Here are some highlights of that video:

• At 0:27, he actually does a nice look away and retreats, and I didn’t notice, because I was fussing with the camera. I called him back and we ’started’ our session, even though he was already starting without me. That’s the cool part about this method, that the dog can train himself after a while!
• 0:36, 0:37, 0:39 he sees the triggers and we push on because we’re not quite at his threshold – we’re working on head turns and this is still a very easy distance.
• 0:39, 0:46 I stop and he looks at me after only a tiny glance at the triggers (kids). I decide that’s not close enough, that he can handle more.
• 0:49 Looks away from trigger, 0:50 big nose lick. I miss this. Another casualty of filming and walking at the same time.  This would’ve been a good place to stop.
• 0:55, solid engagement with the kids, has enough time to look and see what they are up to, then turns to look at me. I mark with Good! and reward him by walking the other way with him, away from the kids. Note how fast he walks in that direction.
• 1:10 – some calming touch. Not necessary, but it’s what Peanut and I do.
• More aware of the kids now. I return to our same spot and do two more trials. During the walk-away on the 2nd trial, the kids follow us, and you’ll see him look back. I like trials 2 and 3 better than trial 1, because it seemed more directed at the environment, rather than an escape into mom’s eyes. I’m more than happy to be his anchor, I’m just glad when he doesn’t need it.

The second video is the use of the Premack Principle to practice heeling. Remember, BAT is not just for aggression & fear, but also for other problem behaviors maintained by the environment, like pulling. The point is to set the dog up to succeed, then reward with what they most want in the moment.

The Premack Principle states that the opportunity to perform a high probability behavior will reinforce the performance of a low-probability behavior. One way to think of that is that if your dog gets freedom to act like a dog as a reward for listening to you, you’ll get a better-trained dog (it’s broader than that, but it’s a good way to think of it). In the video, I have Peanut heel and he can chew his stick as a reward. I do this because he used to pull whenever he had a toy in is mouth, because he’d want to go enjoy it. Now he’ll trot along, waiting for permission to go chew.

This is now already a trained behavior, so I had him come with me and walk. But visualize smaller steps, like just coming with me as a rewardable behavior. In our real life, he can go quite a ways before I release him to go chew.

The Seattle positive dog trainers group had a meeting yesterday. It was the first time we’d met in about a year and I was going to see some people I hadn’t seen for even longer. It was at a home in the country, so we could all bring our dogs. Yay!

I love going places with my dog, especially now that he can handle it, most of the time. But sometimes, he can’t. I know he has these limitations, for now, because I haven’t done the work I need to make him more comfortable with, say, small children. He came to me, as a puppy, with a fear of just about everything, from dogs to kids to adults, wheeled things, etc. As I’ve mentioned before, he’s able to be a therapy dog and loves going to meet his fan club at the assisted living facility we go to.

But, and this is important, he’s not fine in all situations, and as his human with the schedule and the car keys, it’s up to me to make sure my dog is kept within his comfort zone until I can make that zone bigger through training.

So I look at the guest list the day before and it has something like 15 people and almost as many dogs. That would be ok. A little stressful, maybe a few high pitch barks at the beginning, and he’d be fine, especially since it could be outside. But read on, Grisha, before you commit your dog. 3 little people were also coming. And we might end up indoors, if the weather didn’t cooperate.

I blithely assumed they would be babes in arms, without actually reading further. Since the appearance of a toddler in a confined space is like a small nuclear bomb to Peanut, you’d think I would’ve paid attention. He doesn’t bite them, or even air snap or growl, but he does bark to wake the dead.

But I was selfish. For ME, I wanted my soulmate dog there, both as social support and to show how much progress he’d made, to my friends who hadn’t seen him for a while.

So we showed up and he did relatively fine, just shy, not completely out of his head, and it was looking like a good learning experience as everyone settled down, even though it turned out we were staying inside, not out in a wide-open space. He just ignored the two tiny babies. But what to his wondering eyes should appear but a (very sweet, calm) young girl. That would’ve been fine if he could play fetch with her, but that wasn’t possible in the house, with all of those dogs!

She did her best to help him stay comfortable, but to no avail, since he was what dog trainers call, “way over threshold.” I’d set him up to fail, and Surprise! He did. So instead of putting him just to the edge of his comfort zone and either doing counterconditioning or BAT, I was in ‘management mode’ and just did my best to keep him quiet.

That’s actually shooting myself in the foot, because a lot of what I do to shush him is probably teaching him that barking is good (like me paying attention to him each time he barked and telling him to Leave It – cues are reinforcers!).  Some folks might shush their dogs by yelling or popping on a leash. That doesn’t teach him that barking is good, but it DOES teach them that there’s something to fear in the situation. So it’s lose/lose once you put a dog into a situation that’s too hard.  At that point, I would’ve told my clients to put the dog away, say back in the (not hot) car, ignore the social group and do the relaxation protocol with their dog (click/treat for relaxation) or even leave. But my selfish needs got in the way again, and we stayed, where I could neither train nor really manage him well. I *was* smart enough to mostly stay in the other room where there was no child, and keep him on leash when she was around, but really, that was a Band-Aid, and too little, too late.

Dog fears pile up on top of each other, so that if a dog is a little afraid of X and a little afraid of Y, then X+Y is twice as stressful.  That’s why we hear people saying, “but she’s never done this before!” when their dog gets in a fight or bites the neighbor. Alone, seeing a dog at her house was not scary enough to get a growl, and neither was the appearance of the vacuum cleaner.  But if you put both together, her stress level is higher.  So for Peanut, I had lots of people (now minimally scary), plus lots of dogs (scarier), and a toddler (also scary).  That’s what I mean by setting a dog up to fail. In a real training setting, we’d have just the one new scary thing, like a toddler, plus lots of distance to make it easier, and a training plan to rehabilitate his fears.

Why am I telling you this story? In the hopes that you’ll avoid my mistakes!

All of us are human and have our own needs. The dog has needs, too, and we really need to take them into consideration before we put them in over their heads. It’s a good reminder for me, and something I hope you’ll think about, too. Think about this story and your dog’s needs the next time you:

• Go to a festival, pet store, or party.
• Foster, adopt, or board another dog.
• Have company over, especially if they have dogs or kids.
• Play loud music or get into a loud fight.
• Go on a trip and bring/leave your dog.
• Think about going to the dog park or place where your dog might encounter off leash dogs.
• Tell your dog to go say hi to someone s/he doesn’t want to meet.

Some dogs will be fine with those things. Some dogs won’t.  Just remember your dog’s boundaries, help train tolerance and joy to stretch those boundaries, but also keep your dog feeling safe!

Note to self: Read this post again next time I want to bring Peanut to a party or a dog festival!

p.s. I *was* happy to see that, in spite of this stressful situation, Peanut greeted the adult humans calmly, often with a ‘please pet me’ attitude, something I never thought possible for him. We are so close!

But are sticks safe for dogs?

Last night, I talked about sticks with veterinarian Greg Combs of Lake Forest Park Animal Hospital, near Seattle. I mentioned giving sticks to my dog, and he actually cringed. Uh oh. I quickly ran through the ways that I make sticks more safe for Peanut, and he approved of those, adding on some more points to consider that I hadn’t thought of. The list is below, so that you can help keep your dog safe around sticks.

Here are some common ways that dogs can injure themselves with sticks:

• Impaling on the stick. To me, this is the most obvious way a dog can hurt himself with a stick. Visualize a person throwing the stick, the dog getting there just as it lands, and stabbing himself with the stick on arrival.  This can injure several spots – in the mouth, eye, throat, eek.  You get the picture.
• Knocked on the head with the stick. This can happen with any toy, but sticks are hard and sharp.  If a dog gets there before the stick lands, it can fall on her head or hit her elsewhere on the body.
• Swallowing stick pieces.  If a dog swallows bits of a stick, it can basically plug the dog up.  Plus, sticks are sharp, so you get internal injuries, to boot.
• Stick Stuck in the mouth. I hadn’t thought of this one, but Dr. Combs said that he’s seen at least a few dogs have a stick wedged into the roof of their mouth, stabbing into the soft palette.  Ouch.

There are probably other dangers, for example, if the stick itself is something that’s toxic to dogs.  Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the trees in Seattle are safe in that way, but not necessarily the shrubs. At least sticks don’t wear down your dog’s teeth, like tennis balls and bones.

Safety tips.  This is what you can do to ensure safe stick fun for your dog.

• Impaling on the stick. ‘Dead retrieves’ only – the stick is down before the dog goes to get it. Whenever I throw the stick, I put Peanut in a stay first. I release him only when the stick is safely on the ground.
• Knocked on the head with the stick. Same as above, dead retrieves only.
• Swallowing stick pieces.  If your dog chews up and swallows sticks, don’t let him chew on them.  You may need to avoid fetching altogether and make sticks off limits, or you might be able to get away with only using sticks for fetching, as above.  Only fetch with pieces that are big enough to not be swallowed.
• Stick Stuck in the mouth. Same as above – no chewing/swallowing and only big pieces.

Play with any toy that can be chewed up should be supervised, and that includes sticks, as well as rope toys and balls.

As a side story, I have a confession that I’m a terrible dog mom. I’m sharing it so that you might avoid doing it yourself, although playing fetch with a bouncy ball may be so dumb that nobody else would try it.  Several years ago, I bought a 1.5″ rubber bouncy ball from a vending machine. I thought I was clever, because the ball fit nicely inside my pocket.

We played fetch with this slippery ball of death for about 2 weeks and then one day, Peanut ran in to scoop it up off of a bounce…and it slipped right down his throat.  I carried him, stumbling and running, to the car and drove quickly to the vet as he tried to throw it up. He was still breathing, but there wasn’t much room for the air to get through.  Fortunately, he vomited on the way there and it came out.  I was not saved by own intelligence, just luck.

Note to self. Watch out for toys that can jump down your dog’s throat, and take a first-aid class for dogs.

@doggiezen is the more official one with tips and updates about Ahimsa.

@peanutseattle is life from my dog’s perspective.

Experienced folks, can you follow and and let me know if I make any technical or etiquette mistakes?

The bad news? He’s a wreck at the vet and it was a $500 experience.  Dogs are not cheap!

The picture here is Peanut as a baby.  He’s 6 now and I saw at the vet that once dogs turn 7, it’s a time to look for a “rapid decline in the dog’s health.” Wonderful. He’s almost a Senior Dog.

Now is as good as a time as any to say that if your older dog is suddenly aggressive or shows other brand new behaviors, it’s probably health related.

I’m ecstatic that Peanut doesn’t have cancer.  Of course, he doesn’t know what he was doing there, just that it was no fun.  It’s always tough to have your dog all groggy and sad. He whined all the way home, poor guy.  

But there’s nothing like a (somewhat) near brush with disaster to make you live in the moment.  Why can’t I live in the moment all the time? I’m still working on that.  For now, I have this moment and I love my dog.  Give yours a smooch for me and enjoy your time together.

Some dog health books for you are below.  Always read any book with a critical eye and use the parts that are helpful. But don’t ignore it just because it’s new, either.

As Buddha (supposedly) said, “Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.”

“Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” 

Here are the books:

“Speaking for Spot: Be the Advocate Your Dog Needs to Live a Happy, Healthy Life,” by Nancy Kay  Between you and your dog, your English is much better.  It’s your job to protect your dog from humans who interact with them, from vets to dog trainers to groomers to your own family.  Never forget that you are your dog’s protector, and the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

A book about vaccination, food, and why we might be damaging our dogs is, “Shock to the System – The Facts About Animal Vaccination, Pet Food, and How to Keep Your Pets Healthy,” by Catherine O’Driscoll. 

Another book that looks good, but I haven’t read, is “The Natural Vet’s Guide to Preventing and Treating Cancer in Dogs,” by Shawn Messonnier. If you’ve read this book on canine cancer or have other health books for dogs that you recommend, particularly about cancer, please comment on our blog.

I have to counter that statement. One, any dog can be trained to do a task, given enough determination on the part of the owner/trainer. Two, I’m pretty certain the word she wanted there was “bred” to run, not “trained.” If it were trained to run, wouldn’t that make it a trainable dog? Who is she to say whether the greyhound she saw had been trained to do the tasks required by that person?

Statements like these are no more than blatant racism. Dogs are dogs. Their genetics do make them awfully hard to train to fly, but certainly they can be trained for service dog work, especially since every disability requires a different set of skills from the service dog. If she wants to make it so that no aggressive dogs are on the street as service dogs, I’m fine with that, more than fine! You’d have to do temperament tests to certify the dogs themselves, not wipe out an entire set of breeds in a racist way. And if you require all service dogs to be professionally trained, than many people who need them would not get service dogs, because of the $5,000-$10,000 price tag.

Click here to see the interview which includes me training my dog, Sagan (a Boxer/Greyhound mix), to do a service dog tasks, picking things up for me. I’ve had a bad back for years and some days it’s better than others. I don’t need a service dog to take out into public right now, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a dog ready if things do get worse. And she’s very handy around the house already!

A final comment – American Pit Bull Terriers had a passing rate of 84.3% when tested by the American Temperament Testing Society. Golden Retrievers had a passing rate of 84.2%. If a pit bull does something bad, it makes the news, and the breed is in the headline. When a Labrador Retriever does something bad, like kill a baby, the headline skips the breed and says, “Dog Kills 2-Month-Old Left Alone in Swing.” Please don’t let the media brainwash you and poison you against a family of breeds like pit bulls.

Empty water bottles (any size) make good food puzzles. Just put in some kibble and give it to your dog. If they start to chew on it, you can say “too bad” and take it away for 10-15 seconds and then give it back. Chewing on it can cut their gums a bit, which is not the end of the world, but looks gross and if you can train them NOT to do it with these time outs, so much the better.

Another good option is to re-use ice cream containers. I finished up a container of the oh-so-yummy vegan Coconut Bliss “ice cream” and used it for a puzzle for my dog. I just cut a few holes in it (make it harder or easier by the size of the holes or whether you leave a “hanging chad”). Put the treats in, and give it to your dog. You might want to tape it shut or put wet dog food or peanut butter to cement the lid onto the container, though I have a feeling they’d be even more likely to chew the whole thing to pieces. But don’t worry if they do. It’s still recyclable at the end, if your dog does her job and gets all of the food out!

Here’s a video of Sagan & Peanut enjoying their Coconut Bliss dog food puzzles:

If you’re getting this by email, the video probably isn’t here… To see the video, visit http://ahimsadogtraining.com/blog

If you’ve made your own food puzzle for dogs, leave a comment below and tell us about it!

There’s a big 3D picture in the Seattle Metropolitan magazine (page 96). Thanks again to the puppy class students for putting up with the photo shoot!

Spoon is one of those absolutely amazing dogs that can speak to other dogs on their own level – playing with those who can handle it, giving space to those who need it, correcting puppies when they need some guidance about not jumping up on 7 year old dogs. I’ve brought her to puppy class and am awed by her ability to manage the crowd of playing dogs. She calmly splits up some rough play one one side of the room, then goes to the shy dog on the other side and helps bring him out of his shell. She’s the best dog trainer I know.

Here’s a video of Spoon playing with my live-in dog, Peanut. He’s a Border Collie / Whippet mix that has only one real playmate. Spoon. It makes my heart ache to know that he’s losing his friend in 3 weeks and there’s nothing I can do about it.

I once saw a video of a shock collar trainer working his dog in the middle of a dog park, among distractions. Well, guess what? You can use food and a clicker to get reliability, without the side-effects of shock, and the dog is happy, to boot!

Clicker trained dogs can perform well, even with big distractions. Note that I’m not using a clicker with my dog – he knows the behaviors, so we don’t need to bring the clicker to the dog park. For more info on training your dog with a clicker (in Seattle or elsewhere), please read our Clicker Training article.

You can feed the dog’s whole meal in there and it’s very easy to put the food in. Just unscrew and dump in a scoop.

We have both sizes of the Tug-A-Jug at the training center in Ballard and in our new online store, though there are other places in Seattle to buy them now, too. I think.

I was called up by King 5 to shed some light on the recent tragedy. Unfortunately, I needed a bit more time than prime time news can give to explain what should be done.

Resource guarding tends to show up in puppies and people think the dog will “grow out of it.” They don’t, but dogs can be taught that humans approaching their bones is a win-win situation. For more info, please read my article on Resource Guarding.

See the King 5 News Interview.

The dog in the interview is my dog Peanut, who is a resource guarder by nature. Note that he allows me to take the Very Valuable Dinosaur Bone (okay, it’s Ostrich). The interview was at the Mud Bay Granary in Burien. The news crew went to Ballard, called me, and then found out I was in Burien. They then drove all the way down to interview, which gave me enough time to buy Peanut the ostrich bone from Mud Bay.