It seems when we get a dog, we want to take it everywhere and do everything with it all at once. People have heard “you need to socialize your dog” but like many words in training and behavior most people don’t really know what that means. We often end up doing way too much too fast with those new dogs.

I just got a new dog so here is a recap of our first four weeks together. His name is Pippin and he is approximately 1 year old. He was surrendered to the shelter as “found as a stray.”

I thought I would share what we have not done together in that time:

• We have not gone to a big box store to walk around and meet people.
• We have not gone into town and walked around
• We have not met all my friends, neighbors or relatives
• We have not started any formal training classes or programs
• We have not gone on long drives to get a Pup Cup or go through a drive through.
• We have not left my property except for two veterinary visits and one brief visit to a friend. And that visit happened on the same day as one of the vet visits.

So, what have we done?

We  got to know each other better. It takes time to learn a dog’s personality. What does he like? What scares him? If something scares him, does he recover quickly or is it something that could stay with him for awhile (or a lifetime)?

He needs to get to know me. Am I safe? Am I likely to suddenly punish him or yell at him? What happens if he does something I might not be a fan of? What are my routines? Where does he go to the bathroom? When does he go to the bathroom? When is food time? Who else lives with me and are they safe?

I want Pippen to know I am safe; that he can trust me to have his back and that if he comes to me when I call him, I will have a big party (my most important goal for any dog is for it to want to come back to me).

Learning is always happening; so, if I see Pippin do something I know I want to reinforce (such as look back at me on a walk) I praise him or give him a treat. He offers me behavior the entire time he is awake. Training doesn’t happen at formal times; it is always happening. I just need to notice when the things I want are happening more so they get rewarded more.

He is an adolescent and has many typical adolescent behaviors such as “I want to grab your hand and bite you and shake you.” If he does that game, I remove my hands or I get up and walk away from him. If he jumps on my lap and does not bite my hands, I let him stay and he gets petted. In four weeks, we have gone from almost constantly chomping on my hands to rarely chomping on my hands.

We are working on the things that are important to me and my lifestyle with my dogs. I live in a very rural area and my dogs are off-leash when we go for walks. They are going to see deer, turkeys, raccoons, etc. I drive a Ranger Polaris around the farm and my other dogs enjoy going places in the Ranger.

Because I am working on building trust in our relationship, it allows Pippin to not be so worried about trying new things such as jumping into the Ranger. If we find something he isn’t excited about; we don’t have to do it. If it is important I will find a way to see if he would like to learn to do it.

Pippin shares my home with two other dogs: Scout (3) and Skywalker (10). Both are about 60 pounds heavier than Pippin and much taller. There are also cats in the house and out in the barn.

The introductions between Scout and Pippin have taken the longest. For the first 24 hours Scout would growl and raise his hackles and curl his lip at Pippin. If given the opportunity he would chase Pippin and pin him to the ground (definitely not good when a 90-pound dog is pinning a 28-pound dog to the ground.). Not only did I need to keep Pippin on a leash outside but I also had to leash Scout so I could control him  if he tried to grab Pippin. Not an easy thing for a person to do alone. But we were only doing very brief intros. Most of the time Pippin and Skywalker (who were ok together) would be in one small, fenced portion of my yard while Scout was on the other side of the fence. When everyone was calm, I would put Scout on leash and let Pippin into the large part of the fenced yard. After a few encounters I was confident Pippin would not do anything to Scout, I just needed to make sure Scout didn’t hurt Pippin.

I also had to keep them all separated when they were in the house. So, for two days I rotated who was out. Either Pippin and Skywalker could be loose while Scout was crated or Skywalker and Scout could be loose and Pippin was crated.

Those first 48 hours were stressful because I was not sure it would work out. Scout was more intense than I had anticipated he would be. His only goal seemed to be to chase Pippin and pin him to the ground while growling in his face.

Luckily by the fourth day, Scout was far more interested in playing with Pippin and I was able to let them loose (dragging long leashes) in the fenced area of the yard. I kept Skywalker in the house in the beginning because he tends to get angry at anything he considers inappropriate play (which is anything that comes near him).

On the fourth day I was also able to let all three dogs loose in the house for up to an hour at a time. I would try and stop the play while it was still fun and before it got over the top. I would give each of the dogs long breaks away from each other.

Day five we were able to go on a walk around the barn lot with Pippin dragging a long leash (I wasn’t sure at this point what he would do if he had the opportunity to leave).

Gradually things improved. Four weeks in my main worry is Scout will accidently injure Pippin. They LOVE playing together now (as in let’s play 24/7) but sometimes Scout gets too keyed up and will have a little too much fun pouncing on Pippin.

Pippin loves to be with me so I now let him loose on our walks. He is wearing a GPS collar so I can track him if he gets lost. He will follow the big dogs when they chase something, but he is also very quick to come back if I call him.

He now knows if we walk toward the Ranger he must jump in fast to get a good seat on the bench as the last dog in has to sit on the floor. He isn’t afraid of getting wet in the creek, running through a beanfield (even though the beans are taller than he is) and he isn’t that interested in chasing the barn cat.

My nephew was doing some yard work for me so I let Pippin out to meet him and Pippin was delighted. A person came to do maintenance on my generator and I took Pippin with me when I went to talk to the man. When I went back to the house I noticed Pippin wasn’t with me, he was sitting on the ground watching the man work on the generator. I didn’t make a big deal out of either of these encounters. It was just “oh hey, look someone is here.”

His last round of vaccines is next week and we will start going into town for small adventures. Because he was a dog of unknown history, I did not want to chance exposing him to Parvo and Distemper until he was fully vaccinated. He probably would have been fine since he is an adult and he had one round of vaccines, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

Just remember it can be just as important what you don’t do with your dog as it is what you do with him. Go slow, get to know each other before exploring the big, scary world. Keep in mind learning is always happening and what you do with the naturally occurring behaviors will either make them happen more often or cause them to disappear. You just have to notice them and reward what you want and ignore what you don’t want.

I am afraid of storm drains. You know the kind at the edge of the street where storm water runs into the dark. One day you decide to help me get over my fear of storm drains; and you ask me to come talk to you near a drain and as I approach you give me a $100 bill. The minute I take the $100 bill Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King’s IT pops out and terrifies me. I run away, so you decide to put down a big line of $100 bills from the middle of the street to the drain and I slowly creep forward picking up the $100 bills but right when I get the drain; there is Pennywise the Clown AGAIN.

You talk to me and tell me it is just an imaginary clown, absolutely NOTHING to be afraid of and show me an entire handful of $100 bills and tell me they are all mine if I walk close to you. So, I do and then as soon as I get the money Pennywise whispers “they all float down here.” I refuse to go near the drain again.

The next day you and I go for a walk around the neighborhood and a $100 bill floats across the street and I freak out, scream, punch you and run away.

What the hell just happened? The $100 bill predicted I would be scared beyond what I could handle so I reacted by hurting you and running away. $100 bills are now poisonous to me. They predict something scary will happen.

How many times have you done this to your dog? Showed the dog something yummy and then said, “all you have to do to get this yummy thing is do something that you don’t enjoy?” We think we are teaching the dog overcoming its fear will give it something tasty. Instead, we may be teaching the dog we are not to be trusted and good things to eat means something bad is about to happen.

Let me give you two examples from recent clients.

Moose is a 4-year-old tiny terrier. He is afraid of the world. Because he is so small, his owners often stoop down and try and pick him up. Moose now bites people because they scare him including his owners when they try and pick him up. I was tossing treats to Moose and he was doing ok. He was nervous, but if the treats fell far away from me, he would eat them. After a few minutes he was more relaxed and walking around the room eating treats I tossed. Then the owner brought out his leash. Moose stopped eating the treats. His owner called him to her, and he belly crawled all the way and as soon as he got to her, he flipped over on his back and peed. His owner handed him a piece of chicken and Moose just laid there in a puddle of pee not moving, not eating the chicken.

His owner was perplexed because she said chicken was his favorite food. I asked her if she had been using the chicken in the past to get Moose to come to her and then put on his leash or pick him up and she said she had.

She had poisoned the chicken for Moose. He now equated chicken to his owner doing something to him that terrified him. It doesn’t matter that we don’t understand what terrified Moose about having his leash put on or why he was scared when his owner tried to pick him up. The important part was Moose had been begging his owner to stop terrify him for months until he gave up and started biting. Moose’s owner was not a bad person. She loved her dog, she just wanted to take him for a walk.

By giving the treats to Moose at the same time something scary happened, Moose began associating the treats with the scary thing. Later, I tried using chicken with Moose when he was just walking around the room and he would not it, but he would eat the treats I brought. Chicken meant something bad to Moose.

The second client had a young female shepherd named Griff. Griff had recently bitten the owner’s boyfriend. The incident happened when the boyfriend was trying to get the dog to go into the room where its crate was located. I asked the owner how Griff was about going into her crate. She said Griff always went in after a treat and there was no issue of the dog going into the crate, but as soon as the owner reached for the door to close it, the dog had started snarling and lunging at the crate door and continued to growl until the owner left. This behavior had been going on for several months but they owner didn’t think it was a big issue since the dog went into the crate on its own.

Instead, the dog had learned that it could get something great and as soon as it ate the wonderful thing the scary crate door closed. Then the dog had decided even going in the bedroom where its crate was located was too scary and so it bit the boyfriend when he tried to get the dog into the room.

Just because you give a dog a reward doesn’t mean you are rewarding the dog.

So, what to do?

In the case of Moose, I asked the owner to find a new treat and to sit on the floor tossing treats to Moose. If Moose came toward her, she could then toss a treat to Moose, but she immediately had to then toss a treat away, so Moose did not feel he “had” to go up to her. Once Moose was reliably coming to her and eating treats, I asked her to move her hand toward Moose’s neck but not to touch it. Just move the hand so Moose could see it but not get too scared. Once she works up to touching Moose’s neck, she can move onto holding a collar out and rewarding Moose if he looks at the collar; then slowly work up to training Moose to stick his head in the collar and then work on reintroducing the leash.

Instead of bending down to pick Moose up; I asked the owner to sit in a chair and call Moose to her, give him a treat then let him go chase another one until Moose was comfortable sitting in her lap; then pick him up. However, I asked her to first see her veterinarian just in case Moose was hurting somewhere on his body and picking him up was aggravating that hurt.

For Griff I asked the owner to go into the room with the crate and toss a treat to Griff if she came toward the door of the bedroom, then walk back out of the bedroom, walk back in and reward Griff if she stuck her nose into the bedroom. Gradually we will work with seeing if Griff can walk toward the crate and go in on her own and then get rewarded. Once she is going in and out on her own, then we will work up to touching the crate door and rewarding and then start closing the crate door.  

In both these training situations the dog is getting the reward AFTER it does something. If the dog finds the situation too scary then the dog can choose to not participate and walk away. If that happens, we need to make the game easier for the dog.

Giving a dog a choice to play means the dog can decide on its own if the game is rewarding. If it isn’t then the dog can opt out. Once a dog figures out its owner has its back and won’t make it do scary things, the dog’s confidence grows.

For my fear of storm drains, someone could give me a $100 bill if I turn down the street with the drain and then encourage me to walk away from the drain. But it would be MY choice to walk toward the drain and I would get the reward immediately after I made my choice. I could also choose not to get the reward.

Choice is the important part. An animal (including a human) could really want the reward. I might really want that $100 bill so I might risk doing something scary to grab the $100 bill, but I am not learning how to not be scared so later I could get so overwhelmed I might act out of fear and do something like punch you. Always make sure the dog is choosing to play the game and then get the reward.

The words you use to describe your dog’s behavior can be very important to the feelings you have toward your dog. 

Words matter, even the words you use when describing your pet.

Here are some examples of words we commonly use with our dogs. When you hear these phrases what do they conjure in your mind?

• I have an “aggressive” dog.
• I gave my dog a “command” and he “refused” to do it.
• My dog is “dominating” me.

What about these sentences?

• I have a “fearful” dog.
• I gave my dog a “cue” but he did not “understand” it.
• My dog is trying to “communicate” with me, but I don’t know what he is saying.

Using the first set of words could be setting you up for failure before you even start trying to help your dog as those words come with a lot of baggage.

Let’s look at some dictionary definitions:

Aggressive vs. Fearful

Aggressive: a forceful action or procedure (such as an unprovoked attack) especially when intended to dominate or master

Fearful: feeling afraid; showing fear or anxiety.

I get emails every week from potential clients who describe their dog as “aggressive.” From 3-month old “aggressive” puppies to old dogs whose arthritis is acting up. We love to use this word. But, this word comes with a lot of negativity. Many of my clients have been told their dog is “aggressive” by neighbors or family. It makes people feel as if they own Cujo, a dog foaming at the mouth trying to get through car window to murder innocent people. It is easy to give up on an “aggressive” dog. We worry about liability. What if he bites the kids?

But, how do we feel about a fearful dog? You know that dog in the ASPCA commercials chained to a doghouse and shivering? Who doesn’t want to step in and help that dog?

Many of the acts we lump under aggression come from a place of fear. Where would dogs be if they could not warn away something that scares them in the wild or defend against something that is trying to take an important resource?

So many of my clients have breathed a sigh of relief when I help them understand they do not own Cujo. (Thank you Stephen King for giving us a dog to personify evil, even if the dog did just have Rabies). It is easier for many people to justify spending time and resources to help a fearful dog rather than an aggressive dog.

One last thing. This is how Mayo Clinic defines aggression: “Aggression can be normal, and is only an indicator of underlying disease when feelings become excessive, all-consuming, and interfere with daily living.” It is easier to consider helping a dog with a “disease” vs. one that is evil.

Command vs. Cue

Command: To give an authoritative order.

Cue: a signal for someone to do something

So many of my clients give their dogs “commands” and are then frustrated if the dog doesn’t immediately do the behavior. Your dog is not a Marine going through boot camp. When we Command we expect immediate action and we get frustrated if our dog does not hop to it and sit.

There are many reasons dogs don’t immediately do something we ask. Often the dog either doesn’t actually understand or he has not generalized the behavior to more distracting environments. If your dog truly understands the word “sit” lie on the floor with your face in your hands and ask your dog to sit. Chances are good your dog will stare at you as if you have lost your mind or jump on you because you are finally figuring out the floor is a fun place to be. Most likely he will not understand the word “sit” in this context.

I like the word “cue” better. It sounds less threatening to begin with. I am asking my dog to do something. It is something he should already know how to do. He does not come pre-programmed with “sit” or “down.” I have to teach him those things and it is MY job to ensure he knows them. If your dog doesn’t do what you asked, chances are he just doesn’t understand the signal. The word “stubborn” often rears its ugly head in this conversation as well. We assume the dog is “stubborn” for not complying with a “command.”

Instead I “cue” my dog to sit. If he does he gets a treat or a “good” dog. If he does not, then that’s my bad. I messed something up somewhere. He either doesn’t understand the cue I gave or there is something going on in the environment that has his attention and is delaying his ability to process the cue. Maybe I did not make it worthwhile for him to work with me. I won’t work for free and neither should your dog.

Let’s say I teach you the cue to “sit” in a chair in my house. I ask you to sit and you sit in the chair every time I ask you. Now, let’s take that chair outside and place it near a basket of hissing cobras, plus there are fire trucks with sirens blaring going down the street. The cobras can’t get you, but they are really close and they are raising their hoods and slithering everywhere. What if your brain is so busy processing the sight of scary cobras and the sound of the sirens that you can’t process I said the word “sit?”

If I command you to sit; you had better darn well sit no matter what right?

If I cue you to sit and you don’t, I can take a breath and see what I can do to improve the situation. If I absolutely need you to be able to sit in a chair near hissing cobras and blaring fire trucks, then I can teach you to do that gradually rather than becoming frustrated that you do not do a command immediately.

Dominate vs. Communicate

Dominate: exercise control over.

Communicate: share or exchange information, news, or ideas.

So many people tell me their dog is trying to dominate them. Domination is scary. It makes me think of the Borg from Star Trek who are saying, “Resistance is futile.”

In reality, most of the behaviors many people describe as dominate are either normal (dog walks ahead of you on leash because he walks faster than you do); rewarding (dog jumps up on you because you give him attention) or they are forms of communication (dog is humping someone because he is stressed or fearful or he is peeing on something important to the human due to anxiety).

Because we think dogs might dominate us; we spend a lot of time trying to dominate them back, which leads to a lot of miscommunication on our part. The dog won’t understand what we are trying to say, which may bring us back to growling and then that “aggressive” label.

Give you and your dog a break. If things are not going well, don’t apply a lot of negative language to it. Instead, reach out to a dog trainer who understands dog behavior (and who doesn’t immediately label your dog with any of the negative words in this essay). Talk to a veterinarian who has an interest or, even better, a degree in behavior.

The world can be scary enough without us adding in negatively charged words.

This is the last straw.

This is a saying most of us understand. We might also say, “this is the straw the broke the camel’s back.” They both have their origins in ancient proverbs and were first seen in print in the 17^th century as the feather that breaks the back of a horse.

In a theological debate on causality in the mid 1600s Thomas Hobbs wrote, “The last Dictate of the Judgement, concerning the Good or Bad, that may follow on any Action, is not properly the whole Cause, but the last Part of it, and yet may be said to produce the Effect necessarily, in such Manner as the last Feather may be said to break a Horses Back, when there were so many laid on before as there want but that one to do it.”

Thomas Hobbs would definitely understand how the effects of a pandemic such as what the world is experiencing in the first half of 2020 would be that final straw.

In Indianapolis, which is the capital of the state where I live, domestic abuse calls are up significantly and a young policewoman lost her life answering a domestic abuse call. A man in Indianapolis is accused of killing a mail carrier because she refused to deliver mail because the man had an aggressive dog.

Tempers are on edge. People who had financial issues, health issues, family problems, etc. are now dealing with the fallout of a pandemic that has changed how many of us live our daily lives. It can indeed be the final straw.

Dog bite cases are also up significantly in a city near me. While all of us understand that final straw and how it might affect our tempers, we rarely think about how stress affects other living creatures. Yet, many of the issues clients call me about are related to that final straw. We often also refer to it as trigger stacking. Meaning that lots of small things that might trigger stress stack up on top of each until that final small thing happens and the dog offers a behavior that the family finds unacceptable or out of character.

Let’s look at one dog. Her name is Lady. She is 7. We know nothing of her history prior to 2016. At that time she was adopted to a couple. She was noted to fence fight with other dogs and she got loose twice during that time and rushed other dogs. No injuries were reported. A few months ago the woman from that original adoption returned the dog. She and her husband had gotten a divorce and she said there had been situations of domestic abuse.

The dog was adopted a few weeks ago to a family who has never owned a dog before. It is in a new home with new people. She is not eating well and is said to be underweight. On a walk she saw another dog in the distance and began lunging and barking at the dog. When the owner tried to pull her away and get her attention she bit the owner. The bite did not require medical attention. The owner is now very concerned about whether to keep this dog and is considering returning it. When a dog bites its owner, it is very difficult for many people to get over that break of what the owner considers a sacred bond.

If we take only the last line: “dog bites owner” we immediately go down a road of how this is a bad dog, this is an aggressive dog, dogs should never bite their owners.

But, let’s look at things more closely. This is an older dog, she is over 60 pounds there could be medical issues causing her to not feel well. She had a fairly recent veterinary exam including a dental that did not find anything remarkable to note. But, it is unknown if that exam included an orthopedic exam to check for arthritis or joint issues.

She isn’t eating. Is she stressed? Is there a medical reason for her not to eat such as a cracked tooth? Does she just not like the food being offered?

The dog has been in its current home one week. It takes much longer than one week to begin to acclimate to a new home with new rules, new smells, etc. Imagine if you were sent to another country where you didn’t speak the language or understand the culture and in that first week you did something that was considered socially unacceptable in that country, but was perfectly normal in your country.

The owners have never owned a dog. Every behavior this dog offers is new to them. They have no context for that is concerning or not concerning and there are children under the age of 10 in the home.

The owners may be facing new challenges themselves due to pandemic. The stress we feel often bleeds out to the creatures around us whether they have two legs or four. Dogs are especially good at picking up on human emotions. A dog that came from a domestic abuse situation may already have negative associations with people who are exhibiting high levels of stress.

This dog already had a history of being reactive to other dogs. This means when she sees other dogs they stress her out. It seems likely this issue was not addressed in the previous home. While the dog was being boarded between owners the issue was worked on and progress was noted. The reactivity issue has its own sets of trigger stacking or straws. A dog might be slightly anxious when it sees a dog at a distance of 50 feet. It signals its anxiety by lip licking, turning its head away or trying to turn around. The owner most likely doesn’t notice these because she hasn’t been taught what to look for. The owner keeps getting closer and closer to the other dog causing this dog, who is on a leash and has zero control over the outcome to become more and more agitated.

In this instance I ask you how you would feel if you were really afraid of snakes. Every day when you went outside you saw snakes. Sometimes the snakes were far enough away to only cause mild anxiety, but sometimes the snakes would be really close. And you NEVER knew what would happen on the walk and you had zero control over it. You would start to be worried about just going out the door. You might want to go on a walk and be all excited, but you would still have that anxiety that there could be that snake. Depending on the level of your anxiety you could start screaming and shouting at the snake to go away. You might throw things at the snake to make it go away. Right as you are starting to feel your life is in danger and you need to fight the snake, someone touches you from behind and startles you. How would you react? You might turn and punch that person without realizing it is a loved one.

When a dog has a behavior issue that involves biting, growling or snapping, the owner wants to “fix” that issue. But, these issues are always the end result of a long line of other things that happened.

I ask you to look at these other smaller pieces of straw that are piling up and see if you can first take some of them away. The fewer triggers that are stacking up, the less likely the dog will be pushed over the edge. We obviously want to address the issue of this dog being so afraid of seeing other dogs on a walk that she is unable to walk in a manner that is acceptable to her owners and our society in general. But we also need to understand the dog has a lot more going on.

When your dog exhibits a behavior that is totally out of character; don’t just focus on that behavior. Become a detective. What has changed in your dog’s life? How is he feeling? Seek help immediately from a force free trainer who understands the science behind dog behavior.

For minor things maybe consider just giving the dog a break and asking yourself if you have been unusually on edge recently. Your dog may be feeding off that. My dogs certainly are. My rock steady dog Skywalker has suddenly begun resource guarding me and pushing the other dogs away from me. He has become so much clingier since I am now working from home.

Take a deep breath. Take your dog on a fun walk. Find minor issues you can solve and see if that doesn’t decrease the more concerning issues you are seeing. But, above all, seek help. Seek help if you are feeling overwhelmed. Seek help if your pet is overwhelming you.

Change is difficult.

It is an easy sentence to type; it is a hard sentence though to work through.

Doctors, lawyers, veterinarians and even dog trainers are trying to adapt to a world in which we are not allowed to see each other in person. Every day I encounter people who ask for help with their dog. When I tell them I can’t do in-home visits right now; but I can do video chatting or phone consulting; 99.9 percent of the time the person says she will just wait until we can meet in person. Most of us are convinced someone has to physically see the problem in order to fix it.

I am no different. I had cataract surgery in my right eye just before Covid-19 shut everything down. Four weeks after the surgery my right eye started to bother me. It watered all the time and I noticed that eye was swollen. It constantly felt irritated. The eye center that did my surgery had closed for two weeks and I decided my issue wasn’t an emergency so I waited for them to reopen. Then they didn’t reopen in two weeks, but instead offered a teledoc option. I was skeptical. I NEEDED that doctor to look into my eye with one of those fancy pieces of equipment. Instead I was given the option to take a photo of my eye as well as a video explaining what was wrong and then submit it through the online service the eye center was using.

An hour later an ophthalmologist called me and said he had no idea how to access the photo or video I submitted and would I mind just explaining it to him over the phone? My mind immediately balked. How could he diagnose my eye by just talking about it?

What option did I have? I explained all my symptoms. He asked several questions. Then asked a few more based on my answers. He said he would call in a prescription eye drop. He wanted me to use the eye drop over the weekend and he would follow up with me on Monday. He said if the eye drops didn’t help; we would look at next steps and possibly schedule an in-person consult.

Twenty-four hours later my eye feels so much better. I didn’t even realize how much it had been bothering me until it had stopped bothering me. The eye doctor was able to diagnose me and treat me just by listening to me. How was this possible?

Simple: my eye issue was not unusual or at least not so unusual that he had not seen patients with this issue in the past. He could ask the right questions to get me to provide the information he needed to determine a course of action.

People who work with animal behavior issues can do the same thing. We can listen to you and provide you with information. I don’t need to see your dog growl or lunge at another dog on a walk. I know what that looks like. I know what it looks like if a dog snaps at a toddler. I know what it looks like if two dogs suddenly don’t get along or fight over a resource. I know what questions I need to ask to find out more about what is behind different behavior issues.

Plus, believe it or not; I am not training your dog when I work with you. I am helping you change your dog’s behavior. I can work with you and help you and then you can help your dog.

Technology is amazing, but it can take a bit of getting used to. I am learning how to use Zoom and helping my clients learn how to position their cell phones so I can see their dogs. Clients can send me video which we can then review via telephone. If you live in a place where Internet connections aren’t strong; we can talk on the phone.

I can see this dog just fine through the lens of of a smart phone.

So, please don’t suffer through an issue with your pet right now. No one knows how long changes to our daily lives with continue. The longer a dog practices behaviors you are not comfortable with, the longer it may take us to help the dog change to a different behavior.

Dogs are just as stressed right now as we are in many cases. Dogs are often affected by their owner’s moods and stress levels. Also, how we live in many cases has been dramatically changed. If your dog is used to you leaving for 8 hours a day and suddenly he is with you 24/7 that is bound to cause some anxiety.

Don’t wait for the pandemic to be over to seek help for any behavior issues you are having. And if you have a puppy; many trainers are now offering virtual puppy classes to help you raise a fun and confident pup. I know people who are offering virtual nose work classes as well as virtual dog obedience.

As with any situation; choose your trainer with the same care you would your physician. I did not turn to the Internet to diagnose my eye condition. I did not pop on Facebook and ask my friends what they thought was wrong with my eye. I asked an ophthalmologist who I already had a working relationship with. I had been to the office, met the staff and knew their reputation.

You should pick your trainer the same way and now with more trainers offering virtual offerings you are not limited to someone just because he or she is local. Pick a trainer who has been through some type of educational process to be a trainer such as a graduate of the Karen Pryor Academy or a person who is the Knowledge Assessed through the Certified Professional Dog Trainer program.  You will often find these certifications listed on the trainer’s website. For example, I am a KPA-CTP which means I am a Certified Training Partner through the Karen Pryor Academy. You might also see someone with CPDT-KA, which means that person has passed testing through the Certified Professional Dog Trainer Program. Now is definitely not the time to just pick a person who says they train dogs but who can’t back up their methods or prove they have some type of positive, reward-based or scientifically proven training method. Our dogs are stressed enough as it is; we don’t need to add harsh training methods into the mix.

Is this a bad dog because he got burrs in his fur on a hike and then he took the burrs out when he was sitting on his owner’s bed? Or is he a good dog for getting the burrs out of his fur on his own? 

Glinda: Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?

Dorothy: Who, me? Why, I’m not a witch at all. I’m Dorothy Gale from Kansas.

Every day I get emails or phone calls from people who tell me they have a “bad” dog. The dog does “bad” things. But, it also does “good” things which is why the owner still has the dog. The owner just wishes the “bad” things would not happen.

Meanwhile if the dog could speak a verbal language, I imagine he would be just as confused as Dorothy and say, “I’m not good or bad. I’m a dog.”

When we say a dog is bad or good, what do we mean?

Here are some Merriam-Webster definitions for bad:

• 1a: failing to reach an acceptable standard : POOR
• b: UNFAVORABLE
• 2a: morally objectionable : EVIL
• b: MISCHIEVOUS, DISOBEDIENT — ex: a bad dog

Seriously even the dictionary uses dog as an example of “bad.”  I need to talk to someone about that!

How does the dictionary define “good?” First, there were 15 pages of definitions for “good” so I pulled out the ones most likely meant by people who have pets when they use this word. Although my guess is most people are thinking of the last definition: “well behaved.”

• 1a(1): of a favorable character or tendency
• b(1): SUITABLE, FIT
• (5): that can be relied on
• c(1): AGREEABLE, PLEASANT
• (3): AMUSING, CLEVER
• (2): conforming to a standard
• 2a(1): VIRTUOUS, RIGHT, COMMENDABLE
• 2): KIND, BENEVOLENT
• d(1): LOYAL
• 2: well-behaved

So, look at these definitions and tell me what your dog is thinking when he wakes up in the morning. Is he thinking “today I am going to be a good dog?” Or is he thinking “today I am going to be a bad dog?”

Or does he wake up and say, “what’s for breakfast?”

I want to propose that the words “good” and “bad” mean nothing to your dog. Those are words you define. He does not have a verbal language so you can’t have a conversation that sounds like this, “It is bad to poop in the house. It is good to poop outside.” Or it is “bad to nip at the children, but it is good to not jump on them.”

If we go into a relationship with the dog already thinking he is “bad” then it will be difficult to help him learn a new behavior.

Instead, when you say in your head “this is a bad dog” ask yourself what exactly the dog is doing that is bad. Is there something he could be doing that you consider good? If so, can you train him to do that behavior or can you manage the situation so he can’t do the bad behavior?

For example, if you consider it bad for your dog to get in the trash, can you buy a trash can with a clip lid that latches shut? Can you put the trash can in a place the dog can’t get it? Can you truly believe your dog understands getting in the trash is bad when he has thousands of years of scavenging in his evolution?

Now, let’s think about stubborn. Does your dog wake up in the morning and say, “today I am going to be stubborn?” If you think about that, this requires a great deal of higher brain function. I would have to be aware first of what is good and bad and then I would have to deliberately chose to do what is bad. There is lots of amazing work going on in understanding animal brains right now and we are learning all kinds of amazing things. But, I don’t think we will learn that dogs can be willfully disobedient.

Instead, what I see when my clients say their dog is “stubborn” is a dog that does not fully understand what is asked or a dog that has not generalized the behavior. For example, a client says, “My dog knows sit, but he is stubborn.” When I ask for examples, I find out the dog has a great sit in the living room when no one but the owner is home, but the dog can’t sit when someone comes through the door. That dog isn’t stubborn. He doesn’t know sit works there. He has not generalized the behavior. You actually need to train him to sit at the door with someone coming through the door.

I see this in working dog examples as well. I overheard a person at a seminar say, “when I take the electric collar off my dog, she loses her mind and is so stubborn.” What that tells me is the handler didn’t actually teach the dog it could do the behavior without the e-collar. Instead the e-collar is part of the learned behavior. When you train a dog using punishment and the punishment isn’t there, then the dog wouldn’t necessarily generalize that the same game is going on. For example, if you taught the dog to sit by shocking it when it does not sit, then if the e-collar isn’t there, and you ask for a sit, the dog could think that the e-collar has to be part of the cue to sit.

People say the same thing about using treats. “My dog knows how to sit, but only when I have a treat in my hand.” Exactly, the treat in your hand is part of the cue to sit. Without your hand holding the treat, and the hand then being held in a certain position, your dog does not understand this is the same behavior. You need to train the dog that he can sit without seeing the treat or by using other forms of praise as well.

I had my dog Batman for six years and did competitive obedience with him. He had several titles. Then I learned one day he did not know the word “sit.” I was asked to say “sit” with my hands behind my back and with my eyes closed. Batman just stood there wagging his tail and staring at me.

It turns out he knew the word “sit” only in the context of my right hand being at the level of my stomach. If I said “sit” with my hand in that position, he would sit. If my hand was not in that position he would not sit. He was not bad or stubborn. He had learned a very specific set of things needed to happen for the word “sit” to work.

Words have power. If we use the words “bad,” “aggressive,” “stubborn,” etc. we are already setting ourselves up to have a poor relationship with our dog. Those words mean to us that the dog is behaving in a way we do not want. Instead, ask yourself why is the dog doing this? What does he get out of it? If he is jumping up on you and you are constantly saying “off” “bad” “down” and then pushing him, then he is getting a lot of great feedback. In his mind he is saying “you talked to me, you looked at me, you touched me. When I have four feet on the floor you ignore me completely. I love jumping up and interacting with you.”

If we use the word “aggressive” we have already decided this is a dangerous dog with really bad behavior. But, what if the behavior we called aggressive was based in fear? Would that make you feel better about your dog? If you screamed at a snake and then tried to kill the snake with a hoe, would I call you aggressive? No, you were terrified of the snake and took action to protect yourself (although please don’t kill snakes they are good for the environment). Yet, if our dog growls, lunges, snaps or bites at something that scares him (a stranger for example) then he is “aggressive” and “bad.”

Please don’t get me wrong,  a dog that is fear aggressive is an issue that needs to be worked with right away, but I find my clients feel better about helping their dog if they understand the dog is afraid rather than thinking their dog is just a bad dog.

So, is your dog a good dog or a bad dog? Or is she just Dorothy Gale from Kansas who finds herself in a land where all the rules are different?