10 Steps for a Happy Office Dog
By Chantal Hughes We know there is a link between happiness in the workplace and increased productivity. And now, findings from research coming out of Virginia Commonwealth University in the USA reports that, “Man’s best friend may make a positive difference in the workplace by reducing stress and making the job more satisfying for other employees.” Great news, right? Yes, generally. And here’s the but….as long as the “lucky” dog has an experienced handler. I work with too many gorgeous dogs with separation anxiety. So, here are 10 steps to ensure… Continued
Are You Suffering From Compassion Fatigue, Stress or Burnout? Three Tips That May Help You!
by Niki Tudge The signs of work and personal time imbalance are unmistakable. Every day we hear of people in our industry suffering from poor health, burnout and stress. If you recognize the signs of imbalance in your own life, then you need to take action immediately and focus on achieving a more balanced approach. Work-life Imbalance can promote poor health and over time this can lead to devastating, and possibly life changing consequences. Imbalance and The Effects On Our Health: Obesity: Not taking the time to exercise or eat… Continued
Stress-Free Holidays with Your Dog
Easter is just around the corner and what could be better than taking the dog for a short or long break. There is really nothing like a holiday with your four-legged best friend. However to have a stress free time, planning and preparation are essential. Choose a destination that provides entertainment and adventure for you and your dog. Beach holidays are great if there are dog friendly beaches to go to. Most dogs will love to run and play. Or the country side with space to walk and discover wineries… Continued
Professional Competency, Transparency and Accountability. Have You Got What It Takes?
Written by Niki Tudge There is much chatter within the pet industry about transparency, competency and accountability amongst professionals. So let’s look at each of these individually and what they mean. 1. Transparency to me implies openness. Are you transparent in your business practices? Can others see, read or listen to information that informs them upfront about each of the actions you may perform when caring for or training their pet. Are you honest about the protocols, procedures, equipment, techniques you may use to achieve mutually agreeable goals? Are… Continued
Force-Free: Are You Getting the Correct Message Across?
Recently I learned of a trainer whose specialty is working with hunting dogs. For the purpose of this blog I will call him Bob, mostly because I like that name, and I like the trainer. The majority of hunting dog trainers use traditional methods, but several years ago Bob gave up the methods he was most familiar with and formally studied modern methods based on reinforcing desired behaviors. Today Bob identifies himself as a “positive” trainer meaning that he does not use a shock/choke/pronged collar and does not impose fear,… Continued
The Top 7 Reasons You Absolutely Cannot Miss The Pet Professional Guild’s Annual Educational Summit
The Top 7 Reasons You Absolutely Cannot Miss The Pet Professional Guild’s Annual Educational Summit 1. You Will Have Lots of Fun From the Welcome Reception, to Quiz Night, ‘Munch and Learn’ Merry-Go-Round and the Gala Dinner you will have more fun packed into a few short days than you thought possible, all while honing your skills and enhancing your professional education. The PPG Summit is just so much fun! Surrounded by like-minded professionals, you are free to socialize and share ideas, and reconnect with old friends while making new… Continued
Trick Training Bloopers
I decided a while back to teach my dogs to cross their paws as a trick. I followed the instructions on one of Emily Larlham’s excellent videos: Dog Tricks Tutorial: Cross Your Paws. But I didn’t end up making the neat, quick progression shown in the movie when I tried it with my dog Summer. I think that besides my rather clumsy training, it is just not a very natural behavior for her. I used a target, and when I finally got the behavior (sometimes), it took a long time before she… Continued
Why Do Dogs Eat Toilet Paper and Paper Products?
I am often asked why dogs eat toilet paper. I would estimate that in every group dog training class I teach, it’s asked at least once during the course. And during that inquiry, more than one person’s dog eats toilet paper or paper towels, paper, paper plates, you get the picture. So, just why do dogs eat paper products? At this point, I’m not sure there is one definitive answer, but I believe there are many reasons. Here are my top 5 reasons why a dog might enjoy a roll… Continued
Dining Experience
I’m not a fan of feeding dogs from bowls, as it doesn’t provide any type of enrichment. A bowl filled with food, is typically devoured within a few minutes, and needless to say, there is no particular skill or challenge to that act! Dogs are highly evolved animals that need a job to do. And while some dogs still work herding, guarding, hunting and other forms of service to humans, the typical lifestyle of today’s dog can be a mentally and physically impoverished environment. The good news is that there… Continued
More Than Training; Examining both Parts of the Relationship
When we’re called out to training and behavior consultations it’s so easy to get completely focused on the animal in front of us. Swept along in the human client’s description of what is going on but, what about the perspective of the animal you’re there to consult about? What about the subtle nuances of behavior between the human and the non human? What of the behavior of the human towards the animal? I’m not referring to abusive behavior but just normal ‘relationship’ behavior; beliefs and awareness about the animals needs;… Continued
The Dog Decides
“The dog decides what is reinforcing.” Positive reinforcement trainers frequently say that to their human students. What they mean is that people can easily be mistaken about whether something constitutes reinforcement. For instance, we may think praising or petting our dogs are reinforcers, but if they do not cause behavior to increase or maintain, they are not. Dogs don’t sit down and make cognitive “decisions” about reinforcers; that’s just a semantic shortcut. But their subsequent behavior is what tells us whether something is a reinforcer or not. If you give your dog a piece of… Continued
Look at the Whole Dog
In a class I’m teaching on dog communication, we recently discussed a study on how well people interpret dog body language. The study, Description of the behaviour of domestic dog by experienced and inexperienced people, was published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science in 2009. We looked at some other sources as well, but the discussion of this study with a group of future dog behaviorists and trainers was particularly interesting. The study’s authors wanted to know whether the amount of dog experience a person had improved his or her skills… Continued
Compulsivity and the Dog
Since humans are unable to ascertain the aspect of a disorder in an animal that deals with obsessing, animals are not generally given the diagnosis of OCD. However, it is completely possible that a pet can have a compulsive disorder. Compulsive behaviors include behaviors that are induced by conflict or frustration, behaviors that are displaced (displayed at inappropriate times), redirected behavior (acted out on a different target), vacuum activity (self-directed), and stereotypies (Landsberg, Hunthausen, and Ackerman, 1997). Abnormal behaviors often stem from an animal’s inability to adequately cope within its environment.… Continued
The “Choice” Challenge
Thanks to Debbie Jacobs and Randi Rossman for their input on this topic. Any weird conclusions are mine alone. I have come to believe that most of us who thought we were using “choice” as a reinforcer were mistaken. Wait! Before you come running after me with pitchforks, let me explain. I’m not saying that choice isn’t a wonderful, enriching, and humane thing to provide for our dogs. It can be all that! Rather, I’m concerned about the trend of glomming onto attractive-sounding language without proper analysis of what is actually happening. The problems attending… Continued
Teaching the TrickMeister Way!
How important is it to teach your canine companion what you would like them to do? I believe it is extremely important but what is even more essential is that you teach in a way that doesn’t cause any stress; that you teach in a way that is fun for both teacher and student; that you teach in such a way that each ‘lesson’ is easy to understand; that you teach in a way that not only encourages learning but enhances it and that you teach in a way that… Continued
Just Say No to Saying No
“Can I say no to my dog?” is a question I often hear from new clients. My short answer is “Yes, you can use any word or sound you please in training.” Pavlov proved that long ago. The problem is in the way dog owners use “no” and whether it leads them closer to success. Owners usually approach dog training as a way to stop undesirable behavior and saying “no” seems a logical choice…to a human being. I begin reframing their goal by suggesting “Let’s think about what you want… Continued
Stress-Free Dog Brushing
Brushing your dog on a daily basis has many benefits. Grooming or brushing your dog is more than just keeping his appearance spiffy. Brushing your dog’s coat every day not only keeps it free of debris but free of mats that can pinch your dog’s skin and cause infections. Daily brushing can also be a time to bond and check your dog over for lumps and bumps. Brushing your dog on a regular basis can be used as a training opportunity to help teach your dog to enjoy handling… Continued
I Only Have Eyes For You!
One of my specialities is doing in-home training so that the human gets trained and then I highly recommend taking Fido to a group class to practice the new skills in a more distracting environment. And for puppies, this is very important as it will help with the socialization process of playing with other puppies off leash, meeting new humans and of course teaching the human how to work with Pup around more distractions. But working in more distracting environments is NOT the same as when you are working at… Continued
Interpreting Feline Non-Verbal Communication
Jane Ehrlich examines the basics of feline body language. This article was first published in BARKS from the Guild, March 2015, page 26 Keep an eye on your cat’s body language to know what he/she is thinking and feeling. To that end, here is a scenario. In fact, you probably already know the signs. It is only a matter of putting them together and monitoring at what point Noodles starts demonstrating even one of these signals. It is the same as reading a human’s body language: one sign may not… Continued
True Friends
It’s been a couple of years since Gregory Berns published his research that uses MRIs to show that dogs love their humans. Now, British and Brazilian researchers have published a paper showing that dogs recognize our emotions as well. Sure, dog lovers have many stories about dogs showing empathy or reacting to the anger, happiness, sadness, or other emotions in our tone of voice. But this study is the first to show that dogs actually make a connection between our facial expressions and the emotional qualities of our speech. The… Continued
Cats in Conflict
Jane Ehrlich examines some of the many types of feline aggression, one of the most common behavior problems in cats, and tries to shed some light on this complex issue. This article was first published in BARKS from the Guild, March 2015, pages 24-28. Inter-cat aggression is one of the most commonly reported behavior problems by cat owners, second only to feline marking behaviors such as urine spraying and middening (Magnus, Appleby & Bailey, 1998; Overall, 1997). The only cat owners likely to have not experienced this often convoluted… Continued
#PPGSummit 2015: The Future Is Now
At times, with all the cruelty and destruction in the world, it can seem disheartening for pet professionals who are trying to make a stand for animals, to be their voice and ensure they get the best care possible and are never subjected to pain and suffering along the way. While there is still great resistance from many quarters regarding the power of training via positive reinforcement – scientific study notwithstanding – as everyone in attendance at the PPG Summit already knows, the results speak for themselves. As Ken McCort… Continued
Lives of Streeties – A Study on Free Ranging Dogs
This Christmas I gave myself a gift. I finally permitted myself to publish my study on street dogs in Bangalore, India. I have been working at it for a year and I am thrilled to present it finally. The idea for the study was sparked when my colleagues and I were mulling over the question of how much exercise dogs need. We decided that we needed to do a study. The premise was simple – animals inherently know how much exercise they need. Animals in the wild don’t need to… Continued
Training ‘Thoughtfully’
Many of you will know that I think all training should be fun but science-based. I teach all behaviors as ‘tricks’ because I believe that, in doing so, we set up both trainer and learner for success. Whether teaching a ‘stay’, a ‘recall’, a ‘spin’ or a fun routine, teaching behaviors as ‘tricks’ sets the theme – learning should be playful! I therefore loved the fact that at a recent seminar I attended, much emphasis was placed on play. RAGE, FEAR, GRIEF/PANIC (punishing) and SEEKING, LUST, CARE and PLAY (rewarding/reinforcing) –… Continued
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