Talking Paw Behaviour

15/08/2025

Excellent advice

Thank you, Lisa Allen for the tag and for promoting positive training methods! I couldn't figure out how to respond in the thread, but first of all, know that I am fond of German Shepherds. I grew up with one! And secondly, oh my, the bad advice on that page! It hurts my heart!

Here's the answer to the question of puppy biting. Puppies bite like babies use their mouths when exploring the world around them. You are correct in that some of this biting is associated with teething. Puppies go through a teething period around 4-6 months, like human babies.

Would you (physically or verbally) punish a baby? I certainly hope not! Well, don't (physically or verbally) punish a puppy either for being a puppy! That's cruel and inhumane!

Puppies are separated from their litters when they're just weeks old, and their human owners assume responsibility for the remainder of their parenting. Puppies should not be separated from their littermates and mother before they're at least 8 weeks of age. They need this time to learn how to interact with other dogs, including how hard to bite when playing.

Once in our care, we continue to teach them. We should not try to be dogs, but rather aim to teach our puppies how to get along in our human world and interact with humans.

One important thing we can and should teach our puppies is how to interact with people, including how to inhibit their bite. The proper way to teach this is by simply withdrawing attention when the puppy places its teeth on your skin.

This means you should withdraw touch, avert your gaze and SAY NOTHING. Puppies bite because they want to interact. They want attention. When we want to modify behavior, one of the things we do is remove the reinforcement that would encourage the unwanted behavior to continue.

When you do this, the behavioral term is negative punishment. Negative because we are taking something away (attention), and punishment because if the behavior stops (and it will over time, if you're consistent), the behavioral term for the consequence that stops the behavior is "punishment." In other words, when an unwanted behavior stops as a result of the consequence which follows the unwanted behavior, we call the consequence, "punishment."

So, understand this: punishment does not have to be painful or fear-provoking to stop a behavior. And it should NOT be!

If the puppy starts biting before an interaction starts, in other words, the puppy initiates interaction with biting, then simply avoid reinforcing this behavior. Do not look at the puppy, do not say anything, and do not touch the puppy. This is withholding reinforcement. You are withholding the attention the puppy is seeking, which, if consistent, will cause the behavior to extinguish, or fade away.

Again, the key here is consistency. If the puppy sometimes gets attention, in any form, the behavior will remain strong. What the puppy learns is that biting sometimes works to get attention, and so he'll keep biting because it works! It's like putting money in a slot machine. If a whole bunch of coins falls out of the machine, you're apt to keep putting money in the machine, even if the pay-out is random and infrequent.

I will only mention a couple of things NOT to do. Don't yelp! Don't try to be a dog! You aren't one, and your puppy knows it. Yelping, according to the former director of the Purdue Veterinary Behavior Clinic, Dr. A. Luescher, can further stimulate some puppies, so just don't do it.

Another thing to not do: don't hold your puppy's muzzle and say "No bite!" Again, whether mother dogs bite their puppy's muzzles, I do not recall, but just don't try to be a dog. You aren't one! And don't say, "No bite!" If you think about it, this is rather silly. Saying "No" before "bite" doesn't simplify the command for a non-verbal animal. You could just as well say, "Don't bite" and your puppy would understand just as well.

But rather than trying to communicate with your dog in human language, just use what we call operant conditioning and withhold reinforcement for biting. Operant conditioning is training based on behavior science. In simplest terms, dogs repeat what works, and they don't repeat what doesn't work.

I always tell my students, it's only fair to also teach the dog what to DO instead. So, you can also divert your dog's biting behavior to an acceptable chew toy. The message is, "Chew on this INSTEAD."

Additionally, look for behaviors, such as quiet, calm behavior that you would like to see repeated and praise that behavior. See your puppy chewing on a chew toy you gave him? Praise him! Give your puppy attention for the behaviors you want to see repeated. This is teaching, and that is what you need to be doing with your puppy.

Remember, your puppy is a baby, removed from his littermates and mother and now in the care of another species with whom he has to learn to communicate and interact and get along. Please be kind and help your puppy learn using best practices based on what we know about behavior and learning.

Thank you,

Cindy Ludwig, MA, BS, RN
Certified Professional Dog Trainer (Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers)
Karen Pryor Academy graduate & Certified Training Partner (KPA-CTP)
Owner, Canine Connection LLC
Willard, MO
Serving SW Missouri and beyond

23/06/2025

Is your cat hiding something?

23/06/2025

Dont keep calling your dog when they are not listening to you. Zak has some great tips here on how to make yourself so exciting that your dog won't be able to resist you!!

18/06/2025

In this hot weather, sniffing is an ideal way to keep your dogs occupied and stimulated without having to risk taking them out walking.

When living with a dog who has lots of energy it can seem logical to think that they need more exercise to tire them out - longer, faster walks, more throwing of a ball (or using a ball chucker), always more, more, more...

While this does on the surface seem to make perfect sense, when following that advice what we are actually doing is making the situation worse. Think about how an athlete works to increase their fitness - they do more and faster. Now think about throwing a ball for the dog repeatedly. This is much like the shuttle runs those athletes do to increase their speed and fitness levels.

The great news is that there is another option for these high energy dogs. Yes, they need physical exercise, but they also need mental exercise. Luckily, mental exercise is a fairly easy thing to provide for all dogs, and we can even fit a great amount in on our daily walks.

Sniffing is an activity suitable for all dogs. Scent is the primary way dogs analyse and interpret their world, with an olfactory capability way better than that of humans. Simply giving your dog time and space to sniff on a walk gets that brain working and that will tire your dog more than you might realise. My own Border Collies (one of whom is the young dog sniffing in the image) will relax and snooze as much after 20 minutes of sniffing as they will after a 2 hour mostly off lead walk.

There are lots of ways to provide mental exercise for dogs, but this most powerful form is something that we can access free at any time, just by giving them the time to investigate their surroundings in the way that works best for them.

18/06/2025

Worth a listen .. Don't be that person!

Is your relationship with your cat secretly harming them?In this video, I'm breaking down how a toxic dynamic between cats and their humans can develop — and...

15/06/2025

Bit of a read but some excellent advice here - let your dog enjoy what they do, their lives are too short not to

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE DESTINATION BUT THE JOURNEY

10 years ago something happened that changed my life, it changed how I work with dogs and my priorities for my own dogs. This is Elsa’s story and it should have been her birthday today ❤️

If you’re an owner of a reactive or anxious dog you probably worry about the kind of life your dog will have. You may feel like you aren’t doing enough or worry that your dog is missing out on having doggy friends, chasing their ball in the park and running offlead in the woods like ‘normal’ dogs.

Every week we meet new clients who adore their dogs, most of which are perfect at home and love their people, but who are reactive to other dogs or can’t cope in the outside world. We often hear from these lovely, kind and dedicated people that they feel like they aren’t doing enough, that they are somehow letting their dogs down as they don’t have the kind of lives they always imagined their dog would have. These dogs are generally happy in their lives with their people and their difficulties are only one aspect (normally walks), there are normally loads of positives and good bits in the rest of their lives.

Sometimes it’s about acceptance, changing our perspective of what we thought life would be like together and coming to a new realisation of what a fantastic life we can share with our reactive canine friends, perhaps just a different one than we imagined.

If our goals are to be offlead in the busy dog park and happy to play with any dog who decides to say hi or to be able to happily ignore dogs that approach and spend 5 minutes sniffing their bum inappropriately then it’s likely we’d face a long road of disappointment as these just aren’t realistic for so many dogs. If we can change those goals to leading a life together with our canine friends that we both and enjoy and finding activities we can engage in that we love doing together then we have a real chance of success.

Our canine friends lives are far too short to keep striving towards goals that may be unachievable or may only be achievable with sacrifices. The time our dogs share with us is so transient that it’s far too precious to waste. There’s so much fun to be had outside of walks- doing scent work, having a massage or an ACE freework session, visiting friends and family with your dog, that we shouldn’t let issues on walks become our sole focus. Find what your dog loves and what hidden skills they have, you may see them in a whole new light.

Of course we should train and we rehabilitate but this should always be with the goal of a better and less stressful life for both dog and human, not just to reach potentially unrealistic goals.

This isn’t just relevant to reactive dogs but also to dogs that are anxious too. I know this from personal experience as I spent (wasted) many months trying to get my (happy in every other way) but noise phobic and largely agoraphobic young Inuit, Elsa, to increase the boundaries of her small world. She had home, a couple of happy walks and our lovely farm venue that she felt comfortable with and the rest of the world was scary due to her extreme noise issue. She absolutely adored dogs, she must have had a hundred dog pals and would play happily with them for hours at her safe places but I wanted her life to be ‘more’. It seemed such a shame it was so limited, I wanted to be able to do agility in a class and take her on different walks.

I spent a great deal of time working on expanding her safe places and was moderately successful but all that ‘work’ (which was of course all reward based and done without stress) ate into the time we had to just play with pals, do scent work and have fun. I lost Elsa just after her second birthday after several months desperate fight to save her to an untreatable blood disorder. We never had the time to enjoy the ‘bigger’ and more ‘normal’ life we worked so hard for and in hindsight I wish we’d spent less time striving for it.

She taught us so much in her 26 months with us, she played hard, loved her family and friends and saw joy in the little things. She adored playbowing at beetles and doing scent work to find my childrens’ lost Lego. Her world was small and her life wasn’t ‘normal’ but she was so incredibly happy within it- she didn’t want ‘more’ she was content with the life we had.

We should love our time with our dogs, have long term goals to strive towards but also remember to ensure that we enjoy all of our time together and find the fun in our shared journey.

For Elsa 14/6/13-13/9/15

28/05/2025

I know how I'd feel if someone kept disturbing me while I was eating my dinner ..

It's sad to see people being told to invade all areas of their dogs life. Let's assume that like us, they want agency, undisturbed rest and that they have the right to manage their meal without strange human interruptions.

28/05/2025

get acne? Yes, feline acne is real, and your cat's chin might be the hotspot! 🐱

Feline acne is caused by too much sebum and keratin being produced. It commonly appears as blackheads and pimple like swellings on a cat's chin and lips. Cats can also have a greasy coat as a result. 🐈

👇 Top Treatment Tips 👇

🥣 Switch to stainless steel or ceramic bowls ➡️ these materials are less likely to harbour bacteria compared to plastic

💦 Maintain good hygiene ➡️ keeping the cats chin clean after feeding and using a veterinary prescribed antibacterial wash

🩺 Consult your veterinarian ➡️ for persistent or severe cases, professional evaluation and treatment are recommended

⚠️ Remember, never attempt to "pop" your cat's pimples, as it can lead to further irritation or infection.

For more information, check out our website 👉 https://icatcare.org/articles/acne-and-stud-tail

30/04/2025

Choose trainers/behaviourists carefully and look at their qualifications and accreditation

Wanting a behaviour from our dogs to stop is common. Sadly, there are so many 'trainers' who appear on television or have massive social media followings who will advocate using devices and methods that 'will stop it fast'. Let's be honest, as humans we are often results driven, so I can see why these would appeal to people who don't know why these things should not be recommended and used. The reality is that they can make the situation so much worse.

Suppressing a behaviour doesn't mean that the reasons that behaviour happened aren't still there, just that the dog can't do what they feel they need to in that situation. That can lead to increased frustration, stress, fear - depending on what the driver for that behaviour is. Think of it like a pressure cooker, adding more and more pressure, with no way to reduce that pressure. Eventually there comes a point where the pressure is just too much and boom.

If a behaviour is something we can't live with, there are things we can do without suppressing that behaviour. Manage the situation so that the dog is not in a position to practice that behaviour - for example baby gates to stop them jumping up at arriving guests or finding quiet areas to walk if your dog is uncomfortable with other dogs close up. If there is something you would prefer them to do in that situation keep using the management and then, using kind and ethical methods, teach them what you would like them to do instead. If the behaviour is not something that we can simply train an alternative for - a dog who reacts to other dogs around for example - find a behaviour consultant who uses modern and kind methods to help the dog no longer feel the need to use that behaviour.

Behaviour suppression is never the answer.

Here are links to a couple of blog posts that explore the topic a little further:

https://www.goodguardianship.com/post/the-first-question-to-ask-wtf-what-s-the-function
https://www.goodguardianship.com/post/why-we-should-look-beyond-stopping-behaviour

30/04/2025

Growling is valuable communication. It is the dog telling us that they are uncomfortable and need space. If we ignore (or even worse, punish) the growl they may realise it does no good and escalate to a more severe action. This is when we hear that the dog 'bit out of the blue' or 'with no warning'. The truth is that there were warnings, but they were ignored or suppressed and so from the dog's persepctive didn't work to help them feel safer.

It may be that the reason for the growl is something that needs working on (resource guarding, for example) in which case find an educated and experienced kind canine professional to create a plan to address the underlying issue.

Be thankful for the warning power of the growl and respect it to help your dog feel safer and more comfortable in their world.