Mental stimulation can double as relationship-building.

Here is the second installment of our discussion on mental stimulation. As I mentioned previously, we can go beyond food dispensing toys to give our dogs a daily dosage of mental stimulation.
Some people get it right and understand the importance of a “sniff walk” for their dog. Indeed, for how we use sight to understand the world, our dogs smell it. Smell being their most reliable sense. By a “sniff walk” I mean taking your dog for a stroll where the distance covered is irrelevant in which we allow the dog to move at its own pace- taking as much time as he wants sniffing. This could be challenging for some folks because they do take their dog on a walk (yah!) but they have their own agenda. The walk must double as their fitness routine, so they just want to get it done fast. My advice to this bunch is to take their dog’s sniff walk as a bonus within their mental health.  To see this as an opportunity to experience the surroundings in Slow mo.  Wow!  What a concept!  We can also re-frame and think of our workout time as our workout time, aside from allowing it to be during the dog sniffing opportunities.

 

 In addition to the sniff or slow walk, there are other ways we can hang out with our dogs and provide a rich environment for their brain and well-being.  Here is an idea that I have witnessed to be very beneficial to dogs:  I teach owners how to do some simple TTouches on their dog as part of my Developing the Confident Dog class.

This past Saturday, every participant in the class saw how quickly their dog went from alert (and some a bit stressed) to totally relaxed, choosing to lie down on their mats to receive the benefits of their human’s touch. Engaging your dog with TTouch can teach your dog’s nervous system to oscillate from fidgety to relaxed. The more your dog experiences these different modalities, the easier it will be for your dog to recuperate from an upsetting event or just to be able to relax when you are busy at home and can't concentrate on your dog. TTouch is not a massage and is not petting either. It is its own modality that is relatively easy to learn and worth exploring. To learn more visit: www.TTouch.com.

One of my favorite things to do with my dogs is to play with them! We have all sorts of games and most of them involve an object or toy. I am defining play as any activity in which participants engage voluntarily and the only purpose is to have fun.  The topic of play has been well researched and as a result there is ample information about what constitutes “good” play. Also, quite relevant is how can we play with our dogs in a manner that they find enjoyable and not threatening.  If play is your “thing”  look up the work of Marc Bekoff,  www.marcbekoff.com - a leading authority in dog play and who has done tremendous work surrounding the emotional lives of animals.

I personally like it when my dogs invent their own games.  I mostly follow their lead when they come up with a new activity that we can do together. Here are a couple of examples:

After their breakfast both Deuce and Rio go to our long hallway just off the kitchen.  They both lie there with either one ball (more fun for Rio- perhaps less fun for Deuce) or a ball a piece.  The game consists of one of us kicking the ball so that Rio goes after it.  She gets tremendous pleasure in this. If Deuce was not that interested in balls I tend to wonder if Rio would enjoy the activity.  For this particular game, I changed some of Rio’s “rules” and I make sure Deuce has another ball to keep as his own, or we take turns tossing the ball in such a manner that Deuce gets it sometimes too- not only Rio. Being able to get to a ball that lands unpredictably is where the fun is at.

Deuce and I have our own special game that consists of Deuce taking my sheepherding cues (we actually do go sheepherding) inside our home as he “herds” a ball.  Not only is this game highly reinforcing for Deuce, but our herding practice with “real” sheep has improved tremendously.

I encourage you to be open to your dog’s definition of “games” and “fun”.  I promise you that you will also reap the benefits as you see your blood pressure drop and your breathing become more fluid. At least mine dose whenever I choose to play with my dogs.

In closing, I strongly suggest people think of mental stimulation as a dog’s ability to problem solve. Again, the activities that can promote this are truly amazing, but here I want to refer to one that is so accessible to anyone willing to invest in learning how to shape behavior with a clicker. In essence shaping behavior is teaching a behavior by approximation.  Think of it as a process similar (yet much more complex and interesting) than the popular game of “hot” and “cold” in which someone is getting clues as to the proximity of an object or a specific action it must do. To learn more visit: www.clickertraining.com

If you live in the Santa Fe area, I encourage to enroll in one of my classes. Yes, your dog will learn new skills but equally important you will learn how to adequately teach your dog to problem solve. In addition, you will learn training skills and games that you can incorporate at home as part of your dog’s mental stimulation routine.

One of your dogs is injured, but you have two (or more) dogs. How are you going to handle this?

As I am writing this I am sitting next to my two dogs. They are both lying down, but Rio unfortunately is wearing one of those very cumbersome Elizabethan collars.  She just underwent surgery a week ago and we are looking at to 8 -10 weeks of lying low with little in the form of physical activity and lots and lots of management.  On the other hand, Deuce is not recuperating, and as such, he is ready to do what we do every morning - chasing after the ball or hiking.

Yep, sometimes I am overwhelmed.  I am constantly having to plan when and how to go from one activity to the next while working with clients as I try to keep my sanity. I guess this is a good example where I need to really dial up my “Zen”.  Zen in taking some time to take stock in how to move Rio safely from one spot to the other, in remembering to wrap her cast when it’s wet outside and she needs to go pee in a hurry.
Zen,
Having systems in place is very helpful.  My systems include ways by which I can keep all the medication times and dosages straight. The same goes in planning what to do with her when I am outside exercising Deuce. Instead of throwing it all in at the last minute, I establish new routines. Simple things such as Rio not being able to eat out of her customary food bowl, can really wreak havoc on the list of do’s & don’ts that we need to follow for her recuperation.

Besides deciding what kind of activities she can still do so that she gets some mental stimulation, and as best as possible keeping her life as intact as possible, I also make sure I follow the household routines for Deuce.

Yes, there is also the emotional component:  it is hard to go play with your healthy dog (s) while the other one rests in her crate. When I feel a bit down I quickly remind myself of our ultimate goal behind the surgery:  Rio will be able to do all the activities she loves to do, but with being pain free. I even tell her (more for my benefit, mind you, than hers) that this is not her new life, just her new life for right now and that we will get through this together by focusing on what needs to happen and keeping the eye on the big picture: no (more) pain and back to lots of fun as we did before.

It is also important to take stock of activities that both dogs can enjoy such as chewing a tasty bone, getting some one-on-one training or even getting brushed for tasty treats.

I cannot say this enough, slowing down has been tremendously helpful in keeping my sanity as well as rolling with the punches. Of course, it helps when John can then dedicate some one-on-one attention to both dogs.

A solution, of course, is one can also hire competent help when the need arises. Perhaps someone that can stop by and give Rio a break from the plastic (hideous) cone and take her out to eliminate.  Or what about having a favorite person read a story to her, while Deuce and I go sheepherding?  Or having someone come to take Deuce for a walk?

It is important too to not underestimate physical touch and closeness. In my case, one of my dogs wants it because she is not feeling totally “normal” and the other is stressed due to thunder in the vicinity. I take a big sigh and relax into my role of caregiver as I gravitate like a tired planet around the sun between the two dogs, delivering words of encouragement as well as some TTouches. 

Is Your Dog a Barker?

 Barking is a natural behavior in  dogs and one that  most people dislike the most.  Part of it is because of how stressful noise is in general and in part frankly because we fail to understand what barking is all about.

Barking is not simply just noise coming from our dogs or embedded with one significance.  Once again we need to look at what is going around to help us determine what is behind the barking.

Let me expand:
A dog might bark because they want to create distance from something that concerns him, dogs bark because they are playing and wanting attention, because they need help with something like getting food out of a Kong that proves too difficult for them.

Overall a dog barking serves as communication, and as such, the frequency and pitch also varies depending on why the dog is barking. As you can probably tell there is so much more to barking than “let’s just annoy the humans”.

My friend Luren shows up for the agility class with her pup Elsa- who is pictured in this blog.  Elsa has two main reasons why she barks- at least in the context of attending a class.  She is concerned about new people and their proximity as well as the general movement of people.  She also barks because she wants attention and hopefully a treat. No, she does not get a treat for barking, people!  Luren is a very savvy pet parent to Elsa and knows exactly how to teach Elsa that barking for attention is a no go.

Luren and I work together using a TTouch Calming band.  You can see Elsa wearing it in the picture.

The calming band does not prevent the dog from barking, drinking water, eating treats or even tugging!

What it does do is to bring “awareness” to the dog’s muzzle/mouth area.

There is more to this than I will comment on as to how this works but what is important is that it does.

What we saw with Elsa was quite remarkable!  Once she was comfortable with the calming band around her muzzle - which did not take that long to adjust to, we noticed that Elsa was able to “settle” more easily and to just observe what was going on around her without barking.  We continue to work with the agility exercises we were previously working on and again Elsa was able to work with Luren.

Luren continued having Elsa wear the Calming band throughout the week on walks as well as when Elsa was contently enjoying a chewy.

There is so much that the Tellington TTouch method can offer you in helping your pup settle, relax and just be more confident overall. If you are curious you can go to www.ttouch.com or contact me would love to tell you more.

Buyer beware!

Last week I visited with a family that had adopted a Wheaten terrier in April of this year. Seven months later and their sad little dog will not interact at all with the family members! Her days consist of sleeping or hiding in her crate, or lying on one of the corners of the small kitchen all day - every day. This poor dog is so emotionally “damaged” that she only learned to eliminated outside after heroic efforts from the family to understand ways that they could coax her outside without scaring her every time.

She will not make eye contact, unable to learn the simplest task like walking on leash, eliminate or eat if they are watching her. The list goes on. When I received the call about this case and once I went to visit with them, I could not hide my outrage as to how their dog came into their lives. Long story short, I asked for the information where they got the dog and to my disbelief the dog “came with papers” and a certificate from the AKC!

After I left their home I went to the AKC website and spoke to someone who mentioned I could report the situation via email. She did mention that the AKC does not have a way to take any legal action about cases like this - I had briefly explained to her the severity of this dog's emotional state.
However their website (http://www.akc.org/about/departments/) does state the following: “The AKC is the only purebred registry in the United States with an ongoing routine kennel inspection program. The AKC has a dedicated team of field inspectors who visit kennels to help breeders while ensuring the proper care and conditions of AKC-registered dogs…" they go on stating what these inspections are like. In addition, their website states:

• While the AKC does not have penal or regulatory authority, breeders who have major kennel deficiencies may lose AKC privileges (ability to register dogs or compete in events). In some cases, fines will be imposed, AKC privileges may be suspended and appropriate law enforcement authorities contacted.
• The standard penalty for anyone convicted of animal cruelty involving dogs is a 10-year suspension and a $2,000 fine.

My diagnosis of the Wheaten terrier is a typical and very sad - (they are all sad cases) of learned helplessness. Learned helplessness takes place when a dog (I guess all animals can be subjected to this) has learned that no matter what they do, they have absolutely no possibility of exercising any (positive) change in their lives or environment. In other words, the dog learns that nothing she has done in the past has changed the situation for the better, so in essence, they stop “behaving”.
Here we have a dog that is just surviving. Doing the best she can to pass the days as fearfulness as possible - almost not-existing. Most likely this dog was never properly socialized to people in general and to all sorts of novel stimuli. Her breeder had no concern for her emotional needs whatsoever. Her life consisted of being in a crate almost all day, every day with (some) access to a run on some days. Her job was to make puppies. Her life a misery! Finally she was surrendered after having had a hysterectomy because of a prolapsed uterus.

Is there hope for these cases? It really depends on a bunch of factors and every case, of course, is unique. In the case of my client’s dog I was able to get an encouraging response to my approach and offered her the highest value food I could think of. Her owner remained stunted and mentioned that she had NEVER eaten out of anyone’s hand. Furthermore, I had planned on doing some TTouch on her. I began working very gently on her. I then proceeded to help her stand almost in balance and with relaxed limbs that just like her hind area was absolutely stiff as a result of being so overwhelmed with our interaction.

Shortly thereafter I was able to lay her on my lap and continue working with her with the gentle touches. At the end of the short session, this little girl went back to her usual corner, but now, she was making eye contact with us at the other end of the kitchen. Her back was now relaxed to the point that we could not see the severe “hump” on her back. Her response gave us all hope.

Now back to the AKC. As I promised my clients and with their permission, I contacted via email the AKC. In my email I stated the facts and gave them the information of the AKC certificate of this dog. Previously, the person I spoke to over the phone did confirm that the name of the breeder was in their “roster”.

Just after the holidays, I received a response to my email/formal complaint from the AKC. With an answer and information that was not in line from what I read on their website as posted above. They stated the following, and here I am copying directly from their email in an effort to not misinterpret their position: “As you may be aware, the AKC does not license or endorse anyone engaged in the commerce of selling purebred dogs and, therefore, has no control over the business practices of those involved in such transactions. Membership in the AKC is comprised of independent dog clubs located throughout the United States. No individual persons are members of the AKC.” 

Wow! I thought, so here is a breeder that per what I learned from my clients and my own interaction with the dog, is literally running a deplorable breeding program a la puppy-mill and using their “affiliation” with the AKC as a “trusted” bona-fide breeder to sell her dogs to uninformed, or in the case of my clients, first time pet owners. Disgraceful! Yes, this poor dog has papers! Her line is registered with the AKC!

I responded once again to the folks at the AKC and thanked them for their quick reply. Here is what I said: I understand the AKC cannot take any sort of legal action against cases of abuse or even neglect. However, when any breeder claims to be a member of your organization, it is de facto representing that they comply with your code of ethics. When the AKC does not look into matters of this sort, you are de facto being linked to breeders of dubious enterprises without a true concern for their keeps.

In this case, clearly the breeder has been able to obtain certificates for her dogs which she sells thus misrepresenting what the AKC stands for in the public/consumer eyes. 

My client’s have been victims to this. It is a shame that the AKC does not do more to ensure the breeders (or clubs as you state) who claim to be part of AKC are not regulated for good husbandry and at the very least minimal standard of care for the animals your organization cares about. I will file a complaint with local authorities and other relevant institutions. 

So here you have it folks! Beware from ANY breeder that claims the puppy or dog you wish to take in as your own has been registered or has “papers” from the AKC, clearly this means NOTHING when it comes to how the pup was raised - if humanely and in a properly socialized.

Of course it goes without saying that purchasing any animal via the web, or any other non- legitimate source (yes, this includes pet shops!) could truly turn into a nightmare of pain.

If you are looking to purchase a puppy or dog from a breeder and there are ANY red flags, please do not proceed. Not only that, unless you are 100 % sure of the organization selling the dog, you must, must, must check things out for yourself in person.

Also know that even though it is common practice of any good breeder to have a contract that will stipulate that they will take the dog back from you (for any reason!) and only they should place the dog in the event of surrendering there is much more that excellent breeders must do. They are out there folks, but unfortunately they are the exception and not the rule.

Time to Integrate

After spending two weeks with us, I returned MAKIS, (aka "Puppy X") back to the shelter. That same morning she participated in a TTouch™ program for volunteers where she got firsthand experience with different people who stroked her and taught her that touch can be enjoyable.

I was feeling really sad to know that she would no longer be running freely with my dogs. I will also miss seeing her acting like a totally normal and rambunctious puppy enjoying life and getting herself in typical puppy-trouble. She had begun to show more typical puppy behaviors as she learned to relax more at our home. I had to keep even closer tabs on her now because she discovered that perhaps the legs of the coffee table or the upholstery of our chair could be “fun” to chew. She even responded to me singing the song of “lets go outside” as both Rio and Deuce do.

Yikes! It is impossible for me not to get attached to the dogs that I bring home from the shelter and Makis (named after one of my nieces) was no exception!

Once back at the shelter, Makis who was overdue for one of her puppy-vaccines, had to be housed alone. My heart sank as I saw her curl up into an almost perfect ball at the end of the pen. So in my own way, I “told” Makis that this next step was a continuation of what will turn out to be a much better life for her and that she – just like any other being in this world, would have to learn not only to survive but to thrive! I left her behind – holding back the tears.

Later on as I hung out with Deuce and Rio I had a thought pop into my head that gave me some solace: I had earlier that day mentioned to the participants of the TTouch training, of the importance of giving animals time to integrate a new experience. I thought then about Makis at the shelter. I wanted her to have a “roommate” from the get-go. The roommate would not only keep her company but she/he could serve as her role model as to how to positively interact with people. I realized now the fact that Makis needing to spend a night on her own seemed like a great idea! If she had been housed with another puppy or even an adult dog it was very likely that they would engage in play, instead of Makis sleeping. Makis in her isolation and “quiet time” would have an opportunity to do just that: integrate new learning.

The following day, I checked to find out how she was doing and was sent a picture of Makis with her new pal. An older and very friendly white pitty (pit-bull).

Tomorrow, I will go to the shelter to continue working with her. And once again, I will “remind” her that she has a bright future ahead…