Pit bulls and parolees

I was all set to blog about the body language of fearful dogs today, but then I came across a story on our Petropolis page about a new reality show airing next month on Animal Planet.
It’s called “Pit Bulls and Parolees” — a very fitting name as it appears the show will be about just that.
A California woman runs Villalobos Rescue Center, where she works on adopting out 225 pit bulls and providing jobs for parolees, who work with the much-maligned dogs.
I’ll be tuning in to watch this show, and I hope I like what I see.
If I do, then it’s another step in turning the tide of public perception regarding my favorite breed, pit bulls.
In the past few years, there’s been a lot publicity that has begun showing that this breed is just as capable as any other breed of producing good dogs.
First, there was Cesar Millan with his show “The Dog Whisperer.” People got to see, probably for the first time, how massive numbers of pit bulls live amongst one another, not restrained in the least bit, without a problem.
And they got to see his mascot, the old and sturdy pit bull Daddy, help rehabilitate other dogs — from tiny Chihuahuas to other pit bulls and everything in between.
Then there was the Michael Vick scandal. A quote from the article on Petropolis says it best.
The owner of the shelter, Tia Maria Torres, said:
“As horrible as it was, it changed everything for the pit bull. Shelters are looking at the dogs differently, the public has a lot more empathy and adoption rates are going up. The dogs that died at his hands were the sacrificial lambs. Almost like war heroes, they died for the rest of the dogs.”
National Geographic did a series on how most of the Vick pit bulls were able to be rehabilitated and rehomed, despite their miserable and abusive past.
And closer to home, there’s the story of the pit bull mix Madison who was set on fire by teens at barely 8 weeks old. For all she’s been through, she’s well on her way to being a shining example of all the breed is capable of.
I hope the good publicity continues.

Is that a fearful dog?

Here’s a scenario to think about:
You walk up to a very handsome black dog. He’s holding his tail low, but it’s wagging. You don’t notice that as you get closer, the tail gets lower and lower but starts wagging with greater velocity.
All that matters to you is, you’ve seen a wagging tail. That’s a sign of friendliness and happiness, right?
The dog not only appears to be smiling, but his tongue starts going the closer you get. It’s out and licking at your pant leg before you even get close enough to make physical contact.
Wagging tail, licking tongue. Must be a friendly dog.
You don’t notice that his hair has poofed up a bit a long his back — it’s too small of a change for you to pick up on. You don’t notice his rounded eyes darting back and forth, whites of his eyes showing while he avoids making direct eye contact with you. You don’t notice that his ears are glued back against his head.
All you see is a handsome dog with a wagging tail and a licking tongue. A friendly dog.
So you reach your hand out to pet this friendly dog, and WHAP! You’ve been bitten. It was instantaneous. You are left in a state of shock, holding your bloodied hand and wondering what the heck happened.
It happened so fast, you didn’t notice that the dog recoiled at the sight of your approaching hand before rebounding and sinking his chompers squarely in the palm of your hand.
The dog bit quickly, broke the fine skin on your hand, then released and ran away.
What happened? Why in the world would this friendly dog bite you just after wagging and licking?
The answer, of course, is that you’ve just approached my dog, who is extremely fearful. And this is how he reacts.
Most people do not believe me when I tell them Sensi is a fearful dog.
They see a happy, handsome, laid back, relaxed and impeccably well behaved dog. My dog does not give the appearance of being fearful, at least not the type of appearance people recognize.
I, on the other hand, can see a bite coming a mile away. It didn’t always used to be that way, though.
I searched and searched for answers as to what was making my adolescent dog suddenly become aggressive. Was he dominant? Was he protective? Was he picking up on something bad about a person that we didn’t have the instincts to know? What in the world was making my dog freak out and become aggressive in the most unexpected situations?
I gathered all the information I could about different types of aggression. None of it fit Sensi and the behaviors he was displaying. I felt like I was at my wit’s end.
Then I read an article about how a fearful dog may react to a new person, and the article was a play-by-play of exactly every motion made by my dog. From then on, I knew what I was dealing with.
But oh boy, did it take a lot of time to learn how to deal with it.
Tomorrow, I’ll go over some of the physical displays dogs engage in while scared.
Knowing all the ways your dog is trying, usually in vain, to tell you it’s scared is the first step in learning to deal with a fearful dog.

The fearful dog

I bet that 99 percent of you would say that, without a doubt, you could tell if a dog is fearful.
You’d pick the little Chihuahua or Yorkie who can’t stop shaking. The big dog with the tail tucked so far under it appears to be glued to his stomach.
And you’d coo at the dogs, “It’s OK, sweetie, you little pumpkin wumpkin. You’s so sweet, it’s OK.”
Even if you didn’t know them, you’d be cooing at them, trying your human best to let them know that you are a nice person and would never hurt them. Perhaps you’d reach out to pet them and knowingly scratch under their chin, remembering that it’s not good to pet a fearful dog on top of its head.
You think you’re pretty well versed in identifying and handling a fearful dog, don’t you?
You think all that dog needs is a lot of loving and someone to protect it from all the things that make it fearful, and then, the fear will just go away.
Well, you’re wrong. The fear will not just go away.
Worse, when it comes to handling a fearful dog, you have only fraction of the knowledge you need to be both successful and, most importantly, safe.
Like human emotions, fearfulness in dogs varies greatly depending on dog’s inherent personality, early socialization and lifelong experiences, and their current environment.
It is possible to have a very fearful dog who would never bite. It is also possible to have a dog who shows very little evidence of fearfulness, but then bites out of fear once in his life. And of course, there is the fear biter — the dog who bites regularly out of fear.
The telltale signs of fear also vary greatly. Generally, all dogs will use the same signals, but they will use them differently depending on the situation and depending on the dog.
Fear can be a hard one to figure out. Often, by the time a human realizes a dog is fearful, the signals emitted by the dog are so extreme they simply cannot be missed.
But, by the time the dog has taken his signals to such an extreme, the situation has become dangerous.
The biggest mistake humans make is thinking that a fearful dog is like a fearful person, that a little coddling and comforting can make it all better.
Most people never realize that in dogs, fear often drives aggression.
And just the opposite scenario is also often overlooked — most people never realize that much of an aggressive dog’s behaviors are driven by fear.
We just don’t usually make the link between fear and aggression.
This is unfortunate.
Being the owner of a fearful dog, I could ramble on forever about fear. I will try not to do that. Keep reading and I’ll try to shed some light on this subject, without overdoing it, I hope!

Rehabbing food aggression: part 2

Once you’ve made some positive steps and notice your dog is a bit more comfortable with you around the food dish, there is still more to do.

• Rather than giving the dog its meals all at once, divide it into three portions. Give the first portion, let the dog eat, then ask it to back away from the dish, sit, and stay. Then, give the dog its second portion of the meal. Repeat.

• Practice hand feeding often. At first, you may want practice tossing kibble or treats to your dog. Work your way up to extending an open hand towards him, holding kibble, and allowing him to eat directly from your hand.

• Give the dog an exchange at feeding time. Have something delicious on hand, perhaps a little wet food or some cooked chicken. When the dog is eating, wave the other dish with the more delicious food near enough so he can smell it. Once you’ve got him begging for that food, put that dish down on the floor. When he begins eating from it, pick up his other food dish. Of course, when he finishes his tasty little treat, give him his regular food back.

• Get the rest of the family involved. Just because the dog is learning that you are not a threat to his food source does not mean he’ll assume all family members are non-threatening. Dogs don’t generalize, so get everyone involved in the training exercises you are working on — just be sure not to involve children until the dog has loosened up a bit, and be very cautious. Use common sense. Do not let children do any exercises that could put them in danger, and be sure to supervise every second of the training.

Object guarding
Oftentimes, food aggression goes hand-in-hand with object guarding. If your dog is growling at you when you walk near his food dish, he may also growl at you when walk near his bone or stuffed animal.
After all, the dog views both food and toys, especially real bones or rawhides, as resources.
The greatest way to overcome and proof against object guarding is the exchange game. Whenever the dog gives up a toy, he gets something better — a treat or another coveted toy. You are teaching him that releasing toys to you is rewarding for him.
Check out this article, which offers valuable insight to rehabilitating both food aggression and object guarding.

Rehabbing food aggression

As discussed in previous blogs, dogs owned by hoarders may have food aggression issues.
If the dog was in a situation where there were tons of other dogs, and perhaps not enough food to go around, survival mode would’ve kicked in.
Any food morsel a dog managed to grab for itself would be dearly guarded from others. After all, it sometimes becomes a matter of life or death.
I admit, I do not have much experience with food aggression. I actually have more experience with the other end of spectrum; getting fearful or bored dogs to stop refusing to eat!
I believe, though, that some basic laws of socialization can apply to food aggression.

1) Do not use an automatic feeder. This is a big no-no. As humans, we think, “Once the dog realizes that food is always available, he won’t be aggressive anymore.” This couldn’t be further from the truth. Remember, dogs do not have the capacity for analytical thought.
An abundance of food will not rehab their aggression. Instead, the dog will become super aggressive and protective of the feeder.

2) After feedings, when your food-bowl-protective-little-monster is off somewhere else in the house, pick up the dish. This way, at feeding time you are not trying to reach down and swoop the bowl up, which could create a potential bite from the little monster. Be sure your dog is not around when you pick it up. Put the bowl up somewhere that the dog cannot reach it.

3) At feeding time, call the dog. Allow him to watch you fill his food bowl, but ask him to sit. This is a perfect time to work on perfecting the dog’s sit-stay. He must sit and stay until you give the release command. He must not move an inch when you put the food bowl on the floor. Once the food is on the floor and he is still sitting and staying patiently, go ahead with the release command. (I use “OK” and it means, whatever I’m asking you to do is now over)

4) Stand near the dog during feeding time, but allow him whatever distance he feels comfortable with. Don’t stand so close that he growls at you between bites. If that means four or five feet, or even ten, do it. But each day, gradually inch forward.

5) When he is done eating, approach the bowl and toss a treat in it. Do not bend down or get closer than is necessary.

If you’re feeding your dog twice a day and you’re practicing this exercise at every feeding, the dog will gradually become more socialized to the idea that human+food dish=good things.
This is a good start. Be patient. It may take a lot of time.
Remember, all canine rehabilitation needs to be done in baby steps.
Tomorrow, I’ll go over some more advanced techniques that can be used once the dog’s aggression around the food dish has been toned down a bit.

An IMPORTANT note on the sit-stay
A dog just adopted from a hoarder will probably not have a clue what a sit-stay is.
I recommend working on this during day one of bringing the dog home, just for a couple minutes here and there. Don’t make a production out of it.
It’s a very low impact exercise, it’s rewarding for the dog if trained properly with lots of positive reinforcement (treats, games), and it’s so very helpful in so very many situations.
If you can’t get your dog to perform a sit-stay at feeding time during the first few weeks, involve a second person in your feeding routine.
This person will hold the dog on a leash. Once you put the food on the ground and have given your release command, the second person may drop the leash.
Allow the dog to eat with the leash on.
Remember, safety is first. The purpose of the leash and sit-stay is to avoid any situations where your hands and face are near the food dish at the same time the dog is.
The long-term goal, of course, is to be able to do just that. But in the beginning, you have got to play it safe.

The remarkable recovery of Madison

I interrupt my series on getting the dogs owned by hoarders adjusted to normal life to write this special blog about a little pit bull mix named Madison.
In 2007, she and her littermates were cruelly burned by, allegedly, some teenagers in Detroit. She was the sole survivor and had serious burns on about 80 percent of her body. If you haven’t seen my full story, be sure to check it out (it’s in today’s edition).
The follow-up on Madison, who we reported on when the accident happened, was a very long story for me to write. And still, I just didn’t feel I included all the wonderful and interesting things I learned about the dog.
Saundra Hewitt, the surgeon at OVRS who adopted Madison, is great. She’s funny and down-to-earth, and here is a list of things she shared with me about sharing her life with Madison.
• With half of Madison’s body being hairless, winter time requires some clothing for Madison. Several of the staff members at OVRS have bought her stylish outfits, from light jackets to full-blown snowsuits that cover Madison’s rear legs.
“You have to keep in mind, I’m a surgeon,” Saundra said. “We don’t put bows in our dog’s hair. We don’t put clothes on our dogs. I had no idea what to do.
“I had an ER doctor who sent me a coat (for Madison), then she went out and bought like 10 of them. So I get up in the morning, I put on scrubs and then I have to figure out which outfit she’s going to wear today?”
• Saundra lives near the clinic and often walks to and from work. During one winter day, Madison was wearing one of her coats that does not fully cover her hairless butt and legs.
Saundra was walking home and decided to carry her tired dog, who thoroughly enjoys being carried with her front legs over Saundra’s shoulder, just like a child.
“This lady (in a car) pulls around me, I could see she’s really agitated,” Saundra said. “She pulls into the ditch and she’s laughing so hard because she just saw a bare bum and thought it was a kid.”
The lady was on the phone with police, reporting Saundra because she mistook Madison’s bare butt for a child’s.
• Madison’s injuries have not slowed her activity level one bit. Saundra reports that Madison has two speeds — full speed and no speed. Around 8 or 9 p.m., she tires out and begs to cuddle with Saundra.
Many people, seeing Madison’s hairless and injured rear end, feel sympathetic for her. Saundra said many people will make, “Oh, poor dog!” comments while they’re walking, even despite the fact that Madison pulls around both Saundra and her other dog, an aging Border Collie.
• Madison does almost everything every other dog does, with a few exceptions. She can only tackle a couple stairs at a time, and while she jumps at frisbees with no problem, she sometimes has problems sticking the landing.
• The staff at OVRS love having Madison around, so much so that many of them eagerly share their lunches with her.
Madison knows when lunchtime is, and she long ago figured out how to get out of the baby gate that kept her in Hewitt’s office during the day.
During lunchtime, it is reported that Madison can be found going room to room, getting a bite of everyone’s sandwich.
• Back to wintertime issues: Madison makes quick business of going potty when it’s cold out. Hewitt has ramps installed going to her door to make it easier for Madison, but in the winter time, the door has to stay open until Madison has finished going to the bathroom.
“She comes running up that ramp and she’s ready to go inside — she’ll run right into the door because she can’t stop very fast,” Saundra said.

Having personally met Madison, I’m very happy to learn that she’s got a fantastic home and some wonderful friends at OVRS.
Behavorist Theresa DePorter said it best:
“I think it’s inspiring for us to see her from beginning to end,” she said. “We can realize that we can all, dog or person, overcome whatever it is.
“Whatever this dog can do, we’re going to do it to the highest level and treat her as normal as possible.”

Potty training the Dearborn dogs: part 2

A lot of ground was covered in yesterday’s blog on potty training the Chihuahuas that came from the home of the Dearborn hoarder.
We know the basics — don’t punish the dog for going potty in the wrong places until it fully understands what the right place is, thoroughly clean up any accidents, take your time introducing them to grass and make sure it’s a positive experience, and if they do go potty in the right place, treat them like they’ve won you the lottery.
But how do you teach the dog what the right place is?
If I were adopting one of these dogs, I’d invest in a lot of pee-pads. There’s a ton of “puppy pee-pads” on the market. To be quite honest, I’m not sure which brand is better than the next.
Puppy pee pads are like absorbent, disposable little blankets. The bottom side is usually waterproof to keep the urine from seeping into your floors, the top side soft like toilet paper.
Most companies state that the scent of these pee pads draw dogs to them and encourage them to potty there.
When I fostered a couple puppies for a weekend, I spread the pee pads out all over the place inside my house. While the two pups didn’t always make it to the pee pad, they did on more occasions than not.
Every time I caught them using a pee pad, I immediately gave vocal praise. It’s important to start giving the praise while the dog is peeing or pooping. As soon as I could make it to them, I brought treats and as soon as they were done, they got lots of cuddles and some play time too.
And every time we went through this routine, the puppies were more likely to return to their pee pad. By the end of the weekend, the number of accidents dropped dramatically.
During the night, when they were put in a large crate, I divided the crate into two areas. The back of the cage was covered with pee pads. The front of the cage had blankets and toys.
In the morning, I’d find the pee pads full with all that yucky stuff and the blankets impeccably clean.
Pee pads would be a good way to start training the Dearborn dogs because it moves their routine incrementally from anywhere-in-the-house to on-these-white-pads-in-the-house.
As long as you follow the rules — ignore the other messes, celebrate and praise messes on the pee pads — the dogs will gradually learn that messing on the pee pads yields the greatest reward.
Once the dogs are going 100 percent of the time on the pee pads, start putting them in strategic places.
Slowly move them from where you have put them in the past, maybe a foot or two at a time, toward the doors in a room. Over a period of weeks or perhaps even months, depending on how much work your dog needs, you want to narrow down the indoor pee pads to only being by the doors in your house that you will eventually use to let your dog outside to go potty.
During this same time period, you will also be making sure your dog has plenty of great experiences outside, where he will eventually go to the bathroom at.
When you feel your dog has the pee pad routine down pat, start moving the pee pads outside. If you can, catch him while he’s headed toward the pee pad and swoop him up, bringing both him and the pee pad outside.
Make a routine of doing that, and then one day, don’t put the pee pad down on the grass and wait. And be ready to wait, and wait, and wait some more.
But when that dog finally lifts a leg on the grass, put everything you have into celebrating the moment.
Then be ready to repeat, over and over again.
Is it a lot of work? Sure. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s a lot less work to spend several months properly potty training your dog than it is to spend the rest of that dog’s life cleaning up your house, several times a day, because you have not taught him properly.

Potty training the Dearborn dogs

Don’t fool yourself — it’s not going to be easy.
But, I’ve got some solid advice, great resources and also suggestions from Nicole Pawlowski-Herr of Herr Pet Training, the couple that is featured in our K-9 Classroom video series.
Let’s think about potty training a new puppy. Have you ever done it? Probably. How successful were you? If it was anything like my experience, you probably weren’t.
Sure, years later your dog has it down pat. You can’t take that as a measure of success.
How long did it take to reach this point of potty perfection? How many rolled up newspapers, smacks on the butt, nose in the doo-doo and shouts of BAD DOG did it take?
A year? A little more than a year? A couple years?
That’s not success. I’ve seen puppies who were solidly potty trained at eight to ten weeks. That is success.
Before you even think about potty training one of the hoarder-kept Dearborn dogs, throw out everything you’ve ever been told about potty training.
First thing is first: before you can say nary a negative word toward a dog for going to the bathroom in the “wrong” place, you must put in some time teaching the dog what the “right” place is.
The challenge with the Dearborn dogs is that they have spent their entire lives going potty in what we consider the “wrong” places. You cannot simply start punishing the dog for doing what they’ve spent all their lives thinking is proper.
If you do begin punishing these dogs right away for going wee-wee on the carpet, couch or curtains, know that you are setting yourself up for certain failure.
The dog will only learn two things: 1) to be fearful of you, 2) that it is not OK to go to the bathroom while you are around and, in order to wee-wee on the carpet, couch and curtains, they must wait until you are out of sight.
Good luck trying to correct that. It’s a real doozy of a challenge to reverse that behavior.
This means you will have to accept some indoor accidents. Ignore them, give the dog no attention for them. Quietly and thoroughly clean up the mess.
The cleaning is important, and for some tips on how to truly clean a doggie mess, watch the video from our pet trainers at the bottom of the blog.
Here’s another need-to-remember statement from our trainers, who e-mailed me knowing I was working on this topic.
“Most of these dogs have probably never seen grass, much less understand that it’s supposed to be their bathroom,” Nicole Pawlowski-Herr wrote.
You’ll need to work gently getting dogs accustomed to grass. Take them out, let them explore and make it positive with lots of treats and toys and praise.
Certainly, if you catch them going potty, make it a huge celebration. But don’t expect it from them in the beginning. Just use everything in your power to make the feeling of grass under their feet become associated with wonderful-things-happen-to-dogs (toys, treats, praise).
One more thing — read this book: Way to Go: How to Housetrain a Dog of Any Age by Patricia McConnell, Ph.D. and Karen London, Ph.D.
Our trainers write that it is the BEST resource on potty raining available, and it’s only $5.95.
Order it online at Tully’s Toys.

Dealing with the Dearborn dogs

Try to put yourself in the shoes (paws) of one the dogs born and raised in the hoarder’s Dearborn home.
What would life be?
You’re entire world, instead of being this large round Earth, would be just a little house. There’s a chance you never went outside of it. Perhaps you never even looked outside of it.
Inside your world were hundreds of your own kind. You enjoyed all the company, but not at feeding time. You had to compete with hundreds of other mouths to get the nutrition you needed to survive.
All of your doggie relatives had left their scent all over the place, pooping and peeing on top of older feces. You had no choice to do the same, and in time, you came to believe that it was proper conduct. In fact, the excrement became such a part of your habitat that it was inescapable.
Everywhere you went, there was doo-doo. And so, you had no choice but walk in, sit on and even lay down and sleep on the doo-doo. Again, it was acceptable and proper conduct in your small world.
I’ve heard these dogs should be available for adoption starting on Monday, and that their health varies from one dog to another.
Since they’ve been removed from their world, they’re probably pretty scared.
If you thought the entire world was a small home populated by hundreds of your own kind and suddenly, you get taken out of that world and exposed to things you had never seen or knew existed before, wouldn’t you be scared?
Fear is one issue these dogs are likely to deal with. The degree of fear — whether it can be overcome easily or whether it’s deeply ingrained and produces other issues, like aggression — will vary from one dog to the next.
Age, amount of handling, exposure to the outside world and the dog’s individual personality will affect how much or how little each dog is fearful. The same factors will also affect how easily the dog learns to “bounce back,” or accept new things.
Food aggression is another likely issue. I don’t know the specifics of the situation and I’m not saying that these dogs were malnourished, I’m just stating what seems obvious to me. Hundreds of dogs were roaming freely about a house. At feeding time, there had to have been competition. Dogs would’ve learned to be aggressive and protective of the tasty little morsels they managed to snag.
Potty training will be a big deal. Again, these dogs have lived in a world where it was not just acceptable but necessary for them to go to the bathroom inside a house, then walk on it, sit in it and even sleep on it.
They have no clue that most dogs go to the bathroom outside — they didn’t even know what outside was until just recently — and that most dogs avoid even stepping in their own doo-doo, nonetheless sleeping on it.
I’ll try to go through some basic ways of rehabilitating these issues in the next few days. Because Sensi is a fearful dog and it’s something I have a lot of experience with, I run the risk of over-doing it on the fear topic.
I’ll try to keep it simple, and perhaps I’ll start with rehabbing food aggression and potty training and leave the fearful stuff for last.

Adopting the Dearborn dogs

The top local news story lately has been the removal of hundreds of Chihuahuas from a Dearborn home owned by a man who was mentally ill.
The dogs lived in squalor, some were found dead and frozen in freezers and there’s been some talk that the house might not be salvageable.
That’s a serious mess.
Donations have been pouring into the Dearborn animal shelter that is caring for the dogs, and so have inquiries about adoptions.
The latest I heard on the TV news was that the dogs won’t be available for adoption for a while yet. They need some medical attention — I’d assume most need to be spayed or neutered and that all need to be updated on vaccinations.
For more than 100 dogs, the process will take a while.
The shelter also needs some time to evaluate the dogs. I’m sure they’ll find a host of behavioral challenges with these little dogs.
For those of you who have your mind set on rescuing one of these little Chihuahuas and are willing to wait until they’re available, I ask you to be prepared.
Animal hoarders, unfortunately, aren’t that uncommon. Watch an episode of Animal Cops on the Animal Planet and you’ll find that agencies are constantly dealing with hoarders.
Sometimes, animals owned by pet hoarders don’t have behavioral problems. It all depends on the degree to which the owner hoarding.
When a person collects too many animals, especially in the case of the Dearborn man where it appears the Chihuahuas were breeding and overran the entire home, the animals don’t get exposure to a normal life.
Oftentimes, cats found in the home of a hoarder are feral. It can be unusual to find even one cat that can be saved from those situations.
Dogs are much easier to rehabilitate and reintroduce to our society. Tomorrow, I’ll post about some of the behavioral problems these dogs are likely to have.
My goal is lend to some advice. These dogs can become our family members. It’s just going to take a little knowledge and some time and work from us.

Seeing in the dark

My apologies for not posting in a while.
Here's a neat little fact about dogs' vision.
Their sight is as bad as ours in the dark, with one big exception.
Dogs can see movement in the dark. What I've heard is that movement in the dark appears to them in a glowish, night-vision-like form. Think cats.
Not that I've done any scientific research on this, unless you count my experience with Sensi as scientific.
Here's what happens:
We have a long, dark hallway. At the end of the night, I turn the lights out and walk down the dark abyss to the bedroom (I figure, why turn a light on? I ought to learn how to navigate my own house in the dark).
Sensi always knows when it's time for bed. He hops down groggily from the couch and plods along behind me.
As long as he's made it to the hallway at the same time I have, he has no problem following me as I walk down the hallway. But then, when I reach the bedroom and open the door, it's another story.
I stand there with the door open, waiting for him to enter the room so I can close the door behind us.
Only, he stands there in the hallway, not moving. Why? Because my movement has stopped and he can't see anything.
Many times, I assume he's walked past me into the bedroom and close the door. Usually, I hear his nails on the wood floors backing up as the door (now moving toward him, so he can see something) swings shut.
Realizing this is what's happening, I now flick the hallway light on for a second so he can see to walk into the room.
Then it's my turn to bumble around in the darkness, trying to find my way to the bed.

The laundry basket fence

Forget chainlinks, wrought iron, six-feet of a wood privacy fence.
Laundry baskets are enough to confine my dog.
It’s ironic how he behaves. He’s strong enough to pull a whole railing off our front porch by running while on the chain, but yet, he wouldn’t dare disturb a laundry basket.
No, I’m not setting up laundry baskets around the perimeter of my yard. Something tells me that if there was a squirrel on the other side of the basket, he’d get brave and attempt a jump over the basket.
But indoors, laundry baskets work like a peach.
During my week off, I stayed home and had a lot of cleaning projects planned. One was washing and waxing my floors.
The wood floors are in the kitchen, dining room and office area and hallway. Plus, the linoleum in the laundry room and tile in the bathrooms needed to be washed.
Sensi needed to be kept off the floors while I washed them and let them dry, so I blockaded him into the living.
The bulk of my blockade was made up of laundry baskets. Some kitchen table chairs and a garbage can rounded out the indoor dog-fence.
It worked like a charm.
Sensi doesn’t like it when he moves items that aren’t his. It scares him. Even if it’s just his tail that thumps up against something like a laundry basket, he nearly jumps out of his skin.
So believe it or not, my laundry basket blockade kept Sensi on the carpet for the duration of my floor cleaning. He looked longingly at me from underneath the chairs or standing behind the basket.
But at least he was in the living room. I didn’t have to lock him up in a bedroom or send him down to the basement. After a while of watching me mop the floors, he retired to the couch for a good nap.
And that’s my story of the laundry basket fence.

Fireworks and dogs: part 2

When we left off yesterday, I was standing at the counter with a bag of treats and Sensi had just run from barking at our front door to be by my side, hoping he would get a treat.
Do you think I gave him one? No. Not there.
I walked back over to the couch, asked him to get back into the same spot he was at prior to the first firework going off, and told him to lay down.
He got a small morsel for doing that. Then I told him to stay, and I waited.
I didn’t have to wait long. As soon as the next boom went off, my hand was in that bag grabbing a treat. The dog simultaneously saw my hand reaching for the treat while the firework boomed outside.
He couldn’t bark or be worried about the boom. He needed that treat!
He got one, and another and another with each firework that went off.
But there were rules. He had to stay on the couch, laying down. That was the behavior I was rewarding. And in just a few minutes, he learned that he got the treats whenever there was a big boom outside, as long as he was laying on the couch.
Hours later, we had all relaxed and the fireworks were going off with less intensity. But there was still a big boom or late show of fireworks being let off here and there.
By this time, though, Sensi knew that boom=treats. And whenever he heard a boom, he ran to me and laid down (“I heard a boom, so I need to find mom and lay down and then I get a treat!” Sensi thinks.)
We practiced this on Sunday too, as there were more fireworks Sunday night.
While I’m sure that Sensi would still have major issues if he were outside and watching the fireworks, this is one small step toward completely changing his behavior from “I want to kill fireworks” to “Fireworks are good because I get treats.”
Treat therapy. It’s so worthwhile.
In this case, Sensi’s behavior is not only irritating to us, but it’s also neurotic and unhealthy for him.
So, we’re using treats to modify his behavior into one that is healthy for him, and pleasing for us.
That’s three bonuses.
Dog likes treats, dog gets treats. Dog learns healthy behavior. People get a dog who behaves in a non-irritating manner.
Three good things, all thanks to treat therapy.

Fireworks and dogs

I let the Fourth of July come and go without a single blog about fireworks and dogs? I apologize for dropping the ball on that one, and here’s an entry to try and make up for it.
Like many dogs out there, fireworks are one thing that drives Sensi into fits. It goes back to when he was a puppy, and while I won’t go into all the history, I will say that this holiday is definitely the worst for my dog.
Let me just put it this way: I would never worry about my dog breaking through a glass window, except when fireworks are going off outside.
Yes, that’s how bad it is. He goes completely nuts.
This was our first Fourth living so close to a lake — it’s literally across the street from us — and on Saturday, I realized the percussion of the fireworks would be steady and loud throughout the night.
For all of you who don’t live near a lake, let me explain that those riparian owners love fireworks. If you ever want to live in a place where you can let off fireworks without fear that your neighbors will call the cops and complain, buy a house on a lake. No one complains.
And we don’t either. But our dog certainly does.
When the first boom went off Saturday, Sensi jumped from the couch with his hair up and went barking to the door, jumping up on the window and beginning a total fit.
I also jumped up from the couch and went straight to the kitchen. I grabbed a plastic sandwich baggie and put a bunch of dog treats in it. Despite the fireworks, Sensi could still hear me digging around in the treat jar and came running, forgetting about trying to break through our front door for a moment.
I now had his full attention.
My plan: use treat therapy to totally change his perception of fireworks.
Of course, this can be a little tricky. If you don’t do it right, you could end up rewarding the behaviors you don’t want.
For instance, if I was to give Sensi a treat every time he got up and barked at the fireworks, he’d learn that I want him to bark at fireworks. So, it is very important that you use treat therapy appropriately.
Tomorrow, I’ll blog in detail about the great success we had on Saturday!

Step 4: Teaching a dog to play pool

Your dog is now playing pool. But pushing pool balls around isn’t exactly going to wow your friends.
That dog of yours has got to start actually making some shots, so here’s how you do it.
During the step 3 training week, I hope you had enough common sense to know that if your dog actually made a shot it was time for a major celebration.
You need a real doozy of a reward ready to go for this amazing feat.
Maybe some pieces of chicken hidden conveniently near the pool table or just something that is new and novel to the dog. Perhaps even a new toy (I stock up on dollar store dog toys for just for these types of occasions).
And remember, the reward is not the only part of a major celebration. Verbally and physically, you need to really whoop it up.
Of course, if you clicker train, you know what to do. But most of us out there haven’t ventured into the magical world of clicker training yet.
So if you’re going to do it the old fashioned way, be sure to get the important things right.
1) Timing. The second that ball makes the noise of dropping in the pocket, start celebrating like someone just told you that you’ve won $1 million bucks.
2) Reward. For expediency, give the dog a couple of the treats you’ve been holding and then hurry to get his other “special” reward — the hidden chicken or new toy.
3) Make it a total celebration. Verbally, you had best sound so happy that your dog can’t miss the fact that he just won you the friggin’ lottery. And give your dog all the pats and neck rubs that come along with it.
Timing is always the most important. Why? Because your dog needs to learn that the best reward comes when the ball goes into the pocket and makes that noise that balls make when they drop in the pocket.
So, keep playing the game with your dog. You can’t force him to make a shot, but through refinement, you can teach him the best rewards come when he does make a shot.
Once he understands that, start decreasing all treat rewards for when he simply pushes the ball. Reserve the reward for when he makes shots only.
You might try lining up shots as best you can for him to increase his odds.
At some point, the dog will begin actively trying to push the balls into the pockets.
And now, you’ve got a four-legged pool shark that all of your friends will enjoy playing a game of pool with.

To use the cue ball or not use the cue ball?
I began training Sensi with the idea in mind that he would use the cue ball.
If you’re interested in doing this, go back to step 1 and change the game a little bit.
Instead of having him push just any ball with his nose, make sure he only pushes the cue ball. Then add in the other pool balls, but again, have him push the cue ball at those balls. When they connect, mark the noise of the connection with the reward.
I found that Sensi had an easier time making shots by just pushing one ball into the pocket, so I dropped the cue ball idea.
Our friends have never minded that the dog gets to play a modified version of the game of pool.
They’re just happy to be playing pool with a dog, nevermind that he gets to cheat a little bit.

The importance of the sit-stay
As soon as you begin alternating turns with your dog, make sure his sit-stays when it’s not his turn are perfect.
You absolutely do not want your dog to get the idea that he can be up at the pool table whenever.
If he does get away with jumping up on the pool table when it’s not his turn, he’ll ruin every game of pool you try to play.
The dog must understand that he plays when you tell him to, and he sits and waits patiently when you tell him to.

Step 3: Teaching a dog to play pool

OK, so now you’ve got your dog pushing around pool balls on the floor.
It’s time to move it up to the pool table.
Because Sensi is a big dog, he had no problem keeping his rear legs on the ground and holding himself up to the pool table by putting his front two paws on it.
For small dogs, you may want to just pick them up and put them on the table.
To transfer the game from the floor to the table, simply set things up the way you had it on the floor. It’s probably a good idea to do a quick few pushes on the floor and then move the balls.
It’s just a little reminder for the dog that you’re playing the push-it game. That will help him adjust more quickly to the game being transferred to the table.
I started by putting a bunch of the balls grouped together and very close to one specific spot on the pool table.
Then, I invited Sensi to jump up right in front of that spot. At this point, the game begins.
I point at a ball and tell him to push it, he pushes, I give him a treat.
For this beginner game, let him do a round of pushing and reward each time. Then move the clump of pool balls around the table so the dog gets used to the idea that he’ll be playing this game at all different spots.
As with the last two steps, practice this for 15 minutes each night for at least five nights.
Be sure that with each new session, you begin refining the behavior.
Start decreasing treats for weak pushes, and be sure to make a really big deal whenever there’s a really strong push. Also, give good rewards whenever a strong push causes the pool balls to knock into each other.
On about day three or four, I started playing pool with him. I would break the balls to scatter them and he had to be in a solid sit-stay while I did this.
Then, I invited him up to the table for his turn. Of course, you have decide his shot for him. Once you’ve located a ball near the table’s edge, invite him up and give him the command.
After he’s done, make sure he gets down from the table and does a nice sit-stay while you take your turn.
The key to turning your dog into an excellent pool player is all about your refinement technique. Check tomorrow’s blog to learn how to turn your dog into a pool shark.

Step 2: Teaching a dog to play pool

We left off yesterday with Sensi learning the command, “Push it” means to push the pool ball forward with his nose.
The next step, or laying of training, ups the ante just a tiny bit.
I started off with the normal training game, one pool ball on the floor in front of him.
But then I spread out the entire set of pool balls on the floor.
The game expanded to him having to push each pool ball as I pointed to it. After each one that he pushed, he got a treat and I picked up the ball and threw it in a bag — really smacking it against the other balls so he got used to the noise of pool balls colliding.
Because it was a small step, he caught on easily. I started with the game he knew and simply added more of the objects he played with.
The differences from step 1 to step 2 are this: more objects, and he had to move around to push them, and he had to follow my direction, aka, push the ball I pointed at.
This also gave me an opportunity to start decreasing his treat rewards.
Instead of getting a treat after each ball he pushed, I gradually decreased the reward to every other push, then every third push, eventually one in every five pushes, and then, just randomly.
Again, we played the “push it” game for 15 minutes each night for at least five days in a row.
Some of you out there may think it’s not worth the effort. We’re already at two weeks of training sessions.
But let’s think about it. Can you truly not spare a mere 15 minutes for a quick game with your dog?
The hardest part is week one, getting the dog to learn the command. But once that happens, it’s smooth sailing.
The 15 minutes pass so quickly. The dog knows the game and the training session just reinforces the command and gives you the opportunity to refine the behavior — perhaps no treat for a weak push and a really good treat for a strong push it.
It’s fantastic mental stimulation for your dog. The 15 minutes also helps your dog learn about you, how you communicate and respond. Inevitably, you also learn to refine your training skills — improving your reaction times to reward the dog and learning how to anticipate his moves by picking up on small body language communications.
All in all, positive reward training games — push it or other commands — help strengthen the bond between you and your dog by really improving the two-way communication going on between the two of you.
Tomorrow, we’ll really up the ante by introducing a whole new element of the “push it” game. And we’ll bring you very close to having a dog that can play pool with the best of ‘em.

Step 1: Teaching a dog to play pool

It was the cracking sound of the pool stick breaking against the balls that got Sensi all riled up.
At first, we paid little attention to his reaction. And so, his reaction grew bigger and bigger.
In no time, Sensi was practically going nuts every time someone tried to make a shot.
He’d bark and bark, trying to jump up on the table and steal the pool balls. Then he’d start lunging at the pool stick when someone lined up their shot. Before long, it was impossible to play a game of pool with him around.
This did not make Brent happy. He enjoys playing pool with his friends.
I, on the other hand, don’t enjoy playing pool. I’ve been around pool tables all my life. Time and time again, I’ve tried and miserably failed at learning to play. Many a person has tried to teach me and subsequently given up.
I chalk it up to my math skills, which are nonexistent. In fact, the only class I’ve ever dropped out of in my life was — you guessed it — geometry.
Watching Sensi jump up on the table and try to take (rescue?) the pool balls gave me an idea.
Perhaps, just maybe, he could learn to play pool.
With an extra set of pool balls, I began working with him on the floor.
Again, training a complex behavior has to be done in layers. Layer one is teaching the command that will be the foundation of the game.
That command, for Sensi, was “push it.”
My goal was to get Sensi to push the ball forward with his nose. I took an old set of pool balls, put one in front of him and asked him to push it.
When he tried to grab it with his mouth, I told him “No!” and whisked the ball away. Then he tried pawing at it, and again, I said, “No!” and took it away.
It took some time for him to learn that he was supposed to push it with his nose. I prompted him by touching the pool ball to his nose and immediately following it up with a treat.
We ended the first training session on a positive note, although he hadn’t learned to actually push it. But it’s always important to end training sessions on a good note and not force the dog to keep participating after boredom sets in.
Persistence is key.
We did short training sessions — about 15 minutes — every night for about a week. Little successes were rewarded with huge celebrations, and he quickly learned to push the ball and push it hard.
By the time the week ended, the command was pretty well ingrained in him.
That, of course, means it’s time to start the second layer of training. Read more tomorrow.

Making a bad behavior good

Often, there’s something we humans enjoy doing that just drives our dog nuts.
Maybe it’s a game of basketball or baseball, tennis, horseshoes or badmitton.
We’re focused on the activity, and the dog wants in on the fun too. But we give him no role in our sport. We expect him to watch from the sidelines, like a fan.
But he doesn’t. He barks and jumps around, he bolts into the playing area and chases after the ball. He disrupts the entire game, angering his humans. Maybe he even barrels into someone and knocks him or her to the ground.
At this point, we humans try to settle him down, but we’re angry. We yell at him to get, to go lay down. Maybe we grab his collar and drag him inside, while he tries in vain to struggle and get back in the game.
In time, the activity becomes a sort of trigger for the dog. He sees a basketball and instantly he is fixed on it, obsessed with it. As soon as we start bouncing it around, the dog starts behaving wildly and can’t think of anything but the basketball.
“Gotta get that ball. Gonna get that ball,” our dogs would say if they could talk. “Ball ball ball. Gotta get that ball. Get the ball. There’s the ball. Gotta get that ball. Ball ball ball."
We learn that we simply can’t allow him to be around anymore when we’re playing these games.
So we leave him inside, and from the window, he watches and whines. Perhaps he scratches up window ledge.
But do we have to keep him inside and away from our fun?
I say that in almost all circumstances, no, we don’t.
These types of activities create great opportunities for incorporating our dog into our fun. And if we can’t find a role for him in our sport, there is still a fantastic training opportunity presented by these situations.
The mental challenge of training him to behave in a particular way — perhaps sitting nicely on the sidelines for ten minutes and then getting a bone to chew on — will be a strenuous mental exercise for him and will likely do a great job of wearing him out.
Brent and I have always looked at Sensi as part of our family, and we like to include him in as much of what we do as possible.
For that reason, we’ve given Sensi a designated role in most of our favorite past times.
Read tomorrow to find out how to train your dog to play a game of pool.
It might not be the best thing for a precious table that can’t be scratched by dog nails, but if it’s OK with the table, it’s a pretty cool trick to show your friends.
Especially when your dog becomes a better pool player than you.

A day in the life

It’s been hot, it’s been rainy. And the woods are-a-buzzin’ with bird songs, wild animals and the zzzz’s of far too many flies, bees and mosquitos.
All stuff that affects the dog. Here’s some quick hits.

He did use the fan
I wrote in my last blog: “Dogs heat and cool themselves primarily through their paws, secondarily through their underside — the belly.
That’s probably why you never see a dog lay down in front of a fan. Unless a fan is cooling their paws or belly, it doesn’t really help them out.”
Of course, I went home that night and watched Sensi lay in front of the fan for hours. So I need to clarify that statement about dogs and fans.
In our case, we had one of those big square fans sitting right on the floor. Sensi plopped himself down in front of it and laid on his side, his belly and paws exposed to the fan.
Glad he figured that out.

“I’m not going”
Sensi doesn’t balk at us when we ask him to do something. Sure, sometimes he gets all mopey when he realizes that he’s headed for the bath tub, but he’d never, never refuse to do something we ask of him.
Except going outside in the rain.
While it was pouring down a wall of rain yesterday, Sensi asked to go outside.
Apparently, when Brent opened the door and Sensi caught sight of the rain-wall, he ran back into the living room.
He preceded to lay down there. Brent, thinking it was amusing, called him again to go outside.
Sensi just looked at him and stayed put.
“If you want me out there, you’re going to have to pick me up and carry me out there yourself,” Sensi would’ve said if he could talk. “And good luck with that. I know I’m a heavy guy.”
Brent opened our front door and left it wide open. Sensi moved even further away from it.

A sleepless night
I admit it, I’m a night owl. Even if I get up at the crack of dawn, work my butt off all day and come home and work even more, it doesn’t mean I’ll go to bed at a decent hour.
Once 10 p.m. rolls around, I’m wide awake — no matter how sleep deprived or overworked I may be.
I need eight hours of sleep. I never get eight hours of sleep.
Last night, I attempted to go to bed early at 10:30. I was quite proud of myself.
And then, at 11:15 p.m., I woke up to my dog barking at something outside the window. Half-asleep, I made a strange decision to partially close the window and grumbled to Sensi to go to bed.
But he didn’t. He laid down in front of the window and quieted his barking to a low, continuous growl.
Slowly beginning to wake up, I realized I should take note of Sensi’s behavior and check outside. It is very, very odd for him to bark or growl at night.
Of course, I couldn’t see anything. But I ended up not sleeping much at all last night.
I’m sure there was something out there. I thought I heard some coyotes yipping in the distance as I fell asleep.
I wonder what got him so upset.