07/31/2020
Just a little food for thought on dog behavior: always try to figure out what's driving a behavior because sometimes it's not purely behavioral.
Today I saw a puppy that was described to me as "obsessed with digging, but only in the soil". I observed the dog who was obsessive about getting to the soil, but not necessarily to dig. She was consuming it. Dogs do consume soil for reasons such as nutritional deficiency. So, I told them to check in with their vet just to see what they think. We can reinforce alternative behaviors to soil eating all we want. If the behavior is rooted in something physical, that needs to be looked at.
Another great example, one of my good clients recently had her dog become reactive to all sorts of noises (some that the human couldn't hear because they were happening from three blocks away). It was so odd to me that I was convinced it was medical. Well, with a good deal of sleuthing, turns out the dog has some scar tissue growing in her ear canal and she might require surgery. According to the vet, this would definitely mess with the dog's hearing.
Do not suppress problem behaviors. Address them. Know that addressing them doesn't always mean training and behavior modification.
