Perfect Pet Training

10/16/2022

In real-life settings, dogs probably use a variety of contextual signals, and the study results show odor is also a component that dogs can pick up on.

08/25/2022

It took him a bit longer then I expected , he did not finish the job on Friday 🤣🤣
Funny Saturday it is ! 💕

08/23/2022

Important info!

From a local Vet....
This tick has been hanging around for us to show people for a while. After months in a sealed container with no additional feeding she laid eggs. This gives you an idea of how long a tick can be dormant and how many eggs one female can lay. Remember ticks bloom again in the fall so keep up with prevention.

08/22/2022

Ha!

life hack... (Just kidding. Way too mean)

08/22/2022

This!

Exactly!!!!!!

06/16/2022

A great breakdown from Reisner Veterinary Behavior Services, LLC

In today's dog bite news - "Dog Behavior Myth Syndrome".

This story is an unusual one, because a toddler was apparently bitten and torn up by several 12-week old puppies (the breed/mix, size or management of the puppies wasn't revealed).

However, whoever coined "littermate syndrome" as its own disorder with unique, abnormal characteristics (symptoms?) was very imaginative. Why is imagination behind all this? Because it is imaginary. It doesn't exist in behavioral reality.

There are more grounded explanations for what might have happened, as well as what might happen when more than one puppy is raised in a single home.

First, the obvious cautions: Babies, toddlers and young children should never be left alone in situations of risk, which should always include interactions with dogs. The fact that these were puppies isn't relevant. At 12 weeks, in any case, these weren't exactly newborns. Even one 12 week old puppy can be boisterous, mouthy, jumpy and difficult to control. With a squealing, falling or crying toddler, that behavior can escalate. A swarm of several puppies together can intensify each other's play and arousal in reacting to the toddler, unfortunately leading to injury.

That's a well-recognized phenomenon known as social facilitation, which could have been interrupted by an engaged and actively supervising adult.

Also important, raising a puppy requires a great deal of time, attention and management. Puppies need to learn to have social skills with people and with other dogs, and they need gentle guidance in order to navigate this crazy world of strangers, children, different textures, traffic noises, and all of the things. This is best done with one puppy (at a time). If a family wishes to have more than one dog ultimately, it's best to stagger their arrivals so that each can benefit from the attention.

Some puppies and dogs do not get along with others. They might be worried in general, might be compelled to guard food/toys/beds. They might be grumpy for no identifiable reason. When one puppy is this way, regardless of the other's temperament, fights might occur. (FWIW fighting might be seen in a home with a puppy and an adult, as the puppy becomes mature. And it doesn't matter whether or not they're related.)

"Littermate Syndrome" [sic] is not real. It does not explain aggressive behavior any more than, say, "Suburban Dog Syndrome" or "Dogs Whose Humans Insist On Bad Haircuts Syndrome". Littermates are not doomed to a future of separation anxiety, aggression to children or world domination, but they wouldn't have the same opportunities to succeed as a single puppy would. There is no need for a mythical and contrived label to explain why.

[If you choose to share the comments above you might need to copy/paste the comments manually. Please include attribution to this page - Reisner Veterinary Behavior Services, LLC. Thank you, Donna Solinger]

Little Felicity was found unconscious and “possibly missing an eye” on her family’s property earlier in June after being attacked by four 12-week-old puppies

06/14/2022

"But how will he know what he did was wrong?" Dogs are A-Moral. Which means they have no concept of right or wrong. They only understand successful vs unsuccessful , safe vs. unsafe. When your dog does something "wrong" it means he decided that action was going to be successful for him. If you simply make desirable, or correct, behaviors successful and safe for him he won't perform behaviors are that are unsuccessful. So when we punish, we are doing so as an act of retaliation, not an act of love. An act of love would be to set our dogs up to succeed, condition them to respond to cues in a desirable manner, and never find ourselves in the position to "need" to punish. Love, in any form, should not cause pain.

The relationship between brain damage and punishment is well documented in multiple species. When the brain experiences fear, anxiety or stress (particularly in consistent doses) it becomes less pliable over time, this means the brain is not able to form new neural pathways. Neural pathways are responsible for learning, learning is characterized as the brain's ability to form a new neural pathway to retain information. In cases of compulsion, or punishment, we are literally hindering our dog's ability to learn what he should be doing instead.

Dr. Jesus Rosales-Ruiz (a professor of behavior analysis and learning in dogs, humans, and other species) once beautifully declared that "the worst time to correct a problem is after it has already happened." And he is correct, if we simply make desirable behaviors successful and safe for our dogs, they by default can not be performing undesirable behaviors.

Learning shouldn't hurt.

05/06/2022

BONE TO PICK: Have you heard someone say that certain breeds MUST be trained a certain way or that they CAN'T be trained another? Maybe a breed-specific website says that their breed requires an especially strong leader. Or someone online won't believe that a certain approach can be effective unless they see it demonstrated with a [INSERT BREED] that is [INSERT AMBIGUOUS CRITERIA].

This is another variation of the "all dogs learn differently" myth.

Are all dogs individuals? Yes.
Does every dog vary in their motivations? Yes.
Should training be adapted to the dog? Yes.
Do the traits of different breeds require consideration? Yes.

However, that does not mean they learn differently or that one breed can only learn through the use of aversives.

All dogs, regardless of breed, have brains. Brains which, regardless of breed, have amygdalas, frontal lobes, and...well, you get the idea.

Now, what do eagles and alligators have to do with it? They definitely have different brains, right?

Yes, they do. Their brains are not the same as dog brains, just as dog brains are not the same as human brains. But they all learn how to change their behavior to manipulate their environment.

At this moment, animals of all animal groups - bird, fish, reptile, insect, amphibian, and mammal - are being trained the same way.

Because all species, at a core level, learn the same way: This behavior is either successful or unsuccessful. This scenario is either safe or unsafe.

Operant and classical conditioning.

Concepts which are not new, have been tested and retested by scientists for over 100 years, and are not trademarked by anyone writing a book or on television.

I've seen alligators, river otters, sea otters, polar bears, tigers, giraffe, tortoises, and much more demonstrate various forms of target and station training; something I do with dogs every day.

I've seen giraffe, polar bears, and hyenas voluntarily participate in veterinary procedures like blood draws, which falls under husbandry training and is now being done with dogs.

This Fall, watch for a BBC documentary about Ken Ramirez's training of 10,000 butterflies to fly from one place to another on cue. And you want to tell me that a [INSERT BREED] presents a special challenge?

http://www.clickertraining.com/the-butterfly-project

So, when I hear someone say that [INSERT BREED] can't be trained a certain way or must be trained another way, I hear someone making excuses for their lack of knowledge or skills.

Fortunately, we're not limited in our learning just because we're humans. I was certainly one of those trainers who thought clicker training sounded absolutely ridiculous. But I learned more and began trying it with different dogs for different reasons. And the dogs proved me wrong - it wasn't ridiculous. It unlocked a world of possibilities.

See the post "GETTING HELP FOR YOUR DOG" pinned to the top of this page for links to resources where you can learn more.

BUTS

"But what about aggressive breeds?" Aggressive behavior is a normal, natural part of an animals behavioral repertoire. Bees sting. Cats scratch. Giraffe kick. Dogs bite. Horses bite. Birds bite. Heck, if it has a mouth it can bite.

With the exception of predation (formerly called predatory aggression), all aggressive behavior serves the same function: to protect the animal or the resources necessary for the animal's survival or procreation. This is not breed-specific.

Now, some breeds have the capacity to cause more damage when they bite than other breeds, but that does not mean that they are more prone to aggression, are more likely to bite, are more likely to cause injury when they bite, or are inherently more dangerous.

It also doesn't mean that they require special methods to change their behavior.

I'm currently working with a 100 # German Shepherd (GSD) and a 14 # Chihuahua for the exact same behavior. The GSD's owner was told by their vet that the dog MUST be trained with a certain piece of equipment, that "positive methods wouldn't work."

And yet, both dogs are responding equally well to the training...the SAME training. I'm capturing and reinforcing the behaviors I want more of. I'm working below threshold to prevent the practice of behaviors I want less of. I'm increasing tolerance through gradual desensitization. I'm doing all I can to keep anxiety and frustration at a minimum, so I can improve their association to the situations that trigger the problem behavior. These strategies are not breed-specific.

"But positive trainers don't work with [INSERT BREED]"

This is the silliest BUT I see. Positive trainers don't only work with those breeds that people use as an excuse for aversive training, they OWN and live with those breeds. And, yeah, from working lines, too.

Have a dog with fear or aggression? Check out these on-demand webinars: http://www.4pawsuniversity.com/dogbehaviorwebinars

04/07/2022

The more you reinforce a behavior (good or bad), the stronger that behavior becomes.

03/23/2022

Our dogs deserve great Sniffathons.

Shake it…shake it off…

A recent study by two researchers in France looked at sniffing, pulse rate, and leash length on walks. Sixty-one dogs were taken on three separate walks, five minutes each walk, once with a 1.5m leash, once with a 5m leash, and once without a leash at all (walk order was randomized for each dog). Off-leash dogs sniffed the most, more than 3x as long as the dogs on short leashes. Dogs on long leashes spent nearly as much time as unleashed dogs sniffing, almost 3x as long as dogs on short leashes.

This study also found that sniffing resulted in lowered pulse rates, and the more intensely they sniffed, the more their pulse rates lowered. Pulse rate was also lowered when dogs “shook off” during walks on all leash lengths. The “shake off” behavior was often seen when the dog’s pulse rate was particularly high.

Read more about it below!
http://www.dogfieldstudy.com/node/1

https://thebark.com/content/dog-walks-sniffing-shaking-and-pulse-rate

What else can we learn about dogs from their walking behavior? Take your best friend on a Sniffari and see what you observe!

03/14/2022

I wish all dog parks did this.

The more we know, the better we do!

03/12/2022

03/11/2022

Did you know that a good trainer does not need to see your dog react aggressively to help you help your dog?

Believe it or not, provoking your dog to aggression, even if it's by doing things that we believe the dog should tolerate, is the opposite of good training and assessment.

From the moment your dog is in the trainer's line of sight, your trainer should be evaluating all the subtleties of your dog's body language. Is their body tense? What is the height of their tail compared to their normal carriage? What is their ear position? Are the corners of the dog's mouth pulled back super far while the dog pants with a stiff tongue, or is the mouth tightly closed with the corners of the mouth pulled far forward? Is the dog staring at the trainer? Is the dog avoiding eye contract? Is the dog licking their lips or yawning frequently? Is the dog sniffing the ground? Is the dog crouched or on their toes? Can the dog take a treat from the owner? How does the dog take the treat compared to when the trainer isn't there? If the trainer tosses a treat to the dog, can the dog go find the treat? Can the dog easily perform simple, known behaviors for their owner in your presence? At what proximity to the trainer does any of the above behavior start to change?

These are just some of the things that a skilled trainer will be looking for in order to prevent the dog from experiencing unnecessary stress or trauma that would negatively impact future training. We don't need to see the dog barking and lunging to recognize what causes the dog stress. If the dog is barking and lunging, they are suffering, and suffering never helps training.

Instead, a skilled trainer will work, from the very moment they first meet the dog, to help the dog feel safe, to slowly counter condition the dog's emotional response to triggers, and to make sure the dog is never given a reason to develop a negative conditioned emotional response to the trainer beyond what the dog has previously learned. The trainer will still see what the triggers are even if your dog doesn't explode, and they will help you see all the little behaviors you might have previously missed that indicate just how the dog is feeling so that you can learn to immediately change what you are doing to help the dog feel safe when the trainer isn't there.

Sure, some dogs are extremely fast to escalate to lunging and barking, especially if the dog has learned that this set of behaviors is effective in obtaining the distance they need to feel okay again. But at no point should that ever be a goal of any trainer you are working with to decrease aggressive behavior. At best, it is unnecessary; and at worst, it's detrimental to your training goals and to your dog's welfare.

A good trainer will take their time, minimize your dog's stress by doing whatever is necessary to help the dog feel safe, and gradually work to build their confidence by giving them safe choices and happy consequences.

03/11/2022

Just too adorable! Try it, guaranteed to be your awww moment of your day!

OMG, it's TRUE 😲

03/10/2022

Which types of treats to use when training.

I always advise my clients to use a variety of treats, depending on the behavior desired.

For regular training I use freeze dried liver cut into pieces no larger then a green pea.

For more complicated behaviors (such as recall) then I give higher value treats, but still keeping the treat small. I might use diced cheese, or small pieces of freeze dried lung (or any other organ meat).

Then there are situations where I have to bring out the big guns. When I employ counter conditioning (helping a dog start to enjoy things they don't like, which changes their original negative emotion/association to the trigger into a more positive emotion/association), then I use the highest value treats that I can think of. Pieces of hot dog or bacon, something your dog loves more than anything. Very important to reserve these types of treats only for counter conditioning!

For intelligence toys or food puzzles I use their regular food, sometimes adding in a few pieces of higher value items.

Hope this helps when it comes to which types of treats to use when training!

03/10/2022

When Premack doesn't work lol

12/29/2021

So interesting!

This is exciting! A new study in dogs provides new evidence that their brain is not fully developed by one year of age (based on brain activity during sleep, which changes throughout development). This is so important because we don't have a good idea of when development ends and dogs transition to adulthood. Many assume dogs reach adulthood at 1 year, but this research suggests that is NOT the case - they are still developing at that age!
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-02117-1?fbclid=IwAR0iQJZAz3Ksd0P4H7Dk_egF4wN2alRq0NJC6cKGTbwTkpELvmIw5S6miB8

12/10/2021

12/02/2021

Dominance in dogs means different things to different people. Let's find out what it really is.

Countless requests for me to follow up on another essay led to this conclusion

11/22/2021

Dog’s have amazing noses!

11/18/2021

Have an adolescent dog? Then you'll want to read this.

I'm always here to help.

11/17/2021

We often find these memes funny or cute...until we learn the body language that always tells us the truth about how a dog is feeling.

Behavior never lies.

11/02/2021

"The meaning of Force Free Training doesn't only mean Treat Training. It just means finding out any non forceful motivator that works for your dog. All dogs need food...without it they die. Try training before a meal, or upping the value of the food reward you're using. If your dog is too stressed to take food, or prefers a good game of tug, then use that. Use whatever motivates your dog...and remember, it's the dog who chooses what it likes, not us.

Also, too many people confuse training a new behavior vs getting rid of a 'naughty' behavior.

I find that many people will use positive reinforcement when trying to teach the dog something, IE sit, stay, come, etc. But revert to force methods when trying to curb, or eliminate an unwanted behavior. Instead of thinking about what you'd like your dog to stop doing, think of what you'd like the dog to do instead, and train that."

Meira Frankl

:)

10/26/2021