Partying or panicking? How to be a separation anxiety sleuth
By Julie Naismith Dogs like company. They like being with us. I heard Dr. John Bradshaw say in a radio interview this week that ”All dogs hate being left on their own. You can train dogs to be ok with being on their own. But you do need to train them”. And some dogs hate being alone so much they tip over into full-blown anxiety. They’re not just unhappy that you’ve left them. They’re in a panic. But how do you know which it is? Are they disappointed you left… Continued
Bring Your Dog Inside, Have a Better Relationship and Much More Fun
I believe that a large majority of dogs would probably exchange the biggest backyard in the world for quality time with their owners. Yet apartment dwellers are sometimes frowned upon for owning a dog. Here in Australia, however, strata laws are changing in favor of pet owners and renters. Personally, I firmly believe that dogs can live happily in an apartment with appropriate care and enough mental and physical stimulation Dogs are very social animals, they want to be part of the family and they thrive on companionship. These days we… Continued
Prepare Clients for Potential Emergencies
As I write this, huge areas of Northern California are on fire. I lived in Sonoma County for a while and have many friends there. I now live in Missoula, Montana, where we had a brutal fire season. Tens of thousands of people have had to evacuate their homes due to the fires. Over the summer, thousands more in Texas, Florida, and the Caribbean evacuated due to hurricanes. What happens to all of those people’s pets? Here during the most intensive fire activity, two local organizations helped with pet and… Continued
How to Teach Your Deaf (and Blind) Dog to be Quiet
By Debbie Bauer I’m always amused when people find out my dogs are deaf. One of their first questions is, “Do they bark?” Oh yes, and boy, can they bark! Some deaf dogs have a very high-pitched bark. Some have a deeper bark. You may hear that deaf dogs bark more than hearing dogs. Some people may even tell you this is because they can’t hear themselves so they don’t know they are barking. The truth is that dogs bark! It is a trait specific to dogs. And deaf dogs… Continued
Spook Night, Fireworks and Dogs Don’t Mix!
In the United States, Halloween is widely celebrated and can be a challenge for dogs (see Halloween Hazards for Pets), while here in the United Kingdom, Bonfire night on November 5 is fast approaching – great fun for most of us but not so great if you happen to be a dog! This subject is re-hashed every single year, but I want to deal with things succinctly from a behavioural point of view and specifically of course, from a dog’s viewpoint. Leave Him At Home! You know, this is so simple!… Continued
My Dogs Do Know Sit! A Hint for Training the Sit Stay
Turns out my dogs do know sit. About two years ago, I wrote a post called, “My Dogs Don’t Know Sit!”. I described how my dogs couldn’t hold a sit stay when I stood still right in front of them. I analyzed the problem, and my conclusion was that part of the cue for them to stay was actually my walking away from them. This was probably because I added distance too soon when originally training the stay. I ended up with the perverse situation that my dogs would hold… Continued
Why Prong Collars Hurt
Prong collars, also called pinch collars, are metal chain collars for dogs that include links of prongs whose ends press into the dog’s neck. When a dog pulls on leash, moves out of position, or is “corrected” with a quick snap of the leash, force is exerted on the dog’s neck through the points of contact of the prongs. Force is also exerted in these situations when the dog is wearing a flat collar. A correction applied to a dog on a flat collar can also be uncomfortable or… Continued
Halloween Hazards for Pets
Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. A bag full of treats and scary costumes make me happy, but these things can be a real terror for some pets. Hazards come in two flavors: environmental and edibles. I once trained a Dachshund puppy named Sparky* and he was a happy little guy, until he entered adolescence and a developmental fear stage. Then he became alarmed at every person passing by his home. He often stood guard at the window waiting for scary things to bark at. For Sparky, environmental things… Continued
An Open Letter To Pet Owners About The Pet Professional Guild’s Shock-Free Coalition
According to the American Pet Products Association (2017), 68 percent of Americans return home to a pet (or pets) each day. An estimated 48 percent of US residents are dog owners while 38 percent share their home with a cat (or cats). In spite of this, for many people, more time is spent planning the family vacation than on bringing a pet into the home. Compounded by the fact that many of us not only work full time and raise children, we are also swamped with family commitments and countless… Continued
Just Say No to Saying “NO!”
It’s almost a reflex. There goes Rover, in hot pursuit of the cat, or gnawing on the sofa, or slurping at your dinner plate, or barking threats at squirrels…and we just need it to STOP, so we shout “NO!” Then one of several things happens: The behavior pauses for a split second, then resumes. Or, if you have a “soft” dog whose feelings are easily bruised, he’ll hang his head and beg for forgiveness–knowing you’re displeased but not necessarily knowing why. An independent and tenacious dog like mine will assume… Continued
How Cats Play
By Beth Adelman Playing with your cat is not just fun and games. Play relieves boredom and stress, and can even help control behavior problems. In fact, a wide variety of feline behavior problems, from aggression to destructiveness to self-mutilation to inappropriate elimination to obsessive chewing, can be helped or managed by adding regular interactive play to a cat’s day. All Play Is Hunting The most important thing to remember is that for cats, play is always a form of hunting. Real prey is clever enough to make the hunt… Continued
Pet Professional Guild celebrates launch of Shock-Free Coalition with week of events, summit ticket giveaway
Successful first week for global initiative that seeks elimination of electric shock devices in animal training, consumer transparency for pet guardians seeking professional advice TAMPA, Fla. – Oct. 2, 2017 – PRLog — The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) has celebrated the launch of its Shock-Free Coalition (www.shockfree.org) with a week of special events that included interviews with several canine behavior experts, a host of interactive social media activities, and culminated in the giveaway of 10 tickets to its annual educational summit (https://petprofessionalguild.com /2017-Orlando), taking place in Orlando, Florida on November… Continued
No Magic Bullet
A recent New York Times article discussed growing skepticism of a common test that supposedly assesses dogs’ aggressive tendencies. The test uses a fake hand, called an Assess-A-Hand, to “determine” whether a dog will be aggressive in protecting his food bowl. The idea is to identify dangerously aggressive dogs in shelters. In many cases, this is done so that aggressive dogs could be “euthanized,” leaving scarce resources for the more adoptable, non-aggressive dogs. However, the concept of culling dangerously aggressive dogs is tough to put into practice. The Assess-A-Hand test, like any test, is… Continued
Pet Professional Guild launches Shock-Free Coalition to end use of electric shock as training tool for pets
Initiative calls for the worldwide elimination of shock devices in animal training, care, management, and behavior modification; seeks consumer transparency for pet owners seeking professional advice The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) has launched the Shock-Free Coalition, a global advocacy campaign which aims to end the practice of using electric shock to train, manage, and care for pets, build a strong and broad movement committed to eliminating shock devices from the supply chain, and create transparency on the methods used for consumers seeking professional advice on pet behavior or training issues.… Continued
Ping Pong Recalls
When I ask new puppy owners ‘what are the most important objectives for you and your new pup?’ you can bet that right at the very top of that list is ‘I want to be able to let my dog off lead and for her to come back when called!’ I think that’s pretty reasonable – most of us have at some time experienced those palpitations when you’re calling and calling AND calling and there’s no response – isn’t that the best relief when that little head pops up? So, what… Continued
Using Annoying or Scary Sounds for Dog Training
Let’s pretend you saw an ad for a new dog training product. It read something like this: Introducing the Noise-Aided Obedience Device (NOD)! Never have trouble with your dog again. When you jerk or flap the lead attached to your dog’s collar or harness to punish him or to force him into the correct position, the device adds a noise that makes the leash jerking or flapping extra unpleasant. You can get instant compliance! That is, for some dogs. Some won’t be bothered by the noise or will get used… Continued
Professional Training and Pet Sitting
As a professional dog trainer and behavior consultant I developed a working relationship with hundreds of families over the years, and many pet owners have asked for my recommendation when they needed a pet sitter or dog walker. This often arose when there was a planned vacation, a wedding or an unplanned absence from home. Some folks did not want to board their pets and for others that simply was not an option, as many of my dog clients are anxious or fearful of strangers. It was always difficult to… Continued
Front Door Freakout
If you come to my house, brace yourself. You walk up the stairs, ring the doorbell. Suddenly…the shrieking of a hundred banshees? Maybe an exorcism in progress? Or fiery-eyed, froth-mawed Cerberus guarding the gates of Hades? Nope. It’s my people-loving hound Huckleberry going freakshow crazy at the front door. Sometimes trainers’ own dogs can make people doubt our training chops. Maybe it’s that we fall in love with “project” dogs, with issues so bedeviling we’re sure no one else will put up with them. We bring home these fixer-upper pups, and… Continued
Pain Underlying
By Dr. Lynn Bahr Most people who work professionally with cats know what stoic creatures they are and how well they can hide their pain. There are many different theories as to why this is. Until relatively recently, it was thought cats did not experience pain at all, based purely on the fact that they tend not to show it. Some people — including some feline professionals — even still believe this, despite significant advances to the contrary. It is an astounding reality that, in the year 2017, we still… Continued
It is Unwise to Say, “Just Ignore the Problem Behavior!”
By Niki Tudge Last week, while perusing my Facebook news feed while I drank my morning coffee, I came across a link to a blog advocating for force-free dog training methods. This short blog had a video link which was showing a dog trainer punishing a dog for a problematic behavior. In summary, the positive reinforcement trainer was quoted as saying “encouraging the behaviors we want and ignoring behaviors we don’t, is the correct and positive way to train your pup without using physical force”. I always try to read… Continued
Do Helicopter Moms Impede Pups’ Success?
Talk about a tough graduate research assignment: Watching puppy videos. Where can I sign up? Seriously … it’s been done. A research team watched hundreds of hours of video of puppies interacting with their moms. The goal was to evaluate how the way moms treated their very young puppies affected the pups’ future success as guide dog candidates. But the results are interesting to any dog lover. An early paper by the team, led by researcher Emily Bray, looked at variations in maternal style. A later paper, just out, looks… Continued
“Naughty” Dog Or Normal Dog?
I’ve lost count as to how many times I’ve heard that Fido is ‘really naughty,’ ‘he’s doing it deliberately,’ ‘he’s trying to spite me,’ or, if an owner has more than one dog, ‘they’re trying to gang up on me!’ But are these labels in any way helpful? Let’s consider this for a moment. Ask yourself ‘Why?’ before reacting The number one point I would like all dog owners to consider when their dog is not responding in the way they would like their dog to respond is ask a simple question… Continued
Having a Bit More Fun with Our Dogs
When I got my first dog as a child no one in the family knew much about dogs, puppy preschool classes were unheard of and the average dog just somehow became part of the family. My father mainly got the dog because I probably pestered him for too long. He was a Dalmatian called Lord, he was not very well trained but loved to run and he ran a lot. He spent a lot of time with us children, he went on holidays, barked at people coming to the house… Continued
So Tell Me What You Want, What You Really Really Want: Nine Ways Preference Testing Can Go Wrong
What’s your favorite color? Do you prefer pie or ice cream? Which shirt do you like better: the striped one or the solid green one? Most of us have been asked our preferences since we were children. Sometimes we are being asked to make a choice: if we choose the striped shirt we won’t be wearing the green one also. If we are asked to choose enough times, our preferences often become clear. With the best intentions, many of us are attempting to determine our dogs’ preferences by trying to offer them choices. There are quite a… Continued
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