Eiko Dog

18/08/2022

This this this

09/08/2022

It ain’t as easy as it looks being a “cookie pusher”.

First of all what is a 'treat'? It can be anything that your dog REALLY likes. It doesn't even have to be food. A treat for me is to get to spend a whole day in my workshop... That's a really big 'treat' for me. It's just something an animal REALLY likes and would like to receive again, again, and a...

04/07/2022

Amen

My dogs know their place.

Every year, I hope the people spewing nonsense about being pack leader, about being the alpha, about how you need to show the dog who’s boss, will disappear. Every year I’m hopeful that they will pick up a book (that isn’t written in their little echo chamber), do a course worth its salt, or even just watch the most basic YouTube video explaining why they are wrong.

Every year I am hopeful that I won’t see any more dogs wearing prong collars, e-collars, being strung up on a slip lead, being yanked back, alpha rolled, pinned to the ground, shaken, prodded, hissed at, kicked. Dogs that are just babies, dogs that are traumatised, dogs with behavioural problems that, whenever they ask for help or reassurance, are punished. Dogs that are petrified of something scary, only to be told “Stop crying!” as the thing they’re phobic of is drawn closer and closer to them.

Every year, I’m disappointed.

It’s 2022. The basis of this training was debunked DECADES ago. Why do people still feel it’s acceptable to treat dogs this way? To lazily slap the word “dominant” or “stubborn” on their foreheads and take that as an excuse to now treat them however they like.

Do freaking better.

“Oh, but my dog is a German shepherd/ Rottweiler/ staffie and they need a strong hand”

No. If you are incapable of handling a powerful dog without beating the crap out of it and walking it with ligatures, sometimes spiked ligatures, constricting their throat, seriously consider getting a smaller breed. It doesn’t make you look like a tough man, walking an incapacitated large breed dog, it makes you look like a coward. Nothing screams “I’m an incompetent trainer” like somebody reliant on choking their dog just to get them to walk nicely.

One day, we will look back as a society on the people who treat their dogs like this, and be totally repulsed. We will think “how did they get away with it?” I hoped, by 2022, we would be at that point already. But clearly not.

Yeah, my dogs know their place. It’s right beside me.

TLDR: you’re not the alpha, you’re insecure.

20/06/2022

Do you agree?

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 :-)

29/05/2022

Image description: A brown GSP dog with a collar and lead staring intently behind the camera.

Text reads: Adolescence is a time for patience, not push. The frontal cortex is still developing during adolescence and so a young dog’s ability to control its own behaviour is not yet fully developed. This can be mistaken for naughtiness.

20/05/2022

This!

How a dog feels is more important than what they do.

It's so sad to hear again that a child has lost their life due to a dog. Everytime I hear these stories my heart breaks and sinks.

It is undoubtedly true that we are a nation of dog lovers who now share our lives with over 13 million dogs. One of the last studies done in 2018 showed us that 28 per cent of UK households with children now have a dog, compared to just 24 per cent the previous year. This figure has likely exploded over the last 2 years.

These deaths are always both horrific and tragic and my heartfelt condolences go out to all involved. As a professional dog trainer I always take some time to reflect when things like this happen and wonder about our relationships with dogs.

I've recently been writing a 21 week Complete Puppy Course which delves deep into the wonderful world of puppies. I've learnt so much along the journey and some of the biggest things I would like to share with you here.

I think with more understanding we can learn to live with our dogs even better. As a nation as dog lovers we have a huge responsibility to understand these wonderful animals more. We need to understand their endless potential for companionship, love and fun as well as their own ways of communication and emotional experience.

For too long the narrative has been "get dog, train dog, job done". This narrative has to change and we HAVE to shift towards working with feelings over obiendience (I'm not a fan of this word). For myself, and many professionals on the front line, how a dog feels is (for the large part) more important than what they do. Let me repeat that... How a dog feels is more important that what they do.

When writing my course I've read and studied numerous studies on animal behaviour from the heyday of behaviourism in the 1960s right up to present day. These studies tell us that, like humans, dogs have a range feelings and emotions. They struggle at times, feel fear and get stressed. They need to get quality sleep and have their lives enriched in order to remain in balance. They need to be able to express themselves as dogs do. Add to this our responsibilities to meet their fundamental needs of safety, nutrition, health and environment and we start to get an idea of how we should approach these fantastic animals.

One part of the puzzle that is so criminally overlooked is how we all have a responsibility to learn how a dog communicates. The fascinating world of Canine Body Language is something every dog owner should delve into. Once we have an understanding of what our dogs might be feeling and how they are communicating, we are much better placed to assess situations and interactions in order to keep them safe. This for me should (and maybe one day will) be mandatory for all dog guardians.

Another part of the puzzle is the myth that every puppy comes to us as a "blank slate" ready to be moulded into whatever we desire. This particular meme sets our expectations WAY too high. So much of how a puppy develops is out of an average guardians hands. Aspects like:
• Genetics, the passing of genes through heredity to the puppy
• Pre Natal (before they are born). Where what happens to mum whilst pregnant can have a huge effect on the puppy.
• Post Natal (after puppy is born). Even after the puppy is born early experiences and exposures during the first sensitive period and post natal care play a huge role in personality development.

All this happens before new owners even pick up a puppy.

Once the new puppy is home a careful management and socialisation plan is required in order to provide, appropriate, exposure to experiences.

Even if all this goes incredibly well ANY dog can, if put in a situation they can't handle, lash out and become "agressive". All too often puppies and older dogs are put in situations that, with a little knowledge, planning and forethought can be avoided. This, for me, is the most upsetting part of this whole mess.

Now don't get me wrong I love training dogs, I'm an accredited trainer with the ABTC (Animal Behaviour & Training Council) and have the honour of being the Director of Training for PACT (The Professional Association Of Canine Trainers). What I want to say here is that training things like Sit, Wait, Leave It, Stay, Down, Come and Heel are only a small part of what is required to connect to a puppy on an emotional level. I coach thousands of new puppy owners each year to understand and build relationships with dogs that will last a lifetime. This, in my opinion, is how puppy training should be approached.

What this all boils down to is a need for better education in this country when it comes to dogs. We need to understand the personality type of the dog in front of us as well as how breed might effect this. We need a mind set shift away from obedience training to focus more on helping dogs to feel safe, secure, enriched and allowed to just be a dog. We need to learn how they communicate and we need to learn how to keep them safe and out of trouble when off lead or in public places. We need to understand what kind of situations there might be potential risks when it comes to humans (of any age) interacting with dogs.

I've always loved this quote from the wonderful Chirag Patel, Domesticated Manners

“Listen to your dog’s whisper so he doesn’t have to shout.”

29/04/2022

This is where we are with Quest right now at 9 months old.

If you have a dog between 6 and 18 months, you are living with a canine teenager. You’ve made it past your dog’s childhood, and it goes so very fast! It probably didn’t feel like it at the time, but from ages 8 weeks to 6 months, your dog has developed the equivalent of the first 11 or 12 years of a human child’s life. First there were the sleepless nights, learning what not to put in one’s mouth, and sharp puppy teeth. Then came the all too short but fun stage where your pup understands most of the rules of the house, and they are rapidly learning and exploring the world with wonder…

Then something starts to change, around 6 months old (give or take a month) most puppies start to feel the itch of independence. It starts, just like with a pre-teen child, with a little bit of sass. You notice that every once in a while, your sweet little puppy says “maybe I don’t want to!”. It’s here, and it’s time to buckle up because this is the time where the need for canine parenting is at an all time high…

I’m sure that any parent who has raised a teenager has had the moment where they wonder “What happened to my sweet little child?”, and you will find yourself wondering the same about your pup at times. Keep telling yourself this is only a phase, and one of my favorite quotes “My dog is not giving me a hard time, she is having a hard time!”.

Read more here: https://www.nocounleashed.com/post/surviving-canine-teenagehood

19/04/2022

Understand the emotion behind your dog’s reactivity, barking, pulling towards other dogs while on leash and all the factors that contribute to it.

Again, your dog is not just overly excited because they choose to make you mad they really can’t help it and most often its stems from fear, frustration, pain or simply not really understanding the rules.

There will be other factors making things worse. When we understand what is going on with our dog it is much easier to find the right solution.

Get in touch and let's have a chat how we can help.

04/01/2022

29/10/2021

A study has demonstrated that dogs are more pessimistic if their owners use two or more aversive training methods. There is a well-known and fascinating method of testing an animal's judgment bias (optimistic versus pessimistic attitudes). This same test has been applied in a variety of different situations to determine what sorts of experiences or learning can impact the animal's baseline level of pessimism.
Aversive training (the use of prong/ pinch collars, shock collars, "dominance" theory) has been shown to build more pessimistic dogs, which impacts their daily behavior in potentially harmful ways.
Read the study here: https://tinyurl.com/27b65uc7

22/10/2021

Another awesome lesson from our friends at Synergy Behavior Solutions

15/10/2021

Help them learn! Be patient in the process as they navigate the human world.
Even dogs who may look full grown are still growing inside. Memories may be building and becoming organized.

13/09/2021

A great resource to consult as you welcome a rescue dog into your home. Really great tips and worksheets to really help you and your new doggo bond.

Rescue Dog Week is here! 🥳 Not only are we giving you amazing resources, but they are all 💥FREE💥, at no cost, with absolutely no obligation whatsoever. Our mission this week? 💪 To give the world access to rescue dog resources galore! 😲 Even people with dogs that aren’t rescue dogs will benefit! ✊

You may ask? What’s the catch? 🙃 There is no catch!
1 resource every day for 7 consecutive days. 🙌
A week of rescue dog immersion like nothing you’ve seen before.

No matter your dog’s history, no matter how long you’ve had your dog, there are solutions to be found within these resources. 👇

And the resources? They’re not single pagers… we went all out.

Today, we bring you......
🌟 Rescue Dog: Getting Off To A Great Start 🌟
http://game.absolute-dogs.com/getting-started

Enjoy your rescue dog resource and stay tuned! Tomorrow, we’ve got another one comin’ at ya! 😲🥳✊

04/09/2021

Things I will be thinking about when my puppy comes home next week.

RESILIENCE IN PUPPIES
So, this little fella (Zebedee) joined my household eight weeks ago. A lot has changed for him in those eight weeks – left mum, siblings, home, bonding with new mum and new siblings (some of whom like him and some of whom rolled their eyes and sulked for a bit), new food, routine, climate, and so the list goes on!

My approach to puppy rearing is very different to what it used to be. Gone are the tick lists of things he has to be exposed to, gone are the introductions to strange people or strange dogs (in fact to anyone outside of the house unless a very good friend of mine and only then for brief periods). The focus has been on me learning what makes him tick, how he responds to different stimuli and on ensuring that he learns that I’m his safe space (like a ‘magic mum shield’ that protects him against anything that might challenge him beyond his current resilience capability - ability to recover after an inadvertant stressor).

One of the most fun things to learn about him is how he processes exciting, anxiety generating or busy environments. We’ve created a conversation between us where he’s able to very subtly say ‘give me a minute’, at which point I find a safe space for him to observe the environment from for as long as it takes (some of our walks are him just watching stuff). He then either comes to me for a cuddle which means ‘can we go do something else please?’, or he starts sniffing and pulling forward if he’s happy to go a bit closer.

What’s been really interesting is that if I walked on he would follow and trot along regardless, so if I hadn’t taken the first few weeks to get to know his subtle whispers I could have very easily inadvertently over-faced him and increased the chances of a ‘surprise’ negative event and the development of unhealthy coping mechanisms because he'd got himself into a situation that he wasn't yet equipped to deal with. As it is now, because he has some say in whether he’s ready or not when things do happen eg a bus going past for the first time, he’s been able to take it in his stride. And it’s a cute little stride !

People often ask me how we can encourage the development of resilience mechanisms, well this is a good example of just that. It’s not a question of protecting Zeb from all things scary – life is unpredictable at the end of the day – it’s about building the foundations of our relationship on me being his safe space, the one who has studied his communication and will listen when it matters. Resilience isn’t constant throughout the life of a dog and whilst there are many things that can reduce it either temporarily or long term, there are also many things that we can do to support it’s development and maintenance throughout our dogs lives.

30/08/2021

THIS MESSAGE POPPED UP IN MY EMAIL
FROM A SITE I BELONG TO.
AS SOON AS I READ THIS
I WENT YES!...
HERE IS THE THING, THIS APPLIES TO
OUR DOGS AS WELL!

25/08/2021

02/06/2021

Socializing does not mean teaching to be social. Read on to find out what it really should mean.

12/05/2021

What way does your dog like to party best?

There are endless ways to engage your dog in play- toys, food, even just chase and pushing each other around. What kind of play does your dog love?

01/12/2020

Do you train FOR the moment or IN the moment? Some great food for thought from our friends at Synergy Behavior Solutions

When athletes train for the big game, they run drills and condition on their home court or field; they don’t learn how to shoot the ball during the heat of the game. Sometimes, if a child is having a hard time socially, their family might sign them up for rock climbing lessons, or have them join the debate team, in order to boost their confidence and self-assurance. A runner with a leg injury might see a rehabilitation specialist to condition and strengthen the muscles around the injury, while the runner takes time off from their sport. A person with depression might see a therapist who has them practice role playing scenarios, journal, or work through past trauma, rather than pushing them into stressful situations while they are already struggling.

All these examples of how to improve and continue the process of growing into our best selves seem obvious to us, and effective.

So why then does so much dog training focus on putting our dogs into the situations in which they struggle, and THEN trying to change their behavior?

Real, transformative, lasting behavior change- for reactive dogs, fearful dogs, aggressive dogs, and so many others- comes from building foundation skills away from the environments in which they exhibit challenging behaviors. It comes from teaching our dogs to self-regulate, investing in our relationships and trust, and boosting skills like confidence, calmness, and optimism. It does NOT come from putting our dogs in the situations where they react aggressively or fearfully, and then punishing them, or even using food to try and distract them. When the dog is already stressed, learning isn’t taking place. Coping, however, is- and often the coping strategies our dogs choose are not the ones we like.

This is why lots of people think positive reinforcement training “doesn’t work” for these dogs. People get fixated on the problem situation, and by trying to train in the moment, they set their dogs up for failure. Learning doesn’t happen when an organism is afraid for its life.

At Synergy, we train FOR the moment. We help humans and animals learn to self-regulate, to make empowered, confident choices, and to cope appropriately and safely during stressful situations. And when we train for the moment, we get incredible results.

So.
Ditch the walks.
Stop scaring your dog.
Stop setting them up for failure.
Remove them from the stressful situation.

Instead, play training games when your dog is enthusiastic, happy, engaged, and able to build new neural connections. Help your dog learn alternative behaviors and how to make choices when they are eventually faced with a difficult situation. Enjoy the dog that can make choices on their own and become a better version of themselves over time.

Train FOR the moment, and you will see the results IN the moment.

03/11/2020

Excellent explanation and very well written post from our friends ay Synergy Behavior Solutions.

Compliance might look fancy and impressive on social media and in advertising, but it can come at a hefty cost to both our relationship with the animal and to the animal’s welfare.

At Synergy, our methods are always evolving to keep up with the findings of science and ethical discourse in the world of behavior. When we design a training plan, our first priorities are always safety (for both animals and humans) and the emotional welfare of the animal.

These priorities are not shared by all trainers.

Animal training often has methods rooted in suppressing behaviors through coercion, punishment, and intimidation. While these methods can work to obtain results like obedience and compliance, they do not address the root of the behavioral problem. Science and experience have shown us many times that suppression must need to be continually applied in order to maintain results, and it comes with many well-documented and undesirable side effects and behavioral fallout- such as aggression and anxiety.

Because we prioritize real life, lasting results that do not come at the expense of the animal's emotional well-being, we care far more about the process of training than the final "look." Just because an animal is not trying to actively run away, bite, scream, or struggle, does not mean that the animal is calm, relaxed, or even comfortable. Teaching our students and clients to read their animal's more subtle signals indicating stress, worry, or pain goes a very long way toward enhancing their relationship and boosting the positive effects of the training.

The best part about training this way is that a calm and happy animal is often a well-behaved animal! As humans, we have a choice in how we train and the impact that it has on the learner- when we know better, we should always do better.

Join us in learning more, doing better, and achieving amazing results! Follow us for more information, education, and community.