Hi John.

 

We have an adult German Shepherd/Lab mix. She is a great dog when at home and is trusted to be free all day in the house.  She is people friendly and great with kids but if you try to walk her, she walks you.  If you stop, she will run right back and heel without you saying a word and the minute you lift your foot to walk again, she starts pulling. If she sees another dog (squirrel, cat, insert any creature here) she is almost impossible to hold onto.  I am not a small person and it takes all my strength to hang on.  I don't dare try it in the winter. As a result, she doesn't get walked much.  I walk a lot without her which is a real shame.

Theresa

Dear Theresa,

We dog trainers can think and say what we want regarding what a proper heel is. The 1,000's of dog owners I've worked with don't care if the dog walks right at their heel staring in rapt adoration of them for giving them the privilege of accompanying them. All they want is to be able to take their dog for a walk as often as they want and come back every time with their arms the same length.

A lab/shepherd will likely weigh around 80lbs which converted into human pounds is  about 240 – 320 lbs depending on the mentality of the breed as dogs have four wheel drive and a low centre of gravity. In these cases I look at leverage, not only technique.

Most collars slide down too quickly and too low on the dog's chest. The face halter ones put too much pressure on the dog's cervical vertebrae and dogs seem to universally hate them and the prong ones scare most people. To my clients  I recommend a collar I designed for use with habitually pulling and jumping dogs that I've found works better then any of the aforementioned because it stays up nice and high and in place with a simple sliding button. It provides power steering. However it doesn't replace training. It provides a playing field slanted in the dog owner's favour. Clients love them as for most it's the first comfortable walk they've ever had. Dog's love them because they actually get to go on more walks.

Once you've found some leverage look at technique and I have a simple one that starts in the back yard, moves to the front yard and then on walks and each step has to be perfect before the next is allowed. I call it the grocery store rule. When my boys were small we had this rule recited in the parking lot. Me: “Who buys the groceries?” Boys: (Groaning) You do. Me: “Then who picks the cereal?” Boys (More Groaning): “You do.” Me: “And if there's fighting in the cereal aisle about cereal?” Boys: (Petulantly) “We have to go back to the car.” Same goes for your dog. Start on a 30' lead in the back yard and go where ever your dog isn't going and keep it up until he is. It seems silly but sooner or later she's going to have to set aside part of her brain for you just to track your position as she'll get tired of coming to the end of the lead. Shorten up the lead as the dog gets better. Get three days under your belt and move to the front yard, get three days there and then start your walks. I like to head right off to an area where we can access the dog's soft spots. If you have a dog park, work him outside the park from a distance closing the gap as he gets the idea the grocery store rule still applies. Send me an email and I'll send you a video link of me doing this with a dog.

John Wade

www.johnwade.ca

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Hi Mr. Wade,

I have a 7 month old male Scotch Collie.  He has recently decided he doesn't want to eliminate in our yard anymore.  I let him out at 7am for 30 minutes and he just stands there looking at the door or lays on the grass and wants me to take him for a walk to pee or mess.  He just started doing this last week.  I take him for a walk on my lunch hour at noon as well as after work and before bed time.  In the morning I don't have time to walk him and I want him to relieve himself in the back yard.  I'm worried because now he seems to be holding himself until I come home at noon to take him for a walk. 

Gina C.

Hi Gina,

What a timely inquiry. Someone's dog just pooped on my lawn and the owner proudly showed me the baggy and “cleaned up.” I suppose I should just be grateful but in a perfect world no one would take their dog for a walk to eliminate. They'd train them to empty out on their own property and then go get their exercise. People say, “Well I clean up after him/her.” Fine, then knock off your shoes and socks and run your toes through the same “cleaned up” grass because my kids are sooner or later going to. It would be more honest I suppose to say, “I got most of it but you might not want to drop your sandwich.” 

Your dog just finally concluded as many dogs will, that if he eliminated on the walks most of the time then that's the bathroom. If you've just been letting him out to do his business in the morning you have no idea how consistent he has been. I don't recommend unsupervised trips until a dog is two because then they can't develop bad habits like excessive barking, destructive chewing, house soiling etc. As it is even if he has his legs crossed and can't wait to get out he can get distracted. “I gotta go, I gotta go, Get the door! - Hey! Is that a squirrel?” Perhaps it's not be location. It may also be that on the walks you're always with him and now you're his poop buddy. See if he'll go if you're out there with him.

It's likely location though. For many dogs, once they've decided where the bathroom is they can't go anywhere else. I had a good friend that discovered she couldn't go camping (real camping) because for her if the area wasn't liberally accented with porcelain and ceramic then it wasn't a bathroom. Unfortunately she made this discovery on a trip with me and oddly the quality of her company deteriorated considerably with each passing day. Texture influences habits as well. Dogs that spent their early months on concrete often head to the basement. Dogs on gravel, then seek gravel, grass, then grass.

The house training program I have is designed to teach a dog to do three eliminations a day in one spot. It uses the influential factors of supervision, good and timely nutrition, gradual scheduling, exercise etc. I used to have a cheat sheet on my website but if you can't find it send me an email and I'll send whoever want it a copy.

Now I have to go hose off my lawn but hopefully not my kids feet.

John Wade

www.johnwade.ca

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Dear John,

I adopted a now two year old cocker spaniel/poodle mix and he's just wonderful, loving and full of life for me, my husband and most people.  There is, however, one problem I am having and that's with small children. I don't know if it's just that he's rambunctious or what but I have some trouble controlling his unacceptable behaviour.  He also likes to go after bicycles and skateboards. As for children, my friend has a 10 year old daughter that he tries to go after. He doesn't do this with her 14 year old daughter, just her. What can I do to stop these unacceptable behaviours?

Thank you.

Mary C.

Dear Mary,

I have a series of questions I like to ask people when I'm doing an assessment. For instance, “Does your dog come?” A common answer is, “Yes” but sometimes qualified by “Except around squirrels/dogs/cats.” Another is, “Is your dog aggressive?” A common answer is,”No.”, but when pressed often qualified by, “Except if you touch its feet/toy/food.” To me those are yes or no questions, sort of like if you were to ask me, “John, is your girlfriend faithful? If I were to reply, “Yes . . .when I'm home.” or “Unless the Leafs are in town.” (The closest they're ever going to get to scoring.”

It's possible that your dog's not aggressive towards children but instead is, as you say “rambunctious” but it wasn't clear if there's a distinction between what he's doing with the children and the bikes/skateboards and you say “likes to go after” which to me implies aggression. There's also the distinction he's making between the 10 year old and the 14 year old which is something that dogs that weren't properly socialized to children often do. It may be nothing more then unruliness but I agree you do need some help and sooner rather then later. Nevertheless, I don't want this to be a situation where we're saying, “My dog isn't aggressive, unless it's around children or bikes or skateboards. There are too many of each around to work around long term so find yourself a balanced trainer to do a risk assessment.

These sort of odd behavioural distinctions are almost always the result of poor socialization which ironically more often then not, are the result of dog trainers and vets telling people to take puppy socialization classes. If there aren't a whack of children, skateboards, bicycles, thunderous overhead sound, vacuums etc. incorporated into the class, it's not a socialization class. It's a play date or a training class at best. In my how-to book and lectures about puppy socialization I say if we equipped breeders and dog owners with the knowledge as to what proper socialization is and some tips on how to do it we'd save dogs and dog owners a world of hurt. It's that big of a deal. It could be done in an hour and all that time spent going to what passes for puppy socialization classes would be better invested actually getting out and doing the job. That is not to say getting a dog into training young is a bad idea but training and socialization are two very different things. Professionals need to educate themselves and make the distinction to their clients. All will benefit.

Pawsitively Yours,

John Wade

www.johnwade.ca

My husband passed away in the hospital almost 2 months ago and our dog seems to be coming out of his blue mood but I find when I leave the house he gets very upset.  For example, I left the house yesterday and he had chewed his tail into a wet, stringy mass, was over excited to see me, greeting me like he would a pack member, nipping and circling and yipping at me.  It is almost like he thinks I won't be returning home to him.  Is there some way I can help him.

L.F.

Dear L.F.

The word anthropomorphism often pops up in situations like this. Many people seem to think it means; the attributing of human characteristics to a non-human. It is actually the attributing of uniquely human characteristics to non-humans. Is mourning a uniquely human characteristic? Can a dog become depressed or be overwhelmed with anxiety, grieve, have compassion?

One might attribute the behavior change not to your husband's passing but as reaction to change in general and that you would have seen the same symptoms had your dog been boarded for an extended time, or if a long established day to day schedule had been changed.

I might have been one of those people until I saw a video recently of a dog risking its life to save another dog on an extremely busy freeway. In it the dog that had been hit by a car lies in the middle of one lane and the other runs out and with its paws drags it out of harms way. I've never seen anything like it and can't explain it with conventional dog behaviour wisdom. If a dog can perform a compassionate heroic act, grieving for a deceased family member is not a stretch. I have the video in my next newsletter so watch for it if you've subscribed.

This may be one of those occasions where one of the anti-depressants tailored for dogs might help. However, in my opinion very few veterinarians prescribe the drug correctly. They aren't provided with any realistic support from the drug company as to what the behaviour modification component should encompass other then some superficial “shake your keys etc.” to desensitize your dog strategies.

I have without success, suggested/pleaded with the manufacturer to provide a better resource like a small instruction manual, one for the vets prescribing and the other for clients. I've even tried to appeal to their pocket books as well. People abandon this treatment option because they don't see results far more often then those that do. I know for a fact that this is because they were not advised properly as to efficacy timelines and have been offered few or silly behaviour modification strategies.

Here are two things I always recommend for stressed dogs. The first is exercise. I mean tongue hanging to the ground exercise, not a walk around the block. Ideally timed before you go out. This will get the  “feel good” endorphins flowing. The mind component is equally important but tougher to engage when the dog is highly anxious. I use a marrow bone as it's a rare dog that doesn't enjoy a good bone. Test the dog on a bone a little at a time for a few days before you leave it alone with one. Once satisfied, twenty minutes before you leave give the dog the bone. Then fifteen minutes later take it away. Then as you're going out the door give it back. The idea is to get the dog's mind into the chewing zone rather then the worry you'll never come back zone. Find a balanced trainer in your area for more ideas.

John Wade

www.dogtrainingwithjohnwade.com

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