The Dog Blog

Dog lovers and experts may not agree on much, but there is one thing that is irrefutable, dogs poop. A lot. It may not be the most pleasant subject but it is inescapable and important at the same time because when you ignore it you end up stepping in it. And that is what this piece is about.

I walk my dogs, feed them high quality food, and make sure they’re exercised and entertained nearly every day. I am a stickler about picking up any waste my dogs deposit and throwing it away. I even pick up other dog poo when I see it because, frankly, any poop on the streets or walkways reflects poorly on all of us dog lovers, and the anti-dog sector doesn’t need any more fuel for their diabolical cause.

Recently it dawned on me that my effort to be a responsible dog owner might well be causing harm to the environment. Suddenly I find myself at an ethical impasse. You see, I love my dogs and I am also quite fond of our planet Earth.

The calls come in to our office on a consistent basis.  Dog owners suddenly caught off guard, dealing with a dog they now don’t seem to know.  The calls come in many forms.  The 7-year-old lab cross that has always been great with kids and who, suddenly, snapped at a neighborhood child.  The 5 month old puppy who seemed to turn into a different pup overnight and is reacting to every bit of noise and movement with sharp, no-nonsense barking.  The 18-month-old poodle that had been a lovely family pet up until the point last week that she started to use the living room carpet as a toilet.  All these scenarios are quite common to dog professionals, but to the people living with them they come as a surprise.  The line “he has never done that before” is heard time and time again.

I am a die hard bibliophile. I love books and have for as long as I can remember. If one day all reading was done on computers, I would still have a collection of real books to hold, fondle, smell and re-read at will. It's not just the book itself that I love, but the contents awaiting me inside. I am not sure when the love affair started. Perhaps in my youth when reading was an escape.

These days my collection includes much dog training and behavior related fare. Being a trainer with a heavy interest in behavior gives me an excuse to add to my book shelf regularly. And I have with gusto.

It’s the ultimate nightmare. Your dog has run off and you have no idea where she is. The sheer panic of this situation is heart wrenching.

In the past few months I have seen two dogs find their way back to their homes after being lost. One of these dogs was gone for 17 days! In both cases, the owners did the following things in an effort to find their lost family members.

First, they made flyers with a current picture of their dog, a description and information as to where the dog was last seen. The flyers were emailed to everyone they knew with a request to pass the flyers on to everyone those people knew.

Posts were made to their local Craigslist and any other appropriate online resources available.

Next, they printed flyers and posted them on every pole and window in a ten mile radius from their home or the last place the dog was seen, or both.

The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) recently released a position paper on the importance of early socialization for puppies. It states that because the first three months of life are the most important time to expose a puppy to new people, animals, things, and places (in a safe and non-threatening way), “...it should be the standard of care for puppies to receive such socialization before they are fully vaccinated.” The paper goes on to state, “While puppies' immune systems are still developing during these early months, the combination of maternal immunity, primary vaccination, and appropriate care makes the risk of infection relatively small compared to the chance of death from a behavior problem.” Well, hallelujah! I know trainers everywhere will join me in rejoicing at this progressive statement. The paper even recommends having puppies enrolled in group classes prior to three months of age. Imagine if owners took this excellent advice!

When you hear the word spoiled, do you think about spoiled food or spoiled children? And does it make a difference? When you think of the word spoiled it doesn’t conjure up any good feelings and yet dog owners seem to say the word with pride. To them, it is a term of endearment or said with a shrug and a smile attached. It is an interesting phenomenon when dog owners are starting to think that spoiling their dog equates to loving a dog.

While other girls were busy with boys and makeup, my passion for dogs did not seem to be wavering. Since I can remember, I have loved dogs. One of my earliest childhood memories was of watching Border collies do their job at a local fair in a park near my home in Birmingham, England. It seemed enormous, and the sight of the collies herding the sheep seemed to be a miracle. It wasn’t until years later, on a trip back, that I saw that park for what it was…a large plot of grass in an otherwise cement-laden neighborhood. The fact that it seemed so small years later did not take away the magic of that day.

Few things about my work upset me as much as clients who give up on a dog. Regardless of the reason, it usually means broken hearts for the people involved. For the dogs it means lots of stress, likely homelessness, and even the possibility (or sometimes the certainty) of euthanasia. Even in the case of dogs who are obviously too dangerous to remain in their homes, I take every client’s dog that loses its home (or its life) personally. Some of the most upsetting cases for me, though, are those where the dog never really had a chance to succeed in a home. I’ve been seeing a lot of these bad matches lately.

When I started training, there was no such thing as camaraderie amongst dog trainers. You would never consider “sharing” ideas with fellow professionals, and it was more of a “cut throat” business. Things have delightfully changed in that regard, but the change has brought along its own batch of problems and confusion.

You’ve probably heard the statement, “The only thing two dog trainers can agree on is what the third one is doing wrong”. There is much truth in that, as dog trainers tend to be strong-willed individuals who have clear beliefs and feelings about their profession. Maybe that’s what it takes to enter into clients’ homes and lives to help facilitate change in their relationship with their dogs.

This is a vintage article, circa 1993 and one of the first things I had written that gained attention in the world of dog training. I would like to start my blog with this, as it is at the root of what I believe when we are dealing with our dogs. Keep in mind that 15 years ago we were all just on the cusp of discovering that “do it or else” training was not the only game in town. These thoughts were the beginning of a journey for me. While methods change, the core of the connection seems to remain the same.

CONNECTING WITH OUR DOGS

As I sat nursing what seemed to be my 100th cup of Cappuccino that day while overlooking the canals in Amsterdam, my mind was again consumed by the behaviors of the dogs that roamed these banks.