safety

Posts Tagged safety

Better Living Through Chemistry: Why You Shouldn’t Rule Out Meds

There is no doubt that there are many people benefiting from behavior modification medication. Lives have been saved. People are now leading productive lives when they were previously devoid of hope. Sadly, there are also probably nearly as many people misusing said meds. That is unfortunate but that doesn’t take away from the successes. Medication can get a bad rap. It’s overused but it’s equally underused. For as many people who are misusing it, I would venture to say that there are nearly an equal number who could benefit from it in their life.

Dogs are no different in this area. They can benefit as well. I can’t count how many times I run into resistance with some pet parents whose dogs are so stressed, they are not truly functioning. We expect so much of our dogs with what they “should” deal with yet we don’t see their pleas for help. If everyone had the ability to effectively communicate with their dogs, I have no doubt that the need for behavioral medication would drastically decrease. But the two way communication is lacking too much at this time to close that gap from education alone. Medication can be a real savior.

Dover (white dog) finds peace in the crew with his meds.

This is not to say that medication fixes everything. Not at all. The works still needs to be done. That’s where people like me come in. We teach the pet parents to read their dogs better, provide them safety and help them overcome or learn how to handle their fears and function better in their world. The medication, however, makes that path far easier in many cases. And in some instances, can mean the difference between retaining a loving home and losing it because of issues that are too hard to overcome.

My biggest frustration with this issue is when someone says that they want to try medication as a last resort. It shouldn’t be a last resort. If your dog has a physical ailment and needed medication for that ailment, would you withhold it to see if he could overcome it naturally? Of course not! Not if you are a responsible pet parent, that is! You wouldn’t give that a second thought, yet so many people are willing to let their dog suffer mental anguish when there is relief so easily accessed.

On the other side of this coin, just as in humans, are the pet parents who want everything fixed with a pill, without the modification part? There are no magic wands. Both have their roles to play. In most cases, medication is meant to be used to pave the way to better mental health. It’s not meant as a permanent solution. However, there are exceptions to this. Just as with people, there are dogs who simply have some crossed wires and are missing some vital chemicals in their brain. The medications supply those missing links and all is much better with their world because of them. These are the dogs needing seen by veterinary behaviorists who can give them the best of both worlds. My job is to determine which situation I am dealing with. In my own experience thus far, the issues have been environmental and adjustable.

The difference that medication can make in lives should be respected, not dismissed. There is a place for it. Balance is important. Natural remedies are crucial to many behavior modification plans but the use of one does not preclude the use of the other. I recommend both in conjunction with one another. I urge you to consider medication if your dog’s situation calls for it. It’s not a cop-out. It’s you respecting that your dog needs help. Feel free to comment about your own experiences with this subject in the spaces below. No judgments, only admiration for being open minded.

Tags: behavior, chemical, dogs, emotional, fear function, force, household, issues, many, medication, meds, modification, multiple, natural, overcome, pill, positive, remedies, safety, shelter, social, stress, train, training

Posted in: Projects

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

Posted in: Projects

Can You Feel the Love? Dogs and Emotion

Updated February 14, 2022. This was originally written in 2012. We know better now. Dogs clearly love!

Do dogs love? I was recently very startled to hear someone I thought of as pretty dog savvy, say that dogs don’t think nor feel. They only act out of instinct. I don’t think a statement exists that I disagree with more than this one. This statement was made in reference to dog/dog relations, but either way it is inaccurate.

Do these dogs have feelings for each other or does it only appear that way?

I could fill another book with the whole “do dogs think” part of this statement but since solid information supporting thinking in dogs is not only prevalent anywhere you care you look including science, I will simply address the feeling part of this equation.

Several brilliant minds well known in the behavior world, with far more initials following their names than I have, have already addressed the matter of dogs and emotions before. This information is also available in print. They have come to the same conclusion that I have.

Of course they feel emotions! One only has to live with and observe them with any regularity, to fully grasp this fact. Personally, I think it’s especially obvious when dealing with multiple dog households. If at least two of them get along, that is.

Dog/dog interactions aside, whether a dog feels emotions or not, also applies to their interactions with humans as well. To be blunt, why have a dog or any pet for that matter, if there is no mutual bond to share? The thought baffles me.

Of course, all of the “evidence” I will be discussing here, is anecdotal. For science, see Patricia McConnell, Marc Bekoff and Vilmos Cysani for starters. But I am not a scientist; I am a dog behavior consultant. I don’t conduct double blind studies in sterile labs. I do, however, make my living observing dog behavior. This observation that I do, gives me the information that I need to successfully modify the behavior for the better, of my client’s dogs. I have to assume that my observations have thus far been pretty accurate since my clients are pretty happy with the results.

My observations so far are too numerous to catalog in entirety on this subject. But my knowledge of this subject is not limited to my observations alone. Plenty of dog caretakers have the same stories to tell. My story that doesn’t come from my own experience, is from a friend who I asked to let my dogs out while I was gone too long one day. My friend commented that Trent was very protective of Kera, who is suffering from not only canine dementia but also kidney failure. She said that he stuck very close to her in my yard when she let them out to potty.

Siri declined a potty break that day, so clearly she had no qualms about Kera’s safety with my friend, who is by the way very well known to my dogs. I told my friend that Trent had never done that when I was there, not in the yard any way. Both Siri and Trent are attentive to her needs including indicating that they are waiting for her when need be. Trent is also very mannerly about letting Kera enter doorways first, when mannerly is not necessarily his foremost trait. So this story was interesting to me.

I have too many stories of my own observation to list. Trent took great care of Merlin in his last months. He was very focused on cleaning his ears frequently as well as circling him when he was walking with him to seemingly ensure his safety when he was tired. Siri stood sentry by the truck the day Merlin wasn’t up for getting out at our favorite spot until he finally did venture out. Then she followed him while he walked slowly. She does the same thing with Kera now.

Siri’s brother, Xander was almost inconsolable at first when his “big sister” Mona passed away. He wasn’t present the loss so he only knew that she left one day and never came back.

When Merlin spent the day and an overnight at the vet’s for an operation, the other dogs were visibly ruffled. The joy that they greeted him with when we picked him up the next day was undeniable. They were very gentle and careful with him.

They shared the loss when we had to say goodbye to him. I made sure that they were present so that they would know what transpired. I wanted them to understand and the transition was much easier for them than it was for Xander and his Mona.

Trent adores Siri. He fawns over her as often as she allows him to do so. He would be lost without her. He would lay on her if she would let him.

Almost every multiple dog guardian I know has stories like this. Many include other species in the bond, in addition to a dog/dog one. Feel free to add your story in the spaces below. Let’s dispel the old fashioned myth together.

Tags: adore, behavior, consultant, dogs, emotion, feeling, gentle, happy, household, many, minds, modify, multiple, myth, puppy, relations, respect, safety, science, train

Posted in: Projects