Smart Dog

With the Help of a Dog

After 2 1/2 years of lung cancer, my mother-in-law is in the final hours of her life. (She never smoked a day in her life, by the way.) My husband and I have been at the hospice facility since we heard she'd taken a final turn. We left yesterday at about 4:00p and took one of our dogs, Tango, with us.

The Kline House not only allows pets, but actually encourages (and dotes on) them. This has been a huge comfort for both my husband and me. Just having a wet nose bump up against you in the night seems to cut the stress that terminal illness can bring.

My mother-in-law is unconscious, but Tango will wag his tail and lick her hand. And we hope that contact can reach her somewhere somehow. And if it can't comfort her, it certainly comforts us. So, with the help of a dog, we're hoping to make her transition a peaceful one.

I've been back and forth between hospice and home three times to let the dogs out and feed them. I try to get home every six hours or so. The last time I came and left, they looked more than a little confused at our new pattern. So I've taken a chance to put a few extra hours this afternoon at home with the dogs. They're aware that something is different, but of course aren't able to figure out exactly what.

These aren't the ideal circumstances for the new dog who has a slight problem with mild separation anxiety! To avoid creating an association of my leaving for hours = peanut butter stuffed toy, I just stuffed a bunch and gave them all to the dogs -- while I'm here for a few hours.

As I return again to hospice in a few hours, I'll take Lily this time. 18 hours at the hospice facility has taken it's toll on Tango. Just like people, dogs have their limits, too.

LOVE for Food-Stuffed Toys

I just posted about my plans to help the newest Smart Dog University resident dog help conquer his slight anxiety at being left alone. My first step was to teach him how to love a food-stuffed toy. So I smeared some peanut butter along the inside rim of the toy -- close enough so he'd only have to try a little and he'd get a big reward: a mouth full of peanut butter. Here's what it looked like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXseLj-m840

A Little Bit of Separation Anxiety

So we've got a new dog in the house. I'd have included his picture here, but out of the 20 shots I took, none of them show his face! He's not fond of picture-taking, I suppose. My plan is not to keep him as my dog -- my goal for this guy is to get him into a home where he can be of service to someone -- either a companion dog or working in a service capacity.

He's about two and we're his third home. His first home couldn't afford him and he just wasn't a good fit in his second home. Contrary to the information his original owners gave, this dog is not used to being an indoor dog or being around people. Clearly, he didn't see enough of anything when he was a pup. (He's the poster boy for what can happen if you don't get your puppy into a group training class before they're 16 weeks old!) He's a bit skittish around anything new. He's hand-shy as well, which makes me think his original home used quite a heavy hand to "teach" him anything.

His second owners said he had a few weird quirks:

1. He might have separation anxiety - he escaped from his crate once, and tore the plastic floor of the crate up another time.
2. He didn't like peanut butter at all - which is a real bummer, because that's what I stuff all my dog's food toys with.
3. He barks wildly sometimes at seeming nothing.

I left him home today for about an hour and a half while I ran errands. He was safely enclosed in the kitchen, but not crated. I came home to find that he'd jumped the divider and was in the family room with Tango and Nemo. No damage to the room, no house training accidents, so maybe he just wanted to be with the others, who knows.

When I leave him again, I'll leave him in the same room as another dog and we'll see if it works out.

I've found that he will eat peanut butter, but won't touch the food-stuffed toys while I'm gone. So my first job is to teach this guy how much fun food-stuffed toys really can be. I plan to stuff the toy with some really yummy stuff -- loosely enough that it practically falls out. Making a food-stuffed toy too difficult will ruin all the fun.

Once we get him used to working the food-stuffed toy, then I'll begin leaving him in a separate room with that toy while I'm still home. We'll see if he's able to remain calm enough to actually work on the toy even though no one's in the room with him.

In addition to teaching him how to be alone while I'm home with him, I'm also going to start to distance myself a bit from him. I don't want him to (falsely) believe that the sun rises and sets around my being home. So the greetings and departures are really low-key. No theatrics, no really enthusiastic hello's or goodbyes.

I'll also start asking him to sit for everything he gets, whether it's to go outside, to get attention, to get food, whatever. This kind of predictability is very helpful to dogs who are unsure or "clingy." If he doesn't sit, it's not a big deal - I won't make him sit, he just won't get whatever it is he wants. Pretty soon he'll figure out that there are rules to this lovely game called life and that they're pretty darn simple. And very predictable.

There are a lot more things he and I are learning about each other, and I'll be sure to bring each of those to you here in this spot...Stay tuned!

When Training Alone Isn't the Answer

Dogs need more than just training. They need exercise, time to be a dog, interaction with you, interaction with other dogs.

A recent client had a 8-month old Labrador who was causing a little bit of trouble in the home. Nothing major - stealing toys from the kids and playing keep-away, finding boxes outside and shredding them, carrying wood from the woodpile -- all attempts to get some interaction and exercise.

I asked how much exercise the dog got and the owner enthusiastically said "He gets at least two walks a day!" For an 8-month old dog bred to work hard all day, two walks a day wasn't going to come close to giving this dog the exercise he needed.

I suggested a few things to help meet this dog's needs:

1. No more food out of a bowl. This dog needs a job. Getting his breakfast and dinner out of a food toy would be one way to put him to work. There are a lot of food toys on the market these days for dogs. One of my favorites is called a Squirrel Dude and it's made by Premier. 
2. Hire someone to run this dog hard every day. OR, take the dog to doggy daycare at least 2 times a week. (Although three times might even be better.)
3. Manage the situation until the training takes place. The dog loved to rip up boxes delivered to the house. (It gave him something to do, it made good sense to the dog!). I asked the owners to check the front porch for packages before they let the dog out. This simple step would eliminate one problem quickly and easily.
4. Teach the dog what you'd like him to do. This is very different than teaching a dog what NOT to do. It's really hard to teach a dog (or anyone, for that matter) what NOT to do. But simple to teach them what TO DO. So I asked the owners to focus on what they wanted the dog to START doing.

I created a chart to help them see if their dog was getting enough attention, training, exercise, and stimulation. The chart had three main headings: (1) Training, (2) Exercise, and (3) Enrichment. I asked them to record how many times per day they trained the dog, how hard the exercise was and how long it lasted, and finally how often per day they were feeding their dog out of the Busy Buddy.

Armed with the chart, they are now able to see how good of a job they are doing to help their dog succeed. This is a smart dog. He picked up concepts really quickly. I had him coming when called (with distractions, even!), running to his "settle mat" in no time, and he really was quite the Einstein when it came to learning.

The dog has done his part: he's learned what to do. Now it's up to the owners to do their part: give this dog a job to do and a way to entertain himself.

Valentine's Day with Your Dog

Valentine's Day isn't just for people. Here are some ideas to help you share Valentine's Day with your dog.

1. Find an extra half-hour in your schedule and spend some time giving your dog belly rubs.
2. Get out and take a nice long walk with your bud.
3. Plan play-time. What are your dog's favorite toys? Get 'em all out and have a grand old time. 
4. Invite some of his dog pals, too!
5. Give your dog an extra-special treat in his food bowl. Something really yummy that's a special treat. Maybe some yogurt? Cream cheese?  
6. And before you do that, scrub out those food and water bowls until they sparkle.
7. Get a cool new collar for your pal. And a new leash, too!
8. Spend a few minutes with your dog, enjoying the quiet (or the chaos - whichever suits you both!).
   

Photo Art

That (big) picture of Tango was taken by my husband while we were on vacation at Lake Anna. It's a great shot - I love everything about it. As a surprise, my husband had the photo put on canvas -- 18" x 20" to be exact. It's fantastic.

I had to place it near my other photos so you could get a feel for the scale of the canvas. This isn't where the picture will stay; we're still trying to figure out where it will look best, but for now, I'm really liking it's location. It's right next to my desk, so I can glance up and see it.

If you're interested in getting a canvas made of a photograph of your own dogs (or anything, really), go to Canvas On Demand. They've got lots of photographs in their portfolio and the prices are quite reasonable. If you get one done, send me an email with a picture! (No, I don't get paid by them, we're just satisfied customers.)

Reinforcement Works for Us, Too

You know that reinforcement works for your dog: reinforce your dog for good behaviors and they'll happen more often.

It also works for us people, as well. Take camping for instance...

The picture was taken at Rocky Gap on a camping trip several years ago. We love to camp - there's nothing better! You can see that all three dogs agree with us, too. (L-R is Lucky, Lily, and Tango.) Every time we go camping, we discover something new. Maybe it's a new spot to camp, a great view, or a fun new trail to hike with the dogs. We have such a good time camping that we're very likely to go again. That's reinforcement at work!

Or how about this for reinforcement: I'm reading a really good book right now. One that I can't wait to dive into whenever I have 5 minutes to myself. So as the alarm rings at 5:30a and I'm struggling to open my eyes, I think "Oooh, get up, hurry! When you get to the gym, you can read your book!" I popped up out of bed lickety-split and was at the gym in record time. AND (the best part) I stayed on the StairMaster even longer than I'd planned. All because reading this book is so reinforcing to me. Now all I have to do is keep finding books that I love to read!

So find something you like to do and use it as a reinforcer (reward) to get the less desirable tasks done. Hate to do yard work? Download some good tunes and listen to them on your MP3 player as you work. Hate doing laundry? Reward yourself with a fancy coffee after you're done. Hate to clean the kitchen? Tape some of your favorite shows and watch them while you're cleaning!

The possibilities are endless, just remember that reinforcement helps US as much as it does our dogs. Don't be afraid to be generous with yourself, too, just like you are to your dog.

Rawhide Thief

I've been meaning to get more video on the blog because it can really be helpful. But before I do any real recording, I need to make sure I know what I'm doing behind (and in front of) the camera. So today I thought I'd take some silly video of the dogs eating rawhide. It's amazing what you can see on video that you'd normally miss otherwise.

Watch how Nemo visibly stiffens and freezes right before Lily moves in. That's a beautiful warning, along with the growl, to let Lily know she's on thin ice. I probably would have missed it if I was just watching them, not taping them.

I plan to get more video on here soon, especially of nail trimming! So if you haven't yet subscribed to my free newsletter, Your Smart Dog, what are you waiting for? February's article was all about how to make nail trimming more enjoyable for both you and your dog. So go download that article, then watch this blog for some nail trimming video...

Confrontation

Too many people still believe the old-fashioned, outdated, dangerous, (and cruel) way to treat aggressive behavior in dogs is with confrontational techniques. People who call me for help have almost always tried to "dominate" their dog when it growled. Qualified trainers and veterinarians have known for some time that these confrontational techniques won't treat the problem, and almost always lead to even more aggression.

Unfortunately, there are charismatic and entertaining people on so-called reality shows that continue to perpetuate the dominance and confrontational techniques, much to the detriment of dogs everywhere.

Finally, scientific research is being done proving that these confrontational techniques lead to more aggressive behavior. See the 2009 published research from the University of Pennyslvania.