Positively Behavioral- Dog Training

01/20/2025

We’re all just doing our best. Don’t guilt trip yourself. ❤️

12/15/2024

At this point in time, most folks understand the link between pain and behavior. It’s logical: you don’t feel well, you have less patience and tolerance, you lash out or shut down or otherwise are not the best version of yourself. It makes sense that the same would be true for dogs.

But how do we know there is pain with animals who cannot verbalize that pain?

The short answer: we can’t know.

The longer answer: we also can’t know there ISN’T pain.

Meet Malus.

From puppyhood, he’s been a little spicy. But he’s a terrier, so that’s normal, right? He didn’t like having his feet handled. No biggie. And as he got older, he got a little reactive to other dogs - again, see “terrier” in the dictionary. And after he got neutered at 2.5 years old, his behavior spiraled - going after his housemates, aggression directed at his owners, even less tolerance for handling, increased fence fighting. But there’s some evidence of increased aggression after neutering, so maybe he just got unlucky.

For many folks, that explanation would’ve been enough. They would’ve worked on behavior modification, or just accepted a crate and rotate household, or managed the heck out of all of his triggers… or, honestly, would’ve ended up euthanizing him for his dangerous behavior.

Luckily, Malus’s mom is Katrina, who is essentially a terrier in a human body. She dug in.

Training, a veterinary behaviorist, consulting with other behavior experts, expensive testing - and then we got our first physical explanation: low zinc.

But even with a zinc supplement, his aggressive episodes remained unpredictable. Katrina had noticed some very, very intermittent lameness, foot chewing, butt/tail biting, so off they went to the first orthopedic specialist - one who cleared him orthopedically for all activities.

So they did physical therapy, and pain meds, and kept working on training.

But the weird, mild lameness continued, and so did visits to specialists. A neurologist who recommended an MRI, then more physical therapy for a possible psoas strain, different meds, another orthopedic/rehab specialist consultation, adjustments to physical therapy, a PEMF bed for home use, adjustments to behavior meds, consults with nationally respected trainers and behavior specialists, and finally - FINALLY - a recommendation to see a pain management specialist.

“I think he may have Tethered Cord Syndrome. I’m going to try different pain meds, but there’s a specialist in Massachusetts you should get in touch with.”

With the new meds on board, his behavior improved. He was brighter, happier, had fewer episodes of lameness, self mutilation, and aggression.

Yesterday, Malus had a dynamic MRI at Tufts, where Tethered Cord Syndrome was confirmed.

Today, he had surgery to relieve the adhesions to his spinal cord that have been causing him pain.

He was never “just being a terrier.” He was not acting out for no good reason. He didn’t need harsher training methods. He wasn’t aggressing for no reason.

He was in pain.

There are no words to adequately describe how thrilled I am for Katrina and Malus to have this diagnosis and surgery in their rear view mirror - it has been a long time coming. The strain on Katrina and Kevin’s emotions, time, resources, finances, and household over the last 5 years cannot be overstated. Most folks wouldn’t - and couldn’t - go to the lengths they did.

We can’t rule out pain. We can only rule out specific issues and diagnoses. For Malus, it took finding the right vet who had heard about this rarely diagnosed issue to connect them with the vet who could help.

To my clients I encourage to work with their veterinarian to try to find any physical explanations: Katrina and Malus are the reason why I will push you more if your primary care vet shrugs you off. It’s why I will push and push and push, especially if your commitment to training and management is excellent but we still are struggling to make progress. Malus is on my shoulder (sometimes literally), poking me with his nose, screeching in my ear to look harder.

If you’ve ever heard him, you know how hard that ✨ delightful ✨ noise is to ignore.

(PS - Here’s your sign to sign up for pet insurance.)

To learn more about Tethered Cord Syndrome:
https://vet.tufts.edu/news-events/news/breakthrough-surgical-procedure-relieves-dogs-chronic-pain

08/15/2024

An unqualified trainer recently created a video recommending that you let your puppy 'cry it out' in a crate. This is incredibly damaging advice that will not only damage the relationship you share with your puppy, but also cause more behavioural issues in future. How do we know this?

Despite the fact that dogs progress through developmental stages much quicker than humans, puppies experience similar emotions and developmental stages to that of a human baby. Research continues to reveal that dogs are a sentient species and that their brains respond to stimuli, such as stress, in the same way as our own.

Rat brains are often used to research how mammalian brains work. In one such study, it was found that there is a critical period for switching on genes that control anxiety for the rest of the animal's life. If the rat offspring experienced a low nurturing mother in the first 10 days of life, those genes never switched on, resulting in that offspring being anxious for the rest of its life. The same mechanisms are found in the human brain, whereby the caregiver has the ability to influence genes, depending on the care they provide. Scientists have also revealed that there are actually hundreds of these genes influenced by nurturance. Thus, this study revealed that the care provided during infancy, has the power to influence the mammalian brain's ability to manage stress and anxiety. (Michael Meaney and colleagues; e. g., Meaney, 2001).

The argument that "letting puppies cry it out will help them develop resilience", is disproven by scientific research. Studies reveal that human babies left to cry don't self-regulate in isolation. "If they are left to cry alone, they learn to shut down in face of extensive distress—stop growing, stop feeling, stop trusting" (Henry & Wang, 1998). In comparison, when a baby is consistently comforted when they are distressed, they begin to expect to be soothed, which then contributes to the baby's future ability to self-soothe. Therefore, responding to a baby's distress helped them develop more resilience in future.

Other studies show that babies left to cry it out, have a tendency to become insecure, aggressive, bad tempered and more demanding. In fact, the extreme distress occurring as a result of prolonged crying, is even believed to cause significant damage to neurons in the brain. (Darcia Narvaez Ph.D)

During infancy, the brain is developing quickly, thus when the baby is distressed for long periods, it creates conditions for damage of the synapses. Cortisol (the stress hormone) is also released, which when in excess, can destroy neurons in the brain. Prolonged stress can also begin to impact the infant’s immune system, for example, prolonged distress in early life can result in a poorly functioning vagus nerve, resulting in conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome. (Stam et al, 1997)

Study after study reveals that lack of care and leaving a baby to cry negatively impacts the development and resilience in a variety of mammalian species. ( Don't forget a lot of what we know about the human brain is from studies of other mammals rather than humans.)

We are trying to demonstrate that we are this puppy’s new family and surely we want our puppy to feel safe and loved. If they begin to feel more insecure because prolonged crying hasn’t gotten them the comfort they needed in the past, they will soon learn to escalate their behaviour in a desperate attempt for comfort. Thus, leaving them to cry can actually result in more behavioural issues, because our puppy now feels so insecure and anxious, they can’t cope being left alone.

“Caregivers who habitually respond to the needs of the baby before the baby gets distressed, preventing crying, are more likely to have children who are independent than the opposite” (e.g., Stein & Newcomb, 1994).

The same is true of puppies. Rather than thinking in turns of giving attention for the crying, we should be trying to prevent the crying altogether by ensuring we always respond to our puppy’s needs. Crying is the first form of communication puppies develop and its indicative of a need and we took on the responsibility to address that need when we brought them home. So, it is very unfair to decide we aren’t going to respond to the crying, when it is us that decided to bring this baby into our family.

From these studies, and many more, we can conclude that forcing independence on a puppy can often lead to greater dependence on you. - Holly Leake ©

Please feel free to share this post but please do not copy or paste the writing or edit the graphic in any way. Thank you.

References

Darcia F. Narvaez Ph.D. 2011

Henry, J.P., & Wang, S. (1998). Effects of early stress on adult affiliative behaviour, Psychoneuroendocrinology 23( 8), 863-875.

Meaney, M.J. (2001). Maternal care, gene expression, and the transmission of individual differences in stress reactivity across generations. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24, 1161-1192.

Stam et al, 1997

Stein & Newcomb, 1994

04/18/2024

Never be this person.

Never be this person.

Running a small business is hard work. There are no paid sick days. No paid holidays. There’s little job security. If it rains and you can’t run classes for a week, that’s a week’s groceries you can’t afford.

We don’t get paid for the hours of travel, we don’t get our fuel subsidized. We have to pay venue hire, even if nobody turns up. We go home after a long day at work and instead of switching off, it’s time to do admin, advertising and lesson prep for the next day into the early hours. It quite literally is non-stop.

If somebody who is running their own small business doesn’t answer an email, there’s probably a reason. Maybe they’re totally snowed under. Maybe they’re sick. Maybe they (god forbid) have taken a bit of time off to relax. Maybe they didn’t see it. Maybe it went into the junk box. Maybe they accidentally overlooked it. Maybe, and with my lack of object permanence I do this a lot, they fully formulated a response and forgot to press send.

A one star review, for a small business, is the difference between a 5 star reputation and a 4.8 star reputation. What justifies a one star review? If I took your money and never showed up. If I did a really shoddy job and made your dog worse. If I was rude or unprofessional. If I promised something and put no effort in to deliver. One star is the lowest review you can give. Receiving this review from somebody I’ve never met is appalling.

Because to them, it’s faceless. It’s ’this will show her for ignoring my email!’ For a small business owner, it might be the difference between getting more work or being overlooked. It’s reputation. Because if someone is willing to give the lowest possible review, surely that must be justified?

Realistically, I would never want to work with someone like this, who is willing to drag a business through the mud at the slightest inconvenience. I’ve saved myself the stress of likely working with someone rude and entitled, probably somebody unwilling to wait for results and instead wants a quick fix- something that just doesn’t work in my business. And if this person needed instant responses, it’s probably a good thing we didn’t work together anyway, because I can’t possibly deliver on that.

This was 11 months ago. It’s fine. But next time you’re considering leaving a one star review, just put yourself in their shoes. Have a bit of compassion. Do you really want to attack a business that, in this current climate, is probably just trying to stay afloat? Do you want to potentially destroy the reputation of someone you’ve never actually met? What good can come from leaving this review, because I promise all it will do is ensure I send any subsequent emails from them straight into the deleted folder.

Just try to be the kindest version of yourself. Something minor like this, which they probably forgot they did a few days later, can leave a lasting impact on others.

03/20/2024

Come to think of it, we're all doing the best we can.

03/14/2024

This 100%!

03/08/2024

How incredibly disappointing. I will also be removing their products from my recommended products list to clients. Our dogs deserve better. Promoting someone with laughable credentials and knowledge in canine behavior in a professional field is wild.

UPDATE: I've posted the reply from Lickimat in the comments. So disappointing to see a brand I previously recommend - Lickimat- is promoting a trainer renowned for using aversives.

I do not support businesses that claim to enrich dogs' lives, but then choose to platform such harmful figures.

02/22/2024