The Motivated K9

07/01/2025

Repo

05/01/2025

Tofii

27/12/2024

Yes its just a picture, but multiple picture can tell a story.

24/12/2024

Sammy

23/12/2024

Sprout had alot of fun during her lesson and meet amd greet! 😆

22/12/2024

21/12/2024

Jerry

12/12/2024

Kira, needed a nap half way through our session!

11/12/2024

The DOGS Truth

FULL PRO COURSE!https://kimbropheylegscourses.thinkific.com/courses/legs-applied-ethology-family-dog-mediation-professional-courseYOUR DOG is not broken, and...

04/12/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15HLYTRGVk/

When we do aggression consults, addressing pain is of utmost importance.
It is one of the primary things a well educated and experienced behavior consultant will consider.

I cannot diagnose pain.
That is for your wonderful Veterinary professionals to do (as you may have heard me say if you are one of my incredible clients “I’m not a Vet, nor do I play one on TV!’). They will be able to assess and treat for pain.

Pain can often be a significant contributor to aggressive behaviors. (Pain and Problem Behavior in Cats and Dogs- Mills et al. 2020)

But I DO consider ALL the ways that WE, you the owner and me the animal professional, along with your Vet teams, can limit the many ways that pain is, or could be, a factor in your dogs behavior challenges .

One of the ways that I can help is to identify and to limit potential things that can exacerbate pain!

For example, in my cases today, we discussed amongst many, many things: access to sofas, beds, food and water (how they are obtained, elevation etc…), movement around the home (slippery floors and stairs), touching and petting and so on…

Something as basic as sitting on a slippery floor could potentially exacerbate pain in many places such as the hips, knees, spine, neck etc…
A slippery surface will add the potential of discomfort during the sit and after the sit, and if we did repetitive ‘training’-ooof!!

It is our job to discuss and bring awareness to ALL of these small (or large) potential agitator’s.
For a successful behavior change plan to work, we often must get into the ‘nitty gritty’ finer points.
Not always, but when we have more complex situations with varying and often seemingly unpredictable causes (antecedents and distant antecedents) those finer points can be what makes or breaks a plan!

Check out the cutest sploot sit below- cute right?
Cute…But potentially a very painful position for this adorable young dog, which could be a single factor among many causing discomfort or pain.

For this kid, I recommended (among many other recommendations)using more mats and rugs around the house to prevent slipping and unstable movement.

Walking on slippery floors for many dogs is like trying to walk with slippery soled shoes on ice. It will increase tension and tightness in their body which will exacerbate pain. Slipping can create injuries or worsen them as well.

Pain lowers thresholds. And that will often lead to a ‘grumpier’ animal (I know my severe neck issues this year made me less than a joy to be around!).

If you are concerned about pain, please see your Veterinarian!
Take videos of the movement you see (or don’t see) of your animal from different angles, and show those videos to your Vets (it helps them a great deal to see natural movement outside of what their clinical observations enables).

03/12/2024

Boarding dog Indy is providing serious comic relief this morning.

03/12/2024

Freyja and Jerry

01/12/2024

Indy having romp

30/11/2024

Jerry embodies joy

27/11/2024

Can you call your dog out of playing with another dog? This is a very important skill that all dogs that play with others should know. It can prevent escalations, bullying, accidents and more.

27/11/2024

Indy

19/11/2024

Management is the most important aspect of behavior change.

ARE YOU MANAGING?
Are you managing your dog’s environment to prevent or improve unwanted behaviour?

As people, we tend to prefer and look for the more complicated solutions to problems. This tendency is termed “complexity bias” - the tendency to prefer complicated explanations and solutions instead of looking for the simpler ones.

Surely a complicated, time consuming, detailed solution has to be more effective, superior, impressive, or correct?

Complexity bias is so relevant when it comes to changing a dog’s unwanted behaviour. We often get so stuck on trying to modify behaviour through counter conditioning, desensitization or detailed training plans when sometimes the simplest solution to the problem lies in simply managing the environment.

Dogs will do what dogs do – when an opportunity arises to help themselves to food left on a table, to bark at the gate at anyone passing by, to have a drink from that big water bowl at the perfect height, that we call a toilet, to running off with irresistibly smelly dirty underwear, to rummaging through bins in search of anything that may or may not be edible, to running out an opened door in search of adventure - the list is long - dogs will be dogs.

Parents of little children use management all the time without giving it much thought. Baby locks on cupboards, covers on electrical sockets, valuable or dangerous items put far out of reach, fences and locks around pools, etc.

We wouldn’t just train a toddler not to stick their fingers in an electrical socket, not to open cupboards, not to touch a hot plate – it’s far safer, simpler and logical to first manage the environment, to prevent potential incidents.

The same principle should apply to managing a dog’s environment to prevent unwanted behaviour.

The more a behaviour is practiced the more difficult it is to prevent. The more a behaviour is rehearsed the better dogs become at it.

Preventing the behaviour from happening in the first place by using management is the logical, simple and effective way to address it.

Be a good manager – it’s far less stressful, for both us and our dogs.