It’s The-Sky-Is-Exploding time!

Are you ready for the 4th of July? Cool. Is your dog?

More dogs are lost over the 4th of July than any other day of the year, and even for those dogs who aren’t lost, it can be a stressful day. Here I’ve compiled language signs to watch for that your dog may not be as okay as you think, as well as some tips and tricks to getting through unscathed.

What is your dog saying?

Sometimes people think their dogs are freaking out when, in fact,t heir dogs are just fine. Other times people think their dogs are just fine when, in fact, they’re freaking out. If you’re not sure where your dog will be, watch them in the evenings preceding the 4th, as people set off fireworks that startle the crap out of all of us. Look for any of these signs:

Your dog leaps to their feet, ears pitched hard forward with a wrinkle or crease in their forehead. They may freeze for a moment (or longer), or may follow that by barking and patrolling the house. They don’t seem to hear you when you talk to them. Their tail may be up (dog int he background) or just a bit lower (dog int he foreground).

This translates to a dog that’s on high alert and ready to deal with the threat. This dog isn’t taking their cue from you; they’re not even aware of you. In this instance, they don’t trust your judgement. It might look cute, but it’ll be a lot less cute when multiple fireworks in a row send this dog off his rocker and blasting around the house, launching off furniture (nail scratches and all), impossible to catch, barking furiously at the windows. When you see this happening, catch your dog and put them on a leash, keeping them with you. Distract with a treat when each firework goes off, and they will likely wind down — especially if you can start before the 4th.

Your dog may or may not get up when the fireworks go off, at least at first. The whites of their eyes show, they begin to pant and you can see the back molars or fleshy inside part of the mouth in the back corners, and their ears flatten against their skull either backward (upright ears) or flatten along the sides of their skull (floppy ears). Tail remains low.

Any one of those facial cues indicates stress; all three together is major stress. When the top of the tail is pressed against their butt, they’re also feeling anxiety. This dog is most likely to try to escape when the noise continues. In their panic they’ll force open doors and gates, or tear through screens. Treats won’t work with this dog, because they’ll already be too frightened to take one. This is a dog that will do best with medication and, if you can’t be there, in a crate. It may help to play fireworks on your TV or phone with the volume set very, very low.

Tips and Tricks

Some safety things for all dogs on the 4th:

• Keep your dog indoors with the doors and windows closed.
  • This will keep them from escaping and joining the thousands of other dogs that get lost every year.
  • If you have outdoor dogs that aren’t housebroken or house safe, put them in the garage. If you can, lock the garage door closed so no one coming home opens it by accident.
  • If your dog is stressed and anxious and you won’t be there with them, put them in a crate or a bedroom they’re comfortable in.
• Play action movies starting a couple of hours before the fireworks and continuing until they’re over.
  • We are, as much as possible, doing some quick desensitization to explosion sounds, and also masking the fireworks. Let’s be honest, dogs are amazing and will know the difference, but it still helps.
• Exhaust your dog. If this means a long walk, a fast bike ride, a hike, or the dog park, the more exhausted they are, the less energy they’ll put toward worrying over fireworks. You want to get home with your dog about an hour before the fireworks start.
  • This works dramatically better if you do it two days in a row.
• Starting now, do as much desensitizing as you can. Pull up fireworks videos on youtube and play them, at low levels, incessantly. If your dog is showing stress, turn it down. If your dog isn’t showing stress, turn it up. (You’re looking for the point at which, if it gets louder, there’s stress, but there isn’t stress yet. This level will change, up and down, depending on a lot of factors; just watch for it.) Pair it with food, treats, and playtime.
• Consider medication or supplements.
  • Your vet can help you with this, or you can try and over the counter supplement. CBD has come up as the winner in this case, and if there’s a little THC in it it works better. You can get purely CBD treats for dogs on Amazon and some pet stores, in states where it’s legal. If you’re considering another method, or can’t find stuff for pets, you want 20 parts CBD to 1 part THC.
    • Another dog supplement that’s showing promise is an OTC called Zylkene, made for dogs.
  • Other OTC options that can be found in people stores include:
    • 5mg melatonin (NOT in gummy form; it may have xylitol in it.)
    • L-theanine (Anxitane is the brand name for pets)
    • Chamomile
    • Passion flower
    • Benedryl (child’s dose)
  • Your vet may prescribe:
    • Alprazolam (Xanax)
    • Lorazepam (Ativan)
    • Trazodone (Trazodone)
    • Gabapentin (Neurontin)
• Stay home. I realize not everyone can or will do this, but if you’re able, do so. If you can’t, leave your dog home. Taking them with you definitely isn’t the better answer!

Is this your puppy’s first 4th? Stay home with them, and act like the fireworks are no big deal. Give a treat every time they hear one, and by the end of the night they’ll think fireworks are great. A lifetime of trouble, solved!

While this is far from an exhaustive list, it’ll give you something to try. When using supplements or meds not made for dogs, be sure to Google dosages by your dog’s weight. People medications, when used for dogs, can vary widely in how the dogs react and at what dose.

Do you have other tips? Leave them in the comments!

Jenna

Translating Dog

Hello! It looks like this blog is getting visitors pretty regularly, so I just wanted to put up a post to let people know that I re-branded when I moved to Oregon. You can now find me at Translating Dog, where I’m still blogging, making videos, and doing All The Things.

Of course, there are still lots of awesome posts and things here to read, too. I THINK we got them all shifted to Translating Dog as well… >.>

Thanks!

Jenna

New blog site!

Hey, all! You know my new website, TranslatingDog.com? Well, I’ll be moving this blog over there, to translatingdog.com/blog. There’s already five new posts! From oldest to newest:

Blame-Free Dog Training

About Translating Dog (essentially)

Transformative Dog Training: The Power of Private Training with yours truly. (I added that last bit.)

and today’s post,

How to Create a Better Bond with Your Dog

If you’re subscribing here, kindly head on over there and hit the subscribe button! While you’re at it, if you haven’t checked out the site you should do that, too. My SEO guy, Taylor Reaume at Launch805.com, did an awesome job. 😀

Jenna

Tails: social inept, or aggressive?

A dog is approaching you from each direction. One of them has its ears forward and is wagging. The other has its ears forward and is wagging. Which one is aggressive? Watch on!

Jenna

Dog barking at guests?

For a woman who asked:
“My dad is coming to visit, and my dog barks at him. How do we resolve this?”

So now you get me in my PJs, demonstrating one technique that will help.

Jenna

Tools and bridging: What they are and how to use them

If you haven’t been following my videos over on TikTok, Facebook, or YouTube (all @TranslatingDog), the next bunch of posts are for you! (If you have been, you should refresh your memory anyway.)

Our first video is about bridging: what it is, and how to do it. Arguably one of the most important things I learned while getting my psych degree!

Got that down? Excellent! Then let’s move on to tool usage!

Jenna

There’s nothing quite as great as a great workshop

There’s nothing like a workshop to make me remember how much I love dog training, and how incredible dogs are!

We had quite the variety at this last workshop. There was KA, the young, LARGE dog with aggression issues, KH, the older GSD with leash reactivity problems, S and E, who were just 8 months old each, KJ, with some manners that needed to be polished, L, who is fear aggressive toward men, H, also with manners that needed polishing, and P and ST, new siblings who are getting to know each other. And of course they each had an owner to go with them!

I think some of my proudest moments were with KA, the young mastiff. Even though she got overwhelmed and ended up going home to rest at lunch (the owner returned), KA came in with such aggression and calmed it to occasional outbursts which, if I’m remembering correctly, was pretty dramatic improvement for her. This means we have a clear way of handling her that works, and her owner was able to carry it out properly. Wahoo!

I also have to give her owner props for trusting me enough to walk alongside her and KA, much closer than anyone has in a long, long time, after I changed the way she was handling KA on leash. Not only did she have to trust me to hop out of the way if needed, she had to trust the method we were using and herself to handle her dog. (KA hasn’t earned trust yet, but I have faith that she will!)

The other case that stood out to me was KJ, a smaller dog who just needed her manners polished. It wasn’t her manners improving that impressed me, though: it was her attitude, thanks to her owner. As the presentation went on, her owner started to see the way KJ was being rude.

It’s easy as an owner to think, “Well, I’m not having behavioral issues, so my dog must just be the exception and not actually ignoring me,” in a situation like that. It’s really easy. (Right up until the dog makes a very poor decision, or a series of them, and someone is traumatized even if no one is physically hurt.) Instead, KJ’s owner saw what was going on, and even over the course of the workshop started taking action to change it! By the time we wrapped up, her dog wasn’t tugging at her leash to be even a little bit of a bully toward other dogs, and was tuning into her owner and taking the unconscious cues her owner was giving. It was such a great thing to see, especially knowing both owner and dog will be happier and have a better relationship.

The last one I’ll talk about is L — or rather, L’s owner. First, I have to tell you that a dog under stress is just like a human. They make very poor, seemingly unpredictable decisions. And that’s where L’s been living whenever she sees a man, which means one second she might seem fine, and the next she’s snapping — or not. The only clue that she might snap is the stress signals, and very subtle ones at that.

This has understandably given L’s owner some PTSD, because she never knows which men L might be okay with, and which ones she’ll react badly to. Finding that boundary where L is a little stressed, but able to keep her cool (right at the farthest edge of stress) and learn that everything will be all right isn’t an easy thing to do. But I think L’s owner has this in hand, even if she doesn’t feel that way, yet. I think with a little practice, they’ll be able to tackle L’s issue and start improving things, and I’m looking forward to hearing about it!

Of course, everyone was fabulous in different ways, but those three really struck me. Although I’ve switched states, I’m looking forward to the next workshops, up here near Portland, OR!

Jenna

Last spots in last California workshop!

Are you wishing you’d signed up for the workshop next Saturday? There’s time! Although we’re full up on dogs, we have three spots left for people without dogs.

“Why would I come to a workshop without my dog?” I hear you cry.

Why would I go to classes to understand Greek and Greek culture without a Greek person at my side? Because there’s so much to learn that can be learned before you interact!

There’s so much your dog is telling you in their own language, and if we understood them we’d stop problems before they became problems, see dogs arguing before it broke into a fight, help nervous and anxious dogs get over their fears, know when our puppies needed help vs when they could do it on their own. We could build confidence where needed and temper it when it turns to over-assertiveness.

It’s just $250 to come for the full day without a dog, and $125 to come for half a day without a dog. Can’t afford it? Email me at TranslatingDog@gmail (dot com); I’m a softie, we’ll work something out. This is the LAST workshop taking place in NorCal; I (Jenna) have moved to Oregon, and it’s surprisingly difficult to keep up a long distance business of this sort. (For my Oregonites there’s good news: workshops here, as I get established!)

To make it even better, my co-hort Jay and I usually each bring at least one dog, so there’s always a dog to practice on before you take your knew knowledge home to your fur-family.

People who come to the workshop show up interested, but they leave completely enthused. More than half have told me, “Everyone should know this! Why doesn’t everyone know this?! We need to get this information out!”

So, come! Use my soft heart against me! See Scout the Awesome, turned from a leash reactive rescue to a perfectly behaved service dog in just a few months, and Neo the Brave, a fearful and anxious puppy turned into a confident and loving dog!

Or do it so you can look at your dog, and know what they’re trying to tell you.

Our dogs learn Human. Isn’t it time we learned Dog?

Jenna

It’s dog bite awareness week. Be a tree!

Apparently this is dog bite awareness week (…month?), so I’m adding to knowledge on dog safety! Whether an approaching dog is overly-friendly, a known dog, a strange dog, an aggressive dog, or a feral dog, this method works. I’ve used it myself many times, sometimes in rather hairy moments, and it’s like magic.

While this is designed for kids, it works just as well for adults.

“Why does it work?” I hear you cry.

Well, in actuality, what you’re doing is communicating to the dog the same way another dog would. In looking away (looking up or closing your eyes) you’re saying, “I offer no challenge, and I’m not interested in playing.” By refusing to move you’re saying, “I’m not prey or a toy.” By folding up your arms you’re hiding your hands (toys or targets) and saying, “I’m not petting, attacking, or playing.” In all of it you’re giving the dog the cold shoulder.

No, of course they don’t think you’re a tree. But they do think you’re refusing to respond, and don’t want to engage, and that works just as well!

Ready to learn how to deal with any dog and get it to stop dead in its tracks? Well, I can’t upload the .pdf, so we’re doing this the honor way and I’m uploading the images. Here we go!

And remember, everyone: practice at random. The more you practice, even if it’s not when there’s a dog around, the more it gets into your muscle memory, and the more you’ll be able to do it when you’re flustered!

Stay safe!

Jenna

PS the next Translating Dog workshop is April 27th. There’s still time to register! http://www.TranslatingDog.com or reach out at jenna@translatingdog.com.

Dogs read our “energy,” right?

One of the things we hear all the time is how your dog can read your energy down the leash, or pick up your anxiety, or how everything your dog does is a reflection of you.

Hrm. Well. Sort of.

In these two videos I discuss how dogs pick up our cues, both consciously and unconsciously, and why conscious is better.

Video 1: How dogs pick things up unconsciously:

Video 2: How it happens consciously:

Remember: this is all stuff you can learn to track through your dog’s body language. Join the next workshop in San Jose, CA on April 27th, 2024! www.TranslatingDog.com

You can also reach me at jenna@translatingdog.com or 951-704-5766.

Jenna

Translating Dog: Last CA workshop!

Well, reservations for the Translating Dog workshop are now open! It takes place on April 27th from 10-5:30, and for the month of March you can get up to $100 off the price. That’s right: book a spot for up to two people and one dog, and pay only $400 — it would cost you that for a two-hour private session, but you’ll learn more in the workshop! If you want to come without your dog, it’s just $200 per person instead of the usual $250. Through March only!

What do we do in this all day workshop? Well….

We train. You and your dog will learn how to:

Sit to verbal, hand, and pressure cues
Lay down to verbal, hand, and pressure cues
Settle: lay down and rest for a long period of time, even when there’s stuff going on around them.
Come, regardless of distractions
Improve social skills on leash and off, depending on what’s appropriate for your dog
Walk on a loose leash: maybe not perfectly by the end of the day, but we’ll give you the tools to keep working on it!

We learn to speak Dog. You’ll learn what specific body language cues mean which specific words and phrases, which will tell you:

When it’s time to step in and help your dog while playing with other dogs (or people)
What is causing stress in your dog, and how to improve it
When a behavior is appropriate and when to solve it
What startles your dog, long before they get truly afraid of something
When your dog is trying desperately to tell you they’re at the end of their patience
When a dog is approaching aggressively instead of playfully
When a problem is in its infancy, so you can prevent it instead of waiting for it to blow up
When you dog is excited, and what to do when they get over-excited

And, at the risk of sounding like a bad commercial, so much more! So. Much. More.

As a dog trainer, I have an abnormally high success rate. Why? Because I took the time to learn dog language, and I teach as much of it as I can to my clients, along with techniques to solve problems or encourage behavior.

When I see people who adore their dogs, I think to myself, “They could have an even better relationship, if they knew what their dog was saying.” For those of us who adore our dogs, don’t you want to give them the chance to communicate? Of course we do! This is your chance.

While the workshops will continue in Oregon, this is the last workshop I’ll be holding in California. This is it! This is your last opportunity! Come join the workshop. On your dog’s behalf, I’m begging you. How much happier could you and your dog be if you understood each other better?

Jenna