If your dog doesn’t already know the value of eye contact with humans, you can easily teach her. This is an operant conditioning/positive reinforcement exercise – your dog learns her behavior can make good stuff happen:
1. Holding a tasty treat in your hand, have your dog sit in front of you.
2. Show her the treat and move it to the corner of your eye. When her eyes meet yours, click and treat. Repeat.
3. Say the cue “Watch!” just before you move the treat to your eye. When she makes eye contact, click and treat. Repeat.
4. After several repetitions (the number of repetitions needed will depend on the individual dog), pause after you give the “Watch!” cue and see if she looks into your eyes. If she does, click and treat. If she doesn’t, move the treat to your eye, click and treat.
5. Say “Watch!” Move the treat halfway to your eye, and wait. Just wait. Eventually she will glance at your eyes. Click and treat. (If she never looks at your eyes, do several more repetitions of Step 4.)
6. Say “Watch” and hold the treat at arm’s length out to the side. Wait. She will likely stare at the treat for a moment or two, but invariably, within a few moments, she will glance at your face (usually, in an effort to try to figure out what you are doing!). When she makes eye contact, click and treat.
When your dog has come to realize the value of eye contact, she will sometimes offer the behavior without being cued. Be sure to reinforce offered eye contact as well as cued eye contact. To help her be comfortable with eye contact from other humans, ask your friends to play the “Watch” game with her as well.
I confess – I love hugging dogs as much as the next human. Of the three Miller dogs, two love to be hugged (Kai the Kelpie and Bonnie the Scorgidoodle), while Lucy the Corgi, has made her no-hugging preferences abundantly clear with avoidance behaviors, so I don’t even try. If we didn’t have at least one dog who loved hugs, I might need to teach one to at least tolerate them.
This process involves either classical conditioning (giving a puppy a positive association with something she doesn’t already have an opinion of), or classical counter-conditioning (giving a dog a new association with something she already has a negative opinion of). Either way, the process is similar, but it may go slower if you are working to change an existing opinion rather than simply installing one where none previously exists.
1. Sit next to your sitting dog, with a handful of tasty treats in the hand farthest from your dog. (Assuming your dog is on your left side, have treats in your right hand. If you prefer the other side, just flip the following directions.)
2. Touch the top of your dog’s shoulders (the withers) briefly with your left hand. While your hand is touching her, immediately deliver a high-value treat to her mouth with your right hand. Remove both hands at the same time.
3. Repeat the brief touch-then-feed process until you see your dog brighten happily and turn to look for the arrival of the treat when you touch her. (Note: If you can’t get her happy at this step, don’t go any further. You have three choices now: a) Seek the help of a positive reinforcement-based trainer to help you with the process; b) Resign yourself to hugging other humans instead of your dog; c) Look to adopt a second dog into your family who clearly loves being hugged.)
4. Gradually increase the length of time you touch her. As you increase the length of touch, feed, pause, then feed again. Feed multiple times as the length of touch-time increase.
5. Now touch your dog on her far shoulder, just the other side of the withers, and immediately feed. This will start to move your arm over her back as is you are beginning to hug her.
6. Repeat this touch as you did with the withers touch, gradually increasing length of time and multiple feedings as she looks happy about the process.
7. Slowly increase the approximations of your touch toward an actual hug, making sure you get a consistent positive response at each step before proceeding further.
The number of times a person has been bitten gives a big clue as to his capacity to read, understand, and respond properly to canine communications. Someone who has been bitten numerous times either doesn’t pay attention to what dogs say, or doesn’t respond appropriately.
Dogs almost always give clear signals – though the signs may be subtle – before they bite. A “bite without warning” is truly a rare occurrence. Most of the time the human just wasn’t listening, or didn’t have any education about what the dog was expressing. I have worked with dogs professionally for more than 40 years and, knock wood, experienced only a handful of bites, none of them serious.
I remember with crystal clarity an incident from when I was a humane officer for the Marin (California) Humane Society, responding to a complaint of a Rhodesian Ridgeback who was at large – and reportedly aggressive toward people. I pulled up in my animal control truck, got out, and started up the sidewalk toward the house. Suddenly I saw a brown blur out of the corner of my eye, and realized the Ridgeback was charging at me from behind the house. I froze in place.
She ran straight up to me and muzzle-punched me (hit me with her closed mouth). Although I had not received any in-depth training in understanding dog body language, I realized that this was a strong warning, and if I moved abruptly she would likely bite me. She stepped back a couple of feet, and I slowly backed up to my truck. Once there I was able to retrieve a control pole, gently noose her, load her into my truck and, unscathed, walk back to the house to talk to her owner. Phew!
The ability to read and react appropriately to dog body language can keep you safe with your own dog as well as others you may encounter. Here are four photos that present different levels of danger based on the dogs’ aggressive expressions.
This mother dog is giving the photographer a direct stare – and her eyes look somewhat “hard.” Her stiff, forward-leaning posture and ears, and slightly pushed-forward lips, are warning you to stay back. She’s not aroused, just guarding her puppies. It would be wise to heed her warning.
The next dog is also pushing her lips forward, in a slightly more threatening display. Her posture, tail, and ears are quite stiff, and her hair is standing up a little. She’s laser-focused on another dog, and not in a particularly friendly way. This dog hasn’t aggressed yet, but she’s starting to get aroused. We’d give her a wide berth.
Here are two dog body language lessons in one photo. The adult dog is making a fearsome face, drawing his lips back in an impressive snarl, and holding his ears and tail up and stiff. But notice that he’s not leaning at all forward, and his eyes are not super hard (though it’s difficult to see from this angle). He’s giving the puppy a stern warning to “Don’t come near me!” and the puppy reads this loud and clear. She’s responded with a classic puppy grovel: she’s lowered her body posture and leaned backward, and she’s holding her ears back and wagging her tail. She won’t look directly at the adult, but looks away with soft, squinty eyes. Note that she’s trying to appease the adult dog – she’s acknowledging his warning – but she isn’t terrified or afraid for her life.
This dog is dangerously conflicted. His lips are pushed forward hard, but his ears are pinned back; his eye contact is hard and direct but his tail is low. His posture looks like he’s leaning forward and back; he’s frightened and willing to come after you. This dog was being held following his (and another dog’s) attack on an elderly woman who was in her own yard. The dogs were untrained, unsocialized, and inadequately contained; both paid the ultimate price for their owner’s negligence and irresponsibility.
Maybe it was after the time your mild-mannered Maltese puppy was dramatically barrel-rolled by the fun-loving Labrador during a critical developmental period. Or maybe the potentially personality-altering offense was more obvious – like a blatant attack by another dog while on a walk.
In either case, it’s very possible the experience has left your dog leery of other dogs. And with good reason! In many dogs, this well-founded fear presents as an aggressive front; after all, the best defense is a strong offense. While your dog might look like he’s trying to be a “tough guy,” what he’s really saying is, “HELP! I’m very frightened of that dog. Please don’t let it come any closer. Get back! Get away!”
This is problematic for many reasons. Owners are often embarrassed by their dog’s outbursts, not understanding that the unwanted behavior is rooted in an emotional issue (fear) and is not a display of disobedience. A recent Facebook post (author unknown) sums it up beautifully: “Your dog isn’t giving you a hard time; he’s having one!” Yes!
Dog Reactivity Comes from Distress
Beyond the human hang-ups and logistical challenges associated with a dog who now displays reactive behavior in the presence of other dogs, we must consider the impact on the dog. Reactive outbursts are the product of distress, and distress is serious business. It takes a long time for the body to recover from the jolt of hormones that happens during a distressful event. This altered brain state can leave your dog susceptible to triggers he might not otherwise react to, which is why many dogs can seem “edgy” for some time following a particularly stressful event.
According to Sara Reusche, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KSA, CVT, of Paws Abilities Dog Training in Rochester, Minnesota, while the initial adrenaline spike begins to subside after about 15 minutes, it can take between two to six days for glucocorticoids, like cortisol, to return to baseline levels, provided no other stressors occur. This is especially challenging for dogs who react to stimuli (other dogs, kids, skateboards, etc.) while on daily walks, as it’s unlikely their cortisol and related hormone levels ever have a chance to return to normal.
Reusche adds that dogs who live with chronic distress are more likely to experience chronic health issues such as allergies and gastrointestinal disturbances. Chronic distress can also hasten the aging process, decrease cognitive function, and weaken the immune system, delaying wound healing and making the dog more susceptible to disease and infections (such as urinary tract infections). Here are things you can do to get the stress monkey off your backs:
1. Give yourselves a break.
Like the joke goes, “I told my doctor it hurts when I bend my elbow. His solution? Don’t bend my elbow!” Avoidance is not without its merits.
When helping a dog recover from a reactivity issue, it’s important to keep your dog sub-threshold. This means going to great lengths to avoid putting the dog in situations where he feels so overwhelmed that he exhibits an emotional outburst. In densely populated areas, this often requires taking neighborhood walks during off-hours, or skipping the neighborhood altogether in favor of a shorter walk in a nearby shopping center. Both tactics serve to reduce unwanted dog encounters, especially when you aren’t prepared to train your way through the situation.
Similar tactics include ducking behind parked cars, heading up a driveway, crossing the street, or abruptly changing directions. These are all reasonable, supportive measures that can be taken in an effort to quickly increase distance between yourselves and another dog. Obviously, this is easier when the other dog is on leash. For tips on handling loose-dog encounters, see “Tips on Stopping a Loose Dog from Approaching You,” WDJ May 2016.
Distance is your friend! Staying “sub-threshold” is largely about understanding at what distance your dog can acknowledge another dog’s presence yet still feel safe enough to not react.
2. Don’t punish your dog!
Harsh reprimands, leash-pops, and other forms of punishment might appear to offer relief, but, in reality, punishment often suppresses behavior only temporarily.
Reactivity is an emotional issue. The dog growls, barks, and lunges because of how he feels. Punishing the behavior is an ill-fated attempt to address the issue by focusing on the symptoms, not the cause. It’s important to get to the root of the behavior – the dog’s fear of other dogs, which is what’s driving his behavior.
Punishment can also make problems worse when dogs, who are masters at making strong associations, pair the punishment with the trigger. For example, let’s say a dog growls when other dogs get too close. When he does, his owner issues a sharp collar correction and a harsh, “Quiet!” – both of which are unpleasant to the dog. Many dogs will begin to associate the sight of another dog with the impending act of aggression from the handler. In the dog’s mind, “See! Other dogs are bad; they even make my owner aggressive!” And then the dog works even harder to keep the “bad dogs” away!
3. Change your dog’s emotional response to his trigger.
As you work to keep your dog sub-threshold to help manage his behavior, you can also aim to change how he feels about other dogs. Counter-conditioning is a powerful tool to help change a dog’s emotional state in the presence of a trigger. You can use two different types of counter-conditioning for a dog who has been traumatized: classical counter-conditioning and operant counter-conditioning.
Counter-conditioning is used in situations where the dog has already formed a negative association with something, because you’re trying to counter, or change, the association. This is most often accomplished with a powerful primary reinforcer, such as high-value treats, but access to favorite toys can also work for dogs who are highly motivated by toys.
In classical counter-conditioning, the goal is to try to transfer the positive feelings the dog has for high-value treats (or toy play) onto the trigger (in this case, the presence of other dogs), thus creating a new association in the dog’s mind. For example, when you know at what distance your dog can see other dogs, but still feel safe enough to not react, be prepared to feed a steady stream of treats the entire time the trigger (another dog) is within eyesight. As soon as the dog is out of sight, the treats stop.
Trainer Jean Donaldson, author of The Culture Clash, calls this “Open Bar, Closed Bar.” When the trigger is present, the bar is open and the treats flow freely. Once the trigger goes away, the bar is closed. People often mistakenly refer to this as using treats to “distract” the dog, but behavioral science is hard at work behind the scenes!
Also useful in mild cases of reactivity for building a new, improved response to the trigger, is operant counter-conditioning: when in the presence of the trigger, the dog is asked to perform a specific behavior that is incompatible with the unwanted behavior.
For example, a dog who might otherwise bark or lunge at other dogs is asked to “look,” “watch,” or “sit” instead. It works because, through training, the dog has learned to enjoy performing the alternative behaviors (and being rewarded for doing so), and those good feelings help create a new and happy association with the trigger.
Note: If this seems difficult for your dog, you’re not keeping him at a sub-threshold distance from his trigger.
4. Manage your own stress signals.
Owners, too, often become tense in the presence of the dog’s trigger, either because they’re also on hyper-alert following an attack, or because they worry their dog will react undesirably. They may tense their shoulders, hold their breath – and they almost always tighten the leash. These behaviors can all be huge red flags to our dogs – a clear sign that danger is imminent!
If you find yourself tensing up as triggers appear, consider the following:
Remember to breathe. When anxious, our breathing often becomes shallow. Deep, purposeful inhalations and exhalations help relieve tension (yours and your dog’s!)
Shake it off. Just as dogs use full-body shake-offs to relieve tension, humans also benefit. Practitioners of Tension & Trauma Release Exercise® believe a good shake helps release muscular tension, calms the nervous system, and encourages the body to return to a better state of balance.
Sing to your dog. My training mentor often asks clients to sing “Happy Birthday” to their dogs when she sees them visibly tensing up. It sounds silly, and people feel silly doing it, but that’s why it works. It’s much harder to remain physically tense when you’re laughing about singing to your dog. Plus, most of us have strong positive associations with the song. (Operant counter-conditioning for the win!)
Relax the leash. Your emotions travel down a tight leash like the Autobahn! Plus, a tight leash restricts natural dog body language and can make your dog feel trapped, increasing the odds he’ll react defensively.
5. Create “safe” encounters with other dogs.
Dog encounters out in public are unpredictable, which means it can sometimes be hard to keep dogs sub-threshold while on the road to recovery.
While it’s important to try to do the best you can during everyday outings with your dogs, it’s also useful to recruit dog-owning friends to help. Dogs with mild reactivity often benefit from casual dog walks with mellow dogs who are indifferent to other dogs. Consider, also, attending a well-run good-manners class where a dog in emotional rehab can remain sub-threshold while building trust in his owner’s ability to keep everyone safe around other dogs.
Stephanie Colman is a writer and dog trainer in Southern California.
You can use a simple protocol to help teach your dog to cooperate with administering ear drops.
If you share your life with dogs long enough, chances are you’ll be tasked with the need to administer ear drops for dogs to treat mites or bacterial and fungal ear infections. Some of us are blessed with profoundly patient dogs who easily tolerate the experience in exchange for a tasty morsel and our heartfelt affection. Other dogs are certain ear drops are to be avoided at all cost.
In a perfect world, we’d all take the time to teach our dogs to calmly and cooperatively accept medically necessary handling long before such handling was necessary. In the real world, we often find ourselves scrambling to manage the situation as best as possible, with varying degrees of success.
Some people feel the only option is to increase the level of restraint needed to get the job done. This seems like the “easy answer” (at least for the human) in the short term, but it’s important to remember it will likely make things worse in the long run as the dog comes to associate the already unpleasant (to her) event with the added stress of intense physical restraint. Plus, who wants to knowingly distress their dog?
Fortunately, the following six steps can help teach your dog to more calmly accept ear drops for dogs, even when the lessons are taught in conjunction with actual ear drop application.
Giving Ear Drops to Your Dog
For many dogs, simply seeing the medication bottle sends them packing. If the bottle comes out only when we intend to use it, and our dogs find the experience unpleasant, who can blame them for wanting to suddenly become invisible? Dogs are masters at learning our behavior patterns.
Instead of tending to the bottle only when it’s time to apply medicated drops or ear wash, make a point to handle the bottle multiple times per day. Set the drops on the counter and toss your dog several small treats. She might be suspicious and ignore the treats at first. That’s fine. Act like you didn’t notice and busy yourself in the kitchen, ignoring both the medication bottle and your dog.
When she eats the treats, casually move the bottle to a new (still visible) location and toss more treats. If the medication keeps at room temperature, leave the bottle out to remind you to do this multiple times per day, even changing locations throughout the house. If it has to be refrigerated, leave yourself a note or set a reminder on your phone.
Be totally nonchalant about what you’re doing, and most importantly, practice separately from the time when you actually need to apply the solution.
If (or when) the sight of the bottle is not a source of worry for your dog, or better yet, her eyes light up at the thought of the yummy treats to come, practice a similar exercise by holding the bottle in one hand while offering treats. If your dog has a nose-touch targeting behavior, present the bottom of the bottle and ask her to “touch” it in order to earn a treat. Again, practice often, separate from actual application sessions.
Break Down the Ear Drop Application Process
In teaching your dog to willingly participate in any husbandry behavior, the key is to break the desired behavior into several manageable pieces. Administering ear drops for dogs requires reaching for and touching the ear, lifting the flap (in dogs with droopy ears), exposing the upper end of the ear canal, juggling a medication bottle, and correctly aiming the nozzle – all before any solution even hits the ear!
Heavily rewarding your dog for each of the following steps can make the experience less stressful for everyone involved, while changing your dog’s emotional response for the better, which supports long-term training goals. Individual steps might include:
1. Investigate the ear.
With a bowl of tasty treats within arm’s reach, ask your dog to sit, and reach for her ear. The target behavior is your dog remaining in a sit as your hand makes contact with her ear. If she seems unfazed, mark (using a clicker, or a short verbal marker such as “Yes!” or “Good!”) as your hand makes brief contact, then deliver a treat. Repeat three to five times.
If your dog shies away as you reach for her ear, break this step into even smaller, easier steps. An easier step might be reaching toward, but not actually touching the ear, or touching the ear with one finger rather than your whole hand. Your goal is to find the version of the behavior that allows your dog to think, “That’s it? Wow. That’s easy!” Advance to the next step only when your dog seems completely comfortable with the easier behavior. Don’t worry; it usually goes faster than you’d think.
If your dog remains relaxed while you touch the ear, progress to reaching for the ear and lifting the flap to expose the underside and inner ear. Mark and reward your dog’s calm acceptance of this brief behavior. Repeat three to five times. Next, reach for the ear, lift the flap, and briefly manipulate the ear as you would to gain better access to the ear canal. Mark and reward. Repeat three to five times.
2. Add the solution bottle.
If all is going well, repeat the previous steps, this time while holding the closed bottle in your hand. Remember to mark and reward each step along the way, even though it seems “easy” for your dog. That’s the point! If your dog seems reluctant with a step, back up and repeat easier steps for a few more repetitions.
3. Simulate solution application.
Actually dispensing ear drops or ear wash solution for dogs requires concentrated focus on the task at hand. It’s common to struggle to accurately aim the nozzle, fumble around in the process, tense up, and hold your breath as you work. Rather than initially pairing your own awkwardness with a shocking squirt of fluid, make tolerance for your behavior its own rewardable step for your dog. Go through all of the motions necessary to administer the ear drops, but leave the cap on the bottle. Mark, reward, and repeat.
4. Administer the drops.
By now, your dog should be thinking, “Hey, this isn’t so bad,” since she’s been rewarded handsomely for several small, easy steps along the way. Now you’re ready to administer the drops.
Approach this step just as you did during the simulated application step; the only difference should be the gentle squeeze of solution. Mark and immediately offer a jackpot of several small treats dispensed one at a time.
If your dog seems especially bothered by a squirt of solution, try soaking a cotton ball and let the solution trickle into the ear from the cotton ball, versus a “squirt” from a bottle. If your ear product needs to be refrigerated, ask your vet if a dose can be safely brought to room temperature first for a less shocking experience.
5. You’re almost done!
With the drops safely in place, it might be tempting to call it quits, but rather than end the session on the most difficult step, it’s wise to quickly run through the easier steps in reverse order, continuing to reward your dog along the way. To further stack the deck in your favor, make a point to follow eardrop sessions with one of your dog’s favorite activities such as mealtime, a walk, or a rousing game of tug or fetch.
6. Practice, practice, practice!
While the short-term goal is to successfully get the ear solution into the ear with as little fuss as possible, the long-term goal is to teach your dog to willingly cooperate in the process. To that end, remember to practice often, not just when it’s time to actually administer medication. Working your way through all but the final application step, several times a day, will go a long way toward improving your dog’s opinion of this often-necessary husbandry behavior.
Try keeping the solution bottle and treats handy when you watch television; challenge yourself to run through the practice steps during each commercial break. A one-hour show will provide at least three quick opportunities for training!
As with many things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It’s always a good idea to proactively teach our dogs to be comfortable with the many forms of handling they are likely to experience while in our care. At the same time, it’s never too late to break necessary behaviors into smaller pieces in an effort to reduce stress and increase cooperation with our canine friends.
Stephanie Colman is a writer and dog trainer in Southern California.
The dog training world has become exponentially more aware of the significance of dog body language communication over the past two decades. We know how critically important it is in keeping dogs and people safe, and in building relationships of mutual trust and respect that result in lifelong bonds between canines and their humans. And yet we still see training and behavior professionals as well as regular dog owners who utterly fail to understand what their dogs are desperately trying to say to them.
This would be unfortunate even if it meant only that dogs and humans didn’t have as close a relationship as they otherwise might. But it races beyond unfortunate all the way to tragic when the result of the miscommunication is the severing of the human-animal bond that keeps the dog in her happy home, serious injury to humans, or, all too often, the eventual euthanasia of the dog. This may be the result of a bite, or simply the lack of emotional connection that holds relationships together. If our species universally had a better understanding of what our dogs are trying to communicate to us, we would see many more dogs living long, happy lives in forever homes.
Speaking Dog Language
Dogs are primarily body language communicators. While they are certainly able to understand many of the words we speak to them, and capable of a range of vocalizations themselves (see “Ways to Stop a Dog from Whining,” May 2017, and “Why Dogs Bark and How to Stop Them“, March 2017), their first language is body talk.
For someone who is very experienced with dogs – or someone who just has good natural instincts about dog body language – canine communications are obvious and intuitive. But even people with very little experience with dogs can learn to “hear” what dogs are expressing with their ears, eyes, mouths, tails, and posture. And there is immense value in learning how to understand those communications; the ability to read and react appropriately to dog body language not only keeps you safe, it greatly enhances your relationship with your own dog, as well as others you may encounter.
One good way to begin your canine language studies is to pay attention to how dogs may use their body parts in varying ways to express different things.
Low to medium carriage, gently waving: Relaxed, friendly
Low to medium carriage, fast wag: Appeasing or happy, friendly
High carriage, still/vibrating or fast wag: Tension, arousal, excitement; could be play arousal or aggression arousal (note that a wagging tail does not always mean a happy dog!)
Ear Signals
Pinned back: Appeasing, deferent or fearful
Back and relaxed: Calm, relaxed, friendly
Forward and relaxed: Aware, friendly
Pricked forward: Alert, excitement, arousal, assertive; could be play arousal or aggression arousal
Eye Expressions
Averted, no eye contact: Appeasing, deferent or fearful (avoidance); may be a subtle flick of the eyes, or may turn entire head away
Squinting, or eyes closed: Appeasing, happy greeting
Soft, direct eye contact: Calm, relaxed, friendly
Eyes open wide: Confident, assertive
Hard stare: Alert, excitement, arousal; could be play arousal or aggression arousal
Mouth Expressions
Lips pulled back: Appeasing or fearful (may also be lifted in “submissive grin” or “aggressive grin”)
Licking lips, yawning: Stressed, fearful, or tired
Lips relaxed: Calm, friendly
Lips puckered forward, may be lifted (snarl): Assertive, threat
Hair
Piloerection or “raised hackles” is a sign of arousal. While it can indicate aggression, dogs may also exhibit piloerection when they are fearful, uncertain, or engaged in excited play.
Body Posture
Behind vertical, lowered; hackles may be raised: Appeasing or fearful
Vertical, full height: Confident, relaxed
Ahead of vertical, standing tall; hackles may be raised: Assertive, alert, excitement, arousal, possibly play arousal or aggressive arousal
Shoulders lowered, hindquarters elevated: A play bow – clear invitation to play; dog sending a message that behavior that might otherwise look like aggression is intended in play
Note that many of the body language communications can have multiple meanings. The actual intent is determined by looking at the whole picture. A dog with her ears pricked forward and hackles raised accompanying a play bow is sending an entirely different message from the one with her ears pricked forward, hackles raised, standing tall and ahead of the vertical, giving a hard stare.
Once you’re good at reading canine body language, in a crisis, you will be able to quickly see the whole picture and respond appropriately, without having to take the time to analyze individual body parts.
Get some more detailed descriptions of dog communication signals by reading, “Your Dog’s Facial Expressions,” (March 2013).
In less urgent times, make a point of observing dog body language communications more thoughtfully, and respond appropriately – by greeting dogs who are clearly inviting interactions, and helping a dog who may show subtle signs of discomfort by not invading her comfort zone.
Human Body Language
Your ability to communicate appropriately back to your dog is every bit as important as your ability to read her communications. Making direct eye contact, bending forward from the waist, and reaching over the top of the head are some of the most common body language mistakes humans make with dogs.
Here are more appropriate ways to communicate your friendly intentions to the dog in front of you:
Eye Contact
In our culture, direct eye contact is admired. Someone who doesn’t look you in the eye is perceived as shifty, untruthful, or weak. Though there are other cultures where this is not true, in this part of the world, we humans regard making direct eye contact as the right and honorable way to greet other sentient beings.
In a dog’s world, however, direct eye contact is a challenge or a threat, while looking away is a sign of deference, appeasement, or respect. If you make direct eye contact with a dog and see signs of appeasement, fear, deference, or defensive or offensive aggression, you know this is a dog who is not comfortable with direct eye contact. Experienced handlers approach dogs with soft eye contact or without making eye contact at all.
That said, we make it a point to teach our own dogs that direct eye contact with a human is a highly rewarded behavior. Dog trainers from coast to coast go to great lengths to reinforce their dogs for making and maintaining eye contact.
When approaching a dog you don’t know, or if your own dog seems wary of you when you approach her, try looking off to the side or over her head instead of directly into her eyes. If she seems comfortable, try making brief, soft eye contact and see how she reacts. If her body language stays soft and she continues to approach you, she is probably comfortable with at least some eye contact. Take it slow.
What’s the first thing you’re likely to do when you’re introduced to a human stranger? Reach out boldly and shake hands with a firm grip. What’s the first thing many humans are likely to do when they meet a dog? Reach out boldly and pat her on top of the head. Non-dog-savvy humans, that is. Many dogs hate being patted on top of the head, although some tolerate it; only a small minority may actually enjoy it.
If you want to make a good impression on the canines you meet, you might do best not to reach out at all. Rather, allow the dog to offer the first contact with you.
If you must reach toward a dog, offer your open hand, palm up, below her chin level, and let her reach forward to sniff. If she invites closer contact, try scratching gently under her chin or behind her ear – most dogs love that. Watch her response; she may not like touch, or she may not yet be ready for that much intimacy from a stranger. If she pulls away or shows signs of fear, appeasement, avoidance, or aggression, respect her message and stop trying to touch her.
Hugs
Even in the world of humans, you’d be offended if someone you didn’t know walked up and wrapped arms around you in an intimate hug. Lots of dogs are equally offended, even by hugs from someone they know well. Sure, there are dogs who invite hugs and snuggles, but they are the exception, not the rule.
Never try to hug a dog you don’t know (and don’t let your children do it, either!).
If you are in the habit of hugging (or allowing your children to hug) your own dog, video some hugs in action and take a good hard look at her body language. If your dog leans into the hugs with a relaxed body and soft expression, you’re on solid ground. In contrast, if you see your dog ducking, looking away, leaning away, tensing up, or offering other avoidance signals, you might want to rethink your hugging program.
If you’re dead set on hugging a dog who isn’t loving it, then make a commitment to a counter-conditioning program that can teach her to love – or at least calmly accept – hugs. Follow, “Train Your Dog to Accept Hugs,” to get started.
Body Orientation
Remember that approach for greeting another human and shaking her hand? You probably stood tall and offered a full-frontal presentation at the same time; we humans would think it quite weird if someone crouched and/or sidled up to us to say hello.
However, to a dog, a face-front direct approach along with direct eye contact screams, “Threat!” Equally offensive to many dogs is the human habit of bending or hovering over a dog. If you watch a dog professional making the acquaintance of a new canine friend, you are likely to see her kneel sideways while avoiding eye contact, either keeping her hands close to her body or offering an open hand low to the ground.
Take your lead from professional trainers and handlers. The more wary of you the dog appears, the more important it is for your to turn sideways and make yourself small and non-threatening. Of course, if you’re greeting an enthusiastic Labrador Retriever who is happily trying to body-slam you at the end of his leash, you’re probably safe to stand up and face front. But, still, no hugs, head-pats, or hovering, please.
Movement
Dogs, especially dogs who aren’t completely comfortable with humans, are very sensitive to our movement. Fast, sudden, and erratic movements can be alarming, especially if they are combined with direct eye contact and inappropriate hand-reaching. Slow, calm movement – or in some case no movement at all – is a better approach with a dog you don’t know.
Demeanor
Now here’s the tricky part. Often, when humans are trying to avoid eye contact, move slowly, speak softly, turn sideways, and control the movement of their hands, they end up looking tense and awkward. Or just plain weird. And that can be very alarming to a dog who isn’t sure about the approaching human – or humans in general.
To avoid this, video yourself with your own dog while you train yourself to control your eye contact, hands, and body postures. Practice until you can act natural while doing all the approach and greeting behaviors that feel very unnatural. Then ask your friends if you can try it with their dogs. Get really good at it before you try it with random dogs you meet in public. And always remember to ask the dog’s owner first for permission to greet – and respect their wishes if they hesitate or say no.
You obviously care about dogs; you are a Whole Dog Journal reader. Care enough about them to learn how to speak their language. Your dog is speaking to you all the time. Remember to listen with your eyes.
Author Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, is WDJ’s Training Editor. She and her husband Paul live in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center. Miller is also the author of many books on positive training. Her newest is Beware of the Dog: Positive Solutions for Aggressive Behavior in Dogs.
In classical counter-conditioning, the goal is to try to transfer the positive feelings the dog has for high-value treats (or toy play) onto the trigger (in this case, the presence of other dogs), thus creating a new association in the dog's mind. For example, when you know at what distance your dog can see other dogs, but still feel safe enough to not react, be prepared to feed a steady stream of treats the entire time the trigger (another dog) is within eyesight. As soon as the dog is out of sight, the treats stop.
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Here in California, it’s foxtail time. This grassy weed is everywhere outdoors – in the wilderness areas where we hike, yes, of course, but also alongside suburban sidewalks and coming up in cracks in city parking lots. They are in my backyard and front yard and side yards. I spend hours each week pulling them up by the roots and carefully discarding them in the green waste bin, because there is a tiny seed at the base of every single strand on every waving frond on every plant that will grow another foxtail plant next year. If you have a very small yard, with enough years of dedicated weeding, you can eliminate them from your yard. I have a large yard and I will never see the end of them.
Why are they a problem? They are so pretty! You can run the fronds through your fingers and they are so soft – as long as you stroke them from bottom to top. If you try to reverse the direction of your caress, you learn instantly why they are the most reviled weed in the west.
Every single strand is lined with nearly microscopic barbs that catch on anything they touch, from fur to collars, clothing to bare skin. When the barbs come in contact with anything, they propel the strand forward, pushing the sharp-tipped seed at the end forward – relentlessly forward. The barbs can be felt when the grass is green, but as the plants dry out in the late spring – like, right now – they get sharper and more defined, like a brand new metal nail file. So when your dog walks through the drying grass, they practically fly off the plant and attach themselves to his fur, where they relentlessly drive those seeds into his flesh.
Top four favorite places for foxtails to invade: between dog toes and in dog noses, ears, and eyes. But they don’t discriminate; they are just as happy to burrow into dog armpits, urethras, vaginas (when girl dogs squat to pee) – anywhere there is a bend or soft, sensitive flesh.
Foxtails have sent my adolescent dog Woody to the vet twice this WEEK! He managed to do something unique – new at least to me, the vets have seen it all before. He indiscriminately ate some grass and apparently managed to include some foxtail awns. I heard him making a Bill the Cat noise (“Ackk!”) and immediately thought he must have swallowed something he shouldn’t have, and off to the 24-hour vet clinic we went. The vet looked inside his mouth and said, “Yup, foxtails…I can see one sticking out of his tonsils!” Woody is a compliant fellow, but to make sure she got them all, the veterinarian had to knock him out and thoroughly inspect his throat. She found several in the area of his tonsils, and more jammed in his gums by his molars. Good heavens, Woody! You are not a herbivore!
Five days later, Woody suddenly sprouted a lump on his cheek, the size of a small egg. There wasn’t a nick or cut that might indicate that he ran into something. I looked inside his mouth and saw something that looked like a little pimple, which made me think “$%^&*@* foxtails!” again. Back to the vet for a little exploration of Woody’s cheek.
The classic sign of a foxtail – the sign you actually want to see when you suspect a foxtail – is a little wet hole in the dog’s flesh, perhaps one that’s oozing a bit. That’s where the vet starts the search, with a little local anesthetic and a long, skinny alligator forceps. The foxtail will sometimes create a little track in the dog’s flesh, that the vet will try to follow to its end and pull it out backwards with the forceps. That’s the best case scenario.
More often, it goes like it went with Woody’s cheek; a little pimple indicating where the foxtail seed may have entered his flesh, but no track to follow and no ooze indicating where the seed is causing an infection that can be lanced and cleaned. The vet lanced the spot, found nothing, and now we have to wait and see. Was the piece of awn or seed small enough for his body to break it down and the swelling will subside? Or is the awn big enough to resist a quick disintegration? Will it keep traveling and cause trouble elsewhere? I’ve heard horror stories of foxtails traveling into dogs’ hearts, lungs, brains – you name it. I’m telling you, I HATE THESE PLANTS!
If anyone needs me for the next few days, I’ll be outside, weeding. Or using a flamethrower. We’ll see.
* To all of you who don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, count your blessings. On the other hand, those of you who live in chigger country, or where your ticks are epidemic and carry Lyme or Rocky Mountain Fever, you got me there.
After having a medical issue of my own recently, I had an epiphany: I’d rather see a veterinarian than deal with the human medical system.
The usual routine with human medicine: If something serious happens suddenly, you have to go to the emergency room; your own doctor can’t see you right away for anything serious.
The ER patches you up enough to be released and tells you to follow up with your own doctor. At the day of the appointment, your doctor decides you need an xray or ultrasound or other test – and sends you to another clinic or testing laboratory where this is done. It takes days for the results to get back to your doctor, and then he gets them, he sends you elsewhere for treatment. At least, that’s what happened to me, recently.
If the same event had happened to my dog – although, I don’t know why my dog would have been on a ladder cleaning gutters – my veterinarian would most likely have seen my dog that day unless it was after hours, in which case I would have taken the dog to the animal ER, a 24-hour clinic in the next town over. They, too, would have patched up the dog and told me to follow up with my regular vet.
But when I would have followed up with my regular vet, if she thought my dog needed an ultrasound or xray, she would have done it. And if she thought that my dog’s massive hematoma needed to be aspirated, she would have done that, too. And if she thought my dog needed an antibiotic or something, that, too, would have been dispensed right there at the veterinary clinic.
My husband once had an ugly cyst develop on his neck. His doctor, too, referred him elsewhere to have it lanced and drained. Again, if that had been my dog and my veterinarian, it would have been one-stop shopping.
I wouldn’t expect my “family veterinarian” to also treat my dog for an exotic eye disease or even cancer; I’m happy with the idea that there are veterinary specialists that one can see for special health problems. But boy, am I grateful for the fact that most veterinarians are both fully prepared and fully capable of triage, diagnosis, and hands-on treatment of our animal companions.
Are there still doctors out there who work like vets, diagnosing and treating problems on the spot?
Here’s another post to provide closure to some of the foster-dog stories I’ve shared with you in recent months.
In mid-March, I wrote about being fairly depressed by the arrival of two foster dogs. I had pulled the first one from my local shelter as a prospect for a friend of my son, who was looking for an athletic, medium-sized dog. I had never seen the dog outside of a kennel, first at my local shelter, and then, after we evacuated the shelter during the Oroville (Calif.) Dam scare, at a friend’s house (she took in about 20 of the shelter’s dogs!). He had a darling face, seemed quiet in the kennel, and looked like a Poodle-something-mix. As soon as it was safe for me to go back home after the evacuation, I asked to foster him.
It wasn’t until I got him home that I saw he wasn’t going to work for my son’s friend. That young man is a professional athlete, and was looking for a dog he could take out for runs; this dog could barely stand up! He had as little muscle tissue as I’ve ever seen on a dog, and he stood and walked way back on his “wrists.” It seemed clear he had been kept in a crate or tiny pen for most of his life. He also had a bad habit of barking LOUDLY when he wanted something or when he was frustrated. This, too, seemed like a trait he had likely developed while being stuck in a crate. He didn’t have any other tools for dealing with his frustration.
Despite this bad start, he was friendly and sweet and playful. I called him Muppet, because he looked like one, with those long legs and tufts of hair flying every which way. Based on his uncoordinated, weak gaits, my husband, who gives nicknames to every dog that passes through our home, called him Floppy. Indeed, he flopped about wildly as he tried to play with and chase my adolescent dog Woody around my yard. It was sad but funny when they would play tug of war over a toy; they would stand braced and pulling, and it would look like an even match, but if strongly muscled Woody would turn his head to look out the window, Floppy would go flying in that direction. It only looked like it was an even match because Woody was tempering the strength of his own tugging.
Still, it takes a special person to make a home for dogs with physical and behavioral deficits, and I despaired that I would be able to find a suitable family for him. Then I received a message from Jill Breitner, developer of the terrific Dog Decoder app and a trainer who recently relocated in southern Oregon. She said that she had a couple of clients that Muppet might be perfect for, and that in either case, she would first take possession of him for a month or so, and then spend some time with the owner, to make sure they knew what to expect from the dog and to smooth over their new relationship.
As it turned out, another friend was driving a couple of dogs from our local shelter to central Oregon, where she would meet another driver who would take them to adoptive homes in the Seattle area. I asked if Muppet could catch a ride on that transport, and a few days later, he was on his way.
As luck would have it, the person doing the transport had car trouble on the morning that all the travel arrangements were made, and instead of being crated individually in the back of a truck with a camper shell on it, the dogs were going to ride in a car – the back seat and the “way back.” And as they drove, one of the dogs being transported was quite unhappy with the seating arrangements, and made the other dogs in the car nervous enough that by the time Muppet got to Jill’s town, he had diarrhea and no appetite. It took a couple of days of gentle care and low-stress, loving handling before he regained his adolescent energy and spunk.
I’ve asked Jill if she would write an article for WDJ about her approach to this sort of fostering/training arrangement, and she’s agreed. Briefly, she said she tries to give the dog a soft landing from his previous placements, and give him time to feel safe and loved in the most enriching environment possible. She observes the dog carefully to see how he moves and operates, and so she can share her insights about his behavior with his new owner when it’s time. Jill kept Muppet for over a month before his new owners drove up from Arizona to get him! They spent two days with Jill and Muppet getting to know their new dog and his newly trained behaviors, before driving with him back down to Arizona. Jill says they are in love with their new guy, who has been permanently renamed Buffett (after the musician). Super happy ending!
Despite the frustration I expressed when I wrote that first blog post about hard-to-place dogs, the other dog I was writing about also has found a terrific forever home. Twig is an anxious little guy with funky-looking knees, who had scrapped with his previous foster person’s dog and needed a new home before he got hurt. I asked Lisa, a friend who is involved with a local rescue group, if she could foster him for me when I went on vacation, and when I got back, she said she could keep him a little longer, trying to promote him through her network of rescue folks.
Lisa has cultivated a relationship with the local television station, who will sometimes feature an “adoptable pet of the week” on its morning show – and make the clip available for linking and sharing on social media. Lisa got onto the show with Twig, and lo and behold, the perfect couple emerged within a day asking to meet and adopt him. They are an older couple with no other dogs, and he reminded them in many ways of a beloved dog they had years ago. They took him home for a trial and say he fits into their lives perfectly. Hurrah! Networking (literally) rocks!
More recently, I complained about these adorable siblings, who have been in my local shelter since just before Christmas. I shared my theory that they looked too much like pit bulls to attract people who did not feel comfortable with a bully breed, and not enough like pit bulls for those who specifically wanted a bully breed.
It so happened that I was at the shelter one day for an unrelated task (actually, helping Lisa, hero of Twig’s story, check to see if the next dog she was about to foster had any issues with cats), when I saw someone else I know at the shelter, taking a shelter ward to one of the outdoor runs. I wandered over to see what she and her husband were up to, and they said they had lost two senior dogs, one after the other, earlier this year, and their remaining dog is depressed and sad, and so they decided it was time to adopt another; they were just looking. I went into total car salesman mode. “Have I got a dog for you!” I told them, and ran to get a leash. I ran back to the boy dog’s kennel, telling him, “Now don’t blow this, it’s a great opportunity for you…” I showed them everything the dog knew: sit and down on cue, polite fetching, and best yet, a default sit and wait when you just look at him, or when you walk up to a door or gate. Long story short: He got adopted!
Now I’m concentrating all my efforts on his sister. I brought her home over the weekend, and this week, she’s spending time as a special guest at The Canine Connection, my friend Sarah Richardson’s training, boarding, and daycare center. Sarah’s assistants are lavishing care and training on her, and she’s getting lots of opportunities to play with other dogs. After I send the next issue to print, I hope to host her again while promoting her as widely as I can, in any way I can. And then, I might have to take the rest of the summer off to play with my own dogs only!
In the comments to the above-mentioned blog posts, you guys have contributed some great ideas for helping shelter dogs get adopted. Keep sharing! And thanks!
Way back in November I wrote about finding a great prospect for my sister-in-law Leslie and my seven-year-old niece, Ava. Leslie had put me in charge of looking for just the right dog for her and Ava: not too big nor too small, sweet, and trainable. On their behalf, I wanted to find a dog that would love and be fascinated with kids, because Ava absolutely loves dogs and most loves dogs who love her back.
In my local shelter, after looking for months, I found a darling young Shepherd-mix who impressed me as having superior self-control for being such a young dog, as well as infinite sweetness and affection for people. On the other hand, she was a younger dog than I had originally considered for them, and who seemed to have the potential for being larger than I had originally hoped. But she was just SO SWEET and fun and smart; she loved engaging with people, loved kids, loved to cuddle, and learned things fast. I discussed her with Leslie, and then brought her home for to evaluate her further. (Because I foster so much for my shelter, I get special privileges when it comes to taking dogs for a trial. Plus, I have a nearly perfect success rate at finding homes for my foster dogs.)
Every day I had the dog, I liked her more. She loved playing with my young dog Woody, was able to finesse the grumpy response she got from my older dog, Otto, and met all my other friends and their dogs in a happy, friendly way. Leslie and Ava came to meet her, and really hit it off. Ava named her Rosie, and I committed to keeping and training her for a few more weeks while Leslie would work to find a dog-walker who could help them for a few months, so they could get through Rosie’s puppyhood and go on to a happy life together. It all seemed like it was going to work out perfectly.
But there was a perfect storm of things that caused this match to fail, not the least of which was a literal chain of storms! First, though, was this: Leslie and Ava were going to take Rosie for a week, a little before I would have wanted them to, ideally. I wanted her to have more training and reliable house-manners, but I had to go to a conference out of state. So we planned for them to take Rosie for a week, after which she’d come back to my house for more training.
Two days before I left on my trip, Rosie suddenly started favoring one hind leg. I took her to my veterinarian, who diagnosed a sprained/strained hock. The veterinarian suggested that Rosie should have some crate rest and leashed-walks for a week or so, in addition to a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. That was going to be a challenge even for me, as the pup was accustomed to at least one long walk or shorter, intense, off-leash romp a day! On days when I was super busy and she didn’t get a lot of exercise, she could be mischievous and destructive. I suggested they feed her only in food-dispensing toys, give her plenty of chews and toys, and walk her as much as they could on leash.
Then, as luck would have it, the weather was awful; it dumped rain almost the whole time I was gone. And Ava had a bad cold, and wasn’t feeling well. And the dog-walker Leslie had found couldn’t start until the following week. And the trainers I had hoped might be able to help them were both out of commission. So that week was rough on all of them. Rosie had to spend her days in a large crate (though Leslie came home at lunch time every day to let her go potty), and even the food-stuffed Kongs and other “enrichment” toys and chews didn’t make this much more fun. When Leslie got home from work (and Ava from school), they would take Rosie out for short, miserable walks in the pouring rain; it took only a few of these to have Ava begging her mom to walk the dog without her. That certainly wasn’t what any of us wanted! And when they got back inside, Rosie (understandably) wanted to play and roughhouse, not cuddle with the marginally sick Ava. Their relationship went from wonderful to completely unenjoyable for both of them in a matter of days!
I heard these reports from the other side of the country with dismay, but I know from a lifetime with animals that bad weeks can happen – and that the damage to the relationship can recover just like that, too, if it’s not too bad. I hurried to pick up Rosie from their home the day I got back, so she could recover from her sprain and get enough play and stimulation from my young dog, Woody, at my house.
In the following weeks, however, when we discussed when the time would be right for Rosie to go back to Leslie and Ava’s house, I heard Leslie hesitating. She assured me that they loved the dog and trusted that she’d be a great, well-behaved dog – at some point. And I assured her that, if they preferred, I could find Rosie another great home and find them another dog. Leslie and Ava had several heart-to-heart talks on the subject, and as Leslie reported the contents of these talks to me on the phone, I heard some new information: Ava really wished for a much smaller dog that she could hold on her lap. And Leslie admitted she had never felt any fondness for small dogs; she wanted a big dog, but she also wanted a dog that would bond with Ava and that Ava would love to walk and play with. Leslie did not want to have to force Ava to walk the dog, but Ava was getting intimidated by Rosie’s pent-up, energetic behavior. All three of them were bound to fail!
I felt terrible for failing to ferret out the conflict about their wishes for the dog’s size and behavior earlier, but I recommended that we find another home for Rosie, and revisit the dog project a bit down the road. Leslie and Ava agreed.
I felt a little burdened; I had already been hosting and training Rosie for about two months, and having any new pup in the house takes a lot of work and management. But fortunately for all of us, a solution popped up sooner than I thought it would. I took an off-leash dog walk with my friend Sarah Richardson, a trainer in the nearby town of Chico, California. Sarah owns The Canine Connection, a dog boarding, training, and daycare facility. She thought Rosie was just adorable, and loved how good she was on our walk. She said, “I have some clients who might be perfect for Rosie. Why don’t I take her for a few days and get to know her, so I could discuss her prospects and promote her to them?” I happily agreed and she took Rosie home.
I immediately started getting report from Sarah about how much she enjoyed Rosie.
“She went through puppy kindergarten class tonight and she was beyond awesome. Did you teach her all this stuff or did she jus naturally know how to be super sweet and attentive?”
“She’s amazing!”
“She’s a ridiculously easy and sweet puppy.”
And then it happened: “Hey Nance, I am thinking I might keep this puppy!”
The intended clients be darned, Sarah had lost three senior dogs in a year, and while she hadn’t planned on getting another dog herself, she was enjoying fostering Rosie so much, she just couldn’t help but fall in love. It helped, a lot, that Rosie has a gift for meeting other dogs with nearly perfect dog manners. If she meets a fearful or hostile dog, she is deferent and calm, helping defuse any potential situation. If she meets an overtly friendly dog, she dives into playtime fun.
In short order, Sarah renamed her Piper, and started using her, as many professional trainers do, as a “neutral” dog to help evaluate new client dogs for her daycare business and even in behavior consultations. She’s not yet a year old, but Piper can be counted on to behave in a calm, predictable manner with other dogs, and handles herself beautifully. Only five months later, Sarah relies on Piper for this valuable job. Sarah says, “She’s become one of my trusted training assistants, helping me with other dogs, She has superb dog skills!” AND, Piper gets to play with other dogs daily, and enjoys canoodling with Sarah’s other dogs on Sarah’s couch and bed!
So things have turned out perfectly for Piper. . . and Leslie and Ava are waiting a bit longer before trying any other dogs. They have some negotiating to do!
One of the things I’ve discovered in my puppy classes is that many people assume socialization is simply about getting your dog around lots of people to be petted and plenty of dogs to play with. This can be a piece of the socialization package, but remember that the goal of socialization is to get your pup accustomed to and comfortable with the world around him.
Puppies need to be exposed in a pleasant way to the following things. Remember: don’t expose your puppy to everything at once, and please please do it in a way that is not forceful or overwhelming.
Puppy Exposure to Kinds of People
infants
toddlers
older kids/teens
adults/old people
men and women
people of different ethnicities/races
big and small people
people with sunglasses
people wearing hoods, hats, backpacks, and umbrellas
people in uniforms: police, medical, firefighters
people with canes, crutches, or in wheelchairs
Puppy Exposure to People Doing Things
running
throwing balls
kneeling down to garden
doing yoga or tai chi
standing on chairs or ladders
using tools
pushing brooms
carrying bags and boxes
vacuming
Puppy Exposure to Animals
other dogs/dogs that look different to your pup
cats
horses
chickens
goats
any other animal your dog may come into contact with
Puppy Exposure to Things That Move
bicycles
skateboards
running kids
kites
motorcycles
cars
trucks
fire engines
running animals
Puppy Exposure to New Places
your car
the veterinarian’s office
parks
beaches
shopping areas
sidewalks with cars going by
areas where you might walk or hike or vacation
other people’s houses
pet stores
Noises That Come with Everyday Life
blow dryers
kitchen appliances
vacuums
doorbells
walk-sign beeps
trucks backing up
neighbors in their yards
kids yelling
babies crying
wind and thunder noises
fireworks
Puppy Exposure to Different Surfaces
grass
gravel
pavement
carpet
shiny floors
mulch
sand
wet surfaces outside
the bathtub
Puppy Exposure to Handling
touching for vet visits
grooming
patting heads
hugging (Note: See “How Dogs Interpret Your Body Language,” to learn why WDJ does NOT recommend hugging dogs; we suggest you expose your puppy to hugs, however, because he is bound to receive one from somebody sooner or later)
invasive interactions, such as people invading their space, taking things from them, hugging them without warning, and getting into their food
A couple of days ago, I received a text from a dog-training client, wondering about a video she had just watched—and which she linked in the text. “Is meat meal bad for dogs?” she asked. She followed that message with, “I get that she’s selling her own pet food, but is it (meat meal) that bad?”
