BEHAVIOUR - Don't Forget Your Dog is a Dog

(3milliondogs.com)

As we continue to view our dogs less like animals and more like surrogate children, the trends and marketing fads associated with some of this so-called ‘humanization of dogs’ has even the most committed dog lovers wondering how far is too far.

Options for dog food – once wet or dry – have exploded into non-GMO, Gluten Free, organic and made with high quality cuts of meat; toy options of ball or stick have evolved into automated treat dispensers, ball throwers and virtual pet friends; knitted sweaters for the vulnerable minis have expanded into full-fledged fashion lines for pets.

For many urban dwellers this humanization is simply an expression of love, but when it comes to the training process it is key to remember that humans are humans and dogs are dogs.

According to Barbara Walmer, Department Head of Behaviour at the Calgary Humane Society, the tendency of pet owners to attach human emotions to dogs can be counter-productive in the training process.

“Sometimes people will attach high-level emotion to their dog’s behaviour. For example, they will say the dog is jealous or embarrassed - emotions that we do not know for sure an animal feels. Instead we need to look at the behaviours displayed and simplify our explanation for the motivations behind them.”

According to Walmer, poorly trained dogs may be the result of defying the KISS principle.

“Sometimes we make it much more complex than it needs to be. If there is a concern with an animal’s behaviour, we need to work with that animal to change their environment and enhance their ability to display different behaviours.”

Rather than become frustrated with regressive animal behaviour in the training process, like anything patience remains a key virtue; there is also a benefit to looking at training as a lifelong, gradual process rather than expecting perfection immediately following a puppy boot camp.

“Animals are constantly experimenting with their behaviour. If we are not actively helping them with their behaviour on a daily basis, their behaviour will change. It is never too late to work with your animal on their behaviour and help them acquire new or refresh old skills.

"The relationship with your dog is a journey not a destination. You can train your dog for its entire life and both of you will be enriched and have a stronger relationship for it.”

 

When it comes to the never-ending pet products on the market, Walmer said the essentials are a necessity and that enrichment toys or tools are beneficial.

“First, we would ensure they have the appropriate walking equipment including a leash and harness; the adequate training classes that are most suitable to the dogs’ needs; food, water and shelter requirements and then we would discuss enrichment toys. Depending on budget, the dog’s preference, and safety, there are enrichment options that you can purchase and also make at home. Enrichment is critical to a dog’s mental well-being and depending on their owners’ lifestyle, they may need more or less stimulation.”

While our humanization of four-legged friends has led to more options in the marketplace, a needs assessment appears to be the best way to distinguish a dog’s needs from the human want and unnecessary, gimmicky purchases.

And the most important items for the training toolbox continue to be love and patience, and an understanding that an expectation for a dog to behave like a human will result in frustration and counter-productive training.

By Lindsay Seewalt

Lindsay is an experienced journalist and mother of three whose heart and home is always open to a four-legged friend. With her Corgi, Angie, as household editor-in-chief, Lindsay gives back to the animal planet through the written word on anything and all ado about pets. She is passionate about topics regarding animal welfare and responsible pet ownership, which she aims to instill in both her readers and children to be compassionate animal lovers who are conscious and considerate that furry friends around the globe deserve a voice.

Adjudicators announced for Western Adjudication Event

The Western Region Adjudication Event will be presided over by four leading alumni. Each has a broad understanding of the experience of people and pets in our communities as well as the history to judge presentations from the Urban Animal Scholarship nominees: 

Jerry Aschenbrenner, Retired, Alumni/Mentor 
Jerry Aschenbrenner graduated from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Training Depot as a member of Canada’s national police force and maintained a successful policing career for 21 years. He then began a second career with the Alberta Department of Justice. Working in the court system gave him a broader understanding of the judicial process. After two years in the Justice system Jerry began a third career managing Animal Services for the City of Calgary. 

Within a decade, his City of Calgary department became a model for Animal Services across North America. A drive-home program for lost animals, zero subsidies from municipal taxes and the ‘People for Responsible Animal Control’ (PRAC) program were elements of this success. Jerry resisted celebrity status, choosing instead to focus on serving the city that paid his salary. His crowning achievements were opening a modern Animal Services facility and accepting the first annual Summit for Lifetime Achievement from the Alliance for Urban Animals. 

Dr. Emery Cyfra, Alumni
Dr. Emery Cyfra has been with Animal Clinic West since it was established in 1981. Cyfra became interested in animals as he grew up on the family farm in Symons Valley, Alberta. Cyfra attended the University of Calgary and earned a Bachelor of Science degree. He attended the University of Saskatchewan where he completed his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Degree. For many years, Dr. Cyfra was also the Consulting Veterinarian to the City of Calgary Animal Services Dr. Cyfra is a member of the AVMA, CVMA, AAHA, and CAVM. 

Cheryl Herperger, Alumni 
Cheryl Herperger is a Senior Business Strategist and Team Lead for Community and Strategic Services at Animal & Bylaw Services for The City of Calgary. With the Prevention and Public Awareness portfolio, she is the lead of the Off-Leash Ambassador program. She also has a personal commitment to the program owning four dogs, Golden Retrievers Charlie and Bella and Labrador Retrievers Ginger and Levi. She believes "the walk" is the foundation of the relationships with our dogs and with the community. 

Cheryl presented the Ambassador program to Summit 2014 and it is being considered as a National Initiative for the Alliance for Urban Animals in 2015.

Barbara Walmer, Alumni
Barbara is currently the Department Head of Behaviour at the Calgary Humane Society, where she has been since 2002. With more than 15 years experience training dogs, Barbara has established a reputation as one of Canada's leading canine trainers and behaviour experts. 

Barbara holds the unique distinction of being one of only four Canadians who has earned the title "Certified Behaviour Consultant Canine - Knowledge Assessed" through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT). Her many other certifications include: Certified Pet Dog Trainer (CPDT); Tellington TTouch Practitioner-2; and Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) Certified Training Partner (CTP). 

In 2006, Barbara and her dogs assisted with the media launch of the HomeSafe™ Return to Owner system and establishment of the Alliance for Urban animals.

It’s Ok to Look Away!

Barbara Walmer, CPDT-KSA, CBCC-KA, KPA CTP, ACDBC
InfoStream Guest Author 

With the weather finally cooperating, people are increasing the amount of time they spend outside, and they aren’t doing it alone. Many people are now hitting the trails with their dogs either within the city or on day trips throughout the province and beyond. Increasing the amount of time we are on the go with our dogs means they have greater interaction with new dogs and people.

It is common for dogs, especially in new situations, to look about their new environment. However, it is important to recognize that while dogs can look around they don’t need to stare at other dogs or people. Looking away is an important calming signal that dogs use to diffuse conflict and confrontation. Staring directly at another dog or person, or sustaining direct eye contact, can lead to reactivity and is a situation we want to avoid. In order to address this we need to teach dogs that it’s ok to look and then look away.

You can start teaching the look behaviour by clicking your dog when he is looking at something that he is worried about or distracted by. The treat delivery is positioned back towards your body, allowing the dog to break eye contact and move their head back towards the handler. This can be repeated to allow your dog time to become comfortable with what they are unsure of, building a more pleasant association with the “scary dog or person.” 

The next step is to mark the dog for making the choice to turn their head away from the distraction. Rather than clicking the dog for looking at the dog or person wait until they make the choice to turn their head away from it, either towards you or the other direction, then click and treat. This way you are marking the dog’s decision to look away. Once the dog is looking at the distraction and looking away you can put the behaviour on cue, such as “Who’s There" or "Where’s the Puppy.” Long term, it is not necessary to click and treat every time they look at and away from something, rather click and treat them intermittently for it. As long as behaviour is reinforced it will continue.

Off-leash dog park skills

Barbara Walmer CPDT-KSA, CBCC-KA, KPA CTP, ACDBC
InfoStream Guest Author 

As off-leash parks become a more popular destination for urban dogs it’s essential we keep them enjoyable and safe. Educating the public about dogs is crucial to accomplishing this goal. Most problems do not come ‘out of nowhere’ and people need to understand more about dog body language to avoid these issues. Aggression commonly occurs as a result of not reading the dog’s body signals or as a consequence of inadvertently putting too much social pressure on dogs. Space can be a major factor!

People also have to teach their dogs a recall. This not an easy skill to teach, but it is a very valuable one. We can work on teaching dogs to check-in and come when called by rewarding successive approximations and using management tools, such as a long line. Dogs will do what gets them reinforcement and this poses a problem with social dogs that run all over at a park. Whether their owner calls them on or not the dog wants to play with other dogs, meet new people and smell new things. After all, they get to spend the rest of the day with their owner and often, being around their owner predicts leaving the park.

To teach recall we need to start by working on the behaviour away from the park or distractions enabling the dog to become comfortable and understand that turning away from distractions are what we want. This takes continual practice. In the beginning this skill can be taught with any dog at home and progresses to being on-leash outside. When your dog turns his head away from a distraction, pay him for it. Payment can be made using treats, a game with a toy, special social interaction with praise and touch that your dog enjoys, or access to a new direction he wants to go. We start with just adding reinforcement to the behaviour of turning away and then add a cue to that behaviour; for example, “come” or “here”.  Avoid using the cue until the dog displays this behaviour consistently at a high frequency. Using recall cues by saying them when our dog is distracted and cannot listen only encourages them to ignore it. The more dogs are around low-level distractions in a controlled environment, the more they learn that reinforcement happens for certain behaviour, and they will be able to function in greater distractions. We can help dogs understand that the goal behaviour is for them to come to us, by rewarding them in our general vicinity. 

The biggest problem with teaching a dog recall is that we want to gradually increase the level of distractions while keeping them successful with displaying the ‘turn away’ or ‘look at me behaviour.’ We progressively increase distractions and then add in distance, as the dog is successful with the each approximation.  Always have a management tool, like a leash or long line, to be able to influence your dog as  we want to avoid the dog not getting the opportunity to indulge in the external reinforcement at the wrong time. Allow your dog freedom and reward him lavishly for any contact with you.

What often happens is we use our recall cue in our house a couple times and give our dogs some verbal praise. Then we take Fido to the park, let him off leash and say our cue and Fido continues to run around and ignore us. The changes in criteria between the house and the park are vast, and the behaviour we are wanting looks very different to the dog due to the distance and distraction level. Start training your dog today for this very important skill and you will see improvements in your dog’s recall behaviour and your dog park visits will be safer.

Room for improvement in urban off-leash parks?

Barbara Walmer CPDT-KSA, CBCC-KA, KPA CTP, ACDBC
InfoStream Guest Author

Living in an urban environment changes the way in which both people and their dogs exercise and socialize. In a rural setting, people tend to go to each other’s homes or the nearest town’s coffee shop for coffee. Dogs run around loose on the land with minimal leash or fence time and they have only a few dogs they meet and greet; typically the neighbor’s dog. There is a lack of focus on purposeful exercise as the dogs spend numerous hours a day of physically exercising while outside. In contrast, people in urban settings are more likely to meet at a variety of eating and drinking establishments or malls.  People go to gyms for exercise, due to the more office-based employment, and dogs are on leashes and behind fences for a lot of their lives. Many cities now have off-leash parks or areas where dogs and their owners can converge to exercise and socialize. 

While some of these areas have natural landscaping features others are just barren fields. Many people frequent the same parks on a regular basis and the parks features, how convenient the location is, whether their dog has certain ‘doggie friends’ they like to meet, or whether the person enjoys the social atmosphere, influences these decisions. These parks can become a community asset, but they can also become a drawback depending on the dog behaviour of the dogs in them and the awareness level of the people using them.

Dogs as a species are social, but just like people, some enjoy large groups while others are more selective as to whom they spend time with. Some dogs like rough, physical play, while others enjoy smelling the grass and bushes while just being in the vicinity of other dogs. A dog’s dog skills are formed from many different factors, including: genetics, early nurture, socialization in the past and present, age, sex status, training, along with individuality. With all these components it can be difficult to determine exactly which dogs will do well at the off-leash park or mingling with different dogs. 

For many people the best way they know to determine if their dog is okay to go to an off-leash park is to take them and see what happens. To add to the fog, many people are not aware of canine body language or have misconceptions about it.  “My dog is just wanting to play,” is an often-cited phrase by some dog owners at the park. If your dog wants to play, no matter how inappropriate the context, does that give him a free pass? But if my 10-year-old Golden just wants to smell the grass does that mean he has to put up with the 10-month-old Boxer jumping all over him? What happens if my dog snaps at the Boxer. Is that “normal” behaviour and should we just let it play out, should I leave the park with my Golden, because he doesn’t want to play, or should the Boxer owner leave the park because he is too playful and not under control? What could be a compromise for both? Can owners realistically work this out?  What is fair?

With dogs coming from many different backgrounds and people wanting their dogs to get exercise and socialization, how can off-leash parks be for all urban dogs and manageable?

  

Does the breed of a dog tell us anything about its' behaviour?

Statements such as 'that is an aggressive breed' and 'all Border Collies chase children' are often reiterated by the public and some people in the animal care profession. Do these statements hold any validity? While this question has been addressed, the reports in the literature are variable with different research projects yielding different results. Labeling certain breeds as aggressive does not hold up to scrutiny, not only due to the variability in defining what specific breeds are, but because certain breeds are more popular and therefore have a greater percentage of the dog population, and collection of actual bite statistics. The best statistics, as far as overall quantities and recording of injuries that lead to medical attention, are based on US data; which may or may not be relevant to Canada given our different demographics.  

Within each dog breed certain characteristics tend to be selected for. However, due to genetic variability some offspring display these characteristics while others do not. It is also important to consider that depending on what environment and stimuli dogs are exposed to, some dogs may display certain behaviours to a different degree than others. 

In Steven Lindsay's "Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training," he discusses breed variations and says, "The important issue at stake here is not whether a dog exhibits innately prepared or instinctive behaviour, but that such behavior exhibits sufficient variability and flexibility to be modified through training."  I interpret this to mean that if we breed dogs for certain traits we also need to confirm that we breed for bidability. This will ensure our ability to train them to display the behaviours we need them to display in certain environments, such as not chasing children in an urban environment, even if they can herd sheep on the farm.  Our ability to influence our dogs' behaviour is one of the most important aspects of living successfully with our canine pals.

To conclude, there is some truth to breed characteristics, but socialization, training and individuality hold more stock as to the final behavioural outcome.

For more specific information about bite statistics please see the 'A Community Approach to Dog Bite Prevention' published by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Barbara Walmer CPDT-KSA, CBCC-KA, KPA CTP, ACDBC

When good pets go bad

Your once calm and quiet Golden Retriever has started barking and chewing the kids toys. Is it a change that has developed with age? Been learned from other dogs? Or is this new behaviour something you may have unknowingly introduced... 

InfoStream Guest Author Barbara Walmer provides strategies for behaviour reinforcement in pets. 

Your dog is a part of your family.  This is definitely the way most people feel about their pets.  Do you expect that a member of your family could display inappropriate or aggressive behaviour?  Many families handle both human and animal members of their families differently when they exhibit behaviour that we label as inappropriate or aggressive.  Ignoring, re-directing, punishing, and disassociating are all methods different people utilize. 

Behaviour is constantly changing, in both humans and animals.  We do what works for us, on both an emotional and practical level.  To keep behaviour strong it needs to be reinforced.  If an animal is not reinforced for a certain set of behaviours, they are likely to change strategies.  For example, a dog who lies quietly on its dog bed is ignored will change its behaviour to getting up and barking, in order to get attention. 

Remember dogs are social animals who want to be a part of the action, which includes verbal and physical interaction.  We often are passive when behaviour that is exhibited is “appropriate”, but react to behaviour that is “inappropriate”.  Often behaviour problems start with small behaviour changes that go unrecognized or ignored for a period of time until they become problematic.  At this point, an animal has practiced the behaviour sequence many times and been reinforced (by the environment or people).  This is typically when people come to seek guidance. 

The good news, is behaviour is constantly changing. The bad news is the animal is finding the current behaviour pattern reinforcing and effective.  We have to change this dynamic in many situations to allow the animal to find other behaviours (typically ones they did before) more reinforcing.

As humans, we can contribute to undesirable behaviour by not acknowledging it.  The sooner we recognize behaviour changes and seek help with an accredited trainer the better it is for all.  Behaviour continues to change.  Be aware!

- Barbara Walmer CPDT-KSA, CBCC-KA, KPA CTP, ACDBC