dehydrated salmon treats when I dremel their nails, so they look forward to nail trimming. Well, “look forward” is a bit of an overstatement; “sit calmly most of the time” is more accurate. Peaches’ special task, twice a day, is accepting a squirt of heart medicine in her mouth, and her high-value treat is dehydrated ground rabbit. Anticipating a treat she loves, she will happily jump up into my lap when I announce “time for medicine!”

I had a big dose of reality from the vet during our initial “welcome to your forever home” vet visit. After going over all Peaches’ heart problems, I mentioned that I had signed up Peaches for a puppy behavior class. Dr. K advised me to cancel it. While I was thinking that I needed to perfect Peaches’ responses to “come” and “settle,” to keep her from getting too excited or stressed, the vet gently reminded me how exciting puppy classes are. Since Peaches loves to play, putting her with five other playful pups and asking her not to play could be sheer madness for a dog that needs to avoid stress. It looks like homeschooling for Peaches!

My collies have fallen in love with Peaches, so separating them is essential for training.

Collies Eddie and Nemo team up to give Peaches a tickle fest.

My smallest bedroom makes a great training space. It’s small enough that I can keep Peaches’ physical exertion to a minimum, but large enough to play games that strengthen our relationship. I covered the main portion of the floor with interlocking foam tiles, and we have puzzles and a snuffle mat to start.

One of the most valuable dog classes I’ve participated in is called CCC -- Connection, Cooperation, and Control. I’ve taken three of my collies through the program (which is expanding rapidly across the country), and I kept the manual (yay, me!) so Peaches and I will start our own CCC training this week. Hopefully, I can keep my stupidity to a minimum.

Thursday training tips: Introducing Miss Peaches!

We started with the best intentions. Before I left home to travel to North Carolina to adopt my new 7-month-old puppy, Peaches (formerly Beach), I had puppy gates set up through the house. I have four collies, and I’m fostering a senior cairn terrier – Darmok! – and I know that many trainers advocate an extended “separation” time to introduce a new dog into the household. Keep them apart for several days and let them become used to each other’s scents. Well…

Dreams come true

We arrived home and my collies, who have been hosting foster dogs over the past year, were anxious to meet Peaches. And Peaches wanted to meet them! Additionally, my 4-year-old male collie, Nemo, had extensive experience with Westies, so to speak. In 2015, he saw a stuffed full-sized toy Westie at a local pet store, and he went crazy for it! So, we brought it home, and Nemo has treasured his Westie (and her successors, as one after another got left out in the snow or under the garden shed) all these years. And HERE SHE WAS, COME TO LIFE!! Nemo discovered that dreams do come true, and he especially wanted to meet Peaches.

Nemo loves his Westie toy(s)! This is in 2015.

When Nemo met Peaches, he knew his dream had come true.

To introduce the dogs, instead of a days-long introduction period, I followed Patricia McConnell’s advice, laid out in her fantastic book, Love has No Age Limits: Welcoming an Adopted Dog into Your Home. Peaches met the dogs one at a time, out in the backyard where there is lots of space. Everyone was on a leash.

She first met Darmok (who has since become her big brother, showing her the ropes of living with collies). Then I brought out the seniors, Princess and then Eddie. They are both late-in-life rescues, and each have a calm, laissez-faire view of the world. Then Nemo got his chance! He greeted her like the dream-come-true that she is. Finally, Rosie. My five-year-old girl can be pretty bitchy with dogs she doesn’t like, so I was grateful for McConnell’s pointers to avoid tension: don’t hover; don’t add your tension to the mix; keep your body relaxed; and keep their leashes loose. Rosie was fine.

We weren’t quite to home base, yet, however. It was time to go in the house, another potential point of tension. McConnell’s advice is so important, I’m going to quote it in full:

“Once the dogs have met outside and are going to be together inside, bring the new dog inside first, and the resident dog in second [ed. note: and third, fourth, fifth, and sixth]. If the resident dog is at all territorial, this tends to diffuse some of that ‘Who’s that entering my house!?’ tension.”

I’m one heck of a lucky dog owner. Peaches was officially accepted into the family, and everyone gets along great.

Patience, patience

One of the hardest things for me to do is… nothing. This little girl is so special, and I want to get her groomed, start obedience classes, and introduce her to the neighborhood. Uh uh, mom, slow down. Rescued dogs are dealing with a lot of changes in their lives, and what they need most is a feeling of security. And what we need most is patience.

As much as I love a day at the spa, we know that grooming is not especially enjoyable for our dogs. So, since Peaches isn’t in dire need of a bath, we’re going to wait for a while before lining up the shampoo and conditioner or clipping her nails. In the meantime, I’ll be holding her paws and showing her the grooming tools, while feeding lots of treats, to help her get accustomed to a life of glamour.

We’re going to wait a month before starting obedience classes, so we can get to know each other – and Peaches can learn to trust me – before introducing her to a classroom environment of strange people and puppies. In the meantime, she IS a puppy and we do have to establish limits. One of the most important training methods I’ve learned is “this, not that.” Peaches’ foster mom warned me that Peaches likes to steal shoes, and truer words were never spoken. This girl is relentless in her quest for shoes. Rather than an eternity of hearing “no,” however, Peaches will have choices. If she leaves the shoe alone, and opts for “this, not that,” she will get something very special. Tonight, it was frozen beef broth, which is tasty and is good for her growing bones. She loved it! Since she’s still a little thing – not even 8 pounds yet – she didn’t get to eat the whole thing in one sitting. She willingly gave it up to me, with no resource guarding. Tomorrow we’ll do it again.

This...

...not that.

We try to forget that death may be around the corner

McConnell also advises patience in taking your new dog to the vet. She suggests waiting a month, if there are no health issues. I wish that was the case with Peaches. She has very serious health issues, and I want to make sure my vet has a firm grasp of those issues and that we plan, together, for appropriate diagnostic procedures and treatment. You see, Peaches was born with a congenital heart defect, called subaortic stenosis. It is severe, and Peaches’ prognosis is bad. According to North Carolina State University veterinarians, the average life span of pups with her condition is 56 months. (It’s less than two years without the meds, which is unthinkable.) Even then, she is at risk for sudden death if she experiences extreme excitement or strenuous exercise. So we are seeing our vet this week.

Peaches loves playing with Nemo, but their play sessions don’t last more than minute or two. Somehow, Nemo senses that Peaches can’t do more than that. This collie, who I re-homed after his original buyer rejected him for being “too hard to handle,” has always been the goofball of the pack, but Peaches has turned him into a “Lassie,” a protector of family and home. Nemo is always near her, even to the point of sleeping next to her crate at night. Peaches has captured his heart, as well as mine. Now, we must steel our hearts for the time that her heart fails.

In the meantime, though, this special girl has a lot of living to do! Check out this blog every Thursday to read more about tips and training with Peaches.

Thursday training tips: Let’s start down the Yellow Brick Road

“Then she went back to the house, and having helped herself and Toto to a good drink of the cool clear water, she set about making ready for the journey to the City of Emeralds… Then she looked down at her feet and noticed how old and worn her shoes were.

“'They surely will never do for a long journey, Toto,’ she said. And Toto looked up into her face with his little black eyes and wagged his tail to show he knew what she meant.”

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, 1900

Ah, to have the perfect connection that existed between Dorothy and Toto!

Bringing a new dog into your life, and developing a deep connection with him, is exhilarating and challenging. It is undeniably fun, but, at times, it can be downright frustrating. We try our best to meet our dog’s needs within the limitations of what we are able to offer; but many of us just can’t provide an ideal farm life. Even if we could, let’s remember that even the most loving homes inevitably experience tornadoes, witches (good and bad), or even flying monkeys.

This Tips & Training column, appearing on Thursdays, aims to help us avoid – or recover from – falling houses. It will help us discover the brain, heart, and courage to find common sense solutions that will build healthy relationships between our dogs and ourselves.

Pups who come from rescue organizations often have special challenges, whether it is a history of abuse or abandonment, or the devastating loss of a loved human companion. People who adopt rescued pups need all the resources we can muster to make that adoption successful. Among all of their many resources, Col. Potter Cairn Rescue Network offers a terrific small book, A Sound Beginning: How to Build a Relationship & Gain Trust, that everyone needs to read. Last week, we also presented a suggested reading list of five books. Following that blogpost, several people suggested additional books that they found useful (and we’ll discuss those in the weeks ahead). These books provide a solid foundation for building human-canine relationships and strengthening communications necessary for training.

Now it’s time for us to walk the talk.

Beach, a 6-month-old West Highland White Terrier, is going to walk this Yellow Brick Road with us. Col. Potter rescued Beach from a puppy mill, and found that she has severe subaortic stenosis, which is a congenital heart abnormality. Her prognosis is not good and she is at constant risk for sudden death. This column’s author is adopting Beach on Sunday, July 22, to give her the happiest life possible within the circumstances. This blog post will follow Beach’s life and learning, and we promise to be transparent in discussing our challenges, successes, and failures.

We hope you’ll join us on this adventure.

Thursday training tips: Five books for your summer reading

We’re halfway through summer, and if you haven’t taken the time yet to relax with a good book – let’s get you started! Some wonderful books that will improve your relationship with your pups are waiting for you.

If you only read one dog-related book this summer, let it be Bones Would Rain from the Sky: Deepening Our Relationships with Dogs, by Suzanne Clothier. You will never look at your dogs in the same way again. Suzanne is one of the country’s most innovative trainers, advancing a relationship-based positive training protocol. Her book is easy to read and deeply moving. It also makes sense. If you know, in your heart, that positive training brings more success (and happiness!) than the old “alpha” philosophy, this book will clarify why your heart is speaking the truth. If you still think a certain “dog whisperer” who slams dogs on the ground or hangs them from a leash is offering a path to a successful dog-human relationship, this book will give you a new perspective.

While Clothier focuses on the heart of the relationship, trainer and educator Pat Miller looks more towards the brain. Her tips on conditioning responses, along with handy management tips, come packaged together perfectly for foster parents in her book, How to Foster Dogs: From Homeless to Homeward Bound. Miller provides easy descriptions of the four principles of operant conditioning, and then puts it to use in solving common problem behaviors. As one of the book’s blurbs states eloquently: “Opening your heart to a foster dog is easy; opening your home is much more challenging.” This book will help you meet those challenges.

On the topic of challenges… Another book you may want to pick up is Love Has No Age Limit: Welcoming an Adopted Dog into Your Home. Thousands of dog lovers have benefited from the advice of certified behaviorist Patricia McConnell, and her advice here is a “must have” for all adopters. This is a concise, practical guide on veterinary care, training, and especially problem solving. For instance, how long does it take for a shy dog to get comfortable? (It might take a year, but “that’s okay, what’s the hurry?”) How do you know if there’s tension between dogs? (Among the signs is your inner voice, “it is often right, even if you don’t know why.”) You’ll keep this book handy forever.

The time may come, more often that we like, when your senior seems lost in a dream world. Is she relaxing, or is she experiencing doggie dementia? One of the most helpful books on the subject is Remember Me? Loving and Caring for a Dog with Canine Cognitive Dysfunction, by Eileen Anderson. One of the most valuable chapters includes a check list that you can use to explain your cairn’s behaviors to your vet so that, together, you can examine the options for easing your dog’s way along life’s path. Anderson discusses symptoms, medications, management tips, and specific products that may help. Importantly, she ends with a plain-spoken discussion on deciding about euthanasia. Tough topics, but ones we face throughout our lives.

Ending on an up note, your “feel good” book for the summer would be Old Dogs are the Best Dogs, by Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten. Gene writes a humorous weekly column for the Post, but there’s nothing to laugh at (although smiling is allowed) in this delightful and inspiring book. Weingarten presents 60 short vignettes, accompanied by wonderful dog portraits by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Michael Williamson. You might want to take your time to savor the vignettes and feel the love and peace surrounding these beloved seniors. Reading a couple of Weingarten’s stories each week would make the rest of the summer just about perfect.

What are some of your favorite books? Let us know in the comment section, and we’ll share them in future blog posts.