Thursday, May 28, 2009

Knowing Your Vet's Methods!

Today, I was reading on one of the dog forums I visit, and somebody brought up a really good point. It is very important that you know your vet's and their techs' methods for handling struggling, scared dogs, because while most of them are well-versed in the medical aspect of pets, it doesn't mean they know ANYTHING about behavior or training. This lack of knowledge can result in your pet being abused if they think he is "misbehaving" or "being dominant."

I used to work as a tech assistant at a vet clinic, and I brought Shippo in to have blood drawn. Well, he struggled and yelped, and he had NEVER reacted like this at the vet before, but they tensed up while holding him and scared him really bad. Since they were restraining his head, his airway got cut off when he pulled back, so it caused him to snort as he tried to breathe.

Early on while I was working there, I got a feeling the techs there were all extremely dominance and punishment-based because they would actually STRIKE a dog they thought was misbehaving. It's a good thing I was in the room, because the tech who was working on my dog told the person restraining him to "punish him NOW because he's GROWLING at me!"

I had to ARGUE with her about it, because I'd had Shippo for TWO YEARS at this point and could tell by now when he was growling or snorting (he snorts frequently like a little piggy if he's stressed or excited), and this lady was trying to tell ME that I didn't know my OWN DOG. Thankfully, she backed down and I was able to prevent him from being wrongfully punished, but WOW! This got me thinking to my self, "Boy, I wonder how many vet employees have abused my dogs when I wasn't around to stop it."

From now on, I will be very cautious about who I let handle my pets behind closed doors. I will ask them about their handling methods first, and ask if they might allow me to restrain my own pet (though I ONLY recommend this to people who are experienced at restraint). It's important that your dog is getting as positive an experience as possible while at the vet, because it can effect other aspects of their training.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Mistaking Resistance and Distraction for "Dominance"

So many times, I've seen pet owners struggling with a dog or puppy, because they've misread the dog's signals.  When simple resistance is confused with dominance, it can be harmful to a dog's training and the relationship between dog and owner.  One of the most common behaviors that get misread is while training "sit" or "lie down" using force (ie. pushing down on the dog's butt or back).  Another is the dog "ignoring" the owner because he's being trained around too many distractions.

If you push down on most dogs, they have a natural instinct to resist the pressure.  Pushing on them makes them feel vulnerable and threatened, so they push back.  It doesn't mean your dog is trying to be "dominant" or rebel against you, and he shouldn't be corrected or punished for this.  I am of the opinion that if you can train a dog to do something without being physical, then more power to you!  Dogs learn to think more when they are given the opportunity to figure out how to do things on their own, rather than being pushed into doing it.

Instead of push your dog down, a better method is to lure him into the position with a treat, and reward him as soon as his little belly hits the floor.  Once he's doing it consistently, then you would start saying "down" as he performs the action.  This connects the command "down" to the now reliable action of him lying down.  So far, I have not been given a reason to push a dog into the position I want him to be in.  Sometimes you may have to just out-wait them till they realize which action gets them the treat, but they're all going to get it eventually!

Once the dog learns how to sit or down reliably in the home, often owners try to rush things, and they take him to the pet store, the dog park, or a friend's house, where he suddenly won't listen, and would rather sniff and play than even look at the owner.  This can be frustrating I know, but your dog is not ignoring you or being dominant, and it's unfair to him to punish him for giving in to distraction when he doesn't know any better.  

When a dog is suddenly put in a new environment with all kinds of interesting new smells and things to discover, he is overwhelmed and most likely will not sit when you tell him to, because although you taught him "sit" inside the house, you haven't yet taught him to sit with all these new people and bikes and other dogs around.  This is simply the next step in training.  After a dog has learned a behavior in his home, he needs to be slowly moved up to performing the behavior around lots of distractions.

If you always keep in mind that your dog is not always trying to "one-up" you, training becomes a lot easier.  I never did have any luck pushing dogs down like my parents told me to.  My outlook on training has changed a LOT since I was a kid, and I remember that my relationship with my dogs wasn't that great back then.  Once I embraced the view that my dog is not constantly trying to overthrow me by instinctually resisting me here and there, the training just fell into place, and I had happier, better behaved dogs is a result.

All articles on this blog are written by Victoria Steen unless otherwise stated. They are NOT to be redistributed.