DogPsyche's Blog

Give a dog a bone? No. Give a dog A CHOICE...

2011-12-29T21:50:00.000Z

I was reading this blog today and it never ceases to amaze me how you seem to find an article discussing just what you have been thinking about recently.

As my regular readers will know, I've got a life-term foster dog. He's a 5yr neutered male Neapolitan Mastiff who bounced from his two previous homes for health reasons but also because of his severe neophobia (fear of novel stimuli).

When he bounced the second time, I promised him he never again have to endure another massive trauma (for him) of changing homes. So here he will stay unless I can find him another person who can actually guarantee his behavioural and physical health management.

The reason I've been thinking so much lately of the irony of my work with him is that over the past 18 months he has gradually overcome the worst of his behavioural problems and he is now only mildly neophobic. However, while he is now much more comfortable with new people approaching him, I find myself leading him away from people.

Reasons for this? (yeah I had to think about why I was doing this too...)

1. When you say 'yes, you can come and say hello to him' (that's when they even bother to ask..) people just seem incapable of being polite to a dog. They will approach making lots of noises, bending down over him, touching and smacking his head. If they did that to me I'd slap them, but people think it's okay to do that to a dog they don't know.

2. Being a Neapolitan Mastiff, I am loathe to give people the impression that this breed can actually tolerate this type of personal violation of space so that they will go online when they go home and get one as a family pet. Only last week I was desensitising him to a lively child on a bike when the boy's father attempted to walk right over to us, saying how beautiful he was and enquiring what breed he was (to which I ALWAYS reply 'just a crossbreed'). If I hadn't physically blocked the man, he would have thought nothing of invading both mine and my dog's personal space.

Having worked in the welfare of this breed for about 7 or 8 years now, I have lost all empathy with people who go out and buy a Neapolitan Mastiff as a family pet 'because I love the way they look' and then want to get rid of them when their true nature surfaces at sexual maturity.

So... I find myself verbally or even physically blocking people when they ask 'is he friendly?'. I find myself saying 'No' and then praising my dog warmly for walking on peacefully. Why SHOULD I subject him to the risk of having all of our work undone by one ignorant person who frightens him with their approach? Why SHOULDN'T he be able to go for a peaceful walk without being accosted by people who he would actually rather not interact with?

I always know a true dog person. Someone who stands back, asks me if THE DOG would like to say hello and simply waits for an answer, then waits to see if the dog would actually like to approach for a sniff. No approaching, no hard eye contact or unpredictable moves, no violation of his personal space, no intimidation.

Most importantly, a true dog person simply smiles back and nods 'of course' if you say no or THE DOG says no.

Next time you see a dog you would like to say hello to, just wait and watch. You could be surprised when you actually give the dog some choice in the matter...

So Proud of Poppy...

2011-11-24T16:53:00.001Z

My day, in fact my month or two was made today when one of my clients described her recent visit to the vet for her Dobermann female's check up as a positive experience with the veterinary staff praising her for her handling of her dog!

Poppy is a young rescue Dobermann who is a highly strung and feels the need to bark at other dogs that come a little too close. There's no aggression there, just a bit of panic (in much the same I do with spiders that run towards me!) but we've found her some friends in our Walk Club and she's doing marvellously.

The only way this could ever have happened though is her owner learning how to be calm and confident in any situation, which has made the world of difference to Poppy.

When Poppy and her owner went to the vets last week, the staff were really understanding and allowed them to wait outside for their appointment instead of the behavioural boiling pot that that the small waiting room would have been for Poppy. They then showed even more understanding when they blocked the view of another dog with a large towel as Poppy went through.

Even better, they praised Poppy's owner for her calm and confident handling skills! I always praise owners for their improving skills but it's even more pleasing when other professionals notice and comment on it too.

So, a big congratulations to Poppy & Ruth, and an even bigger thank you to AlphaPets Veterinary Clinic in Maidstone (I think!) for displaying a terrific understanding of canine behaviour!

Resource Anxiety

2011-11-11T14:01:00.001Z

I have a theory forming, based on suspicions I've had for a while (and probably blogged about before).

Cutting straight to the chase, I believe that making a Dog wait for their food creates frustration / tension and therefore they get to it in a state of heightened arousal...

It's something we all teach puppy owners to do, to use the food bowl as an opportunity for training, to teach that the owner provides and doesn't take away in order to reduce the likelihood of food guarding.

However, what if the very action of mucking about with a Dog's primary resource is creating the very tension that leads to anxiety that leads to guarding?

Should we simply be teaching people to leave a Dog in peace while they're eating?

The latest reason for my doubts...

I've recently started controlling my foster Dog's access to his bowl; making him wait for his food for a few seconds behind the indoor gate and then releasing him.

I started this simply as an opportunity for a training session. He'd never had a problem with me or our other dogs walking past him while eating before.

Since we've been implementing the sit-and-wait, his arousal levels have escalated at mealtimes and his resource anxiety has resulted in full-blown guarding with him leaving the food bowl to display Level 2 bites on three occasions, once to me walking around in the kitchen and twice to our other Dog walking past him. Neither of these incidents would normally have solicited this kind of behaviour. I believe there is a strong element of barrier frustration going on here too, with him wanting to charge the gate the minute the food goes down.

Needless to say we have stopped the sit-and-wait and have gone back to just letting him go straight to his food and things have calmed down but he is still a little resource-anxious.

I was considering impending a food resource-guarding programme but have a strong feeling this will simply be perceived as mucking about with feeding time and we will simply be increasing the intensity of his anxiety.

I'll update so watch this space, but this has been another case for me that confirms my suspicions and is leading me to the affirmation "LEAVE YOUR DOG AND HIS DINNER ALONE".

A Different Form of Abuse?

2011-11-03T11:51:00.000Z

I've been busy lately - REALLY busy! So apologies for not blogging before now.

Before I start, I will state that I will NOT be naming the organisation concerned as I refuse to slander any organisation that actually does good work (which this one generally does).

I was at a pet show event doing charity work recently, working on just one of many charity stands doing a great job of promoting what they do and how they help people and animals.

On my travels around the show, I started to notice dogs showing signs of stress. Now a big event open to the public is stressful for most dogs to some extent, but these dogs were supposed to be used to and enjoy human interaction, or they wouldn't have been there, right? Well as the day wore on, these dogs were being surrounded by members of the public, getting smacked by children across the head and all over their bodies. Now some of these dogs dealt with this okay and just accepted the attention (it must be noted that I didn't observe ANY dog positively enjoying the attention), however some of them started to show extreme avoidance behaviours and when these were ignored by their owners, started to behaviourally shut down.

An example was a large breed dog I was able to observe over a period of hours as I was situated close to where the dog was 'working'.

The owner was either oblivious to this dog's behavioural state or chose to ignore it; whatever the reason, this dog went through over 3 hours of misery. The first sign that the dog wasn't coping was avoidance behaviours, whenever people came up to him he turned his head away, licking his lips, slow blinking of the eyes, lowering of the ears, tightening of the skin on his head and shutting his mouth tight. Whenever he did this, his owner would hold his head in place for people to pat and stroke, many of them small children.

As his avoidance signals were obviously being ignored, he then started to actually turn his body around when he saw people approaching. Again, his owner would merely turn him around and encourage people to come and say hello to him.

Then the dog started to hide behind his owner when people approached, showing real signs of distress by now to anybody that remotely understands dogs. Again, his owner ignored this and merely dragged him back out for people to surround and begin their assault on his head.

Then this dog merely shut down. He was in a severe state of distress, by now panting excessively, and didn't even attempt to move away. The owner seemed to take this as a sign that the dog was now enjoying the attention.

This dog had to go through this for over 3 hours without any kind of break, with literally hundreds of people coming up to him and assaulting him (from his point of view) while being forced to endure the experience by an owner that really should have known better.

The crucial thing here is that this dog was probably trained only to accept the CONTROLLED attention of a few people at a time, not the continuous and uncontrolled onslaught of the general public and their children. It is only due to this dog's incredibly tolerant nature that he didn't descend into displaying aggressive behaviours to try and control the stimuli (people) that were causing him distress.

What his owner should have done is identify her dog's stress the moment he started turning his head away from people and taken him to 'escape' into a wide open area or outside where he wasn't crowded. Then if she returned, she should have controlled the amount of people coming up to him to a level that the dog had been previously trained to accept, just something simple like 'just one at at time please!!'. If the dog was still displaying stress signals he should then have been removed from the public area and not return to the stand.

My point here is that this dog may well have been an excellent dog to bring to schools, hospitals or other similar environments, but he couldn't cope with the sheer onslaught of the general public at this kind of event.

This wasn't the most depressing thing I witnessed however (unbelievably).

I couldn't bear to watch another dog go through this trauma so when the same stand had a different dog showing exactly the same behaviours I advised the show organiser and they arranged for the vet on call to examine the (toy breed) dog.

I observed this vet smack the dog's head a few times, (affectionate patting?), smack it's rump a few times (more affectionate patting?) and merely ask the owner some questions. She didn't remain around to observe the dog during intense periods of public interest. She then said the dog was 'fine' and left.

I was absolutely appalled as I had to watch this poor dog endure more stressful, forced interactions with the hundreds of people that came over to him.

It has to be said that there were also a few dogs that genuinely seemed to enjoy the human interaction, but these weren't subjected to the same kind of sheer numbers of people that the others were (specific, unusual breeds always draw a bigger crowd).

It dawned on me that this kind of abuse is not recognised at the moment. We all recognise the distress a dog goes through in a car on a hot day, or being left alone for hours at a time, or being hit or kicked. What about the BEHAVIOURAL stress that a dog goes through? Just because a tolerant dog that would never turn to aggression to repel the stimulus that is causing him stress (human interaction), does that mean we should ignore the stress it's under?

There are patrols in dog show car parks to break into cars where dogs are suffering, there are legal processes to intervene if an animal is being subjected to being left for hours at a time or being hit or kicked; what about for the stress that demonstrator dogs may go through on stands at shows?

Because a dog is incredibly tolerant and will not resort to aggression seems to currently mean it can be subjected to hours of intense human attention without consideration for its behavioural well-being.

Next time you're at a show where there are dogs on stands where the public are encouraged to interact with the dog, just stand and watch for a while. Look for signs of avoidance, however small, and watch to see who the handler is being more attentive to; the humans - or their (supposedly) best friend...

From Hughie...

2011-09-26T19:07:00.001+01:00

For Ali & Mick.

One Dog Per Family?

2011-05-15T15:15:00.001+01:00

Sky News: One Family, One Dog Policy For Shanghai

This may seem extreme but, to play Devil's Advocate for a moment, in the long run is this a bad thing? I know rescues may now be inundated with dogs no longer legal to keep, but aren't they inundated now anyway?

Can you envisage the problems this might solve in years to come? Or is it simply unthinkable to be forced to only have one dog in the family?

Food for thought and perhaps discussion?

The Dog that Bites...

2011-05-15T14:27:00.001+01:00

I wanted to write something to contribute to the US Dog Bite Prevention Week but wanted to represent The Dog somehow without making it sound like a Disney script.

I've spent my life around dogs, learning about them, learning from them, with them; for them. I've felt an empathy and affinity for dogs for as long as I can remember and in the short periods of my life that I have lived without them I have felt incomplete.

So when I know a dog is about to bite, I don't just see the behaviour, I feel the emotion vicariously. I feel the conflict, the fear, the intent, the desire to repel whatever stimulus is causing the dog's distress, because it IS distress, most definitely, in the pet dog that feels the need to bite.

I spend much of my time educating owners in how to read their dogs better. To develop more empathy for them by seeing the world through their eyes and feeling it with emotions equally as powerful as our own.

When I see a dog growling and / or freezing in front of someone I ask myself what is that person doing to put the dog in this emotional state? I ask myself just what is the dog's expected outcome here? Why does he have an expected outcome? What has happened in this dog's history that is making him feel so concerned about the presence of a human that illicits such a hugely emotional response?

I'm sure there are many others who feel this, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the owners of dogs. How do we change that?

Don't Switch Off!

2011-05-11T19:42:00.000+01:00

During our Walk Club we find lots of places to stop under a shady tree and chill out.

Scampi, Sticky and Ralph are demonstrating how easy it is to slip some training into a nice walk in the park.

If you can do exercises like a Down-Stay in an environment like the park with lots of distractions, you can do them anywhere.

So often I see people and their dogs taking two completely different walks; the owner on the phone or deep in thought, and their dog trotting around them but so far away doing their own thing, each switched-off from each other.

Don't switch off from your dog when you're out on a walk. Learn to enjoy their company like you would an old friend you haven't seen in ages. Look at the world through their eyes and share the sheer joy they feel at just being out in the fresh air. Get excited to find a discarded tennis ball or a cricket chirruping in the long grass and call your dog over to show them what you've found! Chill out under a shady tree together and practice your Down-Stay together.

You never know, you might just enjoy 'being a Dog' with your dog for a while!

Any excuse to socialise!

2011-04-26T15:28:00.001+01:00

Here's Sticky 'socialising' at the cafe after working hard at the Walk Club. The fact that they make cracking bacon sarnies is neither here nor there...

Our Session with Rico

2011-04-13T16:03:00.001+01:00

Here's some pics of our training and behaviour session with Rico in Greenwich Park today.

Rico learned in just 40 minutes not to chase footballs using just verbal markers and lots of positive reinforcement. He is one smart cookie.

Taking in the evening sun.

2011-04-06T17:10:00.001+01:00

Here's a little pic of my foster dog, Belly, taking in a bit of evening sun on the doorstep...

2011-04-01T20:17:00.002+01:00

I've got a client who took on a dog with severe proximity issues around other dogs. We've come to a bit of an empasse in the dog's rehabilitation because the owner's work pattern doesn't allow them to attend regular sessions. The owner feels really bad about this because they would love a dog who can just be let off the lead to frolic and play with other dogs.

This was my recent reply to them...

"Hi D****

I really understand the dilemma that owners have when faced with taking on a dog with issues. I've fostered plenty myself so know how stressful it can be, but I really can tell you that some dogs really don't want to be bothered by other dogs. They would much rather just play and work with their owners while on a walk. I think B*** is one of these dogs, at least at the moment. It's really important for us to separate what we think the dog would like from what the dog would tell you if he could speak.

Well, dogs can speak - in their body language - and at the moment, B****'s body language tells us loud and clear that he's not happy around other dogs.

I'll tell you a little story... When my boys were young I really wanted one of them to go into rugby. It's a great sport and I'm a qualified coach and I knew they'd really love it if they gave it a chance. To cut a long story short, they tried it and even got fairly serious about it, which was when I got fairly serious about it, hoping they'd get picked for the county, maybe even the national side! When they decided to give it up and move onto other things it was really difficult for me; I'd given up years of my life thinking that they were enjoying it, thinking that they had the same goals as me. It took me a long time to realise that they didn't have the same goals as me and my ideas of what they loved doing weren't the same as theirs.

We all want a dog we can slip off the lead and let go off to run about and play with other dogs and people. Well I can promise you that that kind of dog is becoming rarer and rarer these days because humans mess them up. B****'s previous owners really did mess him up and it's really unfair that you have to deal with the problems that someone else created. However if you accept that he's probably not going to develop into a dog from a Disney film for a very long time, if ever, then you will be able to let up on yourself a bit and simply enjoy B***** for what he is. A great companion to you and your family.

Yes it means you'll have to pick your walks carefully. Yes it means muzzling him. Yes it means having a long trailing line on him at all times. Does it mean he's going to be any less happy doing these things? Well that's SOLELY up to you. If you walk him feeling unhappy that he's not Lassie, then he'll probably have a rotten time too and yes, he will be unhappy, but not because he can't go charging off into the field, but because you're feeling sorry for him.

I'm fostering a dog a bit like B**** at the moment; has to be on a lead most of the time, can't be walked in busy dog-populated areas because of fear problems with some types due to a really bad upbringing by numpty owners etc. Does he have any less of a great time? No, because I make sure that these times with just me and him are really great times, where he can have my undivided attention, and explore every mouse or rabbit hole, he can hunt for food I drop out for him, we can run about and play chase with each other etc. Does he miss the company of other dogs? Why should he!!? I AM THE ONE THAT MAKES HIS TAIL WAG!!!

That's eventually how I'd like you to feel about being out with B*****. Don't feel sorry for him or wish he was some other kind of dog. Love the dog you're with, not the dog you wish you had. You'll really feel much happier about everything - and so will he.

~Jaq~"

CABTSG Study Day

2011-03-30T09:01:00.001+01:00

It's going to be a great day...

The Pride of the Wolfhounds...

2011-03-25T19:25:00.000Z

I had a consultation with this amazing group of dogs yesterday.

It was a wonderful experience to be in the presence of a group of dogs that have learned to co-exist so peacefully within the confines of a normal family home.

We witnessed such beautiful, eloquent, subtle dialogue going on between this truly gentle giants; all designed to resolve any proximity issues and keep the peace. Like some kind of canine pride of lions.

In this picture I was handing out food to get a better idea of the social dynamics of the group and was blown away by how, well, polite these dogs were!

The reason for the consult was to resolve a developing issue between an adolescent male and an older male in his prime, and yes, the adolescent stood out like the proverbial sore thumb with his insecure and slightly clumsy communications amongst this stable, peaceful pack. With some careful supervision and management during the next few months, he will be fine and should come out of the adolescence tunnel a really balanced individual.

I see so many dogs kept apart in kennels or separated in their homes, and then I see a group of dogs like this, so well balanced and calm, that I wonder, on a general level, just how much of this is nurture and how much nature, i.e. how much of this is just breed type / natural adjustment within the group, and how much is careful management.

I was looking for signs of tension or stress in the relationships between the dogs but there honestly wasn't any, even when I got the food out! The adolescent male became a bit anxious and there was a light grumble but the elder male simply calmly lumbered away again as if he was happy to defer to keep the peace. We witnessed this kind of negotiation over and over again in different situations and it was nothing short of an honour to witness.

I've said it before and I'll keep on saying it; the human race could learn a lot from the way animals like these Wolfhounds live in harmony.

Evening Sun...

2011-03-19T17:49:00.001Z

And here is Bellini enjoying his evening walk...

Enjoying the Sun

2011-03-19T14:16:00.001Z

At last a warm day...

Parade of Mutants

2011-03-12T15:31:00.001Z

Pedigree Dogs Exposed - The Blog: A parade of mutants

Just seen this... follows on pretty well from my earlier blog I think.

Someone comments about 'the uneducated' talking about the breed. Well I AM educated, having dealt with the rescue and welfare of this breed for over five years now, and this breed is in a mess. If the enthusiasts, owners, breeders and judges can't control what people are doing with these dogs, then perhaps Jemima is right and the breed should be banned, for the sake of the poor dogs.

Heartbreakingly Sad

2011-03-12T15:11:00.001Z

Crufts 2011: the best – and still the worst – of the dog world – Telegraph Blogs

I completely agree with this.

The judging of the classes I witnessed confirms that judges are still rewarding the owners and breeders of exaggerated, unfit dogs.

So if you were wondering just how the winning Neapolitan Mastiff got its 1st place when there were other fitter less extreme dogs being shown, join the club; you're not alone...

Oh...

2011-03-11T10:21:00.001Z

The Mastiff class at Crufts...

Here He Is!

2011-03-10T20:04:00.001Z

I was working with this lovely lad today. Not much wrong with him, just a bit of over-exuberance when he sees another dog! Such a lovely treat for me to work with another giant breed...

The Ultimate Sacrifice...

2011-03-03T00:04:00.001Z

Sky News: Tributes To Brit Soldier Shot In Afghanistan

Not that any lost soldier in war is any more or less deserving of tribute than another, I hope this four-legged one is remembered and honoured.

RIP, Theo.

Is Your Dog Really Hyperactive?

2011-02-25T17:43:00.001Z

Hyperactivity in Dogs | Clinician's Brief

Or does it simply need...

A good walk?
More of your attention?
Better quality or less quantity of food?

All of the above?

I can honestly say in all the years I've been working with dogs that there have only been a few that needed veterinary help for hyperactivity, the massive majority of them have only needed some basic environmental adjustments like those above.

Food for thought next time you think 'hyperactive' when you are a dog that can't settle, can't concentrate, doesn't respond to training etc.

A familiar place for us...

2011-02-24T17:49:00.001Z

Poor foster dog Belly...

Yet another trip to the vet, this time for skin scrapes and swabs to try and get to the bottom of his recurring pyoderma.

There was no question about this; I requested a sedative for him to ease the trauma of the process and will always do so when I feel its in everyone's best interests, but especially that of the behavioural health of the dog.

Thanks to this combined with the opportunity to sit on the floor with him for 20 mins to help him relax, meant that the vet was able to do his work without hassle or risk of being bitten, and Belly doesn't retain any negative memories of being forcibly handled or having something painful done to him.

As I write, Belly is lying peacefully on the kitchen floor back in familiar surroundings and when he wakes up, will probably have no firm recollection of anything that has happened to him in the last few hours.

My thanks go, as always, to a veterinary clinic that understands the importance of behavioural health, and works with me to ensure that the dogs in my care get the necessary arrangements.

Future Walk Club Venue

2011-02-23T19:22:00.001Z

Knole Park, Kent: Walk of the week - Telegraph

We would love to run a Walk Club here, possibly on a Thursday lunchtime. It's such an interesting and beautiful place.

We are also planning a course of evening Walk Clubs in West Malling in the summer on Wednesday evenings.

To register your interest in either of the above please email Dogpsyche UK.

Afternoon Walkies

2011-02-22T14:58:00.001Z

Some Very Important Lessons

2011-02-19T20:06:00.001Z

Rise in Dog Bites Has Experts Concerned

I'm hoping to get to read this research but there are some massively important lessons here.

For me the core problem is NOT the behaviour of the dog but that of person being bitten.

Dogs do not WANT to bite. More often than not they are forced to because they have been left with no choice.

Time and time again I hear parents say that their dog is fine with kids and is HAPPY to have the children lie all over them.

I don't hesitate to make the gravity of the danger in this misconception very clear...

As I type this I'm sitting in a little English country pub watching a little female Staffie show HUGE signs of stress at some children running around and just well, being kids; screaming, jumping, running about.

Thankfully the owners seem to be aware of this and are protecting their dog by allowing her to escape under the table, but how many owners are this considerate in their own home? With their own dog? Their own kids?

It's almost as if people are ashamed to admit their dog isn't the perfect family pet. They would rather risk a bite incident than protect their dog.

There is a rightful need to protect the child from being bitten, but I say the need to protect the dog is equally as important if we want to reduce bite incidents...

Walkies in the Sun!

2011-02-12T16:11:00.001Z

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Where'd that squirrel go?

2011-02-09T17:29:00.001Z

Sticky getting a crick in his neck... After a consult where he has worked hard, I allow him to play hard as a reward. If I thought he had a cat in hell's chance of catching one, I would be interrupting this squirrel-watching!

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Ruffles

2011-02-09T17:21:00.002Z

Went to see lovely Ruffles today. She's developed a bit of a ball obsession but within an hour or so of impulse control exercises, her owner was able to hold the ball without getting it snatched out of her fingers! Lots of work to do but Ruffles has a very dedicated owner; they'll do well.

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Belly...

2011-02-07T17:09:00.001Z

Out for an evening stroll...

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Sassy

2011-01-28T17:28:00.001Z

This beauty is Sassy. She is a 7yr rescue with a deep insecurity around certain dogs. The only dogs that she can relax around are dogs that are COMPLETELY confident and passively dominant around her. If they respond in any way to her anxious stare, even with eye contact, she responds with a typical loud and animated display to keep them away.

She has been making great progress with calm, confident dogs like my Teacher Dog, Bailey, and absolutely adores my other one, Sticky, simply because they are confident and self-assured enough to completely ignore her anxious watchfulness and go about their business, using displacement to diffuse her tension and relax her. They know not to make any sudden moves, not to make prolonged eye contact. Because Sassy gets no reinforcement of any kind, she can find a neutral companionship where neither says a word, and from there we can help her to trust our handling and guidance i.e."its ok Sassy, stick with me, stay calm and nothing bad will happen".

This is impossible to achieve without the right Teacher Dogs, and we have some awesome Teacher Dogs.

I'll keep you updated on Sassy as her rehabilitation progresses.

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Life with a Molosser...

2011-01-16T14:46:00.001Z

Just a little taste of what life with a Molosser is like; desperately trying to watch the tv or do some work with this delightful racket going on beside you...

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During a Walk the Other Day...

2011-01-03T19:17:00.004Z

We were out for a walk the other day, just me, my daughter and a couple of the dogs, in a public country park in Kent.

I’ve always wished that there was some way (other than fixing a camera to your forehead) of recording events as they happen to put in a blog entry because a 60 second piece of video can speak an hour’s worth of typed words! As I didn’t have a camera attached to my forehead, I’ll have to describe the things that happened during our walk that I found so fascinating that I wanted to blog about.

The first was as we entered one of the fields. An adult male Labrador cross was enjoying himself with a Frisbee being thrown by his adult male owner. The instant thing that hit you about this pair were that they were inherently relaxed, both of them. The owner wasn’t on his phone or miles away in thought, he was enjoying some time with his dog and the dog was clearly enjoying the time with his owner, but there was a mutual ‘peace’ and calm about them both that I found really pleasant to watch.

Our dogs were enjoying their first few moments of freedom and of course were terribly excited to see another dog to interact with and ran up to the Labrador a little too rudely and quickly. I explained to the owner that my dogs were okay, just a little excited to have just got here and the owner merely said with a kind smile ‘Ah that’s okay, he can look after himself’. As I watched this lovely Labrador very calmly drop his toy to concentrate on dealing with the approach of dogs shouting ‘HALLOOOO THERE!!!’ on their approach, I anthropomorphosised in my head that he was letting out a sigh and a quick eye roll as if to say “… Oh dear.. and I was just enjoying a bit of peace and quiet with my toy – oh well, had better be polite at least”. Immediately it was obvious to me that the dog was as relaxed and confident as his owner and of course, the dog was able to calmly receive the attentions of my slightly-hyped pair, including telling my little guy that he was being a bit rude by jumping up at him with a little snap.

It was lovely to watch, and I dearly wish I’d had that camera stuck to my forehead to show you.

By contrast…

Half an hour on, we were approaching one of the gates when a man came in with his young Springer spaniel. The Springer was clearly extremely excited to be in this environment, well what Springer wouldn’t? Rabbit, fox, cattle, squirrel and goodness-knows-what-else tracks all over the place! My dogs had calmed down a little by now, but were still happy to see another offlead dog and they all met halfway between their respective owners. However, the other owner’s behaviour was very stiff and anxious and he came walking very quickly up to the dogs. At the same time his Springer’s tail went between his legs, he became anxious and tense and the entire atmosphere changed.

Now I don’t know if the dog’s behaviour changed the owner, or the owner’s behaviour changed the dog, but I DO know that the only element capable of change in this relationship is the owner. This was obviously an established pattern - anxiety around other dogs from both owner & dog – and now this pattern is established, the owner is the only one that can alter the course of events through his behaviour changes, his attitude towards other dogs, his actions etc. However knowing this usually creates more tension in the owner and the downward spiral continues to a point where the dog is automatically going on the offensive with every dog it meets.

As the experienced ‘element’ in this interaction it was up to me to take the initiative and I called my dogs away from the Springer who was led away by his owner.

There are a few take-home messages from this blog;

Laid back owners have laid back dogs. (Think about it).
In EVERY situation where dogs meet, being tense and anxious NEVER helps, and it is really important for the person (or dog in some cases!) with the most experience and knowledge to take the initiative, read the situation and calmly deal with it, whether it’s 2 dogs and 2 owners or 10 dogs and 5 owners…
Like it or not, if you live in an area where you meet offlead dogs a lot, you HAVE to help your dog learn to socialise. If that means YOU need to learn more about canine language in order to help your dog, then get in touch with a behaviour consultant who can teach you.

Winter Walkies

2011-01-01T15:53:00.001Z

Here's a pic of the fittest, healthiest, almost-11-year-old Great Dane I've ever known, Bailey, enjoying a Winter walk today. We put her extraordinary good health down to a stress-free life, good diet and being kept lean and fit, never being allowed to get overweight.

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Doggy Heaven...

2010-12-26T13:21:00.001Z

Our walking field in the village. How pretty is this?

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Hooray!

2010-12-08T21:47:00.001Z

At last I have a proper smartphone that I can blog from. Hopefully I'll be able to blog a lot more often now... Watch this space!

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Vincent - Foster Dog Blog

2010-08-07T21:07:00.000+01:00

Here's some shots of Belly at the Molosser Fun Day today after the classes had finished. I'll blog more about the day tomorrow but he was an absolute star. He made his Auntie Mummy (me) very proud.

Belly (Formerly Vincent) - Foster Dog Blog - 5 weeks

2010-07-25T23:37:00.000+01:00

I took a few photos of Belly during a habituation session last week. He still suffers from a slight anxiety around new stimuli but has habituated to 'our' half of the village which is generally much quieter so I thought it was time to take him to other, busier parts of the village to get him used to light traffic, a bit more social activity etc.

He was nervous at first but this junction in the middle of the village has lots of space and is not busy at all. It has no lorries or fast vehicles going through it and rarely any pedestrians so within 10 minutes, Belly was relaxed enough to lie down and watch the world go by, which was very encouraging.

We then continued our walk to the local kids' playground, just 5 minutes up the road. Again, I left lots of space for him to gently habituate to the activity but there were only a few families in there. I made sure to sit down with him to show him that I was relaxed enough to 'chill' so he very quickly chilled with me!

His anxiety around children is still interesting to me as he apparently lived with a family of young children for the first 3 years of his life but as I've mentioned before - I don't think this was a pleasant experience for him so I make sure he knows I will 'protect' him and give him lots of space if he needs it. Luckily we didn't need it on this occasion, even though children were running about and even came out of the playground to play cricket nearby, Belly remained happy to sit by me and relax.

Good stuff.

Peaceful Co-existence

2010-07-17T11:53:00.001+01:00

Just to show that, with patient, consistent handling, peaceful co-existence can be possible after an argument (and this wasn't set up - I had my mobile on me to take the pic!)...

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog

2010-07-16T12:32:00.000+01:00

4 weeks on and things have settled down beautifully again after the incident at the weekend. Close but relaxed monitoring have restored peace.

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog

2010-07-11T20:52:00.000+01:00

Poor Belly. This is an example of his skin problem. We'll be back at the vet this week...

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog - 3.5 Weeks

2010-07-11T12:30:00.004+01:00

Well at last... He's shown he IS a true Mastino after all!

It's a little later than usual for a Mastino but today Belly (formerly Vincent) charged one of the other dogs in a definite dominance showing.

I'd observed over the last 24 hours that he was getting a little more 'clingy' than before - not wanting to settle in his half of the house at night, wanting to stay by my side at all times during the day, following me about etc. and assumed that this was just the normal bonding process for a new dog, but especially a Mastino, who form very strong emotional bonds with their chosen human if allowed to.

Yesterday I was in a very lucky position to be able to record him jumping towards another dog on the TV! See here:

Again this gave me a clue that he was 'getting his paws under the table' and becoming more confident. Watching his body posture but in particular his tail carriage, this wasn't 100% play either... It has to balanced by the fact that the dog on the TV wasn't behaving in a balanced way however and I would expect most dogs to react the way Belly did in the presence of such an unbalanced dog! What I was pleased about was the way he very quickly came back to me on command. (Watch the vid a few times to catch all the important points!).

Then this morning... Aha!

My 17yr daughter, Rachael, was sitting on the floor next to Bailey, our 10.5yr Great Dane. Bailey was doing 'the Dane thing' of sitting with her bottom on the sofa and her front feet on the floor, getting some attention from Rachael. Belly was sitting on the other side of Rachael. The two dogs were facing each other and about 3ft apart.

Suddenly Belly lunged across Rachael and pinned Bailey to the floor with lots of noise and bluster.

I quickly and calmly got up from across the room, took Belly's collar and pulled him away from Bailey. There was very little resistance from him, no redirected aggression, no frustration. He immediately deferred and I took him out into the kitchen and put him behind the gate. I was very careful not be angry or upset with him and just treated it as a completely normal act.

We checked Bailey over and - this is important - there wasn't a mark on her. Not even a drop of slobber demonstrating that this was a gesture; a show of bluster and dominance from Belly because he wasn't happy that Bailey (for once) hadn't deferred and moved away from him in appeasement - something she always does normally.

The analysis of this between my daughter (herself an accomplished dog and horse handler) and myself was that the catalyst was her sitting on the floor between the two dogs. Because she was stroking Bailey, she had distracted her from her normal behaviour of appeasement and moving away from Belly to keep him calm.

In fact, in Belly's eyes, Bailey was probably being exceptionally rude and almost challenging him in not giving him the space he's come to expect from her.

We are actually extremely pleased that we've seen this behaviour in him because it fills a missing piece of the jigsaw for me, i.e. why this Mastino apeared so benign and unchallenging! The massively important aspect of this for me was that - although we would never have set this up deliberately - we know that he does not use his teeth to make his point. Bailey was completely unmarked and unmouthed.

N.B. A very important point to make is that we immediately went into 'happy mode' with Bailey, smiling at her, patting her cheerfully as if nothing had happened, to help her to 're-balance' again. The temptation was to go into 'oh you poor thing...' mode as humans but DOGS DON'T DO THAT and dont understand our behaviour when we do it! By being completely normal, cheerful, matter-of-fact with her for the next 10 minutes, she bounced back to being completely herself again...

Now we go back to square one. As all of the dogs will have had a surge of adrenaline and may therefore be a little more reactive and 'on-edge' for a while, we'll have a couple of days of Belly being kept separate for things to calm down and more importantly, for senior dog Bailey - who is also deaf - to be able to relax in her own home.

Then we'll return to keeping him onlead in the living room again, making sure that we respect the hierarchy that THE DOGS have chosen, i.e. helping Bailey to give Belly the space that a typical Mastino demands and needs and ensuring that he doesn't slip into bullying or intimidating behaviour towards her.

It may be that we can never allow them unsupervised access together. That's just a fact of life and we'll deal with it without 'belly-aching'!

We cannot enforce dog hierarchy. We must help and support them while they are sorting it out and ensure and encourage that it is done as peacefully as possible and ensuring that no dogs actually get hurt (emotionally as well as physically). While that must always mean that we are still in charge, no matter how many dogs, no matter how they organise themselves, it's important to understand that if we try and interfere too much, we actually put more pressure on them.

As an example, if we had punished Belly by alpha-rolling him, pinning him to the floor and insisting that he defer to Bailey - our oldest dog - it would have not only caused him utter confusion but would have caused Bailey stress that she doesn't want in that she is HAPPY to defer to him; she doesn't want us to make her top dog! In the past she has been very passively dominant, but as she's got older she has been very happy to defer for a peaceful life. Painful as it is for us to watch - our beloved dog who has been with us for years slipping down the ranks - it's the way dogs (and many other social animals) do things.

It was absolutely spot-on for a Mastino that he didn't give any warning signals like staring, growling, freezing, stiffening, standing up etc before losing his cool. This is why they do not make ideal pet dogs for the unexperienced dog owner.

I feel that Belly has never had to deal with a dog like Bailey before and doesn't quite know how to deal with her. He lived with a fairly passive male Basset Hound in his first home. Bailey is bigger, is female, and, on this occasion didn't move away (which was totally our fault of course for letting OUR guard down). He IS a typical Mastino after all...

Lastly, and very interestingly, only a few seconds before Belly lunged, Sticky calmly moved himself off the floor and up onto a sofa away from everything.

Concidence or did he sense Belly was getting agitated?... Food for thought...

Life is Just Too Hard...

2010-07-10T13:34:00.000+01:00

Sometimes its just all too much, isn't it Sticky?

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog - 3 Weeks

2010-07-08T10:44:00.000+01:00

Well it's been 3 weeks today and while I would normally have done a 2-week report as one of the main guideposts in a new dog settling down, Vincent has settled in so seamlessly that the anniversary slipped by without me even noticing!

As you can see from the photo, he has settled into the family home wonderfully, has adopted a 'baby' (a soft toy which he merely carries about in his mouth from time to time) and has become the perfect family pet.

Behavioural issues that we are monitoring:

Slight anxiety with novel stimuli
Some basic impulse control training to stop him barging through doorways and people!

His health is still a cause for concern in that he has severe hip dysplasia, very weepy eyes and chin skin and ears that need almost hourly cleaning!

Luckily he is exceptionally patient and tolerant for a Mastino and as long as he is getting a constant trickle of liver cubes he allows me to clean him, even when it's invasive or painful for him. The hip dysplasia is altogether more serious and means that for the rest of his life, he will be on limited exercise. He is only 3 years old and if we want to get him to double figures, we have to act now. It's bitterly sad to not be able to take him for long walks, but every step he takes is deteriorating his hip joints and it would simply be cruel to allow him to walk for miles when this will eventually cause him extreme pain and ultimately end his life.

Luckily we live in a rural area with fields of interesting smells and sights and sounds only 5 minutes away so we don't have to go far for him to have stimulating walks, and he absolutely adores them.

He's also been put on Glucosamine HCL, Chondroitin and Cod Liver Oil to help with the regeneration of joint tissue. This will be lifelong and very expensive. In addition, to help with his digestive sensitivity he is on Acidophillus Lactobicillus (sp) which has worked incredibly well in settling his digestion. Mind you, he is fed exclusively on Burns foods...

His foster dog blog will cease now as he's gone past the critical 2 week phase but I will post again if there are incidents or issues that might be useful for others to read about.

Oh, and the name Vincent just didn't suit him so he has been renamed 'Bellini'... Or just 'Belly' for short!

If you have enjoyed reading this blog or perhaps even learned something from it, please consider giving something to Neapolitan Mastiff Welfare towards his lifelong care. Please click here:

Neapolitan Mastiff Welfare Website

Even a few pounds helps...

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog - 12th Day

2010-06-28T10:15:00.000+01:00

Well it's been a week and a half since Vincent joined us and it's been one of the easiest settling-in periods we've ever had with a foster dog. We are still monitoring him closely in all situations but the trust is building and he is starting to relax when outside, even looking back to check-in if he is unsure about something, which is a very good sign.

As I type, the bin-men are outside making a hell of a racket emptying the wheelie bins (usually a time for guarding breeds to raise the alarm) and as he rested at my feet, he merely lifted his head to look at me to see what I was going to do, then laid back down to relax when I completely ignored them. This was of course quietly reinforced with a 'good lad' and a gentle tickle with my toes! If I had got up to close the door or went to grab his collar to prevent any guarding behaviour, I would probably have created the very problem I wanted to avoid by changing my own behaviour as a response to the outside stimulus.

As I always tell clients when they get a new dog, these first couple of weeks are ESSENTIAL to get desired patterns of behaviour in place from the get-go as it's a lot tougher to modify behaviour once it's become established.

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog - Day Seven - Peaceful Co-existence... Or was it?!

2010-06-23T11:19:00.002+01:00

However, just two minutes after this photo was taken this morning, Bailey the Great Dane left the bed. She returned five minutes later but Vincent had occupied her spot so she stood there for a minute or so wondering where to go. I thought that the extension of the bed space might be a good idea so they had more space between them all.

I went and got the bed that Vincent has been using and the minute the bed came out, Vincent snapped at Bailey. It was over in the blink of an eye, Bailey moved away immediately and the moment was over, but it's not clear whether it was because Bailey was a little close to his feet or whether it was something to do with his bed coming out.

Nobody overreacted - I merely put the bed back out of sight and calmly monitored things for ten minutes, making sure I was in the middle of the group as it settled again. Although there was no further sign of problems, as I had to go in and work, I brought Vincent in to rest indoors with me while the other dogs stayed outside. When they got too hot and came in 20 minutes later, I did a swap and allowed Vincent access outside and this continued throughout the day. The mistake would have been to assume things would return to normal and not keep an eye on things between the dogs as this is exactly when things can escalate; a minor incident creates a bit of tension which causes a slightly more intense incident, which creates more tension etc etc...

We have now made sure that Vincent's bedding is in my office and away from the other dogs and they will still all be supervised whenever they are together. While in the living room, Vincent is not allowed on any of the sofas (unlike the other dogs) and does not have his own bed. He is happy to lie on the floor and this is how it should be for the time being. Not giving him the opportunity to become anxious about resources such as bed spaces or food will allow us all to become more relaxed in this early period.

It's still very very early days and Vincent has made incredible progress but today's little incident (and photo) demonstrates that tension can be just under the surface and careful supervision is still necessary,

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog - Day Five

2010-06-21T11:53:00.000+01:00

11.49

Very interesting occurence... The dogs are all vying for a hotspot out in the yard in the sunshine. A very subtle shift in the hierarchy has been observed; Vincent picks his spot, right on Bailey's favourite cushion and sits there very upright, very relaxed, not making eye contact but not settling either. Bailey approaches, waits to see if he will move but within 5 seconds realises he will not defer so walks away again.

This would not have happened in the house, where she displays the same ultra-calm, confident-dominant behaviour towards him when she's on 'her' sofa...

Fascinating to observe. Peaceful negotiation and resolution.

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog

2010-06-21T00:27:00.001+01:00

Evening walkies...

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog - Day Four

2010-06-20T19:02:00.000+01:00

Day Four - 18:45

First signs of separation anxiety in the last 12 hours. Nothing major, just when he is put in his 'half' of the house behind the baby gate (after his last meal, if we need to go upstairs and leave dogs unsupervised etc) he sits there and whines and grumbles for a while. Rather controversially perhaps, with this type of dog who isn't truly anxious, just would rather be with the rest of the group, I don't automatically ignore the behaviour, but just give a stern 'Enough!' in a low, calm tone of voice without actually getting up and going to the dog (my house is small enough to do this!). This is just to let the dog know there's no point in whining for company - I'm not actually in a very good mood and he might as well go to bed!

Works really well for a dog that is just 'objecting' and not truly anxious about being left alone.

'Sentry' behaviours are now surfacing as well. I don't like the term 'guarding' behaviours because it implies the dog will defend territory. I feel most dogs simply want to raise the alarm, hence the term 'Sentry'; blowing the whistle (barking) for someone else to come and deal with the situation!

Because he's not left unattended outside, I've been doing the 'Enough' command after the first bark and immediately coming out and getting him in (within 3 seconds). Again, very calmly but firmly so he knows I'm not playing or happy with the behaviour. This makes him confident that there is someone backing him up so he doesn't have to become overly anxious about people outside, and also that excessive barking does not invoke a pleasant reaction from me.

Subsequently, this afternoon when there were children outside, he barked once and then immediately came inside. This, I rewarded...

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog - Day Three

2010-06-19T10:29:00.001+01:00

Vincent loves watching the HD TV, and Auntie Bailey sleeping!

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog - Day Three

2010-06-19T10:01:00.001+01:00

09:45

Dogs all fed and settled, resting in the living room.

One thing missing from yesterday's 48 hour report was perhaps one of the most important; that Vincent is extremely settled when left alone. However now he is integrated into the group, it is going to be more difficult for him to settle back in his room and out of sight of his new family.

This morning he initiated play with little Sticky, our Dachshund x Lab. Sticks has displayed very passive dominance with Vincent so far, refusing to engage in play, lots of head-turning, lip-licking and active ignorance. For the first time today Sticky engaged in a little play indoors but wasn't completely at ease with 90kg Vincent bouncing around him like a baby elephant and ended the play very clearly by sitting down with his back to Vincent. We had to help Vincent a little to understand this as he was quite excited by standing beside Sticks and blocking Vincent but he then understood immediately.

Vincent has never, ever tried to interact with Bailey, our 10yr Great Dane female. She displays very clear calming signals which Vincent very respectfully and calmly responds to.

It is very clear to Vincent, through ultra-calm, peaceful dominant gesturing by the other dogs, that his place is at the bottom of the hierarchy. We are supporting this by ensuring that whenever the other dogs are around, they get attention first and we actively and calmly block Vincent, making him 'wait his turn'.

Feeding time is strictly controlled by us. All dogs eat in separate corners of the house and are kept separate until all food has been consumed and the bowls lifted. Vincent is always shown that his bowl is empty before it is removed to minimise resource anxiety (being worried that we are taking food away from him).

Vincent - Foster Dog - 48 Hour Report

2010-06-18T20:58:00.003+01:00

Finally integrated into our home group...

The above picture shows how quickly Vincent has integrated into our home group. it's only been 48 hours which is extremely quick for a Neapolitan Mastiff.

48 Hour Report and Observations:

Behaviour
No aggressive behaviour observed, even during examination and treatment of ears, eyes and skin etc. Anxiety and slight over-vigilance when out on walks, even in daytime. This is more pronounced at night, possibly due to sight restriction caused by excessive facial skin. Behaviour at the vet surgery was very anxious but again no aggression displayed. Is very respectful of other dogs and displays excellent calming communicative behaviours. He has only been introduced to my own calm, socially-balanced dogs.

Shows slight neophobia; example was today during a walk when he was fearful of a stream of water flowing from a broken water main. Was eventually okay with walking through it but initially displayed strong avoidance.

Also displayed anxiety and avoidance around a 10yr child and scooter. It is unclear whether it was the scooter or the child that caused the reaction.

Some signs of behavioural polydipsia were observed yesterday but there have been no signs today. The weather has been very different today - much cooler - so this may have been the main reason for a change in Vincent's behaviour around water.

Health

The most pressing health problem are inflammation of Vincent's eyes and skin. He is under veterinary care for this and may need to go under prolonged antibiotics. Regular cleaning of the eyes is definitely helping (4-5 times a day) and keeping his chin clean and dry, along the gentle application of a medicated barrier cream is also helping enormously.

His ears may require deep cleaning after years of neglect. Veterinary advice will be sought regarding this.

The most serious long-term issue is severe hip dysplasia. He movement is extremely limited and will only worsen in time. Exercise will need to be restricted. He will be starting life-long glucosamine, chondroitin & MSM, possibly with natural anti-inflammatory herbal or homeopathic supplements pending advice from our vet.

Vincent eats well and shows no resource anxiety with either a bowl of food or a high-value treat such a chew.

His stools are a little loose but this is normal for a few days after a diet / environment change.

Conclusion

The first 48 hours have been much easier than expected. So far Vincent has been emotionally stable and is starting to bond with his group, displaying some play behaviours, which again is unusual for a Mastino (this quickly).

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog - Day Two

2010-06-17T23:04:00.005+01:00

8:45pm
Taken earlier this evening on our walk... He really loved the fields, much more than being in the village.

On the way back as we walked through the village we saw a 10yr old boy riding around on a scooter at a distance of about 15m. Vincent became very anxious, with his hackles raised and dancing around on the lead, giving short, breathy, low woofs. I took charge and gave him some more space (about 10 more metres) and he relaxed a little but found it very hard to relax while the child was around. Need to watch this. It was still light at this point so I don't put it down to night anxiety. This surprised me a little because he lived the first few years of his life with small children. I can only summise that this wasn't a positive experience for him.

Another note tonight is his drinking pattern. Once he starts drinking he seems to find it difficult to stop unless distracted. This needs watching as GDV (bloat) is a real risk with this breed but in this hot weather he needs to keep hydrated. I don't think this is true behavioural polydipsia because he CAN be distracted and it isn't necessary to remove the water from his presence.

A neighbour came around today and we saw the guarding, gobby side of the breed! Not aggressive at all, just raising the alarm when he heard a knock on the door and he was easily restrained and controlled.

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog

2010-06-17T18:52:00.001+01:00

Day Two - 20:00

It's been a very hot day here so we've just been chilling out around the house. I had to go to hospital today for a while but he was absolutely fine with my daughter while I was away.

We've been working on more invasive care such as cleaning his eyes a little deeper and putting powder in his ears. He is definitely one of the most tolerant Mastini I've ever known - he just lays down and accepts it but I am EXTREMELY gentle and am not forcing him to do anything; we have to build up trust first and if he learns to trust that if anything I do hurts him, he can move away, then he will never need to bite.

He is just waiting for his supper and then he will rest for an hour or two quietly before going on his last walk once the sun goes down and it's cooler.

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog

2010-06-17T12:18:00.001+01:00

Here's Vincent out on his morning walk today. His claws need some filing down so we'll try and give him a good 30 mins a day on hard ground, which will be good for his pasterns and leg strength too. Met some workmen in fluorescent jackets and allowed him to simply look at them for a while as he was a little anxious. When he'd relaxed we walked on. He's wearing a Halti Harness to make him feel a little more secure as he's a bit anxious in this new environment.

12:17

He's having a nice rest in my office by my chair as I catch up with some work.

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog

2010-06-17T09:39:00.001+01:00

Thurs 17 June: 7am

No problems overnight. Vincent slept soundly and peacefully. Got up and let him out in the yard to mooch about. Checked his eyes, skin and ears. Skin absolutely fine, no inflammation but quite dry so applied some cream (kept cool in the fridge!). Slight discharge from eyes but easily cleaned up with some cotton wool soaked in cool water. Went for a walk at 7:30am. Walks lovely on a lead without distraction. Fed at 8:30 after a rest. Ate with gusto!

Foster Dog Blog - Vincent

2010-06-16T20:09:00.005+01:00

Well another foster dog blog starts...

I’m going to try different format with this one and keep it as brief as possible. The reason being that I’m hoping to include it in my book ‘The Foster Carer’s Handbook’ when I eventually publish it!

Vincent is a 3yr neutered male Neapolitan Mastiff (Mastino) who has been returned to welfare because of recurring skin, ear and eye infections (common for this breed) and the associated prolonged costs of treatment, often costing upto £5 per day.

Wed 16 June – 15:15

Met owners at the vet, handed the dog over with signed paperwork. Took dog for veterinary visit. He was wary but did not show any aggression or strong avoidance.

15:45

Got home and allowed him to potter throughout his ‘area’ of the yard, kitchen and office. He drank freely and allowed me to dry his face and chin gently. Other than this, I didn’t make a fuss of him at all, just sat down at my desk and started to work quietly. (My own dogs were away in the other half of the house out of sight) Within 5 minutes Vincent had laid down behind me and had fallen asleep.

16:45

Got up and without any fuss, just left him behind the gate in the office while I did some housework in the kitchen, making a point of disappearing and appearing frequently for at least 20 minutes (putting away the washing up, sweeping floor, cleaning worktops etc). Radio is on (classical music). He sat watching me at the gate for about 5 minutes then went back down to sleep.

17:15

Left the kitchen and went into the living room (next door but out of sight) to watch some TV, spend some time with my own dogs and have some dinner. Every 10 minutes came into the kitchen without speaking to or looking at Vincent. He was still resting and calm.

18:00 – 20:00

Came back into the kitchen to check on Vincent and without speaking to him, quietly opened the gate to allow him to potter about outside in the yard. He seemed affectionate and pleased to see me but did not follow me around. During this time I gave his eyes a clean and merely looked in his ears (I’m looking in his ears whenever we have contact to get him used to having his ear flaps lifted but deliberately not doing anything else to worry him).

During this time I put him behind his gate in the office again and let my own dogs out for 10 minutes in the yard to smell where Vincent had been and to give them some food. They showed no interest in him nor he them. I also gave Vincent a handful of food in his bowl in the office.

The first few hours have been very calm, very quiet, very peaceful. As little interaction as possible – I am merely ‘a presence’ which comes and goes and he seems to be happy to spend time on his own.

Trainers, Behaviourists... Unite! (Please!)

2010-06-09T11:48:00.001+01:00

I've been a fan of the internet now for over 15 years and have watched it grow and develop exponentially.

I've been involved in dogs for over twice that long and watching the two fields merge has been an eye-opening experience.

I use the internet for research, for education, for updating knowledge and for simple amusement and many of the sites I regularly visit are dog-orientated. In recent years I've observed a sinister turn in the way that dog-people interact with each other on the internet, particularly when it comes to the dog training and behaviour industry.

I'm told that the 'divide' between dog trainers and behaviourists is non-existent these days; however I've just had to close down a discussion page on the topics related to these fields because of narrow-minded and childish retorts attacking the work of professionals involved in canine behaviour modification.

I am really disappointed at how people attack things they do not understand. I have ENORMOUS respect for dog trainers (I was one for many years!); their skills, their knowledge, the hard work required to teach dogs to do amazing things. However, when trainers do not reciprocate that mutual respect for behaviour consultants and the work we do it saddens me greatly. We all work for the same thing, to improve the life of The Dog, and the energy used to attack others could be so much more usefully used... There are good and bad examples in ALL professional fields; the wise realise that the way forward is to work together with colleagues from all fields in the dog training and behaviour industry with a sense of mutual respect, not suspicion and contempt.

In my ideal world, professionals like myself who devote their time to the analysis and modification of behaviour would work seamlessly and without prejudice with their canine training professional colleagues. Trainers would work with behaviour professionals in the same way, acknowledging the years we spend in academic research, studying the way the canine brain works in order to have a better insight into problems such as aggression and anxiety. I can honestly say that when I moved from dog training into behaviour, I was simply blown away by the sheer amount of stuff that I simply didn't know. I did a good job with dogs and had many successes training dogs with the experience that I'd gained and applied, but learning WHY dogs behave the way they do, from the problems caused by hormonal imbalance to learning now neurotransmitters affect emotion, gave real depth to my work.

The division currently appearing in the UK regarding the regulation of dog training and behaviour roles is a representation of everything that saddens me as a professional in this field.

Yes, there ARE differences between the roles of dog trainers and dog behaviourists, the same way there are differences between a dentist and an orthodontist! What I simply cannot understand is why individuals cannot simply accept and respect each other's professional fields.

What is often mentioned is the difference in the fees charged to owners. Well, if you have proven academic qualifications, have spent thousands of pounds on gaining them, given years of your life in studying for them, it is generally accepted that clients must accept this is what they are paying for, in ANY professional field. I do accept that with the lack of regulation in this country, it is worrying that people with academic qualifications but little hands-on-experience are practising as behaviourists, but there ARE professionals out there who have both - and they aren't THAT difficult to find.

I have to risk touching a nerve and suggest that there is an element of jealousy in non-qualified people questioning the validity of academic qualification in dog behaviour and training. If you feel yourself recoiling and reacting with an emotional reaction to this suggestion, just try halting yourself and think about WHY you have reacted that way... Be honest, even if only to yourself. If you are reacting out of a fear of academics taking your livelihood that you have spent 20 years working on, then own that reaction and think how about positive actions you can take to stop that happening before slamming out an angry email from an instinctive defensive posture. If it's because you are doing a great job with your clients and their dogs and don't see why behaviourists are needed, ask yourself whether there's a slight chance that one of your client's dogs has an issue that could be explained by someone who has studied how the biomechanics of the brain affect emotion and behaviour? It doesn't lessen the work you do. It doesn't take anything away from your own credibility...

You never know, it might just help the dog, and isn't that the ultimate objective here?

It's an enlightening experience to step out of an automatic reaction to something and look at yourself objectively. And it makes you a better professional.

Behaviourists are not 'better' than trainers, its a different role, that's all.

My plea to ALL people involved in helping people with their dogs is to put aside judgement and open yourselves to the possibility that other professionals with other talents, either learned or borne, just may be worth shaking hands with...

The 'D' Word as explained in my coursework!

2010-05-09T12:37:00.003+01:00

I just got back my marked module for 'Application of Theory' for my Advanced Diploma in Canine Behavioural Management. I thought it'd be interesting to post it here (including the tutor's comments) as an example of my level of study at the moment and also as it encapsulates my theory on 'The 'D' Word'.

"Module question 10.10 - What are your views on human and dog hierarchy? Do you think dogs that are allowed to sleep on beds or other furniture, or are fed before the family, or that rush through doorways are likely to become aggressive? Justify your opinions.

I have fairly open and flexible views about human and dog hierarchy.

I do not believe that dogs that are allowed to sleep on beds or other furniture, or are fed before the family, or that rush through doorways are ‘likely’ to become aggressive. The reason for this is because in my home, all the dogs that have ever become part of our family throughout my entire life have done all of the above and I have never owned a dog that has ‘become’ aggressive.

However, I believe that if I were to regularly approach a sleeping dog that was on my bed or on the sofa and become agitated or aggressive myself in order to move them, or I reacted to a dog rushing out of the doorway first by hitting them or losing my temper, I would probably initiate some aggressive response, probably on a predictable basis and my dog would ‘become’ aggressive. Tutor Comment: yes, this is quite likely.

The word ‘Dominance’ when applied to dogs has become synonymous with conflict and this is very unfortunate. I am dominant over my dogs, and my children (grown up as they are now!) in most situations but this does not mean I am forceful or adversarial with them. Dominant behaviour can be calm, peaceful and gentle. As an example if my dog is sitting on a place in the sofa where I want to sit (usually in the best place for watching the TV) I will gently and calmly give the dog a ‘Move’ command and then proceed to sit down, whether they have moved or not. On the first few occasions they didn’t move, I calmly sat down so close to them it that became uncomfortable for them to stay there so they have subsequently made the decision to relinquish that spot whenever they hear the ‘Move’ command – and often before hearing it. The reward for this is that if they give me enough room, they will get to lie curled into my body for warmth and close social contact and even have their head stroked! Tutor Comment: this is a good example of how you can be ‘the boss’ without aggression and force.

In wolves, aggression does NOT equal dominance. In a two-year study on a wild population of wolves the following was noted:

“…involvement in aggressive and agonistic encounters did not show a strong relationship with rank order in either 1999 or 2000.” (Sands, et al., 2004)

Even David Mech himself has discounted his original theories from thirty years ago where ‘Alpha’ males and females fought for dominant positions in the pack. He now believes that this is achieved much more peacefully, by “…merely mating with a member of the opposite sex, producing a bunch of offspring which are the rest of the pack.” (Mech, 2008)

To specify this reasoning in human / dog relationships O’Heare (O'Heare, 2003) questions the use of the term ‘dominance’ when describing aggressive behaviour:

“Why not simply say that a particular dog is intolerant of being controlled or that he has a relatively low threshold for aggression? The dominance alternative is to postulate that the dog believes he is dominant in the relationship.”

In my professional work if owners have already allowed some ‘negotiation’ to take place and dogs are standing their ground and defending their resource successfully in the form of growling or snapping, I will still advocate peaceful, gentle, calm dominance in the form of a houseline of about 3-4ft attached to the dog’s collar or harness so that the owner can give a gentle but firm command (not a request!) and then enforce it by using the houseline to move the dog. As long as there is a reward for the dog for relinquishing their ‘resource’; a ‘point’ to the exercise from the dog’s point of view, I have found that peaceful resolution can be easily achieved.

Peaceful co-existence must surely be the goal of all social groups, whether they consist of conspecifics or not. While linear hierarchy may be necessary at times to sustain order, I believe that this is best achieved through calm, cooperation and negotiation and a more ‘fluidic’ state of hierarchy rather than a strict linear one at all times. Tutor Comment: well done, this is an excellent answer.

References

Mech, L David. 2008. "Alpha Wolf"? YouTube.com. [Online] 15 February 2008. [Cited: 11 October 2009.] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNtFgdwTsbU.

O'Heare, James. 2003. Dominance Theory and Dogs. 1. Ottawa : DogPsych, 2003. p. 35. Vol. 1.

Sands, Jennifer and Creel, Scott. 2004. Social Dominance, Aggression and Faecal Glucocorticoid Levels in a Wild Population of Wolves, Canis Lupus. Animal Behaviour. 2004, Vol. 67, 3, pp. 387-396.

A New Club

2010-04-10T23:48:00.001+01:00

One of the nicest opportunities that presents itself in this job is to watch dogs 'blossom' behaviourally...

A lovely client of mine who lives in a very rural, remote area of Kent has offered her secure paddock to dogs who need somewhere safe to run and be free so I offered to help organise a small group of new friends for her and her dog. Our first meeting was last week and it was wonderful to see 7 dogs all of different breeds and temperaments (a Lab x Collie, Lab x Dachshund, Lurcher, terriers x 2 and a Springer) simply enjoying the company of each other during sessions of play, rest, sniffing, running, drinking etc.

They formed a wonderful, natural social group with fluently transient roles depending on who fancied a chase game or scenting exercise or simply chilling out in the sun or taking some shade.

There were no fights, no squabbles, no panics. Once they all got acquainted and learned how to observe each other's personal rules (i.e. Indie the terrier was NOT prepared to tolerate rough play and enthusiastically enforced this, while Sticky the Lab x Dachshund made it quite clear he'd happily entertain anybody that wanted some ruff stuff!).

I'm going to be blogging on these play sessions with photos, video footage and commentary. It's going to be sheer joy for me to simply watch dogs being dogs... I consider it an honour to be able to observe these wonderful animals demonstrate such beautifully simple and subtle ritualistic behaviours. Yes, I may sound like I'm talking more about dolphins or some other rarely encountered animal, but to me, dogs are as fascinating and awe-inspiring as the most rare whale or tiger - we've just stopped realising it.

The Best Secondary Reinforcer of All...

2010-03-23T20:30:00.006Z

I haven’t had a chance to blog for a while (Question of the Day: When did ‘blog’ become a verb??) but I have been dying to talk about what trainers & behaviourists call ‘secondary reinforcers’.

(I’ll try and make this comment brief because if you’re like me, this is just one of a L-O-N-G list of training and behaviour blogs you want to read today!)

When I rescued my first deaf dog, the secondary reinforcer had to be something visual instead of my normal verbal one. With deaf dogs it’s usually a hand signal such as a thumbs-up or some other obvious hand movement. To cut a long story short, after a while I noticed that my dog was starting to show less and less interest in the secondary reinforcer, and even in the primary reinforcer (in this case, food). I just couldn’t understand what was going on; my timing was good, I was being consistent. Perhaps the withdrawal into an intermittent reward schedule was too quick? So I upped the schedule and to my surprise my dog ignored me even MORE!

What the hell was going on?

Then I noticed something… My dog had stopped looking at my face. She had almost no interest in me whatsoever when there were distractions in the environment, no matter WHAT food I was offering as a reward. Another thing I noticed was that if we were playing a game without offering any rewards, she was much more engaged and animated.. The penny dropped. I had become so reliant on my thumbs-up as the secondary reinforcer I had stopped saying ‘Good Girl’.

When I had stopped saying ‘Good Girl’, I had stopped smiling.

My deaf dog was denied a smile when I was rewarding her with food, simply because I'd fallen out of the habit.

Within a couple of days of reintroducing the bright and shiny ‘Good Girl!’ with a bright and shiny smile, she was as keen as mustard again.

I thought this was just a deaf dog problem… Oh if only.

Over the years since I’ve been watching the development of positive reinforcement training with joy; just so thankful that we have evolved beyond pain and coercion to shape behaviours (well, some of us anyway…)

Gradually I started picking out a pattern where secondary reinforcers such as clickers and verbal markers were not always motivating the dog; in fact with some dogs it looked as if they were thoroughly fed up of them.

Then I spotted it; or rather couldn’t spot it… It hit me like a waft of wiffy kippers!

Where was the EMOTION? Where was the smiling eye contact? The bright shiny voice? The physical animation from the handler?!

The clicker / verbal marker / hand signal had somehow suppressed the emotional response from the handler!! Suddenly I was seeing this all over the place – dogs switching off because their handlers had become emotional vacuums when in ‘training mode’. The trainers were on automatic pilot and weren’t even aware that their faces, voices and bodies had become devoid of emotion and more importantly, joy.

It made so much sense to me; we expect our dogs to be happy to work with us, to show enjoyment, to have wagging tails when we’re training, especially now we’re on the positive reinforcement train (yes, pun intended), but where was OUR joy? But how on earth were our dogs supposed to be joyful when their role models (us) had become as emotional as your average yard broom??!

So I’ve been testing this theory, ‘geeing’ up handlers that haven’t even noticed that their faces, voices and bodies have become emotionless, making them skip, jump, hop, smile, laugh as well as give their normal markers. I’ve been working on them injecting the joy back into their training and BOY is it making a difference!! We’ve got dogs GALLOPING back to their skipping owners! We’ve got owners finding the children in themselves again and rediscovering the JOY in being with their dogs! It’s simply awe-inspiring to see the happiness flooding back into people’s faces, voices and body language and this being mirrored in the responses of their dogs.

So, I’m hoping the take-home message here is that the best secondary reinforcer of all is Joy. Don’t let a clicker or a ‘Good Dog’ ever replace it.

Teddy's Blog - Day 5

2010-02-22T23:45:00.000Z

Another horrible rainy, cold day so lots of short walks instead of a nice long one where I can really let Teddy run about a bit!

The barking at external stimuli is developing now that he's getting a bit more confident. Where it was initially more nervy it's becoming more bold now. I've found this can be a pretty common development after the first few days in a new home!

It's not aggression, actually more of a sign that he's beginning to trust us by raising the alarm that he can hear something he wants us to know about. Really frightened dogs don't dare do that in case they have to deal with the situation themselves.

I'm dealing with it by acknowledging this 'job' he's taken on and telling him calmly 'that'll do' and sending him back to his bed. If the stimulus has gone (i.e. people walking outside the house or sounds next door) then he's happy to do this because he's done his job and got my attention. The important bit is not making a big fuss of it so there's no point in him continuing to bark unless the 'problem' is still there, in which case I'll remain with him until it's gone. Ignoring it or merely telling him to 'be quiet' would only tell him that nobody else can hear the sounds so he has to continue barking!

Oh, and he discovered the delights of stuffed Kongs and carrots today too!

Teddy's Blog - Day 4

2010-02-21T22:29:00.008Z

Houston we have a problem...

This dog is the worst sock /slipper stealer I've ever known!!! (and I've known a few, believe me.)

And you thought I was going to say our Teddy had turned into some snarling monster... Have some faith, people!

Yes, like a lot of dogs he LOVES cheesy socks, shoes and slippers. There's a very good reason for his; these items are intensely saturated with our scent more than just about anything else, other than underwear (let's not go there, eh?).

The fantastic thing about Ted though is that he learned in about two instances that if he picked something up and brought it to me, I would exchange it for a small piece of food. By the end of the day he was picking up random items, bringing them to me with a 'Sit' and releasing them on command. No conflict, no chasing him to retrieve the odd sock or dropped piece of paper out of his mouth, no pulling jaws open or holding him down. I've never fostered a gundog before and it's honestly been a joy to live with a dog that has such an intelligence about his mouth; working with mastiffs is a WHOLE different ballgame!

Last night some idiot was talking right outside our gate and Teddy became quite anxious and barked for a while until said idiot moved away. He has barked a few times at outside stimuli and the odd knocking from next door. The easiest thing to do with this 'There's-someone-outside-come-quick!' barking is to simply appear in their presence completely unperturbed and do something banal such as fetch a glass of water to show the dog that you aren't bothered by the stimuli, they don't need to be either. Ignoring the dog completely isn't the best thing to do as it makes them more anxious, but giving their anxiety attention in the form of talking to them or telling them to shut up isn't a good move either as they soon realise that's a button they can push to summon you if they're bored...

The weather has been utterly pants all day so we haven't had a chance to get out for a long walk but I then just split the walks into 10 minute excursions and he's been out for about 4 of those today and one more to go before bed.

We've been playing fetch with a toy indoors but somewhere along the line Teddy's been taught to tug for competition. Such a shame because he'd have so much more fun retrieving and releasing but he hasn't learned that yet. We'll work on this a bit more but the best thing to do with a dog that refuses to give it up is drop your end of the toy. Repeatedly and immediately he pulls on it. Poor Ted was a bit confused as he is used to the human end of the toy being a bit more obstinate and competitive!

He's had another very quiet day chilling in his bed while I work a few feet away in the office but he's equally as happy to chill even when I'm not in sight, which is perhaps the most important thing to teach a dog within the first 48 hours - to be happy on their own.

More tomorrow, Teddy fans...

Teddy's Blog - Day 3

2010-02-20T20:37:00.005Z

Was woken up by Mr Ted at 7:30 this morning with him whining. I knew there was something wrong - the sounds he was making weren't just attention-seeking. When I came down to him he'd been a little sick in his bed so it was cleaned up and bed changed without fuss.

So then a very frosty early morning 10 minute walk and toilet. A couple of hours rest and then breakfast. 2min toilet break and then straight to bed for a couple of hours sleep.

In the afternoon we had another lovely 40min walk around the village. Teddy is a lovely dog to share a walk with. Just SO happy to be out and about, scenting, seeing, listening. He's bright as a button. We've encountered all sorts of stimuli including bird scarer bangs, heavy traffic, noisy motorbikes, kids playing football, other dogs running about etc. His obedience in the form of 'Sit' and 'Heel' commands excellent for an 11mth pet dog.

He's VERY keen on cats... Don't actually know what he'd do if he caught one but he's not so gamey that I don't think he could be trained to accept them. Birds on the other hand... Well, let's just say it's a good thing my little family of hedge sparrows have a quick take-off speed... Well he IS a gundog!

We spent the rest of the afternoon working on getting him enjoying being handled with more TTouch. As he's quite mouthy I've been working on relaxing his muzzle area and he is LOVING this. I now have absolutely no qualms about bending down over him, next to him, putting my face next to his etc. He was even nibbling my ear this afternoon! He's actually got a very soft, sensitive mouth with excellent bite inhibition... When he is CALM.

That's such a critical point with this dog. If you wind him up with lots of fast movement, noise, activity, then he loses impulse control. He's a working breed - it isn't rocket science.

He's a wee bit jittery on night walks but confident, calm handling and a 'Walk On' command, that's all he needs

Hoping that he will give me a bit more of a lie-in tomorrow...

Oh, and I promised ya'll some pics, didn't I?

Simply beautiful, isn't he?

Teddy's Blog - Day 2

2010-02-19T23:44:00.005Z

I had forgotten how tiring having a foster dog around can be! Especially a young, lively pup!

Shall I cut this short? Teddy is a wonderful dog and someone is going to be very lucky.

== End of blog ==

Okay, okay I’ll elaborate a little with our day today:

Day Two:

Ted went into his crate after a final short walk and toilet break at about 11pm the night before. He was snoring so loudly by midnight I could hear him upstairs!

Not a peep out of him until 8am when he heard some people outside and gave a few woofs. He went out for a short walk and toilet break. Great dog for this – he toilets on the grass immediately he gets out.

Breakfast at 9am and he ate well (loves his soaked Burns Chicken & Rice!).

Allowed a short toilet break in yard and then straight to crate for a couple of hours rest – this breed like many others are at risk of bloat so I take NO chances. A good, long sleep after a meal!

I went out but my daughter was in the house working upstairs so could monitor him while on his crate rest. Not a peep out of him for over 2 hours.

When I got back we went for a really nice 40 min onlead walk. Now this is where I saw some magic… He picked up ‘Heel’ and ‘Wait’ within 10 minutes. He has obviously had some obedience training because he wouldn’t walk on the right (in rural areas where there are single track roads and no safe pedestrian areas, it’s sometimes necessary to put a dog on the right for safety) so I worked with what he knew and he picked it up with lots of positive reinforcement and smiles. We had a lovely walk together, exploring things, showing each other interesting possible scents (what a great tracking dog he’d be… what a nose!). I gave him a 3m line to have a bit of freedom on the village green and we played for a little while, playing fetch and ‘seek the stick’. This is where I saw the boisterous adolescent come out with a bit of excitable mouthing but absolutely no aggression and he soon learned to stop on command.

That same excitability and lack of impulse control is evident around other dogs as he has met mine and he displayed some typical adolescent behaviours – jumping, landing paws on them etc. However again there is absolutely no aggression and he responded to my guidance when I blocked him with my leg. He has obviously got away with some pretty boisterous play and if I didn’t know better I’d say he’d been living with another dog of the same age, possibly a littermate, all his life with little supervision. It’s just that full-on!

He had his first massage session with me this evening where I applied some TTouch to his body and he l-o-v-e-d it. It had possibly the biggest calming effect I’ve seen on any dog. He literally melted into my hands. It was obvious he’s never experienced any handling like this before and it was a really nice bonding session. He allowed me to touch him all over and even to lean over him and hug him (which was apparently the situation in which he bit someone and was given to rescue and I have to assess while he's with me).

A very positive day with massive progress made in that the nervous, twitchy little guy I saw hiding a couple of days ago is now a confident, boisterous adolescent simply after a break in quiet, calm environment with some sensitive one-on-one handling. If only rescues had more help so that dogs like Ted could get out of kennel environments and have the chance to simply chill out and get their bearings. Volunteer to help your local rescue now!!!

More on Ted, with hopefully some pics, tomorrow.

Foster Dog Blog - Teddy

2010-02-18T22:14:00.004Z

When I got up this morning, I didn’t think that at 9pm this evening I’d be fostering a skittish, nervous, hyper-aroused 11mth Viszla boy whose future is at risk because he had bitten the face of a child.

Long story short, I work as a behaviour assessor for a local rescue and when I was in there yesterday, they mentioned this little lad who nobody could get near. Cut it even shorter, I realised that what he needed was a peaceful, quiet, uneventful environment without any foot-traffic, children, phones ringing, dogs barking etc. I realised that’s what I could offer for a short while. The rescue is so keen to save this dog, even though it’s bitten, that I offered my help. Just how could I refuse?

Does this look comfortable and peaceful enough? (This is my quilt off my own bed in there… it should be).

So I’m going to run a mini-blog on Teddy (as I have named him). I always rename rescues that are relinquished for anxiety or fear just in case their existing name has negative associations.

Here’s the first blog:

17:00 – 18:00

Journey with Ted very uneventful once he was in the car. Was extremely reluctant to get in but allowed himself to be picked up and placed in. He didn’t whine or pace in the car and simply sat there. I left a front window open so that cold, fresh air was flowing back to him (always helps dogs).

18:00

Got him back in the house, unclipped his lead and allowed him to simply pace about in the kitchen and office (we divide the house in half with a tall dog-gate and this is the ‘foster dog’ area). He was very aroused, with dilated pupils, stiff, jerky body movements, tight tail & ear carriage and ‘skull skin’. He gave a couple of slight ‘freezes’ at me, usually if I moved a hand a bit too quickly. So I simply stood in the kitchen pretending to read the paper for 10 minutes, ignoring him totally. He then started to slow down so I left him in this area and went to the other half of the house.

He whined for a few minutes. When he stopped I came back into the kitchen, got myself something out of the fridge and then walked straight out again.

This procedure was copied for the next couple of hours with me merely popping in and out but not in response to any whining. I didn’t pay him any attention, give him any eye contact or talk to him. Gradually he got so bored at me coming through the gate and ignoring him that he didn’t even get up out of his bed to see what I was doing.

20:00

17yr daughter Rachael came home from being out with friends. We met up with her outside. Teddy behaved as if he’d seen a long-lost friend and jumped up to her. Very sociable, excited and happy – lots of loose tail-wagging. Rachael remained very calm with him and we all went for a short walk on the green where he toileted without prompt. Rachael entered the house first so Ted could see she lives there too and we stood in the kitchen calmly to chat for a while. Ted reverted back to his aroused state for a while so we hung out in the kitchen until Ted got bored with us and we went through to the other half of the house without talking to him or looking back at him.

Ted went straight back to his bed without a murmur.

21:00

Seems very hungry (hadn’t been given afternoon feed so that he wouldn’t be travel sick and also to motivate him with food if necessary) so gave him some soaked Burns. Left him alone completely to eat and then rest (concern about bloat).

Will blog about his first night here tomorrow – watch this space… May be able to write more about his history too if I can get it.

This is the only pic I dared take of Mr Skittish tonight

Dog Adoption and Follow Up Support

2010-02-05T20:23:00.000Z

I was in the office working today when I received a call from someone who had a problem with their dog that they had adopted from a local rescue a few months ago.

Whenever I am told that the dog has come from a rescue organisation my first question is always “Have you contacted the rescue to see if they can offer some support from their behaviourist?”.

When I asked this question today, I was told that the rescue was a very ‘ramshackle’ place and it was extremely unlikely they would have a consultant behaviourist.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this and I know it won’t be the last. I find it deeply disturbing that rescues are still not signing up a behaviourist or trainer to assist with post-adoption support and advice, leaving adopters having to find third-party support, sometimes from very dubious people calling themselves behaviourists or trainers but who have actually only watched a couple of TV shows or read a few books, or who are vets with no behavioural qualifications…

I have the very unusual perspective of being the coordinator of a breed rescue as well as having a professional behaviour consultancy which, amongst other activities, assists with the assessment of rescue dogs from other organisations. I just can’t imagine not being able to provide advice to adopters when they run into trouble after the honeymoon period of a couple of weeks. It’s so important for owners to realise that the rescue is there to help them KEEP their dog, not just offer to take it back and rehome it yet again.

Most small rescues will not be able to afford a good in-house behaviourist but surely it is then in a rescue organisation’s best interests to source an external behaviourist to refer their adopters onto if there are problems rather than just leave the owner (and the rescue dog they have placed) in trouble?

There are many, many qualified, experienced behaviourists and trainers out there who would be more than willing to assist rescue organisations by taking on post-adoption referrals.

Take us up on this, rescues!

Go out and look up some behaviourists, get them in for a chat and see how they work, check out their qualifications and experience, look up if they are a member of a professional organisation and if they are used to working with rescue dogs. Ask if they would be willing to offer a reduced rate to the owners to work with your post-adoptive dogs; I do!

Times are changing and it’s no longer acceptable for rescues to simply do the homecheck and release the dog. Aftercare is so, so important and by simply providing a resource where owners can go to if they are having problems might just reduce the ‘bounce’ rate of returned dogs to rescue…

MY take on Milan & Shadow...

2010-01-24T16:21:00.005Z

0-15 secs:

Shadow is actually facing away from the Border Collie. The Border Collie turns and directly FACES Shadow which is challenging for ANY dog, let alone one we already know is reactive. Also, the Border Collie is FAR too close.

18 secs:

Shadow merely raises his nose in response to the Border Collie’s close proximity and body position (head on, direct eye contact).

19 secs:

Cesar taps the dog’s rear quarters with his foot. As the dog is already aroused, he is startled more than normal by this unexpected tap and re-directs his agitation towards CM.

22 secs:

CM’s reaction is to tighten the leash and string Shadow up by the throat onto his hind legs. As this is a slip-leash it tightens around the dog’s neck, instantly cutting off it’s oxygen supply.

26 secs:

Instead of releasing the pressure on the dog’s neck, CM has sustained it so Shadow, now in an instinctive state of anxiety, tries to free himself by jumping up again at CM.

26-35 secs:

CM STILL retains the pressure around Shadow’s throat so he feels he has to fight against it. Most enlightened handlers here would realise that this dog has now gone into a state where it’s in ‘survival mode’ and not actually learning anything other than ‘humans mean pain’ so would have released the pressure on the dog and ended the session there and then. There is NO POINT in continuing on after this.

35 secs onwards:

CM has now turned this into a fight.

As Shadow becomes more and more panicked due to asphyxiation (as any living being would) and more desperate to free himself, sensing his depleting oxygen levels are soon to render him helpless, he continues to lunge at CM, who continues to strangle the dog. The situation is on a rapid downward spiral.

1:14 mins

CM knows that Shadow’s depleted oxygen levels are rendering him physically weak so he pins him to the ground.

1.18mins

Note the discolouration of Shadow’s tongue along with his open-mouth as he tries to get oxygen into his lungs after a whole minute of having his airway closed.

1:24mins

The dog tries to adjust his rear body position, possibly to roll over and expose his stomach as an appeasement gesture, but CM still pins him.

CM states that the Border Collie was showing anxiety because he doesn’t like Shadow’s ‘energy’. However at the beginning of the session, the Border Collie wasn’t at all anxious. CM then hypothesises that the Border Collie’s anxiety could have been Shadow’s trigger. The video clearly shows that it was CM’s tap behind with his foot that was Shadow’s trigger in this case. CM labels this dog ‘dominant’. The body language and circumstances clearly say ‘panic’. We are not allowed to watch the rest of this session and observe Shadow’s behaviour when allowed to get up.

Words fail me sometimes (believe me, that’s rare) and this is almost one of those times. CM is a good talker and talks himself out of many of the disastrous situations he creates on camera. Take away his ‘narration’ and all you see is cruelty that would be a criminal offence anywhere else…

Dog Breeding - Again

2010-01-22T16:36:00.006Z

Ah it seems my last blog entry ruffled a few feathers, solely (as expected), from breeders and show people feeling the need to ‘have their say’.

Points made in response to my last blog included:

Reminding me that I own / have owned pedigree breeds myself so therefore must agree with selective breeding and accept that all dogs would be mongrels without breeders.
Saying they are confused by my statement that I do not support selective breeding, but then say that work needs to be done on improving the behaviour of dogs.
Individual breeders taking great pains to inform me of the careful selections they make when putting dogs together, suggesting that these actions are the only way to improve the health of dogs…

Point 1:

I own dogs, not distinctions. I don’t give a damn whether they are a specific breed or a Heinz 57 as long as they are physically and behaviourally healthy. If you go to my website I’m the recent proud adoptee of a delightfully odd and vigorously healthy ‘mixed-breed’. I’m also the owner of the result of obscenely irresponsible breeding, leaving my dog partially blind and profoundly deaf. I love and respect both of them equally and if the cost of all dogs being healthy is for all dogs to look the same, I’d GLADLY make that sacrifice.

Point 2:

I’m not confused at all. If I had my way, all selective breeding and aesthetic dog showing would be banned. However as that’s unlikely to happen, I at least like to point out what ALL breeders should be doing to put the health of dogs first, instead of just some of them.

Point 3:

I really don’t see the point in informing me about people’s specific breeding practices as if it’s something to be proud of. It really won’t convince me that it’s doing the dog as a species any good at all. If people want to practice aesthetic manipulation I wish they’d do it on orchids and bonsai trees and leave wonderful, amazing, beautiful, intelligent and sentient beings alone.

Dog Breeding in the UK

2010-01-14T20:46:00.003Z

Independent Dog Breeding Inquiry

I've just spend the day burrowing into the report on the Independent Inquiry into Dog Breeding by Professor Sir Patrick Bateson FRS, published at 10am this morning.

The report can be downloaded and read by clicking the link above so I won't discuss the whole 64 page report. I do however want to say things about some of the findings presented as many of them I recognise as laments of those of us working 'at the sharp end' of breeders' mistakes!

Firstly, I'm happy to see behavioural welfare being a topic fairly well represented. Those of us that work with puppies see first-hand the kind of socially unbalanced examples from breeders who either don't bother with socialisation and habituation programmes or, as the report describes...

"...reckon that they have nothing to learn and resent bureaucratic interference"

I am no fan of selective breeding or showing for very definite reasons; the minute either ego or money enters the equation, the worst possible side of humanity shows through. If animals are involved, they are the innocent victims and I'm really pleased that this report is quite strongly-worded in places regarding the lack of integrity they have noted in breeders, albeit accompanied by the disclaimer that this is a generalisation and does not apply to all, of course.

I fully expect to be reading and hearing the all-too-familiar complaints regarding the feasibility of implementing the recommendations etc but for me, the whole process of the Kennel Club and breeders finally taking responsibility for their past (and present) actions has to start somewhere.

Yes it's going to be tough-going.

Yes it's going to involve us dog professionals keeping this ball rolling and getting passionate about it.

Yes, it's going to take time.

Complaining about it is merely taking up more of that time! We have got to get the Kennel Club, Breed Clubs and individual breeders to listen and learn without prejudice. We need a common motivator such as that provided by Cesar Millan in the recent coalition of major European canine health & welfare charities and organisations to pull together and condemn aversive techniques (link below)

Welfare in Dog Training

That common motivator should be animal welfare, but unfortunately as previously said, ego and money are often the primary motivators in dog breeding and showing and I believe that these are mutually exclusive to canine welfare.

As said earlier, the Inquiry has discovered things that many of us have known for ages. I've been trying to change breeder attitudes for many years; here's a link to an article I wrote back in 2006.

The Breeder's Legacy - Laying the Foundation

I'm still astounded at the sheer volume of the general public who have NO IDEA about choosing the right dog for them. I was speaking to someone today who has bought a historic fighting breed for the first time and when I asked why they bought it, they replied that 'they just like the look of the breed'. Yes, I'm taking them under my wing and will be helping them as much as possible, especially as this is the 20wk pup's THIRD home...

Bottom Line: (In this the Inquiry agrees with what I've believed for years) if the public are better informed and educated, they will ask the right questions and hopefully stop buying from the breeders and other outlets that are not complying with the rules and regs which are there for the welfare of the dog. Let's pull together as dog-lovers, professionals and enthusiasts to help the general public help the welfare of the dog.

We can't do it without them.

They can't do it without us.

The Sense of Loss...

2010-01-06T21:01:00.007Z

Some really lovely friends of mine have just lost one of their dogs to old age. They emailed me to ask whether dogs miss their doggy companions when they die. This is what I said to them:

“I know exactly how you’re feeling right now as it’s nearly a year since I lost Gus and the pain has never lessened.

I think that dogs do miss someone they’ve lived with for a long time, but show it in different ways. It also depends on how much time they spent together and how close they were, i.e. whether they shared the same bed all the time, whether they followed each other around and whether they spent regular time apart and alone in the house quite happily.

I’ve found though that the owners’ inevitable sadness at the loss of the other dog far and away is the biggest cause of different behaviour from the dog left behind. I have absolutely no doubt that K.. is picking up on your sadness because no matter how good we think we’re hiding it – they know us much better than we think they do. They spend their lives watching us and learning about us. It stands to reason that when we are going through something traumatic, they will be wondering what the hell is wrong. We can then make the mistake of thinking they are mourning as painfully as we are and trying to comfort them, which in turn will make them more anxious because our normal behaviours have changed again.

We can have more of a talk about it when I see you if you like, but you’re doing all the right things keeping up with the normal routine for her. It’s not going to be possible to simply forget about F……. just to keep K..from seeing your pain, so don’t beat yourself up if you do need to give her a hug to help you through a bad moment. If she starts to behave oddly, like the howling the other night, ask yourself how you would have handled it if F......... was still here and handle it the same, i.e. don’t go to her assuming she’s missing him; it’ll make your behaviour alter in her eyes and that will unsettle her all the more.

Also, as cruel as it sounds, don’t feel sorry for her. She may have been close to F……., but she feels closer to you and now she has you all to herself. That’s actually what most human-orientated dogs actually want more than anything else in the world so if you think about it, this could be a good time for her! Crazy I know but that’s just because it seems wrong to us humans not to grieve for the loss of our loved ones. Animals are far more transitory in their relationships so don’t grieve for her too and she’ll be fine. You will all be fine – in time”

Denial isn't just a river in Africa....

2009-12-29T15:34:00.001Z

I was out with Sticky & Bailey yesterday afternoon in our village fields enjoying a lovely, quiet, uneventful walk with my four-legged friends when, a long-haired GSD flew out of the bushes and lunged at Sticky’s back. I was about 10m away which isn’t normally a problem in this normally blissfully peaceful environment, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get there for a few seconds. I was therefore very proud of little Sticky (Lab x Dachshund) who managed a neat trick of combining just enough appeasement with just enough warning behaviour to keep things from escalating into a fight (I believe this is due to the time spent in an Irish pound having to learn these life skills…)

I don’t tend to panic in these situations because, well, to be honest I’ve seen some horrendous dog fights and it does a marvellous job of desensitising you to the normal ‘handbags-at-dawn’ type squabble that domestic pet dogs tend to have; it’s actually dealing with the humans involved afterwards that normally gets my blood pressure to nuclear levels.

I did a couple of deep yells and then I heard the owner (previously hidden on the path behind the bushes) yelling at his dog and come crashing through waving a stick at it. He grabbed his poor dog who by this time was beside itself with panic and literally throttled it. I called Sticks to me and found that although he had a few tooth-scrapes in his fur and a bit of slobber on him, was otherwise physically okay.

“Sorry about that – I didn’t see you were there” the owner replied, holding his petrified dog so tightly I thought it was going to pass out.

“What was that about?” I asked the owner calmly as I examined Sticky.

“Dunno” he replied blandly with a shrug.

“Has it done that before?” I said, knowing full-well that this was an established behaviour.

“Nope – never” he said, not that convincingly.

“Look, I do this for a living and work with dogs like this almost every day; that was quite an established display.”

“Are you calling me a liar?” said the owner in an all-too-familiar kneejerk reaction.

“I don’t have to – your dog has just told me all I need to know.”

To save his poor dog any further pain I started to walk away but as calmly as possible asked the owner to get some help for his dog before it was too late and advised him that now his dog had now ‘attacked’ another once – not to let it happen again. We both knew this wasn’t the first time the dog had done this but I thought it might be worth pretending to be in denial as deeply he was just to get a serious message across…

The owner said nothing more and dragged his dog off in the opposite direction.

What struck me hardest about this incident was how ineffectual this owner was with his dog and how easily this kind of problem can be resolved. Luckily the dog has good ‘ABI’ (Acquired Bite Inhibition) or we’d have had to stitch poor Sticky up like a patchwork quilt, but it seemed obvious to me that this dog is crying out for his owner to write the Rulebook and be his Referee, not let him wander around feeling anxious and lost enough to just launch himself at passing dogs.

As an example, once I’d released Sticky after examining him he went to trot back up to the GSD, who had by now shut down completely and was just sitting there with a glazed look in his eyes, still held far too tightly by the collar. I merely said ‘No’ in a calm, firm voice, called Sticks back and he stopped and came back immediately, which he was praised for with a smile and a wink and a ‘Good Lad’. Our rulebook says when I say ‘No’, Sticky stops. Our rulebook says when I say ‘Sticks Come’, Sticky comes back. Our rulebook says he gets a wink and a smile and even – sometimes – a treat for following the rules. He knows I’ll enforce it if I have to. He knows where he stands. It’s a nicer place to be for a dog. And an owner.

I hope the GSD gets the help he needs and the incident yesterday proves to be a turning point in his life.

Sticky, by the way, is physically okay but a bit unsettled today. After a bit of a shock like this and the subsequent adrenalin rush, it can take a dog a couple of days to get back to a normal maintenance state. At least he’s in the right place for the help he needs to recover. I find myself wondering if the poor GSD will get the same or whether his owner still thinks denial is just a river in Africa…

Nature v Nurture

2009-12-24T13:22:00.001Z

I’ve been watching an interesting thread on a dog forum with pro-bull breeds and anti-bull breeds ‘discussing’ whether these dogs make good family pets. This has been my response today…

Its the age-old question of nature v nurture. BOTH should be considered in the temperament of a dog (or any animal). Breeds historically (and currently, tragically) bred for fighting will have had the most 'gamey' specimens used for selected breeding and this will be a factor in their temperament down the line unless those characteristics have been specifically bred out.

However, what most people forget is that it is just as easily achieved to 'breed in' aggression with dogs that were never used for fighting, simply by naive breeders selecting for aesthetics rather than soundness of temperament. I have temperament assessed and worked with many dogs of differing breeds over the years and believe me, there are some breeds and lines of dogs previously known for their docility that are becoming more prone to display aggression, yet it's only the stereotyped breeds that make the headlines...

A game of Chicken or Dare...

2009-12-06T23:48:00.001Z

I had an interesting run in today with a dog in our village that is well known for being out of it’s yard and out of control with no owners in sight.

It’s a little beagle / basset cross female who has, in the past hurtled across one of the village green areas from outside it’s house and aggressed at dogs passing by.

I’ve already had a ‘run-in’ with the owner in the past; a delightful woman who behaved much like her dog except the effect was much muted by the fact she was dressed in her pyjamas and dressing gown at 1pm in the afternoon…

Well this poor little dog was again out this afternoon as I took my two for their run up in the fields. We spotted each other from a distance and, predictable as clockwork, she came hurtling around the corner, hackles upright and ready for action.

What she hadn’t expected was that I was standing there waiting for her.

With my (onlead) dogs BEHIND me (so they understood that I was dealing with this, not them,) I stood full square, pointed at her, glared and calmly growled “DON’T”…

I wish I’d had a video because she skidded to a halt, her tail went so far under her legs that it could have tickled her chin and she immediately dropped to the floor, turned quietly away and skulked back off around the corner.

Round one to me…

About an hour later I wondered if we would have a repeat performance on our way back from the fields.

As I approached ‘her’ territory I looked across and saw her sitting outside her gate, I presume still waiting for someone to let her into her yard (it was by now raining… poor soul).

She looked at me.

I looked at her.

I raised one finger and glared at her.

She looked away calmly and stayed where she was.

Round two and the match to me…

Just for owners of Dachsies & Terriers...

2009-11-26T21:12:00.001Z

I was studying today (psychopharmacology) and came across this pearl of wisdom that is SO obvious it made me laugh…

“Digging may be a nuisance but it is an innate trait for many dogs. Terriers and Dachshunds were bred to flush out prey or to locate rodents in underground areas where digging is required.”

No kidding!!! Anybody that has a terrier or a Dachsie or crosses thereof will laugh as I did… Unless they’re exhibiting their digging skills in your prize-winning begonia beds of course!

Dog / Dog Greetings

2009-11-25T19:05:00.003Z

I was up in the woods today walking with Bailey & Sticky. It was lovely – we almost had the place to ourselves for a couple of hours!

We met up with a few owner dog partnerships though; some who had their dogs on lead, so I of course got mine back and held them to me quietly as they passed by, and some with offlead dogs who I assumed were offlead because they don’t present a problem in public areas.

We were walking towards a pair of Weimaraners who were offlead with their owner. As we approached one of them came forward to approach us. Sticky did the same thing but then hesitated. He had sensed something not right. He paused, gave some very clear ‘cut off’ signalling to the other dog/s and looked back at me. I smiled at him and said ‘Good boy Sticks’ to reinforce his peaceful actions instead of flying upto them out of control.

As we got closer he approached the Weimaraner pair and everything seemed pretty okay; lots of mutual bottom sniffing and wheeling around each other. Sticks then pottered off peacefully. By this time Bailey and I had caught up. I always hold her collar quietly and accompany her up to other dogs just so that she approaches gently and doesn’t alarm them by running upto them.

I then became aware of why Sticky had paused. The male Weimaraner was in an extreme state of arousal. His pupils were almost fully dilated, his hackles were up all the way along his neck to the base of his tail, his movements were stiff and deliberate and his general behaviour was far from relaxed and friendly.

Instead of calmly scenting Bailey, he immediately launched himself onto her shoulders, pushing her down. She responded by playbowing and jumping to appease him as she could obviously sense his ‘tone’ too. Far from appeasing and encouraging to play, he became even more agitated, trying to stand over her, shoulder-barge her and pounding on her shoulders and neck again and again. I then realised that the owner was not going to step in so calmly stood between them, helping poor Bailey out and providing a barrier for her as she had become stressed by this wildly inappropriate behaviour. The owner then said ‘oh he does this – I have to be careful with him’, grabbed him and pulled him away.

I said nothing more and simply trotted on with Bailey, wanting to help her recover quickly from this ‘thug-mugging’, which she did within a few minutes.

I have no doubt that that the Weimaraner was ‘spoiling for a fight’ and if Bailey hadn’t behaved in such an overtly appeasing manner, he would have picked one. I know many dogs who would have objected to his thuggish behaviour with a growl or stiffness, and this Weimaraner would have over-reacted because he was already in a state of hyper-arousal. Who knows why? Maybe he was never socialised properly as a pup, maybe he was attacked by another thug when he was younger, maybe he is fed a high-protein ‘working dog’ food… Who knows?

The owner knows… that’s who.

She KNOWS there was a problem with this dog’s reaction to other dogs but instead of dealing with this situation promptly, calmly and with some authority, she allowed him to continue his mugging uninterrupted until I stepped in. She KNOWS there is a problem with this dog but allows him offlead around others.

It’s this kind of owner that gives the rest of us a bad name; someone that KNOWS deep down there is a problem but is in denial, allowing their dog to practice their behaviour unchecked and without getting any kind of help. It is the dog I feel sorry for. One day it is going to mug the wrong dog, end up seriously hurt and it will be his owner, the one who should be guiding him and leading him through life, who must carry the blame – but she won’t. She will blame the owner of the other dog. Scary, isn’t it?

Car Safety For Your Pet

2009-11-12T20:52:00.001Z

Car Safety For Your Pet

Posted using ShareThis

News on Bailey...

2009-11-11T12:21:00.003Z

Just to update everybody that has been following Bailey’s story…

She is starting to work through her anxiety and we’re seeing definite progress now. She will now get up on her normal places to have a sleep as she slowly learns that strangers are no longer going to appear in her home. We’ve been very careful not to move too much furniture about or create too many changes (despite the place being very dusty now and us needing to change all the furniture covers and throws etc!) because re-establishing her behavioural stability is the most important thing at the moment (and it gives me an excuse to put off the massive early spring cleaning job!). She is still showing some signs of cognitive impairment such as confusion and not recognising people terribly quickly but this could just be her being EXTRA careful about her environment in general so I’m putting off investigating pharmacological intervention for this problem for the time being. It’s like caring for a beloved grandparent who needs a bit of extra help with everyday tasks, bless. And it’s the least we can do for a member of our family that has given us so much love and devotion over the years.

We’ve also been noticing a very subtle shift in the relationship between her and Sticky… He’s been with us about 6 months now and as all people in rescue know, it usually takes about this long for an adopted adult dog to finally get their paws under the table and understand this is where they are staying now. We’ve been noticing some very subtle bed-hopping going on; this is a common way of very peacefully and passively establishing hierarchy in family dogs. For example, as soon as Bailey vacates a bed space, Sticks will hop up and take the space for himself. Bailey will come back, see she has lost her space but instead of standing there for a while to see if he’ll move, or getting up on the sofa beside him, she will now immediately look for somewhere else.

It may be because Sticks has sensed the shift in Bailey in being a senior dog now, especially with the behavioural ‘weakness’ she has shown lately and is doing the very natural thing of taking over the top dog spot. It could be Sticky now realising he is here to stay and as a very confident little guy, deciding he would like to be top dog, or it could simply be because it’s getting colder in the house now and he wants the warmest spot!

It’s all been done in a very passive, peaceful way though and this, for me, is the correct interpretation of dominant behaviour in dogs; calm and gentle, without any aggression or angst.

Poor Bailey...

2009-11-05T19:18:00.004Z

Poor Bailey…

Since my last blog Bailey has been through the mill a bit.

We had to have plumbers in the house for a few days last week and this disturbed Bailey greatly. We dealt with it the best way we could, making sure that she could always see us but trying to keep our behaviour as ‘normal’ as possible while chaos ensued all around us.

The day after the plumbers left, there was an incident in the evening where we think Bailey accidently nudged or sat on Sticky while he was sleeping in the living room. It was fairly dark in the room as I was working in the office next door so I can only assume that Bailey didn’t see him and he snapped at her. For the next day or two after that Bailey found it impossible to rest. She was continually anxious and couldn’t sleep properly anywhere. She displayed extreme Hypervigilance (a known condition where dogs are so stressed that they are examining everything and looking everywhere) and was obviously very distressed. I determined that this was probably due to the combination of the upheaval of the past few days and then when Sticky snapped at her, she probably didn’t even realise it was him and her anxiety had generalised to the point where she couldn’t relax at all. Anywhere.

I decided to supplement her diet with an amino acid which helps to increase production of a certain neurotransmitter in the brain that induces a more relaxed state. Within 12 hours of beginning this, she had her first deep sleep for days. This could have been simple exhaustion taking over or the dietary assistance, but when she found the supplement in her food one morning and I found it spat out on the floor, I noticed that she didn’t rest much that day.

Unfortunately for Bailey, just as she was beginning to show signs of relaxing in her home again, the supervisor called today to ‘inspect the work’ (which incidentally hasn’t been undertaken properly and the plumbers need to return at some point). I observed quite an extreme reaction of stress; panting, shivering, extreme fur shedding, paw and ear sweating. This time as our visitor was wandering all over the house instead of sitting in the same room and reading or watching TV in an effort to ‘appear normal’, I tried a different approach…

I decided to act as Bailey’s ‘Guardian’ and stood at the doorway of the living room where she spends most of her time. I made it very clear to Bailey by ‘blocking’ the doorway with my arms and legs that nobody was going to be getting in past me. I didn’t move from this spot for the entire 40 minutes that the visitor was in the home and only allowed him past for a few seconds when he had to examine the radiator in the living room and even then put myself between him and Bailey calmly.

Within 10 minutes of me standing in the doorway, she lay down on her bed and relaxed a little. This was a much better state for her than standing very stiffly in the middle of the living room panting. She was still a little stressed but it was obvious to me that by taking obvious and clear action to ‘protect’ her space, she felt able to relax a little more than before, when we were simply behaving as normal. I realised that, for Bailey at least, behaving normally when we have strangers in the house is not the right thing to do; she needs us to step up and convince her that she is safe by NOT reacting as if nothing is happening. We need to acknowledge her fear and anxiety and show her that we will protect her.

This has introduced me to a different perspective that I’m going to investigate in the treatment of anxiety in dogs. The standard advice is to ‘behave normally’ but there is now reason for me to think that there are dogs for whom this is not an appropriate response. I will certainly be giving this more thought and exploring the possibility that there needs to be a change in the way that behaviourists deal with anxiety or fear in the home…

How Change can Affect Dogs...

2009-10-29T19:01:00.000Z

We’ve just had a really stressful week in our home with contractors upgrading our heating system throughout the house. Poor Bailey, our deaf Great Dane has been really stressed with the appearance of strangers, furniture moving around, lots of ‘debris’ all over the place etc.

For a deaf or blind dog, normality is crucial but even more so in their home. Being deaf means that Bailey needs to trust in her environment to be able to fully relax and so we keep it as predictable and normal as possible for her. We don’t move furniture around much or have too many visitors in the house unless she has met them first outside and come in with them. When she is asleep her sensory perception is obviously severely limited so she hasn’t been able to get much rest in her home with strangers ‘appearing’ out of nowhere or being there when she wakes up.

We have taken time off to make sure that we have always been near her so that when she wakes up, she sees us somewhere near. As she’s a senior lady now she sleeps a lot so it’s been very time consuming! We have been careful not to change our behaviour around her – we’re just doing something normal like reading or watching TV or working nearby on the laptop – because if we try and comfort or reassure her if she wakes with a startle reflex, this would be ‘abnormal’ behaviour from us and will unsettle her even more. If she wakes and sees one of us completely relaxed and normal while chaos is going on in the rest of the place, it helps settle her more than if we actively try to ‘help’ her.

One sad side-effect of all of the upheaval is that she has become afraid of the dark. Bailey has restricted vision, especially at night, and in the last few dark evenings, probably because of the equipment and tools left around the house and in the yard, she has refused to go into darkened areas, even if we are with her.

We’re hoping that now the work is finished in the house and things are getting back to normal, Bailey will gradually settle and sleep soundly again…

MORE reasons not to use aversive collars!

2009-10-14T20:30:00.001+01:00

What beautiful sense this makes…

On choke chains, prong collars (also shock collars and spray collars!)…

“If your dog becomes so reactive over another dog or person, to the extend that he incapable of listening to you, he is in an aroused chemical state. If… his air supply is shut off with a choke collar, or pain is inflicted with a pinch (prong) collar, you are not doing anything to help this animal to calm down! A choke or pinch (prong) collar contributes to the arousal level by increasing the adrenaline level.”

Why oh why does this not make perfect sense to people still using these things???!

Source: “Aggression in Dogs: Practical Management, Prevention & Behaviour Modification” by Brenda Aloff.

Some Common Sense...

2009-10-11T18:55:00.001+01:00

While studying today I found this:

“… a comparison of 13,097 Swedish dogs of 31 breeds found that dogs bred for showing were more likely to display social and nonsocial fearfulness and were less playful and curious than dogs from working lines (Svartberg, 2005).

This survey was no mere straw poll of a few hundred dogs… This was a MAJOR piece of research conducted with over 13,000 dogs. When you find these kinds of numbers in a study, the results have to be taken seriously.

“Many breeders now understand the need to avoid inbreeding of very close relatives, but they often do not look far enough up the pedigree for common ancestry. Unfortunately, some breeders still do in-breed as they strive for specific anatomical features as laid down in the breed standards.”

On many occasions I have asked owners whether they researched their new puppy’s pedigree thoroughly and they’ve said, ‘yes – the parents were fine’. I have yet to meet anybody that researched FIVE GENERATIONS back to check common ancestry and the possible in-breeding of genetic abnormalities.

Source: Rooney N.J. “The Welfare of Pedigree Dogs” Journal of Veterinary Behaviour, Volume 4, No 5, September- October 2009, p182-183

Obese Dogs...

2009-10-04T22:24:00.003+01:00

I went to see a dog today that was so overweight that it found it difficult to walk. Why do dog owners look at their obese dog and see a fit, healthy one? (this owner actually thought her dog was UNDERWEIGHT!!)

It's body dysmorphia gone mad.

Just because this dog happened to be a Neapolitan Mastiff, known for it’s solid frame and lots of loose skin, the owner thought the dog had to be massive, despite the fact that this one had quite a small frame (a female).

The dog had that all-too-common sickening ‘roll’ from side to side as the the fat underneath her skin slid around as she walked. She was exercise intolerant due to the excess weight she was carrying and one of her hips was weakening, probably due to dysplasia but not helped by the inches of fat covering her hips and back.

I felt utter despair at YET ANOTHER dog owner who had absolutely no idea what a healthy, fit, toned dog should look like, no matter what size ‘frame’ they have. I have the extreme view that this is a kind of cruelty up there with starving or beating a dog. There is no excuse for making your dog fat. WE are the ones in control of their dietary intake; they are trusting US to keep a check on their weight and diet but we can’t even do that right a lot of the time. Ignorance is not an excuse.

Luckily I went to assess this kind, sweet-natured, gentle dog with a view to finding her a new home and will do my utmost to ensure that I find her one with people who know what a healthy dog looks like and will not kill their her with ‘kindness’.

WARNING Grass Seed Season!

2009-08-24T21:20:00.001+01:00

I have just spent the last 10 minutes gently extracting not just one or two but FIVE grass seeds – one of them over a centimetre in length – from underneath my dog’s eyelids after a run in the fields.

This is the worst time of the year for grass seeds and they are designed to grip and cling to whatever they make contact with; in this instance, Sticky’s eyeballs!

I was going to post a video of me extracting them but I didn’t want to make anybody faint! It really was horrific stuff, with the biggest seed actually making me think for one awful moment that I was pulling out a piece of eye tissue – it was that big.

Please please please make sure you check your dog’s eyes, ears, paws and pay careful attention if your dog seems in any discomfort. We thought we’d cleared Sticky for seeds but they had worked their way right round and deep around the eyeball and when he couldn’t stop pawing his eyes, we knew something was wrong.

Obviously be careful about digging around the eyeball and if any doubt whatsoever, get your dog to a vet and keep them out of long grass for the time being to prevent it from reoccurring.

Obesity in Dogs...

2009-08-23T10:50:00.001+01:00

A fascinating piece of research undertaken by Kienzle et al (1998) says the following:

“The results of this survey indicate that owners of obese dogs tend to interpret their dog’s every need as a request for food. It appears that this is due, in part, to a transfer of their own health and eating habits, including a certain laziness and a lack of appreciation of the dog’s nutritional and health requirements. In counselling these owners, they should be encouraged to respond to the dog’s requests for attention not always with food, but more frequently with physical activities, such as brisk walks or regular play sessions. There will be benefit for both dog and owner.”

For me, there is absolutely no excuse for obesity in companion animals. Even those that have an underlying physical condition can be kept at a healthy weight by good nutritional management. I agree with the researcher’s findings above that obese animals are normally suffering from some kind of emotional displacement of their owners, including denial!

Loss...

2009-08-01T00:15:00.001+01:00

No matter what anybody says, to those of us who share our lives with canine friends, the loss of one can hurt as deeply and for as long as losing a human one...

Never, ever belittle your feelings when feeling the loss of a dog, or a cat, or ANY friend, no matter what species it was. It matters not how many legs it had or whether it had fur or feather; what matters is what they represented in your life.

My dog Gus represented unconditional love, faith and loyalty in mine and with this he gave me what no other companion ever has (and that includes human ones!).

I get through the days and the weeks since I last touched him as I did when he was here but every now and again something pulls the connecting thread between us taut and the pain of loss mixed with the power of the love we had for each other is overwhelming.

What was it today?

It was something that had become so much a part of our lives that I have been living with it, walking past it every day for the past five months not even realising that it was there. It was uniquely his. Uniquely ours.

“What was it?” I hear you ask.

HIS SLOBBER TOWEL!!! Yes, still with his slobber on, it was hanging up over the door near the water as it always did and I hadn’t even realised I hadn’t taken it down. Isn’t it funny what catches us out?...

World-Renowned Experts' Opinions on 'Dog Whispering'

2009-07-17T21:58:00.001+01:00

QUOTES FROM EXPERTS:
World-renowned dog trainers, behaviorists and veterinarians had all warned National Geographic that Millan’s methods had the potential for disaster. Below are quotes from noted experts:

Dr. Nicholas Dodman - Professor and Head, Section of Animal Behavior
Director of Behavior Clinic, Tufts University - Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
“Cesar Millan's methods are based on flooding and punishment. The results, though immediate, will be only transitory. His methods are misguided, outmoded, in some cases dangerous, and often inhumane. You would not want to be a dog under his sphere of influence. The sad thing is that the public does not recognize the error of his ways. My college thinks it is a travesty. We’ve written to National Geographic Channel and told them they have put dog training back 20 years.”

Jean Donaldson, The San Francisco SPCA-Director of The Academy for Dog Trainers
“Practices such as physically confronting aggressive dogs and using of choke collars for fearful dogs are outrageous by even the most diluted dog training standards. A profession that has been making steady gains in its professionalism, technical sophistication and humane standards has been greatly set back. I have long been deeply troubled by the popularity of Mr. Millan as so many will emulate him. To co-opt a word like ‘whispering’ for arcane, violent and technically unsound practice is unconscionable.”

Dr. Suzanne Hetts, Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist
Co-owner of Animal Behavior Associates, Inc., Littleton, CO
"A number of qualified professionals have voiced concern for the welfare of pet dogs that experience the strong corrections administered by Mr. Millan. My concerns are based on his inappropriateness, inaccurate statements, and complete fabrications of explanations for dog behavior. His ideas, especially those about “dominance”, are completely disconnected from the sciences of ethology and animal learning, which are our best hope for understanding and training our dogs and meeting their behavioral needs. Many of the techniques he encourages the public to try are dangerous, and not good for dogs or our relationships with them ."

Vyolet Michaels, CTC, CPDT (Certified Dog Trainer and Behavior Counselor)
Owner of Urban Dawgs, LLC of Red Bank, NJ
"Cesar Millan employs outdated methods that are dangerous and inhumane. Using a choke chain and treadmill to treat fear of strangers and dogs is completely inappropriate. Hopefully the National Geographic Channel will listen to the scientific community and discontinue production of The Dog Whisperer."

Janis Bradley, Instructor at The San Franciso SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers
Author of the book, "Dogs Bite"
"On his TV show, the main method Millan uses for aggression is aversives (leash jerks, kicks, snaps of the hand against the neck, and restraint, among others) applied non contingently. The aversives are non contingent because they are so frequent that they're not connected to any particular behavior on the part of the dog—the dog gets popped pretty much constantly. This results in a state called learned helplessness, which means the animal hunkers down and tries to do as little as possible. This is what Millan calls "calm submission." It's exactly the same thing you see in a rat in a Skinner box that is subjected to intermittent shocks it can do nothing to avoid. This can happen quite fast, by the way, shall we say in ten minutes? The dangers to the dog are obvious, ranging from chronic stress to exacerbating the aggression, i.e., some dogs fight back when attacked. This latter is the simplest reason that aversives are a bad idea in treating aggression. Even used technically correctly as positive punishment for specific behaviors like growling and snarling, aversives do nothing to change the underlying fear or hostility, so the best you can hope for, in the words of famed vet and behaviorist, Ian Dunbar, is "removing the ticker from the time bomb." Thus such methods substantially increase the risk to humans of getting bitten."

Excerpt of letter from Lisa Laney, Dip. DTBC, CPDT, CBC
to National Geographic before airing “The Dog Whisperer”:
“The intended program depicts aversive and abusive training methods - treatment for some serious anxiety and fear based issues - being administered by an individual with no formal education whatsoever in canine behavioral sciences. The "results" that are shown are more than likely not long lasting changes, but the result of learned helplessness, or fatigue, neither of which impact behavior to any significant long term degree - at least not in a good way. For those of us who are pioneering the effort to end the ignorance that drives the cruel treatment administered upon our canine companions, it is disappointing to see that this programming will reach the masses - especially on the NG Channel. The ignorance that this program perpetuates will give equally ignorant people the green light to subject their dogs to abuse. In turn these dogs will react even more defensively, will bite more people - and end up dead.”

From: http://www.urbandawgs.com/divided_profession.html

Belle

2009-07-16T11:15:00.003+01:00

It is with great happiness that this blog entry is to detail how Belle has been doing in her new home!

Once her gut problems had cleared I could see no reason why she couldn’t start her new life with her new family so I dropped her off five days ago along with her bedding and a couple of days food.

It’s always indescribably nerve-wracking to rehome a Mastino and I am the first one to admit that I probably go overboard with instructions and guidance because it is so important to me that the dog settles as quickly as possible! However I had nothing to worry about as these owners have listened to everything I’ve told them and have the space for Mastini to be happy.

I can now reveal that Belle has gone to live with Luca, the poor dog that lived in muddy yard all his life and didn’t leave it to go for a walk for over a year. His owners did a fantastic job with him so they were the obvious choice for such an important job raising a Mastino pup! He has taken to his new Mastina friend beautifully, gently but firmly helping to teach her about manners better than ANY human could!

So far so good; everything is going well, with Belle relaxing more every day and already adores her male owner now that she knows he’s actually not a scary bloke and really quite nice!

Here are some pictures that I took during the follow up visit the other day of Belle with her new Dad and Uncle Luca! They make me very happy….

Belle - End of Wk 2

2009-07-10T14:07:00.000+01:00

During the past 48 hours Belle’s stomach has improved greatly with normal stools and it’s a lot easier to cope with cleaning up after her now! The other two are also absolutely fine now so all of the dogs have been mixing calmly and happily throughout the house, sharing floor space and a big mattress in the yard in the sun. Belle is actually very respectful of the other two dogs, albeit clumsily (as a pup always is).

The only thing we are watching extremely carefully is her resource anxiety around water. We have multiple water bowls throughout the house and yard and if she isn’t drinking from them is no problem but the moment she puts her head down to drink, if another of the dogs approaches she becomes very anxious and ‘freezes’. To help combat this we’ve put water in her ‘room’ next to her crate which is ‘hers’; the other dogs do not go into this room when there is a foster dog in, even though it’s my office! Belle seems to understand that if she wants a drink, this is where she can go and drink ‘in peace’ without having to scan and freeze.

She is a still quite reactive when out on walks and when we visited her new owners again she was still edgy around the male owner but it was promising to see that if she had the space to escape from him, she always did this rather than decrease the distance and try to ‘intimidate’ him away from her (which is what she does if on a lead).

She’s now hitting the end of the ‘honeymoon’ period with a newly-relocated dog so we’re expecting behaviour shifts, but we also think she may be coming into season as there were a couple of blood-spots on her bed this morning so this may also be responsible for a slight escalation in anxiety or reactivity.

We’re now just waiting for the test results on her fecal sample earlier this week and if they’re all clear she can go to her new home and start her new life (fingers crossed!).

Aggression Breeds Aggression

2009-07-09T23:36:00.002+01:00

Here is an excerpt of a post I’ve just written on the UKRCB forum…

“CM is forever saying 'This is good, this is good' when he pressurises a dog so much it smashes through it's impulse threshold. He thinks the only way to deal with aggression is to create aggression so he can 'correct' aggression.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong...

He thinks that flooding and crowding dogs while forcing them to tolerate the stimulus is the way to 'cure them'.

God, so wrong!

I really wish that we could afford to get CM over here and face a panel of real behaviourists, televise it and make people see the fraud that he is.”

Ups & Downs

2009-07-07T22:33:00.001+01:00

The one thing about writing a blog is so that people can follow the ups AND the downs. I was very down this morning when there was no end in sight but today the antibiotics seem to be kicking in and things are getting a little easier to deal with on the cleaning up front! That’s what foster care can be about and this is the worst I’ve ever felt with a foster dog. I’d rather deal with biting and snarling and lunging than diahorrea… You don’t have to throw out all your carpets and redecorate afterwards!

The other nice thing that took my mind off things today was taking a day out with the Tuesday Walk Club to a nearby park with some lakes to play in and the dogs, bless them, showed us that it isn’t just ducks that love this weather!

Belle - Week 2

2009-07-07T11:11:00.001+01:00

By far the worst thing that we’ve had to deal with in fostering Belle has been the gut infection she brought with her which has not only affected our own dogs but has now affected me too. Whether it’s Giardia, Salmonella, Campobylacter etc doesn’t matter anymore. I am utterly exhausted, dejected, disillusioned and finding it difficult to work which is now causing me terrible financial hardship too. The sheer strain of clearing up after not one but three dogs who have uncontrollable and dangerous diahorrea is simply soul-breaking and it’s making me feel like I cannot put my family (and that includes my dogs) through this any longer so I’ve had to make the heartbreaking decision that Belle will be the last dog we foster for the time being. We will pull Belle and everyone else through this but no more. Foster care has finally defeated me and I will now concentrate on running the rescue and my canine behaviour consultancy (which funds the rescue in so many ways…).

It’s just been a disastrous, traumatic, horrific time that I hope nobody else has to go through and the plea to the kennels where she came from is that if any other dog shows any signs of diahorrea at any time, PLEASE don’t just pass them on… It can, as in this case, have catastrophic consequences. I have taken this burden on and not passed Belle onto her new home because she will infect the existing dogs; I wish that all kennel facilities could be this responsible.

Belle - Day 8

2009-07-06T17:12:00.000+01:00

Just have to post pics of what happened today…

Belle and her new male owner had that magical moment (after some careful, gentle desensitisation and counterconditioning). Everyone in rescue knows exactly what I mean and a picture (or five!) will speak a thousand words…

Belle - 1 week in...

2009-07-05T22:46:00.000+01:00

Belle today met her new owners again but to ensure that her anxiety was kept to a minimum we met in ‘her’ yard.

Strict instructions were as follows (for us all!):

1. No bending down over her or towards her

2. Moving as calmly and quietly as possible around her

3. No prolonged eye contact

4. If she jumps up, turn your body away from her to ‘block’ her

I also coincided this visit with her lunch so that she could be fed by them and start to change her emotional state around them from anxiety and mistrust to a more positive one.

Both owners complied with the instructions to the letter and within half an hour they were sitting down and feeding Belle by hand. She even let the male owner tickle her quietly under the chin. She was relaxed and calm after half an hour so we decided to end it there on such a good note.

A completely different outcome to a couple of days ago simply because we kept everything calm and controlled around her!

Dealing with Anxious Dogs...

2009-07-04T09:12:00.000+01:00

An excerpt from an email I have sent to the prospective owners of Belle, the dog I've been fostering who last night lunged at the male owner because he bent down to her...

"Just a little thing that I was thinking about last night to help you realise how long it takes before you can be affectionate with a dog... I have only just started slightly bending over Belle FIVE DAYS after living with her 24 hours a day, and even then I am very cool and controlled about it. I’m naturally a very ‘stand-off’ person with all dogs simply because I understand that they don’t like crowding physical contact and I have never been bitten during an introduction with a new dog simply because I stand still and ignore them, making no sudden moves, keeping my hands out of the way and making no eye contact. I present myself as completely benign to them so that they can feel okay about coming to scent me first, which is how dogs (especially anxious ones) prefer to say hello; not with eye contact, smiles, touching or talking to them. Belle has a ‘bubble’ around her that she can only let people into that she completely trusts, and after five days of living with her almost 24/7 she’s only JUST allowing me in…"

Belle - Days 3 & 4

2009-07-02T22:50:00.002+01:00

We've had a very typical week with a new young foster. Ups and downs but her baseline character is definitely coming through now and she has got a very pleasant temperament with people, showing no aggression whatsoever with lots of passive affectionate gestures. We're all treating her very consistently; not rewarding her jumping up, barking at us (or other people),jumping up at the kitchen surfaces or the gate etc and these behaviours are noticeably decreasing.

House training has been very difficult as we now think she has a stomach bug which is still giving her diahorrea so she will be off to the vets tomorrow
for a check up! Diahorrea is extremely common with new dogs but she has been drinking regularly so she's not dehydrated and isn't actually losing weight so we haven't been too worried but 3 days with no sign of improvement, even on Burns foods, is too long so the vet will hopefully be able to help her. It's been really hard work trying not to get disheartened with cleaning up so much mess for so long, but that's foster care.

She has met and been for a walk now with Bailey the Great Dane and our little dog Sticky. She has been extremely excited to greet them and has tried to play a little too roughly but has reacted very appropriately when corrected by them; she is learning to read the 'cut off' signalling that they're giving her and breaking eye contact, turning away and becoming calmer around them.

She is a VERY quick learner and more importantly, eager to learn! This has been a bit of a revelation; for a Molosser to react well to training! Her lead work and 'Sit' training is coming along beautifully but if you lax just a little bit, she does still take advantage - well she's a 12wk puppy in a HUGE body! It does make me absolutely livid that all of this basic training should have been dealt with by the age of 16-20 weeks. It's so much harder for a dog to learn after this but people just will not put the time and effort with their pups...

Unfortunately the current heatwave has rendered all of us practically housebound during the day with temperatures of almost 30 degrees. She has had a fan on her constantly and this has kept her cool and comfortable.(We're sweltering as all the fans in the house are on the dogs!!!)

Pictures of Belle

2009-07-01T11:07:00.000+01:00

Here are some pictures of Belle taken in her bed last night.

Belle - Day Three

2009-07-01T00:36:00.002+01:00

The first 48 hours over and the real hard work begins...

Unfortunately it's been a helluva lot worse than usual because of the awful heat at the moment - it hit over 30 degrees again today. Belle was very restless, even though we had a fan on her all day. We then swapped the fan for a larger one this afternoon and she seemed a little more able to settle.

She's not eating much but that is fairly common with foster dogs being swapped over onto another food. We've had to put her straight onto Burns as we can't feed the food that was provided because it is mostly animal and vegetable derivatives, provides absolutely no nutritional quality and is far too high in protein to help with her behaviour.

She also still has diahorrea and is sadly not housetrained so the last couple of days have been extremely difficult for me and the rest of the family as she doesn't seem to want to toilet outside at all. This is a very common problem with dogs that have come out of a long stay in kennels; they just get used to toileting wherever they want to (just another reason why
we don't like kennelling dogs!).

One of her accidents in the house today had a little drop of blood in the urine so there is a chance she is coming into season which might explain some of the restless behaviour.

She met Bailey the Great Dane female for about a minute today (supervised and in the yard). She showed absolutely no aggression but there was a high level of anxiety and tension there as she clearly displayed that she hasn't got a clue about what to do when she meets another dog. This is going to have to be a very detailed rehabilitation with very carefully selected dogs I think..

Normally we would exercise her a bit more to help her to settle when indoors but in this heat we're not able to get her out for a proper walk until the evenings although I did take her to sit outside the house on a public green for 10 minutes a couple of times just to get her out for a change of scenery.

She is still giving a couple of barks at people but I'm teaching her that I don't want her to do this by taking charge of the situation and walking her calmly and confidently around in a circle away from the stimulus, re-approaching and praising her for settled behaviour. If I were to punish or react harshly she would simply associate people with not-very-nice things happening to her and that is the opposite of what we would like.

Teaching her to sit instead of jump up for attention is going well. She's starting to realise that jumping up merely gets her completely blanked and actively ignored. If she sits or even lies down and rolls over we will immediately be happy and smiling and interactive with her.

This is all very basic puppy training stuff which we'd normally have done and sorted by the age of 16 weeks so she's a very immature, young pup in a great big body and months behind in her behavioural development. I've always understood why people have trouble coping when their cute bundle of wrinkles turns into something like Belle, but I've got no sympathy for people that didn't do their homework BEFORE getting a Neapolitan Mastiff pup in the first place....

Belle - Day Two

2009-06-29T23:00:00.002+01:00

Belle has had a quite settled day but this could be due to the excessive heat - 30 degrees.

She has now met both Bailey the Great Dane and Sticky the little dog through the dividing gate in the house without any fuss. In fact she is quite blasé about Bailey now which is very hopeful for her settling with other dogs! If the weather is more forgiving tomorrow we may try to introduce her to Bailey out on neutral territory, all safely and gently while on long leads.

She has eaten hungrily again today but as she's a little underweight we're giving her three smaller meals rather than two larger ones. She is showing absolutely no signs of resource guarding aggression but is a little anxious around her food - indicated by extreme excitement and gobbling it down - so we are giving her lots of time and space to relax and teach her that her food is not at risk. If we were to start messing about with her food now like giving her a piece at a time, taking her bowl away (even to refill it) etc this would all simply make her more suspicious of us around her food. For at least a week we will leave her in peace to enjoy her food and relax.

It is still simply too hot to exercise her any time before late evening and even then it's a little too warm but the little exercise she has been getting, she has been very good. She is infinitely more relaxed on a longer lead than a shorter one and is learning to recall short distances now. Her general fitness level isn't good but in a growing pup this is to be expected as they should be road walking for more than about 20 minutes at a time anyway to protect their developing joints.

She was left indoors alone for an hour while we went out briefly and she simply went to her bed and slept (we monitored her via Walkie Talkie!) but I've been spending a lot of time simply ignoring her while working in my office, like now, where she has learned that even when humans are around, unless they're asking for interaction, they're really quite boring a lot of the time and she may as well chill out and snooze, especially in this heat!

So many people make so much fuss of a new dog in the home but the exact opposite is crucial; starting off with as little interaction as possible and building it up slowly. It really does make for a much happier, relaxed dog.

Belle

2009-06-29T09:29:00.001+01:00

Well we had a blissfully peaceful night with Belle. My bedroom is directly above the office where her bed is and from time to time I could actually hear her snoring beneath me!

She'd been taken out for a 20min walk at 11pm in the lovely cool night air through our village which is all but asleep and silent at that time of night and this undoubtedly helped.

She didn't want any breakfast at 8:30 but I realised why when she barfed up a sock (haven't got a clue where she got it from). She's not the first Mastino I've ever had to like eating socks! She had no accidents whatsoever in the night and went straight out into the yard to toilet.

Belle has met our Great Dane female, Bailey, through the dividing gate in the house and has been very excited with absolutely no signs of aggression whatsoever which was a huge step forward for us. She caught a quick glimpse of our small dog and was much keener however, so this indicates work to be done. Only meetings through the gate for today, tomorrow we may try taking them outside into neutral territory. I've a feeling Belle is going to a very jumpy, rough player...

Not so good was her barking at people through the gate, but this was initiated by the extremely territorially aggressive dogs next door so we will have to ensure that if they are out, she is kept in so that she doesn't learn from their inappropriate behaviour.

Still very early days but everything going well so far. Keeping her calm and settled has been the overriding objective and will continue to be over the next few days.