Doggy Podcast Goes Live!

Tweet The Canine Connection Podcast is a 10-part series, with each episode released every Monday for 10 weeks, starting on Monday 31st January 2011. The entire series will be available to download from iTunes shortly but in the mean time, click here to listen and subscribe to the series.

Each week features me, Jez Rose, and my co-host Caroline, offer advice to listeners' dog problems, fascinating dog facts and an interview each week with a celebrity from the dog world including, star of It's Me Or The Dog Victoria Stilwell, founder of puppy training Dr Ian Dunbar and best-selling author Jean Donaldson. Fun and education all-in-one!

Roger Abrantes, PhD in Ethology and Evolutionary Biology and author of the best-selling book ‘Dog Language’ has this to say about The Canine Connection Podcast: “Well done Jez, I strongly recommend this podcast to all dog owners and trainers as well. Keep up and enjoy!”

Stop My Dog Jumping Up

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If your dog jumps up at you or visitors to your home, or even people in the street – relax! It’s a very common yet easily rectifiable “problem” that is simply a result of your dog’s excitement to greet other people and as unwelcome as it may be, I’d rather a dog that greeted people in a friendly way than an aggressive way!

But the solution is not in pushing your dog away, spraying it with water, blasting it with a canister of air or throwing things at it – these punitive, abusive training techniques are based on outdated methods that have been long superseded by scientific methods to alter behaviour positively. All you need is a helper, your dog’s collar (or harness) and lead and some tasty treats – I use Trainers Secret 100% natural liver training treats and highly recommend them (available exclusively from dog & bone). How long will it take? Good question! We’re all busy and don’t have time to embark on long-winded training programs. My ‘personal best’ for teaching a dog not to jump up is 4 seconds. The longest yet is a mere 1 minute 9 seconds: my technique is a very straightforward one that is incredibly powerful because it uses the dog’s natural desire for attention as the key motivator and reward.

1. Enlist the help of a friend and give them a small supply of treats.
2. Secure your dog’s collar and lead.
3. Hold your dog’s lead at the end so that the dog can physically jump up (if you don’t allow them to jump up and get it wrong, they won’t learn what the correct thing is).
4. Stand still and anchor your feet to the floor and your elbows to your hips. When your dog pulls, you must do nothing at all: simply allow the dog to jump up.
5. Have your friend approach you and your dog with a friendly face, possibly even saying “hello!” to your dog in an excited tone.
6. As soon as your dog jumps up at your friend, have them say “too bad”, turn around and walk off. It needs to be short and succinct as we are showing the dog the ultimatum: if you jump up at people, they’ll simply walk off and you won’t get any attention at all.
7. Have your friend repeat the same process, turning and walking away each time the dog jumps up at them.
8. As the dog realises that jumping up isn’t working any longer, without being asked, the dog will offer an alternative behaviour. When the dog sits, your friend can continue to approach, praise and reward with a treat. The first time the dog sits and your friend continues to approach the dog, quite often the dog will get excited and jump up again so the same rules as before apply: have them say “too bad”, turn and walk away.

Patience is the key, combined with a consistent approach: the dog only gets praise and a reward when they remain sitting.

Remember that dog’s learning is very linear: if you teach a dog not to jump up while you’re in the garden, that is exactly what they learn – not to jump up in the garden! So once you and your dog have got the hang of it, change environments to really embed the new training: arrange to meet your friend on a planned walk, have them come to your front door a few times and of course in the hallway, too.

The Best Training Treats Ever!

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Many people ask me what treats they should use when training their dog and without hesitation, I recommend Trainer’s Secret. They are a 100% natural liver treat, prepared by hand and dehydrated to last for 6 months with no special storage. It’s a fantastic product and endorsed by Dr Ian Dunbar, the founder of puppy training and father of modern, lure-reward dog training. Here’s what he has to say about them:

“Trainer’s Secret is the perfect training reward for dogs of all ages. And perfect too as an occasional treat — just because you love your dog. My dogs loved Trainer’s Secret and I’m sure yours will too.”

What’s more, Kelly Dunbar, founder of Dog Star Daily thinks they’re awesome, too! Here’s what one of the most influential women in dog training thinks of Trainer’s Secret:

“Fantastic! Nice size, with lots of flavour and odour to make them very appealing to dogs, but not crumbly nor greasy. More importantly, the dogs loved ‘em.”

Trainer’s Secret are your secret weapon in dog training, exclusive to dog & bone. For details and to order, click here!

How To Stop My Dog Barking

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Barking is only one part of a dog’s language, however, with much more communication happening non-verbally, we don’t notice the silent bits (the tail wagging, head turning, whining, teeth baring etc) – which is a shame as it would help put the barking into context and allow more people to realise that barking is simply the sound of a language. Asking a dog not to bark is akin to them asking us to stop talking!

Why Do Dogs Bark?
Contrary to popular belief, dogs don’t bark to annoy us and don’t bark to be “dominant”. There is always a reason for their barking – even if sometimes it is simply for fun (self-perpetuating barking is a classic sign of boredom and a lack of stimulation). Dogs bark for a variety of reasons and each bark has a unique sound to it which helps us understand what they are communicating and therefore, why they are barking:

Boredom and frustration
(an endless row of static barking, the same tone over and over again sometimes ending in a howl. Repetitively, the entire sequence is repeated)
As an audible warning (to warn about an intruder, for example)
(short, sharp “woof” noises)
Excitement
(high frequency and often sounds hysterical. The barking is fairly constant or in a series of barks with short interludes. Sometimes there are whines between the barking)
Fear
(high-pitched, it comes in a long series of barks. Similar to excitement barking, however, you can clearly hear the fear in the dog’s bark. Sometimes the long series of barking will end in a howl, a call for help, as if crying out to the puppy’s mother)
Guard barking
(usually interspersed with growling: “grrrrrr – bark, bark – grrrrrr”. It is normally depper and shorter than fear barking, however, if the dog is afraid then the sound can be high-pitched and similar to fear barking)
Learned barking
(the dog will bark, take a break and then look around to seek attention or reinforcement caused by the barking. If the attention is not forthcoming, the barking will start again)

To generically stop a dog from barking without any regard as to understanding why the dog is barking is foolhardy. Suppressing barking can be dangerous if the dog learns to avoid barking for fear of punishment – imagine the dog that has been shouted at and punished for barking so then doesn’t bark to warn the child that is annoying it and simply goes straight to bite without warning. Many people ask me how to stop their dog from barking and my initial reply is to ask: “why does your dog bark?”. Many people don’t know but they will be able to identify a pattern for the barking, for example, when you get the dog’s lead out (excited); when people knock on the front door (guarding, fear, excitement) or when another dog passes you in the car (guarding, excitement, fear), which will indicate the dog’s reasoning.

Barking is a self-rewarding behaviour, so ignoring it will not make it go away. Punishing it is completely ineffective and can have serious consequences and far too many trainers have resulted in the past to punishing the dog for barking using air canisters, metal discs or spraying the dog with water. That’s the equivalent of smacking a baby for crying, or punching your spouse for speaking.

One of the most effective ways to stop your dog from excessively barking is to channel its energy and focus into something else (for example having him go find his favourite toy when someone knocks on the front door) or even to use those times when you know the dog will bark (like when you get ready to go for a walk) to teach the dog to bark on cue. From teaching the dog to bark on cue it is very straightforward and effective to then teach the dog to be “quiet” on cue.

Teaching your dog to bark on cue
1. Request the dog to “speak” or “bark”, using whichever cue you prefer.
2. Activate the barking by taking the dog’s lead out or knocking on the front door, for example
3. The dog duly barks
4. Praise and reward the dog
5. Several repetitions of this and you will have a fog that will bark on cue

To train the ‘barking antidote’, simply wait until the dog is barking, give the desired cue (“quiet” or “shush”) and put a tasty treat such as Trainers Secret liver treats or a small piece of sausage or bacon under the dog’s nose. Dogs cannot bark and smell at the same time. Praise and reward as soon as the dog stops barking.

Remember – barking is a normal and natural behaviour for dogs so there’s no point trying to stop it completely. Just as crying children can be unpleasant to hear but we need to understand that they are simply trying to tell us something, use your knowledge and understanding to try to find out what it is the dog is communicating.

My Dog Growls When I Go Near His Food

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“She’s a bit tricky around her food bowl”. It’s surprising how many adolescent dogs still display a tendency to guard food and objects, yet their owners do nothing about it. Whereas playful food and object guarding are quite normal, and to be expected, in developing puppies, defensive guarding behaviour cannot be allowed in adolescent or adult dogs – it is extremely easy to build your puppy’s confidence so that she no longer feels the need to defend her food bowl, bones, and toys from people.

If you ever sense your puppy (or older dog) is even a little bit possessive or protective of any object, do something about it immediately. The requisite confidence-building exercises are described below. If you think the problem is beyond your control, seek help immediately while your puppy is still a puppy because object guarding starts during puppyhood . Owners may fail to notice their adolescent dog becoming increasingly possessive and protective. Some may actually encourage their puppy’s protective displays, thinking they are cute.

It is natural for dogs to protect their possessions: in the wild, a wolf would hardly pop next door to borrow a cup of bones. Domestic dogs quickly learn that once something is gone, it is gone. So it’s not surprising to find dogs trying to keep their possessions away from people.

Bitches are more likely to guard objects than male dogs. In a domestic pack, it is fairly common to see a very low-ranking bitch successfully defend her bone from a relatively high-ranking male dog. In fact, the ‘Bitch’s First Amendment to Male Hierarchical Law’ is: “I have it, and you don’t!”.

With male dogs, object-guarding is more common among middle-ranking insecure male dogs. In fact, nothing better advertises insecurity and lack of confidence than object guarding — definitely not “top dog behavior.” In fact, true top dogs are usually confident in their position and are often quite willing to share a bone, toy, or food bowl with lower-ranking individuals.

If you frequently take food or toys away from your puppy and she never gets them back, your pup will learn that relinquishing an object likely means she will never see it again. Understandably, your pup might develop behaviours to keep objects away from you. She may run and hide with the object, hold on tight with her jaws, growl, snarl and maybe snap.

If you find you are backing down when your puppy is protecting any object, and are at a loss for what to do, seek help from a professional dog behaviourist. This problem will quickly get out of hand and soon you will have an adult dog backing you down. Retraining adult dogs that are protective of valued objects is complicated, time-consuming, and not without danger. You will definitely require assistance from an experienced trainer or behaviourist. On the other hand, preventing this in puppyhood is easy and safe.

First make sure that your puppy develops a strong chewtoy habit. If she always wants to play with her chewtoys, she won’t seek out inappropriate objects that need to be taken away. Additionally, teach your pup to voluntarily relinquish her chewtoys on request.

Basically, you have to teach your puppy that voluntarily relinquishing an object does not mean losing it for good. Your puppy should learn that giving up bones, toys, and tissues means receiving something better in return — praise and treats — and also later getting back the original object.

The Token System: Exchanging Valued Commodities for Treats

: Start working with objects that both you and your puppy can hold at the same time, such as a rolled newspaper or a KONG on a rope. Physical contact is a very big part of the possession game. Your puppy is less likely to protect an object if you still have hold of it. However, as soon as you let go, your pup becomes more likely to defend her prize.

: As practiced in the previous exercise, tell your puppy “Off” and then “Take it.” Waggle the object in front of her muzzle enticingly.
: Praise your puppy when she takes hold but do not let go of the object!
: Say, “Puppy, Thank you”, stop waggling the object to encourage your puppy to stop tugging and with your other hand, waggle a very tasty treat (dried liver treats) in front of her nose.
: Praise your puppy as soon as she opens her mouth and you have regained full possession of the object.
: Continue praising as you offer one, two, or three treats (maybe luring the puppy to sit or lie down as you do so). Then instruct your pup to take the object again and repeat the procedure.
: When your puppy has promptly relinquished the object upon request five times in a row, you may let go of the object each time. Now you are ready to work with smaller objects, such as a KONG without a rope, tennis balls, sterilised bones, or other toys.
: Once your pup eagerly takes and gives promptly, simply drop or toss the object and say, “Thank you”. Your pup will pick up the object and drop it in your hand.
: And there you go – your very own faithful retriever pup!

Retrieving is a lot of fun and good exercise. It has numerous applications, such as looking for lost keys, fetching slippers, and clearing up dog toys. Most puppies love retrieving and quickly develop confidence about surrendering objects. They temporarily swap their toys for treats, the owner safely holds the toy while they enjoy the treat, and then they get the toy back to exchange for more treats. In fact, some puppies enjoy proffering objects so much that it may become a bother to the owner. If your pup offers too many unsolicited presents, simply instruct her: “Take it to your bed”. In fact, this is one of the best ways to teach your puppy to clear up her toys.

By teaching your puppy to retrieve objects, what had intrinsic value as a toy now has additional value as a token that may be exchanged for praise and rewards. Playing fetch with your puppy is a wonderful way to supercharge her toys, increase their effectiveness as lures and rewards for training, and greatly increase the likelihood that a bored puppy will seek out her toys to play with rather than inappropriate household or outdoor articles.

Once the above exchange exercises are working, increase the intrinsic value of the objects by stuffing the KONG or sterilised bone with treats. Before your puppy is ten weeks old, you should also repeat the following confidence-building exercise many times. Even with a ten-week-old puppy, I would advise having an assistant for these exercises:
: Tie a length of stout string to one end of a meaty bone. Should the pup growl, have your assistant yank on the string to pull the bone away, and quickly cover it with a plastic bucket or bin.
: The plastic bucket may also be used to cover the pup’s food bowl should the pup act up during food bowl exercises.
: Don’t waste time reprimanding the pup for growling. Instead, make sure to praise and reward your puppy as soon as she stops growling.
: Additionally, you must make sure that a growling puppy immediately loses her bone or food bowl. Many puppies will initially growl when food is removed. These are not bad dogs; they are normal dogs. Growling is quite natural. However, your puppy must learn that growling doesn’t work so that this behaviour does not escalate and continue into adolescence. As your puppy develops confidence, she will learn that there is no reason to growl because you have no intention of stealing her food.
: When the puppy stops growling, praise her, back up, and have her sit and lie down, give her back the object, and then repeat the procedure.

If you have problems with object and food guarding exercises, seek help immediately. Do not wait until your puppy is three months old.

The Food Bowl

Many old-time dog training books advise not going near a dog when it is eating. Whereas it may be sound advice to let a trustworthy adult dog eat in peace, this does not mean letting untrained puppies eat alone. If a pup grows up eating alone, she may not want her mealtimes disturbed as an adult. Eventually, someone is bound to bother the dog when she is eating, whereupon she may respond in a characteristically canine, food-protective fashion and growl, snarl, snap, lunge and maybe even bite.

By all means, tell people not to bother your dog when she is eating, but first be certain your puppy is totally trustworthy around her food bowl. Teach your puppy not simply to tolerate people around her food bowl, but to thoroughly look forward to dinner-time guests:

: Hold your pup’s bowl while she eats kibble.
: Offer tasty treats and handle the puppy, and she will learn her dinners are more enjoyable when people are present with petting and treats.
: Let the puppy eat kibble from her bowl, offer a tasty treat, and then temporarily remove the bowl as the puppy enjoys the treat.
: Then try removing the bowl prior to offering a treat. Your pup will soon look forward to your removing the bowl and the kibble, since it signals a tasty treat is imminent.
: As your puppy is eating dry kibble from her bowl, quickly put your hand in the bowl and offer a tasty treat.
: Give your puppy time to re-investigate the dry kibble, to check for more treats, and to recommence eating.
: Then plunge your hand in the bowl and offer another treat.
: Repeat this several times. Your pup will soon become accustomed and look forward to sudden hand movements around her food bowl. This exercise impresses puppies no end — it’s like the magician who pulls a flower, an egg, or a dove from behind someone’s ear.

Sit with your puppy while she is eating and have family members and friends walk by. Each time someone approaches, spoon a small dollop of canned food on top of the kibble. Your puppy will quickly make the association between approaching people and juicy canned food being added to her kibble. Later, have family and friends approach and toss a treat into the puppy’s bowl. Soon your puppy will welcome the dinnertime presence and presents of people.

The Delinquent Waiter Routine

Have you ever been kept waiting in a restaurant, eating bread and drinking water yet you haven’t even ordered? “Where is the waiter? I wish he would hurry up; I’m starving!”. Well, the delinquent waiter routine prompts the same reaction in puppies. Most will beg you to approach their food bowl:

: Weigh out your puppy’s dinner kibble in a bowl on the counter and then put the pup’s bowl on the floor with only one piece of kibble. Try to capture your puppy’s reaction on camera. She will look at the bowl with disbelief. Your pup will look back and forth between you and her bowl, gobble down the one piece of kibble, and then thoroughly sniff the empty bowl.
: Casually walk away from the bowl and busy yourself. Maybe inquire as to whether or not your puppy enjoyed her dinner. “Was everything to your liking, Ma’am? Are you ready for second course?”.
: Wait until your puppy begs for more, walk over, pick up her bowl, place in one more piece of kibble, wait for the pup to sit, and then put her bowl on the floor.

Your puppy will become calmer and her manners will improve with each “course.” Also, by feeding your puppy’s dinner in many small courses, you will teach her to welcome your approaches.

My Puppy Chews His Lead!

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Quite often during my puppy training classes owners will ask me how to get their puppy to stop biting on the lead when out on a walk. The pup doesn't have any interest at all when the lead is on the floor or hung up on the wall but as soon as it's connected to his collar, they start to bite, chew and tug at it. Naturally, not a lot of pleasant walking happens as owner fights pup for the lead and control of the walk!

Thankfully, the answer is really simple and incredible efficient:

1: Teach your puppy a "take it" or "leave it" cue so that your dog understands when to leave something alone. This cue alone is worth its weight in gold. Start training with a toy first rather than the lead. A few short 10 minute training sessions will be all that's required for the puppy to learn what is expected of them. Download my free 'Teach your dog to leave' top tip here for a very easy 'how to' teach your dog to leave something.

2: When you've taught your pup to "leave it", when you connect the lead and set off on your walk, as soon as the puppy takes the lead in his mouth, simply instruct him to leave it, praise, reward and continue the walk.

Some dogs like things in their mouths (a lot of the working breeds like Labradors and Golden Retrievers do and do Bulldogs, too) so give them a toy to walk with - perhaps a toy reserved just for walkies. While I'm on the topic of taking toys on walks, stop and have a think about what the walk means to your dog: he may well run free, play with other dogs, sniff lots, run and walk happily with you but all of these things are good things that happen without coming directly from you; you're not a part of any of these. The dog sees his off-leash time running in the park as a time for freedom and away from you who restricts him to the lead and simply escorts him to the park where ll the fun happens. Now compare this image with one where, while walking, you frequently give your puppy cues like "sit", "heel", "down", "touch" etc as you walk. Then, when you let puppy off-leash, you've brought a toy with you and play tug, fetch, chase and "find it!". All of these things happen because of your presence - they come directly from you.

Take a toy and treats (and poo bags!) on the walk so you can have some fun play time to get that puppy energy out, bond with your pup, drastically increase the chances of puppy returning to you when called (as you've demonstrated how much fun you are) and enjoy the walk more.

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Hounds for Heroes

PetCompare  |  2010/12/22 09:39:22

A charity that looks to provide trained assistance dogs to injured and disabled men and women of both the UK armed forces and civilian emergency services

Petcompare offers support to Hounds for Heroes a charity that looks to provide specially trained assistance dogs to injured and disabled men and women of both the UK armed forces and civilian emergency services. Initially "Hounds for Heroes" intends to raise £100,000 to buy 5 Labradors, the Puppies on Parade Appeal, these dogs will be carefully selected for all the qualities needed to produce excellent assistance dogs. The Charity will carefully select puppy parents to start with this very essential part of their training. After around 15 months the specialist training will start, with a combination of puppy parents and the new owner. All the time the puppies will be meeting on a weekly basis to carry out socialisation and specialist training. When the dogs are fully trained the ownership will be fully transferred to the new owner.

Hounds for Heroes Founder:
In 1991, Allen Parton was a Chief Petty Officer serving in the Royal Navy during the Gulf War. He had a very promising military career ahead of him and a wife and two children at home in Portsmouth. Then a tragic war time incident changed his life completely. Allen suffered a severe head injury which left him with considerable physical and emotional trauma. It wiped out his memories and left him unable to walk, speak or write. He couldn't even remember getting married or the birth of his children. He spent the next five years in hospital, struggling to come to terms with his disabilities.

Then Allen was partnered with Endal, a yellow Labrador assistance dog. Since then, Allen's confidence has returned to such an extent that he cannot stop talking about how much Endal transformed his life. Endal helped to save Allen's marriage and helped to rebuild a relationship with his children. He became independent and Sandra no longer has to be on call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, allowing her the freedom and peace of mind to live her own life again.

Endal could respond to over one hundred commands and could also problem solve. One day when Allen was struggling to reach up to withdraw money from a cashpoint machine, Endal instinctively jumped up, took the money and card in his mouth and passed it to Allen. On another occasion, Endal demonstrated his ability to react in an emergency. When visiting Crufts in 2001, Allen was knocked out of his wheelchair by a speeding car and left unconscious in a car park. The driver was in a deep state of shock, so Endal took charge and pulled Allen into the recovery position, covered him with a blanket and fetched his mobile phone. Getting no response Endal then left Allen's side and went to a nearby hotel and raised the alarm.

This amazing partnership starting Allen thinking about setting up a new charity to help the disabled of the Armed Forces and Emergency Service. Allen says "it has been a dream of mine to have a charity that works specifically for these people who routinely put their lives in danger. "Hounds for Heroes" is our chance of giving people the same chances that I have had. We owe them a great debt and this is our way of saying thank you"

Sadly Endal died in Spring 2009 but the partnership keeps going and Allen is pictured above with EJ (Endal Junior) who is the first dogs to be trained under the auspices of Hounds for Heroes.

To Find out how you can get involved in supporting "Hounds for Heroes" visit www.houndsforheroes.com.