Part of an email I received after giving a guest lecture in a high school, where several of the other teachers listened in!
As a side note, I forgot to tell you that not only was your presentation in Hammack’s bio class SO informative and fun, it was also such a treat to watch a gifted teacher practicing her craft. You are so clear and so patient, and those are hard things to come by. As one teacher to another, I give you big props!!
Thanks, Paris!
And from Janise, of Amore Pet Sitting Services, regarding her severely toy-obsessed Boston terrier, Starsky:
Hi Jenna,
Thank you for coming to our home and working with us yesterday!!!! I am so impressed with your knowledge and abilities- WOW!!!!!As we discussed, when I get a chance I am going to post your dog walking technique on my Amore Webpage along with your link.Starsky is already doing much better….actually he is pooped out and too tired to be naughty LOL !I feel so relieved to have found you!!!Kindest Regards,Janise Burford
Amore Pet Sitting Services
Ohhh, puppies. I’m boarding a puppy at the moment, a 9-month old welsh terrier who has some issues her owner needs help with. One of those issues is housebreaking.
I’ve forgotten what it’s like to get up EARLY because the puppy can’t hold it like my adult dogs can — 10 hours regularly overnight, and 12-16 if it’s my day off and I’m feeling really lazy! At 9 months, it’s possible for a puppy to hold it that long if you’ve worked on it. But a dog that isn’t housebroken and isn’t used to holding it — even an adult dog — can’t do that!
The best way to potty train any dog, regardless of age, is crate training. I know, I know — it’s MUCH easier to get puppy pads, if your dog will use them, and do it that way. And if you have a job where you work 8 hours and can’t get away, and no neighbor to let your puppy out after 4 hours, then that might be your only solution. However, puppy pads teach your dog something else: to pee in the house. It’s very common for a dog to look for the next thing closest to a puppy pad when you take the pads away: carpet. Small dogs are especially prone to peeing in the house when they don’t like it outside because it’s too cold or too wet. (Another option is to litter train them, so you never have to worry about it. Yes, they make litter boxes for small dogs!)
If you want your dog to potty outside, the best best best way is crate training. Let’s talk about crate training.
There are some common concerns I hear:
1. It seems cruel.
I know people have a hard time believing this, but a crate for a dog is like their den. Unless your dog has had some major trauma in a crate, and I mean major trauma, once they get used to it they’re not going to have any qualms about spending large amounts of time in one. Puppies especially should be sleeping 15-20 hours a day, depending on the age of the puppy. We keep our puppies awake MUCH longer than is healthy for them, assuming that’s normal. A crate gives your puppy a chance to calm down long enough to get the sleep they need in a quiet, dark, undisturbed place. This will make everyone’s life much easier, and your puppy happier, healthier, and easier to train!
2. My dog/puppy barks and whines and I CAN’T STAND IT!
Okay, I can’t blame you, there. I can’t stand it, either! There are two easy solutions, though, other than the usual “just ignore it and they’ll stop” solution you normally hear. (Trust me, I understand that frustration — I’m a dog trainer, and I can’t ignore it until it stops! I’m very noise sensitive, and it drives me bonkers!)
The first solution is to say, “Quiet,” and then tap the crate on the side. If it doesn’t work, tap a little harder. You can tap hard enough to jiggle the crate just a bit. (I’ve been known to hook the lip with my fingers and pluck the near edge off the ground by a finger’s width.) You’re creating a mini-earthquake, so the dog learns that barking or whining will make the world shake a tiny bit. It’s not comfortable!
Concerns: I have heard other trainers say, “This will make a dog feel unsafe or scared of his crate.” In ten years, I’ve never seen that happen.
The second solution is to get a squirt bottle. I don’t mean a little mister, I mean a bottle from Lowe’s that’s meant to have cleaner or something in it! Something with a powerful stream on it. This stream needs to get through the air, the bars of the crate, and hit your dog with enough force for your dog to feel it! A mist won’t do. You need a squirt! Don’t aim for your dogs face if you can avoid it; we don’t want to hit the eyes. And DON’T put anything but water in it!
Concerns: From trainers, I occasionally hear the same concern as above, and the answer is also the same! From owners, I hear: “But my dog LIKES water.” My dogs both LOVE water! They hate, however, the squirt bottle. There’s a big difference between getting into water willingly and getting squirted with something cold and wet surprisingly. It startles them out of their bad behavior, and that’s all we really want. Even dogs who aren’t particularly bothered by a squirt bottle will usually stop barking; it annoys them into good behavior!
Now that we’ve stopped the barking issue, let’s talk about making the crate an okay place to be. When I start crating dogs, I make sure they have at least two toys in their crate that they like. Every time they go in their crate, they get a treat. I feed them in their crates as well. I also put their bed in their crate (or piles of old towels, if you’re afraid they’ll chew up their bed out of boredom) so it’s comfy. Think of it as a kid’s bedroom: it needs all the stuff in it they might want so they can hang out and ignore their parents!
Once you have all that good stuff in their crate, start tossing treats in there. Leave the door open until they’re comfortable to go in, get the treats, sniff around for more, and come back out. You can give them more treats while they’re in there, too. Once they can do that, start closing the door for a few seconds at a time, giving them more treats while they’re in there. Once they can do that, start leaving them in there for a few minutes at a time. If they’re comfortable eating in there, give them dinner with the door closed and leave them in for ten minutes after they finish.
Build up the time slowly; when they get comfortable, add more time. It generally takes a day or two if you’re home all day and can devote time to it. If you aren’t, or if your dog has some trauma associated with crate training that needs to be overcome, it could take up to a week. I hate to say it, but usually if it takes longer than that, someone is letting them out when they cry — though the person may not even be aware of it!
All right, all that said… I’m going back to bed! All this getting up early to let the puppy out has worn me down!
(Not quite what you were looking for? Wondering how to potty train once Fido’s crate trained? Have no fear, just click here!)
Jenna
Every so often, I get questions about allergies. All sorts of things can cause allergies, from food to stress to environmental factors. To figure out what’s causing your dog’s allergies, you need to talk to your vet.
However, to manage allergies, there are some things you can do.
1. Obviously, if you can cut out whatever’s causing the allergies — do so!
2. Benedryl. Benedryl only works on 30% of dogs, but if your dog is itchy (and you know it’s not fleas!), try it! Give a dose appropriate to your dog’s weight. Cash, my 110 pound shepherd, gets an adult dose. Lily, my 60 pound pit, gets a child’s dose.
3. Honey. Cash got 1/4 tsp of locally grown honey with his meals every day for 2 months to help him become immune to his pollen allergy. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. Note, however, the TINY amount — and my holistic vet did warn me that if it made him itchier, I needed to cut back!
4. Fish oil. This actually helps moisturize their skin and coats. Dry skin can cause itching.
5. Baths. If your dog has an environmental allergy, more baths can often help! Make sure you use a hypoallergenic shampoo. (You might have to look around for one that really helps; there are only two that work for Cash!) You might also add fish oil to their diet, if you’re bathing them often, as bathing will dry out their skin!
Not sure if your dog has allergies? Check their bellies and the insides of their ears. You shouldn’t see speckles (a sign of flea bites), but rather a general pinkness to the skin. Most dogs have little to no pink tone to their skin, instead having a very white or slightly brown look. Pink is usually a sign of inflammation!
Good luck!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Well, the holidays are over and classes have started back up! If you check the sidebar there, you’ll see the upcoming schedule. Classes take place in downtown Los Gatos, so if you hang around the village green about that time you’ll see us come wandering by!
I just wanted to note that dog park and recall classes are by request at the moment. If you’re hoping for those classes, let me know: I typically wait for enough interest to warrant running one, and then start putting them together again!
If you want more information about classes, click here!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: children, dogs that have been rehab'ed, expecations, philosophy, training, training in unusual conditions
I’m going to give you two scenarios:
Scenario 1:
Matrix is a ten-year-old shepherd cross. She lives with 2 children, ages 4 and 2. Matrix doesn’t much like the children: she growls if they get too close, and has even snapped at them for playing near her. Whenever her owners leave the room, they call her with them because she can’t be trusted.
Scenario 2:
Max is a four-year-old terrier cross. He lives with one child, age 2. He loves children, and his child loves him. They play together and adore each other. Max can be trusted with children, and has never shown any aggression toward them, no matter what’s going on.
Which of these scenarios is better?
Matrix’s parents realized they had a problem, and they called me. We taught Matrix to leave when the children walked up to her. Her owners still call her with them when they leave the room, in case a child trips and falls on her, and when friends come over to play she takes a rest in her own room, protected from the children, with her toys and her bed.
Since Max didn’t have any problem with kids, there was no reason to call a trainer. (I do know Max, as he was in training for leash manners, and I saw him around his boy. There was no doubt they loved each other.) When Max’s boy tried to give him a hug one day, Max was trapped, unable to escape, and nearly crushed by a child much larger than he was. In a panic and hurting, he snapped to get away. The boy went to the emergency room, and Max was put down.
Small dogs and dogs in pain are at great risk from children. My dog, Cash, is 110 pounds and loves kids. That said, if one of them lays on him, he’s too big (and too fit and young) to be hurt by it, and he’s big enough to get away. Most dogs don’t have that ability; most dogs are either too small or too old to escape like that. If your child is too young to understand that they need to be gentle and never hang onto a dog that’s trying to leave, then they’re probably too young to be left alone with the dog. What will your dog do when it’s trapped and hurting? Grab your dog’s leg when they’re walking and refuse to let go, or grab them around the neck and lay on them. Whatever they do, imagine if they did that while your child’s face was next to theirs, because your child was giving them a hug.
Most dogs that bite are already aggressive. Once pushed to that point, they’ll bite more easily the next time because they learn that it works. This bit of truth is wrong, though, when small children are involved. A trapped, hurting dog will bite even if they’re not aggressive. Calling your dog out of the room with you takes two extra seconds, and ensures that your child won’t hurt your dog — and can, therefore, save your dog’s life.
I would like to say this doesn’t happen often, but this winter alone I know of two dogs — friendly, sweet, child-loving dogs — who were put down after biting children who hurt them, trying to hug them. Is a hug worth your dog’s life? Please, teach your children to be gentle. Teach them to let go when the dog leaves. And until they’re old enough to remember to do so reliably, call your dog with you when you leave the room. It could mean the world to your family.
I bet you have presents, complete with wrapping paper and ribbon sitting somewhere around your house right this minute! And if you have a dog, your dog probably thinks those presents are pretty fun toys!
There’s a trick to keeping a dog from going after presents (or food or counters or trash or anything else, really). First off, don’t go showing things to your dog. That makes them interesting! Don’t wander around cooing over those fancy packages, if you can avoid it. Don’t point them out to your pup and then firmly tell him to leave them alone; all your dog knows is that you drew his attention to them, so they must be important!
But most importantly, when you see your dog LOOKING at those things, make a noise that will startle them (clapping, a hissst noise, slapping a newspaper against your thigh, etc) and when they jump away, call them away and praise them for leaving.
Note that I said to do it when your dog looks at the packages. If your dog gets used to ignoring them completely, then when you leave they might visually check it out, but they won’t tear into things. If you let them look, then when you leave they’ll still take it one step farther: tearing into things! You always want to correct for better behavior than you really care about, so that when push comes to shove and the line gets blurred, it doesn’t get blurred very far, and your dog walks away still well behaved!
Meantime, have fun opening presents!
J
The Pet People of Los Gatos asked me to write an article on how to properly walk your dog. I did so, and I’ll re-print it here for your edification!
Many people think that taking Fido out for his daily walk means he’s going to drag you down the street, pausing to sniff and pee, taking a look at the world and everything in it as it goes by — and that this is good for him.
The truth is, this kind of walk will only wind him up without giving him enough exercise, and teach him that the world is over-exciting and the person on the other end of the leash — you — can be ignored.
Pet People would be happy to put you in touch with trainers who can teach you and Fido how to walk together, but in case that’s not an option or you’d like to give it a go yourself, here’s a guide toward proper dog walking that will exercise your dog’s body and mind.
So lately, I’ve been working on a new goal: to brush my dog’s teeth daily. I’ve been doing pretty good at it, too; it’s hard to create new habits (for both us and our companions!), but I’m working on it!
As it happens, my dogs are really good about having their teeth brushed, but if your dogs aren’t, there are some things you should know (including how to make it happen).
First, dental cleanings are supposed to happen every two years, unless you brush your dog’s teeth. That’s several hundred dollars saved every couple of years — I like that!
Second, chewing rope toys (or toys with thread) brings a very slight chance that the threads will wrap around the base of your dog’s tooth and kill the tooth within six months. It’s a very slight chance — let me repeat, VERY SLIGHT — but since my dog, Lily, chews cloth and rope like it’s going out of style, it’s a chance I don’t want to take!
Now, teeth brushing for a dog is much simpler than for a person. You stroke each tooth 3-4 times with downward strokes; no scrubbing needed. (Though… I still scrub. If my dogs will tolerate it, and they do, I figure I might as well! I scrub the insides of their teeth, too, though I’ve never heard anyone saying that’s nesecary.)
If your dog is like most dogs and doesn’t want to tolerate teeth brushing, training them otherwise is simple, though it takes a few months and some patience. Each step should be completed at the dog’s speed: when your dog will tolerate step one, move on to step two, and so on. Let it take as long as it needs; in some cases, this could take weeks.
Step 1. Touching your dog’s muzzle.
If your dog really won’t tolerate this, start at the top of their skull and stroke downward, then give them a treat as you reach their muzzle or right after you’ve petted. When they’ll allow that, try rubbing the sides, and treat. When they’ll tolerate that, you can segue into the next step by rubbing their lips hard enough to lift slightly. Don’t expect this to work overnight; more like a week!
Step 2. Showing teeth.
You need to see your dog’s teeth before you can brush them. Once you can rub their muzzle, start lifting their lips to spot the teeth. Again, lift and treat. When they’ll let you lift, then work on lifting for longer. If your dog isn’t nippy, you can always try to hold their head somewhat still, but do so in a happy, laughing, having-fun kind of way. If they’re really determined to fight you, you’re pushing too hard and need to back off. Creating a real fight will only make the whole thing something your dog wants to avoid! You can also start putting toothpaste on the tips of their teeth; dog toothpaste tastes good, and it’s an instant treat and incentive to let you touch their teeth.
3. Brushing!
Once you can lift your dog’s lips enough to see canine teeth, you can start brushing! Use a dog toothbrush, your finger, or a little finger-cover. Stroke down over one tooth, praise and treat! Don’t worry about getting the gumline or anything like that; that can come later. By this time, you can start using toothpaste, and that’ll help in both cleaning and treating.
As your dog gets better about letting you stroke, stop treating for every stroke and start using the toothpaste as a treat. Lots of praise and love, and bit by bit work up toward the gumline and start including the back teeth.
Some things to remember: don’t start a fight. If your dog is truly uninterested, slow down to an earlier step or take a break. You can use some slight restraint, but as soon as your dog starts to really pull back, stop. Restraint makes a dog much more likely to fight! Use dog toothpaste; human toothpaste is bad for dogs. Dog toothpaste tastes like chicken or peanut butter, and it’s an automatic treat!
All that said… off I go to brush my dog’s teeth. Good luck!
Jenna
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: classes, dog parks, recall, resources, training, walking
Occasionally, people ask me about classes. If I can remember, I’ll start putting them on the calendar here!
Classes are on a drop-in basis, and typically only for clients who have already had an assessment. If you’re interested in a specific class, but not private training, contact me and we’ll set up a short, cut-rate assessment so you can come to class and be up to speed with the terminology and what’s expected!
Everyone must have at least a short assessment, so they know the basics. I try to make sure these classes are as safe as possible!
Available classes take place in Los Gatos, by a schedule I send out a few months ahead of time. Typically the Dogs Downtown class takes places on either Saturday or Sunday morning, every other weekend. The other classes vary.
Dogs Downtown Classes:
$15 per household prepaid (non-refundable; you can pay via paypal or check), or $20 the day of. We practice understanding dog body language, on-leash greeting, confidence building, good manners, and walking through crowds and scary downtown things. This is also a good time to catch me if you have questions or problems have cropped up, but you don’t need a whole session.
Off Leash Recall (or “come”) Classes:
$25 per dog, space is limited. You will need to bring treats and a long rope (20 ft or more), and we’ll go through how to get your dog listening and tuned in under medium-stress situations, outdoors. It’s best if your dog is at the stage where they know what “come” means, but choose not to listen occasionally.
Dog Park Classes:
Space in dog park classes is limited for safety’s sake. Cost is $25 per dog. We meet outside the dog park, practice checking dogs for good body language, spotting problems, entering, working with our dogs so they listen even at the dog park, work on recall, and learn how to know when it’s safe to be there and when it’s time to leave.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expecations, philosophy, training, walking
One of the MOST IMPORTANT things I can tell people is that they need to walk their dogs — properly. (I haven’t posted about walking properly, but there are all sorts of articles on how to do it, with different ways of teaching you and your dog to walk together. Try Googling it!)
I’ve also hit a LOT of resistance from clients lately. I hear a lot of reasons as to why someone feels they don’t need to walk their dog, so I’m going to debunk some myths here.
1. My dog isn’t energetic.
That’s probably true. Dogs are like children; most kids I know would rather play video games than go to martial arts class. But just like children, going for a walk is better than napping. Whether or not they get out and work their muscles, they still have a need to exercise. The fact that they’re bottling energy up just means it has to go somewhere — likely toward whatever behavior we don’t want them doing, or to feed anxiety, aggression, and stress. A low energy dog still has energy, and in fact, many high energy dogs look lazy — they’re bottling that energy up. My pit bull, Lily, is a VERY HIGH ENERGY DOG. She sleeps all day. If I don’t make her get out and exercise, she looks low energy… and then she turns that energy she bottled up into anxiety and destruction. (Furniture, to be precise.)
2. My dog has a yard to play in.
Again, let’s look at kids. Are your kids more likely to sit and play video games, or go wander around in the yard by themselves? If they do head into the yard, do they get bored and come back in if no one is out there playing with them? And if you banish them to the trampoline by themselves, do they wear themselves out or do they come back in shortly, bored? All those same answers are true for dogs, too.
3. But training is going so well; the problem’s gone away.
The problem has gone away because you are exercising your dog and because you’re working on it. It takes both things to solve your problems. Like getting fit requires both exercise and eating healthy, and one doesn’t work without the other, keeping your dog emotionally fit requires boundaries and exercise. As soon as you stop exercising your dog, they take that energy and put it right back toward arguing with you.
People laughingly say that tired dogs are good dogs, but it’s true. Walking them works their body and drains off energy that MUST be put toward some use — if not walking, then arguing. Walking them also stimulates their minds so they aren’t just stagnant and bored and pondering bad ways to get attention. How do you feel at the end of the day if you’ve done nothing? Dissatisfied? Edgy? Cranky? Your dog is the same way. Now what if you’ve gotten something done? Do you feel accomplished? Tired? Satisfied? To a dog, walking is getting something done — they’ve followed their leader, seen new things, made sure the neighborhood is safe, worked as a team with the rest of their pack (you).
Even if you don’t walk correctly, walking is still important. It is the number one most important thing you can do.
So get out! Get some air! Get some sun and some exercise. Take your dog to the coffee shop, the post office, around the block, to the park. Enjoy the day… and make your best friend mentally and physically healthier!
