Posts tagged "DogBehavior"

Meet Mary Burch, American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen director and Paw Nation's expert columnist addressing your questions on animal behavior. Dr. Burch has more than 25 years of experience working with dogs, and she is one of fewer than 50 Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists based in the United States. She is the author of 10 books, including the new official book on the AKC Canine Good Citizen Program, "Citizen Canine: 10 Essential Skills Every Well-Mannered Dog Should Know."

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Q: We have a Lab/Chow mix who we got from the Humane Society when she was 6 years old. She is 9 years old now. We don'’t know anything about her history before we got her. She is very sweet but extremely stubborn when we attempt to walk her on leash, refusing to move by sitting or pulling back. We can sometimes coax her into it, but other times we need to take her in the car to a field nearby where she usually will walk. We don't think a training class would help because she does not take to other dogs readily. What do you suggest we do to help her enjoy going for a walk?

A: For this interesting case, I may have more questions for you than answers, but I hope they'’ll help you solve this puzzle. However, I do agree that a training class is probably not the best solution for your pup.

Meet Mary Burch, American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Director and Paw Nation's expert columnist addressing your questions on animal behavior. Dr. Burch has over 25 years of experience working with dogs, and she is one of fewer than 50 Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists based in the United States. She is the author of 10 books, including the new official book on the AKC Canine Good Citizen Program, "Citizen Canine: 10 Essential Skills Every Well-Mannered Dog Should Know."

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My pug, Charlie, is very friendly with other dogs when he is on a leash, but when we go to the dog run and I let him off the leash, he is interested only in the people, and avoids other dogs. The minute he is back on the leash and we start walking back home, he is friendly again. Why does he do this? It isn't exactly a problem, but I am wondering if he is missing out on the fun of the dog run.

I am glad you recognize that your pug's preference for people rather than other dogs is not a problem. The breed standard actually says that pugs' "reason for living is to be near their people."

There are many dog owners who would change places with you in a second. Their dogs pay more attention to other dogs than they do to the people in the family, and the owners would love to have a people-friendly pet.

Meet Mary Burch, American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Director and Paw Nation's expert columnist addressing your questions on animal behavior. Dr. Burch has over 25 years of experience working with dogs, and she is one of fewer than 50 Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists based in the United States. She is the author of 10 books, including the new official book on the AKC Canine Good Citizen Program, "Citizen Canine: 10 Essential Skills Every Well-Mannered Dog Should Know."

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How can I stop my dog from begging at the table?

When those sweet brown boxer eyes look up at you, it's hard to resist sharing a piece of your pot roast. Yet begging at the table is one canine habit that can quickly become a nuisance.

If your dog begs, don't give in. You need to ignore the begging 100 percent of the time for the behavior to go away. Make sure your family members and friends do the same. Consistency is key to changing your dog's behavior.

Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the dalmatian mix he and his wife Anna adopted as a puppy in late 2009, and the first dog Ben's ever had.

Pippi needs a ton of exercise. At barely more than a year old, she's still a puppy, and a dalmatian puppy at that. When my "little brother" Jorell was here, he was good about giving Pippi some extra running-around time every day. Now that he's gone, she tends to get more rambunctious, particularly in the evening when Anna and I are both home.

Pippi regularly needs new forms of stimulation. We used to take her into our neighbor's fenced-in backyard to run around, but one day she seemed to tire of it for no apparent reason. Instead of chasing her ball around, all she wanted to do was chew on wood chips and anything else she found lying on the ground.

She loves to gallop, but she needed a new venue. In that relatively small backyard, all she can really do is run around in circles. Recently we had the bright idea to let her run around in our nearby park at night. Suburban outlaws that we are, we let her do it off-leash. We unlatch her, throw a stick, and she goes after it. Though she's good about retrieving it, she's not so great about bringing it back. But she has a fun time tearing around, and usually returns to us without much delay.

Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the dalmatian mix he and his wife Anna adopted as a puppy in late 2009, and the first dog Ben's ever had.

Anna wrote this week's column.

We don't crate Pippi. There, I said it. In my childhood in Alabama, we never crated our dogs. In fact, the only dogs I ever saw cooped up were trained hunting dogs that often lived outside in a pen year-round.

No one seemed to crate in the house, and it didn't seem to make much sense for us to start when Ben and I got Pippi. For one thing, a dog of her size needs a somewhat large crate, and we live in a relatively small apartment. Plus, we have a fairly indestructible kitchen where Pippi can hang out unsupervised, and even a little cave-like anteroom next to the kitchen where she can sleep. The way I see it, skipping the crate gives us all more room to be together when we're playing tug or cooking supper.

Makes sense, no? But where we live, folks are just crazy for crating! They seem to regard it as some kind of canine panacea, claiming it promotes housetraining, combats anxiety and curbs destructive behavior, among other purported virtues. Ben and I have even been scolded for not crating Pippi, as though it were some kind of mistreatment not to lock her down at night.

Meet Mary Burch, American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Director and Paw Nation's expert columnist addressing your questions on animal behavior. Dr. Burch has over 25 years of experience working with dogs, and she is one of fewer than 50 Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists based in the United States. She is the author of 10 books, including the new official book on the AKC Canine Good Citizen Program, "Citizen Canine: 10 Essential Skills Every Well-Mannered Dog Should Know."

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I have a 6-year-old dalmatian named Spot (who's always been our baby), and I'm about to give birth to twins. How do I get our dog ready for the new arrivals, and how do I make sure they are safe around him? He's always been a little possessive of me and my husband, so I'm kind of worried.

First of all, congratulations on your twins!. It's great that you are already planning on making a smooth transition for Spot when the babies arrive. Here are some tips for ensuring that Spot and the new babies have a happy, healthy relationship.

1. Get Basic Training Out of The Way
Ideally, as soon as parents-to-be know that a baby will be coming into the family, the canine family member will be provided with training if it hasn't been done before. Commands such as "sit," "down," "stay," and "back up" are very helpful when it comes to managing a dog around new infants.

Meet Mary Burch, American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Director and Paw Nation's expert columnist addressing your questions on animal behavior. Dr. Burch has over 25 years of experience working with dogs, and she is one of fewer than 50 Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists based in the United States. She is the author of 10 books, including the new official book on the AKC Canine Good Citizen Program, "Citizen Canine: 10 Essential Skills Every Well-Mannered Dog Should Know."

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I've heard that you can train a puppy to urinate and poop on command. Is that true? I am about to start visiting shelters to adopt a dog, and want to know how I would go about this sort of training.

Standing in the rain or the snow waiting for your dog to do his business is one of the more annoying aspects of dog ownership. Which is why teaching your dog to respond to the command "go pee" is handy when you need the dog to hurry, lift its leg on a nearby bush, and get back in the house. Likewise, training your dog to move its bowels on command is convenient for selecting an appropriate place when you are out in public.

Surprisingly, this skill isn't as hard to teach as you might think. You just have to break it down into steps -- there are five here -- and patiently take your dog through them. The process works the same way for both urination and defecation, but don't try to teach both at the same time. Once your dog has learned to respond to one of the commands, repeat the steps for the other. Here's what you should try:

1. Do Basic House Training: The first step is to teach your dog to "go" outside so that he isn't having accidents in the house.

2. Create a Predictable Schedule: Put your dog on a regular feeding and exercise program so that you know roughly when he will need to defecate.

3. Learn When Your Dog Needs To Relieve Himself: Observe your dog to determine its normal schedule for relieving its bowels.

Meet Mary Burch, American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Director and Paw Nation's expert columnist addressing your questions on animal behavior. Dr. Burch has over 25 years of experience working with dogs, and she is one of fewer than 50 Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists based in the United States. She is the author of 10 books, including the new official book on the AKC Canine Good Citizen Program, "Citizen Canine: 10 Essential Skills Every Well-Mannered Dog Should Know."

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This question is about my "granddog," who is a male standard poodle. I adore him and the feeling is mutual. However, to show his affection, he jumps up to greet me, and his 80 pounds makes for a lot of greeting! He often makes me almost lose balance completely, and his paws mark my arms. What can we do without being cruel to curb this behavior?

It does sound like you have a rambunctious pooch on your hands. The reason your grandpup is jumping is because he's eager to see you and meet visitors, and he has been allowed to do this in the past. The great news is that poodles are fast learners, so with some training sessions at home, your granddog should master good manners soon.

I would suggest a training approach that has two main components:

1. Don't Reward the Jumping
The poodle's reward has been having contact and attention from the person on whom he is jumping. Don't give him this pleasure. If he jumps up, simply turn your body away before he can get his paws on you. Walk away if he persists. Don't talk to him and don't look at him. When he is calm, praise and talk to him using a quiet voice. You are teaching him that jumping won't get him the attention he craves.

Here at Paw Nation, we know that every pet has a story, and it's usually a story their owners just love to tell. So we decided to hit the streets to ask pets (and their owners) about everything from how they were adopted to what was the naughtiest thing they've ever done. It's our weekly series, "Pet On The Street."

This week we went to Philadelphia to find out just how friendly the pups are in the City of Brotherly Love. Check out the video and then tell us in the comments about how your pooch likes to interact with other dogs.

Here at Paw Nation, we know that every pet has a story, and it's usually a story their owners just love to tell. So we decided to hit the streets to ask pets (and their owners) about everything from how they were adopted to what was the naughtiest thing they've ever done. It's our weekly series, "Pet On The Street."

This week we're in Portland, Ore. asking dog owners to tell us what they think their dogs would say if they could talk. Watch the video and then be sure to go to our comments section and speak out for your canine buddies. Would they request special dinners? Declare undying love? Maybe beg for belly rubs? Tell us!

Meet Mary Burch, American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Director and Paw Nation's expert columnist addressing your questions on animal behavior. Dr. Burch has over 25 years of experience working with dogs, and she is one of fewer than 50 Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists based in the United States. She is the author of 10 books, including the new official book on the AKC Canine Good Citizen Program, "Citizen Canine: 10 Essential Skills Every Well-Mannered Dog Should Know."

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I adopted a Jack Russell terrier mix who is now six months old. Her name is Lady, and we'd like to teach her to be a lady. Our problem is that Lady loves to chew on everything. She's even eaten the drywall in my hallway. If shoes do not have bite marks, then they do not live in my house. Is there any advice you can give us that will help us control her wild behavior?

Since she is eating the walls, by now you must be thinking that Miss Lady is part termite. Chewing presents a real problem for owners, because when dogs are frequent chewers (as it sounds like Lady is), the destruction can be very costly to you and potentially harmful to your pet.

Here's what you need to know about chewing: Dogs need to do it. For puppies, it is developmental and it helps with the teething process. For older dogs, chewing helps clean the teeth and can be a way to relax. The trick is to redirect Lady's need to chew away from your furniture and walls (and shoes!) and towards more appropriate toys and treats. Here are two things to try.

1) Discover the Chew Toys She Likes Best
Purchase a variety of toys -- bully sticks, large bones, and other chewable toys -- and place them where Lady can get to them easily. Remember to supervise chewing in the beginning and always replace any non-edible toy if it begins breaking apart. If Lady tears off and swallows anything that isn't edible and digestible for a dog of her size, the result could be a problem such as an intestinal obstruction.

Observe which toys she chooses. Dogs will often have a preferred type of chew toy. Initially, your living room may need to look like a dinosaur dig with bones everywhere, but eventually, you can have just one or two items that are acceptable chewies, and she'll go and find them when she needs to chew.

It's bad news for the snarling, angry dog on the corner, but good news for the mailman he terrorizes. Scientists have discovered that bold, aggressive dogs live much shorter lives than shy, obedient pooches, the New York Times reports.

Vincent Careau, of the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada, and his colleagues came to that conclusion by comparing numerous dog breeds based on their personalities. For example, poodles are ranked as 29 percent more docile than boxers, and Careau's team found that poodles are four times more likely than boxers to live past age 10.

Beyond simply looking at aggressiveness, the researchers also found that the most obedient breeds, such as German shepherds, poodles, and bichon frises, live considerably longer than hard-to-train dogs such as beagles and pomeranians, according to New Scientist. Careau used personality data based on a 1995 psychology study that ranked dog personalities, the New York Times reports, and also compared dogs of similar size.

Call it karma, or a mere accident of selective breeding, but for dogs, it seems, it pays to be good.

You're out for a walk and an unleashed dog starts chasing you. Do you run? Scream at the dog? Smile and make eye contact?

Actually, none of those things, says Adam Goldfarb, director of the Pets at Risk Program for the Humane Society of the United States.

Dogs bite 4.5 million Americans each year, and about one in five victims suffer severe enough injuries to require medical attention. Young children are at the greatest risk according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). Senior citizens and mail carriers are also common victims.

In honor of National Dog Bite Prevention Week, we asked Goldfarb for tips on how to avoid being bitten.

Stay Calm, Move Slowly and Appear Nonthreatening: Dogs love to chase and catch things--and you don't want to spark that urge. If you're out walking and a dog starts running after you, stop moving. Then remain still or back away slowly until the dog is out of sight. Avoid eye contact, because "a stare can be seen as threatening or intimidating," Goldfarb says. He also suggests turning sideways "because it makes you look smaller to a dog and less threatening." Don't scream or give the dog a reason to become excited or aggressive.

Prepare Your Kids: 400,000 children are treated every year for dog bites and most bites involving young children occur during everyday activities and while interacting with familiar dogs, notes the AVMA. Teach your children not to hug or kiss the family dog on the face, a common cause of bites to the face. Instead, scratch the dog on the chest or the side of the neck. The AVMA offers a coloring book in English and Spanish to help educate children about interacting safely with dogs and avoiding dog bites that can be downloaded.

If Attacked, Distract: Get on the other side of a car or "feed" the dog your backpack, purse, t-shirt or a garbage can lid to both distract the animal and to create a barrier between you and it while you try to get away safely.

Rachel A. Cohen

What animal lover hasn't daydreamed about ditching their desk job and applying for a job at the zoo? Or at a doggy daycare? Or tracking gorillas in Africa? We sure have, but since most of us may never actually get to work with the animals we love, we thought we'd introduce you to a few people who do.

Name: Rachel A. Cohen
Age: 24
Job Title: Dog Walker/Pet Sitter

How did you become a dog walker?
I have always loved dogs. I grew up bringing my family dog to off-leash in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. I met a retiree who wondered if I'd care for her dogs while she traveled for a couple of weeks. It turned into a regular gig, and the more I walked around with dogs in tow, the more dogs I met. I started with just one puppy, and within a year I had 12 dogs.

What's your typical workday like?
A dog walker's day is scheduled to the minute in 30 to 60 minute increments. I start with my first dog at 7:30 a.m. and go through the day planning excursions in the park, puppy play dates and strolls around the neighborhood. I typically walk somewhere between 13 and 20 dogs a day. Some days, by 6:30pm I'm not sure if I can walk another step. Luckily, dogs always keep you on your feet. Every apartment you walk into has a dog that is overjoyed to see you and ready to play. The energy is contagious!

Here at Paw Nation, we know that every pet has a story, and it's usually a story their owners just love to tell. So we decided to hit the streets to ask pets (and their owners) about everything from how they were adopted to what was the naughtiest thing they've ever done. It's our weekly series, "Pet On The Street."

This week, we ask dog owners in Portland, Oregon to tell us about the cute little quirks that make their pooches so special. Watch it now! Then you must go to our comments section and share details about your own dog. We absolutely love those kinds of stories at Paw Nation.