How Change can Affect Dogs...

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!

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...

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...

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!

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...

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...

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'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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...

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

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

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

Belle - Day Three

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

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.