“Be NICE!”
If I’m a dog, and I’m on a leash, and another dog invades my space, I’m gonna growl. That’s just how I feel. Back the heck off, pal! I can’t get away from you, on account of I’m on a leash! That means you need to get away from me. Please and thank you. Plain and simple. So how come my person chides me and snaps, “Be NICE!” What?! I am nice. I just don’t want this guy all up in my business. How about my person could be nice and get… Continued
Taming the Beast
Written by Diane Garrod BSc, this article was originally published in BARKS from the Guild, June 2014. Managing an aggressive dog is a permanent commitment but it is most definitely possible. Owning an aggressive dog creates immediate liability. It is critical to use prevention and management whether your dog is at home, in the car or out on a walk. Managing an aggressive dog should be taken very seriously. It means making a clear commitment which involves never putting him in a situation where he will aggress again. This sounds… Continued
Socializing a Formerly Feral Dog
When I started this blog, I assumed that I would write a lot about Clara’s training. Clara burst into my life as a 10 week old feral puppy [see note at end about feral dogs], and her socialization window was in the process of closing by the time she came to me. I slipped in that window before it shut and was fully accepted and trusted. But she growled at all other humans, even at that young age. In general, she related to them as a wild animal would, with huge wariness of… Continued
Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes
This article was written by Barb Levenson BS and first published in BARKS from the Guild (2014, April) pp. 26-27. Are you shouting cues or asking your dog for behaviors with a soft tone of voice? In a beginner rally class one night, I had an opportunity to show the difference between using a soft tone of voice to some of my students. One of the dogs, an adolescent lab, was somewhat anxious during class. I noticed that the owner, who was a very receptive student, was ‘barking’ cues to… Continued
The Far Side Of Behavior Solutions
One of my favorite Gary Larson, Far Side cartoons, is a drawing of a girl reading a book about equine medicine with the caption, “Doreen breezes through her first semester of veterinary school.” The page shows a long list of possible horse ailments and only one antidote…shoot him! Unfortunately this is how a lot of people deal with their dog’s behavioral issues. And while symbolically shooting the dog may seem like the right thing to do, after all the dog is “behaving badly” and therefore needs to be taught a lesson;… Continued
Are We Dogs’ Best Friends?
My blog is called The Thinking Dog, so it doesn’t take a canine Einstein to figure out that I take dogs’ thinking ability seriously. But what does it mean to talk about thinking dogs? How do dogs think? What do they think about? While human thinking tends to occur primarily in words, and maybe images, what about dogs? While most dogs learn to understand many words, it’s unlikely that they think in words. Their thinking and memories are more likely to be tied to scent, which is their dominant sense,… Continued
Carrot or Stick? Is Compromise Ever Acceptable?
What if a client is so entrenched in his (or her) old-fashioned so-called “dominance” views that banging on about force-free positive methods in the first consultation is likely to alienate him altogether? What if as an individual he just can’t help being a controller and his own sense of security depends upon very tight rules and routines? People of a controlling nature may naturally be attracted to the forceful, dominance-based methods. The man I went to visit recently readily accepts his foibles and describes himself as having OCD. His wife,… Continued
Korean Meat Farm Dogs Arrive without Much Baggage
In January the Humane Society International brokered a deal with a farmer in South Korea who had been raising dogs for food. In exchange for funds to convert his operation to blueberry cultivation, he surrendered his twenty three dogs into their custody. Next thing they knew, the dogs were departing Seoul on a trans-Pacific flight to Washington, D.C., where they were divvied up among six area animal shelters, including the one where I volunteer. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX95zmnc5Zc&w=482&h=296] I confess, my reaction to this news was mixed. I’m a sucker for a… Continued
Are ‘Free-Shaped’ Dogs Better Problem Solvers?
A look at the criticisms of lure-reward training by Carmen LeBlanc MS ACAAB CPDT. First published in BARKS from the Guild, April 2014, pp. 12-18 Most professional dog trainers have heard about criticisms of lure-reward training in recent years. These criticisms have been made along with enthusiastic claims about the superiority of free-shaped (unprompted, trial-and-error) clicker training. Those of us who use free-shaping understand the enthusiasm. It is challenging and exciting to communicate with dogs in such a free-form way, developing a new behavior one small increment at a time.… Continued
Don’t Stop That Behavior, Quit It!
In my “previous life” when I was a fitness and wellness trainer, I would coach my clients to making healthy choices. I learned back then about motivation, about what it takes to set a goal, but more importantly, I learned which goals are the kinds that will stick for the long haul and which are doomed from the start. It helped me empathize with my clients, as I used to be a smoker. Sure I had stopped many times by following a plan and then when I felt particularly stressed… Continued
May Your Bowl Always Be More Than Half-Full
Can dogs be optimists? Pessimists? Many people see dogs as natural optimists. After all, dogs are very loving and amazingly forgiving of human foibles (and worse — just look at all the mistreated dogs who still love humans). Many dogs greet every stranger as a new best friend. And some dogs are sure that a car ride means fun for dogs! Cali is one of those naturally sunny, cheerful, affectionate optimists, as I wrote recently on my Thinking Dog Blog. Her mission in life is to greet every single human on… Continued
The Curious Case of the Haunted Room
Sometimes, however many questions we ask, it’s impossible to get to the bottom of just why a dog has developed a “weird” behaviour. We can see the current antecedents, but what caused it to kick in originally? In one of my recent behaviour consults I arrived to see a dog totally spooked by one room – the kitchen. All doors from outside and from the other rooms in the house led into this kitchen, so the only way to avoid the room would for greyhound Jo to stay outside. One… Continued
Do Animals Grieve?
“There is a cycle of love and death that shapes the lives of those who choose to travel in the company of animals. It is a cycle unlike any other. To those who have never lived through its turnings and walked its rocky path, our willingness to give our hearts with full knowledge that they will be broken seems incomprehensible. Only we know how small a price we pay for what we receive; our grief, no matter how powerful it may be, is an insufficient measure of the joy we… Continued
Car Woes: A Tale of Botched Socialization
Poor shivering, quivering Huckleberry. Not because it’s cold out; she couldn’t care less about that. This is fear. Huckleberry is about to experience something that makes most dogs jump for joy, and she’s beside herself with fright: She’s going for a ride in the car. Part of this is my fault. When we adopted her three years ago, Huckleberry was a country bumpkin from the wilds of western Virginia, naive to the ways of Suburbia. Like so many rescue dogs, she was overwhelmed by the kaleidoscope of odd sights… Continued
Ground Scratching: Why Does My Dog Do It?
Why do some dogs scratch with their paws after they eliminate? I recently read a discussion on Facebook about the meaning of this dog behavior. Some people’s speculations about the reasons for the behavior included: Avoiding something or another behavior (displacement) Expressing anxiety Expressing boredom Relieving stress Expressing frustration Calming oneself Calming another dog Expressing enjoyment of a previous activity Being stressed Expressing high arousal Marking (territorial) Marking by scent Marking visually Note that all but the last three of these have to do with an emotion or internal state. I was interested in… Continued
From Bait Dog to Happy Pet
By Catherine Clark He is tall, dark and handsome. His name is Jacob. And he is a five-and-a-half year-old black Labrador retriever. Jacob was my fourth foster through Labrador Retriever Rescue of Florida and was just over a year old when I began fostering him. One of my first duties as per the rescue organization was to take Jacob to see Angelica Steinker at Courteous Canine, Inc. DogSmith of Tampa. Jacob was rescued in Florida’s panhandle. When found, he was full of cuts and bites. At the vet, he was… Continued
Don’t Buy That!
The other day I was not able to get out to buy groceries, so I asked a friend if he’d mind picking up some items for me. I handed him a list which looked something like this: Don’t buy the following: Bananas Cauliflower Cereal Soy milk Swiss cheese Cherry soda So my wonderful friend came back with a bag of potato chips, apples, chocolate bar, eggs, whole milk and hamburger buns. I told him I didn’t like any of those things either. Well he was a little upset, but being… Continued
We Can Argue over TV. Our Dogs Have to Put Up with It
To take this photograph I have been searching for a football match on TV – a first! Most of my PPG blogs arise from the stories of dogs I have been working with that have got me thinking. Many of the people I visit have their TVs on all the time, whether or not they are watching anything. I myself live with someone whose hearing is not as good as my own and who has different tastes to myself. I find it impossible to concentrate on what I am doing… Continued
A Puppy in Winter
By Bob McMillan It’s true, I did not time this very well. It was Indian Summer when I got my Irish wolfhound puppy, Oona. We frolicked in the yard among the butterflies and roses. This month, Old Man Winter’s hung a big “kick me” sign on my Tennessee county. The Arctic chill let up just long enough for it to rain. Again. The yard is either slime or… frozen slime. It’s unfit for either polar bears or mud ducks. And Oona is a canine juvie now. With cabin fever. A… Continued
My Dog Said “Sorry” To My Cat. I Think.
My dog Huckleberry and my kitten Cato play rough-and-tumble games all day. Huckleberry chases Cato, Cato pounces on her neck, Huckleberry fake-bites his leg, he jumps on her belly and fake-gnaws her ear. They’re friends. Not “friends” like the dog and cat who sleep together in the dog’s bed because it’s the softest, warmest spot in the house and they both want to stake their claim to it. Real friends, who have devised a code of fair play that transcends their differences in size, strength and species. You can watch… Continued
Helping a Fearful Dog Feel Safe
If you have a fearful dog, you probably read all sorts of conflicting advice about what to do about that. Everybody’s got an opinion, and unfortunately some of them include very poor methods. Even if we rule out the methods that are obviously based on aversive practices, like prong collars or shock systems, we are not out of the woods. A lot of the suggestions made regarding fearful dogs, while well-meaning, are not helpful in the long run and can easily cause our attempts to help the dog backfire. My favorite… Continued
Dogs Scared of Men?
As Patricia McConnell says in a blog on her website: Why Dogs are More Afraid of Men, “people in the training and behavior field know that almost all shy dogs are more afraid of men than women, even if men have been nothing but kind to them their entire lives. We’ve always speculated that it had something to do with the way men walked (more assertively?) or their bigger chests, larger jaws, and/or deeper voices. But we’ve never really known for sure what it was – perhaps it is related to… Continued
“Bad” Dogs Make Good Teachers
OK, I’ll admit it, I’m having a tiny bit of puppy envy. I’m working with a private client and his 13 week old springer spaniel. This wide-eyed cutie pie has already met everyone and everything on the ASPCA socialization list except the hot air balloon (and since we’re not in Albuquerque, we can probably skip this one). He’s game for anything and well on his way to being practically bomb-proof. He’s had very few chances to develop exasperating habits. He started learning basic manners the moment he stepped through the… Continued
The Many Faces of Behavior Myopia: Recognizing the Subtle Signs
By Angelica Steinker and Eileen Anderson with additional contributions by Jan Casey and Niki Tudge. Originally published in BARKS from the Guild, October 2014. The fundamental goal of any behavior modification program should be to improve the dog’s (1) and owner’s emotional states, both during and after the process. If emotional, genetic or medical information is omitted from the functional assessment process however, the ensuing behavior modification plan will be incomplete, which not only runs the risk of recommended interventions being inappropriate and misdirected, but may also have disastrous consequences. Unfortunately,… Continued
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