Dogs vs. Kids

So in case you didn’t know, a child is not a dog and a dog is not a child. I’m convinced that some people do NOT realize that this is true because they treat their dog like a child, but this has definitely become apparent to me since I gave birth six weeks ago. Dogs are pretty much black and white. You say something is wrong, and they respond. You feed them the same amount at the same time everyday after taking them to the same tree and nobody complains. But a child has a mind of their own to respond as they feel. A four ounce bottle may suffice for lunch, but not dinner. A child poops for 10 minutes, you change their diaper, and they respond by peeing on you and then soiling the next diaper. I DO think that dogs prepare a couple for parenting in many respects, but right now I am realizing how different being a parent and being a pack leader can be. There are lots of similarities (which I may expand on in a future post), but for now they are different! And actually, it’s a good thing. I am learning lots over here!

On a happy note, the dogs are adjusting perfectly to Emma’s presence in our home. No improper behavior toward her whatsoever. All our prepping paid off!

Lead your dog!

 

I’m a Mama!

My first daughter Emma Penelope Shih was born on September 23rd at 4:12pm. She weighed 7lb 0oz and was 20.5″ long. We are adjusting very well, but life is full! The dogs are at my in-laws, allowing my husband and I to get used to this wild ride without focusing on training. I imagine you will be hearing of our training experiences when the dogs come back!

In the meantime, lead your dog!

 

How to Snap the Leash

Snapping the leash is a form of discipline that throws your dog off balance. It makes him lose his concentration, stops him from doing a behavior, conditions him to avoid the thing he’s doing, and prevents excitement from escalating.

To properly perform a leash correction, you must start with a loose leash. If there is tension on the leash (aka, if your dog is pulling), you won’t be able to do this properly. Bring your hand down near your dog’s neck–if you have a small dog you will have to bend over. Quickly jerk the leash to the side (NOT back), and then immediately let the leash loose again. The leash should be taunt for less than 2 seconds.

When you do a leash correction, make sure that you are not timid, anxious, nervous, or excited. As the leader, you need to be calm and assertive in your corrections or else your dog won’t take you seriously.  If done correctly, with the right intensity and energy and timing, you should see your dog respond by lowering the head, looking at you, sitting down, or putting the ears back. A properly timed leash correction can change a dog’s behavior instantly and a smart dog needs only to be corrected in this way once or twice before getting the message that what they are doing is unacceptable behavior.

Lead your dog!

 

Obsessive Barking

The most common type of obsessive barking occurs when a dog is focused on what it cannot reach (usually out the window or at another dog while on a leash).  It may or may not happen when you are home with your dog, but it most certainly happens when you are gone! “How can I stop my dog from barking when I’m gone?” you may wonder, and I sincerely hope that these suggestions prove beneficial to you and your neighbors!

1) Exercise. If a dog is properly exercised, the occurrences of obsessive barking are almost entirely eliminated.  Walking, jogging, or biking with your dog are the best ways to exercise since they help you relate side-to-side with your dog (which is extremely important to all canines). Other exercise forms would be fetching, a trip to the dog park, fetching up and down the stairs, or having your dog learn to ride a treadmill. I recommend at least a 30 minute walk twice a day for a barker (you can read about mastering the walk here).

2) Training.  You can train your dog not to bark out the window by taking the following steps. First, make sure your dog is exercised. Second, place a leash on your dog (preferable not a flexi-leash since you cannot give a proper leash correction with one easily). Third, purposefully create the barking scenario. You need to make the barking occur so that you can stop it in that moment (thus showing your dog what is expected of them). For example, if your dog is a leash barker, walk past lots of other dogs. If your dog is a window barker, ask a friend to walk in front of the window with their dog. Fourth, correct early on. As soon as your dog begins to become obsessed (you’re looking for level 2 excitement–don’t wait until level 10 when they are already barking like crazy) give a calm, quiet leash correction to the side (think “snap” of the leash: loose, tense for 1 second, then loose again). Give the correction when your dog’s ears go up, his tail becomes alert, or he gets anxious.  Do not become frustrated. You are teaching your dog a new concept: that barking is no longer acceptable behavior. Remember that when you discipline your dog you are disagreeing with the behavior, not with the dog personally. Fifth, repeat, repeat, repeat!

Once your dog is no longer barking with a leash correction in front of many different dogs (or window distractions), take the leash off and repeat some more. You are now teaching your dog that it cannot bark even with the leash off. Now is the time to use auditory or physical corrections (snap your fingers, say “ah-ah”, block your dog from getting closer to its target, use “the touch“, etc). It will make much more sense to your dog if you come between them and the thing you are barking–do not try to call them away. Another note: if you have more than one dog that is an obsessive barker, target the stronger one/instigator. Whenever you have two dogs, one is the leader and one is the follower. By correcting the leader/instigator first, the follower will calm down too.

3) Don’t give them reason to worry. If your dog is a alone-at-home barker, one way to diminish barking is by conveying to them the idea that it’s no big deal to be home alone, and that the home is a place of rest. You can help your dog understand this by not working them up when you come and go. Don’t say “ok, honey, Mommy’s going to leave now, but you just stay home and be a good boy!” Nonchalantly pick up your keys and go without a word to your pup. When you come home, practice no touch, no talk, no eye contact to help your dog understand that it’s no big deal when you come home either (I realize that this takes a lot of self discipline, but it IS worth it to your pet!). Feel free to love and cuddle your dog like crazy when they are being calm. Your goal as pack leader and authority figure is to promote calmness in your canine (this is what pack leaders do in the wild).

4) Authority. As you take charge of your dog by showing them that you are in control of every situation, you will see their behavior improve in other areas of life as well. All dogs want to be followers. Your dog will live a more contented, happy-go-lucky life if you don’t let them rule the roost.

Lead your dog!

 

Signals of labor from your pet?

I am beginning my 38th week of pregnancy today and I have recently noticed a change in my dogs’ behavior! They have been quite calm even though we haven’t been able to exercise properly for weeks and they have both taken to sleeping in the nursery for hours everyday. Last Saturday my schnauzer wouldn’t come when I called him–he insisted on staying in the nursery (usually he’s glued to my leg)! I mentioned something about this on facebook and two people mentioned to me that their dogs did the same thing the week before they gave birth! Isn’t that absolutely fascinating that dogs can be in-tune with subtle changes that humans have no idea about?!

Have any of you heard (or experienced) a change in your dog’s behavior before giving birth?

Hoping to have this little girl very soon! Lead your dog!

 

Foods Dogs Are Allergic To

Most humans take great pleasure in giving their dogs variety of food (aka people food). I don’t think the dogs think half as much about it as humans do, but I’m not opposed to you making your dog be calm and work for some after-dinner tidbits. Be aware that there are some foods that your dog should never taste.

Grapes and Raisins- cause major stomach, kidney, and renal issues

Avocados–cause upset stomach, vomiting, and pancreatitis

Garlic and onions–even in small amounts (raw or cooked) damage red blood cells, cause anemia and kidney damage

Chocolate and caffeine–causes stomachache, rapid heartbeat and seizures

Macadamia nuts–(even a few) induce vomiting, weakness, diarrhea, and rear leg paralysis

Fruit pits and seeds–cause breathing issues, seizures, and coma

If you suspect that your dog has eaten something poisonous, contact your vet asap.

Lead your dog!

 

Is a dog’s mouth cleaner than a human’s?

Is a dog’s mouth cleaner than a human’s?

This question has been circulating for centuries due to the lack of common sense that many dog owners (or should I say dog lovers) possess. I am proud to announce that after some research, I can confidently say the answer is no–a dog’s mouth is NOT cleaner than a human’s.

Marty Becker, author of “Chicken Soup for the Dog Owner’s Soul,” offers his opinion: ”They raid the garbage can. You know, we give each other a peck on the cheek when we say hello, they give each other a peck on the rear end. All you got to do is look, watch, smell and you’ll realize that that is not true.”

You can catch rabies from a dog by sharing saliva, but you probably aren’t going to die by letting your dog lick you. Just keep in mind that a dog’s tongue is it’s wash cloth and it’s toilet paper…

Read more on this issue here and here.

Lead your dog!

 

Prong collars, retractable leashes and frustrated owners do not mix…

Was in the park yesterday and I see a guy chasing his loose pit bull trying to get her back. He’s running after her shouting her name and trying to grab her, but she’s too quick. So I squat down and smooch my lips and she comes barreling towards me. I don’t say a word and just hold onto her collar while he come lumbering over.  I tried to make small-talk but he was obviously very frustrated having chased her for about 5 minutes to no avail. He grabs her face and smacks her hard. He then proceeds to put an extremely tight prong collar on her (which is attached to a flexi-leash) and give her four hard leash corrections in a row shouting “bad girl”. The dog whimpers and looks up at him and the owner says “Yeah, that’s right. That’ll teach you to run off”. He then pulls her away from me and leaves the park giving her random hard leash corrections and then freedom with the leash. Needless to say it was hard for me to keep my mouth shout. So I’ll open it here:

1) If your dog runs away from you that means that your relationship is not strong. The dog doesn’t take you seriously, doesn’t know what “come” means (many owners don’t seem to realize that “come” is something you have to actually teach), or has become obsessive about something it sees and tunes everything out (so your vocal command should have been given before your dog began to fixate and run away from you).

2) If you punish a dog when it finally comes back to you, why would it bother to come back the next time? You have to live in the moment and reward your dog for “coming” and continue to work on the basics another time. It is impossible for a frustrated owner to give appropriate discipline.

3) Prong collars have very specific uses in my book. The collar ought to be quite loose on your dog except for an instantaneous correction. If your dog’s neck has indentations in it while you’re holding a loose leash, the collar is too tight–add an extra link or two or three!

4) Never, under any circumstance, should a prong collar be attached to a retractable leash. Your dog is given freedom by pulling when wearing a flexi-leash (the dog pulls on the leash, he gets further away from you). So by wearing a prong collar and pulling for freedom, your dog is learning nothing except to become desensitized to prongs digging into his neck. Furthermore, it is impossible to give a proper leash correction with a flexi-leash due to the fact that your dog doesn’t know when it’s about to occur (not to mention that when he reaches the end of the length of the leash, he gets a surprise correction for no reason).  Dogs aren’t good at rationalizing–they don’t get “if, then” commands very well. I can guarantee that the only thing this little pit knew at the end of the “training episode” was to avoid the owner when she runs away next time and steer clear when he’s frustrated. Oy!

Take away for my readers:

~When you’re frustrated with your dog, don’t attempt to correct. I don’t care if you’ve been trying to catch your dog for 2 hours and you keep narrowly missing her, don’t punish her when you’re unbalanced–it will NOT result in two balanced beings working together (which IS the goal, isn’t it?)

~ If you let your dog off-leash and after a time she ran away (as was the case with this guy), I would take her back to that original spot after you finally catch her and spend time there with her again (just don’t take her off the leash this time). Leave that spot on a good note.

~Don’t assume that your dog can read your mind! “Come” is not an “included feature” when you get a dog; it has to be taught.

Lead your dog, friends. Lead…don’t bully!

 

Caring for Curly Coats

I groom a lot of poodles and ‘oodles and bichon’s. I was recently asked how to keep their coat looking full since they tend to get curly and flat very quickly. The answer is the slicker brush!

A slicker brush has short metal bristles which separate the hairs. You can brush with the grain or against the grain with a slicker brush and the more you brush, the fluffier your dog will become. There is a drawback, however, and that is that the bristles are metal and therefore can make your dog uncomfortable if you brush too hard. If you brush our your wirehaired dog with a slicker brush twice a week, you will have a fluffy, mat-free puppy!

I suggest putting your dog up on a counter or table (with a leash on and always being held onto) so that they know that they are about to be groomed and not to give you any fuss. Grooming a dog on the couch or floor works too, you just need to bend over and they can easily get away from you. Pay attention to your energy and body language. Grooming your dog should be relaxing and enjoyable but if you are nervous, anxious, stressed, hyper or in a hurry, your dog will sense your unbalanced state and not be relaxed either. Breathe often, take your time, don’t talk to them unless it’s a calm “tch” to snap them out of any inappropriate behavior (trying to pull away, pulling their leg out of your hand, trying to move around, or fixating on the brush). Dogs get most uncomfortable with their front legs being brushed, so go slowly and gently. Try to get as close to the skin as possible. It is common for owners to brush out their dogs on the surface, but if you examine the coat closely, it is still matted underneath. Brushing on top of a mat is painful to your dog and is often the reason why they fuss when being brushed. Brushing frequently helps eliminate this issue. (Don’t forget to sanitize your counter or table when you’re done!)

If you find a mat or knot in your dog’s coat, cut it out immediately. Knots start off harmlessly enough, but they work themselves closer and closer to your dog’s skin, pulling and itching them to the point where they can make your dog bleed. Avoid this issue by chopping them out asap. Trouble areas for mats include: inside the ear, where the ear connects to the head, armpits, and thigh/belly.

Lastly, keep an eye on the hair that grows in your dog’s ears. It needs to come out to avoid mixing with the ear wax and forming a knot (super uncomfortable for your dog and your groomer). Just pull it out with your fingers–it comes out super easily and doesn’t hurt your dog at all.

Lead your dog!

 

Free Giveaway on my Product Blog!

I will be sending a size small XOXO training collar to one lucky reader! Just head over to DoggieProductReview.com and leave a comment! The winner will be chosen at random before midnight on Wednesday, August 3rd! I will e-mail the winner privately for their address. Then head over to RCPets.com to check out all their great products!

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Lead your dog!