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Training Classes for Aggressive Dogs

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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[Updated November 16, 2017]

Dogs fight other dogs for many reasons. They fight in aggressive play. They squabble over food and toys. They challenge each other for the best spot in the pack or the best spot on the bed. They fight to protect their puppies and other canine pack members, or to defend territory and their humans. Some fight because they’ve been bred or taught to fight. And a surprising number of dogs fight just because they are poorly socialized; they’ve never learned to speak “dog,” and as canine social “nerds” they inadvertently display body language that triggers aggressive responses from other dogs. Serious dog-on-dog aggression is a common problem, and one that is often overlooked and too often tolerated. However, it is not normal dog behavior, and it can, in many cases, be prevented or mitigated.

All dogs are capable of turning on one of their canine acquaintances with a short but ferocious attack. If this happens only occasionally, these brief (though dramatic) interchanges are actually normal – a device that dogs use to set boundaries regarding what kind of behavior they won’t tolerate, or to establish dominance over each other. But dogs that frequently attack other dogs without regard to the victim’s behavior can cause us a lot of trouble, heartache, and even lawsuits.

A tiny percentage of these canine bullies are born, not made; certain breeds were developed to fight each other. But far more dog-aggressive dogs were made that way by their owners – through a lack of proper socialization, inappropriate human intervention in normal canine interactions, and even encouragement of aggressive behavior. In other cases, a dog slowly develops increasingly aggressive behavior that goes unchecked or unnoticed by his owner – at least until it gets bad enough that the dog seriously injures someone else’s dog.

It’s very frustrating for social, responsible dog owners when they end up with a dog who can’t get along with other dogs. Understandably, few people want to walk with them. The walks they do take are fraught with tension, as they try to control their dog and warn other owners to keep their distance. Eventually, many people tire of the stress, and dominant canine bullies end up exiled in back yards, or even put to death.

Help Your Dog Regain Social Access

Fortunately, with appropriate training, many of these social misfits can regain access to society. Some trainers, including myself, occasionally offer special classes for such dogs. These “Growl” or “Difficult Dog” classes are designed to teach owners new skills for dealing with their dogs’ antisocial behaviors, and to give the dogs the opportunity to learn appropriate social skills.

One goal of the class is teaching owners how to detect and interpret their dogs’ aggressive body language in time to avert confrontations with other dogs. They learn exercises that can distract their dogs from their habitual and aggressive focus. The owners also learn to use food lures, rewards and praise to reinforce desired behaviors.

The other major goal is to give the dogs opportunities for learning appropriate dog social behavior from each other. In the wild, dominant body language is most frequently used to avoid fights, since it is contrary to pack survival for dogs to go around routinely injuring each other. Most dominance moves – snarls, raised hackles, chin over shoulders – are bluffs, designed to intimidate the opponent into bloodless submission. Occasionally, a brief scuffle may ensue, rarely causing serious injury. Thus dominance in wild packs is usually settled and maintained with relative non-violence. Owners of domestic dogs tend to be phobic of any display of aggression between dogs. Because of the perceived risk of serious injury to the participants, owners don’t let dogs “fight it out” in an uncontrolled setting, so most dogs never experience the natural consequences of their aggressive behavior. Therefore, minor, normal and usually harmless scuffles are often treated as major crises. The dogs are yanked apart and punished mightily. As a result, not only do the dogs not learn how to settle their squabbles peacefully, their levels of stress and aggression actually escalate and they become more aggressive around other dogs. It becomes, literally, a vicious cycle.

In a Growl Class, dogs can be allowed to interact to the point of learning those consequences – with an important difference: they wear soft but strong muzzles. In this controlled setting, dogs safely get past their initial burst of aggression so they can get to the part where they learn to relate appropriately.

It’s critical that dogs and owners enrolled in these classes are pre-evaluated by the trainer. Classes are then custom designed to meet the needs of the students. Protections are put in place so that big bullies are prevented from trouncing the timid dog who bites in self-defense. Where appropriate, owners can be shown some of the exercises ahead of time so their dogs get extra practice. A bully might need to spend more time practicing his “Off” exercise, while a very nervous dog might get extra homework assignments in “Relaxation Techniques.”

By the end of the course, some dogs can be fully integrated into their local canine community. Others can be given supervised freedom in a designated “play group.” Still others will never be trustworthy for off-leash play, but will be under much better control and far safer on-leash than previously.

The best results will be enjoyed by highly motivated owners who enjoy close bonds with their dogs. Dogs who are responsive and connected to their owners and who are easily motivated by food, praise or other rewards are most likely to benefit from this type of class. Independent dogs who are oblivious to their owners’ presence and behavior requests are more likely to fail.

A Typical Difficult Dog Class

The mix of people and dog personalities (and mixed results) displayed in one of my recent Growl Classes was fairly typical. I offered the class in Santa Cruz, California, late last summer, and after fielding lots of inquiries from owners of dog-aggressive dogs, I selected four to participate: Beau, an eight-year-old neutered male Rottweiler mix; Kito, a three-year-old neutered male Akita; Jessie, a four-year-old spayed female Australian Cattle Dog mix, and Schmaal, an eight-year-old spayed female Saluki.

These selections were made on the basis of my careful pre-evaluations of each potential member of the class. Jessie was an overachieving, slightly fearful herding dog who was strongly driven to protect her owner from the mere presence of other dogs. Schmaal was a graceful, athletic sighthound, who routinely responded to other dogs with aggression, though the stress of a training class made her act aloof, almost to the point of catatonia. Her stress level was so high in class, in fact, that getting her to eat treats was a major accomplishment.

Kito the Akita was previously abused and had been attacked by dogs before; he seemed to go on the defensive with other dogs due to apprehension about being attacked. In general, it seemed he had a lot of issues to sort out. Beau, however, was my greatest concern. He had been attacking dogs all of his life, enjoyed being a bully (all 120 pounds of him), and was on a restricted diet due to problems with his digestive system. He had also previously been through punishment-based training to try to control his aggression.

Food is an important part of a successful Growl Class. Instructors use positive methods to reduce the dogs’ stress and to teach them that having other dogs around is a “good” thing. This cannot be accomplished with punishment, only with reinforcement and reward. Since food is a primary reinforcer that can be delivered quickly and easily, its use is critical in getting a dog to think positively about a stimulus (in this case, the presence of other dogs) that has previously been perceived as a negative.

In this particular class, the use of food as a reward was problematic for two of the dogs (Beau had digestive problems, and Schmaal was too stressed to eat). I warned the owners in the class that this would present us with additional challenges.

Growl Class Session 1

I do not allow the dogs to interact in the first session of a Growl Class; we practice exercises and assign homework so that the dogs are more responsive to their owners before the first interaction in Class #2. We start out with students and their dogs spread out around the training area – with as much distance between them as is possible. People and dogs are seated on blankets or rugs on the ground.

I start the first class with an in-depth discussion of dog behavior, aggression, and canine body language. Each owner describes his dog’s history of aggression, and the kind of behavior he anticipates from his dog in the class setting. We analyze the body language that each of the dogs displays, discuss its likely meaning, and make predictions about the dogs’ behaviors during their interaction to come. It is important from the very beginning of the first class that owners begin to develop their skills in reading dog body language so they know when and how to intervene appropriately.

Next, I invite discussion from the owners regarding their feelings about their dogs and about the class. It is normal for owners to be apprehensive. I explain that we wouldn’t let the dogs hurt each other, and that one goal of the class is to allow dogs to interact safely so that they can learn appropriate body language and social behavior around each other.

Then, we began to work with the dogs. Unlike my regular classes, where I am upbeat, speak cheerfully, and move quickly, Growl Classes are almost like meditation sessions. The first exercise is intended to lower the stress levels of dogs and owners by doing relaxation exercises – massage on a rug or blanket for the dogs, with deep breathing for the owners.

Next, dogs and owners learn an “Off” exercise (see link below for all exercises), which means that if they give a “hard glare” to another dog they are asked to “Off” and are given a Click! and treat when they look away from the other dog. They can also get clicks and treats for “soft” glances (and tail wags!) at other dogs, and lots of clicks and treats for paying attention to their owners. The purpose of this is to teach them that the presence of other dogs is a good thing – they get lots of treats when other dogs are around.

As I had anticipated, Beau had the most difficulty with this critically important exercise. Not only was he very committed to the hard stare that signals the pre-launch phase of an all-out attack, but the treats his owners used – his regular dinner kibble – were not nearly attractive enough to distract him from his seek-and-destroy missions. We finally began to have some success with Beau in Week #4, when I started rubbing meaty treats on my hands and letting him lick the flavor off as his reward.

Another exercise taught in the first class is the “Gotcha!,” a positive cue (with treat reward) for a grab on a dog’s collar, which becomes necessary when we need to intervene in a scuffle.

Next, we practiced fitting muzzles on the dogs, and did a little calm, one-at-a-time leash walking around the training area, while owners practiced their tone of voice (calm and upbeat, not panicked or commanding) for use with the “Off” cue. We ended with more relaxation and discussed how everyone felt about the class so far. I instructed dog and owner pairs to leave calmly, one at a time, to avoid confrontations at the door.

Growl Class Session 2

I start and end every class from the second week forward with the relaxation exercises learned in the first class. My group of four responded well to these exercises, and we got settled quickly. Then I had the owners put the muzzles on and do some calm on-leash walking/attention exercises. At first, I had three dogs sitting and just one walking, while getting lots of positive reinforcement from her owner for calm behavior as she passed the other dogs. Then we did “pass-bys,” where two dogs pass each other walking on leash, again with lots of treats for good behavior. The challenges of Beau’s and Schmaal’s food restrictions became apparent early in this exercise.

After the relaxation and leash exercises, we conducted the first off-leash interaction. I checked each of the dogs’ muzzles for comfort and secure fit, while we discussed the rules. I explained that I would tell the owners when to release their dogs, and that they should simply stand back out of the way. Confrontations between the dogs would be likely, but the muzzles would prevent injury.

The first off-leash interaction was a high anxiety time, for me and the owners. I felt my adrenaline build, and disciplined myself to keep my voice and body language calm. “If there is a problem,” I cautioned my students, “let me handle it. If I need help I will ask for it. We all took several deep breaths, and then I told them to release their dogs.

First (Muzzled) Dog-Dog Interaction

Surprisingly, little Jessie was the first aggressor. She flew out from behind her owner at Schmaal, who wandered by too closely. This started a free-for-all, with the most intense aggression, as expected, between Beau and Kito. Jessie and Schmaal disengaged fairly quickly, while Beau and Kito trounced each other for several minutes before calling a truce.

We all breathed a sigh of relief. The dogs wandered around the training area, glaring but not attacking. We then called the dogs, rewarded them, put their leashes back on and removed the muzzles, and settled down for more relaxation and debriefing. Yes, it was scary, but it was a relief to see that the muzzles worked, and that the fighters stopped quickly, and of their own accord.

However, I explained that in the next class, we would not allow the fighting to continue to its own conclusion. We would use our “Off” interrupter to try to intervene pre-launch (with a big click and reward if the dogs succeeded), and our “Gotcha” to intervene post-launch if necessary. I instructed the owners to practice “Off” and “Gotcha” for at least 20 minutes per day, so that, hopefully, the dogs would attain a high level of responsiveness by the next class.

Growl Class Session 3

In the third week, Jessie’s owner reported that Jessie was making great progress. She was passing other dogs on the street without giving them the evil eye, and was responding nicely to “Off” and rewards. Schmaal, also, was doing surprisingly well. Although she still disdained treats in class, she would eat them out in the “real world.” However, I had concerns about Beau and Kito. Even during relaxation exercises Beau glowered at Kito from the opposite corner of the room. Despite my pleas to Beau’s owners to find some other kind of high value treat, they still fed him only kibble.

We warmed up with by-passes; Jessie and Schmaal got to do theirs without muzzles. Then, with all four muzzles on, we tried for some controlled interaction. The dogs were released. Beau and Kito launched for each other; Jessie and Schmaal wanted to join in but responded to their owners when called back. Lots of rewards for that!!! Meanwhile the two big bruisers seriously went at it. We looked for an opportunity to intervene with an “Off” and a “Gotcha” and retired to our relaxation rugs.

Next, we gave Jessie and Schmaal an opportunity to interact together without the boys. Muzzles on, there was only a brief threat from Jessie that was over almost before it began.

Growl Classes 4 and 5

Kito didn’t show up for the next class. Since they hadn’t called me, I couldn’t know if it was because his owners were discouraged or if it was due to an unrelated scheduling conflict, but it was disheartening, and it put a crimp in our program. We did our basic exercises with the three remaining dogs, and tried an off-leash interaction with all the dogs muzzled. Beau behaved well with just the girls present. I showed his owners how to rub meat flavoring on their hands and the kibble treats, to get Beau more engaged in the reward process. It seemed to work for the wife, who learned to combine the treat reward with upbeat verbal praise. Beau still ignored the husband’s boring treats and monotone voice, however.

This session went so well that after the three-dog interaction we put Beau back on his relaxation rug, and removed Jessie and Schmaal’s muzzles. With calm, relaxed off-leash walking, owners nearby, both dogs did beautifully. Jessie was aware of the other dog but she stayed under control; Schmaal just pretended Jessie wasn’t there. We all agreed that Beau was not ready for off-leash interaction without his muzzle.

Kito returned for the fifth class, which seemed to renew the animosity between the two big males. Beau would not respond to his “Off” and “Gotcha” exercises, and the off-leash interaction between the two was not productive; Beau simply wanted to bully Kito unmercifully. We tried removing Kito from the training area to repeat the previous week’s success with Beau and the two girls, but he was too aroused from his interaction with Kito, and jumped on Jessie. For the two boys, the focus for the rest of the classes was on “on-leash” behaviors.

Jessie and Schmaal continued to progress with off-leash and off-muzzle work. Jessie’s owner became adept at reading Jessie’s body language and pre-empting any kind of scuffle with the “Off” cue.

The Final Difficult Dog Class

Kito’s owners called me to say that they had enjoyed the class and felt Kito benefited, but they wouldn’t be attending the last session due to scheduling conflicts. I was disappointed – I thought Kito had much more potential than he was allowed to develop.

As the rest of us began our last class with relaxation exercises, we talked about our goals and how we felt the dogs had done throughout the class. We agreed that Jessie was the star of the class. She was just the right type of dog to benefit the most from a Difficult Dog class – bonded to her owner, food motivated, responsive, and committed to doing her job. She just needed to have her job description rewritten slightly. Her owner, Melanie, reported that while Jessie was not yet 100 percent reliable around other dogs she was much improved. Melanie is confident in her own awareness of canine body language as well as her improved control over her dog to take Jessie places and give her considerably more freedom than she would have in the past.

Stephanie, Schmaal’s owner, was pleased with her progress. While she was nowhere near ready to turn Schmaal loose on the beach with a pack of dogs, she was much more confident in her ability to get Schmaal to respond to her when necessary.

Beau was my biggest disappointment. At Week 6 he was still looking for someone to bully. His eight-year history of dog aggression, along with his owners’ failure to find a suitably enticing reward, proved to be insurmountable obstacles. While he was marginally better behaved on leash around other dogs, and did respond to the relaxation exercises, Beau still had a long way to go.

Growl Classes will continue to be one of my training offerings; there is a crying need to help dogs remember how to be part of a pack. The shame of dog-aggressive breeds, poorly socialized pups, and dogs encouraged or allowed to be aggressive with each other, is our failure. This is a species designed to live and work together in relative harmony, and we have botched the plan. But for many dogs it is not too late. If you have a dog who wants to eat other dogs for breakfast, find your nearest positive reinforcement trainer (who will use treats, praise and other rewards rather than choke or pinch collars) and ask for assistance. If you’re lucky, she may start a Growl Class soon.

Click here to view the dog exercises.

Pat Miller, a freelance writer and dog trainer, is a frequent contributor to WDJ.

Best Nail Clippers For Your Dog

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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It’s really a safe and simple procedure; one that most dog owners can easily learn to perform on their dogs. I have done it to my own dogs since I was a little kid. So it never ceases to amaze me when I ask my training classes how many owners clip their own dogs’ toenails and an average of only one out of eight raise their hands. That means the other seven either neglect this important procedure, or spend hundreds of dollars over a dog’s lifetime to pay someone else to do it.

Because young dogs often wear their nails down naturally by running on hard rough surfaces, we tend to overlook the importance of teaching them to accept nail trimming. Then, when the dog ages, slows down, and needs help with those nails, the procedure is seriously traumatic. Shelter workers and veterinarians tell horror stories of elderly dogs unable to walk because their nails have curled around and grown through their pads.

It is vitally important to teach your dog to accept nail trimming as part of his regular grooming routine. If you start with a puppy or a young dog, wait until she is resting quietly on the floor after a play session, gently clip off the tip end of one or two nails, feed her tasty treats and tell her what a great dog she is, she will grow up thinking that nail trimming is a wonderful thing.

There are several common mistakes that dog owners make when trimming nails. The first is clipping a nail too short (or “quicking” the dog) which causes pain and bleeding and immediately teaches the dog that nail trimming is not fun. This happened to a young puppy of mine, and it took more than a year of desensitization to convince him to accept his pedicure calmly again.

The second major mistake is trying to trim all the dog’s nails in one session. This is fine once the dog learns that nail trimming is a positive thing, but until then, physically restraining a flailing, panicking pooch while insisting that every nail is clipped only makes matters worse. Take the time to do nails one or two at a time, using treats and games to make it fun.

Finally, using poor equipment can make the even most accommodating dog fear nail trimming. Dull blades, tools with only poor visibility (and thus, encourage quicking), and awkward clipper construction can turn nail trimming sessions into nightmares.

To help you with equipment choices, WDJ tested four different nail trimmers on four relatively willing subjects who were accustomed to having their nails “done.”

WDJ Approves

White Nail Scissors
(4-1/2” for small animals)
J-B Wholesale Pet Supplies, Inc.
Oakland, NJ; (800) 526-0388
$5.95

These scissors were advertised for use with small to medium breeds, and our “WDJ Approves” rating applies to small dogs only.

These scissors are made of nickel-plated steel. They appear solid and well-made and are affordably priced. They work just like a pair of scissors. But while they clipped my eight-pound Pomeranian’s nails easily, they required more force than I liked to cut through the nails of my 25-pound terrier mix.

I like the solid construction and simplicity of these scissors, but their application would be limited to cats and very small dogs. I was also disappointed that the packaging the scissors came in was a plain plastic sleeve with no instructions for use. If your dog is 15 pounds or less, you could give these a try. For anything larger than a Lhasa, keep reading.

Not Recommended

Vista Dog Nail Clipper
(with Safety Stop)
J-B Wholesale Pet Supplies, Inc.
Oakland, NJ, (800) 526-0388
$7.95

I purchased the medium size clipper, and found it perfectly capable of cutting the nails of my 75-pound Australian cattle dog mix. While advertised as having “heavy steel blades,” the clippers did not appear as well constructed as the previously described nail scissors – in fact the plastic handles appear downright cheap; I doubt they would stand up to heavy use. The instructions on the back of the package are well-illustrated, clear, and easy to understand, and include that all-important warning: “Avoid cutting off too much at one time.” The safety stop is an interesting feature, and may inspire confidence in the nervous, first-time owner/clipper, but would just get in the way for a more experienced nail trimmer. (Fortunately, it can be removed.)

My biggest complaint about these clippers is that the blades don’t line up tightly against each other, so they tend to leave ragged edges on the clipped nail. I suggest you skip this one; there are better clippers available at better prices.

WDJ’s Top Pick

Resco Guillotine Nail Clippers
J-B Wholesale Pet Supplies, Inc.
Oakland, NJ, (800) 526-0388
$5.85

These are the old stand-by nail clippers that many owners are familiar with. The ominous “guillotine” name comes from the fact that the dog’s nail is inserted through an opening and the blade slices down to chop it off. Without a “safety stop,” the owner must control how much of the nail is inserted through the hole (not an easy task with a wiggling dog). And, as the package instructs, it’s important to slice off only a small amount at a time in order to avoid quicking the dog.

This has long been my favorite nail-trimming tool. It gives a better view of how much nail I am cutting than does the scissors-style clippers. The tool fits solidly in the hand and is easy to grasp and hold. The price is right. The snug blade fit allows for a clean cut. And, best of all, the blades are replaceable. When you start to find ragged edges on your dog’s newly trimmed nails, it’s time for a new blade.

WDJ’s Top Pick

OSTER Electric Nail Grinder
J-B Wholesale Pet Supplies, Inc.
Oakland, NJ, (800) 526-0388
$54.65

This is the tool for the connoisseur of nail trimmers. It is routinely used in the dog-show world to achieve the nub-short nails in vogue for the show ring. It is available in electric and cordless models, and works like a charm, effortlessly grinding away unwanted nail material. Effortlessly, that is, if your dog will allow you anywhere near with the grinder turned on!

Two of my four test dogs tolerated the tool with some initial resistance that was overcome by the liberal use of liver treats. Both dogs were tense about the procedure, and it would take additional desensitization to get them as relaxed about this tool as they are with guillotine clippers. The results of the trim were beautiful – short, rounded nails – shorter than I had ever been able to trim them with the guillotine clippers.

However, my other two test dogs wanted nothing to do with the noisy, vibrating machine. They would stay close for liver bribes when the machine was turned on, but feeling the vibrations against their nails was more than either could tolerate. For these two, a serious desensitization program would have to be implemented before we could successfully grind their nails.

If you are planning to show your dog in the breed ring, the Oster Nail Grinder is a must. Be prepared to spend a considerable amount of time desensitizing your dog to get him or her to accept it. But if you are the average dog owner who just wants to keep your dog’s nails in reasonable shape, the Oster Nail Grinder may be more tool than you will ever need.

One last caution. Don’t count on the package instructions to help you put the Grinder together. After a good bit of struggling, I finally took it to my husband. In typical male fashion he ignored the instructions and managed to put the grinder together by pushing and prodding until the right parts were in the right places.

Spring Into Better Health

By
Mardi Richmond, CPDT-KA
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Smedly is one lucky dog. He gets a minimum of a half-hour of hard exercise every day. On many days, he gets a lot more. Long hikes in the woods, runs on the beach, swimming, and chasing tennis balls are all part of his regular routine. In addition, Smedly trains for agility a couple of times a week. For some of us, this may seem like a lot of exercise. But for a healthy, fit, two-year-old Border Collie mix like Smedly, a high level of exercise is a necessity.

“If he doesn’t get enough exercise, he doesn’t relax at home,” says Betsy Jones, who shares her life with Smedly. From the day she brought him home from the shelter as a six-week-old puppy, he’s needed a lot of exercise. And, if he doesn’t get it, they both suffer. “He becomes hyper-vigilant about every sound and movement outside the window. He bothers the cat, too.”

In fact, when dogs don’t get enough exercise, they are much more likely to bark at the neighbors, chew on things they shouldn’t, dig holes in the garden and generally get into trouble. Dogs who are in good shape and getting plenty of exercise tend to act out less. You’ve probably seen it with your dog. Simply giving your dog enough exercise can dramatically reduce problem behaviors and make life a whole lot more enjoyable.

But the behavioral benefits of exercise are only the beginning. Regular exercise can also help your dog live a healthier life. Just like with people, walking, running, swimming and other physical activities can strengthen a dog’s heart and lungs and help ward off serious diseases. Regular exercise strengthens bones and muscles, too. Because stronger muscles can help stabilize joints, exercise may even slow the progression of degenerative joint diseases such as hip dysplasia and arthritis.

Plus, exercise can keep your dog from putting on extra pounds – or help them take it off if they are already on the chubby side. “Being lean is the key to good health in dogs,” says Dr. Kerrin Hoban, a veterinarian who practices in Santa Cruz, California. “And being fit can help dogs stay lean.”

How much is enough?
Not every dog will need the kind of exercise that Jones gives Smedly. Some dogs will need less – some only need a little. Part of your job as your dog’s caretaker and coach is to determine how much is just right.

Size and body type play an important part in how much exercise is right. Small, short-legged dogs may be able to get by on a half-mile walk a day whereas a medium-sized, long legged dog might enjoy several-mile runs each day.

“Mooch, who is a cross between Benji and Toto, weighs 17 pounds and has 4-inch legs. She only needs about a half hour walk a day,” says Cynthia Landis, who lives in Los Angeles, California with her two mixed breed dogs. She compares Mooch’s needs to her young dog Rudy, a seven-month-old Retriever-Shepherd mix. “Ideally, Rudy needs at least an hour walk plus a couple of ball sessions every day.”

Age can also affect your dog’s needs for activity. Puppies younger than six months need only moderate exercise; people need to take care to avoid over-exercising pups. Until a dog is about two years old, it’s also a good idea to avoid very strenuous, repetitive, or jarring exercises that may impact their bone and joint development. Older dogs (it depends on the breed or mix, but dogs over seven years of age are generally considered “older”) may also have special needs. Older dogs generally thrive on regular exercise, but you may need to decrease the amount or intensity.

Just as important as size, body type and age, is the lifestyle we expect our dogs to live. For some, having your dog in shape will simply mean the bare minimum to keep him or her in good health. You may be able to help your dog achieve physical fitness goals through daily walks or other casual activities. Others may enjoy sharing more strenuous activities such as hiking or biking. Still others may train for competitive sports such as agility or Frisbee or have working dogs whose jobs may require extreme fitness (search and rescue dogs, for example). Your dog’s workout routine may need to be specifically designed to support your and your dog’s lifestyle as well as his overall health.

A word of caution: If you expect your dog to share strenuous activities such as grueling hikes or agility, daily exercise becomes even more important. Avoid the weekend warrior syndrome. Dogs (and people too!) who engage in sports or other strenuous activities sporadically are at a much greater risk for serious injuries than those who workout regularly.

Talk to your vet
It is always a good idea to check with your veterinarian before you start a conditioning or exercise program. Ask your veterinarian to assess your dog’s heart, respiratory system, muscular and skeletal condition, and general health. This is an especially good idea if your dog is overweight or has medical conditions that may affect exercise needs.

Overweight dogs, for example, are at higher risk of orthopedic problems and shouldn’t do too much running that involves quick turns until they have slimmed down. Your veterinarian can help you decide how much weight your dog needs to lose and how to best lose that weight, including suggestions for changing your dog’s diet and exercise.

“I have people start with walking until the dog is at a normal weight,” says Dr. Hoban. “Once the dog is at a normal weight, then you can increase the exercise.”

You may also want to ask your veterinarian for suggestions on diet if your dog is engaging in a more strenuous conditioning program. Dogs who are training for endurance sports like sled racing or long backpacking excursions may need to eat a higher-energy or higher-fat diet.

If your dog has joint problems or arthritis, your veterinarian can give you advice on how much and what type of exercise will be best. For most dogs with arthritis, for example, regular exercise of moderate intensity is recommended. But, you should stop the exercise at the first sign of fatigue (slowing down, panting, toe scuffing) to avoid aggravating the condition.

Choose activities you enjoy
Many of us have tried the old drudgery exercise routine in our lives. You know, signing up at a gym, going for the first week, then never going again. How can you make it different now for you and your dog?

There is little doubt that most of our dogs love some type of exercise – walking, running, chasing balls or romping with other dogs. The secret is making it fun for you both. The more fun you have, the more likely you are to stick with it. Doing a variety of different activities will make it all the more fun for you and your dog. Plus, by doing a variety of activities, you’ll have the added benefit of canine cross training!

Warm up, cool down, have fun
Just what activities are good for turning your couch puppy into a canine athlete? The following are just a few suggestions to get you started. But before going all-out with any of the exercises described below – or any other strenuous activity – help your dog warm up and cool down. Just like with people, warming up the muscles will help prevent injury. You can have your dog warm up as a natural part of the activity. For example, take it slowly on the first 5 to 10 minutes of your walk or jog, and go slowly again at the end for a cool down.

You may also want to have your dog do specific movements after he or she is warmed up to stretch the muscles. Play bows and figure eight weaves between your legs are good ways to get your dog to gently stretch and twist. And, after a hard workout, a massage can help your dog loosen up and ease sore muscles. (See “Pre- and Post-Sports Massage,” WDJ August 2000 for more information on canine massage.)

Walking and Hiking
This is the all-time favorite pastime for most of us with dogs. It’s easy, cheap and requires only a good pair of shoes, a leash and a pooper-scooper or plastic bags. You can take neighborhood walks or head for local hiking trails. When you walk for exercise, keep up a good pace, slowly increase the length of the walks and head for increasingly hilly terrain. Have fun exploring new places.

Jogging
Dogs make great jogging companions and jogging is a quick and efficient exercise. It’s a good way for both you and your dog to get a good workout – especially if you have limited time. Be careful, however, not to jog long distances with your dog on sidewalks and streets. Choose to run through parks or other areas with more forgiving surfaces such as dirt or grass. Running on hard surfaces makes dogs more susceptible to strain on their joints and bones; remember, they don’t have the added protection offered by a pair of good running shoes.

Swimming
Swimming is great exercise for dogs. It is especially good for dogs with joint problems or arthritis because swimming builds endurance and strength without stressing joints. If you have access to a pool, lake, or pond that is safe for swimming, and if your dog likes water, you’re set. Retrieving a ball or bumper will make it all the more fun.

Make sure the water is flat or slow moving, is free of underwater hidden obstacles, and is warm enough for safe swimming (if the water is cold enough that it would be unthinkable for you to swim in the water, it’s probably too cold for your dog to swim, too). Please note: Dogs can easily overdo swimming. Use caution and know your dog’s limits. (See “In the Swim,” WDJ August 2000, for tips on safe swimming and information on positive swim training.)

Retrieving
Does your dog like to play retrieving games? Tossing a tennis ball or Frisbee for your dog can keep him running with little effort on your part. It’s a great exercise for busy days when you don’t have quite enough time for a long outing or if you have physical limitations that make it hard to take long walks. For a variation that gets your dog running but saves your arm, use a tennis or racquetball racket to hit the ball. Keeping the ball or Frisbee low will help reduce the risks associated with jumping high in the air or twisting for the catch.

Agility, Flyball and Flygility
These are just a few of the many dog sports you and your dog can play for fun and exercise. Agility is a sport where you direct your dog through a timed obstacle course of jumps, tunnels, and climbing structures. In flyball, a team of four dogs runs a relay race. Each dog goes over a series of hurdles, steps on a spring-loaded box, catches the ball that is shot from the box, and then runs back over the hurdles. Flygility is a newer sport that combines elements of both agility and flyball. The great advantage of sports like agility or flyball is that they combine exercise, training and play all into one. These sports can be played for fun or competition and are a great way for you to get to know other dogs and their people.

Canine Musical Freestyle
If canine sports don’t strike your fancy, how about dancing with your dog? Musical Freestyle is both great exercise and great fun. People and dogs work out a choreographed dance routine that includes elements of obedience and trick training. Music, dogs, dance. What more could you want?

Hide and Seek and Other Indoor Games
Don’t let bad weather cancel your dog’s exercise! Teaching your dog to search for hidden objects is a great game that can be played indoors or wet or snowy days. The basic idea is to hide your dog’s favorite toy and have him find it. When your dog is first learning the game, you can hide it with your dog watching. Then, slowly increase the difficulty until you hide it in another room and send your dog to find it.

For dogs that aren’t into toys, you can hide a bone or stuffed Kong. Or, try hiding yourself. Leave your dog on a stay in one room and hide in another. Then call, “Come find me.” The more excited you are when your dog finds you, the better he or she will like the game.

Uncountable benefits
Exercising is good for your dog. Dogs who exercise are better behaved, easier to live with and overall healthier. Plus, providing your dog with opportunities to exercise is a great way to spend time together.

“Hiking in the woods on rugged trails swimming in the lake, chasing sticks on the beach – with dogs, it’s all about playing,” says Jones about her time exercising with Smedly. “We can really learn a lot from our dogs. They make play out of their work. Smedly reminds me to play and gives me a partner in play. And playing together makes us better friends.”

-By Mardi Richmond

 

One Lucky Puppy

By
Nancy Kerns
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When our grandparents (or perhaps great-grandparents) were children, it was not uncommon for people to have big families – say, eight or 10 or more kids – but to have only a few survive due to childhood diseases, a lack of modern medical care, and, sometimes, poor nutrition.

This is a story of Dusty, a dog with just such a background; he is the sole survivor from a litter of 11 puppies. But despite being born in modern times, superior medical care and technology failed to save Dusty’s siblings. Sometimes, Dusty’s story shows us, it takes luck (what our grandparents had), advanced medical care (what most of us have access to today), AND non-traditional care and treatments to cure what ails us.

A bad start
By the time Dusty’s mother, Karma, had delivered her first three puppies, 2 a.m. had come and gone. A fourth puppy seemed to be stuck in the birth canal, and it was evident from Karma’s belly that more pups were waiting for their turn to enter the world. Gretchen Shelby, Karma’s owner, found herself calling her veterinarian and rushing the distressed dog and her puppies to an emergency veterinary clinic.

Unfortunately, even with the best efforts of the attending veterinarian, Karma died on the surgery table. She was just under two years old. The veterinarian completed the emergency cesarean section and delivered another seven puppies for a total of 11.

Shelby, a long-time dog breeder and exhibitor, knew what would be required to save the puppies. She called a number of breeders she knew and found a foster mother to nurse the puppies, and bought some milk replacer, in case the foster mother could not supply the amount needed by he large brood. She also divided her family members into teams to “baby-sit” in the nursery for the first few days.

All went well for about a week, when two pups abruptly quit eating and started crying frequently. Shelby’s veterinarian administered fluids, and the puppies improved immediately, but then, just as quickly, went on a downhill slide. After 48 hours of crying, vomiting, difficult excretion, and repeated visits to the veterinarian, the two pups died within an hour of each other. Within days, two more started behaving in the same manner, and then several more. At two weeks of age, only four puppies from the litter, Dusty included, still survived.

Shelby spent her days on the phone, asking everyone she knew for advice. One dog show acquaintance and fellow Basset breeder, Marina Zacharias, gave her a homeopathic preparation called “Fading Puppy Remedy.” Though she had no experience with using any kind of non-traditional treatments, Shelby administered the remedy to the remaining pups. It didn’t miraculously cure the puppies, but on the other hand, none of the four got any worse in that time period. It was something to think about.

Referral to a specialist
Unfortunately, there was a lot to think about. Shelby’s regular veterinarian was mystified by the puppies’ condition. He directed Shelby to a clinic equipped with more diagnostic and laboratory equipment. She duly drove the puppies and the foster mother to Portland, to see Dr. Robert Franklin at the Veterinary Referral Clinic.

Dr. Franklin surmised that, while pregnant, poor Karma had acquired a bacterial infection that contributed to her demise, and that was evidenced in the pups.

“Tissues of a developing fetus are susceptible to an infection process in utero, a process that can sometimes lead to compromised organ function in the offspring postpartum,” Dr. Franklin explains. Lab tests brought to light further challenges: the puppies’ adrenal function was zip, and the puppies’ kidneys were barely functioning.

Aggressive conventional medical intervention seemed to save the day. Franklin administered prednisone, fluids, and other medications to the puppies, and instructed Shelby in the art of administering fluids via IV catheter. He sent the puppies home in a car piled high with supplies for at-home treatment. Given a diagnosis explaining the tragedies thus far, all concerned were optimistic about the puppies’ future.

Three weeks later, the pups were all flourishing. Follow-up blood tests showed the puppies’ kidney function to be normal, but Shelby was warned to remain cautious, as any or all of the pups could still show up kidney compromised later.

At 12 weeks, with yet another blood test confirming proper kidney function, Shelby placed two of the puppies (the two with the best results on their blood tests) with families, keeping the two with the lesser kidney function values. The families knew their puppies’ medical histories, and agreed to re-test each pup at six months of age.

Another death
At seven months, another death struck Karma’s babies. “Moses,” one of the puppies that Shelby had given to a family died shortly after his family returned from an extended vacation, despite last-minute medical intervention. Shelby was frustrated, because it seemed that if the family had responded more quickly to the young dog’s symptoms (increased urination, increased thirst, decreased appetite and lethargy), a veterinarian could have saved him.

Moses’ death by what was surely kidney failure galvanized Shelby, who ordered blood tests for the three remaining offspring. Sadly, all three showed definite kidney damage. Conventional veterinary wisdom held that until a crisis occurred, the owners could do nothing for the dogs other than feed a prescription kidney diet.

Shelby put everything that Dr. Franklin suggested into practice, but she was frustrated, feeling that perhaps she could be doing more. She decided to seek further help from her friend Zacharias, who had come forward with the “Fading Puppy” remedy. Since Dusty had the worst blood values of the three puppies, Shelby decided to use him as a sort of guinea pig to test the potential benefits of holistic medicine. She followed all the veterinarian’s suggestions for Promise, including putting the female puppy on Hills’ K/D (kidney diet), and let Zacharias make the decisions for Dusty’s care.

A “holistic” experiment
Zacharias, a certified homotoxicologist and NAET practitioner from Jacksonville, Oregon, suggested that Dusty be put on an aggressive holistic regimen that included an advanced “kidney” diet.

“It’s not just the amount of protein that could be harmful to a kidney compromised animal, but the quality, too,” comments Zacharias. “Commercial foods often contain inferior protein sources, so you should really check out what ingredients are actually contained in the food you buy.”

This approach was endorsed by Dr. Franklin, who concurs that “Nutrition is key in animal health, and especially in those functionally compromised. Homemade diets to accommodate kidney dysfunction can be beneficial.”

Zacharias based Dusty’s diet on a quality dry senior food diet low in protein (“Nature’s Recipe Senior”), generously augmented with fresh, wholesome foods. She would have preferred for Shelby to feed a completely homemade diet, but, being new to holistic care and lacking proof that all the fuss would pay off, Shelby was not quite ready for that kind of involvement. Dusty also received several glandular supplements to lend specific support to the kidneys, adrenal, gonad, and pituitary functions, and a liver supplement, since, as Zacharias says, “You really have to think of the liver when you’re considering support for the kidneys.” Homeopathic remedies, also played a role. “We give our kidney cases some specialty homeopathics from Germany that are a crucial part in achieving success in kidney failure cases,” says Zacharias.

At about this time, with the onset of winter, “Cupcake,” the other puppy that Shelby had given away, began to decline. Despite veterinary intervention, her kidneys began to fail, and her family had her put to sleep.

A few months later, despite Promise’s initially better condition, she began to decline. Tests confirmed that her kidneys were failing. Since Dusty was still doing well, Shelby began giving Promise all the supplements that Dusty was receiving. Dr. Franklin changed her diet, and added other supplements, which seemed to buy her a little time. However, she, too, eventually died, at just a year and a half old.

Devotion to Dusty
Promise’s death underscored the importance of Dusty’s top-quality diet and supplements, as well as the effectiveness of the holistic approach. Shelby had Dusty’s blood tested every three months, and every panel indicated his kidneys were functioning well.

As time went by and Dusty seemed to maintain good health, Shelby began showing the handsome Basset. She kept a close eye on his every symptom for fear that the stress of training and showing might upset his system. But Dusty continued to thrive as he worked steadily toward his AKC championship.

Today, at three and a half years old, Dusty is an AKC Champion – and a father! He’s begun a career at stud, and Shelby was thrilled to see his first progeny looking just like him.

Shelby has enjoyed several victories with her favorite dog, including a large specialty Best Puppy in Sweepstakes, Winner’s Dog, and Best of Winners at the Basset Hound Club of America’s Western Regional Specialty Show. She is also a strong believer in using the best of non-traditional therapies in conjunction with traditional veterinary medicine. The approach takes lots of extra time and trouble, she says, but it’s worth it.

“I will never gripe about the number of pills and treatments I’ve given Dusty. It’s all been worth it! Each day is a gift I cherish with this loving dog,” she says.

-By Susan Eskew

Writer Susan Eskew, of Crested Butte, Colorado, is a frequent contributor to WDJ.

Marina Zacharias can be reached in Jacksonville, Oregon at (541) 899-2080.

No Miracle Products

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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No pull dog harnesses are useful, but not a replacement for training.

It’s a never-ending quest – like looking for the Holy Grail – the search for the perfect piece of humane equipment that will teach your dog not to pull on the leash. Here’s a tip: it doesn’t exist.

Any piece of equipment is merely a tool that opens a training window for you. To use it correctly, you must take advantage of that open window to reinforce the behavior that the tool encourages the dog to offer. If you fail to consistently reward the desired behavior when it happens, the tool becomes a crutch that you rely on to make the behavior happen. In worst case scenarios, the dog learns to ignore the tool and reverts to his former behavior even with it on.

What you want, instead, is for the dog to learn the desired behavior – not pulling – so you can wean him off the tool and still have him offer the desired behavior, independent of the presence of the piece of equipment.

This is not a new phenomenon, or one specific to positive training. Many dog owners who train with compulsion methods are dismayed to realize that some dogs quickly learn that they only have to respond when the choke chain (or prong collar, or shock collar) is on. Other dogs learn to lean into a choke chain or prong collar and ignore the pressure or pain that it applies to their necks, just as some dogs learn to lean into a head halter or no-pull harness.

That doesn’t mean those tools are worthless. It means that you must disregard the claims on the label and it means that you will have to actually train your dog – not rely on the equipment you use to do the job for you.

That said, let’s take a look at two of the many types of products currently on the market that claim to make your dog stop pulling on the leash.

No-pull harnesses
No-pull harnesses work on the principle of negative reinforcement, that is, the dog’s behavior makes a bad thing (varying from mild discomfort to a painful pinching) go away.

All three of the no-pull harnesses we found in catalogs and stores fit around the neck and chest or legs of the dog. When the dog pulls, the harnesses tighten around the dog’s chest or legs. This causes discomfort to the dog, depending on how hard he pulls and his individual sensitivity level, or the dog may simply react to the novelty of the sensation of pressure. When the dog stops pulling, the “bad thing” – the pressure – goes away.

If, at that moment, you Click! and reward the dog for being on a loose leash, you will mark and reinforce the desired behavior. If you then continue to Click! and reward him for keeping the leash loose, you will use the no-pull harness as it should be used – as a training tool.

But if you wait until he is leaning into the harness again, and rely on the equipment to stop him from pulling every time, you are using it as a crutch. In this case, it’s unlikely that he will ever learn to walk nicely on a leash without the harness, especially if he is already a dedicated puller.

Best no-pull training harness
We were only able to find three no-pull harnesses on the commercial market. Of these, only one gets our top rating of 4 Paws: The J.S. Sporn Halter, produced by Yuppie Puppy Pet Care, Inc. in New York, New York. This harness is well-designed and made of high quality materials. It is the easiest of the three to put on the dog – the red nylon collar snaps around the dog’s neck like a regular collar, and nylon cords run through a ring on the back of the collar, under the dog’s front legs, and back up to the front of the collar. Sherpa sleeves fit over the cord and rest under the dog’s armpits so the cord doesn’t rub.

One of the important differences between the Sporn Halter and the other brands is that the leash attaches to the cords at the dog’s neck. This provides a greater degree of control than the others, which attach over the middle of the dog’s back and allow the dog to spin on the leash.

Another important design feature is the collar itself, which prevents the dog from pulling backwards out of the harness – a disturbing and dangerous phenomenon that we discovered with at least one of the other two brands.

A drop in rating
Our regard for the next two products is considerably lower than for the Sporn Harness.

The Pro-Stop! Gentle Restraining Harness, from Ethical Products, Inc. in Newark, New Jersey, uses a slightly different concept to discourage pulling. One strap of the harness fits around the dog’s midsection just behind the shoulders, and a neoprene-padded strap snaps around each of the dog’s front legs, just above the elbow. The leg strap from each side runs up the harness and through a metal “D” ring near the top, and the straps join at a loose ring, to which the leash is attached. Another strap at the top links the harness to the dog’s regular collar, to prevent the harness from sliding down the dog’s back. When the dog pulls, the straps around the legs tighten, ostensibly causing the dog to stop pulling.

The Pro-Stop! is somewhat more difficult to put on the dog than the Sporn Halter. While most dogs are accustomed to having a collar put on their necks, it is more of a challenge to buckle a strap around a dog’s midsection – especially one who is bouncing about in anticipation of a walk. Some of the materials of this harness appear to be of a slightly lesser quality than the Sporn: the nylon is thinner, narrower, and not as soft, and the leg padding is a thin neoprene material that appears less durable than the padding on the Sporn Halter.

Our least favorite feature of the Pro-Stop!, however, is that, since the straps tighten around the dog’s legs, they actually impede the dog’s normal range of motion. While some of our test dogs appeared undisturbed by this, others were quite perturbed, and resisted moving forward at all.

The Holt Control Harness, from Coastal Pet Products in Alliance, Ohio, is the least expensive of the three no-pull harnesses, and our tests demonstrated why.

First, it is the most difficult to put on the dog. It consists simply of two connected openings, one large, one small, formed by a nylon cord threaded through a number of pieces of metal hardware. The nylon loops slip over the dog’ head, then the dog’s front legs have to be physically manipulated through the appropriate openings, which, again, can be difficult with an active dog.

The instructions are somewhat difficult to follow, with various references to letters indicated on the accompanying diagram. The materials are of lesser quality than the other two harnesses, and there is no padding to protect the dog’s sensitive underarm area from chafing.

Our greatest concern with the Holt Harness is the combination of the mid-back connection which allows the dog to spin on the leash, and the absence of any attachment to a real collar. This means that a determined dog can spin, pull back, slip out of the harness and run free. Definitely a serious design flaw!

Discouraging noises?
Well-designed no-pull beeps or whistles can work well as a positive training tool for some dogs – especially those who are intrigued by high-pitched squeaky toy noises.

How well noisemakers work in no-pull applictions is less clear. We found two noise-based, no-pull training products, and both purport to train the dog not to pull simply on the basis of the emitted sound. This is just plain impossible, especially since neither of the noises emitted by these products are particularly unpleasant or aversive.

It is imperative that you reinforce the dog with a reward when he pauses at the sound emitted by the product. The sound itself is not inherently reinforcing to the dog; it is simply a behavior interrupter, or attention-getter. He will learn to ignore the beep or whistle if it is not paired with a reward – preferably a treat – at least at first. Good no-pull noisemakers utilize the principle of positive reinforcement, in which the dog’s behavior (not pulling), makes a good thing (the reward) happen.

Don’t follow the directions
We think the Happy Walker Leash Trainer by Amtek Pet Behavior Products, of San Diego, California, can be a useful training tool, although, for the reasons listed above, we would use it a little differently than the maker describes in the package directions.

The Happy Walker attaches to your regular leash with two rubber retaining rings. A small button on the Walker rests against the leash, and when the dog pulls, the leash presses the button, causing the device to make a loud, high pitched “Beep”!

Amtek describes the beep as an aversive, and says the dog will learn to stop pulling in order to avoid making the beep happen. Our test dogs liked the beep – like the squeaker of a plush toy. In fact, when we pushed the button manually, they all ran over to see what was making the noise. Therefore, the beep is more of a positive interrupt than an aversive – the dog pauses to check out the sound, which gives you the opportunity to Click! and reward for the loose leash.

If you then seize the window of opportunity to continue clicking and rewarding for the loose leash, rather than waiting for the dog to pull and make the beep happen again, you are training the dog to walk on a loose leash rather than using the Happy Walker as a crutch.

The device comes with a miniature 12-volt battery, and if used properly, you should never have to replace it – your dog will learn to walk on a loose leash long before you wear the battery down.

We would encourage Amtek to change their packaging. They claim that the Happy Walker “automatically” stops dogs from pulling on leash – thereby encouraging its use as a crutch rather than a real training tool. If they rewrote that and their instructions for use, we’d have no complaints at all!

A whistle (and a yank)
At the other end of the sound-gadget spectrum is the Wonder Whistle from K-II Enterprises in Syracuse, New York. This is a sturdy, tubular plastic whistle that snaps to the dog’s collar ring at one end. Your leash snaps onto to the other end. It works mechanically, not electronically, and requires a sharp jerk on the leash to sound the device’s whistle. While the company states that the “Toot” of the whistle causes the dog to stop pulling, we suspect that the old “jerk on the collar” is responsible for at least as much improvement in the dog’s leash manners as the “Toot” is. Since we don’t condone the use of force in training, we don’t recommend you try the Wonder Whistle in its present form. We do like the idea of a sound device that doesn’t need batteries, however, and if the company could considerably reduce the amount of pressure needed to make the whistle sound so that it didn’t require a jerk on the leash, they might be on to something!

Canine Road Rage

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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I have a friend with an eight month old dog who has gotten very aggressive all of a sudden. It happens only when he is in his crate and when he is in the car, where he attacks the steering wheel and the keys. His owner was crying to me tonight about how she would have to get rid of the dog if he kept this up. He is a puppy mill dog and I don’t know if this is part of the reason for this problem.

I have given them some suggestions on social dominance but I am not sure that is the problem. They don’t allow him on the sofa or bed, and they don’t feed him table food; in fact, they eat before he eats. These are all things that have been suggested to me but I am not sure this is going to work. To me it sounds like rage syndrome.

-S.W., Indianapolis, IN

Pat Miller, WDJ’s Dog Training Editor, answers this question for us. Miller offers private and group dog training classes from her base in Fairplay, Maryland. Miller responds:

Certainly, puppy mill and other poorly-bred puppies are at a higher risk for genetically unstable temperaments. In this case, it is good that his behavior is limited to two very specific circumstances. Aggression is easier to deal with when we can identify the triggers and predict the behavior. In the crate, it could be territorial or defensive. Have the owners ever punished him in the crate? Have kids ever teased him there? In the car, it sounds like he may just be aroused about going for a ride, or it could also be territorial or possession aggression.

I tend to minimize the importance of social dominance. The dominance concept has been way overused, and tends to give people permission to use harsh punishment. I focus more on the terms leadership and deference. I restrict a dog from the bed or sofa only if a problem is occurring there. Otherwise, I simply teach the dog (using positive methods) to remove himself from those places when I ask him to leave. That is, he defers to me. When the dog is on the sofa, for example, say “off” and toss a treat on the floor. When he jumps off to get the treat, Click! your clicker (or say “yes!” in a pleasant tone of voice) and feed him another treat. Make it a fun and rewarding game, and he will happily leave the bed or sofa whenever you ask.

I see nothing wrong with feeding table scraps. The dog doesn’t know it’s people food unless you feed it to him from your plate. I prefer not to feed from my plate because I don’t want my dogs begging when I eat, but they get people food in their bowls and as training treats all the time.

I also don’t believe that eating before our dogs or going through doors first teaches them anything about dominance. Teaching them to “wait” at a door every time before you allow them to go through does teach them good manners and deference, however, as does teaching them to sit and wait for their food bowl until you release them to eat.

I would start this dog on a Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF) program, in which he must earn all good things. He needs to learn to sit for attention or for treats, or for his ball to be thrown, or to make any good thing happen. He also needs to learn that very good things happen when he is in his crate. No punishment for his aggression you will just convince him that he is right to be upset when people approach. Have one of his owners stand near the crate and just wait until he is calm. Then Click! the clicker and feed him a treat.

As long as the Click! happens while he is calm, go ahead and feed the treat even if he gets cranky when they drop it in. Keep doing this and you should shortly see him calming down as he learns to anticipate the treat when he hears the Click! Eventually, he will also anticipate people approaching the crate because he knows good things are coming. When he is over the worst of the behavior, have the owners walk past while he is in the crate and just drop treats without clicking first until he is totally convinced that having someone approach his crate is a very wonderful thing.

I would manage the car behavior by seat belting him into the back seat, at least until the NILIF program has had a chance to take effect. If he jumps into the car and immediately takes up his position at the steering wheel, have them leash him and lead him to the back seat when they take him to the car so he can’t get to the front.

I would also suggest having them read Jean Donaldson’s wonderful book, The Culture Clash (James and Kenneth, 1996) to help them better understand what’s going on in an aggressive dog’s brain, and sign them up for a basic training class with a good positive trainer so they can learn how to communicate better with their dog (and vice versa!). If the dog is not already neutered, I would do that immediately as well. It may or may not help with the behavior challenge, but it will certainly ensure that he doesn’t produce more puppies with his aggression problem.

Finally, I don’t believe that this is rage syndrome, also known as idiopathic aggression. True rage syndrome is rare, and has no definable pattern or cause. You have clearly identified the pattern and the triggers in this case. Good luck and let us know the outcome.

Crimes and Kudos

By
Nancy Kerns
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We are quite late in publishing a few corrections and small announcements, so we’re taking this space to catch up. The corrections are most important:

In our article, “Best in Bags,” published in the February 2001 issue, we listed an altogether incorrect web site address for Flint River Ranch. The address given was for another dog food company that has no affiliation with Flint River; we simply had a momentary loss of reason, and we apologize for any confusion we caused.

We’d love to list the correct address for Flint River here, but there are (no kidding) hundreds of them. You see, the company does not have its own, central web site, but allows its independent distributors to publish their own sites, and many of them do. Nor would it be fair for us to list one, or a few of these independent distributors’ sites; it would be extremely unfair to all the other distributors. Our suggestion for all you web-surfing dudes and gals? Just type the words “Flint River” and “dog food” into the Internet search engine of your choice and then step back! You’ll find everything you are looking for and more.

Next, an incorrect sequence of events was described in the very last paragraph of “The Cop and the Clicker,” published in the March 2001 issue. Author and trainer Robin McHale-Ehn has explained our editing error to us quite thoroughly, but we still fail to appreciate the fullness of our technical lapse.

We appreciate Ms. Ehn’s patience with us (she’s a professional trainer, after all, and we’re not), and wish to make it clear that she knew what she was doing with the dog she was training – something about building a behavior chain. In a ruthless effort to get the article to fit in its intended space, we put clicks where they didn’t belong, and maybe left one out. Anyway, the dog turned out fine. Ms. Ehn is available to explain what really happened in that last paragraph to people who know what behavior chains are; she suggests interested readers contact her via email: carepaws@shasta.com. Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

Multiple kudos to Pat Miller
The following announcements are grievously overdue; we should have been bragging about them long ago.

Regular readers are familiar with the work of WDJ’s Training Editor, Pat Miller. Way back in October 2000, we were honored to be sitting with Mrs. Miller at the awards banquet held during the annual meeting of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT), held in Houston, Texas. Yes, it’s true, we’ve shared more than one vegetarian meal with Pat, but this was special. Twice, our friend had to stand up and accept awards from the APDT Board (and there we were, at the edge of the spotlight!). Pat received the APDT’s John Fisher Scholarship Award for an article that most perfectly met the selection criteria of “teaching others to seek a deeper understanding of our companion dogs, their motivation, and how and what they learn.”

As if that wasn’t enough, Pat was honored as the APDT’s “Outstanding Member of the Year,” awarded to the APDT member who is judged to have made the greatest contribution to APDT through volunteer work on behalf of APDT and within the animal community.

And finally, in December, the APDT announced that Pat had been elected to the APDT Board by a vote of the membership. Congratulations, Pat! It’s great to see you getting recognition for your positively awesome body of work.

Another WDJ author wins editorial award
More recently, the Dog Writers Association of America announced their 2000 editorial excellence awards, and we were surprised and happy to see an article from our July 2000 issue, “Hidden Killers in Dog Food,” take a prize for best individual feature article in a general interest dog magazine. Congratulations to author Cindy Cramer, who found little to celebrate as she experienced the events she recounted in the cautionary article. She very nearly lost her beloved German Shepherd, Xeus, to a mold-based toxin that had infected the commercial food she was feeding at the time, and attempts to gain information about the food and the toxins brought unexpected brickbats from fans of the food manufacturer. Cindy, Xeus, and (hopefully) the food are all fine now.

If you weren’t a subscriber last July, that issue is worth ordering from our publisher (you can contact our customer service department at 800-424-7887 or customer_service@belvoir.com).

WDJ readers are the best!
Back in October, we ran a short news piece about Greg Tilford and Mary Wulff-Tilford, authors of Herbs for Pets (1999, Bowtie Press) and well-known in the holistic animal care community for their research into using herbs to treat animals. The Tilfords lost their (uninsured) home and herb gardens in the wildfires that swept rural Montana last summer. Perhaps most deeply felt was the loss of their lifelong collection of herb books and decades of research material.Their herbal tincture manufacturing business, Animals’ Apawthecary, located in another part of Montana, was unharmed.

We asked if people might be able to help the Tilfords with donations of money or herb books to help replace a fraction of what they lost. WDJ readers came through with $2,400 in donations and piles of books, and Grey and Mary were quite overwhelmed and appreciative.

Answers From Experts 02/99

By
Nancy Kerns
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We love our Labrador Retriever, Bailey, very much. We rescued her when she was six weeks old. She is now almost two years old.

We believe that a dog is part of the family and therefore should live inside the house with the rest of the family. However, we were warned about Labs and their desire to chew and need for a lot of exercise. We were prepared for the worst. We limited Bailey’s living quarters to the kitchen and family room. There is a dog door in the kitchen that allows her to go outside whenever she pleases. We restricted her to this area for the first year of her life. We now find that when we take the barriers down, she prefers to stay in that area.

Bailey went through the normal teething stage that most puppies go through. We lost a couple of chairs and a cabinet. However, we were prepared and knew that it was one of the downfalls of having such an adorable puppy. But she is no longer a puppy.

We provide Bailey with a lot of love and attention – maybe too much! My husband works nights and I work days so that Bailey has someone with her most of the time. However, there are occasions when we both need to be gone for an entire day. We try our best to leave her plenty of toys and rawhide bones (her favorite). We find that when we are gone, Bailey will not play with her toys or eat her bones. She will wait until we return and then she plays and chews on her bone. And if we leave her alone for more than six hours, say, she chews on the couch.

This horrible habit started about a year ago. I have tried everything to stop her. She actually likes the taste of that bitter apple repellent. It is difficult to cover the entire couch with pepper spray. We thought that this was another habit she would outgrow, but she hasn’t. She no longer chews on the other furniture or the carpet, so I don’t think it is just a chewing fetish. Bailey is a very smart dog, and initially, I thought it was revenge for leaving her for so long. Then I thought she was trying to send up a message: “Don’t leave me again!”

Most trainers suggest using toys, but she has a whole collection and that doesn’t work. Some trainers have suggested locking her outside when we are not home. I would hate to lock her out in the rain or excessive heat. The problem is that Bailey doesn’t do this bad behavior when we are home so there is no way to correct her.

Do you have any suggestions?

-Lisa Duran
San Jose, CA

We directed this question to Dr. Ian Dunbar, a veterinarian and dog trainer residing in Berkeley, CA. A native of England, Dr. Dunbar is the founder of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, the creator of the K9 Games, and is well-known for his renowned Sirius Puppy Training program, which he describes in his popular books and instructional videos.

First, let me commend you on what is obviously a caring relationship you share with your dog. I thoroughly agree with you that locking a dog out of a house because he or she is destroying the inside is NOT a logical solution to the problem. Taking that approach might have saved your couch, but would have only put your landscaping and fence at risk, not to mention your relationship with your neighbors. When a dog has a problem with the absence of his or her owner, “throwing the dog out” will only promote further misbehavior, usually including barking, howling, and digging.

And lest you feel alone, let me assure you that this is both a common problem and a simple one to solve. Golden Retrievers and Labradors are two of the most common breeds, and, as social, active dogs, they very commonly find this kind of trouble to get into. In fact, many Labs, especially field dogs, are so active, they actually manifest what borders on an obsessive/compulsive disorder. I don’t want to upset you or other Lab people here; this can actually be a good thing, because it is so easy to channel the dog’s restlessness into good behavior. A dog who wants to do stuff is easy to direct.

The answer is to get the dog focused on chew toys to the point where she is virtually a “chew toyaholic.” You are going to use her obsessions and compulsions and simply redirect them from worrying about your absence and dismantling the couch, to chewing on a chew toy, specifically at times when you are absent.

But wait! You said the dog has a lot of chew toys, but that she won’t play with them while you are gone. Right. Then you need to get rid of the dog’s food bowl. What? Hang on, I’m still making sense:

If the dog is fed out of a food bowl, you are actually giving away a couple hundred rewards a day for free. From now on, feed this dog only in chew toys. Go out and buy about six long bones and six Kongs, and stuff all the dog’s food into them.

Here’s how I do it. You want the toys filled in such a manner that the instant the dog touches it, a bit of food falls out, and if she touches it again, a little more falls out, and so on. But always, no matter what she does, the tastiest bits remain stuck in there. So you get a bit of cheese or freeze dried liver and stick it into the little hole in the end of the Kong. Your dog will never be able to get that out! Then you smear a bit of honey or peanut butter on the inside of the Kong, and fill it with the dog’s normal kibble. This make the food tastier, and ensure that it won’t all tumble out at once.

Another way to do this is to measure out the dog’s kibble, add water, and mix it into a mush. Then you stuff the mush into some Kongs and then put them into the freezer for the night; you make Kongsicles! A Canadian breed like the Lab ought to appreciate that! They take about two hours to thaw and for the dog to get all her food. (If you think about it, this is how dogs eat in the wild. They do not get fed a big bowl of food at 5 p.m. every day. They have to work and gnaw on a carcass to get their meals.)

OK, so you are going to feed only in Kongs from now on, but you are going to do it in a way that teaches the dog to associate this treat with your absence. So this is your daily ritual: Let your dog watch you stuff the Kongs with food, but don’t give them to her. When you leave the house, put her in the long-term confinement area (going back to keeping her in your kitchen is an excellent idea) and give her all the food-stuffed toys.

Some dogs don’t like eating alone, but as long as you are not feeding Bailey any other way, I guarantee she’ll start looking forward to spending time getting her food out of the Kongs within a few days, a week at the most.

I help my dogs anticipate the event by making a big fuss about the preparation. I show them what I’m doing, and tell them what I’m doing as I stuff the Kongs. I say, “Oh, why don’t we put a bit of cheese in this one? And look, here’s some peanut butter mixed with freeze dried liver . . . Yum!” Then I put the toys on the floor of the kitchen and shut the door. “Sorry, not yet! I’m not ready to go yet!” People who use crates can put the Kongs in a crate and then lock the dog out of it. Then, when you’re ready to leave, open the door to the kitchen or crate; the dog will not miss you, believe me, in her rush to get to the toys.

You may or may not have noticed that I said this should be your daily routine. This procedure works great for people who go to work every day and leave the dog home alone all day. But the schedule you described (your husband works nights and you work days) doesn’t always leave room for the dog to be alone with the toys. So you need to make time for the dog to be alone, even when someone is home.

On one hand, it’s great that some people have households where the dog can usually be close to someone. Dogs are social animals, and they love company. But this kind of routine can actually create an owner-absent problem; it makes the dog over-dependent on having human company.

It is a sad fact of modern-day life, but most dogs can’t be with us all the time. So, rather than letting her stress out and fall apart every time she is left all alone, you need to train her to expect and enjoy being left alone on a daily basis. This way, she will be prepared for the experience; it’s no big deal. And the food-filled toys will ensure she will begin to look forward to her time alone.

So, rather than having the dog in the room you are in every minute, create some “down time” for her. When you are at home, and you have some time, say, when your favorite TV show comes on, put her in the kitchen with her evening meal all packed into the Kong toys. You can go watch Ally McBeal upstairs, but leave the dog in the kitchen.

I actually regard this as the most important thing, the number one thing, to teach a puppy: to enjoy spending time alone at home. If you don’t do this, your dog will stress out and will fall apart every time she is left alone, at which point her obsessions and compulsions will become directed to dismantling the house – and the dog may end up getting thrown out of the household altogether.

Good luck with Bailey, and have some fun with this!

Long-Term Vitamin C?
I have a female German Shepherd who is just shy of two years old. After reading your article about vitamin C (“Oh Say, Can You ‘C’?”, WDJ September 1998), I started giving her vitamin C to treat an allergy-type skin condition (scratching, redness). I ran the idea past my veterinarian first and got his blessing. But while this has helped with the scratching and redness, and I have been able to discontinue her vet-prescribed allergy pills, I am a little concerned about the dosage that I am giving her.

I am using pure sodium ascorbate powder (WDJ’s #1 recommendation) and have increased her dosage up to 4000 mg. twice a day. This has been a gradual increase until we started seeing results. While I have seen no negatives from this dosage (the redness has decreased, scratching subsided, and it has had no effect on her stool, which is still solid and formed), the dosage seems high. I’m just looking for a little reassurance that I am not in any way harming my dog.

-Cheryl J. Elksnis
Baltimore, MD

We submitted this question to the pioneer of vitamin C therapy in canines, Dr. Wendell O. Belfield, of San Jose, California. In 1981, Dr. Belfield has published the most complete work on vitamin C therapy for dog owners, “How to Have a Healthier Dog,” which was revised and reissued in 1993). He also authored the chapter about orthomolecular therapy in the 1998 veterinary textbook, “Complementary and Alternative Veterinary Medicine.”

I’m not surprised that you saw positive results from supplementing your dog with vitamin C. You used the form of the vitamin that is most beneficial for dogs (sodium ascorbate) and correctly increased the dose, using the dog’s bowel tolerance as a guide. However, now that the dog’s skin has improved, I would suggest that you begin reducing the dosage.

The dosage you are using is not likely to cause harm, but no vitamin should be used at levels higher than a maintenance dose for long periods. Do what you have to do to resolve a health problem, and then reduce the dosage to a maintenance level.

For small dogs and cats, I suggest a maintenance dose of 750 mg of sodium ascorbate; for medium dogs (25 to 50 pounds), I would use 1500 mg; and for large dogs (50 to 100 pounds and up), I would use 3000 mg.

If your dog’s skin problems recur, you may wish to increase the dosage again. However, if this happens, I would suggest doing some detective work to identify and eliminate the source of the dog’s allergies.

Target-Train Your Dog to Ring A Doorbell

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

Each month, I stand in the middle of my training center during the second session of my newest Level One class and introduce my students to the “Targeting” exercise. “Targeting,” I say, “is teaching your dog to touch his nose to a target, on cue.” Each month, I am invariably met with a half-dozen blank stares. I can read my students’ unanimous thoughts. “Why on earth,” they are clearly thinking, “would I want to teach my dog to do that?” Their initial lack of enthusiasm for this exercise is understandable. Targeting is not presented in most of the top-selling dog training books on the market, and only in recent years have modern dog trainers started to include it in their class curriculums. Once my students get past their skepticism, however, most of them are as hooked on targeting as I am – even my dogs have become hooked!

There are dozens of reasons to teach your dog to target. It’s fun and it’s easy. It’s the perfect exercise for helping you to see the learning “light bulb” go on in your dog’s brain. Most dogs love targeting, which makes it a handy tool for getting your dog’s attention in a distracting environment, as well as making it a great parlor trick to show off to family and friends.

train dog to ring a doorbell

Targeting is also a wonderfully useful tool for helping timid dogs gain confidence. It is the foundation behavior for teaching your dog a multitude of more complex behaviors, such as ringing a bell on a string at the door to tell you he has to go outside, turning light switches on and off, closing doors, teaching a suspicious dog to come when called, retrieving, learning object discrimination, pausing in the required contact zones in Agility competition, and doing “go-outs”- used in advanced levels of obedience competition and in good manners exercises such as “Go To Your Place,” where the dog goes and lies down on his bed or rug – to name just a few.

In fact, targeting is one of my all-time favorite exercises. It may be hard to fathom how one exercise can accomplish all of the incredible things listed above, but as I say to my blankly-staring students: Trust me. You and your dog will love it.

Teach Your Dog to Target

It’s ridiculously easy to teach your dog to target. Hold out your open hand at your dog’s nose level, palm facing him, fingers pointed toward the ground. When he sniffs or licks your hand, Click! your clicker (or say “Yes!”) and give him a treat from your other hand (see photos, next page). Make sure his nose actually touches your skin – “close” only counts in horseshoes. Plus, you must endeavor to Click! the instant his nose makes contact with your skin. If you consistently Click! too soon, you will teach him to stop before he touches you. If you consistently Click! too late, you will teach him that moving his nose away from you is the way to earn a reward.

When you have clicked and rewarded your dog’s first touch, remove your target hand, then offer it again, in the same position. When he sniffs, Click! and treat. Do it again. And again. (Notice we have not used a verbal cue yet.)

Most dogs will do the initial sniff easily. If your dog doesn’t sniff your offered palm, rub some hot dog or other tasty, moist treat on your skin to make your hand more enticing. Most dogs will sniff your newly-offered hand a few times and then ignore it, looking directly at your treat hand. You can almost hear them say, “Why am I looking at this hand? The GOOD STUFF comes from over there!” When this happens, hide your treat hand behind your back, offer him the target hand, and wait. He should soon sniff the offered hand. If he doesn’t, rub a treat on it and offer it again. If that doesn’t do it for him, take a step or two backward and offer him the target as he moves toward you. Click! and treat.

Repeat this step over and over, until he deliberately bumps your hand with his nose. This is the heart-stopping “Aha!” moment that positive trainers love – when you can see that your dog knows that the way to make the Click! happen is to touch your hand. Some dogs “get it” very quickly. Louis, a Border Collie client of mine in Santa Cruz, California, got it in three repetitions. Others take longer for the light bulb to go on, depending on variables such as the owner’s skill and timing, the dog’s interest in the training game, the desirability of the treat reward, and the level of distractions in the surrounding environment. You can enhance your dog’s learning speed by working in a quiet location, using very delicious treats and paying attention to your Click! timing.

Most of the behaviors that utilize the “Touch” are somewhat complex to train. Remember to keep your training sessions short, and if either you or your dog are getting frustrated, do something easy and fun to end the session, then take a break and try it again later.

Adding Verbal Marks to Targeting

Once your dog is deliberately bumping your hand with his nose you can add the verbal cue. Start saying “Touch!” just before his nose touches your skin. Click! and reward. Gradually offer the verbal cue earlier and earlier, until he has had the opportunity to associate the verbal cue with the targeting behavior and is responding to the cue.

target training a dog

Now we raise the bar. So far, your dog understands that he is supposed to touch his nose to your hand when he is sitting in front of you and the target is presented to him, directly in front of him, at nose level. It’s time to change the criteria.

Now you want him to touch the target wherever it is, even if it’s moving. Back away from him, offer the target and say “Touch.” As he gets up to follow you, keep moving slowly backward. When he catches up to you and touches the moving target, Click! and treat. Move your hand off to one side and ask him to touch it. Click! and treat. Move it to the other side. Move it lower, toward the floor. Move it higher, so he has to jump up to touch it. Put it above a chair seat, so he has to place his front feet on the chair to reach up and touch it.

When he’s really confident about touching the target, put the behavior on a schedule of random reinforcement – ask him to touch two times before you Click! and treat. Then three times. Then once. Then once. Then four times. Then two times. Vary the number of times you ask him to touch before he gets clicked; don’t always make it harder and harder or he may get frustrated and give up.

How to Add New Targets

If you want your dog’s targeting behavior to be really versatile, you now need to teach him to touch other targets. I teach the target stick next. (Some trainers start by using the stick as the training target. I prefer starting with the target hand, because most dogs naturally want to sniff our hands, and because some dogs are initially intimidated by a stick in their owners’ hands.)

A target stick can be a small branch off a tree, a dowel from the hardware store, a pencil or Tinkertoy (for small dogs), or an “official” target stick purchased from a pet supply source. If you are using a homemade stick, wrap a piece of colored tape around one end to designate the actual target. Accept touches near the tape at first, but ultimately shape the touches to the actual target by clicking only those touches that get closer and closer to the tape.

Hold your target stick vertically with the target end near your dog’s nose; if a vertical position doesn’t work, try holding it horizontally (as shown below). Some dogs will sniff the end of the target stick the first time you offer it. Click! and treat. Others may need a bit of hot-dog rubbed on the end to motivate them to touch this new object. Still others will be afraid of the stick. If your dog is leery of the stick, hold it so most of it is hidden behind you and only an inch of the tip protrudes from your hand.

Strengthen Your Dog’s Targeting

When your dog will touch the tip, extend the stick a little at a time, until he is touching it at its full length. “A little at a time” will vary from one dog to the next. Some dogs will accept a six-inch increase at a time, others will tolerate only half-inch increments. Start small to avoid frightening your dog, and work up to larger increases if he seems to be tolerating them well.

As soon as your dog is readily touching the tip of the stick, at whatever length, start using the verbal “Touch” cue again to elicit the targeting behavior. When he is proficient at touching the target stick, you can use it to extend your reach. With three feet of arm length and three feet of target stick you can get him to touch things a full six feet away from you. If you place the tip of the target stick against a door, wall or other object, you can start teaching him to touch other things, including people.

This is a useful tool for encouraging a timid dog to be brave. When he is very confident about touching his target stick you can place the target closer and closer to a scary object and he will become braver about approaching it.

Targeting is Useful for Tricks

You can also teach your dog to touch other things by holding the intended target object in your hand. I like teaching dogs to ring a bell hanging on a string from your doorknob to tell you he has to go outside. It’s easy – if you take it one step at a time.

First teach him to ring the bell hanging from a string in your hand. Then have him touch the bell when it’s hanging on the door, with your hand held near. Gradully withdraw your hand, and then start slowly moving your entire self away from the door until you can send him across the room to ring the bell on your verbal cue.

As soon as he is proficient at ringing the bell on the doorknob, start asking him to ring the bell every time you take him outside. Although we frequently use a treat as the reward for the Click!, if your dog is thrilled about a trip to the yard, letting him out is an even better reward at that moment than a food treat. If you start making the bell a consistent part of his “going out” routine, and keep asking him to ring the bell from greater and greater distances, you should be able to “fade” (gradually eliminate) the “Ring the Bell” cue, and he will learn to run to the bell and ring it to tell you that he has to go outside.

There is no limit to the ways that you can utilize the touch behavior to accomplish behaviors you like. You can move your dog into heel position (and keep him there) by using your hand as a target next to your leg. You can teach him to close cupboard doors by having him target to a spot on the door. You can teach him to turn lights on and off by pushing up on a stick attached to a light switch or by touching a “Touch Lamp” with his nose.

You can also teach your dog object discrimination by having him learn to identify and touch various objects (or people) by name. The opportunities for application of the touch behavior are virtually endless – limited only by your creativity.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go use targeting to teach my Pomeranian to bowl!

Thanks to trainer Sandy Thompson, of Sirius Puppy Training in Berkeley, California, for her help demonstrating these techniques in these photographs.

Shelter from the Storm

By
Nancy Kerns
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You might notice a small theme running through this issue. We planned it so it would be just in time for Christmas – Christmas puppies, that is! It started with a conversation between Pat Miller, WDJ’s product reviewer and most frequent contributor, and me. Pat is usually working on at least three articles for WDJ at any given time; our planning for these articles generally starts months and months ahead. Back in August, I asked Pat whether she thought we ought to prepare anything specifically for the holidays. Twenty-plus years of experience working in and managing animal shelters definitely informed her emphatic response: “Post-Christmas puppy disasters – that’s what we should write about.”

People who work in shelters are all-too familiar with the phenomenon – the wave of puppies and dogs (and other animals) that begins to crash onto their shores in mid-January, and continues to crest into the spring and summer. Many of these dogs are “owner-released,” that is, turned into a shelter by people who weren’t ready – or, face it – responsible enough to handle the challenges of helping a new puppy or dog fit into their household. Shelter workers all over the country can recite the top excuses by heart: “He wouldn’t stop chewing the sofa.” “She was disturbing the neighborhood with barking.” “We never managed to housetrain him.” The most common theme: “We just didn’t have enough time for a dog.”

Well, it does take time to raise a dog, and about 100 times more time to raise a dog properly. Pat illustrates this in her article, “Getting Off to the Best Start,” a step-by-step primer on how to teach your new puppy to be a success in the human world. But time spent raising the pup right will save you time later – and may even save his life, in the end. Consider giving a copy of this issue to anyone you know with a new pup.

Once we settled on the idea of an article on coping with Christmas puppies, it was easy to decide what products to review in the same issue. Pat tried every carpet cleaner and deodorizer we could find; her report on the best of these products appears in this issue.

And to inspire the responsible and superlative readers of WDJ to consider lending a hand to some of the poor pups that might eventually wash up in a shelter, we bring you “Brother, Can You Spare an Hour?.” Freelance writer Dan Hoye profiles people who volunteer at animal shelters, and counts the ways that you can help.

I’m proud to point out that my own local animal angels, the folks at the Alameda Animal Shelter, made it into Hoye’s article. The shelter management has been kind to us, occasionally letting WDJ use one of their dogs as a model. In return, we donate most of the products that we review or discuss in WDJ to the shelter. (The dogs particularly enjoyed the day we showed up with three or four cases of canned dog food for taste-testing!) And while none of the people or dogs seen on our pages are professional models (and they don’t receive modeling fees), WDJ makes a small donation to the shelter every time we use a photo of one of their dogs.

Rupie’s OK!
Last month, I mentioned that I was taking my dog Rupert (pictured below, as always, by my side) to the veterinarian to investigate a lump on his side. I should confess that when I was working on an article abouta heartworm, any time Rupe coughed, I became convinced he had the disease, and after running our series on canine cancer, I was sure the lump was cancer. But the diagnosis, happily, was not cancer. A biopsy revealed that the lump I found was a sebaceous cyst – nothing to worry about, as long as it remains small. The veterinarian also found a couple of very small lipomas – benign fatty tumors. We’ll leave all of them alone for the time being, keep an eye on them, and hope they don’t grow.

-By Nancy Kerns

The Ancestral Dog Food Diet

By
Nancy Kerns
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The ancestral dog diet was mainly raw meat.
The ancestral dog diet was much like the diet of wolves. Raw meat and other opportunistic food.

Dog food as we know it today – that is, either crumbly bits of kibble packaged in bags and boxes or gloopy meat-based concoctions sealed into cans – was invented in 1860. Think about that for a moment. Our great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents raised dogs completely without the benefit of Purina. Before 1860, no one poured a pile of chow from a bag marked, “Dog.” Everyone who had a dog knew what dogs ate and how to feed them.

Considering how many thousands of years that dogs have survived while living in our homes and sharing our meals, it is interesting that most dog owners are shocked and perplexed when it is suggested that they might want to consider giving up their cans and bags of dog food.

Try this as a test: Tell one of your dog-owning friends you’ve read that dog food is not good for dogs, and she should stop feeding it. Her first question will be, “Well then, what WOULD I feed my dog?!”

The Ancestral Dog Diet

The answer is food . . . real food . . . raw food, the kind of food that canines have been living and thriving on for the last few centuries! Yes, we are talking (mostly) about meat.

You may have noticed that in the last few years, nutrition experts have “rediscovered” the value of a Paleolithic diet for humans – one that includes far more fruits and vegetables and far fewer grains than we eat now, a certain amount of fresh meat, and certainly no dairy products.

Veterinary nutritionists (and holistic veterinarians) can likewise tell you about the many benefits of feeding your dog his ancestral diet. The actual recipes are speculative, of course, but there is no doubt about the major constituent of the diet: raw meat.

Duplicating this diet as closely as possible is said to have numerous benefits. Holistic veterinarians and breeders who utilize a raw-meat diet say that it can make itching dogs stop scratching. Thin, dull coats become thicker and shinier. Apathetic dogs regain enthusiasm for life. Females who have had difficulty conceiving or carrying puppies to term become pregnant and bear healthy puppies.

“Having raised animals on commercial pet food, and now, having raised animals on raw meat, there’s no comparison,” says Celeste Yarnall, a pet nutrition specialist and author of Natural Cat Care, and 1998’s Natural Dog Care. “Animals who are fed an appropriate raw-meat diet are alive, they glow from whisker to tail tip. They are happy and comfortable in their skins.”

Why is Raw Meat Better for Dogs?

There are numerous reasons why dogs might do better on a diet largely comprised of meat. Foremost, says Yarnall, is that dogs’ bodies are designed to produce only about 25 percent of the enzymes they need to digest their food; the remaining 75 percent should be within the food they eat. All raw foods contain the enzymes the body needs to digest the food. But when you cook foods, the enzymes are destroyed. In order to digest a food devoid of enzymes, the body needs to work overtime to produce its own digestive enzymes to break down the food.

Many holistic veterinarians believe the resulting wear and tear on the pancreas may be responsible, in turn, for other health problems. In her book, The Natural Dog, Mary Brennan, DVM, says that many research studies have linked enzyme deficiencies and diseases, both acute and chronic. To counter this, one can supplement the dog with digestive enzymes, or feed raw food! Cooking also destroys a large percentage of the food’s nutrients. Some foods lose as much as half of their vitamins when they are cooked.

And, finally, to some degree, cooking generates a certain amount of toxins in food. Raw food enthusiasts cite the fact that the number of white blood cells circulating in the bloodstream usually doubles or triples immediately following consumption of a cooked food meal; the number does not rise when raw food is eaten. A body that initiates an “attacking” immune response to every cooked meal wastes much of its precious resources sidetracked in a needless battle.

Overcoming the Raw Food Sceptics

It is a testament to our skeptical times that most people who feed their dogs raw food spend more of their time defending their decision than describing the benefits of their diets. Fortunately for us, that mean the experts were ready with answers to our typical questions:

What about the danger of bacteria and food poisoning?

Many people fear bacterial contamination and resultant food poisoning so much that they cannot entertain the idea of feeding their dog raw meat. To these people, Yarnall says, “So many dogs live with sub-clinical medical conditions all their lives, dying of cancer, kidney failure, liver disease, arthritis, and every other combination of the diseases . . . I’d rather take my chances against the bacteria, and feed the food that best supports dogs’ health.”

This is not to say that Yarnall and other raw feeders disregard the threat of contamination. Most use some method to disinfect the meat they feed their dogs and observe “safe-meat” handling techniques (see “Taking the Fear Out of Raw Feeding,” below, for more detail). These things put Yarnall’s mind completely at ease.

“Of course you have to practice safe hygiene. You have to be more intelligent than someone who uses a can opener to prepare their dogs’ meal. But the benefits outweigh the risks by so much,” she says.

Doesn’t raw food cost a lot?

There’s no doubt about it: feeding meat on a regular basis costs more than feeding dog food. But according to the experts, the improvement in the dog’s health will more than offset the price of the diet.

Yarnall says she could prove this one on a graph. “I don’t spend money having my veterinarian treat my dog for flea problems and allergies and fungus problems and heartworm and all the other diseases brought on by poor nutrition,” she says. “I spend my money on the food, instead.”

Dr. Brennan tells of a client who raised Yorkshire Terriers and Llasa Apsos, and was concerned about the increased cost of feeding a higher quality diet. However, at Brennan’s urging, she tried the diet, and in the next heat cycle, she saw a 75 percent improvement in her dogs’ conception rate, proving that the change was cost-effective to her business.

We should add that the above question made one raw feeder we spoke get angry. “So, if I want to save money I should raise my children on Top Ramen and generic Cheerios?” she exploded. “I tell people that if you can’t afford to feed three children properly, you shouldn’t have three children, and they understand me. But when I say that if you can’t afford to feed three dogs properly, you shouldn’t have three dogs, they come unglued. Why people will try to defend being cheap with the health and well-being of their loved ones is beyond me.”

Isn’t dealing with meat inconvenient?

Fortunately, the market takes care of all inconveniences. There are a number of companies springing up to cater to those who don’t want to take the time to select, buy, and prepare meat for their dogs. Others buy enough meat for a week or two or even a month, and spend a couple of hours on that day preparing and separating the food into individual portions that they then freeze. Then, each night they transfer the next day’s meal into the refrigerator, where it can thaw safely for feeding the next day.

Why would my veterinarian tell me to feed Brand X, if it is so bad for my dog?

We’ll let Celeste Yarnall answer this one: “If you feed your dog nothing but commercial pet foods, you will have a very happy veterinarian, because your dog will be a patient for life. Go on into the veterinarian’s office and get your bags and your cans, and you will come back with a dog who has cancer, with dripping orifices, with skin problems and allergies, and worse. Veterinarians are wonderful people, don’t get me wrong, but they have been educated very poorly in nutrition.

“Guess where most veterinarians got their education? Who donates the largest amounts of money to university vet schools? Guess who writes the textbooks? The pharmaceutical industry and the pet food companies, that’s who! So is it any wonder that the veterinarians are all taught that dogs are better off eating food from a bag or a can?”

I can see this diet working for wolves, but our modern dogs are vastly different animals . . . aren’t they?

Actually, the wolf and the dog are not that far apart. It’s true that we have bred them to look very different from their wolf ancestors, but what’s “under the hood” is still essentially the same. Dogs have been living with us for a long time, but they still have 42 shredding teeth; they haven’t suddenly grown big grinding teeth like ours!

Taking the Fear Out of Raw Feeding

The biggest objection that most people have to feeding their dogs a raw diet is the fear of poisoning their pets with bacteria-laden meat. Fortunately, there are a number of inexpensive and easy meat-management techniques you can employ to reduce bacterial contamination of the meat. Without lessening the importance of feeding bacteria-free food, let us mention that most raw-food feeders start out by aggressively disinfecting every bit of meat they serve to their dogs, and, when they find their dogs’ health improving, they relax a little. After all, a healthy dog with a robust digestive system full of beneficial bacteria ought to be able to digest meat in any condition.

Observe the following raw meat safety admonitions:

Buy meat from the most reputable sources

Fresh and clean are your watchwords. Look for a butcher shop that is immaculate; if it smells bad, or if the refrigerator cases don’t look sterile, don’t shop there. Choose a location that gets a lot of business; more turnover means fresher meat.

Disinfect any meat you are worried about

Depending on your level of confidence, you may wish to disinfect all meat you feed to your dog, or just the meat with an appearance or odor that undermines your trust.

Grapefruit seed extract and food-grade hydrogen peroxide are potent substances that are commonly and safely used to disinfect meat (they can also be used to clean fruits and vegetables!). Both are fairly inexpensive and both exhibit a powerful antibacterial action, even when diluted considerably.

Many raw feeders, including Celeste Yarnall, use grapefruit seed extract to disinfect their dogs’ meat. Yarnall mixes four drops of the extract into 6-8 ounces of purified water, and uses this to disinfect one pound of meat. Dr. Swift uses one tablespoon of 3% food grade hydrogen peroxide mixed into a cup of water per pound of meat.

Place the meat chunks into a clean glass or ceramic bowl and pour the liquid over it. Bacteria is generally introduced to the outside surfaces of meat, by touching a dirty counter, for instance, or being cut with a dirty knife. When dealing with chunks of meat, your concern is only for the exposed surfaces. (If feeding ground meat, use the grapefruit seed extract formula, which can be mixed right into the meat and served to the dog without harm.) Cover the bowl and allow it to “marinate” in the refrigerator for an hour or so. Afterward, rinse the meat off in clean water; it’s ready to feed or freeze.

Keep meat cold

Unless you’re careful, there are unlimited opportunities for meat to warm up while in your care; don’t let it. Meat begins to spoil above 40 degrees F. Cold temperatures inhibit the growth of the bacteria that causes spoilage, so stop at your favorite butcher shop right before you drive home; if you shop in a supermarket, select the meat right before you go to the checkout line. Put meat in the refrigerator before unpacking your other groceries.

Take the meat out of the refrigerator just before you prepare it.

When using frozen meat, thaw it in the refrigerator. It takes longer, but it keeps the outermost portion from warming to temperatures above 40 degrees while the rest is still thawing.

Use fresh meat quickly

The United States Department of Agriculture recommends using fresh beef within three to five days of purchase. However, the USDA food safety experts suggest using ground meats, and all poultry and organ meats within one to two days of purchase. Again, while refrigeration inhibits the growth of bacteria, the cold temperatures do not stop spoiling altogether.

Keep your kitchen clean

There is probably a greater chance of meat becoming contaminated in your kitchen than in most butcher shops, because butchers religiously practice “safe-meat” practices.

Start out, like a butcher, with a clean theater of operations. Don’t let the meat touch any surface that has not been disinfected. Make sure that all your cutting boards, counters, knives, and dishes are pristine before bringing out the meat.

As you handle the meat – unwrapping it, cutting it up, mixing it with other things, putting it in a dish, and disposing of the wrapping – remember to “detoxify” everything the meat touched with an anti-bacterial agent. This includes your hands, the counter you set the meat on, the knives or cutting board you used, the sink, the sponge, any dishes you touched, and anything else your unclean hands touched. This especially includes the dog’s bowl.

If the meat actually were contaminated, any uncleaned surface in your kitchen could be infected with bacteria, which, in turn, could lurk behind and contaminate another meal. However, if you followed its trail with a potent disinfectant, you would eliminate all the possibilities for it to lurk behind and “spoil” another day.

How to Feed a Dog Meat

OK, let’s assume you are sold. How do you go about formulating a raw-meat diet?

Recipes for home-made dog food abound, and every book on our resource list (see “Raw Resources”) includes at least one. But despite numerous small variations of opinion regarding supplements, the basic proportions of raw meat to grains to vegetable matter is roughly the same.

Yarnall suggests formulating a diet that is comprised of about 40 percent meat, and 30 percent vegetables, and 30 percent grains. She uses about 60 percent muscle meat and about 40 percent of organ meat (kidneys, liver, or heart). The vegetables vary, and are prepared, raw, in a food processor. Yarnall uses only slow cooked oatmeal (the 30-minute type) or barley flakes. She adds enough purified water to make the mixture the consistency of a thick chili. Yarnall supplements this food with an essential fatty acid supplement and a small amount of bone meal.

For comparison, McKinnon uses a diet comprised of about 30-40 percent meat, fish, or eggs, 40-50 percent grains, and 20 percent vegetables. Some raw feeders eschew the use of grains altogether, since grains are not technically part of the dog’s ancestral diet. Dr. Russell Swift, a Florida veterinarian who has had a long-time interest in pet nutrition, was among the first to question the need for grains in dog food. His recipe for home-made dog food (published in the March 1998 issue of WDJ) contains a smaller amount of grain than many authorities. He suggests using just 1/4 cup of oats or multi-grain hot cereal and 1/4 to 1/2 cup of chopped raw vegetables to every 1/2 pound (about a cup) of raw meat.

Most raw food enthusiasts size the dog’s meals at about two to three percent of the dog’s body weight daily. (A 50-pound dog would get 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of food a day.) Watch your dog’s weight and condition and adjust the amount accordingly – reduce the amount if he starts gaining weight, increase the amount if he begins to get too slim.

That last advice may sound unscientific, but it’s not. It’s representative of the kind of thinking – the whole mindset – that you should bring to the task of feeding meat to your dog. It’s simple. It’s intuitive. It’s natural. It’s how dogs are supposed to eat.

Preparing For and Training Young Puppies

By
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
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white lab

The first time I saw Buddy he was a tiny tan morsel nestled in his owner’s arms, a perfect pudge of a yellow Labrador retriever puppy – eight weeks old, fat, round and chunky with a shiny black button nose, warm brown eyes and milk-sweet puppy breath. His owner, Tena, had carried him into my training class to hand him over to me for three weeks of in-home boarding and training.

I generally don’t recommend that an owner send an eight-week-old puppy to a trainer for boarding and training. This is an important learning and bonding period for dog and owner; it is usually more beneficial for the two to learn together. But Buddy’s owners had made some big mistakes in the two weeks they had owned their new puppy.

First, they had purchased him at the age of six weeks, depriving him of a very important two-week period of education and socialization with his mother and littermates. Puppies taken away from their litters at this tender age often have problems with being mouthy (biting too hard on human skin) because they missed out on the chance to learn bite inhibition from their mother and siblings. Unless they are given ample opportunity to socialize with other puppies or gentle adult dogs as they grow up, “only” puppies can become canine social nerds, failing to learn appropriate body language and other canine social skills. And sometimes, puppies taken away from their litters too soon often grow up to be aggressive to other dogs.

The owners’ second big mistake was adopting a six-week-old puppy two weeks before going on a three-week vacation. They had belatedly realized the folly of putting a very young pup in a commercial kennel for three weeks, and had begged me to take him. I agreed, reluctantly. I am not set up to do boarding, and have long resisted adopting a puppy myself because of the huge commitment of time and energy that they require. However, I, too, was reluctant to see Buddy spend these important formative weeks in a kennel, and his owners were willing to pay a considerable sum for the privilege of keeping Buddy at my home. Buddy was coming to stay for three weeks.

My class was just concluding. I dismissed my students and walked outside with Tena to discuss last-minute details.

“Put him down,” I urged her. “Let him walk.”

She gently placed him on the ground and he toddled along behind us as we strolled down the driveway. Suddenly he stopped and sat in the middle of the road. We continued on, and when we had gone about 15 feet she turned back to him.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

“Going back to get him,” she replied.

Big mistake number three – Buddy’s owner was already getting “trained” to do what the puppy wanted!

“Nope,” I said. “Leave him.”

“Leave him?” There was a note of panic in her voice.

“Leave him,” I insisted. “He’ll come.”

We kept walking, Tena glancing nervously over her shoulder every three steps. Sure enough, we hadn’t gone another 15 feet when Buddy jumped up and came galloping after us. My first lesson for Buddy (and for Tena!) was a success – we were the leaders, and it was his job to keep up with us.

I reassured Tena that Buddy would be fine. She bid him a reluctant good-bye, got in her car and drove away. I used a treat to lure Buddy into the crate I had brought with me, put him in my van and headed home.

Coming Home

“Home” had been prepared for Buddy’s arrival. I had put down a plastic tarp in the living room, covered it with a thick layer of newspaper and set up a puppy pen on top of it. A variety of enticing chew toys awaited Buddy’s needle-sharp baby teeth: a Kong stuffed with cream cheese, a bleached marrow bone filled with peanut butter, a Goodie Gripper with freeze-dried liver jammed into the holes, a Roll-A-Treat Ball full of tasty kibble, a couple of Vermont Chew Toys. We were ready!

We would use the umbilical cord approach to puppy management. Buddy would be kept at all times either in his pen, in the safely fenced and puppy-proofed yard with my dogs, on a leash with me, or under my direct supervision in the house. We would thus avoid a common mistake of novice puppy owners — giving the puppy too much freedom. The first few weeks of puppyhood are a critical time. If the pup’s early behavior is well-managed, he will never learn to chew the furniture, climb on the counters, and urinate in the back bedroom. Through the judicious use of puppy pens, fenced yards, crates, adult dog baby-sitters, leashes and direct supervision, we avoid unwanted behaviors that are much easier to prevent than they are to unteach.

Three Weeks with Buddy

I arrive home with Buddy and introduce him to the Miller pack. I know that none of our four dogs will hurt him, but I also know that they won’t tolerate obnoxious puppy behavior. As he charges through the front gate he is greeted by Josie, our 11-year-old terrier mix and pack leader. Josie promptly lets out a fierce throaty growl that knocks Buddy onto his back. From Tucker, the 75-pound cattle dog mix and Katie, the 45-pound Australian Kelpie, all the way down to Dusty, the eight-pound Pomeranian, each of the four Miller dogs lets Buddy know in turn that they will brook no misbehavior.

I take Buddy inside and put him in the pen, where he promptly begins to cry and shred the newspaper. This is where puppy owners often make another huge mistake. If I heed his cries and relent, letting him out of the pen, he learns an important lesson – crying gets him what he wants. Instead, by ignoring him, I will teach him that crying is not a useful behavior. If I “Click!” a clicker and treat him when he stops crying, he will learn to be quiet even faster. I ignore Buddy’s cries, and within 15 minutes he finally gives up and settles down for a nap.

I start Buddy’s housetraining from day one, teaching him a verbal cue to go to the bathroom, and rewarding him for eliminating. At 11:00 p.m. I wake Buddy and take him outside on his leash. As he squats, I tell him “Go pee!” When he is done, I “Click!” and feed him a treat. After a short wait he also deposits feces, also accompanied by my “Go pee!,” cue followed by a “Click!” and treat. We will do this every two hours throughout each day for the next three weeks, giving him lots of opportunities to do it right, and never giving him the chance to “make a mistake” in the house.

If I made the common novice-owner error of just putting him outside by himself, he could eliminate anywhere he chose. He might not even go to the bathroom at all, especially if I give him a treat when he comes back in. If “coming in” is the behavior that gets rewarded with a treat, he might as well skip the bathroom step!

Having other dogs to play with outside can also distract him from his bathroom purpose – he may be having so much fun playing that he forgets to stop and eliminate. By going out with him, I teach him to relieve himself in the exact spot I want him to use, and I make sure he actually eliminates. (If he doesn’t, I bring him back inside and return him to his crate for a while, then try again.)

By rewarding him immediately after he goes, I make sure he knows what he is getting rewarded for. Using the “Click!” from a clicker gives him a clear message about which behavior is getting rewarded, even if the treat arrives a few seconds later. We will be using the “Click!” a lot with Buddy over the next few weeks. When Buddy is done going to the bathroom, I lead him into the bedroom and toss a treat into his crate.

“Go to bed,” I urge as he pokes his nose into the crate, looking for the treat. A gentle nudge to his tail pushes him into the crate, and he is ready for bed. (Within three days he will voluntarily go into his crate upon hearing the verbal cue, “Go to bed.”) He has had a long, exciting day and is ready to sleep. He cries for a few minutes, but when I continue to ignore him, he curls up and sleeps through the night without a further peep.

The Routine

The following days fall into a routine that centers around Buddy. We wake at 5:30 a.m. to a dry crate, and rush outside for his morning bathroom ritual, then come back inside for breakfast in his puppy pen. The day consists of lots of trips in and out, interspersed with three meals, and several short training sessions. Within two days he is galloping into his pen at the “Go to your pen” cue, ready for his meal. He quickly learns to run up to me and sit for a Click! and treat instead of jumping up. (We accomplish this in less than a day by turning our backs when he jumps up – ignoring the behavior we don’t want – and clicking and rewarding him with a treat when he sits.) By Day 4 he offers a sit for every possible occasion.

He also learns to sit quietly in order to be released from his pen. When I approach the pen gate he must sit in order for me to proceed. If he jumps up, I turn away. When he sits, I start to open the gate. If he gets up, I turn away again. He quickly realizes that the sooner he sits and stays sitting, the sooner the gate opens. If he gets up before I release him, I close the gate again. I don’t even have to ask him to sit – he chooses to sit because that gets him what he wants – out! He is learning to control his own behavior without being nagged by me to do the “right” thing. This is a key element of positive reinforcement training – teaching the dog to take responsibility for his own behavior rather than always being told what to do.

On Day 3, after just one session with the clicker, he learns to lie down on a verbal cue. We start by “luring” him down with a treat without even using the word “down,” and “Click!” and treat him when he does it. Once he does the “down” behavior smoothly, we add the word to tell him what he is doing, as he does it, still clicking and treating for each “down.”

After a dozen or so repetitions, I ask for the “down” first, then lure with the treat, followed by “Click!” and reward. It only takes a couple of dozen repetitions for Buddy to understand that the word “Down” means the same thing as luring “down” with the treat, and he is soon dropping like a rock to the floor on the verbal cue alone.

As expected, Buddy is excessively mouthy. When I offer him a treat, he chomps down on my hand. His sharp little teeth hurt! I consciously resist the impulse to punish him for the pain he inflicts on me – instead I begin to teach him to soften his uninhibited bite. I offer the treat in my closed fist, and suffer the discomfort of his teeth until I feel his bite begin to gentle. As soon as the bite softens, I say “Gentle,” then I “Click!,” tell him “Take it!” and give him the treat. He soon learns that he doesn’t get the treat until he is gentle with his mouth. Although I see progress within a few days, it takes the entire three weeks to get him as soft with his mouth as I want him to be.

A Constant Watchful Eye

Anytime Buddy is given house freedom he requires direct supervision. He wants to eat everything! Distracting him with the Chew Man only lasts as long as I play with him. We work on increasing his self-control. I sit on the sofa and ask him to “Down” at my feet. At first I “Click!” and reward him just for the down. Then I gradually increase the length of time between the cue for “Down” and the “Click!” and reward. (“Gradually” means a few seconds at a time!) By the time Buddy returns to his owners, he will lie quietly at my feet for as long as a half-hour.

We walk on leash to the mailbox every morning to get the newspaper. He is overcoming his tendency to sit and wait to be picked up, and is beginning to walk nicely by my side. I “Click!” and reward him a lot whenever he walks with me, and stop and stand still if he pulls on the leash. He soon learns that pulling does not get rewarded – the more he pulls, the longer it takes him to get where he wants to go.

Encouraging Good Behavior

On Day 4 the newspaper is lying on the ground. Buddy grabs it in his mouth. Having spent the last three days taking forbidden items away from him, I have to stifle my immediate instinct to take it out of his mouth. This is a good behavior to encourage! I allow him to carry the paper proudly back to the house, where I trade him for a treat. From that morning on, he fetches the newspaper every day.

It is possible to completely inhibit a dog’s natural retrieving tendencies by punishing him every time he puts something in his mouth. I encourage Buddy to pick up, play with and fetch appropriate play toys. I use the words I want him to learn – “Fetch” when he runs to get the toy that I throw, and “Give” when he brings it back.

Of course, he doesn’t know what “Give” means until I teach him. He is reluctant to unclamp his tiny jaws from his favorite chew toy, so I offer to trade him for a treat. Bingo! He lets go of the toy as I say “Give,” and I “Click!” and reward him with the treat for his good behavior. We use this same method to get him to give up a forbidden item, and thus avoid teaching him to play keep-away by chasing after him when he has something he shouldn’t. We try to keep inappropriate objects off the floor and out of his reach, but he always seems to be able to find something he is not supposed to have!

By the beginning of the second week I am looking for new challenges for Buddy. He loves to splash in his water bowl, so we buy a baby’s swimming pool and teach him to play in the water. He is hesitant at first, but within a few days he is leaping into the pool to fetch his toys. He accompanies me to my “Dog Days of Summer” lecture at the Santa Cruz SPCA, acting as my “demo” puppy for the “Puppy Stuff” lecture. His quick response to the clicker wins several converts over to the positive reinforcement method of dog training. I also take him with me to do a television show promotion for the lecture series, and on T.V. we demonstrate clicker training and puppy behavior management tools such as the Kong stuffed with cream cheese.

We spend the third week polishing his behaviors and preparing to return him to Tena. He has added “Come,” “Stay,” “Off,” “Relax,” and “Touch,” to his repertoire. He sits and downs promptly on cue, and walks nicely on a leash. He goes into his pen and stays there without protest, sleeps through the night in his crate without a sound, and is allowed much more house freedom, although still with supervision. He can last six hours in his pen without soiling his papers, and in three weeks has only had one accident in the house. I am exhausted. It takes so much work to properly raise a puppy! It is no small wonder that so many dogs end up at animal shelters – there are far too many puppies who never get they attention the need to become well-behaved canine citizens.

In preparation for returning Buddy to Tena, I review all that he has learned in three weeks. I recognize that there is an inherent satisfaction in shaping a puppy’s behavior, watching him explore the world and teaching him to be a good canine citizen. And while I look forward to the relief of returning Buddy to his owners and having my own household return to normal, I worry whether his people will keep up with his training and behavior management. I realize that I will miss this bright little guy with his boundless enthusiasm for life and learning.

Epilogue

Buddy’s owners were quite pleased with the results of his stay at “Camp Miller,” and signed him up for one of my Peaceable Paws puppy training classes. Buddy and I were delighted to see each other when he arrived for class, where he was handled by his owner’s son, seven-year-old Mark. Buddy and Mark graduated from the class with honors.

Pat Miller is a regular contributor to WDJ. A freelance writer and dog trainer, she lives in Salinas, California. 

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