Puppy Training Part III, the worst two weeks to own a dog

I think the hardest two weeks to own a dog are weeks 14 and 15.
Because of the way a dog’s mind develops weeks 8 (usually the youngest age a breeder will sell a dog) through week 14 are pretty easy. Again during that time you aren’t really training, you are conditioning.

Training differs from conditioning in that in training we give the dog a command and if it performs, we reward the behavior. If it does not we correct. In conditioning there are no corrections, just distraction.

We take advantage of the fact that during that period, the puppy’s whole world revolves around its owner(s). When we tell the puppy to sit we raise our closed hand. Since a dog has to sit down to look up, it sits and we praise. When the dog comes running to us we praise it effusively while giving a recall command. Since puppies are all about pleasing us, the praise reinforces the reaction to our words.

If we walk by and the puppy stands up we tell it “good stand” and if remains laying there we tell it “good down.” If it bites our hand we shriek or use a rattle can while saying “no bite.” When it releases we praise.

Because a puppy is all about pleasing us during these weeks, it seems like the puppy is already training. And if it were not for what happens in weeks 14 and 15, it would be.

Then the puppy hits week 14. This stage in a dog’s development can be described as the worst parts of the terrible twos and puberty all wrapped up in one. The world is not about you, it is about the puppy. The dog has gone from pleasing you to pleasing itself. It truly believes it is now smarter than you and you are there to do what they want, not the other way around.

I see this all the time in Neighborhood Pack Sessions (group). Puppy came in for puppy class and now comes to Neighborhood Pack every week. It sees how the adult dogs listen to their owners and tries as hard to work for its owner as the big dogs do for their people. Exposure to adult dogs in a pack situation is one of the best things you can do with a puppy.

And Mom and Dad are just beaming. By week 13 I can see it in their eyes. Their little darling is going to be the best dog ever. Why they won’t even have to spend the time or money on adult class.

The next week the phone rings here at Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes. It is puppy’s owners. I get told that the dog will be 16 weeks and one day (the point where it can train as an adult) on the 22nd. They would like the 7:00 AM appointment.

I know what they are going through. And I can usually give them the 7:00 AM appointment.

Oh and the picture is Vino, the legendary service dog Rottweiler, as a puppy in 2009.

Doug

Why dog training fails, part III

Every now and then I get a minute to look around the web at web sites for dog trainers. I pick a city and see who is out there and what they have to say. You never know when you might find something to help you improve.

Today looking a city in the Midwest, I came across a website. On every page the trainer emphasized and re-emphasized their years of training. And yet they did not seem to have stayed anywhere very long.

Then I remembered something a great trainer told me once.

This person was not a dog trainer. He was my field training officer when I joined the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office in 1984. And he was a great trainer.

This was old school police training. Back then you did not go to a six month academy and then 14 weeks of Field Training. They swore in and took you to the range where they taught you to shoot, in an afternoon. You then spent a week working in each section of the office. That was followed by just five weeks of field training and you were out on your own. If you survived, and did not get the sued, then you went to the academy before the end of the first year.

When I showed up that night for my first shift most of the deputies introduced themselves. One made a great show of telling me, in front of everyone, that he was a ten year veteran.

Later that night Skeeter brought up that conversation. Then he told me:

“Look there are two kinds of ten year veterans. One kind has one year of experience ten times. The other has ten years of experience.”

This is why I highly recommend you meet with any dog trainer before you decide who is going to train your dog. You want a trainer who grows and improves with every dog, not someone who does the same thing over and over again.

Doug

A Boston Terrier's Tale, an update

The most popular article on this blog, judging by the number of views, is A Boston Terrier's Tale.

I just got this picture from Moose's owner. I'd like to share it and his e mail with you.


Doug,

I wanted to wish everyone at PPMIM a happy holiday season and give you an update on Moose. I would imagine a lot times in your business, you work with a dog and then owner and K-9 disappear and you never know the rest of the story. Moose as you remember was an adopted dog and a very troubled one due to 15 months of abuse. He had severe
fear aggression toward large dogs and men. I 'm happy to report, thanks to PPMIM, Moose continues to be a success story. He no longer has any fear aggression towards large dogs or strange males and hasn't for over a year. All the group therapy and continually practicing the principles learned has paid off with huge dividends. Moose continues to be an ambassador for the Boston Terrier breed. At the dog park he spends the entire time racing from dog to dog as if he is the official greeter. He really has turned into an amazing dog. Moose has demonstrated a passion for frisbee and runs side by side with his sister Lily(lab pit mix) like a veteran. In his down time his favorite thing to do is snuggle. I have attached several photos of Moose doing what dogs are supposed to do.. just enjoy life. Thanks again for providing a safe and controlled atmosphere which allowed Moose to shed his fears and become a normal, life loving companion.

David

I'd like to take a lot of credit for this, but it was a good owner, comminted to his dog, hard work on both their parts, and a solid system that made this happen. I just got to see the results.

Doug

Canine Rage Disorder

I’m not a veterinarian so I can’t make any judgments about medical causes of this condition, but I have seen one case of extreme Canine Rage Disorder. So this blog is about rage and a possible behavioral explanation for the rage.

I received a call well over a year ago. A vet referred an owner to me. The owner explained that he had a French bulldog that was extremely aggressive. The dog was fine with another dog in the home, his wife and he, but would suddenly attack any other dogs or humans.

I like to know generally what I am going to be asked to deal with before people come in for an evaluation. But usually I wait to get the details. And I deal with aggressive dogs all the time. But this owner was almost frantic. He said he was reluctant to even bring the dog in for fear it would attack me. I assured him that I was used to working with aggressive dogs. I told him that if the dog did attack it was an occupational hazard I have learned to live with.

I will not work with any dog without the dog and owner coming in for a free assessment before taking the dog. First I like to have an idea of what the dog is like. And it is very important that the owner understand the Manners in Minutes dog training system and be willing to do the work required for the training to succeed. If the training is to succeed the dog, the owner and I must be on the same page and be able to work together.

I always come out to see the dog as soon as you pull up. I am watching the dog as you bring it in. The dog tells me a lot about itself from the minute I first see it. By watching this I get a lot of information about what is going on with the dog.

Except for that evening every aggressive or dangerous dog has told me, via body language that I needed to watch out. This dog gave me nothing to alarm me. But I was on guard because of our phone conversation.

When a dog comes in I have you wait at the door. The dog is always on a line. I watch the dog and ask a couple of questions. But I am really looking at the dog’s behavior and judging its reaction to the center. If all goes well I have you drop the line to see what the dog does next.

I was a little more cautious than usual but again did not see anything. I deliberately stood away to the side at a distance. Then I told the owner to just let go of the line.

When I do this I am looking at three things, confidence, curiosity and caution. The dog has walked in and has already figured out by smell that there have been thousands of dogs in here. To a dog that is supposed to mean that the center is possible a den for a really large pack of dogs.

First I want to see if your dog confident enough to leave your side. A dog that has no confidence will just stand there with rear and front ends lowered. A dog with too much confidence will start peeing on everything in sight to “mark” territory.

A dog with normal curiosity will quickly begin to explore. And if the dog has the right amount of caution you will see it in their body language. When you go to some other pack’s den, you need to be prepared for confrontation.

This dog stood calmly for a moment. He took two steps. Then he turned suddenly and latched on to my shin.

It hurt. But I was a cop for 24 years. Police work is a contact sport and I have the scars, healed broken bones and surgical reports to prove it. It wasn’t very high on my list of pain situations. And I don’t panic easily.

Normally I would have just growled hard at the dog and walked my way up the line (reaching down would have guaranteed an attack at my face) until the line pulled the dog off my shin. But the owner was panicking and any movement on my part would have escalated the situation and made things worse.

I stood there taking the bite and calmly told the owner to slowly pick up the line and pull the dog off of me. Then I had to calm the owner who was reacting all out of proportion to the situation.

After I calmed the owner I had him attach the dog to a point so that the dog could not make another mistake and started to find out what had happened.

The owner told me he got the dog several years ago. The dog was normal and had no aggression. When the dog was two it disappeared from his backyard.

The dog was chipped so they checked regularly with the Humane Society to see if he showed up. After a year the figured the dog was never going to show up. They bought another dog. They did report the dog as stolen.

After the dog had been gone for two years they got a call from the Humane Society. The dog was at the shelter and had been identified via the chip. They went and got him. The Humane Society told them that the police had gone to a home of an older lady on a mental health check the welfare. Due to the lady’s behavior they had taken her in for an evaluation which turned into a mental health hold. As there was no one to take the dog the Humane Society had been called. When they checked for a microchip they found one and discovered the dog had been reported as stolen. As there is no legal right to stolen items in Colorado, the dog had to be returned to the owners regardless of how the other woman got the dog.

They took the dog home and he seemed to be fine until they took him for a walk in the neighborhood when he tried to go after every dog or person he saw. They thought time would cure him but he hadn’t gotten any better.

Then the owner told me that he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his military service. With all kinds of alarm bells going off in the back of my head I asked some more questions and then did some behavior testing.

My greatest concern was whether or not the dog had lost the ability to trust. If he had, then the chances that training could undo the damage were minimal, at best. As a rule of thumb I will not work with a dog that has lost that ability to trust. But there were some signs that he still had the ability to trust.

I do not like people to sign up for training at the end of the assessment. I want you to be very sure before you start with me that this is what you want. And based on what I now had heard and seen I wanted to think about this dog before committing to training it.

I sent them home with a brochure and told them to think it over. I also wanted to thing about whether or not I was willing to work with this dog.

I mulled it over for a couple of days. I decided that the dog was worth the effort. And I believe that if they followed my instructions that we could fix the behavior. But I knew if it failed the dog would be too dangerous to ever have even the slightest chance of getting loose. I decided that I would impose some unusual conditions.

I decided that if the dog worked with me, and it did not work, then I would refund their fees but that they would have to agree to put the dog down. If this dog was so traumatized that training did not work, the dog's life was one of constant fear and that kind of dog was just too dangerous to everyone.

Then I thought about the owner. I figured his wife would keep that agreement but I wasn’t sure about the husband. I knew they loved the dog and they might be tempted to keep it even if the training wasn’t working. Sadly sometimes there is no choice but to put a dog down. But not everyone will make the best decision for the dog.

Luckily they never called back, so the decision was taken out of my hands. I never learned what happened to the dog.

Assuming that all the information they gave me was accurate, I believe that whatever happened the two years that dog was gone filled that dog with rage. And sadly I will never know more about what caused it and if it could be undone.

I haven’t seen anything even close to this since, but I know the next phone call for this condition will come sooner or later. I hope the outcome is better.

Doug

Testing Dog's DNA

In the last year or so, the cost of DNA tests for mixed breed dogs has gone down to the point where I am seeing more and more clients test their dogs. The results are almost always surprising.

I’ve found out that more often than not, a mixed breed dog is not what the owner was told. The exception of course, is a dog that you get from someone who owned both the parents. But almost every other mixed breed is not what the client was told.

Shelters and rescue groups often make an educated guess. They base the guess on the dog’s looks and sometimes its behavior. But on those dogs where my client has done a DNA test, the rule of thumb is that the guess only accurately gets one of the breeds.

Such groups also tend not to guess any of the breeds who are generally (and inaccurately) described as difficult or mean. I don’t think I’ve ever had a guesstimate mention bull terrier, even though the head shape gives that away.

But for the record, I don’t do much better. I rarely get more than one foundation breed right. And I tend to balance looks with behavior to make my guess.

I’ll give you some good examples. (Names have been changed to protect the innocent but these are dogs I have worked with.) The first is Kirby. He is obviously German Sheppard. His coat texture, coloring, and head give that away. But he is also very, very verbal. He tends to be grumpy and standoffish. And his torso is low slung. His bark is more of a baying than the sharp bark of a GSD. So I guessed he was part beagle,

I got that one wrong. He is German Sheppard, Labrador Retriever, Border Collie and at least five ancestors whose lineage is mixed to the point it cannot be determined by that type of DNA testing. That DNA test goes back three generations, the parents (2 dogs), the grandparents (4 dogs) and the great grandparents (8 dogs). Most of the DNA tests I have seen go that far back.

Another was Franklin. His owners bought him from a trainer and puppy seller notorious for selling dogs that are aggressive. He seems to make them that way to get you to keep coming back for more training until you run out of time, money, patience, or all three. When they got Franklin they were told he was a terrier mix.

Based on his color, his coat, and his size, I thought he was a Blue Kerry mix. However behaviorally he just was not right for a terrier. His aggression was always a bluff. And terriers rarely bluff.

When his DNA came in there was no terrier dominant. He was Schipperke, Papillion, Labrador along with the usual number of unknowns. The Schipperke explained the tough guy image. Schipperke is a non sporting breed that is a ratter on European river barges. This explains the terrier like traits. The Papillion, a toy, explains the worry about safety behavior. And the Lab explained the poor impulse decisions.

While its not necessary for you or the trainer to know what breeds are in your mix, it is a nice to have piece of information. At least you can get an idea where the behaviors come from.

By the way, when someone tells me they have their DNA results I don’t let them tell me what they are. Instead I have them bring it to the next Neighborhood Pack (my group) session so all of us can guess before we find out for sure.

So far no one had gotten more than one breed right.

Doug

Lakeland Terrier Puppies for sale

The title of this blog was deliberately worded in hopes of getting to people looking to buy Lakeland or any other breed of puppies. If you found it because you are searching for a puppy, please read on before resuming your search.

I am the proud owner of two Lakeland Terriers, a dog trainer, and the friend of three of the finest Lakeland breeders you could ever know.

Last week one of them spent a couple of days visiting us. She just ended her term as president of the US Lakeland Terrier club. She told me that they had registered about a 165 puppies with the AKC each year the last two years. What she then said shocked me. She said that half the puppies came from puppy mills.

That hit hard because the last time I had checked it was difficult to find my breed in the puppy mills. I was pleased with that then because I knew that it meant others would not go through the heartbreak we went through with our first Lakeland Terrier who was a puppy mill dog.

So I searched for Lakeland Terrier puppies and was horrified to find quite a few were available from puppy mills.

I would like for my breed to be more popular. And the more Lakeland puppies that get bought, the more likely the breed is to stay around and have a stable breeding population. And on a philosophical level, if people buy puppy mill Lakelands, they might be a Lakeland owner for life.

And that is exactly what happened to me. We moved into a new house and could get a dog. Two days later I went to work and when I came home that night my wife and youngest daughter had gone to the puppy store and we had a dog.

I had heard you don’t buy a dog from a puppy store but did not know why. But I also knew you do not tell your fourteen year old daughter she has to take a puppy back.

Back then I could not find anything out about the breed but by day two I was a lifelong Lakie person.

The reason you don’t buy puppy mill dogs quickly became apparent. Button no sooner became an adult and her kidneys started to fail due to a genetic fault. We would keep her alive until she was seven, but the average life expectancy for a Lakeland is 12 to 14 years.

I would spend more keeping her alive those seven years than the two breeder produced dogs I own now would cost me.

It would have been easy to assume that Lakelands are short lived with very expensive medical costs from that experience. Fortunately by then there was a lot available on the internet. That is when I found out why you buy puppies from reputable breeders. The higher cost at the start is quite often more than offset by longer life and lower vet bills.

Many of my training clients buy puppies from the puppy stores, who get their puppies from puppy mills. Now these are usually nice dogs. Their owners often tell me that they paid one third to one half as much as they would have paid from a good breeder. I hope that they were lucky and got a dog that will live a normal life span. But on more than one occasion I find out they had the same bad experience I did.

I also see dogs from good breeders. And they did cost more. But they have fewer health problems.

Losing a dog is never easy. But losing a dog well before its normal life expectancy is horrific.

The sad fact is that puppy mill puppies are cheaper because the breeding programs these breeders aren’t sound. They mass produce dogs using female breeding stock too often and too long. And the older a female dog and the more often she breeds, the more likely the puppies will have genetic problems and shorter life spans.

The fear is that the puppy mills will make it harder and harder for good breeders to place their puppies. And since good breeders don’t make money from breeding, there will be fewer and fewer source of sound and healthy dogs, especially in the lesser known breeds.

It would be a shame if my grandchildren wouldn’t be able to consider owning a good Lakeland when they are adults.

Doug

If you are looking for a reputable breeder for Lakeland Terriers go to the United States Lakeland Club website. There is a list of reputable breeders.

The only way to train a dog is

The other night after our Neighborhood Pack Session three of my dog owners were outside talking. I joined in.

These three have been working with me for a while. And each of them has an awesome dog.

Vino is a Rottweiler. He started his training at nine weeks. He has been trained to be a service dog and is the subject of an earlier blog. He is 22 months old now and just an incredible dog. He works for his twins. He now gives an alert up to 45 minutes before the little girl goes into grand mal seizures and will intervene if her brother starts bumping his head into the wall he will push him away and sit with him until he calms down. He has passed every test and certification with flying colors.

Athena is a Rottweiler, Aussie cattle dog and Akita mix. She is a rescue. She is a one in a thousand dog. She took one look at her new owner, decided she loved her new mom, and has been a jewel ever since. Training her was a breeze and she is one of my pack leaders in Neighborhood Pack. She will often quell bad behavior in another dog with just a look.

Charlie is a young pit bull. When he started he was dog aggressive. We got him past that quickly and he became playful but at the first sign of any rough play would get pretty defensive. Now he is just playful with everyone. Maturity and experience will tone that down.

Vino’s Mom started the conversation by telling us that she had taken him into one of the chain stores. He was wearing his service vest. The store “trainer” came over and told Mom that she trained service therapy Rottweiler’s. She immediately asked if Vino had been trained in a method that uses corrections. Mom answered yes and the “trainer” launched into a harangue that dogs can’t be trained with methods using corrections.

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Athena’s Mom also added that she had a similar experience in another of the chains. The trainer had lectured her about the “only way” to train dogs. She went on to explain the superiority of food based training, the favored method of many chains.

Charlie’s mom got stopped by a neighbor. Apparently this is one of those “I come to you” trainers who lives in her neighborhood. The trainer had seen Duke jump on her as they left the house for their walk. The trainer then told her how her training methods are wrong and she should change trainers. The trainer did not realize that jumping only occurs at the start of a walk and is a way he expresses pleasure. It is also the sign of a young dog who hasn’t quite understood why he should not do that yet.

Each of these three different trainers told my client that their training method was the “only way” to train a dog.

At that point one of my clients said that the “only way” to train a dog is the Manners in Minutes system. I disagreed. I believe that a good trainer can train a dog in any method.

I know I could train in any system; choke chain, pinch collar, clicker, food based, or any of the others. . I use the Manners in Minutes system because it is efficient. Not only do I think the dog catches on quicker, I believe the owner learns this method faster than any other. And I have set up my training lesson plan and center to maximize the method.

I have a training center rather than train in a park because I can control the environment. The center also means I don’t have too little or too much space. And I can control who and what the dog is exposed to as the training progresses.

I use very little food because I have long since realized that a client training for the first time will often use food as a crutch. The temptation to offer the food too often or too soon is hard for someone to resist when they first start working with a dog. As a result the client ends up bribing rather than motivating the dog.

I don’t like choke or pincher collars because for an inexperienced owner it is too easy too over or under correct. Under correction has no effect on the dog, over correction results in resentment. Electronic collars don’t make sense to the dog. I don’t use harsh alpha methods because a pack leader is firm, fair and consistent, not a bully. I don’t use clickers, even though I think they are the fastest way to learn to properly time praise, because too many owners have no control when they do not have a clicker at hand.

I stopped offering group classes to start training because I noticed that in every group there was always one dog that was so out of control that too much of the allotted time was spent on that dog to the detriment of the others. Every group always had someone who for various reasons needed a disproportionate amount of my time. Group tends to put the owner with an easier dog at a disadvantage.

So to make sure that the time I spend with you and your dog is efficient I start you in private sessions. That way you and the dog get my undivided attention. Then when the dog and you are ready I move you into group since there are many things we can do in group you can never do in private sessions.

If you have found a good trainer then there is no “only way,” just what they believe is the best way. And if you have found a trainer who has the “only way,” odds are you do not have a good trainer.

Doug