The following was sent in from a reader in response to my article on Small Dog Syndrome. You can find the full comment at the bottom of the article. Here’s a link to the original article.

“MY DOG KNOWS I DONT LIKE HIM ON THE BED, BUT HE ALSO KNOWS THAT MY BF [boyfriend] THINKS THAT EVERYTHING HE DOES IS CUTE SO HE WONT JUMP ON THE BED WHILE IM IN THE ROOM BUT IF I LEAVE THE ROOM HELL JUMP ON THE BED AND LIE DOWN. . . HE KEEPS JUMPING ON PPL [people] AND RUNNING TO MY BFS [boyfriend's] SIDE AND HIDING BEHIND HIM WHEN I TELL HIM TO DO SOMETHING LIKE GO TO HIS BED”

The question before us is: What do you do when you have a small dog that acts badly and your friend or family member either won’t help, doesn’t understand, or makes matters worse?

I have my own opinions about this, but I’d love to hear yours. Let’s get a conversation going in the Reply section below and see if we can help the person who made the above comment. (By the way, you do not have to sign in to leave a Reply. Just go for it.)

The playground at Kelsey's Dog House. Lima the Pug is laying on top of Arlo.

If you own two small dogs, do they like to hang out with each other? Even if you only have one small dog, does he have a dog buddy in the neighborhood?

Here’s why I ask. We dog behaviorists love to talk about pack theory. We seem to think everything a dog does can be tied back to its origins as a pack animal. And yet, after hanging with small dogs in groups of ten, twenty, thirty, I rarely see dogs from different homes relate to each other except to occasionally pair off to play. Sure, one dog may play with another for awhile, but I almost never see two or more dogs that join up in anything that resembles a lasting relationship.

Necessity or Convenience

Perhaps it’s a question of necessity. Feral dogs almost always gather in packs. The pack gives them strength in numbers, a valuable asset when faced with surviving on the mean streets. The domestic dog who lives the cushy life in a home has no need for a pack.

The Exception

There are exceptions to the rule. In the accompanying photo, Lima the Pug, (The black dog facing the camera with his tongue sticking out,) is laying on top of Arlo, the Tibetan Terrier. I point this out because these two come from separate homes, and never knew each other before they met at Kelsey’s Dog House. During the day, they play almost exclusively with each other. At rest, they always lay next to each other and spoon. When only Arlo is at the shop, he will play with any other dog that is in the mood. Same with Lima. But when they are both staying with us, they are drawn to each other as magnets. Do you know two small dogs with a relationship like Lima and Arlo?

Door guard

Halloween is almost here, and you may be worried about how your dog is going to handle all those trick-or-treaters coming to your front door. Here’s how to take charge of the situation well before trouble begins.
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This article quotes Dale Stavroff, in his book Let the Dog Decide. Some of the quoted material has been edited for length.

These steps assume you have already taught your dog to lie down on command.

“Schedule a visit by a friend. Arrange with the friend that he or she will knock or right the bell only once, and then be prepared to wait until you open the door.

“At the appointed time, have the dog at your side with the long line attached to the flat collar, and await your friends ring or knock at a distance away from the door that is greater than the length of the line.

“If the dog charges the door at the sound of the doorbell or knock, stand on the line with your back turned to the dog. Keep your back turned for a moment after the dog comes to the end of the line knocks itself down with the force of its own momentum, to allow the dog time to get back on its feet and see that you and your hands are not responsible for what happened.

“Turn around, call the dog to you, and reassure it with benevolent eye contact, a treat, and a pet.

“If the dog does not charge the door . . . it will almost certainly still be feeling some agitation and concern, so reassure it with benevolent eye contact, a treat, and a pet.” [My note: This approach is very different from Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer's technique of stabbing the dog in the neck with your fingers and saying “Shh!”]

“Walk to the door with the dog and put it in a down [position.]

“Open the door and welcome the visitor into the house while the dog remains in the down. This gives the dog and opportunity to see and sniff the visitor from a little distance and to observe that the two of your are interacting comfortably.”

At this point, you should be watching for your dog to relax in the down position. Once the dog relaxes completely, you can release the dog to investigate your friend more freely. Your friend can give the dog a treat at this point, which should confirm in the dog’s mind that approaching the visitor in a relaxed state is the right thing to do.

You should repeat these steps over the next several days with different visitors, particularly those you dog has never met before. This will help your small dog generalize his behavior in as wide a range of circumstances as possible.

Take Action:

1. Do the steps listed above.
2. Repeat the training as often as possible over the next two weeks and you should have a calm, well-behave dog when visitors come calling.

Let us know what you think.

Use the Reply section below this article to tell the rest of the community about your trials and successes with training your small dog not to charge the front door.

Photo courtesy of tobyotter@flickr.com

Trick or treat!

“Trick or treat. Give me something good to eat. Don’t hold back and don’t be lazy, or I’ll drive your small dog crazy.”

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. What’s not to like? You get to dress up in a costume and play another character. It’s an excuse to eat a bunch of junk food. The house decorations are fun. Someone almost always hosts a great party. Your small dog barks his brains out when the doorbell rings every 90 seconds between sundown and around 9:00 p.m.

Okay, maybe you’re not so fond of that last item.

The Horror . . . the Horror!

If your small dog creates his own horror movie by terrorizing trick-or-treaters at your front door, you have two choices:

1. Put up with the commotion and hope your dog doesn’t try to make a Halloween snack out of a trick-or-treater, or
2. Arrange it so your dog can relax when . . .
   “. . . suddenly there came a tapping,
   As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
   `’Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
   Only this, and nothing more.’” (The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe, 1945)

Frankenstein’s Formula

A dog that charges the front door and barks is extremely anxious about the intruder/threat on the other side. Any attempt to counter the dog’s behavior with voice commands and physical manipulation, such as poking the dog in the neck, will only fuel the dog’s anxiety. You will get much better results by applying the two primary principles of training:

• Arrange it so the dog’s undesirable behavior fails to serve the dog.
• Offer a substitute behavior that works for the dog.

I’ll explain how to do these two steps in my next article.

Tricks and Treats

Your other option is simply to place your dog in his crate with a suitable distraction, such as a long-lasting chew stick or toy. Ironically this technique is very similar to the first because you are arranging the situation where:

1. Charging the front door is going to fail because it is not possible, and
2. Eating a dog-safe Halloween treat is a great substitute for eating little kids in costumes.

I’ll be back before October 31st with an article explaining the training steps to stop your dog from charging the front door. Happy Halloween.

There is a recurring theme in small dog ownership that keeps rearing its head. I believe it’s at the heart of most of the problems we have with small dogs. The theme is this: we tend to confuse our small dogs with children. Many of us say, “Oh, I know he’s just a dog,” while we secretly believe, in our heart of hearts, that our dog is a child.

Then there are those who just come right out and say it, like the person who came into our shop the other day to pick up her small dog. This un-neutered dog responds to the abundance of testosterone coursing through his veins by peeing on every vertical surface he passes. One of the ladies at our shop, tired and exasperated from continually mopping up after this dog, asked the owner why the dog had not been neutered. The owner’s response: “You wouldn’t do that to your child, would you?”

What’s Wrong?

What’s the problem with this? Am I being petty? I don’t think so, because if you look at the behavior problems of small dog-children, you’ll see the disconnect. While people understand and enjoy dogs as children, dogs really don’t understand the role of a child. Sure, they get the part about hugging and kissing, but they don’t understand the rest of the conversation. It’s gibberish to them.

Lost in Translation

Think of it this way. Imagine yourself all alone in another country where you don’t speak the language and you don’t have a feel for the culture. How would you fair in the first hour after you set foot in that land? You would be pretty disoriented. You would rely on your normal habits. By luck, some of the things you would try would be culturally acceptable, but some things would not. In time, through trial and error, you would probably work it out.

Here’s the deal with small dogs treated as children. They are visitors in a foreign country, except they are continually stuck in that first hour after arrival. They don’t get the language, and never will. They don’t get the culture, and never will. They may eventually figure out some of the customs and habits of this strange world, but they will never fully master their environment.

That is why small dogs, treated as children, seem to run amok. That is why they do things that disappoint or frustrate us. They aren’t trying to be bad. They are just doing what they naturally do because nothing else makes sense.

Change is Hard

The solution is hard—very hard. It requires us to discard the lenses that make us see small dogs as children. It’s a sacrifice that many of us are not ready to make because there are so many benefits to being the parent of a small dog. The benefit is all ours.

Take Action:

Evaluate your relationship with your small dog. See if you are:

• Explaining your expectations to your dog in sentences.
• Placing affection ahead of guidance.
• Reacting emotionally, rather than rationally, to your small dog’s misbehavior.
• Referring to yourself as your small dog’s mom or dad.

If you are doing at least two of the items on this list, and your small dog is a model citizen, write and tell me I don’t know what I am talking about. If some or all of your dog’s behavior is driving you nuts, it’s time to re-evaluate your view of your small dog.

A Maltese-Poodle mix (Maltipoo). This is not the dog referenced in this article.

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We have had a rescued maltipoo for about three months. He has his emotional ups and downs – is almost always good with me.

Is jealous of my husband’s affection toward our shepard mix 10 year old dog. Started out being my husband’s dog – and then started snapping at him for no reason. Now he is “my dog” but is either hyperactive one day and then very quiet another day. He evidently was fed table scraps (vet says he’s 1-2 years old and he was not neutered when we got him – matted coat – running at night on a freeway in Phoenix) because feeding him is a problem.

What can my husband do to stop the dog from snapping at him – the dog seems to like my husband, but if dog is sleeping on bed or not facing him will whirl around, snapping, growling and getting in my husband’s face. Any help you can give will be appreciated. He has been vet checked, neutered, shots, etc and was found to be in good health.

My Response

Dear Dee:

First of all. Thank you so much for posting your comment to my website. Here are my thoughts:

Here is one thing we can immediately deduce, your dog does not like to be surprised. This is not unusual for a rescued dog, especially one that has spent time on the street. While on the street, a dog learns to be defensive as a means of survival. When a street dog feels threatened, it has two choices: fight or flee. Usually, when the threat is detected early and still far from the dog, the dog will choose to flee. If the dog is taken by surprise and the threat is too close to run from, the dog may choose to fight. Before fighting, a dog will try to warn the intruder. This is what your dog is doing with your husband.

Taken by Surprise

You said your dog reacts with threatening behavior whenever he is awakened by your husband, or when your husband approaches him from his blind spot to the rear. Essentially, your husband is surprising your dog, which makes your street-wise maltipoo feel threatened. If your dog snaps from his bed when he’s not actually sleeping, then he is simply defending his bed–his territory–when your husband gets too close. That’s one part of the puzzle.

Why Only with the Husband?

The second part of the puzzle is why your dog only feels surprised and threatened by your husband. Your husband’s relationship with your 10-year old shepard mix may be part of the reason. I feel there must be some connection to how your husband behaves around your maltipoo that makes some difference too. I cannot venture a opinion without seeing the interaction between your dog and your husband. However, there are some first steps your husband can take that may help.

1. Be aware of your rescued dog’s street-wise habits and obviously, don’t intentionally do anything to shock or surprise him.
2. When the dog threatens your husband, he should not react at all, (as long as the dog goes no further than the warning behavior you described.) By not reacting, I mean he should not look at the dog, touch the dog, or even speak to the dog. Realize yelling or even talking to a dog on emotional fire only pours fuel on the flame. Completely ignore the bad reaction and the dog as though he is not there.
3. When the dog is calm, I’d recommend that your husband take him for a walk, and do this as often as possible. One 30-45 minute walk per day is good. Two 30-minute or more walks is better. Here’s the key. When your husband walks your dog, he should be alone with the dog. Don’t bring the shepard mix. You can join your husband, but I’d recommend walking on the side of your husband, opposite the dog so you are not part of the interaction between husband and dog. When your husband walks your dog, he should insist that the dog walks alongside or slightly behind, never out in front. The idea is, your husband leads the dog, not the other way around. The strategy is two-fold. First, long walks together will help build a bond of trust between them. Second, when your husband leads your dog on a walk, the dog will learn to accept your husband as a leader. Dogs are wired to not threaten or challenge a confident and able leader.

More on Walking Your Dog

There’s a right way and wrong way to lead a dog on a walk. It should always be done calmly and with confidence. I’m not a big fan of using a choke collar to get a dog to heel. A choke collar, despite what others might say, inflicts a moment of discomfort on the dog when the leash is yanked. The last thing your husband needs right now is to strengthen the link between himself and the dog’s feelings of discomfort. If your maltipoo does not already know how to heel, I strongly recommend using a Haltie harness for training, which is available at most pet stores. The Haltie harness prevents your dog from pulling on a leash by re-directing his head position, just as a halter steers a horse. There are also a lot of good books on the shelf about how to teach your dog to heel. I especially like Let the Dog Decide: The Revolutionary 15-Minute-a-Day Program to Train Your Dog – Gently and Reliably“ by Dale Stavroff. It’s available and inexpensive at Amazon.com.

Conclusion

If your dog resorts to biting, or if you feel what I’ve recommended is beyond your capability, then I’d suggest getting a local dog trainer/behaviorist involved. With the right strategy, and with time and patience, your rescued dog will settle in.

Have Any Additional Thoughts?

Please add them to the comments section below.

Hiding under the bed

(photo courtesy of lucianvenutian@flickr.com*)

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Here is a very important concept to hang onto:

Dogs want to be shown the way.

Let me say that again:

Dogs want to be shown the way.

I don’t care how stubborn your dog seems to be, he wants to know what’s expected of him. If your dog was able to understand and appreciate going to the movies, mystery movies would not be at the top of his list. Dogs want, and need to know, what is going to happen next.

Why is this Important?

Rescued dogs, (before they are rescued,) usually live unpredictable, and therefore miserable dog lives. Here are some of the circumstances that make their lives miserable:

• Abandonment leaves them fending for themselves in an unpredictable world.
• Isolation leaves them wondering when and where the next interaction with people or other animals might happen.
• Physical abuse is random pain and chaos that makes absolutely no sense to a dog.

It’s no wonder your rescued dog exhibits weird behaviors. He’s doing everything he can to cope with the uncertainty in his life. You may say yes, but he’s with me now. He’s okay. Nothing can harm him.

He doesn’t know that. All he has known up until this point is that life has sucked. His transfer to your home is just another step in a series of unpredictable occurrences. If you really want him to understand his life has changed for the better, your job is to give him something positive and predictable to do.

What to Dog Right Now

Here’s how to do it. First, as I said in part 2 of this series, ignore the weird behavior your dog puts out, as long as the behavior is not harmful. Weird behavior may not make sense to you, but it does help your dog cope with stress. Second, give your dog positive and rewarding tasks that pull him away from his weird behavior. Third, do those positive things the same way every day.

Here are some examples of positive tasks:

• Taking a walk with you.
• Learning obedience behavior.
• Playing fetch either as play or as a household service, e.g. fetch your shoes, etc.
• Joining you outside to get the mail or the newspaper.
• Playing tug-o-war with you.

Notice all of the examples involve movement, with no idle time. Your dog will most likely engage in his coping behaviors when he has nothing else to do. Some activities, while pleasant, don’t really give your dog anything to do. For example, while riding with you in the car around town may seem like a pleasant task, your dog will likely spend most of the time laying down or staring out of the window. It doesn’t demand much from your dog.

Don’t Run Yourself Ragged

I’m not saying you have to run yourself ragged all day just to keep your dog actively engaged. What I am saying is, when you notice your dog lapsing into coping behavior, give him something else to do that you both enjoy.

Be Consistent

When you do give your dog a task, try to do it the same way everyday. Set up patterns and rituals for your dog that he was so sorely missing in his previous life. If you stay consistent and positive in your approach to giving your dog tasks, you will notice, over time, your dog spends less and less energy on weird behavior, and more time relaxing during his idle time. Why? Because you have shown him the way: a time, place, and method for doing tasks that he can count on. Mystery solved!

Take Action:

1. Come up with a list of 8-10 positive activities for your dog and write them down in your journal.
2. If an activity requires training, read up on how to train your dog to do that activity. You will find some resources right here at www.asmalldog.com. I also recommend reading and following Let the Dog Decide, a great training book for shy dogs, by Dale Stavroff.
3. When you notice your dog beginning a (weird) coping behavior, engage him in one of the activities you had written in your journal.

Let Us Know What You Think:

Tell our community of small dog lovers some of the activities you like to do with your small dog. If nothing else, write something, anything, in the comment section below just to let me know you are alive and thinking about what you’ve just read.

*The opinions expressed in this article are my own and not necessarily those of the provider of the attached photo. I make no claim that the dog in the attached photo is a rescued dog, nor that it has any behavior problems.

Strange days.

(photo provided courtesy of thegordons@flickr.com*)

The Moral of the Story is . . .

You can teach morality to a dog, or more correctly, you can teach your version of morality. You do this by rewarding certain behaviors, and ignoring or punishing other behaviors. Even after training, your dog will not have a moral code, per se. He will learn to behave in ways that you believe are right, and avoid behaviors you believe are wrong.

I bring this up because some of us believe our dogs are “bad.” We believe they intentionally do things to violate our trust, try our patience, and challenge our authority. When a dog violates our trust or tries our patience, he is not carrying on an internal conversation with himself to the tune of “Let’s drive the human crazy!” A violation of trust or test of our patience is our own human interpretation of what the dog is doing. The dog is just doing what comes naturally to a dog.

It Makes No Sense, Even for A Dog

Let’s talk about dog behavior that simply makes no sense to us. Rescued dogs often enter our lives with a broad repertoire of what we might call “weird behavior.” Examples:

• Hiding under the bed for no apparent reason.
• Barking incessantly.
• Chasing own tail.
• Pacing.
• Whining.
• Chewing or digging holes.

The list goes on.

It Does Make Sense—To the Dog

How are any of these weird behaviors helping the dog? Answer: they all help the dog cope with stress. For example, when a dog hides under the bed, he is placing a barrier between himself and whatever he feels is threatening. A dog that barks incessantly can either be:

• Trying to hold a threat off by counter-threatening with a bark.
• Self-stimulating to drown out stress.
• Blowing off pent up worry.
• Calling for help.

Each example of weird behavior is not weird for the dog when the behavior is placed in context. It’s not hard to guess a rescued dog’s context. It’s past life was unstable, to say the least. When it first arrives in your home, it has no idea what to expect. Combine past troubles with the uncertainty of here and now, and you get a nervous dog. Further, and this is even more likely, many of the weird behaviors you see in your rescued dog were probably established well before he arrived in your home.

What We Do

The two common human responses to weird dog behavior are:

• Worry; and,
• Frustration

If you worry and fret over your dog’s weird behavior, the natural human response is to try and comfort the dog. When you hug and pet a dog that is acting strangely, your response rewards and reinforces the dog’s weird behavior. Remember, dogs only do what works for them. If whining and pacing invites comforting strokes from a human, then pacing and whining works for the dog. It’s going to continue.

If your response to incessant barking is a frustrated outburst of anger, you’ve just poured gasoline on your dog’s fire. The dog’s stress will magnify. The barking will no doubt stop for a moment because your outburst startled the dog. Once the initial shock is over, your dog is likely to resume barking, probably at a higher pitch.

The Answer, in Two-Part Harmony

What’s the answer? It’s twofold. First, as long as your dog’s weird behavior is not causing any damage to the dog, yourself, your family, your neighbors, or your house, ignore the bad behavior. Your goal is to not give your dog any more reason to continue or magnify the behavior. Second, you must give the dog something better to do—a substitute behavior.

I’ll get into how to substitute another behavior in my next article. For now, these are the take-aways:

When your rescued dog acts strangely, realize:

He’s not plotting to drive you insane, he’s just being a dog;
It’s a product of his past, plus his uncertainty about the present;
Your worried or angry response will only make his behavior worse.

Take Action:

1. Come up with a personal game plan with the steps you are going to take to keep yourself calm and unworried when your dog acts strangely. Write the game plan into your journal.
2. Discuss what’s going on with your family, friends, and anyone else who has frequent contact with your dog. Be sure to explain your game plan and get everyone on board. Your effective plan can be wiped out by one uncooperative relative or friend.
3. Watch for my next article that discusses how to re-direct your dog towards behavior you can live with.

Tell Us What You Think:

The rest of your small dog community would like to know how your dog behaves strangely and why you think he’s doing this. Let us know by writing a quick blurb in the comments section below this article. At the very least, write something–anything–to let me know you are alive and thinking about this article.

*The opinions expressed in this article are my own and not necessarily those of the provider of the attached photograph. I make no claim that the dog pictured is a rescue animal, nor that it has any problems whatsoever.

Something's Not Right

(photo courtesy of randy@flickr.com*)

Weird Behavior

First off, here’s what I mean by weird behavior. I am talking about anything your dog does that seems unusual or inappropriate for the circumstances. Here are some examples:

• Hiding under furniture, even though there are no apparent threats to your dog in your home.
• Chronic self-stimulation, such as continuous or nearly continuous paw licking.
• A fear display in response to a harmless noise, such as your refrigerator’s cooling motor starting up, or a dry leaf crunching under foot as the two of you walk outside.
• A fear display in response to a benign movement made by you or someone in your family, such as raising your foot off the ground to scratch an itch on your leg.
• Your dog clings to you as if leaving your side will result in certain death.

It Doesn’t Always Apply

Before I go further, know that some rescued dogs arrive in their new homes ready to take on the world. They adapt quickly to their new environment and never show any signs of trouble. I don’t want you to bring your new dog home expecting the worst, because your concerns may actually cause your dog to fulfill your expectations. This article addresses a worst case scenario that may never happen.

Why is this Happening?

There are three reasons why your new small dog may display behaviors associated with fear or anxiety in the most harmless situations:

• Your dog may have come from a situation in which he or she was abused, neglected, or threatened on a regular basis.
• He or she may have inherited a genetic pre-disposition to be fearful.
• You may inadvertently be encouraging your dog to act worried or fearful.

There is nothing you can do about your dog’s past. Nothing. You cannot go back and undo the trauma your dog may have faced at the hands of its previous owner. Even if you could somehow exact revenge against a previous owner who was abusive, your action would do nothing to improve your dog’s current situation. It’s a dead end and a drain on your emotions. Here is the real take-away: Being angry about your dog’s past can actually make your dog feel worse, even if your anger has nothing to do with your dog. Let it go and move forward, for your dog’s sake.

Many, many rescued dogs do not come from abusive situations. Though we might imagine ourselves heroes who save our dogs from the terrible abyss, the truth is, most dogs who behave fearfully were programmed that way from birth. Bad behavior is the number one reason dogs end up at the pound. Your rescued dog’s weird behavior may be the very reason he or she became a dog that was rescued. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your view, we cannot go in and reprogram our dog’s genetics. All we can address is the behavior that results from genetics.

What Can You Do?

That leaves us with what to do, right now, that can make a difference in your rescued dog’s life. Here are the fundamentals:

1. Send worry and empathy packing.
2. Ignore weird behavior, as long as it does not cause your dog physical harm.
3. Encourage good behavior.
4. Build your dog’s confidence.

The Hardest Part

Of all these fundamentals, which do you think is the hardest to tackle? The first fundamental is the hardest because we humans are programmed to empathize with pain and suffering. Our dog moans and we respond automatically.

Here is a scenario for you. Imagine you are a firefighter, answering the alarm on a blazing building. The chief of your station tells you there is a person trapped inside the building, and he needs you on the search and rescue mission. There you are, inside the smoke-filled building. The infernal is rapidly consuming the walls. It’s hotter than hell. The only things keeping you moving are your portable air tank and mask, your fire-resistant clothing, and your resolve to save the trapped victim. After some methodical searching, you find the victim, a young girl trapped under a collapsed wall. She’s alive, but moaning and coughing. You look around. The flames are tearing up the remaining walls and flashing over the ceiling, which looks like it might collapse at any moment. Here’s your response:

“Oh, you poor, poor girl! You must be in a lot of pain. I feel so bad, so bad for you. Here, let me sit by you for a few minutes and comfort you. Oh man, that’s a really bad cough. You poor girl, you must be miserable. I’m not sure you are going to make it. This fire is terrible. We may both die right here, but that ‘s okay. I’ll be by your side, poor girl.”

Is this the right response? You know, it’s so ludicrous, it’s absolutely laughable. What firefighter in his or her right mind would sit there and do this? If this was your response to this situation, not only would you be wasting time and further endangering your victim, your response would destroy any hope your victim had of surviving.

The firefighting situation I just described is an absolute parallel to a dog owner who worries and frets about his rescued dog’s weird behavior. Not only will worrying about your dog’s behavior not help your dog, your worry will actually make the situation worse.

Dogs, if nothing else, are barometers for human behavior. When you worry and fret, they worry and fret. If your dog is already battling inner demons, adding your worry to the mix is like pouring gasoline on their fire.

Worry also handicaps our own behavior by pulling us off the task of helping. Just as a firefighter cannot waste time and energy worrying about his victim, you cannot afford to waste time and energy worrying about your dog’s behavior.

Take Action: How to Show Worry the Door

1. Begin by defining how you want your dog to be six months from now. (We will set a tighter timeline in the third part of this series.) Write it down. Hopefully, you are choosing phrases such as “More confident,” and “Energetic,” and “Relaxed.” You may also include goals such as “No longer licks her paws,” or, “Does not retreat under the bed.”
2. Become objective and less emotional by journaling your dog’s progress. Start a notebook right now and write down, as specifically as you can, what your dog does that seems out of place. Keep your descriptions clear and unemotional. For the sake of your dog, do not journal your feelings about his behavior. This is supposed to be an objective chronicle. We need to put your worry-filled emotions on an upper shelf, out of reach.
3. Commit yourself to a years-long project. Change will not happen overnight or even in weeks, so don’t fall apart if your dog does not improve instantly. You will see incremental changes over the coming weeks, but the big changes may take much longer. (Yeah, I know about that guy on TV that seems to perform miracles with dogs instantly. Those “miracles” are examples of incremental changes. We’re talking about changing a rescued dog’s overall demeanor, which takes more than a 5-minute span between commercial breaks.)
4. When positive change happens, write it down and celebrate! When positive change does not happen as soon as you expected, or if your dog seems to be heading in the wrong direction, write it down and analyze the situation. Look for a different path to take, or decide whether the path is right but just needs more time to work. Time is on your side.

Remember, the timeline you set up in your journal is based on your previous experiences and expectations. Your dog has his own timeline. That’s okay, because know this:

Dogs are survivalists. They cope by adapting. If you set up your dog’s environment so it is to your dog’s advantage to improve, your dog will improve. He or she won’t be able to resist. It will happen.

Up next: Ignoring weird behavior. It can be a huge challenge, but it is possible. I’ll tell you how to do it in my next article.

*The opinions expressed in this article are my own and not necessarily those of the provider of the attached photo. I make no claim the dog in the attached photo is a rescued dog, nor that it has any behavior problems whatsoever.

photo courtesy of frankjuarez@flickr.com*

Here is a situation described by a reader in response to my article on Anti-Bark Collars. As you will see, she is experiencing multiple problems with her pack of small dogs. There are a lot of object lessons in this story. My reply comes after her story.

Reader’s Comment:

“I have tried the shock collar and also have mixed feelings, as well as mixed results. The collar does not even phase my Shi Tzu, it may be that he has too much hair in the way, not sure, only know that it didn’t slow him down at all. Given how expensive they are, I returned it to the pet store for a refund. A previous collar did have a positive affect on one of my yorkies. After he wore it for approx 1 month, he never had to wear it again; he learned to stop barking. Unfortunately, the first chance he had to chew it to pieces, he did and I had to through it away. I have 4 dogs (2 Yorkies, 1 Shi Tzu and 1 Bullmastif) The 2 I mentioned are horrible barkers (after 6 months without the collar the Yorkie is barking again). I am very sensitive to how my neighbors feel, I believe we are all entitled to peace and quiet in out own homes. I am so upset about not being able to change their behavior, I have considered trying to find them new homes, but I just can’t do it. I can not keep them in the house while I am gone because the Yorkies are rotten and pee on everything. They pee on their food bowl, on each others beds, on their toys, on my furniture, they are just rotten. Contrary to EVERYTHING I have read on the pee problem, potting training them is not the solution, it hasn’t worked a bit. I have tried it all; we will be outside to pee and 3 minutes later inside one of them will lift a leg on some random corner. They have full access always to the yard and when one of them does pee inside they both assume a very submissive stance as they are aware that it is wrong. Funny thing is, they appear to be well behaved (it’s always when I am not looking and I don’t know which one it is so it’s very hard to punish the right Yorkie). So the peeing is one problem, the barking is another. The solution I am looking at now is building a 6×10 dog run at the back of my house, hoping they won’t be triggered to bark as much if they don’t see people on the road walking by and also hoping the house blocks most of the noise from reaching my neighbors. Its a long shot but may take care of both the barking and peeing… as I type this I realize that my solution does nothing to train them to stop, it just hides the problem as they will pee all over the dog run. I may just go back to the shock collar after all. By the way, I tried the noise collar and all it did was add to the noise disturbing the peace…first a bark, then a piercing whistle, bark, whistle, etc. If it works it means my sanity, my neighbor’s sanity and I will have more time and energy to enjoy my little pets. The Bull Mastiff is a normal dog, no problems with him.”

My reply:

My heart goes out to you on your problems with your Yorkies and Shih Tsu. Let me talk about your barking Yorkie first. Experience has shown that once you put an anti-bark collar on a dog, it has to stay on for the dog for the rest of the dog’s life. Your Yorkie started barking again 6 months after the collar was removed because one day it experimented with barking and noticed there was no longer any consequence for doing so. It is not that the collar needs to stay activated, it just needs to remain on the dog as a reminder not to bark. Although, if you do keep the collar on, it is better to keep it active so it responds to any experimental barking.

Regarding your Shih Tsu: I am 95% certain you are correct when you said the collar was ineffective because your dog has too much hair. In order to be effective, the probes on the anti-bark collar must remain in direct contact with the skin of the dog’s neck. At Kelsey’s Dog House, we are routinely asked to shave a small spot on the neck of dogs that wear shock collars so the collar’s probes will make good contact. In fact, our customers have told us when the shaved area grows out and the probes are no longer in good contact, their dogs begin to bark again.

With regard to your Yorkies peeing in the house: Know that this is a very common problem. We see it all the time at our boarding facility. Dogs will watch to see when owners are not looking, and then mark territory. Rest assured, this habit of peeing on objects in your house has nothing to do with a full bladder, or with housebreaking. That is why your dogs will pee inside right after going outside. The problem is compounded by the fact that you have multiple dogs in your house. Dogs in packs naturally compete with each other for resources and space. Marking territory is part and parcel of that competition.

Here is what I suggest. As long as you are willing to spend money on an outdoor dog run, you might try spending a little money on another less expensive, easier to apply tactic first. The clue to this tactic is in what you said: “They pee when I am not looking.” If your Yorkies take advantage of your inattention, you need to take that advantage out of the equation. Shop for a video baby monitoring system that has a small camera and a simple black and white monitor. Don’t go for anything elaborate or expensive. Confine your Yorkies to an area of the house that can be completely covered by the camera’s view. Ideally the area where you confine your dogs should also have a door to the outside of your house. Place the monitor in an adjacent room where you can watch your dogs. Now take a seat in the next room and watch the monitor to see what your Yorkies do. The second you see either of your dogs lift a leg or squat to pee in the next room, run into the room clapping and shouting a nonsense syllable: “Yah! Yah! Yah!” or “Nah! Nah! Nah!” I don’t like using the word “No!” repetitively because it is an important command that I don’t believe should be worn out with repetition. In any case, the key is to take your dogs by complete surprise with shock and awe. As you rush into the room, head straight for the exterior door and chase your dogs outside.

It will probably take many repetitions of this exercise before your dogs get it, but eventually they will begin to believe there is no time when you are not watching their behavior. The act of rushing them outside should build a strong relationship between the act of peeing and going outside. I would also suggest getting a small dog door to the outside to make it more convenient for them to go when they need to, provided that door leads to a fenced area. Lastly, I would suggest, if you have not already done so, thoroughly cleaning with a strong cleaner any areas your dogs have already marked. Cleaning up marked spots is equivalent to you reclaiming your house. Once your dogs have laid down territory in your house by marking, they will continue to reinforce their boundaries. Removing their markings tells them they have no claim, and you set the boundaries, not them.

My last suggestion is, if you have not already done so, start teaching all your dogs basic obedience work. You can either do this job yourself or hire a trainer. If you decide to do it yourself, I strongly recommend reading “Let the Dog Decide” by Dale Stavroff. It is the best training guide I have read and applied. Yours sounds like a situation in which your dogs have taken advantage of you. Getting your dogs to respond to you through obedience work puts you in charge, and will have benefits that extend to all areas of the relationship between you and your dogs. Your dogs may seem rotten, but they are just taking their natural dog behavior to its normal limit. Unfortunately, that limit does not fit in your household and it needs to be reigned in.

Please let me know more about your progress as it happens.

Sincerely,

Jeff Kanarish

*The opinions in this article are strictly my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the provider of the attached photo.