Is Your Dog Really Hyperactive?

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...

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

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

Some Very Important Lessons

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!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Where'd that squirrel go?

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!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

Ruffles

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.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

Belly...

Out for an evening stroll...

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

Sassy

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.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

Life with a Molosser...

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...

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

During a Walk the Other Day...

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

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.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Doggy Heaven...

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

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Hooray!

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!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Vincent - Foster Dog Blog

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

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

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

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

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