What New Pet Owners May Not Know
I recently came across an article in which the author spoke about why people give up exotic birds…and it got me thinking. According to the ASPCA, approximately 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.9 million are dogs and 3.4 million are cats. Of the dogs entering shelters, approximately 35% are adopted, 31% are euthanized and 26% of dogs who came in as strays are returned to their owner. Of the cats entering shelters, approximately 37% are adopted, 41% are euthanized, and less than 5%… Continued
Happy New Year! Happy New Life!
First impressions are often lasting ones and so it was with my first behavior case involving a two-year old Australian Shepherd named Ranger. He was in the custody of a breed rescue and was deemed beyond hope. Ranger was destined for euthanasia due to behavior problems that were imposed upon him through no fault of his own. Ranger began life as a puppy with an elderly lady who did not exercise, train or socialize him. He was not even allowed outside to relieve himself. By his second birthday Ranger’s behavior… Continued
Empathy for Human Learners
As I develop as a teacher I’ve been revisiting some of my experiences as learner, empathically engaging with my human clients who might be struggling with new skills. Being a good learner is something I last thought about seriously when I was a student (a long time ago!). I trained as a podiatrist in the UK, something that requires a lot of practical skills as well as theory. I was pretty comfortable learning all the theory, what I found very difficult (and uncomfortable) was learning the practical skills. I was… Continued
One of the Most Important Things to Teach Your New Puppy
By now, your new puppy is adjusting well to his new family. You probably already have started him in a good, positive puppy training class. After all, you have heard time and time again, that you should be socializing your puppy. Puppy socialization is a process in which you gradually introduce your puppy to a variety of people, places and things in the early stages of their lives. The opportunity for making the best impact on your puppy’s socialization is between 3 weeks and 4 months of age and continues until your… Continued
A Revelation about Resolutions
Over the years, I’ve made many New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, get organized, read more, and hundreds of other goals that became part of my never ending “To Do” list. But this year, I had a revelation and decided to do something different and so I made my resolution to find more ways of engaging with my dogs. Don’t misunderstand, I take great care of them, but sometimes, I’m so busy that I’ll give them a puzzle toy as a way of providing enrichment. Puzzles, are after all, great… Continued
Does Size Matter?
A dog’s size influences his or her behavior. We sort of know this don’t we. What about people? Our stereotype of a hyper and talkative person who is constantly on the move would be a small person, and a slow-talking, slow moving thinker someone much larger. This has always been my own stereotype for dogs too, but is it purely genetic or the way we treat them? Is it possible we treat small people differently and it affects how they behave? My own smallest dog, my working cocker spaniel Pickle,… Continued
There’s Nothing Simple about Dog Play
Dogs’ play behavior has, over time, been attributed to a variety of factors. It provides puppies practice for adult behaviors. Play with humans is about “dominance.” Play with other dogs is about “dominance” or “status.” It’s a replacement behavior for hunting and killing prey. It’s a way to learn about your environment. Etc. Turns out they are all wrong. Or partly right. Play can be any of these — depending on which dog is playing and when. “Why Do Adult Dogs Play?” an article published by John Bradshaw in Behavioural… Continued
Loving the Vacuum Cleaner
Here’s a little video I made of my dogs’ response to the vacuum cleaner. Hurray for classical conditioning! As soon as any dog comes into my home, I start pairing any potentially scary sounds of human life with great stuff. Two of my dogs weren’t scared of the vacuum in the first place, and taking this action greatly decreased the chance that they ever will be. (Sound sensitivity can appear as dogs mature.) Zani, my smallest dog, is potentially sensitive to quite a few noises, but we have turned her attitude around… Continued
Treats or Bingos?
Traditionally, tidbits given to dogs outside their regular meals are labeled ‘treats’. Pet shops sell ‘treats’ and we traditionally refer to any food the dog gets by hand for doing nothing as a ‘treat’. I feel this ‘treat’ word can sometimes get in the way of converting people who have ‘had dogs all their lives’ to positive, reward-based training methods. They commonly ‘don’t believe in giving their dogs treats all the time’ and for this reason refuse to carry food rewards around with them. The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘to treat’ as… Continued
Cats in a Dog’s World
Cats communicate in a variety of ways. Those of us who are most familiar with canines can often have difficulty differentiating the signals that cats send in attempts to communicate their intent. While many of us prefer to work with dogs, it is often the case that the canines with whom we work come from homes with a variety of pets, including cats. Therefore, it is advantageous for even “dog people” to understand feline communication. Like dogs, cats will often communicate through the use of the position and motion of… Continued
Positive Is a Perception: Empathy to Understand the Perception of the Other
Two things happened to me recently that set me off thinking about positive reinforcement from the recipient’s perspective. Firstly I read a very negative review of positive reinforcement training through a Facebook blog. The writer was suggesting that positive reinforcement is a misnomer and, from the dog’s point of view, it is not positive. Secondly I’ve had a lot of folks asking me ‘what is a high value and low value treat?’ (wanting me to specify food/other primary reinforcement into categories). All this set me off thinking about how we… Continued
All I Want for Christmas…
Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is an e-collar…that I can use without violating my professional ethics. Thanks to modern technology and micro circuitry dog owners and trainers alike enjoy a variety of devices for use in training. Unfortunately, not every one of those devices is enjoyable by dogs. Some, in fact, are utterly shocking. A common justification for using shock collars is that people need to communicate with their dogs at a distance, while hunting or if the dog is working livestock. Slapping an e-collar on their dog… Continued
Five Ways to Survive the Holidays with your Dog
‘Tis the season of family, laughter, fun and joy. Gift giving, good eating, and relaxing are just a few of the things we look forward to during the holidays. But, along with the holiday spirit, also comes a little stress and chaos. This stress and chaos not only affects us humans but our canine companions as well. To help you and your dog during this time, we’ll take a look at five of my favorite ways to help give you and your dog a little break from the… Continued
Just an Ordinary Dog!
My dog Jambo is a Trick Dog Champion. In fact, he was the first Staffordshire Bull Terrier to be awarded the Title. Jambo is an adorable, loving pet dog. Jambo is not an exceptional dog. He isn’t particularly athletic. He isn’t unusually intelligent. He is a dog who has been set up for success because of the way he has been taught. Jambo is not trained for hours every day. In fact, Jambo’s “training” sessions are always very short. If you asked Jambo, I am sure he would say that… Continued
Rio Goes to Tampa
I was so excited to attend the PPG Summit in Tampa, Florida last month. Tampa is just a bit more than a 2 hour drive for me. And for years I’ve wanted to take one of my dogs to a professional training conference. All the locations have been too far to drive and my dogs are too big to fit under the seat of an airplane. So while I have been fortunate to attend many conferences, this was the first time I was able to take one of my pets.… Continued
Do No Harm!
That maxim is one of the fundamental principles that health care providers are taught in school which roughly means that given an existing problem, it may be better not to do something or do nothing than risk causing more harm than good. I believe as positive reinforcement trainers and other dog professionals, we also have a duty to do no harm. The type of harm I’m referring to has nothing to do with using aversive techniques, but rather the harm when we unwittingly pass along advice that can have serious… Continued
A Laser Light and OCD
It’s really strange how it all started. My clients have had the little Bichon Frise for just a few weeks – he came over from Ireland with an unknown past – and the young lady quite unwittingly bought him a laser light thinking that he would enjoy chasing it. Just a few seconds triggered something in the adorable and affectionate Buddy that has been unstoppable since. The slightest shadow or reflection starts him off, as even do flying birds. On a walk recently some swallows swooping about overhead had him leaping… Continued
Listen To The Opening Address at The PPG Summit – Tampa, 2015
A few of the most important points I felt were covered in my opening address at PPG’s First Educational Summit in Tampa, FL. Click here to listen to the full 19 minutes. • I reflected on the sometimes rocky but never boring journey it has taken over the last four years to get PPG to where it is today. • In my humble opinion the profession of animal training, behavior and pet care is a tripod of art, science and relationships, and each is as important as the other. •… Continued
Learning from Real Dogs
I read a lot of academic studies of dogs. My students often enjoy dissecting these studies and figuring out better ways to investigate the same questions. Oftentimes, their ideas come from their extensive observation of real dogs doing real dog things — with other dogs. Researcher and writer Carl Safina makes this point convincingly and with regard to many more species than dogs. His wonderful book on animal communication and thought, Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel, gently skewers academics for some of absurdly human-centered studies and the equally… Continued
Keeping Thanksgiving Fun and Safe for Your Dog
Thanksgiving can be such a special day, full of family, friends, and if you’re like me, the family dog. It is a day to show gratitude for everything you have. For many, it’s a time for large family gatherings, football, excitement, and loads of good food. Thanksgiving can also be a time of stress and short fuses. Generosity and sharing tend to be a common theme during the Thanksgiving holiday, which can mean your guests may be tossing food to the family dog. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of… Continued
The Shocking Truth
With recent events in Scotland regarding so called e-collars (the ‘e’ stands for electronic), the debate has been heating up. I thought I would take this opportunity to air a few suggestions to some of the statements that are being made. There appears to be some serious misconceptions and incorrect information surrounding e-collars that I would like to address in one swoop, here is an excellent platform to do just that. I wanted to start with a deeply scientific article about using e-collars but you know what, the people that will read that… Continued
Taming the Dreaded Oreckosaurus Rex
Some dogs run and hide at first sight of the vacuum cleaner or unleash a barrage of barking, lunging and biting at the dreadful thing. Others quickly identify the vacuum cleaner’s lair and the fear response begins as soon as the person reaches to open the closet door. Cleaning house soon becomes stressful for dog and owner alike. Imagine what a vacuum cleaner appears like from a canine perspective. Dogs are conscious of height, size and elevation as it relates to their sense of security. With more sensitive hearing than… Continued
Observational Skills For Empathy
As Jane Goodall pointed out in an article this week, story-telling is sometimes the best way to share ideas and information. So, I thought I’d share an experience I had with a brilliant trainer utilising her empathic observation on me a few years ago. Some years ago I acquired a rather large, 6 year old Welsh Cob (horse) who’d had very little handling. Fortunately he had the most divine temperament, but he was very big and also very scared of just about everything! Although I was confident handling and teaching… Continued
Seven Stages to a Bite
It’s sometimes good to remind ourselves of what our dogs are. Dogs are relatives of the modern day wolf, both having evolved from a common ancestor. Is it not fascinating that when we chose to domesticate an animal, we chose a predator and welcomed him into our homes. Irrespective of the form the current dog takes, he does share genes with a predator and those instincts will expose themselves in extreme conditions. What I am getting at is that all dogs, if pushed far enough, can bite! When a dog bites, it’s rarely… Continued
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