Curious Canines Dog Behaviour and Training

13/10/2022

To Castrate or Not To Castrate!

For decades castration has been recommended routinely for young dogs as a cure for:
🐶 Barking, lunging and reactivity at dogs or people
🐶 Dog-dog interaction challenges
🐶 Hu***ng, inappropriate toileting
🐶 Adolescence (as if it needs curing like it’s a disease 😂)

Download my free book on this to keep forever here: beha.vet/free-neutering-ebook

⚠️WARNING!⚠️ What I’m about to discuss relates to castration and health and behaviour. This does NOT relate to overpopulation management. However, of note, in some countries, castration is considered a mutilation and these countries have less of an overpopulation issue than countries where it is routinely recommended, highlighting how intrinsic overpopulation is to societal beliefs around and respect for dogs.

👉 What actually happens when we castrate a dog?

Well, to put it bluntly, the testicles get chopped off. What does this lead to?
It completely removes the dog’s ability to reproduce.
It removes a major source of testosterone; the Leydig cells that produce testosterone reside within the testicles and so experience a extracorporeal relocation too! Important to note here that I say a major source as the adrenal glands in both sexes as well as the ovaries in the bitch produce small quantities also.

👉 What consequence does this have?

Importantly, testosterone is valuable as a hormone from a behaviour perspective. In multiple species, it has been demonstrated to be closely associated with confidence. Why is this protective against behaviour struggles? Well, behaviour struggles are often driven by lack of confidence, anxiety, fear and situational pessimism and certainly never the result of positive emotional states that testosterone would promote.

“There is absolutely no benefit to reducing an animal’s confidence when working on their behaviour. Confidence is never a bad thing!”

👉 What the SCIENCE Says!

In 2018, McGreevy et al published a study in Plos One (It’s open access so you can check it how here if you are feeling geeky: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5931473/), assessing how the length of time a dog maintained their go**ds for influenced the risk of behaviour struggles.

👉 What did they find?

The shorter the time they keep their go**ds and, in turn, the sooner they lose most of their testosterone, the less likely the dogs’ owners were to report two behaviour struggles - howling when left alone and indoor urine marking.

Oh! Easy! Question Answered! To theatre we go….

Wait for it.

The findings didn’t end there. The longer the dogs in the study (sample size of 6235) kept their go**ds attached and, in turn, their testosterone, the less likely their owners were to report 26 (Yes, TWENTY SIX!) mostly unwelcome behaviour struggles!!

AND

7 (yes, SEVEN!) of these behaviour struggles that were much less likely the longer a dog remained entire would be labelled as “aggressive” (including “aggression” directed towards people and other dogs).

So let’s dive into the reasons why castration is often wrongly considered and wrongly recommended…

😱Barking, lunging and reactivity! This behaviour struggle is often driven by an underlying pessimism, dogs perceiving novelty in the environment (whether that be a human, another dog, a cat or a kangaroo!) to be something to worry about. Pessimism and lack of confidence are closely linked and so it is no surprise that castration doesn’t help this situation and often makes it worse as the McGreevy findings suggest!

Download my free book on this to keep forever here: beha.vet/free-neutering-ebook

😱Dog-Dog interaction challenges! This refers to unpredictability in a dog’s interaction with another dog. It might be that your dog unpredictably snaps when having a nose-nose interaction. It might be that your dog stands over another dog and raises their hackles. It might be that your dog charges and barks at other dogs upon the approach. The thing is, a successful interaction can only occur with three skills: 1. Optimism, 2. Disengagement (seeing value in moving away from the interaction), 3. Calmness. Any weakness in these will lead to unpredictable (or very predictable!!) breaks in the chain. I’m sure we can all relate to a time in our lives where we’ve had a fail in one of these departments and had a bad interaction with someone (maybe a partner….) - it didn’t come from overconfidence, it came from all the rubbish that went on at the office that day and your sore back!

Now I have a saying when it comes to dog behaviour and that is -

“If you want more of something, BUILD IT! Don’t attempt to squash something else to make it seem bigger!”

Success in’t about trying to correct, inhibit or STOP a behaviour. This is about growing the skills needed to behave effectively and go through the world feeling great! So again, castration has absolutely no place here and again often makes things worse!

😱 Hu***ng and Inappropriate Toileting! These behaviours were long hailed as the ultimate in dogs disrespecting us and, therefore, by some twisted logic, if an animal is disrespecting you, you must chop off a body part, reduce their confidence, show them who is boss. Crazy right?! 😂 Of course not - in fact, these behaviours (just like the ones above) are just a couple of behaviours a dog might select from when feeling worried, anxious, scared or a little bit like “I don’t know what to do here.”

Have you ever had an interaction with another human where you were nervous for whatever reason and you said something crazy or did something completely weird instead of just shaking their hand? Meet the canine equivalent: hu***ng!

Again this is driven by LACK of confidence, not overconfidence and so castration won’t make it better and might again make it worse! Inappropriate toileting and marking behaviours can be much the same, and so while research shows that castration might improve marking in the house in some instances, it can equally make it worse based on this and so, importantly, we should never do something irreversible when reversible (non-body-part-chopping) options exist.

😱 Adolescence! Adolescence is not a disease! In fact, none of this is a disease!

“These are not BEHAVIOUR PROBLEMS! They’re DOG BEHAVIOUR!”

Adolescence is a period of development! It’s associated with structural brain, cognitive and hormonal changes. It’s a period that actively promotes conflict between the animal (human or canine) and their carer as an evolutionarily beneficial temperature check on the relationship (more on that another time maybe). What all the research agrees on in relation to human and canine adolescence is that confidence and relationship are key! The Asher et al 2020 study on canine adolescence found that conflict (in the form of ignoring a sit cue) was much reduced with increasing relationship between dog and owner. What do we take from this?
Chopping off body parts will not help.
Spend the time and money you were going to spend on castrating your dog and invest it in your relationship bank account instead - invest in positive interactions, games, play, whatever you and your dog love!

Download my free book on this to keep forever here: beha.vet/free-neutering-ebook

🩺👨🏼‍⚕️ Health Benefits of Castration

Castration has also been recommended from a health standpoint, reducing the risk of a variety of diseases. However, the health benefits castration brings (such as prevention (and resolution of) benign prostatic hyperplasia) are only of significance after the age of 5 in most dogs when they become at increased risk of such. Equally, there’s early evidence to show that castration before one year of age could increase the risk of joint disease, cancer risk and allergic skin disease, further reinforcing the idea that early castration (if even at all) is not nor should not be a procedure that comes with a blanket recommendation for all young dogs.

Reversible Options!

Finally, we must consider if it is appropriate to give a blanket recommendation on anything that is irreversible and not completely benign when reversible options are available. Short-term implants have the same whole body effects as surgical removal of the testicles while still being reversible! These can act like a test drive of the new hormonal system where castration is being strongly considered without the fallout of an irreversible procedure.

👉 The Future!

So, that’s the wrap on castration with a focus on behaviour and training! Whenever I talk about this, it often causes of a wave of remorse and grieving for the now lost testicles of your dog’s youth. BUT I work with people on a daily basis whose dogs have had their go**ds inappropriately removed at some point and yet they are achieving amazing results and living the lives that they dreamt of when they got a dog in the first place.

The first step they took was ditching the labels, the limiting beliefs and the story of how they arrived where they did. The second step they took is they took their dog-owning dream off the back burner and they made it a MUST.

The reality is that castrated or not, you can unlock real-life results and amazing transformations with your dog with the right plan, the right tools, the right games and strategies! I even wrote a book on it you can download for free here: beha.vet/free-neutering-ebook

This is an opportunity to spread the word, save some go**ds along the way and change the blanket advice for the better, so if you know someone who this might benefit, please share it far and wide :-)

11/10/2022

Using my 10 years experience in education, coupled with experience as a Dog Listener, I have developed a program that will not only give you the knowledge and understanding but also a learning experience which will ensure you make sustained long- term progress, and see the results that you are looki...

16/07/2022

We have arrived in France (finally) to a heatwave of around 40 degrees every day for over one week.

Thankfully I haven’t seen anyone out walking their dogs here for “exercise” until much later in the evening. Sensible lot, the French…

08/05/2022

We see so many dog attacks in the news and online with young children involved sadly, owners are always recommended not to leave young children and dogs unattended. Its heartbreaking. ***In no way saying these attacks were provoked***
As a dog owner the thought that always comes to mind is why and did the dog retaliate to something that happened.

It’s so important for dog owners to teach their kids how to respect the dogs.
I have seen many kids pull fur, ears, poke eyes and noses, sit on their backs, kick them, cuddle the dogs and some hanging from their necks when the dog clearly wants to be left alone and the parents laughing says it’s ok he/she (the dog) is used to it. This is abuse! No dog or animal under no circumstances should ever have to be subjected to this behaviour.

What kind of a society nowadays it is when they think that this behaviour is acceptable. These people shouldn’t be allowed dogs in the first place!!! 😡

Many a time see so many people/children approach other peoples dogs without asking if it’s ok to do so, so many people now have rescue dogs that are timid and nervous.
Please always ask the owner if it’s ok to approach the dog to pet. Children love to pet dogs and want to cuddle them when they see them but it’s so important to teach your children to always ask and only pet them supervised by yourself. If the dog backs away or hides behind the owner just leave the dog alone.

05/05/2022

16/04/2022

Want to be able to make friends with new dogs when you meet them? You can signal that you’re friendly by using canine body language!

We often hear that you’re supposed to offer a dog the back of your hand to sniff, but the body language of this move is actually quite threatening. When we lean forward to offer our hand, we’re facing the dog square on, looming over them, making eye contact and invading their space. All of those signals combine into an intimidating message, and as a result many dogs will become uncomfortable when greeted in this fashion. Confident dogs will usually respond with a couple of signals like turning their head away, yawning, or licking their nose, which means they’d like the human to ease up a bit. Shy or anxious dogs will back away, cower, or even growl, snap or bite.

The best way to greet a dog is to either stand side on to them and invite them over by patting your leg or calling to them, or crouch down on the ground and let them come to you. This method ensures that it’s the dog’s choice to come and say hello – they’re moving up to you, rather than you moving up to them.

If the dog chooses not to approach, it means that they don’t want to say hello. It’s important that you respect that choice, and leave them be. If you’re going to be spending some time with the dog, be patient and hang back – the best way to win the trust of a shy dog is to avoid putting pressure on them to interact. Move slowly, blink your eyes a lot to avoid staring, and don’t speak loudly. If they approach to sniff you, don’t pet them right away. Let them sniff, then when they’re finished move away from them and try inviting them closer again.

Best of luck making some new doggie friends Dog Geeks! We’d love to hear how being conscious of your body language has helped you greet dogs, or if you’ve ever won the trust of a shy dog by being patient and avoiding pressuring them.

- Maddie Ross CPDT-KA

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For more graphics and videos on training and behaviour, check out our library: https://www.beacondogtraining.com.au/thatdoggeek

20/03/2022

Can we, please, for the sake of dogs everywhere, and their people, normalize doing NOTHING with your dog?

No, I don’t mean leaving them alone all day or not training them or enriching their life at home. I mean not feeling like we have to DO something with them or have them BE something or a certain way. I’m not talking about neglecting dogs, I’m talking about taking pressure off them.

The majority of dogs are totally, 100% fine doing nothing. They truly don’t care about going with you to uncle Tim’s graduation bbq, or going to the dog park to make “friends” or any of the other stuff that WE, their people want for our own enjoyment and what the idea of having a dog has meant to us. Then, when we push these things on dogs, we are upset and disappointed that they don’t enjoy them, or behave a certain way, without looking at the big picture.

You have my full permission to do nothing with your dog. To train them for as much as you need, to enrich their lives as much as they desire, but if that means they stay home and snuggle on the couch with you instead of competing in a sport or going out in public, that is OKAY.

It’s also okay to teach your dog who does enjoy activities to DO NOTHING. And I can’t stress this enough. My dogs have days where they don’t get anything but some playtime in the yard and bones to chew. I don’t have them assume they get everything all day long. I see so many dogs that just don’t know how to do nothing because they are always doing SOMETHING.

The pressure dog people feel nowadays is directly correlated I believe to the increasing behavior issues dogs are having. The idea of dogs being able to do all these things we want them to and go all these places is just setting a standard and expectation that is completely unfair and setting both people and dogs up for failure.

Teach your dog to do nothing. Be okay doing nothing with your dog. Be okay leaving them home, not letting them say hi to everyone, not having to make friends with other dogs, not getting this or that title or certificate or whatever it is.

The four hooligans went on a walk, a long one this morning, and now will spend the rest of the day doing nothing, and that’s okay.

PLEASE IF YOU SHARE- GIVE CREDIT TO THE AUTHOR - Helen st. Pierre

16/03/2022

Distraction is a really useful tactic when encouraging a puppy to give up something precious to you. Make something seem much more fun and they will find it very difficult to resist.

More advice for new puppy owners is available in my Puppy eBook: https://tonyknightdoglistener.com/pages/puppies

16/01/2022

It’s about time. This is another small step in the right direction and victory but there is still massive amounts of ignorance living in our social consciousness. Keep educating, advocating and fighting for these dogs. They are voiceless, innocent inherently good beings and their lives depend on us staying dedicated to being their voice.

“ALBANY — A new New York state law prohibits insurance companies from refusing to provide insurance to homeowners based on dog breeds, a move that’s drawing praise from pet owners who say some dogs are unfairly maligned as inherently violent.

“It’s not fair to the animals and not fair to the homeowners who want to give their pets loving homes,” said Libby Post, executive director of the NYS Animal Protection Federation.”

FULL ARTICLE⤵️
https://www.silive.com/news/2022/01/new-ny-state-law-bans-insurers-from-rejecting-you-over-what-kind-of-dog-you-have.html

25/08/2021

Lots of times, our dog’s messages get lost in translation. Because we don’t speak the same language, we need to become close observers of our dogs. By learning what they’re trying to communicate we can improve our relationships immensely.

Are any of these “translations” new to you?

www.ignoremydog.com

10/08/2021

16/07/2021

Say hello to Sally, the star on the cover of this book 🐶❤️

Her owner – Anne Scriven - a client of mine, wrote a book called
“Learning to Listen – Life and a very nervous dog” 📖

Within the book, you can find –

➡️ How using my approach allowed them to really listen to their dog and allow Sally the time and space she needed to heal.

➡️ How they went from feeling like they might need to give her up to have a beautiful and understanding relationship.

➡️ Hilarious stories/funny bits

You can purchase the book by following the link below 👇🏻😍

https://www.amazon.co.uk/sk=learning+to+listen+Anne+scriven&ref=nb_sb_noss

15/02/2021

It happens too often. You’re walking your dog and someone just can’t help but be magnetized by the adorable creature on the other end of your leash.
•
What if that adorable creature is fearful or unsure of strangers? What if they are terrified of children? What if they’re having a bad day and don’t want attention? What if they’re working as a therapy or service dog? What if they’re working with their handler on a new or appropriate behavior for the environment? What if it didn’t matter and you just gave them space?
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Imagine if we and taught our children to not approach a dog, but rather admire them from afar.
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We can recreate a world that allows dogs the choice to engage or not.
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Who’s with me?