I was walking one of my dogs on a nature trail and we came upon another dog and his humans coming towards us from the opposite direction.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Twinkies in Class
Twinkies in class
The teacher gives the students a note to take home to their parents/legal guardians:
“We will be practicing reward based learning in class tomorrow. We will give out twinkies for correct answers. Because we want your child to be highly motivated to learn, please be sure he/she does not eat breakfast before coming to school. Also be sure to reduce the size of her/his dinner accordingly. We will be giving out lots of twinkies and we don’t want your child to gain weight while learning.”
A little far-fetched no? Then why do we practice this same procedure when training our pets? Those who have attended a formal training class know that I’m talking about. The instructor tells you (rightfully so) to reduce your dog’s regular kibble so he/she doesn’t gain weight and to not feed your dog before class so he/she will be hungry and willing to learn. Great advice. But one thing we need to look out for is what we feed our dogs during training. You don’t want to replace his healthy at-home meal with treats that are laced with sugar, preservatives, artificial coloring etc..
Pet parents are lucky because a lot of things that dogs love are actually good for them – unlike human kids.
I’m actually very lucky (with one of my dogs at least). Matt-Matt will take anything I hand him – even in a highly distracting environment. He is happy to take his own kibble from me, vegetables, fruit etc.. He is even happier to take freeze dried fish, baked chicken, or a grilled sirloin.
Take a good look at that supermarket or pet store treat that you are feeding your dog. Dogs do not need honey, sugar or salt to make something taste better. If manufacturers have these items in the food it probably means that it has been so highly processed that all the real flavor is gone. Not only are these snacks physiologically unhealthy, they can also have an effect on your pets mental well being. Do you feel better or worse after eating a carb heavy or sugar heavy snack? Your dog might have the same issues.
And what’s the deal with the artificial colors? Does your dog really care if that sugar filled snack has the same color as bacon?
So, you’ve made the decision to carefully review your dog’s treat labels. While you are at it, go ahead and take a good long look at the ingredients in your dog’s everyday kibble. Don’t just look at the wholesome pictures of fresh meat, fruits and veggies on the package.
A great unbiased dog food review site is http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/
You can click on Index at the bottom of the page to see a list of food reviewed: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog-food-index-a.html
Or click reviews to search for your dog food: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/
A good friend recommended this book to me: http://www.amazon.com/Pitcairns-Complete-Guide-Natural-Health/dp/157954973X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299542849&sr=1-1
Dr. Pitcairn's New Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats
I’ve only read the first couple of chapters. I’m not endorsing or opposing anything in the book.
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/latrenda/2011/03/twinkie-in-class/
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Negative Reinforcement Anthem - It's a Hard Knock Life
It’s a hard knock life for us
It’s a hard knock life for us
Stead of treated, we get tricked
Stead of Kisses, we get kicked
It’s a hard knock life
Sometime they even pinch my ear;
All we ever learn is fear
We get yelled at all day long
Stead of love songs, we get prongs.
Sometimes we even get spanked
And by our necks, we get yanked.
It’s a hard knock life
We get poked and we get choked
And we sometimes get alpha-rolled
I wish I knew what they wanted, I just want to do things right
But all they do is punish, when will they ever see the light?
Some days I want to throw the towel in
Sometimes I want to fight
It’s a hard knock life for us
It’s a hard knock life for us
We’d learn so must faster; if you were nice instead of mean
A home with compassion is what fills our dreams
It’s a hard knock life!
Positive training can’t be beat
Get a clicker and some treats
And watch us perform great feats
It’s a better life!
It’s a better life!
It’s a better life!
It’s a hard knock life for us
Stead of treated, we get tricked
Stead of Kisses, we get kicked
It’s a hard knock life
Sometime they even pinch my ear;
All we ever learn is fear
We get yelled at all day long
Stead of love songs, we get prongs.
Sometimes we even get spanked
And by our necks, we get yanked.
It’s a hard knock life
We get poked and we get choked
And we sometimes get alpha-rolled
I wish I knew what they wanted, I just want to do things right
But all they do is punish, when will they ever see the light?
Some days I want to throw the towel in
Sometimes I want to fight
It’s a hard knock life for us
It’s a hard knock life for us
We’d learn so must faster; if you were nice instead of mean
A home with compassion is what fills our dreams
It’s a hard knock life!
Positive training can’t be beat
Get a clicker and some treats
And watch us perform great feats
It’s a better life!
It’s a better life!
It’s a better life!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Why can't I pet your dog?
Why can't I pet your dog?
If a complete stranger walked up to you and asked, "May I drive your car?" or "May I live in your house?" or "May I have your purse", your response is probably going to be "NO!" Now imagine if the reply to your response is "Why?" How do you answer that question? If this happened to me, I would either ignore the person or respond, "It's my house; I paid for it, I owe you no explanation."
Spiritually, my dogs are my family members; but legally, they are my property. So when I tell someone that they can't pet my dog, can't give my dog a treat, can't approach my dog, etc.. why do I owe some explanation? They are my property; I pay for their food, their vet care, their training, etc..
Let's say that dogs are our family members and not property. If a stranger walked up to you and asked, "May I pick up your kid?" or May I take your kid for a ride?" I'm assuming your response would be a resounding no. Imagine once again if the response from the stranger is "Why?" Do you really owe that person an explanation? But let's say that you do provide a why. Your response might be, "I don't know you, I don't trust you with my kid, and my kid doesn't want to go with you." Now imagine that the well meaning stranger then says "But I'm good with kids; look at your boy, he wants to get in the car with me." How do you now respond to that? Do you owe a response?
So, am I supposed to simply let you touch my dog because you are "good with dogs?" Do I really need to explain why I don't want my family member, my property touched?
If you still need an explanation why certain people don't want strangers touching their dogs, here are just a few
- The dog could be in training and strangers approaching the dog might hamper that training
- The dog could be shy and afraid of strangers. Some pet owners like to ease their dogs into getting used to new people. Forcing petting on a dog will only make that shyness worse.
- The dog might have some nervous issues that might cause him/her to bite if approached incorrectly. The pet parent doesn't want you to get hurt
- Additionally, the pet parent doesn't want her dog to get a bad reputation for biting or have to have his/her pet put down for biting. So it's safer for everyone if you keep you distance.
- The pet parent might be uncomfortable with strangers even if the dog is comfortable.
If you have a strong desire to pet dogs, instead of insisting that you force yourself on strangers' dogs, here are some other ideas
- Volunteer at a local shelter or with a local rescue groups
- Sadly there are an abundance of unwanted dogs in this country, so volunteering your time at a shelter will give you a never-ending selection of different dogs to pet. I suggest spending extra time with large black dogs. In general, they tend to have a harder time getting adopted. Even better, ask the staff who hasn't been out of their kennel in a while or ask who gets the least attention, who are the most misunderstood dogs. Then spend time with them.
- Look into a dog-related profession
- Pet Sitting
- Dog Walking
- Dog Training
- Dog Grooming
- Spend time with dogs who belong to friends and family - humans who have given the okay for their dogs to be petted.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Puddin and Shawshank Redmeption
As you can see in the picture below, Puddin has been working on getting out of the house one scratch at a time -- much like Andy Dufresne, the character in Stephen King's Novella: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. In the book and the movie (The Shawshank Redemption) based on the book, Dufresne spends 20 years tunneling his way to freedom using a tiny rock hammer.
Just like Dufresnse's accomplishment, I had become concerned that 15 years from now, I'd have a little Puddin sized hole in my front door.
Click here or on the link above above the picture below to read more about Puddin and how trying to reduce Matt-Matt's barking might have had a unexpected and positive affect on Puddin's separation anxiety.
Puddin's Separation Anxiety
When Puddin "happened" to me in March 2010, I hadn't planned to have her very long. She gave me painful eczema and who needs a puppy at my age anyway? Since she wasn't going to be there long, I decided to not go through the stress of integrating her into the family (Lupe and Matt-Matt can be tempermental with newcomers - to put it nicely). So we played musical rooms for a while. Puddin would stay in the bedroom in a crate when my dogs were out, then we'd switch. Puddin never complained about being crated or about being alone.
As time went on, for some strange reason, I had trouble finding a good family for Puddin. I didn't want to keep her separate from the the fur kids and me for a long time, so I started integrating her. But because she was a puppy, I still crated her whenever I left the house to keep her out of trouble. As Lupe and Matt-Matt got more used to her and as she proved that she was potty trained, I started letting her stay out longer and longer. For some reason it seemed that the more freedom I gave her, the more upset she became about being crated when it was time to go into the crate.
Eventually she got to the point of fretting terribly; and she produced excessive drool (her fur would be soaked in it by the time I got home). She could have easily become dehydrated.
So I started doing everything the books/articles/professionals told me to do i.e. not making a big deal of going and coming, acclimating her to the crate, feeding her only in the crate, food puzzles, classical music, ticking clock, pando music, dog appeasing pheromones, short trips, covering her crate, moving her fromm a larger crate to a smaller crate, wire crate, plastic crate, calming herbs, etc..etc.. but she continued to get worse.
I read a couple of articles that said dogs with separation anxiety will often panic when crated. So I made the decision to let her have full run of the house with the rest of the dogs. When I'd come home from work, I'd find toilet tissue and chewed shoes in the living room, but no drool. I left a video camera running when I went to work -- filmed her in the crate and outside the crate. The video of her inside the crate was hard to watch (she would fret and drool and try so hard to set herself free. But she was fine free in the house (other than getting into typical puppy trouble)
Soo, problem solved right? Well, for some reason, she'd do fine when I went to work (going out the door to the garage) but she still fretted, drooled and scratched the front door when I'd take one of the other dogs out for a walk. Hence the Shawshank Redemtpion Door. I videoed the front door during a dog walk and saw that she fretted the entire time that we were out.
So, if I leave out the garage door, I'm gone for 5 or 6 hours at a time and she doesn't fret at all - not even when I first leave. But when I go out the front door on a dog walk for as little as 20 minutes, she frets terribly. What's the difference? It would seem that she'd be more upset about me leaving to go to work. It didn't matter which dog I'd take out, and I'd always leave at least one dog behind with her so she wasn't alone when I went on walks. And surely she'd know that the garage door meant gone for a long time and the front door meant gone for a short time (some separation anxiety articles talk about a "safe door" - a way to let your dog know when you are returning so they know what to expect).
Matt-Matt's Excessive Barking
Switch to Matt-Matt and his excessive and annoying barking when he is happy/excited. I thought I was doing the right things to stop Matt-Matt's barking, but we have been doing exactly the same thing for the past 3.5 years with the same results. I grab a leash, he barks excessively. I stand there holding the leash and wait for him to sit and be quiet. Then I attach the leash and we go. Lupe even knew that Matt-Matt was holding up our dog walking time. She'd put her mouth over Matt-Matt's mouth and bite down in an attempt to shut him up.
After reading Turid Rugaas's book - Barking: The Sound of Language. I realized that Matt-Matt knows, "I bark, I stop, I go for a walk" Also Turid says that I can't issue any commands or talk to Matt-Matt at all. I can't even ask him to sit. I can use hand signals but I can't talk. I also can't look at him when he is barking because that means attention.
So, I stopped all talking when going out for a walk. Which means I stopped telling the others: "wait", "go back", "no" (when they try to cross the barrier). I just show them the palm of my hand and turn my head. If someone gets past the barrier, I calmly and quietly put a slip leash on the offender and walk him/her back to the other side of the barrier then go back to calmly and quietly leashing whomever was going for a walk.
The hardest part about being completely quiet was not praising the dog who who does what she is supposed to do. Lupe goes right to the door, sits calmly and waits for the leash to be attached. Since I couldn't talk at all, I just petted her as I attached the leash.
Back to Puddin's Separation Anxiety
Well Matt-Matt stilled barked excessively. But a strange thing happened. When I got back from my walk, there was no puddle of drool at the front door. This happened 3 nights in a row (I'm being consistent).
So I don't way a word, no drool. Talking to everyone, drool.
When I leave for work, I quietly tell everyone that I love them, tell them what time I plan to return, and I give them a "job" then I leave without any fanfare.
But taking one or two dogs for a walk was a huge fanfare. I'm telling dogs to stay and not cross the barrier, I'm praising dogs for doing what I say. I'm saying a lot of unnecessary things like - "Lupe. You just went for a walk. It's Murphy's turn now"
So although I knew that for dogs with separation anxiety, you don't make a big deal about leaving the house, I was still doing it every time I took the dogs for walk.
There is still chaos when I go for walks; Matt-Matt is still barking; and Puddin is still trying to get past the barrier when it's not her turn, but least for now, there is no puddle of drool on the floor when I return. I'll see if things improve as I work on my own will power to be quiet. And of course I need to continue my education on dogs and how to help them using positive techniques.
Epilogue
Tonight made the 4th night of me not talking at all when taking the dogs for a walk. After my first trip, I came back home to a little bit of drool. Not nearly as much as before. I turned on my video camera for the first walk, but Puddn knocked it over in her zeal to get past the barrier. Puddin went on my 2nd round of walks. Then I took Murphy out for the 3rd and last walk of the evening. I put the video camera on a tripod and was able to film the door as I was gone. No drooling, no scratching at the door. She doesn't look happy of course, but we seem to be getting somewhere.
Poor Lupe, I didn't know that she stood at the door, cocking her head and listening for every little sound that might be me coming home :(
Here is the video. It's 25 minutes condensed to under 3 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5cbxmJ9ykI
Further Info/Resources
The Shawshank Redemption
- Excellent movie and book. Not your typical Stephen King - no psychotic clowns or psychic prom queens drenched in blood, but it's not for the squeamish and definitely not for the human children. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shawshank_Redemption. Warning - it summarizes the entire story :)
Barrier
- The barrier I use in front of my door is a 3 in 1 metal SuperYard. It doesn't really stop the dogs from getting to the door but it does slow them down. It can also be used as a playpen for smaller dogs or puppies. I purchased mine from Home Depot. See a Walmart Photo here
Separation Anxiety
- No long, sorrowful goodbyes. No excited hellos. This can make SA worse. Some dogs do better in a crate when they have SA. Some do worse. Start with short trips so your dog will know that you are returning. Some people have said Dog Appeasing Pheromones have helped their dogs. Others say that some natural remedies like bach flower essences work. I strongly caution against using psychotropic drugs unless you have fully exhausted all other avenues and the dog is about to hurt him/herself. These drugs can have negative affects on a dog's liver. Come to an SA Big Dawgs training session and talk to Jimmy for some great advice.
- Great article on separation anxiety here. http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=2865. It explains the excessive drooling. But I do caution strongly against the pyschotropic drugs (clomicalm, reconcile) unless 100% absolutely necessary. Exhaust everything else first.
Puddin and Shawshank Redmeption
As you can see in the picture below, Puddin has been working on getting out of the house one scratch at a time -- much like Andy Dufresne, the character in Stephen King's Novella: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. In the book and the movie (The Shawshank Redemption) based on the book, Dufresne spends 20 years tunneling his way to freedom using a tiny rock hammer.
Just like Dufresnse's accomplishment, I had become concerned that 15 years from now, I'd have a little Puddin sized hole in my front door.
Click here or on the link above above the picture below to read more about Puddin and how trying to reduce Matt-Matt's barking might have had a unexpected and positive affect on Puddin's separation anxiety.
Puddin's Separation Anxiety
When Puddin "happened" to me in March 2010, I hadn't planned to have her very long. She gave me painful eczema and who needs a puppy at my age anyway? Since she wasn't going to be there long, I decided to not go through the stress of integrating her into the family (Lupe and Matt-Matt can be tempermental with newcomers - to put it nicely). So we played musical rooms for a while. Puddin would stay in the bedroom in a crate when my dogs were out, then we'd switch. Puddin never complained about being crated or about being alone.
As time went on, for some strange reason, I had trouble finding a good family for Puddin. I didn't want to keep her separate from the the fur kids and me for a long time, so I started integrating her. But because she was a puppy, I still crated her whenever I left the house to keep her out of trouble. As Lupe and Matt-Matt got more used to her and as she proved that she was potty trained, I started letting her stay out longer and longer. For some reason it seemed that the more freedom I gave her, the more upset she became about being crated when it was time to go into the crate.
Eventually she got to the point of fretting terribly; and she produced excessive drool (her fur would be soaked in it by the time I got home). She could have easily become dehydrated.
So I started doing everything the books/articles/professionals told me to do i.e. not making a big deal of going and coming, acclimating her to the crate, feeding her only in the crate, food puzzles, classical music, ticking clock, pando music, dog appeasing pheromones, short trips, covering her crate, moving her fromm a larger crate to a smaller crate, wire crate, plastic crate, calming herbs, etc..etc.. but she continued to get worse.
I read a couple of articles that said dogs with separation anxiety will often panic when crated. So I made the decision to let her have full run of the house with the rest of the dogs. When I'd come home from work, I'd find toilet tissue and chewed shoes in the living room, but no drool. I left a video camera running when I went to work -- filmed her in the crate and outside the crate. The video of her inside the crate was hard to watch (she would fret and drool and try so hard to set herself free. But she was fine free in the house (other than getting into typical puppy trouble)
Soo, problem solved right? Well, for some reason, she'd do fine when I went to work (going out the door to the garage) but she still fretted, drooled and scratched the front door when I'd take one of the other dogs out for a walk. Hence the Shawshank Redemtpion Door. I videoed the front door during a dog walk and saw that she fretted the entire time that we were out.
So, if I leave out the garage door, I'm gone for 5 or 6 hours at a time and she doesn't fret at all - not even when I first leave. But when I go out the front door on a dog walk for as little as 20 minutes, she frets terribly. What's the difference? It would seem that she'd be more upset about me leaving to go to work. It didn't matter which dog I'd take out, and I'd always leave at least one dog behind with her so she wasn't alone when I went on walks. And surely she'd know that the garage door meant gone for a long time and the front door meant gone for a short time (some separation anxiety articles talk about a "safe door" - a way to let your dog know when you are returning so they know what to expect).
Matt-Matt's Excessive Barking
Switch to Matt-Matt and his excessive and annoying barking when he is happy/excited. I thought I was doing the right things to stop Matt-Matt's barking, but we have been doing exactly the same thing for the past 3.5 years with the same results. I grab a leash, he barks excessively. I stand there holding the leash and wait for him to sit and be quiet. Then I attach the leash and we go. Lupe even knew that Matt-Matt was holding up our dog walking time. She'd put her mouth over Matt-Matt's mouth and bite down in an attempt to shut him up.
After reading Turid Rugaas's book - Barking: The Sound of Language. I realized that Matt-Matt knows, "I bark, I stop, I go for a walk" Also Turid says that I can't issue any commands or talk to Matt-Matt at all. I can't even ask him to sit. I can use hand signals but I can't talk. I also can't look at him when he is barking because that means attention.
So, I stopped all talking when going out for a walk. Which means I stopped telling the others: "wait", "go back", "no" (when they try to cross the barrier). I just show them the palm of my hand and turn my head. If someone gets past the barrier, I calmly and quietly put a slip leash on the offender and walk him/her back to the other side of the barrier then go back to calmly and quietly leashing whomever was going for a walk.
The hardest part about being completely quiet was not praising the dog who who does what she is supposed to do. Lupe goes right to the door, sits calmly and waits for the leash to be attached. Since I couldn't talk at all, I just petted her as I attached the leash.
Back to Puddin's Separation Anxiety
Well Matt-Matt stilled barked excessively. But a strange thing happened. When I got back from my walk, there was no puddle of drool at the front door. This happened 3 nights in a row (I'm being consistent).
So I don't way a word, no drool. Talking to everyone, drool.
When I leave for work, I quietly tell everyone that I love them, tell them what time I plan to return, and I give them a "job" then I leave without any fanfare.
But taking one or two dogs for a walk was a huge fanfare. I'm telling dogs to stay and not cross the barrier, I'm praising dogs for doing what I say. I'm saying a lot of unnecessary things like - "Lupe. You just went for a walk. It's Murphy's turn now"
So although I knew that for dogs with separation anxiety, you don't make a big deal about leaving the house, I was still doing it every time I took the dogs for walk.
There is still chaos when I go for walks; Matt-Matt is still barking; and Puddin is still trying to get past the barrier when it's not her turn, but least for now, there is no puddle of drool on the floor when I return. I'll see if things improve as I work on my own will power to be quiet. And of course I need to continue my education on dogs and how to help them using positive techniques.
Epilogue
Tonight made the 4th night of me not talking at all when taking the dogs for a walk. After my first trip, I came back home to a little bit of drool. Not nearly as much as before. I turned on my video camera for the first walk, but Puddn knocked it over in her zeal to get past the barrier. Puddin went on my 2nd round of walks. Then I took Murphy out for the 3rd and last walk of the evening. I put the video camera on a tripod and was able to film the door as I was gone. No drooling, no scratching at the door. She doesn't look happy of course, but we seem to be getting somewhere.
Poor Lupe, I didn't know that she stood at the door, cocking her head and listening for every little sound that might be me coming home :(
Here is the video. It's 25 minutes condensed to under 3 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5cbxmJ9ykI
Further Info/Resources
The Shawshank Redemption
- Excellent movie and book. Not your typical Stephen King - no psychotic clowns or psychic prom queens drenched in blood, but it's not for the squeamish and definitely not for the human children. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shawshank_Redemption. Warning - it summarizes the entire story :)
Barrier
- The barrier I use in front of my door is a 3 in 1 metal SuperYard. It doesn't really stop the dogs from getting to the door but it does slow them down. It can also be used as a playpen for smaller dogs or puppies. I purchased mine from Home Depot. See a Walmart Photo here
Separation Anxiety
- No long, sorrowful goodbyes. No excited hellos. This can make SA worse. Some dogs do better in a crate when they have SA. Some do worse. Start with short trips so your dog will know that you are returning. Some people have said Dog Appeasing Pheromones have helped their dogs. Others say that some natural remedies like bach flower essences work. I strongly caution against using psychotropic drugs unless you have fully exhausted all other avenues and the dog is about to hurt him/herself. These drugs can have negative affects on a dog's liver. Come to an SA Big Dawgs training session and talk to Jimmy for some great advice.
- Great article on separation anxiety here. http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=2865. It explains the excessive drooling. But I do caution strongly against the pyschotropic drugs (clomicalm, reconcile) unless 100% absolutely necessary. Exhaust everything else first.
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