Myths of Dog Behavior

In my years of working with clients and their dogs, and at shelters and rescues, I have heard quite a few statements about dog behavior that many people believe to be true. Here are my top six myths and the facts:

1.  “The dog did it out of spite.”

Oh, how many times I’ve heard this when a dog has housetraining issues or have chewed something! In reality, dogs are not spiteful creatures. There are other reasons for the behaviors such as inadequate housetraining, separation anxiety, or other stresses. Dogs seek pleasure and avoid pain, just as we do. More analysis of the situation is necessary to determine exactly why the dog acted that way. Usually, spiteful really equates to “scared” and even “bored” in the dog’s mind.

2. You should always go through the door first to show the dog who is boss.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that the dominance theory is nonsense. Dogs don’t need bosses, they need benevolent leadership and good parenting. When you force yourself through the door before your dog, a power struggle is certain to ensue. Instead, have the dog wait calmly at the door until you give the instruction to go ahead. It’s perfectly fine to allow your dog to go through the dog first as long you tell him to!

3. Feeding human food to dogs makes them beg.

Dogs beg because they have learned that they will get food from you. It doesn’t matter what kind of food you are feeding them! Dogs think in pictures (thank you, Temple Grandin!). If they see you giving them food when you are sitting at the table or somewhere else, they quickly learn that this is where they can get food. They associate that picture with getting good things. My dog, Gizzy, is fed small pieces of vegetables when I am preparing my salad at the counter. So he knows to stand by my side when I’m at that position, regardless if I am making a salad or washing the dishes! A better option is to always feed your dog from his bowl. If you want to give him human food, place it in his bowl and never feed from anywhere else. That way, he knows that his food always comes from that place.

4. When dogs hump, it’s a sexual behavior.

Let’s hope that your dog is spayed and neutered! With the huge problem of pet overpopulation and the killings in shelters, there is very little reason for any pet to be unaltered. Most humping behavior stops once the dog is altered. 

An altered pet may hump another dog or a person due to anxiety or an attempt to establish social ranking. You’ll often see an insecure dog try to hump another dog. Anxiety is usually at the root of humping behavior. Yelling at the dog to stop only increases the anxiety. Instead, divert the dog’s attention to something else – play and exercise is best to eliminate the anxiety hormones streaming through the dog’s body.

5. A dog who acts scared or tries to bite was abused.

I hear this constantly!  People assume that a dog who acts scared or flinches when someone tries to pet him has been hit by a person. While in some cases that may be true, many times it is because the dog has not been socialized with people. Our society likes to pamper and spoil our dogs. Many people get dogs as puppies and never allow the dogs outside of the house. Some dogs have never been exposed to children, dogs who live with only women may be fearful of men, etc. Get your puppies out and expose them to the world!

6. A dog who leans up against you is being dominant.

Eek, dominant, there’s that word again.  A dog’s behavior should not be assessed based on one action. Other behaviors and body language need to be considered. Many dogs like the affections of humans and love to be close to us. That does not make them “dominant.” They may be attention seekers.  I’ve met so many Pit Bulls who are “leaners” and are not at all aggressive or “dominant.”  They’re sweet and affectionate. If you are looking to see if a dog has a strong personality, assess other factors too. Does he look away when you look him directly in the eye? Are his ears and tail perked up? Will he allow you to stroke him down the back or hug him?  Dominance is not a character trait but an action within the context of situations.

How about you? Do you hear people say things about dog behavior that you know are just wrong?

Persistence – Old Dog Challenges

Nothing hurts me more than seeing an old pet turned into an animal shelter. It touches on two of my emotional wounds in life: abandonment and fear of being homeless. These loyal animals don’t deserve that kind of ending to their lives. But as I live with an old dog now, I can understand why some people will give up on them. It can be a struggle and quite difficult. However, I still don’t know how anyone can abandon their life-long friend.

Right now, my dog Gizzy is a challenge.  He is just a couple of weeks away from turning 14 years old which is very old for an 88 pound Golden Retriever. His spine is slowly deteriorating, causing weakness in his rear legs, occasional incontinence and a change in his bowel habits. He can no longer negotiate steps so he needs to be lifted to get in the car. My lower back is often stiff and sore as a result.  The change in bowel habits requires that he gets more frequent walks, so that means I must rearrange my schedule to accommodate him.  I had to leave Thanksgiving dinner early so that I could get home to him. And as for the incontinence, it only happens when he’s stressed.  When we visit my mom at her retirement community, he has recently been peeing in the elevator. Yikes! Not a good place to do that. I think he’s afraid of the slippery floor because he’s been coming to see my mom there for 9 years and never had a problem until a couple of months ago.  We consequently avoid stressful situations and he wears a diaper if he’s going somewhere stressful – yes, at my mother’s place.  

All of this sounds inconvenient and I admit can be difficult. But giving up on my guy is not an option. His quality of life is still excellent. He goes for long walks and loves to lie on the deck, especially on cold days because he has such a dense coat. He loves the cold. And he still plays – tug-of-war with his leash when he doesn’t want to come in from a walk and an occasional fetch with a stuffed toy. No matter how tough it gets for me, I will not let him go until he is ready. That’s the commitment I believe in when we bring a pet into our lives.

Protesting Pet Stores

Some people talk the talk but not too many walk the talk. I met a woman on December 31 who really walks the talk.  Marianne Bessey has been an activist for animals for over 10 years. She has organized groups of people to stand on street corners, distributing flyers and holding signs. The day I spoke with her, she was holding a No Puppy Mills sign at the busy street in front of We Love Pets, a pet store in Media, PA which sells puppies supplied by the Hunte Corp. and Lambriar, large brokers that notoriously buy their puppies from mills. We Love Pets states on its web site that they can special order any kind of puppy. Seriously?? Special order your new best friend? Just like buying a new car. To people who have never heard of puppy mills, this sounds great. But it’s not. We Love Pets is one of the reasons why puppy mills still exist. That’s exactly why Marianne and her volunteers are targeting this particular pet store. 

Before I joined Marianne at the street, I walked into the pet store and was immediately filled with rage. I saw a Newfoundland pup for sale for $1999, other small pups for $1499 and a couple of pot bellied pigs for $399. A sales clerk was showing a man and his son the various kinds of puppies for sale. I had all I could do not to interrupt and warn the man about where these puppies were bred, that their mothers and fathers spend their entire lives in cages, and if they buy a puppy here, there’s a good possibility that the pup will have health issues despite the “warranty” that comes with the dog. Oh, I mean car.

I then went outside to interview Marianne. As I approached, I saw a policeman speaking with the group. At first, I was alarmed, wondering what I was stepping into. This was my first protest. I had visions of being arrested. But the cop was very nice. He told us to stay within 10 feet of the curb and to move our cars from the parking lot because the pet store owner could have our cars towed. I felt intimidated despite the policeman’s nice demeanor. I quickly discovered that protesting is more complicated than just holding up a sign. 

Marianne explained that she has been protesting We Love Pets every Saturday since the beginning of December and felt that she had connected with a few people and opened their eyes. If she reaches only a few people, then she believes her efforts are paying off. She plans on coming back every Saturday with the hopes that We Love Pets will eventually stop selling puppies, as other pet stores have done when people actively protested them. 

My hat is off to Marianne and those who join her in this important work. Educating the public is crucial and we all need to help in however ways that work for each of us. I know that I’m not comfortable standing on the street holding signs but I will use my voice through this blog, Facebook, my books, and my web site to spread the message: Don’t buy puppies from pet stores or over the Internet!  ADOPT!

What Price Freedom?

This day always brings back memories. Many, many years ago (I won’t reveal just how many!), I had the very best New Year’s Eve date ever. It set the bar quite high and I’ve never had a better time on this day. I was in high school and dating a guy who had a couple of good friends. We always went out with them and their girlfriends. That New Year’s Eve, we attended a dance at a fire hall. Sounds hokey but back then, and for being as young as I was, it was magical. The place was decorated with streamers and there was a live band.  We danced, we ate, and we enjoyed each other’s company. There was no alcohol because we were underage and that group of people just wasn’t into getting drunk.  We had fun without it. Maybe that night was also so memorable because I was in love and it was the first date I ever had on New Year’s Eve.

Nine months later, I broke up with that young man. I wanted freedom. I saw all of my friends going out together and having a great time. I guess I was too young to be tied down to a boyfriend. I cried for days after I ended it with him because I really did care for him. He was a wonderful person and treated me well. He set the bar high for boyfriends. So not only did I have high expectations for New Year’s Eve established at a very young age, I also had the same high standards for men. Yet I gave all of that up for my freedom.

As I reflect back on the past year and on my life which we often do on the last day of the year, I see the price I paid for my freedom so many years ago. Who knows, I may have had many more memorable New Year’s Eves with that same boyfriend.  I’ve never forgotten him and wonder what might have been.

I’ve made other choices in my life so that I could have freedom. I had to do it, my soul was guiding me and I would not have rested unless I choose freedom.  I know that we can’t look back and second guess these choices. But there’s just something about New Year’s Eve that sparks reminiscing. Maybe it’s the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne – “Should old acquaintance be forgot and never  brought to mind? “  Or maybe it’s the way we deal with closure. The end of a year, the beginning of a new cycle.

Freedom seems to be a theme throughout my life. Maybe that’s why the plight of puppy mill breeder dogs affects me so deeply. They have no freedom. The thought of them being stuck in a cage with no opportunity for release makes me cringe and hurts in places I didn’t know existed. We all have choices and can choose freedom, but they cannot.

I am hoping that my choices over the years, where my soul has guided me, will make a difference for the animals. They were not easy choices and the path has been difficult, but nothing worthwhile is easy.

Happy New Year to all of you, and I wish for everyone to be able to listen to their hearts and follow their dreams.

Clicker Training for Dogs

Have you used clickers to train your dog? If done correctly, it is an amazingly effective and very humane method. But if the trainer or owner does not understand what they are doing or they do not do it correctly, clicker training can confuse the dog and will not get the desired results.

What is clicker training? It uses the principle of operant conditioning. An association is formed between a behavior and a consequence. An easy example is when you ask your dog to “sit” and you give him a treat. The dog then learns that when he sits (behavior) he gets a treat (consequence). Clicker training uses a clicker to tell the dog that he did the right thing. The clicker is a small plastic box with a metal strip that makes a sharp, clicking sound when pushed and released.  The sound of a clicker is very distinctive. It grabs the dog’s attention. When you pair the sound of a clicker with a reward, your dog will begin to associate the sound with something pleasant. A clicker allows the trainer to mark with great precision the behavior for which the dog is being reinforced.  Paired with something the animal finds very reinforcing, the clicker becomes a powerful tool for shaping behavior.  

I know a lot of trainers who insist on only teaching obedience classes with clickers but I have found that many people cannot master the clicker. It’s tricky.  Here are a few pros and cons of clicker training:

Pros:

1. When used properly, a clicker tells the dog precisely that he did the right behavior. Therefore, timing is imperative when training with a clicker. The trainer must click at the exact instant that the dog performs the desired behavior. A click can be delivered much quicker than a treat or a “good dog.”

2. The sound of the clicker is distinctive and eliminates ambiguity for the dog. When the dog hears the sound of the click, he knows that he is being rewarded. Humans’ voices, on the other hand, can be loaded with uncertainty. Our tone or volume can be confusing to dogs.

3. Clicker training is an excellent way to train dogs who participate in sports such as agility. Because timing is so critical when training, a clicker is invaluable with shaping a dog’s behavior.

Cons:

1. One of the biggest problems with clicker training is the lack of understanding of why and how to use the clicker. I recently met a novice trainer who didn’t know that the clicker needed to be “charged,” that is, before any training can begin, the dog must learn an association of something good when he hears a click. After all, the sound of the click by itself is meaningless. “Charging” the clicker involves simply clicking and immediately giving the dog a high value treat. Click and treat, click and treat. Do this about 20-30 times. The dog is sure to learn that whenever he hears the click, it’s a good thing!

2. The other issue with lack of knowledge of clicker training is timing. If the click is not delivered at the exact instant that the dog performs the desired behavior, then you may be reinforcing a different behavior.

3. Some people think that the clicker is used to gain the dog’s attention. I’ve seen people clicking when dogs bark and clicking when dogs aren’t paying attention. This is not clicker training.

4. The use of clickers in group training classes can be confusing for dogs. If you have 6-10 people in a class and everyone is clicking, the dogs may not know which click is meant for him.

5. Many people find that they cannot handle a leash, treats and a clicker in their hands. It can be too much to juggle.

6. In my work with puppy mill dogs, some of them are afraid of the noise of the clicker. Instead of it being rewarding, it creates fear.

From the above list, it appears that there are more cons than pros for clicker training. Don’t let that dissuade you!  Try it. Once you learn how to do it properly, you may never want to train dogs any other way.

What’s With All the Yelling?

More than a few times this week, I heard people yelling at their dogs. One dog was a neighbor’s Beagle who never gets a walk, just a quick potty break out in the yard, then back in the house. Through some kind of miracle, someone took him for a walk and he was so excited to finally be able to express his “Beagleness” and explore his world.  He barked and barked with delight! This is what Beagles do. The guy walking him forcefully choked down on the leash and barked back in the dog’s face with a loud, “No, no, stop it!” The poor little Beagle was frightened for a minute but then went right back to his merry barking as if to say, “Wow, did you smell that? And how about smelling this?!”

Yet another yeller was a dog walker who did much the same; she yanked on the leash while she yelled at the cute little white yappy dog. This dog didn’t stop barking either. And yet someone else kept screaming, “Leave it!!” when his dog was excitedly barking at another dog. Yep, this dog barked even more as the yelling continued.

All of these people are not alone. It seems to be our human nature to want to yell or scold. We do it to kids; we do it to each other. Most people think that if they get loud, people, kids and pets will listen to them.  While this may be true for people and kids, dogs simply don’t communicate the same as humans, so their reactions will be different. Some dogs may react in fear and will not want to be around a loud person. Other dogs may just believe that the yeller is barking with the pack, and the dog will be encouraged to bark more. And others may perceive the yelling as a challenge and may react with aggression.

Dogs can’t talk. So they learn to read us by watching our body language and listening to our tone of voice. Let’s pretend that you encounter a friend while out somewhere. Instead of saying hello and talking to you, that person grabs your arm and yells gibberish to you. Strange, huh? You might react with anger or you may run away from this loony-tune. Well, that’s what our dogs might be thinking of us. We appear out-of-control and dogs do not listen to people who are irrational.

A dog who is already excited will tend to become more agitated when screamed at, like adding fuel to a fire. Dogs in animal shelters are excellent examples. They may be very afraid and bark to release the nervous energy. When shelter workers yell at the dogs, they are not helping the dogs. They’re adding more agitation. A fearful dog will learn to be scared when yelled at and a more confident dog may challenge the yeller. Either way, it’s not a good situation.

In our human relationships, anger and yelling can have a negative effect and hurt the relationship. Let’s not do that to our dogs too. Calm and rational is always best – in our relationships with dogs and with people. In this season of peace instead of yelling, can we opt for loving, respectful behavior?

Can You Be “Happy” When You Work in Animal Welfare?

Someone I hadn’t seen in many years recently contacted me and asked if I was happy with my work with animals. Anyone who works in animal welfare knows that’s not an easy question to answer. Most people who work with animals do so because they have an undeniable passion, a calling in life that can’t be ignored. So, in that regard, working with animals is fulfilling. It silences the cries of your soul. It’s impossible to be happy when you ignore what’s in your heart.

Here’s the conflict, though. Animal welfare work is emotionally draining. In order to help animals, we are consistently exposed to the horrific things that people do to them and deal with the reality that there is a constant stream of unwanted animals needing our help. It’s easy to get depressed and burned out. The word “happy” often escapes us. 

There clearly are happy moments:  when a hard-to-place pet finds a new home, when a veterinarian donates his or her services to treat an injured animal, when more people volunteer to be foster homes, when someone tells you that they decided to adopt an older pet instead of buying a puppy or kitten at a pet store or off of the Internet, watching a family walk to their car with their new pet. These moments keep us coming back, realizing that there are more people who care about animals than not. Each animal saved is a happy moment.

Being happy is truly in the way you look at the world. If we choose to focus on the upsetting things, then we will be sad. But when we choose to look at the good things around us, happiness is there in the face of the animal who needs our help.

Who Can You Believe?

I was recently checking out some web sites where I could publish articles and was astounded by what I found. Pages and pages of articles written by so-called “experts” on topics such as “How to Train Your Dog with a Shock Collar,” “The Benefits of Anti-Bark Collars,” “How to Use a Choke Collar” and more. Whoa!  This web site was promoting self-growth and spiritual issues, and showed noted celebrities such as Oprah and Anthony Robbins as contributors. Any “expert” who understands dogs, spirituality and self-growth would never advocate shock collars!  In these days where anyone can publish on the Internet, who can you believe?

There are literally thousands and thousands of places where people can submit articles on the web, mainly for purposes of driving traffic to advertising and for search engine optimization. There is little-to-no screening process for who can write and publish the articles. Obviously. But that leaves the public to fend for themselves to decide who is credible and who isn’t.

I, personally, never seek out information from sites that pump out articles. You can just tell that the articles have been quickly thrown together. Instead, I look for web sites of individuals with credentials – those who have been published and who are sought after as references – and academic sources.

In the world of dog training, there are as many opinions as there are “experts.” Sadly, novice trainers and those uneducated in animal behavior may use methods such as shock collars and obtain results. Then they write about it…and proliferate the information to the unsuspecting public. They appear credible and can give convincing arguments.

After seeing all of these disturbing articles, I may not publish articles anywhere else on the web. I’ll probably stick to my web site and this blog. And hope that you who are reading this know that I do have the credentials and experience to convey only information in the best interests of the animals.

Men Behaving Badly

I’m going to divert my attention away from animals for today’s post to a topic that has taken the top spot in recent news: Men behaving badly. Actually, I prefer to comment not on their actions but why they are allowed to get away with it. We’ve always had men behaving badly (and women too, but they don’t seem to make the news quite as much) and we always will. That won’t change. It’s really about how the issue is managed and how people react to it.

Let’s face it – it’s all about money and power. The reason why Penn State football’s Jerry Sandusky’s alleged improprieties with boys was not brought to the authorities was simple: If people found out about the issue, it could impact the reputation of Penn State and potentially impact their football program and enrollment.  Money!! You can just imagine the conversations that went on, “We can’t have that getting out. What would it do to us?”

The same issue occurred in the Catholic Church several years ago when the higher-ups were covering up the Sandusky-like behaviors of certain priests. Instead of doing the right thing (the GODLY thing) of turning these people over to the authorities, they covered it up – again, for the same reasons, for fear of sullying the church’s reputation and impacting funding. It’s a sad reality in our society that money takes precedence over ethics.

And the Herman Cain allegations of sexual harassment. Several women have now come forward with stories. I’m not here to pass judgment on who is telling the truth here but it sure smells like another puffed up, self-important, egotistical businessman/politician who thinks he’s above it all. I’m tired of these overinflated egos. We allowed Bill Clinton to get away with his shenanigans because he was “a good president” but now look at the precedent that created.

 Could it be that the Occupy Wall Street protests are really shouting about these exact issues – overinflated sense of self-worth and entitlement of men in power? The feeling of entitlement to millions of dollars in earnings and bonuses at the expense of the majority of Americans? At the expense of ethics.

I’m not a prude by any stretch of the imagination but I am about doing what’s right. All of these examples point to one bottom line – it’s time for people to return to ethics and stop worshipping money. Make decisions based on what’s right, not what’s going to affect business. It certainly looks like these “business decisions” are coming back to bite these people in the butts and will eventually impact their businesses anyway, despite their efforts to avoid it. How about doing the right thing from the start?

When NOT to Use “Leave It”

One of the most useful, versatile and even life-saving cues to teach dogs is “leave it.” If it is taught and used properly, dogs can learn not to pick up dangerous items off the ground, not to eat the slice of pizza you just dropped and even not to touch your dinner when you place it on the coffee table. But when “leave it” is not taught correctly or used for other purposes, “leave it” can be ineffective or even detrimental.

A few years ago, I watched a novice dog trainer as he taught a dog how to “leave it.” He first put the dog into a sit-stay then he threw a couple of treats on the ground and told the dog to “leave it.” The very smart dog did as told – he didn’t touch the treats, however, it was not because he was told to “leave it.” It was because the man had placed the dog in a stay! I asked the man to try “leave it” again but this time, without a sit-stay command. As predicted, the dog did a nosedive for the treats.  He had not learned how to “leave it” and in a real-life situation when the dog’s owner needed to use the cue, the dog would not have responded. To learn how to teach “leave it,” read my post from January 14, 2011. 

I’ve also seen people use “leave it” for the wrong reasons which can and will have detrimental repercussions. I worked with a young couple who had a dog that liked to lunge out the front door and bark at anyone who walked by. The couple had worked with another trainer before calling me. This trainer put a choke chain on the dog and advised the couple to shout “leave it” to the dog and yank on the chain whenever he saw a person. As predicted, the dog’s behavior did not change and in fact, it grew worse. The dog was not originally aggressive to people but because of the negative association of getting yanked and shouted at whenever he saw a person, he became more agitated and tried to bite passersby. The better advice would have been to work on getting the dog to calm down and associate good things with seeing other people. And skip shouting “leave it.”

“Leave it” is best as an emergency command, that is, only use it when you really want to get your dog’s attention. If it is overused, the dog will become desensitized and may ignore you.  But used correctly, it’s a beautiful thing.