The Honeymoon Period

I get this phone call at least once a week. It goes something like this.

“I adopted a dog (over 6 months old) a little over a month ago. When I brought him (or her) home he was just the sweetest and quietest dog. He listened, seemed eager to please, and didn’t have a single accident. Then a couple of days ago he suddenly changed. He is pooping in the house, tearing up things and doesn’t listen. Did I make a mistake? I really don’t want to give him up but I can’t have him acting like this. Is there anything you can do?”

The good news is that this can be fixed.

What happened is that when you got the dog you went through the honeymoon period. The dog you brought home was not the dog you were going to end up. And the dog you end up with is dependent on how you acted during the honeymoon period.

When you brought the dog home you were thinking that the dog now has a secure home for the rest of its life. You will love and take care of it. You have rescued it because obviously the dog’s previous life was lousy. So to you the dog’s life has just gotten better.

But that is not what the dog was thinking. To the dog he belonged to a pack. It may not have been a very good pack, but it was his pack. He knew the rules and what was expected of him. Life was somewhat predictable, even in the worse home.

In his wolf and then later working ancestors, being kicked out of the pack is a life threatening event. A dog or wolf is not likely to survive on its own. So when a dog is run off, or loses, the pack, it has two choices. Survive for a minimal amount of time on its own, or find a new pack.

In order to be accepted in a new pack, the dog goes in as the omega dog. This is the lowest ranking member of the pack. It has only three jobs, be the last one to eat, be a stress relief to the other adults, and to play with the puppies. If the dog is accepted as the omega dog it survives.

So when your dog came home he did not think “oh boy my life just improved”, he thinks “what did I do to get kicked out of my old pack.” He is not sure he will be accepted into the new pack so he assumes the omega role.

During the honeymoon month, the dog is trying to figure out his place in this new pack. And he is trying to find out how high in this pack he needs to go. And if you did not give him time to figure out his place in this new pack, and clearly define his place in this pack, then he will try to figure it out on his own.

If you got a dog with high alpha drive he will try to take over. He sees it as his job to tell everyone else what to do. And if you got a dog with low alpha drive, he is pushing you to run the pack in a way to feel secure.

The way to handle this is training during the honeymoon period. You should find a trainer who understands this period and gives you tools and methods that allows the dog to join the new pack in a clearly defined role. Ask the trainer how he handles this period. If the trainer doesn’t know what the honeymoon period is, or says they handle it just like any other dog, find a different trainer.

Doug

Dogs who don't speak Dog

I just read in a forum about an owner who has a six month old dog. He has taken the dog to a park where it has been attacked twice by older dogs.

Without further information it is hard to determine for sure what causes this. But there are two general reasons for this behavior.

The first is that many dogs are dog aggressive. Something happens to dog aggressive dogs that has taught them that they need to attack in order to prevent being attacked. Those dogs do not try to read the intentions of the second dog, they act immediately by attacking. The solution is simple, though not easy to do. A dog aggressive dog must be de-sensitized to the presence of other dogs.

The second reason, which I suspect is the case here, is that the puppy doesn’t speak dog.

Dogs do the vast majority of their communication through body language. But many dogs today literally do not know how to “speak” to each other.

When two well socialized dogs meet for the first time, each dog lets the other dog know what its intentions are. If they intend to come close for a sniff (and a sniff is a handshake in the dog world) the dog approaching negotiates the approach and the other dog gives permission. Normally the dominant dog will ask to approach.

But because many of today’s dogs leave the breeder and go to a one or two dog home, they never develop their body language communications skills. Their humans communicate primarily through the spoken word. And if there is another dog in the home that lacks body communication skills, the two dogs may develop a relationship and body language that does not allow them to deal well with others.

This summer I had a dog in that spoke “dog” the way Yoda in Star Wars speaks English. When he first walked in his entire body language said “hi, I’m friendly” but as soon as he got in range he attempted to bite. Later I had him on a line and was sitting (deliberately) where I could just reach the top of his head with my hand. He walked over with body language that said he would bite. When he got to my hand, he flipped it up with his head so I could pet him.

Your dog began to develop its body language skills as soon as the litter began to interact. But before they develop full language skills they are off to their new owners. During the first few months where skills are developed, the dog spends the vast majority of its time with humans. The skills may not progress.

The human analogy is this. If you left a two year old with normal language skills on an island where everyone else is a deaf mute and then came back two years later, the child would have lost most of its limited skills. If you placed two children there, they would have a language that only they understood.

What is the solution here at Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes? After a dog has finished its private lessons it comes to Neighborhood Pack Sessions. In Neighborhood Pack we sharpen their language skills in a safe and controlled environment.

Doug

Domestication

The standard theory for many years is that sometime ten to fourteen years ago (and possibly even much earlier) man domesticated the wolf. For many years it was widely believed that for some reason, humans captured wolf puppies and the domestication process began.

However there is a second emerging theory that says the wolf domesticated itself. After training for a number of years, I am beginning to believe that this theory is correct.

In a wolf pack, there are always wolves that would rather scavenge than hunt. Those wolves quickly figured out that there was plenty of left over around a human encampment. Rather than go out and make a kill they started hanging around to gather up our leftovers.

When a wolf, or its descendants the dog, first meet a strange animal they have to figure out if the animal is a predator or prey. If it is a large animal they not only have to decide if it is a predator, but also if it will come after them.

Since the primary way dogs and wolves communicate is by body language the way to deal with this unknown animal is some very distinct body language.

I have a book on body language that I often consult. In the pictures is one of a dog meeting a horse for the first time. The body language is very distinct. Sometimes I show it to people and ask them to say what the first thing that comes into their mind is.

The universal answer “OH isn’t he cute!”

So here is the scenario. Two wolves are outside a cave eating away at what the humans have left behind. Two humans come out. The wolves react and the first human says to the second “OH aren’t they cute!”

Wolf one looks at Wolf two and says “we can con these things out of meals for the next fourteen thousand years."

And so the wolf became domesticated.

The Aha Moment

Monday I took Tag and Chicklet to their groomer. Kris has groomed my dogs since I got them. In addition to being a groomer she trains and raises American Staffordshire Bull Terriers.
My dogs love her and we get to sit and talk. Of course we talk about dogs and training. We were discussing that moment in training where the dog realizes what you want them to do. Kris said that she refers to that as the “Aha” moment.

That is a perfect description. And this week we had a couple of Aha moments including one very special one.

One of the dogs at Neighborhood Pack session last Wed was Billy. Billy is a Dutch Sheppard. Billy is a retired military working dog. His back legs were injured in an explosion in Iraq.

Billy was a trained explosives detection dog but like most military dogs he is a jack of all trades. Among the things he was trained to do was never let another dog near the troops since that dog might be wearing an IED.

Dogs are very particular about their space. Two dogs will negotiate any time they come in close contact to each other, if they have learned to do so. In the dog world if you fail to negotiate contact or even passing close by, there can be conflict.

Billy didn’t negotiate. He was trained not to. So he is literally the most dangerous dog I am working with now. However he is also the best trained. I have to watch him like a hawk. If another dog gets too near him, he will grab the dog. However he will stop if I see him in time or will release immediately if I tell him to do so.

I was working another dog, a very nice Siberian Husky. I was letting him go up and sniff and great the other dogs in our Neighborhood Pack session if he used body language to ask permission and if the other dog let him know it was okay.

All the dogs were on lines and in the control of an owner. I was answering a question and had turned to talk to the questioner. I could see Jack and Billy out of the corner of my eye.

Jack started to approach Billy but failed to negotiate. Just as I was getting ready to use the line to correct him and tell him to “leave it” Billy ducked his head. It was a clear warning. Jack reacted instinctively and backed up.

There was no conflict.

And both dogs had just had an “Aha” moment.

Doug

Another Lakeland Terrier

This is Joie. She is a Lakeland Terrier who started training Monday.

About two weeks ago I got an e mail from a rescue group asking for help. I replied with our standard offer. We will give a discount to rescue dogs from recognized organizations for dog’s that come in within thirty days of adoption. I also added that we will donate a free training package to any rescue Lakeland Terrier as part of our commitment to our breed.

Now Lakeland’s are rare so I was surprised to learn they had a mill rescue Lakeland. She got adopted this weekend and Jan called me on Saturday. Joie came in yesterday even though Jan had to come down from the Denver area.

Jan has a sister who lives here in Colorado Springs. Her sister, Debbie has shown Lakelands so Jan was familiar with the breed.

These rescue dogs are breeding dogs that are no longer used and are useless to the puppy mill. If they are not rescued they are put down.

The conditions for most of these puppy mill breeding dogs are horrid. Most are confined to a small cage or crate almost their entire lives. As a result they have never been socialized to people or dogs.

Usually working with this kind of a dog is a long and drawn out process. Some dogs come in to the center three or four times where all we do is let them get comfortable. There is no training, just desensitization to the environment. They not only have trouble making decisions, some of them literally do not know how to be dogs. So it can be months before we start. And sadly not all of them will make much progress.

So when Joie came in I was amazed at how confident she was. It was pretty close to a typical lesson I routinely give to dogs that have normal backgrounds. Joie and her new mom did well.

I think the reason she was so trainable so soon was one of the attributes of this breed. When they worked in England, they sometimes would get trapped and would have to wait days to be rescued. There are even stories of owners having to use explosives to get to them. To be able to lie in the cold and the dark is bred into them.

She will be back in a couple of weeks for her next lesson. She is a Lakeland, and they are the most challenging dog to train. So I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. After all she is still in the “honeymoon” phase of her relationship with her owner.

But whatever happens I’m pretty sure this dog will make it.

Doug

Death by phone call

I have been struggling with whether or not to write this particular blog. By nature I like give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their decisions, believing that most people are basically decent. Yet my street time as a cop has shown me that poor judgment can show its ugly head in many situations.

I read a column by a trainer recently. The trainer was contacted by phone. Someone had gotten a dog off one of the internet boards. The dog had started to show some alarmingly aggressive behavior. Apparently based on a phone description of the behavior and the trainer’s “knowledge” of the breed’s behavior, the trainer advised the owner to put the dog down.

The point of the article appears to have been to be very careful when getting a dog from this kind of a source. That is a valid and useful point. People are not always honest about why they want to place a dog.

What was so aggravating to me was that, unless this columnist is a poor writer, that trainer never saw the dog.

That just mystifies me. It is not that hard to get a pretty good idea of what you are going to be dealing with when someone calls. And some behaviors are so mild, that you can help them with just a few simple suggestions. You should be able to give the owner some good general advice on what they are dealing with in any conversation. But you should make it clear that until you see the dog, you cannot say for sure what the problems are.

But the trainer should insist of seeing the dog, especially if they think the problems are dangerous. To diagnose a dog as un-trainable over the phone is an extreme act of arrogance. Or it is the mark of someone who should rethink how they train.

Maybe someday I’ll find out it was just poor writing skills. But I kind of doubt it.



I wrote the paragraphs above two weeks ago but decided not to put it on the blog. Then the columnist wrote another column. The columnist got several e mails taking him to task on this. The writer made a point of how he had won over the worst critic.

When I was a field training officer I taught my young cops always try to get the suspect’s story. There were occasions when I had a solid case against a suspect. I had enough to do a warrant and make a good arrest. They seemed like slam dunk cases. But every now and then, when I got the suspect’s side of the story, the case fell apart. Either the crime hadn't occured or the supposed suspect was actually the victim.

It didn’t happen often, but it did happen.

They day will come when I have to advise someone to put down a dog. The dog will be so badly traumatized that it cannot be saved.

But I guarantee I will have seen the dog in person.

Doug

Neighborhood Pack II

One of the frustrations when you are building a business (especially in a recession) is not having a big enough customer base to do some of the things you want to do.

So by the end of summer when we had enough dogs to make getting together in group possible, we started doing Neighborhood Pack sessions. Of course we did not call it that until we met Pat Rock.

The name is a dead on description of what happens. We form a pack. Last week's pack had a Border Collie, two Boston Terriers, a Min Pin, a Jack Russell Terrier, a Norfolk Terrier, and a Standard Poodle. Three of the dogs were under a year in age. One dog had extreme dog aggression and another was a rescue with severe seperation anxiety.

Now each of these dogs had finished their private lessons and was making progress. But to complete the training process the dog needed a couple of sessions in a pack. And that night they were.

We don't turn dogs loose. But there is a pack leader, me. And there are higher ranking members of the pack, who have to be respected. That is the owners.

There were no miracles. But there was progress. Everyone learned that the rules their owners have established apply in every situation.

The excitement of the night was when the dog aggressive dog managed to snap open his lead and get loose. He challenged every dog in the center. But there were no bites, just bluffing. Ane he quickly learned that unacceptable behavior results in a frim, but fair, correction. He still has a way to go but that was a big step for him. And every other dog in the room learned they can trust their owners.

Neighborhood Pack has be so successful that now every dog finishes training by attending three sessions. Since the dog learns from the other dogs, and the owners learn from each other, the dog and owner finish the training and cement their relationship.

This gives us the ability to take advantage of both one on one training, and group training.

Plus now you have a place to come back to from time to time to sharpen you and the dog.

Doug