Tips from Your Canine Resource

2018-05-22T20:13:00.000-07:00

How Long Should I Wait to Train My Puppy?

Either your pup is training you, or you are training your pup….they’re learning the minute their paws hit the turf!

I am often reminded the importance of training a puppy. When I see adolescent behavior issues, lack of socialization issues, and when I see people waiting to engage in training in the first place. How long people should wait to train their puppy is a most popular question. There was a ‘rumor’ that circulated years ago, and remains for many, that training is best applied at (or beyond) 6 months of age. We have since learned from reading the reams of behavioral research being done on puppies, that this could not be further from the truth.

Here are some snippets of information to support an earlier puppy training regimen:

· Your puppy is learning about her human environment from the moment she is born. It is a far better option to train habits we WANT than retraining bad habits they have learned on their own! (and they WILL pick up their own which might be a lot more fun than the way you want to do it!)

· Training and socializing go hand in hand, and with biggest socialization opportunity prior to 5 months of age, you are missing much of working them together if you wait until 6 months to begin training.

o We are all aware that during adolescent behavior it can be as if an alien has taken up residence. With generally no warning, she is now going to show her adolescent energy however she feels it. At this point in puppy, it makes so much more sense that communication is already built with a sense of manners and structure to the human world.

o For example, instead of 10 pounds jumping, there are now 50 of those pounds. Instead of just looking at the counter where yummy food is waiting to be eaten, she is now taking it for her own. Instead of a little fuzzy puppy greeting your guests at the door, now there is a blur of barking fur racing to occupy the same space.

o Therefore, “Manners Training” with her at eight weeks old is SO much easier.

· The consistency of bringing your pup in to your home with solid communication base, is a key to your consistently well-mannered pup.

· Puppy training with a coach is as much for humans as it is for their dog counterparts.

· It is less expensive to train your younger pup.

o Before any habits have been adopted, teach what you would rather have them do, than what they are wired to do naturally. Some of these natural tendencies will have a tendency to drive you mad!

· Stating the obvious, we are bringing a different species into our home. To illustrate our responsibilities a little better, lets consider if we were invited into another species home to live.

o To coexist, what would be required by them to ensure we were learning what they wanted us to know?

§ Firstly, they would need to have done a bit of research on how we learn, so they could access how to get and hold our attention

§ Then, they would need to have a plan on what they would rather us do instead of what they don’t want us to do

§ Then they would probably reach out to specialist in human behavior to help them.J

o As part of human nature, we have a better idea of what we don’t want our dogs to do than to have identified what we DO want.

§ Therefore it is essential to spend time thinking of what behavior is acceptable, and train to that…rather than spend time moving them away from what we don’t want. From training perspective, there IS a difference.

· It is ludicrous to bring a pup into our home and expect they know the English language, or alternatively have the ability to read our minds. So making and maintaining a plan on how to proceed with training is paramount to raising a less anxious puppy.

In conclusion, remember your puppy – a mere infant – is navigating the human world the best she knows how. She can’t do anything wrong, so each time you find yourself blaming her for her lack of manners, recognize it is actually a training opportunity, and congratulate yourself that you started the moment she walked into your home, making it all so much easier!

Patti Howard, BS, CCS, ACCN is training/behavior/nutrition specialist and owner of Your Canine Resource, Inc, serving the greater Olympia, WA area.

2018-05-08T18:24:00.001-07:00

“ALL SHE WANTS IS THE TREAT”

…..addressing complexities of training with food

Someone out there has put a spell on us. It was, no doubt, the many years of using more traditional style training where the use of food may have been considered ‘bribery’. When I began training in the late ’80’s, I would not have considered it, though there was a man on the horizon, Dr. Ian Dunbar, who would turn us on our compassionate ear, and begin to lead us into a way to communicate with our dogs effectively using positive reinforcement.

Since then much behavioral research has been introduced, showing the expeditious manner in which dogs learn when food is presented as reinforcement for desirable behavior, and also how it is faded when the behavior is habituated.

I will state the obvious here, because we often bring dogs into our lives with such completeness that we expect them to act like, and learn like, humans. Given they aren’t, and English is not their first language, it is unfair to expect they know it all when they arrive; however if they do, then we have been gifted an exceptional dog at reading the signals that are required to coexist. What can happen in this process, and a reason why I get called in for assistance, is that anxiety has been created, in large part, due to dogs not having enough information to feel confident they can navigate this human environment.

So, now back to the treat part….There is a huge part of her dog brain that is engaged and fascinated with how to get one of those goodies, yes. But please don’t get confused, she is also LEARNING.

With this style of teaching,

ü Learning is fun,

ü It’s interactive,

ü It’s time spent with you,

ü It’s lower stress method of introducing new and higher level learning in lower stress way

So yes, she’s probably having a lot of FUN.

Using food, we’re accessing parts of her brain that receives information, and helps her remember faster and with more hormone and neuron activity to assist us in the training process. The corner we have to take with the thinking of using food, is that it is not bribery, rather they are learning what you are reinforcing in the process. Keep in mind when your pup looks to you for that yummy goodie, there is also an imprinting process that is happening in her brain, to help her remember just what she was doing to earn it.

When we are able to provide information that is going to make all our lives easier, and she is enthused about it, then it shouldn’t matter what we are using to accomplish the process. It does matter however, the awareness of methods and timing we are using toward training, and not bribing. Complexities that can be involved with this, such as;

· When do I provide the food reward?

· How do I provide the food reward?

· When do I fade, or stretch, times of giving food reinforcement for the amount of times she is responding to my commands?

· What types of food rewards do I use?

· Where do I keep my food rewards while I’m training?

These are all perfect reasons to find a reputable trainer to help you identify when and how to apply the process. Below I provide a snippet of information, to help understand the process better, and help your comfort level of working with food.

Another misconception of training using food is that we are using bribery to get results, and that we will forever need to have food at the ready for our dogs to comply. That is not the case I’m happy to say!

Let’s use the recall as our example with puppy, Molly. As we are teaching her recall,

§ You call her to you (Molly, come!),

§ Molly comes running, and you give her food reward when she gets to you,

§ Next time you call her, she comes running and you don’t have anything!,

§ Next 2 times you call her you have something,

§ Next time you have nothing.

§ Since she has not yet learned what the word represents, which is to drop what she’s doing and come to you, then she’s learning an environmental reinforcer, which may be to look to see if you have something so she can determine whether its worth it to her to come. Therefore it is critical to her learning the command, that every time she comes to you while she is learning this word, you give her a goodie to teach her and begin building neuropathway that ‘come’ means ‘coming to you’. Then, over time, you provide what is called ‘stretching’ whereby you expect more times of her coming to you between food rewards (while still verbally excited to see her of course)

So, in future it would look like this:

§ You call her to you (Molly, come!)

§ Molly comes running, and you give her food reward for getting to you

Don’t expect anything of her when she gets there, by the way! You are building a positive association with the word right now, no other agenda.

§ Every time you call her = food reward when she gets to you.

§ When she is coming to you consistently, comprehension is high, and she appears to have a positive association with the word, begin fading the level of reinforcement, or stretching.

§ Pair food reward with verbal praise, as when you fade the food, eventually, the verbal will remain

Many say, ‘my dog is not food motivated’. What this translates for a trainer is that the reinforcement value of the food is not sufficient to get her attention in that environment. I often make a recommendation in beginning training protocol, to lift the bowl during feeding times instead of feeding her all of those training opportunitiesJ This doesn’t mean she is going hungry, it means you may wish to begin by doing the following

· Measure out the amount of food you feed each meal

· Use this food in your daily training regimen, both for active and passive training…and reinforce heavily. Examples:

o Active = taking 5 minutes to work on a command

o Passive = reinforcing when she sits down when greets you coming home, rather than jumping

· Spike her food with some cooked liver or chicken gizzard, meatballs, or some other such goodie (when thawing a frozen goodie, it helps all the kibble in the bowl taste yummier. This is your friend when you are expanding your dogs training bubble. The higher the value, the higher the relevance in that environment!

· Purchase ‘treats’ from the pet store, or make them yourself, to provide variety

· Reward with small bite morsels. It is distracting and takes time for your dog to be chewing large biscuits during training.

· If you’re concerned about weight gain during training time, increase her exercise quotient, or feed from what you would have during mealtime.

· Keep treats in various places around the house to reinforce behavior as it occurs. I call this passive training….you have not asked for it, but she may be drawing from former reinforcement experience that this is what you want)

o Examples of this is lying on her bed when you sit down to eat your meal, sits instead of jumping on you, running to the window and not barking at the passerby, and so on.

I hope from this, you imagine your future of handing her a food reward as a learning experience rather than bribery! When it occurs to you that ‘she’s only doing it for the treat’, remind yourself that THIS IS the learning process. The vehicle to introduce her to this foreign language of ours just happens to taste really good.

Now, what in the world do you want your dog to learn, and I’ll show you a yummy way to accomplish it!!!

Patti Howard BS, CCS, ACCN is specialist in dog behavior, training and nutrition in the greater Olympia area.

LEASH-WALKING: WHO'S WALKING WHO?

2017-08-01T10:24:00.004-07:00

by Your Canine Resource

Let’s bring leash walking into the conversation! 98% of my clients either;

1. Have a request to change leash-walking habits that are occurring with their dogs;

2. They have accepted the fate that walking with their dog on leash is a punishing event that they simply must endure; OR

3. They cease walking altogether.

Which one are you?

You will know whether you are in management -or -manners with your dog on leash if one of the following sounds most familiar:

Leash Walking Management: The act of bringing your dog back to the place you wish them to walk. Oftentimes this is done while also saying ‘Heel’ with a strong pull on the leash, an act that may even obtain looser leash for a moment. This can make for a frustrating (and possibly painful) walk for all. Many people have confused this act of bringing her back to the desired position as ‘training’, “she knows what I want, she just doesn’t do it”.

Leash Walking ‘Manners: Your pup has been trained where you want her when you snap the leash on. Period. You have communicated consistently, what ‘walk nice’ or ‘heel’ means, and she has strong association with where you want her to be while you’re walking. You have taken the time to train her. Thus she is not putting tension on the leash and it is a happy leash. The difference is clear, a more enjoyable walk for you both!

You are managing behavior if your dog does not have a clear understanding of the behavior YOU are looking for. When your dog has a clear understanding, in all environments, then training is occurring.

With Stella sitting on the couch, she was able to describe in great detail pulling the bits of asphalt out of her street wounds and the sting of grass burn on the side of her face. The deep red wounds on her elbows were still visible. Stella and Doug Miller invited me in to assess some behaviors that had become unbearable with their 2-year-old German Shorthair Pointer, Pepper. They were truly at the end of their rope, I mean, leash.

The story, which may be familiar to some, is that Stella had recently been walking Pepper when an off leash neighbor dog ran out to them, surprising both, but eliciting lunge response from Pepper. She ran at such force toward this dog and traffic that Stella lost her balance, went down and was dragged across the lawn holding a death grip on the leash. She did however hold tight, and Pepper eventually wound down to a stop. With fear that this had potential of happening again in the weeks that followed, strict angry wielding of the leash ensued. She “must establish herself as leader from now on”. [What does that even mean? With brains only a fraction the size of ours, and no access to the human species sociology lesson, how would they even go about that? Have any of us asked how human that sounds?] I digress.

To them this was not a question of whether she was trained to walk on a leash, but a clear signal that she was bossing them around. From ‘leader’ standpoint, it has as many holes as a sprinkler. Rather, it is a clear indication that the behavior is reinforced on some level, and since reinforced behavior has a high probability of continuing to occur, then it makes perfect sense why Pepper continues to pull where she wants to go. Pepper simply has not adjusted her own behavior! They need a plan.

What did our walk with Pepper look like?

As they removed her harness from the hook, they were able to chase her down, get it hooked up…we all sighed with relief that this first acrobatic maneuver was accomplished. Although there was a bit of frustration from Doug and Stella, it was nothing compared to what was to come.

They opened the door and she raced out ahead, reaching the end of the leash with pain recorded on Doug’s face. Presumably from Peppers point of view, she is in her environment, with all those scent receptors she was putting into action, and was ready to gather as much information in as short a time as she could. Doug and Stella did not exist any longer, except as an irritant of the other end of her leash. These behaviors escalated, pulling them to and fro, and I knew I had seen all I needed to see for the following protocol to be put in place.

A condensed version of a similar leash training plan as follows:

· Choose a new word for walking on leash with your dog. (They chose to use ‘walk nice’)

· Choose a walking tool that is kind. A harness is a widely accepted tool. A ‘choke chain’, ‘prong collar’ or any other such options for hooking the leash is unacceptable. You will be apt to stay in management with these tools, as they are typically used for dogs that are coined ‘difficult to control’. These types of tools that cause discomfort can be thrown way away when you have applied successful training protocol. This will also be discussed at length in reactivity segment.

· Your dog is calm when putting on harness and leash, with conditioning for her to walk into her own harness. No more chasing around the room, that game’s over! At least as far as the leash and harness are concerned.

· Reliable ‘wait’ command, and release through door

· Orientation command in place going out the front door, so your dogs eyes are on you instead of fixated on what is happening in the ‘hood, outside the door.

· High value reinforcement, and high rate of reinforcement:

o High value reinforcement: consider using something you only use when walking. High value may be bits of chicken, freeze dried animal parts, (beginning every 2 steps, and move up gradually from there).

o High rate of reinforcement: recognize your dog has been walking a certain way for period of time, and hasn’t gotten the memo that you are changing it up. It is fair, then, to give her as much information as you can while walking, and reinforce accordingly. It is important that your dog make the association of the new behavior often and with most yummy currency.

· The first few minutes of walk is dedicated to sniffing. Sniffing is notoriously calming signal for our dogs, so you are ahead in offering your dog the opportunity to engage if that is a way that helps de-stress. Humans are often quite task oriented, we have certain amount of time, certain route, answer texts/emails to respond….watch your dog.

· Leash walking manners in the house and back yard only until ‘walk nice’ has relevance, that it is trained, and loose leash has been accomplished. Begin walking in front of house only AFTER success is guaranteed in the house and yard.

· If your dog goes back to her pulling ways, stop and wait for her to move back toward you. At which point, and this is very important part of the whole procedure, the reinforcement is not provided until Pepper is back in position and walking nicely again. If it is provided earlier, Pepper may learn that pulling and coming back to you is what you are looking for. Be very clear that the only time she gets a treat from you is when she is in area by your side, with a happy leash, or a leash with no tension!

· Begin working in lowest distractive environments, until you become more relevant partners with the leash.

· Recognize that if the walking surface is so hot that you cannot hold your hand on it for 5 seconds, then do not consider expecting your dogs paws being able to handle it either. Not only will it be painful, it may also be why your dog is in a hurry, thus pulling on the leash.

· Note; Like many dogs, Pepper has exhibited leash reactivity toward several triggers in her environment, so they are staying very close to home where they can turn and get back home quickly in the event a mean ole’ trigger shows up. In this segment, I am addressing leash-walking, not reactivity-on-leash. Although reactivity issues are addressed with reliable leash walking manners in place, much more protocol is put in place to modify this highly emotional response to your dog’s environment. Well-trained leash walking manners is a must to modify reactivity, while on leash, but alone is not the fix. It will be fun to talk in the next blog about one of THE most popular calls that come into my call center with is reactivity while our dogs are on leash.

BTW, the Millers have been enjoying following their protocol to the letter, because it has improved Peppers relevance to walking on leash. It’s not such a punishing experience, so she gets walked more often. Doug and Stella have quit the exhausting job of managing Pepper’s leash walking and adopted training her to the manners they want instead. Win!

Next blog we move on to reactivity work, and her dislike of large black and small white dogs, squirrels, bicycles and skateboards.

Patti Howard, BS, CCS is behavior and training specialist, and owner of Your Canine Resource in Olympia WA. Be on watch for her upcoming book, ‘Your Dog Can’t Do Anything Wrong’, due to be out in Spring 2018.

DOG FOOD AND ATTITUDE; what our dogs eat and how it may be affecting ability to change behavior

2017-03-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

DOG FOOD AND ATTITUDE

What our dogs eat and how it may be affecting ability to change behavior

I was excited to have an appointment with Craig and his dog Jake last week. Craig’s original complaints for me to address were counter surfing, excessive whining, barking at what appeared to be ‘nothing’ and leash pulling. It quickly came to my attention how dull his coat looked and felt as I reached out to pet his German Shepherd frame. When I probed what Craig had been feeding, he responded, ‘I’m spending a lot of money on premium kibble! How would a change in his food affect his coat and behavior?’

So begins our discussion.

Jake is on a 95% kibble diet, and has been for 3.5 years. (treats making up the other 5%). The kibble company spends a tremendous amount of money overriding our common sense approach that anyone eating the same anything for 3.5 years are at risk for experiencing potential problems. Add to this that kibble is a highly processed, nutritionally devoid, carbohydrate-ridden food.

Craig has been feeling as though he was upgrading when he began feeding Jake ‘grain free’ and while this has been a positive direction for kibble companies to travel with their formula, there is still a HUGE carbohydrate load to these foods.

Awareness of human and canine nutrition and its affect on body/mind chemistry is a tap on my shoulder when I hear people tell stories of dog dilemmas. For Jakes situation:

1. Can we blame a dog that is not getting his nutritional needs met when they forage on a counter?

2. Is it fair to punish the counter surfing behavior, and not a potentially strong physiological need behind it?

3. Is it realistic to ask whether highly processed food could be manipulating his blood sugar, contributing to anxious displays (whining) of behavior? If we were to consider the effects of nutrition on our human bodies, there has been much research to determine that what we eat can (and does) affect our behavior, so is not a huge leap to consider any other living form is affected as well.

Consider these facts and participate with me in a little exercise:

· Begin with a piece of paper with 100% written at the top.

· Subtract the % of protein, % fat, and % moisture listed on the back of the kibble bag you feed,

· The remainder you see is carbohydrate composition of the food!

· Most will be surprised to witness this amount in excess of 40% (in other words, you are picking it up in the yard after your dog has spent time and energy processing it)

o Now consider that your dog operates optimally at between 11 and 18% carbohydrate intake for his system to function optimally.

Now lets look at the first six ingredients in Jakes food:

Herring meal

Potatoes

Sweet potato

Canola oil

Pea protein

Rice

That is the bulk of the food right there, and the remainders of ingredients aren’t any more flattering. How can a company have good conscience marketing this to us, who wish to do right by our dog. This particular formula rendered 52% carbs for Jake to digest, and there is no real substantive nutritional value in this at all. Dogs are carnivores, and the meat is missing!

When our dogs consume more carbs than their body can use, a list of problems can arise including (but certainly not limited to); blood sugar instability, digestive issues, obesity, imbalance with intestinal bacteria, allergies, arthritis, seizures, cancer, anxiety, and the list is growing with research. Carbs can bind vitamins and minerals in the intestines, whisking them out of their bodies with no chance of absorption. Now consider that one of the many duties of B vitamins, for instance, is as a calming influence, as well as capacity to improve brain function. Behavior problems that are rooted in anxiety, which is of course the opposite of calm, may be affected by not getting enough B vitamins.

Speaking to a dogs’ species appropriate diet and prior to when kibble came to be, Jake (this time of year for example) would be feeding on bunnies. He would be eating the innards of the bunny first to assist in digestion of the protein, bone, organs and fur they were about to consume. So this would consist of vegetation the bunny had eaten, packed with B vitamins, digestive enzymes, and probiotics that all help the body absorb food optimally. The enzymatic value of fresh food has been found to also help naturally remove plaque from teeth, and keep it off. Kibble cannot replicate this process. Maybe the ingredients that went into it at one time were nutritionally viable, but that was a very long time before your purchase.

Kibble companies would also have you believe that there is ‘better kibble’ than another. This may be the case for the integrity of the ingredients they applied to the recipe; however, beyond that, each and every kibble goes through the same nutrition degradation process in the highly processing procedure.

Below are some ideas for canine species appropriate (fresh, real food) commercial and convenient options to a highly processed kibble that are available:

· Commercially prepared raw diets:

o Darwin’s, is delivered to your door on auto ship basis

o Northwest Naturals

o Stella and Chewys

o K9 Naturals

o Tuckers

o Answers

· Commercially prepared dehydrated diets:

o Stella and Chewys

o K9 Naturals

o Northwest Naturals

o Addiction

And ideas for Movie Night! Suggestions to bring ideas for further discussion:

· ‘Pet Fooled’ Video: http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/petfooled

· ‘Supersize Me’ Video: http://documentary-movie.com/super-size-me/

Please note, I am NOT suggesting replacing nutrition advice for behavior advice! Although I have witnessed what I consider miracles with a shift in nutrition, I am addressing it here more from the perspective that unless you have as much information about your dog as possible, then a behavior modification plan may be compromised. If a behavior is not responding to protocol that has been revised appropriately, it makes sense to investigate our dog’s physiology – and how they are FEELING!

In terms of Jake’s behaviors, I’m thrilled to say Craig’s now looking to his food bowl as potentially part of the solution. We are working diligently on Jake’s issues, as he has been reinforced in many ways, but we will save that for another chapter. Furthermore, Jakes coat is shining, and he loves mealtime!

There is still much to learn in the area of dog nutrition, many scientific case studies to be performed; however, we can take the gift that research has given us to move in the right direction. With all the good intentions of feeding what the kibble companies would have us believe is the highest quality food, we are picking up much of our money with a pooper-scooper.

For references of dietary suggestions, to learn how to begin feeding a more natural diet, or to unlock the mystery of the ingredient list on your bag of kibble, please contact Patti Howard for a copy of nutritional recommendations, free, via www.yourcanineresource.com Patti is Certified Specialist in Canine Training/Behavior, and holds Advanced Canine Nutritional Certification. Patti is convinced with 25 years experience in these areas that Your Dog Can’t Do Anything Wrong, as will be interpreted by her book of the same name, available this fall/winter.

YOUR DOG CAN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG; as in the title of Patti's book!

2017-02-20T20:25:00.001-08:00

Your Dog Can't Do Anything Wrong (just consider it a training opportunity)

What kind of feelings come up when you hear that your dog cannot do anything wrong? Does your primate kick in and defend its position in your relationship? If our dogs aren’t listening it must be because THEY are wrong! Right?

From my years in responding to requests for behavior modification, most people misunderstand (and therefore label) a lack of compliance from their dog as being ‘stubborn’ or ‘willful’. We are assuming in that statement that the dogs brain is sophisticated to the degree that those labels are fair. For the sake of conversation here, I have seen dogs hesitate complying with a command, (which may be more common in certain breeds, you know who you are) though by and large many more times they are simply not understanding what we are attempting to communicate.

What is apparent to me as a teacher is that in order to recognize a training opportunity, it will be helpful to recognize when you are feeling they are being stubborn or willful. Let that be your information, not your frustration! Take a step back to ask if you have trained them to the level you are asking. Taking responsibility, as their humans, to help them learn what you are communicating IS the training opportunity.

In the simplest of terms, if our dogs don’t know what it is we are communicating, it falls on us.

Let’s look at the human experience of communication, for example. The way we communicate is if we do not get a response, or the one we’re expecting, we tend to repeat the same thing over and over, possibly louder and louder. Whether we know they are hearing us or not, it’s apparent they aren’t listening. Therefore, this is the way we tend to communicate with our dogs, and it is as ineffective, if not more so. They can hear a potato chip drop in the next room, significant to ‘hearing’ not being the problem. Since English is not their first language, I suggest slowing down a bit, training them to hear our first request, and not repeating as though we were in a burning building. Sit, SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT! This is a most INeffective way of communicating with a species that is adept at reading energy.

Here’s a training opportunity story:

Your dog, Pearl, slides out the front door and is on an all out, ears-flapping-in-the-wind run for a passer-by and their dog. You call out to her to come back, then again louder, all the while chasing after her full speed, in panic. Game-On! So, aside from feeling embarrassed, angry or frustrated, how are you going to react in this scenario?

According to Pearl, she’s not being stubborn to not come to you. Rather she is in an exciting, low threshold environment for her. So where is the training opportunity in this, and how is it she isn’t doing anything wrong? Simply put, you may have worked with Pearl’s recall in your home, or in the fenced yard, but have not taught her to come to you in a highly distractive environment. She has likely not generalized that coming to you in the house is the same as when she is excitedly running after something. The training opportunity is training her when she’s running away from you, and this requires hours of practice with her on long line running after things, and coming back to you when called. It requires that it works for her to whip around and run to you when called, and practicing the recall when she’s running toward different yummy things will accomplish this for you.

I will add that no amount of frustration or anger for not coming will teach your dog a thing, except possibly that if it wasn’t fun to come when called before, it certainly isn’t now.

Consider the association she has with how it feels to come to you. Have the times she has come to you ever been aversive? Have you called her out of the back yard (where she was having a blast) and then locked her in the house for 8 hours while you rushed off to work? Have you called her numerous times (missing the training opportunity) and so frustrated when she finally got to you that you exhibited anger? That would explain the next time you call her to you and she hesitates, or that she possibly does NOT come at all. Instead, in this scenario, make a game of running into the house with you, or having her wait while you leash her up and she walks nicely into the house with you. This will help you achieve your goal, with no breakdown to the recall command.

THESE are ideas of how you design the recall to ‘work for her’.

In order to fully train your dog to your communication, it is important for you to generalize the communication with her. There are ways to incrementally introduce levels of training to your dog that will help build confidence and levels of compliance, showing that taking advantage of a training opportunity is rich in rewards for you both. In this series, we will explore many more training opportunities and how to recognize when they’re presenting themselves.

In conclusion, if your dog ‘blows off’ a command, pack your frustration and anger away, and look for your training opportunity, because they aren’t doing it wrong, they just don’t yet know how to do it RIGHT!

Patti Howard BS, CCS is certified in Canine Behavior and Nutrition, and owner of Your Canine Resource in Olympia WA www.yourcanineresource.com

A HEATLHY CANINE THANKSGIVING FEAST

2015-11-24T16:40:00.001-08:00

Before we launch into holiday foods for our furries, a behavioral reminder: It takes a long time to reorient begging behavior if you feed from the table on this or any other day. Begging behavior results from reinforcement. In short, dogs beg if it works. And Thanksgiving is notorious for dogs receiving scraps at (or near) the table.

As we sit down with family and friends to our Thanksgiving feast, our dogs with eyes (and noses) are longingly engaged. There are seasonal foods our dogs can enjoy with us. What we may not be aware of is how the preparation of these good foods can affect their digestibility for dogs. The more we season, butter, spice and salt our food, the less digestible it becomes for them.

Speaking of digestibility, there are many who feed a daily ritual of kibble, and then one or two days a year, feel tempted to load their dogs up with rich food. Doing so is likely to upset your dog’s system and make for a miserable evening of gas, diarrhea and even vomiting, depending on how healthy your dog’s digestive tract is.

Let’s run down the short list of our typical holiday meal, with the taboo ingredients in RED.

TURKEY: This protein, like all fresh proteins, is wonderfully good food for our pups, unless it’s too highly seasoned. Go ahead and treat your dogs to chunks of white meat in their bowl. And don’t forget bone broth, which is especially beneficial to dogs. Simply boil it up after removing the meat from the carcass.

If you can’t resist throwing your dog a turkey treat, make sure to remove both COOKED BONE and FATTY SKIN. They can create havoc in a sensitive system.

STUFFING: This is in the RED for our dogs, who don’t tolerate wheat well.

GREEN BEANS: Before the ONION is added, throw a few green beans in the blender, or offer as a treat whole.

POTATOES: …if you must. Potatoes aren’t bad for a dog, yet the BUTTER, SALT, SOUR CREAM added take this tuber over the top. Scoop out a little before adding all of the good stuff and add it to the blender with other goodies. Believe me, it will settle better.

GRAVY: Nope. Nothing good can come from this.

CRANBERRIES: Tart as they are, cranberries are fine. If you want to blend a few in with those green beans and potatoes, all will be healthier! If you happen to add RAISINS AND GRAPES into anything, avoid sharing it with your dog. They are toxic.

PUMPKIN: Canned pumpkin is an amazing ingredient for our dogs. If you feed your dog one extra thing all day, make it pumpkin! It is loaded with nutrients while also acting as anti-inflammatory and helping to prevent tummy upset. Note that this should be the 100% blended pumpkin, not CANNED PUMPKIN PIE FILLING, which is full of sugar. Your best bet is to scoop the unseasoned blended pumpkin into your dog’s bowl. Or, better yet, toss some into the blender (before it has turned into a pie filling) with the rest of the good stuff you’ve set aside.

PUMPKIN SEEDS are amazing source of nutrients as well…with the added benefit of preventing and removing worms.

ANY OTHER VEGGIES: All good, throw into the blender too! Especially the green leafy ones!

SWEET POTATOES AND YAMS: These contain Vitamins A and C, which help regulate blood sugar, while acting as antioxidants and an element of soluble fiber.

HAM: Nope. Packed with nitrates and nitrites, sodium, and other carcinogens, smoked meats aren’t a protein source you want to share with your dog.

APPLES: Absolutely! Apple and its skin have many valuable nutrients. Don’t feed the core as it contains arsenic.

YOGURT: Yogurt or any source of probiotics, which also includes Kombucha or fermented veggies, will create an easier digestion for us ALL!

NUTS: All but MACADAMIA! ALL in moderation. If feeding a nut butter, make very sure it doesn’t contain Xylitol. Though it appears safe for us, Xylitol is deadly to our dogs.

GREEN JUJU KITCHENS offers a holiday blend with many of the organic ingredients I’ve mentioned in this article. Best of all, they already professionally prepared for your dog! Visit www.greenjujukitchens.com for a location near you for your holiday purchase!

Wishing you and all canines a delicious and digestible holiday! Happy Thanksgiving.

TREAT, DON'T TRICK, YOUR DOG THIS HALLOWEEN!

2015-10-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

Will you Trick or Treat your dog this Halloween? Here are eight ideas to help understand Halloween from your dog's perspective:

Firstly, it matters less that your dog is well socialized to kids on Halloween than whether they are socialized to costumes. For those dog parents who say, "My dog loves kids," ask yourself, "Does my dog love costumes?"
Dogs read body language, and opening our door to kids yelling anything, (yes, even trick-or-treat) can be very scary stuff. They cannot read anything on a mask's face!
There is an overwhelming possibility that your dog does NOT wish to meet 20 (or even 2) doorbells in one hour, with costumes on the other side of the door.
This situation may actually be triggering a lunging response in your dogs, as they bark to say, "Get away, get away, get away." Those costumes, after all, must look an awful lot like a threat!
It is asking a lot of our dogs that they greet these costumes calmly and quietly. Given how many dogs I am called to modify doorbell hysteria on any common day, Halloween for this type of dog (and human) must be a most stressful holiday.
It gets dark much earlier this time of year, so when you open your door (or, conversely, go for your after-work walk), your dog may not be seeing things as clearly as he did earlier in the day. The fact that he may be viewing costumes as shadows can increase reactive tendencies in your dog as well.
For many, we don’t have visitors on a regular basis, so our dogs don’t have a chance to learn door-greeting manners in a solid way that would prepare them for an event like Halloween.
If you are thinking this is a great opportunity to do a crash course on your dog’s poor door greeting manners, know that optimal training cannot be accomplished on Halloween night if the door and costumes are your dog’s triggers. Flooding is actually what is more likely, which creates an environment in your dog’s brain that prevents learning from occurring. Even if your dog seems reasonably calm soon after the costumes leave, her sympathetic nervous system may still be engaged for a reported 20 additional minutes, time for another 10 doorbells!

So what can we do for our dogs to make Halloween a less traumatic event?

TREAT them with a bone in a quiet room of their own with music playing during Halloween visits this year. Tape your doorbell. Avoid the TRICKS of trying to keep her calm in an environment we can only imagine is some kind of scary for one who doesn’t understand the sweet ritual of Hallows Eve!

Patti Howard BS, CCS
YOUR Canine Resource
pattikono@gmail.com

HEAVY PETTING

2015-10-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

When I have a meeting with clients on what motivates their dog’s behavior, heavy petting the dog in the family is fairly consistent. The time I spend with an initial consultation is in observation of body language, is in identifying anxiety- producing situations where communication with our dogs has possibly broken down, or has never been very strong.

As dog-loving humans, our tendency is to pet dogs that are in our vicinity. It feels good, while actually creating a physiological shift in most basic body function, regulation of blood pressure, production of feel-good hormones, and serotonin boost, to name a few. And we are aware of the importance of therapy dogs’ jobs! Monitors placed on dogs show there are times when our dogs are provided with calming physiological shifts as well, AND there are times when our dogs will exhibit quite an opposite more anxious result. This can be backing away, stretching, shaking, looking away from you. These are subtle signs to us but not to them.

“Don’t pet me.” This doesn’t mean that they aren’t fond of us, or even that they would rather be someplace else. It simply means “I don’t wish to be pet right now” because:

“are you eating the rest of that sandwich” -or-
“just smelling who you were around today” -or-
“ready to go for that walk now” -or-
“I’m hungry” -or-
you fill in the blank…

The reason this becomes a “big deal” is that our dog’s anxiety has a tendency to expand when their body language voices are not heard. This can break down in small but significant ways their ability to trust their environment. To intrude on anthropomorphism for just a moment, if we are not being heard, we humans tend to speak louder to communicate our needs, or possibly abandon one form for another in attempt to get them met. I suggest that if a dog is consistently not being heard, there may be some form of conflict that develops as a result.

In observation mode with your dog, do an experiment. How much of the time that you reach out to your dog, does s(he) respond by backing away, turning away, stretching, shaking, or other signs of stress? Watch and you will hear! In another blog I will list stress signals to watch for with your dog, and how you can reorient this to a positive interaction. Now that you are becoming more aware of when your dog would like YOU to pet her/him, now it is time to watch for interactions with strangers. Since my dog is expert in telling me he doesn’t wish to be pet at any given time, I will follow up this blog with a video of his communication to me of such.

When a stranger or friend asks if they may pet your dog, assume that your dog is not going to enjoy a stranger touching them. Watch first what your dog’s body language is saying about that, and respond with that information. Stranger attention isn’t necessary for the wellbeing of your pup. Your dog may be just gathering information from this person you’re talking to. If you offend someone in the process by saying no to their request to pet your dog, then so be it. You may very well, as a result, have a confident, more trusting dog by your side. We don’t accept strangers touching us, and I can say with some certainty from a study of dog body language that dogs don’t always take kindly to it either.

If your dog has profound stranger anxiety, then by all means contact a modification specialist to work with your pup; however, recognize that even with modification of this anxiety, the end goal may not be that you ask your dog to accept stranger’s greetings. It is not the end-all and be-all of having a dog that other people get to pet them, particularly if it makes them nervous.

Consider what makes you nervous, and imagine someone forcing you to perform anything in this state of mind, and thinking anything is going to change. Now you get it. I know you do.

We may have to figure what to do to help ourselves feel better instead of heavy petting, and the payoff is deeper understanding of your relationship with your dog. Your dog’s “thank you” for listening may come to you in the form of a less anxious and more comfortable dog!

For more information, visit Your Canine Resource and call by Patti Howard, BS CCS.

“Behavioral and cardiac responses by dogs to physical human–dog contact,” Franziska Kuhner, Johanna C. Hoessler, Rainer Struwe, Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, May-June, 2014, Volume 9, Issue 3, pages 93-97.

“Physiological Effects of Human/Companion Animal Bonding,” Mara M. Baun, Nancy Bergstrom, Nancy F. Langston, Linda Thoma, Nursing Research, May/June 1984 - Volume 33 - Issue 3.

Handbook on Animal-Assisted Therapy: Theoretical Foundations and Guidelines, edited by Aubrey H. Fine.

PEOPLE FOOD

2015-02-06T14:27:00.000-08:00

I am fascinated with language, both its power as a trainer of dogs with their humans, and how we tend to repeat words/phrases/jingles. One of the most common refrains I hear is “My dog doesn’t eat people food,” which begs the question: Are we denying our dogs real nutrition if all real food in the world belongs to the human species?

If not people food, then what are we serving up? As their stewards, we have a responsibility to provide for our dogs’ optimal health. And that’s accomplished in part through the power of nourishment.

Does this lament sound familiar: “My dog won’t eat kibble unless I add something real to enhance the flavor.” Folks who say this often assume the refusal means their dog is “spoiled.” I suggest that, in any language, a dog’s refusal to eat equates to “I’d rather not eat this food.” Dogs balk at eating certain foods either because they don’t recognize them as food, or they’ve learned that, when they eat it, they don’t feel so hot.

When our dogs suffer from tummy upset, a veterinarian, or other credible nutrition expert, recommends a diet of chicken, rice and pumpkin “until your dog feels better.” Dogs happily devour this concoction and get digestive relief, only to be switched back to highly processed food (the very food that may have caused the original complaint). Common sense says that the more nutritive diet is exactly what the dog needed to heal. So why not continue the diet and thereby continue the path of wellness?

When assessing problem behaviors in dogs, I always factor in the role of nutrition. Anyone who has seen Supersize Me understands how poorly the brain functions on highly processed food. Neurologic processes suffer over time because essential vitamins and minerals are missing. Organs break down from such malnourishment, as do the immune system and the exchange of oxygen in cells.

“Dog food” advertisements – including those for highly processed foods – portray dog food as nutritious and healthful, convenient and cost effective. With their kibble and canned food, they say, our dogs’ appetites are satisfied, and we can get on with our busy lives. Slick marketing, yet so misleading.

Daily I take joy in seeing Yogi’s excitement over eating the simple culinary delights I offer him. Food, by the way, that cost me only pennies more than highly processed kibble. And that’s before factoring in what a healthy he is – physically, mentally and emotionally.

As complicated as language can be, the next time someone utters the words “people food,” may they be redefined as ALL real food available to ALL living beings, as their birthright.

Patti Howard BS, CCS is certified in Canine Behavior and Nutrition. She also holds Bachelors of Science in Human Nutrition. Find nutrition help at www.yourcanineresource.com