April 27, 2010
I’m back home from an excellent seminar experience in Brookfield, Wisconsin, with 60+ (sold out!) attendees for a day-long discussion of dog body language and behavior. A well-educated, very positive and responsive group, who actively participated, asked great questions, and bought lots of Pat Miller books and videos – thank you!!! A huge thanks to AWARE for hosting me, and especially to Holly Lewis for making all the arrangements and playing very gracious tour guide on Sunday (more about that in a moment). I even got to see some of my Facebook friends: Crystal and Renea introduced themselves – it was a pleasure to meet you all!
 An excellent seminar audience! AWARE, by the way, which stands for “Alliance of Wisconsin Animal Rehoming Efforts” is a coalition of some 60 animal welfare organizations that work together to improve the lives of companion animals through “Adoption, Wellness, Advocacy, Rescue and Education.” It’s an excellent concept – and one of the things they do is host educational seminars and subsidize the cost so AWARE members can attend at a very affordable fee. You rock, AWARE!!! www.awarewisconsin.com
As I may have mentioned before, I spent some of my best childhood years in the Milwaukee area – specifically Ozaukee County, just north of Milwaukee. Since this was a one day seminar, I seized the opportunity to spend Sunday touring a couple of shelters (tours arranged by Holly) and visiting my old haunts. The refrain, “we may never pass this way again” has been running through my brain ever since we scheduled this seminar, and I didn’t want to miss this chance. It’s been some 35 years since I was last in the area, so I hoped some of those old haunts would still be there!
The day dawned grey and drizzly – an appropriate ambience for my planned tour down misty nostalgia lane. Our first stop was the Wisconsin Humane Society in Milwaukee, a quick skip from my hotel in Brookfield.
 The Wisconsin Humane Society The first shelter I ever visited was the Wisconsin Humane Society – at that time a small, run-down building that was in danger of sliding into the creek it sat next to. The current, very new, exquisite 44,000 square foot state-of-the-art shelter is a far cry from that shelter, and a tribute to the hard work of Milwaukee-area animal lovers. Cindy, our volunteer tour guide, did a superb job of escorting us through the facility and giving us detailed information about the organizations multitude of programs. They do wildlife rehab, education programs (Holly teaches positive reinforcement dog training classes there), offer a full service vet clinic for low income households as well as spay and neuter services, have a well-stocked pet-supply store with all the right (positive) equipment and healthy foods (Fromm Foods – founded in Ozaukee County!), and, of course, companion animal adoptions. I was disappointed when Cindy informed me that photos were not allowed in the facility – in all my travels I’ve only had that happen once before, in a tiny shelter in Australia. I got some outside shots, but had to pocket my camera indoors, so I can’t show you the gorgeous facility – you’ll have to take my word for it, or find their website online. I did get to meet the 8-month old red Cattledog I’d seen online on Petfinder; would have loved to have taken him home, but we are full up with our five – and there are plenty of Maryland dogs we could adopt if we really needed another. I do sometimes think is would be fun to be able to say we have a Miller six-pack…
Our next stop was, ironically, the Washington County Humane Society – ironic because we live in Washington County here in Maryland, and my husband Paul is Executive Director of the Humane Society of Washington County.
 Washington County... Wisconsin! This is a much smaller shelter than the one in Milwaukee, and our host was Marnie, the Executive Director. Through AWARE, Holly works with this shelter also (she lives ten minutes away from it) and she and Marnie are good friends. I loved the warm, homeyness at this shelter; while it wasn’t glamorous, the animals are clearly well loved and well cared for. Front and center on Marnie’s desk we found a sweet senior tabby cat who arrived two weeks ago as a stray, emaciated, with only four teeth in her mouth. She has claimed Marnie’s office as her own, and is well on her way to recovery.
 Grandma Cat still has a few lives left! This shelter has the animal control contract for the county, unlike Milwaukee, where it’s a separate, government-run program. Marnie referred to her shelter as “low-kill” and we commiserated over the damage the so-called “No-Kill” movement has done to animal protection in the last 20 years. I suggested she call her shelter “High Adoption” or High Success” rather than letting that unfortunate movement frame the public’s perception of the good work she does.
While we were touring, a state trooper arrived with a lovely young Pembroke Corgi – he had done a traffic stop and the little dog was in the man’s truck. The man had removed the dog’s collar and was on his way home – two hours away – where he told the trooper he planned to call the owners. Two hours? Why not call while you’re still in town? Was he perhaps stealing her…? With several ID tags and a microchip tag, it should have been a simple matter to track down the owner before he was miles away. A lovely little dog, albeit a little stressed – when Marnie opened a holding cage for her she perked up, her eyes brightened and she happily hopped in. Marnie and Holly have promised to fill me in on the rest of the story as soon as the owners have been contacted.
 Saved by the trooper - waiting for the rest of the story... At the end of the tour, Holly collected a sweet but frightened Beagle that she had offered to foster and work with, and we went our separate ways.
 Holly with her foster Beagle I was alone now with my memories and my GPS, to revisit my past. My eyes filled with tears that spilled down my cheeks as I neared my childhood and thought of parents, now gone, siblings, now flung far and wide, and all the days of our lives that had happened here. I drove first through Cedarburg, where I worked at my very first paying job, as a receptionist at a veterinary hospital – Drs Moats, Bailey and Moats.
 Cedarburg wall mural I couldn’t find it. In fact, nothing looked familiar except Firemen’s Park, where we exhibited our 4-H projects every year at the County Fair – members of the Lindenwood 4-H Club.
 My 4-H Club is obviously still in existence - yay!  Entering Mequon - my heart pitter-patters I drove on. My destination was Burgundy Ridge Farms on Highland Rd. in Mequon, where I had worked as a hunter/jumper rider and instructor 40 years prior. I hadn’t been able to find it on the Internet. I prayed it was still there. And yes, I found it! It is now called Vintage View Farm – it was sold to a new owner four years ago.
 Burgundy Ridge... now Vintage View Farm - but still there! The barn was previously owned and built, 40 years ago, by Joe and Kathy Patton, and managed by Mike and Sandy Henneghan. My big claim to fame in the horse world is that I taught Beezie Patton (now Beezie Madden) to post to the trot and jump over crossrails. Beezie is now a member of our United States Equestrian Team, and the top Grand Prix rider in the country, based in Cazenovia, New York. She always had immense talent – I had very little to do with her success, but it’s nice to be a footnote in her story. The well-maintained stables seemed much the same, but smaller. (In fact, almost everything seemed smaller, including my past homes as I found them, one by one.)
 Looks much the same - but somehow smaller... When I worked there we bedded the horses in cocoa bean hulls and it smelled like chocolate. Now it smelled like horses – also a wonderful scent! A group of young girls was finishing their lessons and turning the school horses out to pasture.
 I used to teach girls just like these here I hung out for a while, soaking up the long lost atmosphere of a high-class hunter/jumper barn, and then headed for stop #2 – my old high school: Homestead High School, Class of ’69. I’ve missed all my high school reunions, so I thought I should at least drive by. My teen years were devoted to horses and 4-H, so I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t feel much emotion as I drove into the parking lot. In fact, if you’d dropped me down there without telling me where I was, I wouldn’t have had a clue.
 My Alma Mater Duty done, I continued on. A quick drive through Mequon/Thiensville – still sister small towns – remembering riding our horses down Main Street during 4th of July parades, with red-white-and-blue ribbons braided into their manes. A few spots looked familiar, but not a lot – much has changed over the years here, as well. On to 11542 Riverland Rd.; my first home where my horse lived in my own backyard. We had 2.5 acres there, which meant we could have 2.5 horses. We eventually leased a 20-acre pasture across the road so we could have more, and then moved to a larger property at 3121 Pioneer Rd. I wasn’t surprised to see that the 20-acre pasture we had leased on Riverland is now a crowded development. I was saddened to see that our meager 2.5 acres has been divided in half, and that there’s now a house built on the lot where my Saddlebred mare, Mattsen’s Lady Peavine, foaled my first baby horse, Bourbon Rex Havoc, and where Lady kicked me in the stomach when I first tried to inspect her newborn colt. In fact, none of the open fields around that old home remain – it’s all built up.
 11542 Riverland Rd.  My old home (on the left) now crowded by the house on the right, built on our old horse pasture On my way to our Pioneer Rd. property I stumbled across the Fromm Company sign. Decades ago the Fromm family started off growing ginseng, then turned their hundreds of farm acres into a fur farm – raising foxes for the fur trade. In fact, when I lived there you could still see breeding pairs of foxes in pens on the Fromm properties, and if you sent a no-longer-wanted horse to slaughter you didn’t send it to the glue factory, you “foxed” it – the Fromms bought horses to feed to their foxes. They were also one of the early producers of rabies vaccine. My family purchased a horse from the Fromms – Buckwheat – a Quarter horse cross that my younger brother Bill competed with in 4-H in Western Pleasure, quite successfully. Buckwheat had a to-die-for easy canter that made him a sought-after mount for Egg-and-Spoon and Musical Chairs competitions.
 Unexpected memories even here...  Now producing a high-quality dog food - *not* from horsemeat! My sister Meg had warned me that the current owner of the Pioneer Rd. property had sold off some pieces, and sure enough, where there once was one home there are now four, and the grand old barn has been torn down, but at least it still looks like country there.
 My favorite Wisconsin home still looks like country My mission was done. I had found my old homes, visited barely remembered places, and it was time to head back to my hotel. I had to be up at 4:30 the next morning to catch my 7am flight. One last stop for dinner at Panera Bread (there certainly was no Panera Bread there when I was a child) and I closed the chapter on this old book. The last leg of any of my seminar travels is always my favorite – from Baltimore to Hagerstown on a little two-engine Cape Air propeller plane.
 Front-seat view of the clouds This time I got to sit in the co-pilot seat, with an excellent view of the clouds, and our descent into Hagerstown.
 Until next time, little Cape Air plane! It felt like a return from Back to the Future. I was glad to be returning to the present, to Paul and our four-legged family, happy that I had taken advantage of the opportunity to visit the past. I was, however, left with the compelling question: Why *does* everything from our childhood seem smaller than we remember, when we go back to visit?
Thanks for joining me on this trip!
Warm Woofs and Happy Training,
Pat
April 22, 2010
Every Tuesday morning 9:30am finds me doing assessments of prospective adoption dogs at the Humane Society of Washington County (www.hswcmd.org) in Hagerstown, Maryland, where my husband Paul is the Executive Director. I am committed to this volunteer time because I firmly believe that shelters have a responsibility to make every effort possible to place the most appropriate canine companions in the best homes available for them. Assessments give us information that can help make the best placements.
The history of shelter behavior assessments goes back only about 15 years, and is fraught with controversy. Sue Sternberg, who founded Rondout Valley Kennels, a non-profit private shelter in upstate New York, took the lead in the mid 1990’s by introducing what she calls “Temperament Testing.” As she toured the country giving training seminars for shelter staff she received a lot of criticism for her willingness to state that some of the dogs she was given to work with were not good adoption candidates and should be euthanized. Over the years, she continued to be on the receiving end of criticism from those who disagreed with her – some of it quite nasty. She bravely and firmly held her ground, and over time, temperament testing, or as I prefer to call it, “behavior assessment,” has become a pretty standard practice in the animal sheltering field. Certainly not all shelters do it, but the good ones do.
I hold Sue Sternberg in high regard. I don’t always agree with her, but I have huge respect for the work she’s done in this area. Others who have made significant contributions to the assessment discussion are Emily Weiss, Kelley Bollen, and Amy Marder.
No one claims that the behavior assessment process is an exact science, nor do we think it gives anywhere near a complete picture of who a dog is. Rather, it is a moment in time – a snapshot of what a particular dog did on this date and time in this place. Hence my preference for the term “behavior assessment” over “temperament test” – behavior is transitory and malleable, assessment means evaluation, while temperament implies more permanence, and test evokes pass/fail, and implies that once you’ve passed you’ve passed for good. While the assessment process cannot tell us everything a dog will do in the future, it can show us what a dog will do today, which gives us at least some idea of some of the behaviors in the dog’s repertoire.
We use a modified version of the assessment process that Kelly Bollen developed when she was at the Massachusetts SPCA. She conducted a two-year study there in order to test the validity of some of her assumptions about assessments. One of her key findings was that dogs she identified as “borderline,” meaning they had some behaviors that made them questionable adoption candidates, fared reasonably well in their adoption homes. Their return rate was slightly higher than the general adoption return rate, but the follow-up research found no incidents of extreme behavior as a result of the borderline adoptions – nobody got mauled. Our modifications were minor, just a little custom tailoring to adapt it to our shelter’s policies and procedures.
For several weeks now, all of the dogs I’ve helped assess have been suitable adoption candidates, without question. That’s not always the case, but it’s lovely when it happens. This past Tuesday, however, was another story.
We start assessments at 9:30, and usually complete the procedure with three or four dogs before we have to stop at noon. We assess in a multi-purpose room, and adoption interviews begin at noon so we have to clear out by then.
First on our list was a lovely Sheltie mix, maybe 1-2 years old. Happy, bouncy, confident, cheerful: she sat on cue and offered a paw, and was easily lured to do other behaviors. She passed with flying colors. She was one of who prompted me to say, “If I didn’t already have five dogs at home…” She was also one of those who leaves you scratching your head wondering where her people were, and why they didn’t come for her. She should find a home with little trouble.
The next dog was more troubling. Another stray, 4-5 year old Lab mix, maybe Lab/Pointer, who was very stressed and showed little interest in hanging with humans. There was nothing overtly impossible about him, but his lack of affiliative behavior makes him a poor candidate to be someone’s companion. We couldn’t get him to offer any behaviors for treats – he was too stressed to work for food. The strong scent of cow manure emanating from the dried dirt on his ear suggested perhaps a country dog who hadn’t ever had a close relationship with his people. His fear-response to certain quick hand and arm movements also suggested that whatever relationship he did have wasn’t always a nice one. We had to lure him with chicken to be able to put the slip-lead over his head, and even then he was very cautious and suspicious of our intentions. He passed his assessment too, as there was nothing overtly dangerous about him, but his adoption prospects are poor. He needs a very experienced owner who is willing to take the time to help him learn to trust people, and he may never be the normal, outgoing dog that most people are looking for.
Our final assessment was a deep dark chocolate-colored very high-energy 9-week-old Lab mix pup with a low tolerance for frustration. He had affiliative behavior in spades – in fact a little too much – probably a good candidate for separation issues if not handled properly. He reminded me of a dampened down version of Brooklyn, the pup I blogged about a few weeks ago, that Katie Ervin fostered, then adopted. This little guy didn’t show the fierce snarling and snapping that Brooklyn did when restrained, but his intensity and demanding behaviors spelled potential trouble. He persistently jumped up, trying to get in laps, and offered the endearing behavior of pulling himself up into your lap by pressing his head against your arm. In fact it surprised me when he showed no resource guarding behavior with the food bowl. My expectations were met, however when he growled fiercely at the fake hand that tried to take away his pig ear.
Dang.
Once upon a time, that behavior would have earned him an immediate “no adopt.” Resource guarding display is such a dramatic behavior that it’s an easy “rule-out” when you’re making difficult decisions. However, some time ago our shelter revised their assessment guidelines and came up with a clearly spelled-out description of what guarding behaviors allowed for adoption and what didn’t. Because the pup didn’t actually grab the hand, he fell into the “adoptable to a very experienced home with no children” category. Saved, by the skin of his teeth. In fact, if he’s still around, he may be a guest her for the week of May 10th, which is our upcoming Level 2 Behavior Modification Academy. His prospects are better because of his young age, but he still needs a very committed, experienced owner – someone like Katie – to help him work through his inappropriate behaviors.
It’s hard sometimes – seeing how humans have damaged their dogs, and seeing dogs who have potential for recovery if just the right home could be found. There just aren’t enough “right homes” out there. Most truly experienced homes aren’t eager to take on an adult dog like the Lab we assessed who will be a major project. We all want reasonably easy dogs!
Here’s a follow-up on our Level 1 Academy dogs… last I heard, O’Malley, Lance and Curly had been adopted; Blizzard and Bean had applications; and Sweet Pea, Charlie and Taz were still available.
I’m off to Wisconsin tomorrow for a seminar, and to visit my teen years stomping grounds. If you’re coming to the seminar, be sure to come up and say hi!
And, of course, it’s still spring here at Peaceable Paws…
Warm Woofs and Happy Training!
Pat
April 18, 2010
Yesterday afternoon saw the conclusion of yet another Peaceable Paws Level 1 Dog Trainer Academy. These are always exhausting yet fulfilling weeks for our students as well as for Peaceable Paws staff, and always end with lots of tears as the humans say good-bye to their canine co-students.
Here’s the graduation photo:
A hearty congratulations to all our successful Interns, and a loud shout out to High Scoring Graduate Kelly Spring, from Washington DC, whose very creative business name is “Spring Training (for Positively Good Dogs)” at www.SpringTrainingForDogs.com . Kelly worked with Lance, a wonderful Siberian Husky who was so stressed about all the recent changes to his world that he didn’t really start working well for her until Friday. Kelly’s attitude throughout was upbeat and positive. They rocked their practical final:
And another well-deserved shout out to Intern Christy Crone of Williamsport, MD, an Animal Care Technician at the Humane Society of Washington County, for earning the highest score on the practical final with her Academy dog Taz, a slightly undersocialized and very sweet Shepherd/Hound mix:
Our other wonderful canine and humane students this week were:
Leah Jordan, of Philadelphia, PA and the exceptionally laid-back St. Bernard, Charlie. Charlie was a star at “Leave-it” and had a great time playing with Blizzard (see the next Academy team):
Check out this video of Charlie and Blizzard romping in our indoor arena:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zipRxNnFi4k
Here’s Blizzard, a Great Pyrenees mix, also very laid back except when she’s playing with Charlie, with her Academy human, Laurie Scible of Shady Side, MD:
Sue Romano, of Fairfield, PA – a long-time Peaceable Paws client, with her high-energy Academy Lab mix, 4-month-old O’Malley. This pup started the Academy as a very out-of-control, mouthy youngster with a very low tolerance for frustration. Sue worked wonders with him this week – he was a star on his practical final, and now has great prospects for succeeding in his soon-to-be new home:
Sarah Matisak, from (somewhere in) West Virginia (Animal Care Supervisor at the Humane Society of Washington County) also did admirably during the week with this lovely little Pit Bull Terrier. Sweet Pea is aptly-named. She started the week a little serious and shut-down, but blossomed in Sarah’s capable hands:
Petra Manis of Tarrytown, PA, owner of “Sweet Trick! Positive Dog Training” (www.sweettrick.com ) had a great week with little Bean, who overcame all the stereotypes about tiny dogs and learned to down on verbal cue (at least some of the time), walk politely on leash, do a lovely recall, and more. He even sniffed noses with my Scorgidoodle, Bonnie, who outweighs him at least three times, without doing the little dog defensive-aggression response. Petra was aching to adopt Bean, but she rents and her landlord doesn’t allow dogs.
And last but not least, is Vicky Hellerick of Plumsteadville, PA, and the adorable Cockapoo, Curly. Curly was first in the class to reliably offer a verbal down, and had extracurricular fun with Vicky, “creeking,” and jumping over jumps in the outdoor arena. Vicky also wanted to adopt, but she still lives at home and her parents said “no.” Dang!
These Academy dogs are now available for adoption! You can read more about them at the website for the Humane Society of Washington County:
www.hswcmd.org
I also owe a huge thanks to our Academy Assistant, Shannon McAuliffe, PMCT (Pat Miller Certified Trainer) from Phenix, MD, for all her help this week – transporting dogs, taking photos, coaching students, helping Shirley with cleaning and all the other Academy odds ‘n ends:
And of course a huge thanks to Shirley Greenlief, PMCT, CPDT-KA, our full-time Office Manager and PPaws trainer, who holds it all together for me so I don’t lose my sanity.
A personal footnote: When I left the Marin Humane Society in Novato, California in 1997 after 20 years there to launch Peaceable Paws in Monterey, California, I was concerned that I would have a smaller impact on the lives of animals and the people who love them. As Director of Operations and a sworn California Humane Officer of this acclaimed animal protection organization I had the honor and privilege of attending and speaking at national humane conferences, assisting other agencies throughout the state with disaster assistance and cruelty investigations, and editing and publishing for 13 years a quarterly magazine for animal control and humane officers called the C.H.A.I.N. Letter – publication of the Collective Humane Action and Information Network, a group that my husband Paul and I started, along with several other animal protection professionals. How could I ever have that kind of reach, I wondered, as a simple dog trainer?
Thanks in large part to the dedicated dog training and behavior professionals who have come through the many Academies, workshops and seminars offered by Peaceable Paws here and around the world, It’s gratifying to know I continue to reach dogs, and the people who love them, far beyond my own backyard.
Speaking of beyond my own backyard, next weekend I’ll be in Wisconsin (Milwaukee area) to give a seminar on Saturday, 4/24 – just a few miles from my childhood stomping grounds. I’m taking Sunday to do nostalgia tours.
And also speaking of backyards, here’s Lucy, Bonnie and Dubhy, hanging out under our favorite backyard tree in full spring bloom:
Warm woofs and happy training!
Pat
April 14, 2010
So… we’re on Day 2 of our first Academy for the year, where trainers come and spend six days here at Peaceable Paws. This is a Level 1 Academy – Basic Dog Training and Behavior. Students each select a dog from our local shelter (The Humane Society of Washington County) to work with for the week, and we go through our 7-week Basic Good Manners training in six days.
It always astounds me to see the progress our students make with these dogs in just one week. As many Level 1 Academies as we’ve done (more than 25 since we started in 2002) you’d think I’d get used to it, but it seems like a new miracle every time.
We also offer two Level 2 Academies (Behavior Modification and Instructor Course), a Level 3 Advanced Behavior and Training (this year for the first time) and lots of two and three-day workshops (Reactive Rover, Shaping, and Nose Games). You’ll get to hear about all of those as they come along.
Here are the players this week:
Vicky Hellerick and Curly – male Cockapoo, a little anxious, but first in the class to get his verbal down.
Leah Jordan and Charlie – absolutely wonderful St. Bernard.
Petra Manis and Bean – sweet little Chihuahua boy, who sometimes panics on leash. Petra succeeded in getting a lured down with Bean today – a behavior that sometimes can be challenging for the toy breeds.
Trainer Ann Marie Easton also worked with Bean last week when she was here for a Private Intern week.
Laurie Scible and Blizzard – calm, gentle dog – we’re trying to decide if she’s a Great Pyrenees mix (she’s smaller than a Pyr) or a Maremma. She’s more Maremma size, but there aren’t a lot of those running around stray…
Sue Romano and O’Malley – bouncy Lab kid who still has sharp baby teeth. Ouch! Sue got O’Malley to start doing verbal downs today as well.
Sarah Matisak and Sweet Pea – perfect name for this quiet little Pit Bull. Sweet Pea also did her first verbal down today.
Christy Crone and Taz – Shepherd/Hound? A little worried about the world, but doing really well in the Academy.
Kelly Spring and Lance – Beautiful Husky with two blue eyes; still a little distracted – hasn’t quite bought into the training game yet, but he’ll get it.
Dogs and students hike every morning for 45 minutes on our 80-acre farm before starting class – helps a lot with stress reductions for dogs and humans! Three training sessions each day, and a lot of discussion. Today’s topics: Stimulus Control; Reinforcement Schedules; Laws of Shaping; Behavior Assessments, and more.
I’ll let you know how everyone does by the end of the week!
Finally, last Friday we hosted the Spring MAAPPPT meeting here – the Mid-Atlantic Association of Positive Professional Pet Trainers. We did our annual dog pack hike, and shared thoughts about the unfortunate purchase of one of our favorite positive training product companies (Premier Products) by shock collar company Radio Systems. We are all sad and disappointed, and will be putting together a list for alternative sources for our favorite dog training products.
Here’s the hike:
Till next time… warm woofs and happy training!
April 7, 2010
Okay, so… I knew this would happen. Now that I’ve started to blog, every time something happens I think “Oh, I need to put that in my blog!” That means that at least this time around (and probably in future times, at least some of the time) you get a running commentary on my week.
Last week was a full one. First of all, the weather was scrumptious, reaching well into the 80’s by week’s end. I heard a weather reporter say it was the nicest two-day Spring we’ve ever had. Everything is starting to blossom… here are some of the flowers around the farm:
 Wonderful ground cover - taking over a whole corner under the kitchen windows. Anyone know what it's called?  The tree just outside our back door - only blooms for a few days but it's gorgeous! I don't know what kind of tree it is - I say every year I'm going to ask the tree guy, and I never do...  I know this one - tulips!  Hyacinths, I think...  And, of course, daffodils!! A Visiting Trainer
Trainer Carla Herbert was visiting from Florida for a private intern week, and we had a lot scheduled. She brought along one of her dogs – a Catahoula Hound named Kona, and we worked a little every day on various behaviors, including the one depicted below in pictures – shaping her to go into her crate. I noticed on Day One that she was hesitant to crate up, so we added that to the list of things Carla wanted to work on, and by Thursday Kona was happy to trot into her crate on her own.
 Kona - hesitant to approach crate  Well, maybe...  Is this it?  Yay - treats get tossed away from the crate!  I can go farther in...  And even farther!  Now I get treats *in* the crate.  By Thursday, Mom can even close the door! Monday afternoon I had a return client – an 80-pound dog who barks and lunges at other dogs – and people. This was his third visit, and while he’s made some progress, I know he could do better. I switched his owner from straight counter conditioning to more of a Leslie McDevitt “Look At That” approach, and it seemed like a better fit for both of them.
After shelter behavioral assessments on Tuesday morning, we met with the Behavioral Foster Care Committee. This is the still-embryonic program I referred to in my last blog. We’re going to call it GOLD Paw (Giving Opportunity, Love and Direction), and are looking forward to a September launch by the time we get all our ducks in a row. Meanwhile, shelter staff is already on the bandwagon – when I was at assessments this morning they were advocating for three dogs to go to behavioral foster homes – foster homes that don’t exist because the program isn’t up and running yet. But at least one of the dogs – a three-month-old Pit puppy – will come to our Level 1 Training Academy next week instead of being euthanized.
Wednesday and Thursday we had several interesting privates. A lot of intra-pack aggression cases (can’t decide if I’m getting more of these clients because I wrote on that topic in a recent WDJ article, or if I wrote on the topic because I am getting more intra-pack aggression clients), and one dog-human fear-related aggression. I do tend to have a preponderance of aggression and reactivity clients, but have never seen this concentration of aggression between dogs within the same home.
One case in particular stood out for me as a reminder that clients aren’t always seeing what’s really going on. In this home there are three large dogs – a lively adolescent (1.5 years old), and two aging, arthritic dogs (each 9 years old). What the clients saw as the young dog aggressing toward Older Dog A was actually a combination of the older, very arthritic dog being defensively aggressive toward the young, high-energy body-slammer, and the older dog being inappropriate with resource guarding until the young one decided he’d had enough and was going to stand up to the elder. Among my many suggestions for management and modification were:
- Increased exercise and play opportunities for the youngster with age and play-style appropriate dogs – perhaps a candidate for doggie daycare.
- Pain medication for a dog who is so arthritic she can barely walk.
- Feed the dogs in separate rooms to avoid resource guarding.
Sad to see good, caring owners who hadn’t realized the impact the addition of an energetic young dog would have on the quality of life of the two seniors, and who didn’t realize the importance of management when they did bring the youngster in, to prevent escalation of emotions to the point of serious fighting. And who have allowed their senior dogs to live in pain because more than five years ago a vet told them that Rimadyl would kill their dog.
Bite Inhibition
Last week I was also in the middle of writing an article for Whole Dog Journal on bite inhibition, so I asked Carla to take some photos of Scooter, our Pomeranian, biting me as I groomed him (below). Scooter has fantastic bite inhibition, so while he looks like a demon dog in the photos, you can see me smiling, because he never actually puts pressure on my skin with his teeth. And yes, this is the closest to a Dog Whisperer set-up that you’ll ever get from me.
 I hate being groomed!  I *really* hate being groomed!  I *really* hate being groomed and I am *very* fierce! Dogs on the Road
As Carla and I traveled around Maryland and beyond last week, we twice encountered dogs on the edge of the highway – always a heart-stopper. The old Humane/Animal Control Officer in me doesn’t let me drive past a dog on the highway, so of course we had to pull over both times. The first was a small Terrier mix, limping on three legs on the right shoulder as we were headed south on Hwy 81, at Exit 5. We had already passed the dog, so we had to do a three-loop cloverleaf to get back to where we had seen her. When we got back there, she was gone. I pulled the van over onto the curb of the highway on-ramp, and we got out and started up the hill.
Carla said, “There’s a person up there…” and sure enough – there’s homeless man living up there on the hill in the woods. I hiked up anyway, and he was sitting in a camping chair in front of his makeshift tent, clutching the little dog in his arms.
“She’s my dog,” he said defensively, and I assured him we were just making sure she was okay.
“She’s fine, she’s my dog,” he repeated numerous times. She was clearly well-fed, and the injury to her left front paw was old and healed, so I turned as started back to the van. He followed us at a distance, repeating that she was his dog, and stating several times, “The Humane Society Officer has certified that she’s my dog.”
I actually think dogs and homeless people go together well most of the time, and, reassured that the dog was okay, we drove off. Of course, when I got home I called my husband Paul (Executive Director of the Humane Society of Washington County), and as soon as I started describing the scene, he said, “Yep, we know him.”
“Do you give him food for the dog?” I asked. (Our shelter has a food bank). So now, they are arranging to drop off food for her, and have found a vet who is willing to donate pro bono vaccinations for the dog. They are also going to help clean up some of the garbage that has accumulated around his camp. All is well at Exit 5.
We saw the other dog on the side of a Pennsylvania highway on our way to see Dr. Karen Overall (more about that in a moment). Reddish-colored Pitbull on the shoulder, no collar, no tags… dashed back down the shoulder when I pulled over to try to coax him to me. Fortunately, Carla spied a young man walking toward us some distance up the road, so we drove up to him. He said it was his neighbor’s dog, and he was trying to get her back home. We handed him the only leash (good quality leather!) I had in the car, crossed our fingers, and continue on to Karen’s. (Note to self – keep cheap leashes in all vehicles at all times!) Since the dog was clearly frightened of us, we didn’t think it would be of any use to try to help him, so we continued on our way. We hope all is well on that Pennsylvania highway.
Reassuring to see two dogs we thought were in trouble who actually had humans looking out for their best interests, even if we did see them at high-risk moments. A friend of mine on the West Coast was not so fortunate. Cheryl Syring was driving home at night with a friend and they saw an elderly yellow Lab in the road in the path of an oncoming car. They flashed headlights and jumped out to try to wave the driver down, but to no avail – he slammed into the dog, and the dog died a short time later. In all my years in Humane/Animal Control work and the years I’ve spent since, rescuing dogs from roads, I’ve never had that happen. I cannot even imagine how horrifying that must be.
Ending on a happier note… our trip to Karen Overall’s home outside Philadelphia was to sit in on a consult I had referred to her – a client of mine with a drop-dead gorgeous Belgian Malinois who suffers from generalized anxiety disorder and an elusive liver problem. First time I’ve ever had the privilege of sitting in on a Karen Overall consult, and it was more than worth the three-hour drive each way. Although this young Mal was found stray last Fall, Karen agrees that he is an extremely well-bred dog, and was intrigued by the mystery of how he might have come to be a stray.
I had tons of “Aha!” moments during the four-hour consult, and a lot of reassuring confirmation for what I had already observed about this dog. But one thing Karen said in a new (to me) way was immensely valuable. She talked about treats, toys and praise, etc., being various reinforcers for dogs at various times, but, she said, “a dog’s most important currency is information.” They are always seeking to understand how their world works, and how to make it work for them, and they need information in order to do this. For an anxious dog, many behaviors we may read as “aggression” – growling, lunging – are ways of testing the environment to seek information. She reassured our mutual client (as I had already done) that when their dog was growling at them he wasn’t about to bite, but was merely offering information (I’m not comfortable here) and seeking information (what is happening, and how are you going to answer?)
Karen Overall is in my “goddess” category, and with this gem of information she has given me a whole new way to look at, and explain, various dog behaviors that are often troubling to clients. Thanks to Karen for being an inspiration and a leader in the positive dog training and behavior world!
|
