household

Posts Tagged household

When Life Hands You Lemons: Training on the Fly in Real Life

My dogs and I walk daily. Frequently, these walks take place in a cemetery close to my house. I have a self imposed rule on walks that my cell phone stays in a pocket unless I am taking a picture, which is only occasional. On a recent walk, I broke this rule. On the same walk, I also broke with tradition by simply depositing my car keys in the pocket of my rain jacket since it possessed deep pockets. Normally, I would attach my car keys to the ring on my handy dandy treat pouch that wraps around my waist, right along side the poop bag dispenser.

Image of Debby McMullen's three dogs, waiting by the car for AAA to retrieve the car keys locked inside.

Waiting for AAA.

Unfortunately for my sanity, said deep pocket had a hole in it. A hole that did not lead to the lining but instead, to the great outdoors. Because of my periodic distraction with my cell phone (I made one phone call and checked my email), I failed to notice that my car keys slipped through the hole that I didn’t know about.

We walked a longer route than usual in celebration of the milder weather that allowed for walking without teeth chattering. It was nice until the final approach to my car when I started fumbling for my keys and discovered nothing. My confusion turned to panic.

I got to my vehicle and accepted that my keys were indeed MIA. To add to my dilemma, I had just two days prior had to call AAA to unlock my vehicle with my keys inside, at the grocery store after a particularly grueling day. So because that had been the second keys in the car episode of the last two months, I threw my spare keys into my purse. Which was now locked hidden inside my car. I had been told at the last service call, that I had reached my limit for service until renewal in one month. Oh joy.

I first attempted to retrace my route to look for my keys but my dogs were not having it. They rebelled and made it clear that the walking was done for the day. I called several friends to see if anyone my dogs were comfortable with were available to hold onto them while I searched for my keys. Everyone was busy working though several tried to enlist help. I broke down and called AAA.

I explained to the dispatcher that I don’t allow interaction with strangers on walks in public. So I instructed her to convey information on how things would progress when the driver arrived. She assured me that she would relay this information. I hung up warily.

We waited. And waited. A car drove up and parked within ten feet away. Mourners visiting dearly departed loved ones. Mourners with crutches and already stressed guardian breed dogs wondering why they can’t get into their beloved car don’t mix. We moved behind my vehicle and practiced downs with hand targeting. All was now much more peaceful.

Mourners with crutches depart and AAA pulls up. The instructions given to the dispatcher evidently not passed on to the driver, he exits from his truck and strides purposely towards me. I gently halt him and give him instructions, thankfully before my dogs feel threatened by his direct approach. All is peaceful again. While he works on what they consider their very large crate, they practice Find It and more hand targeting as well as offered downs. This is the best game ever for them today.

Success at last! The car is open once again and we have keys. They cannot get in their big crate fast enough. Relaxation is upon them and all is well again. For those of you who are wondering, I retraced my route on foot alone again and no keys so I left my number with the office. I have high hopes that once the negative energy disperses for the day, they will turn up.

But back to the dogs. This could have been among my worst nightmares. Multiple large dogs, small owner, scary strangers and no known safety to access. But by staying as calm as possible and employing force free training cues that my crew was familiar with, this turned into an adventure that caused some heavy slumber later that day. And I got far more exercise than I had anticipated. Never a bad thing when you are trying to tone and firm for the upcoming season!

Training tip of the day, aside from don’t bother with checking Facebook while walking your crew, is prepare for the worst and make it the best. How have you turned bad into good with your crew? Tell me below.

Tags: behavior, crate, dog, exercise, force, household, keys, many, multiple, owner, phone, positive, relaxation, reward, social, train, unlock

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Admire From Afar: Appropriate Interactions with Strangers on Walks

Vehicles need repairs periodically. It’s a sad fact of life. Recently, I spent a day off from working getting mine repaired. While this is not an earth shattering event, one of the areas of my life that is affected if my vehicle is gone all day, is that my dogs and I have no method of transportation to our usual walking locales. So it is a bit earth shattering to me.

Image of the dogs on a calm nature walk.

What the dogs look like on a calm nature walk.

Oh, you are no doubt shaking your head at this point. Walk the neighborhood, right? I have and it’s challenging with multiple dogs, so I stick to short walks or longer walks during snowstorms that shut the city down. My dogs and I like peace when we walk so we drive to peaceful places. I am a nature lover living in the city. Fortunately, this city has a lot of available close by nature. Literally across the street, for one.

As I mentioned, I live in the city, in a neighborhood best described as transitional. Mixed incomes and education makes for a colorful place that sometimes offers more activity than I would prefer. So having no options aside from waiting until I got my vehicle back much later that day, I opted to give the neighborhood walk a shot. The crew was throwing expectant glances at the door after breakfast and Kenzo had begun his occasional whining of anticipation. I couldn’t put it off any longer.

Armed with treats and poop bags, we made our way down the hill to a busier street, intending to head towards the quieter streets once we had crossed. We had no sooner rounded the corner in front of my house when a passing car stopped in the middle of the street and waited. I stopped my crew, intending to wait until they moved. There was only about three to four feet for us to pass them and with three dogs as large as mine together, it wasn’t a practical thing to attempt. The passenger window rolled down and a woman said that they wanted to “see the dog when he walked by.” I am sure that they meant Kenzo, though the entire crew was with me. Kenzo is larger than the average dog so that attracts attention. Most people are more polite than this when they address me about Kenzo.

I was only about ten to fifteen feet away so they could see him already just fine. I told them that the dogs would possibly bark if we were that close by. They said that was okay. But it’s not okay with me to set them up to fail. And it shouldn’t be okay with you either. I silently stood where I was until they went on their way, after telling them this.

If I had been walking with human children and this happened just that way, it would be considered creepy. I think it equally creepy to have interactions like this with my dogs. There is a wonderful blog that was written a few years ago about dogs not being community property (read Dogs Are Not Public Property from dogster.com). It is so important for the public at large to understand that point. Parents would be very upset to have their human children be the focus of attention in that manner. I am equally upset to have my beloved dogs treated like side show acts. It’s impolite at best.

Some people are interested in being social when they walk their dogs. If one attends dog parks or interactive outings with one’s dog, then social interaction is the expectation. But walking around in public doesn’t mean someone is interested in being intruded upon, particularly just because of appearance. In the world of human interaction, that would be highly inappropriate.

Before you judge me as cranky, I have been politely asked from afar many times what breed Kenzo is or been given compliments about all of my dogs. I always light up with a smile and thank them and answer brief questions. The key word here is politely and the even more important word is from afar. Few people have expected to zoom right in the middle of my world when walking. Those who have, were politely but firmly redirected immediately.

Why is this a multiple dogs issue? Dogs feed off of each other’s energies. Multiply the quantity of dogs, multiply the energy of interaction. I choose to never interact up close with strangers when walking my dogs. My dogs have always been mostly of guarding breed lineage and as we live in this “transitional” neighborhood, I want to keep my dogs safe from harm, which includes not having to make split-second decisions about people they don’t know. We interact with people known to us on walks and that works for us.

I am also a huge fan of polite interactions with strangers. Like with dogs, I try very hard to not reinforce inappropriate behavior of any kind. That applies to humans as well. My dogs and I value our time in nature. It centers my soul. I see the same reactions in my dogs. I will keep that time sacred. When we want to interact, Kenzo goes to dog socials. He loves it as do I. But if you see us on walks and you are not personally known to us, please admire from afar. We will respect and thank you for that. And I will be eternally grateful for that gift.

Tags: behavior, dog, dogs, energy, household, interactive, many, multiple, neighborhood, parks, positive, respect, safe, social, streets, train, walk, whining

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The Name Game: Addressing Your Dogs Individually During Group Training

My dogs enjoy group training sessions. I am too lazy most days to split up the training into individual sessions. Oh, don’t get me wrong. If I had something specific to work on, I would split it up. I use a baby gate to allow the others to watch. They take turns alone first and then we do a group session. But most days, we are just having fun so group training it is. I typically ask for different behaviors about half of the time from each dog. Each dog has their strengths and preferences for behaviors. Siri knows the widest variety and enjoys showing off. So I am mostly careful to address the dog in question by name when cueing a behavior.

Addressing each dog by name during training. But I am human, I forget. I forgot to say a dog’s name in yesterday’s training session. Instead I simply said “paw”. Siri delivered a right hook to Trent. Poor Trent took it well. They are often offering behaviors without being asked when one is asked. Thankfully, my dogs get along well with each other. So aside from the insulted look on Trent’s face that was there ever so briefly, it’s all good. And I got a fresh reminder that consistency is important on the part of the human.

After group training we move on to group play. They have an indoor playroom in my finished attic. This results in happy mentally and physically stimulated dogs. And that results in a happy dog mom.

The crew rests after training and play.

Tags: behavior, canine, Consistency, dog, dogs, exercise, group, household, lazy, many, multiple, name, offering, paw, positive, session, strength, train, training

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Would You Like Some Cheese With That Whine? Kenzo’s Impatience Problem

I have a 140# toddler. Those very words could cause alarm in many circles but in this case, I am referring to Kenzo. At the still very young age of not quite two, Kenzo is probably less toddler, more teenager. But the whining that occurs within both age groups is quite similar most of the time. The rebellion is less teenage than toddler so I am sticking with that age group for the explanation to the whining.

Kenzo whining as he waits.

So back to the whining. What prompts it? Anything that he can’t have as fast as he wants it. This could and does include dinner, heading downstairs to prepare for a walk, arriving at large dog social, attention from favorite people. Note that I excluded breakfast. That is because I don’t think Kenzo is a morning dog. He is far happier barking at the deadly porch outside my back door before he gets his breakfast than whining. Sort of like humans are cranky before their morning coffee.

So of course being the professional trainer than I am, I don’t ever reinforce this whining. But it doesn’t necessarily go away with the extinction approach either. For now, I will trust that with maturity, my big toddler will become more patient.

Tags: behavior, dinner, dog, dogs, exercise, force, household, multiple, puppy, rebellion, social, training, walk, whine, whining

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A Day in the Life: Enrichments for Sanity — Theirs and Mine

The life of a professional dog trainer can be hectic. Oh, no complaints here. I make my own schedule and I am living my dream. But my dream is not my dog’s dream. So while some days are seriously fun for my dogs, some are less than thrilling.

All in all, I strive for as much mental stimulation as I can practically supply and an appropriate amount of physical activity on a daily basis. The physical activity is equally important for me. If I don’t get out into nature daily, regardless of the weather, I feel varying degrees of anxiety. I NEED to be outside and reasonably active on a daily basis to comfortably exist. My dogs are soul connections on this count.

Happily tired dogs are a sign of success.

So daily walks are the norm, whether 0 degrees or 90 degrees. It’s the length and time of day and location that vary. This winter we have used a vat of Musher’s Secret to achieve our goals. Daily fun most days also includes a romp in their indoor playroom. They may play actively for long or short periods or we may just hang out and exist as one. As often as my brain can participate, we have both one-on-one and group training sessions. My goal is a minimum of three times a week. My heart leaps at how much my dog’s enjoy this time. Some days include mental stimulation treat dispensing puzzle toys and others include high value chew time. If I have done my job correctly, I can see clients and safely spend computer time without protest and disappointed looks directed my way. This is my picture of success.

Tags: activity, behavior, daily, dog, dogs, dream, force, hectic, household, how, many, multiple, nature, physical, puppy, rescue, respect, session, stimulation, train, training, weather

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The Elephant in the Room: Leadership in the Multiple Dog Household

The word leadership has become such a dirty word in the more progressive circles of dog training. Oh, don’t get me wrong, many qualified dog behavior specialists believe in and advise clients to establish good leadership but usually not with that word. The stigma of a certain TV trainer’s bad advice leads us all to tread lightly where this subject is concerned. So we call it parenting, guiding, coaching, anything but leading. The fear is so great that a mile will be taken when an inch is intended. We have good reason to worry, to be sure. I don’t even pass out my own handout on benevolent leadership anymore. And that theory took center stage in my book.

But the fact remains that it actually IS leadership. Good leaders are not scary. They are approachable and friendly and provide safety and security. What’s to be afraid of there? Did you ever have a teacher that you looked up to or were/are you friends with one or both of your parents? That means do you look to them for guidance but also share your fears and successes with them? This is what leadership is about. Providing advice, guidelines, structure and when needed, kindly but firmly pointing you in right direction. Real leaders are never scary or never harmful. Real leaders always lead with love and respect for who you are. This kind of leadership allows the ones being led to spread their wings and find their own niche and make their own choices, always being rewarded for the right choices. Having consequences for the wrong choices as needed, never scary.

My friend, Rachel, recently described a book that she bought on human parenting called Scream Free Parenting. This is a perfect analogy for being your dog crew’s leader. Scream free, force free. But make no mistake, parenting still requires you to be the leader, human or canine kids alike.

Which brings me to the point of this blog post. Leadership is the number one necessity in a multiple dog household with strong canine personalities. There is no getting around that. That IS the elephant in the room in the dog training world. It MUST not be forgotten. It must not be swept under the proverbial rug.

You certainly need training and manners and all that entails. But you need leadership first and foremost. So much of what I do on a daily basis could have been unnecessary with proper leadership from day one. Many of my readers are not human parents. Neither am I but if you have siblings that you possibly did not get along with all the time, maybe this analogy will help. You don’t have to like someone to live with them peacefully. But if you respect the leader of the household and feel safe from harm and all your basic needs are met otherwise, you can stand living with someone you may not enjoy. Sound familiar?

That is why leadership is important in blended households and that is exactly what a multiple dog household often is. Without leadership and manners, things can progress to such a point that takes a huge amount of management, structure and work to fix. Multiple dog household issues run the range of easily fixed with simple tweaks such as adding some leadership to all out dangerous fights on a regular basis where leadership is only the first step. While the latter is unlikely to be fixed when allowed to fester for long periods of time before a professional is called in, some sort of progress can be made in any situation provided the humans are capable of handling the situation.

And this is where leadership comes in. Now a comment that may cause some to get the flamethrowers out: I use body language a lot in multiple dog issues. Heck, I use it with single dog households too. Dogs understand body language far faster than words that we throw at them without applying meaning to such. I don’t use physical corrections or fear for training or management. But I do use body blocks, parental style stances and disapproving looks when appropriate and necessary. And in a multiple dog household, body blocks are something that can be needed on a frequent basis when conflict is happening. It certainly can be used in an very intimidating way as evidenced by that same aforementioned TV trainer. But that isn’t how I use it or teach others to use it. The goal here is to establish that the human is the go to for conflict resolution and safety. The dogs don’t need to handle those things. It should go without saying that any dog whose psyche would be damaged by throwing a parental disapproving stance their way, isn’t the problem child in the household and would never have need of such body language. This is done as a reminder that the human is the final say. Why would that be considered punitive by some circles?

This brings us to the subject of safety. Safety is crucial for all living beings. It’s high up on the pyramid of needs. Take care of that and you can take care of everything that occurs from the lack of safety. So now all that body language that cues the crew to look to you for safety and conflict resolution makes so much more sense than having no consequences for trying to incite conflict. Doesn’t it? Body blocking and splitting on the part of the human is crucial to a harmonious existence in some multiple dog households. I say some because I have seen other trainers say that they never need to use body blocking. They clearly are not working with confident dogs existing together in a conflict riddled household. My goal is as little re-homing as possible when possible.

And just as I would never use a body block with timid dogs who have no need of such a move, I would not dream of not using them in households with dog(s) confident enough to not wilt from such a thing. Establishing or repairing a relationship between the dogs and the humans helps this go smoothly. Keep the safety part in mind. That is what this is all about for all involved.

Body language establishes boundaries that dogs understood very easily. Just as good parents provide non-scary consequences for children who flout perfectly appropriate boundaries, dog parents need to do the same. Doing so provides safety for the one(s) targeted by the bullies, just as with children. Positive never should over permissive. That helps no one, least of all the one(s) with loose boundaries.

I could go on perhaps endlessly on this subject. But in closing, I will allow those who offered me their thoughts on this subject to have their say. Here are their definitions of leadership, though most use a different word to name it. Please feel free t share your own thoughts on this subject in the spaces below as well. But play nice, we are all in this for the sake of the dogs.

From Inna, a trainer in New York City:
With clients I use the term caretaker along with words such as clear guidance and well defined structure. I don’t use words like leader because I don’t want them to associate leader with “Pack leader”. I talk to clients about how important it is for them to help their dogs become the best companions they can be through clear, non violent communication & training.

From Helen, a trainer in Greece:
I consider myself as a parent and friend to my dogs…My role is to protect them, to care for their well being(physical and mental), to guide and educate them, to help them cope with things in life, to love and respect them!

From Jeff, a multiple dog parent in Ohio:
I’d like to think my relationship with my dogs is more of a partnership than anything though. We do this…together. I think it’s how Preston, the girls and I forged the kind of relationship we have. I trust them, and they trust me…therefore they typically do what I ask. Hopefully that makes sense.

From Crystal, a trainer in Indiana, PA:
I do not use the term leader with my clients usually because the word has been poisoned by “dominance” trainers but I use teacher or parent. We protect, we teach, we give them self-sufficiency. Yes, we must have discipline but that means establishing guidelines, not punishing them for our unrealistic expectations. We need to show them that we are steady and reliable, a positive influence in their lives, where to turn when they don’t know what to do. They are foreigners in a world of rules and language that doesn’t make sense to them and we are their guide. Our relationship is like a trust fall, and it is our job to catch them. Every. Time.

From Renee, a trainer in Johnstown, PA:
I use the wording positive leadership with my clients. I was hesitant at first to use the word leadership due to, well we all know why, but I decided to use it to teach a different definition of leadership to pet dog owners than the one they already might know of.

From Andrew, a trainer in Morgantown, WV:
I strive to give my dogs as much freedom of choice as possible, so long as their decisions do not have the potential to harm themselves or others. I foster and encourage appropriate decisions very early on so I have to do very little “active leading” or managing later on. Of course, how much freedom you can give any individual dogs varies, and some dogs prefer more active direction. …I guess I play the role of a cooperative partner…Partnership is the word that comes to mind. Leadership is certainly a component, but I have no problem allowing the dog to take the wheel either. And some situations require active direction, of course.

From Dawn, a trainer in Hawaii:
I don’t give it a label with clients.. I tell people that class is about teaching them to communicate with their dogs and have a relationship. leader/alpha etc. never even comes up. .. I guess even with non parents (before I was a mom still considered myself a dog parent) you can still have them relate to their own parents…… how their parents had rules/structure, etc to keep them safe. or maybe a ‘teacher’. But on the flip side sometimes people need to imagine themselves as a leader in order to understand how to create structure…

From Sue, a multiple dog parent in Georgia:
If I have to put any label on it at all, I’m my dogs’ parent….I have 6 dogs, we still have structure and rules and they look to me for things (to get toys out from under the sofa mostly) and I assume that is true for the way multi-kid families are–I don’t have furless children.

From Karla, a trainer in Virginia:
I am a leader if I have a follower. If I reinforce my dogs engagement with me, he pays attention to my movement, he follows me with his eyes and ears. And if he sees an opportunity for engagement with me, an opportunity for reinforcement, he follows. At those times, I am a leader.

Tags: behavior, canine, choice, direction, dog, dogs, dominance, fears advice, household, leadership, many, multiple, parenting, positive, puppy, respect, social, structure, train, training

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Executive Decisions: Why Do You Have to Parent Your Crew?

Frequently, I walk into multiple dog households that are running amok, for lack of a better term. Some just a little, some far more than a little. In many cases, my presence would have been mostly unnecessary if someone had stepped in as the decision maker right off the bat. Simply put, stepping in as needed assures the safety of all your dogs.

Many of you, who are also human parents, understand the need for creating and enforcing boundaries. Fairness and polite behavior towards siblings is important for human harmony in a family. The same thing applies to the canine members as well.

This is not an advisory to micromanage your dogs’ interactions. A comment to this effect on the How Many Dogs Facebook page brought up this important point. Intervening is a judgment call in some cases. For what can be considered small things, no intervention is necessary if your dogs generally get along well. An example of this is a dog objecting to being stepped on by another dog, by grumbling or barking but nothing further. As long as the clumsy one is not inclined to redirect, that is a perfectly normal interaction between family members.

Humans object to being jostled too, usually by reminding the jostler to be more careful. Dogs get this same privilege provided they can be reasonably polite about it. The key point here is to know your crew. If there are issues, you need to intervene far more often in order to prevent bigger problems.

Do not let your dogs work it out on their own! Not most of the time anyway. Really, the implications of such a scenario boggle the minds of behavior experts. It’s a recipe for disaster, just as allowing one’s human children to make inappropriate decisions regarding their interactions with their siblings. Oh sure, if you “raise them right”, some decisions will be appropriate. But so many more won’t be without initial supervision, intervention and consistency.

Consistency is the key word here. Set an example, make it happen all the time with few deviations, and you have a guideline for success. It doesn’t mean that you need to run your household like a boot camp. Nor does it mean that force needs used to ensure compliance. The best human parents don’t scream, shout and/or hit to handle their children’s infractions. They use conversations that include wise words and non scary but effective consequences for poor choices. But intervene they do, and because of that, the entire family feels a sense of security that all members are properly cared for emotionally and physically.

Will you always have to intervene? That depends on your particular crew and their relationships, but the goal is that you have to intervene as little as possible eventually – aside from preventing furniture from flying due to playtime bursts in the wrong rooms!

Security is one of the most important issues to any life form. Feeling secure allows everyone to relax. Safety from emotional and physical assaults ensures security. Give your crew security early on and you create the right formula to prevent problems later on. Combine safety and security with teaching manners and impulse control and you will put a lot of behavior consultants out of business!

Feel free to use the spaces below to describe how you create safety within your crew.

Tags: bad, behavior, boundaries, Consistency, decision, dog, dominance, emotion, fairness, goal, household, impulse, intervene, manage, manners, many, multiple, polite, problems, relax, safety, secure, training, work it out

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On Demand: Offering Manners vs. a Militant Nothing-in-Life-is-Free Program (NILIF)

I recently had a misguided person try to post a comment to one of my blogs that was not actually about the blog’s subject so I chose not to approve it. But aside from not responding to the subject matter at hand, the comment was urging some old fashioned training advice. In the commenter’s words, she was urging a “militant Nothing in Life is Free” approach, in order to keep peace among multiple males.

Jennifer Bird of Furkid Rescue enjoys a partnership with her crew. Photo by Caleb Green.

For those of you who are not familiar with this “program”, it used to be used by lots of dog trainers, positive and balanced alike. It involves commanding dogs to provide some behavior before receiving any kind of resource, be it dinner or affection. The initial goal was to convey the human’s higher status. These days, when the program is suggested by most modern trainers, it is used much differently than in the past.

Why? Because we now know more about dogs and hierarchy and dog behavior in general, especially how they learn best. Commanding has evolved into cueing and among the best trainers and dog parents, much behavior is taught to be offered rather than demanded. Teaching dogs to make better choices and offer the appropriate behavior in many situations not only makes for less work on the owner’s part, it makes for a more polite dog overall.

Rather than demand a sit for dinner, dogs learn to offer it as a matter of routine. The same applies to other high value resources such as passing through doorways, when receiving treats and chew bones, etc. Raised surfaces are another area where manners may need apply but unless a dog is guarding surfaces on a regular basis, my dogs need not ask permission before climbing onto the couch. Militant NILIF users believe differently. The same applies to affection. Now that is not something I am going to expect a sit or something else in order to offer. I share my life dogs because I love dogs and I want to show affection to them and have them do the same without some self entitled gratuitous offering of them bowing down in some way to have that happen.

Of course if a dog is overwhelming in the way that they offer affection to their humans, impulse control gets trained in every situation, including this. But there is no demanding going on. It’s all about teaching a dog to self moderate his or her behavior in order to get what he or she wants.

This person was very focused on an extremely structured approach that bordered on military style, including the wording used. Dogs are social creatures. They thrive in a family atmosphere. Teach them what the boundaries are in a benevolent manner and most will gladly aim to please when rewarded for doing so. Sentient behavior 101. There is no need to run your canine crew like a bunch of military recruits. That is not how you build trust; that is actually a good way to erode it!

Make no mistake, I expect manners in my home and that is what I teach my clients to expect, as well, from their own crews. But as previously noted, there is no need to demand anything. Reward what you want and you get more of it. This is not the place to explain in depth how capturing, shaping and other positive reinforcement methods are done properly. There are other excellent sources for such information. My goal here is to dispel the myth that one needs to be worried about petting one’s dog without demanding said dog perform feats first.

I have fostered many dogs and the first thing I teach them is impulse control. This is taught with a combination of capturing and management. I don’t issue orders. As another trainer recently stated in a well written article about commands versus cues, my dogs don’t have to sit, they get to sit. They LOVE to sit and I rarely have to ask and when I do, it’s with body language and hand signals, not demands. Benevolence is your word for the day, dear readers. Lead by example, not with an iron fist.

For more on this subject, I suggest Kathy Sdao’s wonderful book, Plenty in Life is Free.

Tags: affection, behavior, canine, command, cue, dog, dominance, force, higher status, household, impulse, learn, many, militant, multiple, NILIF, non-force, peace, puppy, rescue, training

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Tales from the Dark Side: When a Multiple Dog Caregiver Gets Sick

I recently awoke from the dead. Okay, I am being a touch dramatic but quite frankly, that is what it feels like some days. What actually happened is that I was very very sick. Like hospital stay sick, though I refused admission and lived to tell about it. Briefly, because this is not meant to be about me, I ended up with pancreatitis. Yeah, I had/have a dog disease. Go figure. Anyway, there is evidently no magic pill for this condition and it is seriously slow going back to normalcy. Setbacks did not help at all. The pancreas is a very fickle organ. I have, quite frankly, never felt this bad and I have had all of my extraneous organs already removed so that is saying quite a bit.

This whole ordeal scared me silly because I am a single multiple dog mom. There is no other immediately handy human caregiver to fall back on. So if things had been much worse, I would have or rather my dogs would have, been in a bind.

How long is it going to be till we get our walk?
Photo courtesy Heather Long.

I now realize that I need be better prepared for such a situation in the future. It occurred to me that there are probably other single heads of multiple dog households that should be as well. So I wanted to brainstorm some on how that could be done better.

Asking on the How Many Dogs Facebook page resulted in the usual suggestions: pet sitters, extra chews for extra crate time, fenced in yards, etc. All good info but expanding on this is important. It’s just not enough in the face of a real emergency if one is not at least somewhat prepared.

Make no mistake, I have several friends who would come at a moment’s notice to let my dogs out, who are very skilled with my crew. My dearest friend Jackie is who let my dogs out and fed them dinner, when it became clear that I was not leaving the ER with antibiotics for an infection. But she has her own multiple dog household so she cannot spend the night at a moment’s notice. Few people can offer that kind of a favor.

Now with my former crew, pre-Kenzo, I would have felt comfortable leaving them overnight having been fed, pottied and loved, with someone coming again in the morning. They would have been worried about where I was, but they were all trustworthy enough that I would not be worried for their safety or the safety of my house. But Kenzo is only 15 months old and 135#. I never leave him alone with the others outside of his crate for more than an hour or so, to run to the store. They all do wonderfully in those instances but an overnight stay with him loose even in the bedroom would have me worried about their stress levels. Trent would be stressed and he would be less apt to handle Kenzo’s pushing for play. Siri would manage them both well, but as I preach to my clients, we are not at this stage yet for the long term. So I could not leave him crated all night for that long. Hence my release “against medical advice”. It worked out.

So planning is now in progress. I have petsitter friends who do overnights. I will have them meet my dogs so if such an emergency occurs again and any one of them are free then, I have that option. I plan to start increasing the time they are alone for some outings and see how that plays out. I feel better about them having the whole house for this rather than just the bedroom, as they do when I leave for more than a store visit. Siri and Trent are trustworthy in the house, Kenzo is 95% trustworthy now and I am careful about what is out. Kenzo and Siri typically hang in the kitchen and wait my return. Trent tends to hang out in the bedroom. They have access to toys and bones in almost every room and they are wonderful with sharing. Extra space gives them less time in each other’s face should stress set in.

My dear friend Jackie knows how to feed my dogs but I will write up instructions just in case, so others can do it without worry. I have at least seven friends close enough by who can come into my house safely without fear of my dog’s wrath, and let them out and care for them. One has a key. I will now make and dispense other keys just in case!

In addition to my HMD Facebook page, I also asked on my HMD Yahoo group. I got some good suggestions on there as well, that prompted some of the above ideas.

Tara in Texas has a hubby and family close by but she is the back up caregiver for a friend in a similar position to myself. It was she who suggested the feeding instructions.

Kati in Maryland has a huge crew due to rescue work so she has an arranged back up plan of several friends who will do what is needed until she is well again.

So how did I manage without a plan? Well, I am very lucky. I have really wonderful dogs. We have a very good relationship and they clearly knew something was very wrong. They did their best to comfort me and keep me close. I have a fenced in yard with a privacy fence so pottying needs are easily tended to. I do feed raw so while that is not as easy as filling a bowl with kibble, I have it down to a routine so I managed. Pancreatitis and the subsequent inability to eat at all at first and then really lightly for a very long time, make for a huge amount of fatigue. I did use the aforementioned extra chew things and bones pretty much nightly at first.

Before I got worse, I sat on the floor with them and played easy training games. My finished attic that I use as a doggy playroom is priceless to me and them. Last but not least, some of you may be surprised to learn that even on the worst days, I still walked them. It was definitely a risky proposition for me but as I said, I have wonderful dogs and we have a great relationship. We walked far slower than usual and far shorter routes. My foremost thought was simply getting them out of their element every day. All this enabled me to sleep almost non-stop, aside from these activities, in the first week or so of my illness. For that I am grateful. It helped me start healing.

So now you have some ideas to start planning if you don’t have one now. If you do have a plan, especially if you have used your plan, feel free to add your ideas and experiences in the spaces below.

Tags: admission, behavior, caregiver, disease, dog, dogsitter, emergency, friend, hospital, household, instructions, many, multiple, plan, scare, sick, worry

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Altered States: How Important is Intact Status to Social Skills?

A recent interaction on a social networking site clued me into the fact that not all dog geeks know about things they may not have personal experience with. I believe this subject to be important enough to repeat some information from past blogs. So while this particular blog isn’t specifically about multiple dog households, it is about multiple dog interactions and therefore applies to multiple dog households as well.

Those of you who have followed my blog have seen mention of this topic before; especially, if you have been tracking the saga of Kenzo’s neutering. Mixing intact males and neutered males is a social setting can be tricky when the goal is interactive play.

While there are no scientific studies to support this subject, I expect that many behavior professionals have come across this particular quirk in their careers. Many a client has commented to me that their own neutered male “doesn’t like intact males”. Science, while wonderful, isn’t studying every subject so it behooves is as behavior junkies, to learn from other sources as well, such as observation and repetition of occurrences.

Now those of you who have never had the opportunity or the right circumstances to see such an issue for yourself may wonder what this consists of. The manifestation can vary according to the dog. I have a former class student who’s neutered male screams and stands on his back feet when he gets the close by scent of an intact male. This happened once with a dog in class owned by a friend, who I knew had just been neutered so we assumed that the surgery was simply too fresh. I later learned that said dog had a cryptorchid testicle so the hormones had not fully been removed. The reacting dog had been right!

I have been witness and a hearsay recipient to such occurrences for the entire length of my dog behavior career so it surprised me that not every behavior savvy individual had been exposed to this. But when pondering how frequently the occurrence actually happens, it makes sense to me.

You see, not all neutered males are threatened emotionally by an intact male. My sweet Merlin had no issues at all with any dogs he interacted with unless they were rude to him. Even then, until he reached his senior years, his fuse was long. Intact or altered, it was all the same to him. We had literally dozens of males come through my house as foster dogs, mostly arriving needing snipped. Interactions were pleasant all around. But Merlin was a confident dog for his entire life, sure of his place in the world, even as a puppy.

However, Trent, my Pit Bull is a different story altogether. He is very insecure, despite being very loved and cared for and having a secure life. He is on anxiety meds and has come very far with his issues but will likely always be insecure of his place in the world. Yet until Kenzo started reaching sexual maturity, I never noticed that he was among the neutered males affected by intact males. He never reacted any differently when out and about or having intact foster dogs in the house. But Kenzo stayed and was raised here and grew bigger and bigger in front of his very eyes. It became very clear that Trent felt increasingly threatened by him, although nothing that Kenzo did was at fault.

I have already chronicled what transpired with Kenzo’s social group visits with increasing frequency as Kenzo matured more. So I won’t repeat myself. But what I will do now is describe it further. The moment we entered the room with the other dogs, a dog or two, who would turn out with questioning of the owner, to be a neutered male, would rush over and snark at Kenzo’s face, trying to nip at him both in his face and around his face. The owner and I would interrupt and send the dog elsewhere and he (or they) would come back targeting just Kenzo again. The owner(s) and I would have to be continually on top of this for the entire hour long social. It was exhausting. So I stopped attending until Kenzo was neutered.

Other clients have told similar tales from either an off leash walk in the park or a visit to the dog park. Intact dogs are typically not permitted at dog parks but many people don’t abide by rules and most dog parks are not supervised by an authority figure. Anyone can bring their dog, well behaved or not, intact or not, to most dog parks. There is an assumed risk there. So while there is almost always some sort of a disagreement between dogs at a dog park, most people don’t ask questions to determine why. In many cases, it is the intact/neutered male equation at play.

What does this all mean in the whole scheme of things in the dog world? Well, as previously mentioned in many blogs, I am very pro-altering for the majority of the American dog owning world. Disagreements about the health pros and cons of either point of view aside, the behavioral aspects of having an intact male in a world of neutered males is an important consideration. If you have no plans on having your dog be social with other dogs up close and personal ever, then you have no worries. If you are a behavior professional and qualified to deal with the potential aggression directed towards your intact male, then go for it.

But if you are just a loving dog owner who doesn’t want to have to become a behavior expert just so that your intact male dog can safely interact with your neighbor’s neutered male dog, then just make the appointment for neutering. Why punish the intact dogs by neutering them when the true issue lies with the insecure neutered male dog? Well, I don’t see neutering as a punishment. Unless you are a responsible breeder or showing your dog (in which case you probably do have the skills needed to handle this correctly!), then I just don’t see the need to keep a dog intact. I expect that statement to anger many people. I am sorry if it does but that won’t make me change my mind on the subject.

In conclusion, the stakes are just too high to take the chance of leaving your dog intact, in MOST cases. So feel free to offer your opinions, POLITELY phrased, in the spaces below, on both sides of the issue. I especially want to hear from those who have experienced their own dog aggressing at intact males. Play nicely in the sandbox people!

Tags: behavior, dog, dominance, household, insecure, interaction, many, multiple, neutering, social, threaten, training

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