Homeless, but not hopeless

Though I work with dogs and their people throughout the entire Bay Area, I live in Downtown San Francisco. Being a large city, there are a number of homeless people around, and almost daily I see some of them who are caring for pet dogs.

I’ve always been amazed at how well-behaved and calm these dogs are. While I didn’t get a photo of him, just the other day I saw a man on the center median of a very busy 4 lane street with a sign asking for money. This person had a large dog that could have been anywhere from 1 to 5-years-old with him. Despite the busy traffic, and even a dog in a car stopped at the light barking at him, this dog was calmly sitting with his person, off-leash.

The love and devotion these people, who can scarcely take care of themselves, show to their pets is a

mazing. They make incredible sacrifices to keep their animals with them. There’s no way they can get into a shelter for the

night, and probably don’t use the number of dining rooms available to the homeless for meals.

But why are their dogs

so good? I seriously doubt that they can afford to hire dog trainers or take their dogs to class. I don’t see many of them reading books about training and behavior, and I’m willing to bet they aren’t spending their

time at the library surfing the internet looking for training tips. I wonder how many of these dogs actually know more than a few commands?

I think it boils down to the fact that these people have an absolutely consistent relationship with their animals. They aren’t receiving conflicting ad

vise on how to handle or care for their dogs. They seem to act on intuition. It’s that consistent relationship that creates the bond of trust between the dog and human. This is why these dogs are so calm. Of course it helps that the people are with their dogs pretty much 24/7, but having a calm and content animal doesn’t have to require decades of professional experience or a degree in animal behavior. Did some of these dogs come to these people with behavior issues? Since many of them had been strays themselves, I’m quite sure they did.

If your dog is having aggression issues, anxiety issues or just doesn’t seem calm or focused, don’t let anyone tell you that it’s a complex or complicated matter to correct. It doesn’t have to be, and often it isn’t.

T.M.I.

Too Much Information!

Last week I had a conversation with a new client on the telephone that is very similar to the type of call I receive countless times every month. This person had adopted a young adult dog a few months ago who was beginning to show aggression and protesting behavior to a degree that was causing genuine concern. They were already working with a trainer, but had started to get on the Internet to look for advice and other trainers when this trainer’s suggestions didn’t help. (In fact, he told me the dog had become progressively worse.)

In the mid 1990’s, two particular things happened that I feel effected dogs profoundly--their behavior and their people's behavior. The first change involved a new approach to dog training that was a complete opposite of what was then called “traditional” training. Through many circumstances, this also led to a proliferation of so-called “professional” dog trainers hanging out their shingle.

The second is that the Internet became much more user friendly, hitting a tipping point where the majority of households were online. People were able to post content easily and quickly, which began to lead to many, many trainers posting training --tips, advise, do’s and more often than not, don’ts--regardless of their experience.

In addition to working with a trainer, the client I was talking with had consulted many websites, and had spoken on the telephone with several trainers, each one contradicting the other. They would try a little of this, then a little of that, all without success.

I began my dog training career as a military dog trainer, and as a trainer of pet dogs in 1991. Back then, I can honestly tell you I never encountered the level of behavioral issues, specifically anxiety and aggression issues, that I run into today. In the early 90’s, you'd hardly ever hear about dog rescue groups having to deal with all of the surrendered dogs that are out there. (Most of which are surrendered because of behavior problems)

But the information revolution has happened, and there’s no shortage of advice, help or access to professionals who can help people with their dogs and their behavioral issues. I often wonder what the ratio of professional trainers to dogs is today, versus 20 years ago. You’d think I’d be seeing less behavioral issues instead not more, right? (This photo is of the books I found on the coffee table of a former client who consulted me after two dog trainers for her one-year-old dog’s aggression problems.)

In my opinion, based on many hours of coursework with some of the leading professionals in the business, (in fact, three of the four authors of those books, among others) as well as 19 years of personally working with an average of 100-150 difficult dogs and their families per year, (not to mention the hundreds of dogs that are trained each year by trainers that I’ve taught) I believe one of the leading causes of behavioral problems in dogs, including aggression, is inconsistency. With the wrong dog, this inconsistency can cause tremendous anxiety issues, which comes out in the form of aggression and other behavior issues.

(As an aside, I don’t believe in posting general dog training advise on the Internet. There are so many different dogs out there and so many different situations, I feel that there are just too many variables to be comfortable with someone following my advice when I haven’t had the chance to properly evaluate the dog, the family and the entire situation. What might work with one dog in one household and not work at all for the same dog in a different household.)

I’m convinced that the massive amount of (often conflicting) information that is now available to dog owners is one of the leading causes of this inconsistency, therefore a leading cause of the increase in behavior problems I see as a professional trainer. (One could continue down the slippery slope and say that this may cause the increase in surrenders, the dramatic increase of dog rescues, etc.,etc....) I'm also convinced that no dog training at all might be better for many dogs, as opposed to the wrong type of training.

Look at my past posts and you’ll see a recurring theme. When I work with older dogs, I'm often working with people after one, two, or even more trainers. Because of this, and my commitment to continuing to learn about other techniques and theories (whether I agree with them or not) I have developed a talent of being able to first help my clients in this position by understanding and processing the massive amount of information that’s out there, as well as the advice they've been given. I feel this is always the first step before I set up a situation to help them correct their dog’s issues in a permanent, life-long way, and I believe that this is one of the main reasons why I have had the type of success that I'd have over the years.

Some Prevention... Some Correction... and Some Perfection

This is Suna, Willow and Tanka.

Suna is the Lab in the rear. She is 14 years old, but going strong. Besides an early puppy class, she's never had much formal training and is by her people's account a nearly perfect dog. Aft

er meeting her, I agree. She is the type of dog that people I work with have who say to me, "Gosh, I've had dogs all my life and have never needed to hire a professional trainer".

Suna is Willow's aunt. Willow is 5 1/2 years old. She is also a great dog, but has a few issues like leash pulling, and pretty selective hearing when she's off leash. We are working to correct these things, and things are going great.

Willow is Tanka, the puppy's mom. Tanka is 5 years old. When I met him, he had already had some pretty good training, not only from his people and an early puppy class, but also from Suna and Willow.

Their people called me primarily to make sure Tanka doesn't run into some of the issues that Willow has, but since when I work with a family, I work with any of the dogs in the household that have issues, I'm helping with Willow as well.

When I met them, I noticed that at nearly 6 months, Tanka was beginning to develop some rivalry issues with Willow and their play was starting to become more aggressive. It wasn't anything to seriously worry about now, but Willow is a pretty strong willed and dominant dog, as is her son, and there could be potential for more serious issues down the road.

In a previous post, I mentioned that it's so much easier to prevent serious issues than it is to correct them down the road. We're early in our training, but Willow's leash pulling has already been eliminated, and her focus is improving. We're laying the groundwork for a reliable recall.

Tanka also continues to do well, and while he displays some of the stubborn behavior that is his personality, we're on the way to setting him on a course to be a wonderful dog for the rest of his life!

Sibling Rivalry Solved!

Bogie and Atty are Terrier mixes, and litter-mates, who, at one year old, began to have knock-down, drag-out fights with one another. The situation became so bad that on a few occasions they would bite their family members when they were trying to break them up. Atty caused an injury to Bogie once that was so severe that he had to be taken to the vet. Bogie also developed fear issues towards other dogs and would bark and carry on his walks at the sight or even hint of another dog. One of their biggest issues was the unpredictable nature of the fights. They would seemingly be okay for a bit, and then suddenly a huge fight would begin. (They also had typical behavior issues like jumping on guests, charging the door when company would come, leash pulling, etc, etc)

Their family consulted and worked with a trainer who could not achieve any positive results in their dog's behavior, (though they did learn to sit nicely for treats) and they were told that they would likely have to keep the dogs separated and managed for the rest of their lives. When I met the family, who live in the Peninsula area of the Bay Area (though I live in San Francisco, I work with dogs and their families throughout the Bay Area and beyond) their home was a maze of baby gates, and rotating dog schedules. They were on the verge of making the difficult decision of having to give up one or both of their dogs.

I don't take a "management" approach to training as you'll notice if you've read back in this blog. Many of my clients come to me after seeing other trainers or "behaviorists" and are given all kinds of creative tricks to manage their dogs inappropriate behavior, but are never given the tools to make changes. (Like the dog who would be aggressive at the front door… the "behaviorist's" solution was to tie the dog up across the room when they were expecting someone… now he couldn't charge the door anymore!) My first order of business with Bogie and Atty, was to take down the baby gates and give the humans their house back.

We set some boundaries for Atty and Bogie, and re-established some leadership roles in the family (I know, sounds "Cesar-ish"…. Sorry, I don't like sounding that way either…) while working on making Bogie and Atty's behavior completely predictable. Gradually, as Bogie and Atty began to respond to the training, and their family became more skilled at handling them, we began to trust them together more. At the same time, we began to work with them around other dogs, which had always been a problem. Over time, both dogs became comfortable not only each other, but with other dogs on their walks. Our last lesson, in-fact, was a pleasant walk (well, it was pretty windy) at Ft. Funston with both dogs greeting other dogs off-leash.

I received this photo and a note saying that "Bogie and Atty are great buddies now" in my email last night.

Now if this only worked with human sibling rivalry!

The Return of Gremlin!

I have been feeling guilty about not posting a new entry in a while. Just busy with work, some travel and family, but I received a nice email today from a family I worked with several years ago, and thought I'd post it here.


"Hi John!

We haven't been in touch for a really long time, but we think of you quite often. Gremlin, who is now almost 5 years old, would not still be with us if it weren't for you and how well you trained *us*. :-)

I think he was a year old when you first came and met him. He was afraid, aggressive, and a big challenge for us. Having people in our home was stressful because we hadn't established good communication with Gremlin.

We think of you often because Gremlin is so different now! We have learned so much from our life with him and he is such a happy guy. We have good communication with him: he listens well, follows commands and is so much more relaxed knowing where he fits into the family. He *loves* house guest and parties ... and friends who had encouraged us to get rid of him are now some of his best human friends.

Not every day is perfect, but we continue to learn that the calmer we are the calmer and more safe he feels. Max and Gremlin are inseparable as well. They watch out for each other, wrestle, play. It's so fun!



I've attached some very recent pictures. (One from our trip to the vet today.)






Thanks again. You have changed our lives and perspective on life in general.

We are forever grateful,

Heather, David, Max , & Gremlin"

EuroDogs

I just returned from a visit to my family in Holland. It was a whirlwind trip with every day filled with family visits, food, pubs, festivals and lots of fun! I miss everyone already..., my family and my friends, both old and new.

Holland is an extremely dog-friendly country, like most of Europe is, and every time I visit I can't help but be struck first by how many dogs are in the restaurants, pubs, train stations and just out on the street. And second, as a dog trainer, of course the next thing I notice is how well behaved all of these dogs are. In Amsterdam, an incredibly densely populated city where it seems you have to grow eyes in the back of your head to avoid being run over by either a car, tram or one of the thousands of speeding bicycles, I saw many dogs walking calmly with their people, sitting at café's or waiting on islands in the middle of the road for trams.

On my last visit I thought to myself, "wow, they must really have great dog trainers here to have such well-behaved dogs" and I looked in the phone book and online to find and talk to some of them, and amazingly I was only able to find a few. The most experienced one I located on that trip met me for coffee one afternoon and we shared stories about some of the dogs we work with. As we spoke on that trip a few years back, it became apparent to me rather quickly that the typical dog trainer in Holland didn't work with anywhere near the number or severity of behavior problems I work with here in the United States.

I shared with him a bit about my work here in the US and how most of my clients have worked with other trainers, and I talked about the specific training methods that I see used with these dogs before I meet them and it became apparent that the concept of "purely positive" dog training was one that hadn't caught on in Holland up to that point. Granted, this trainer employed a watered-down style of training similar to what I used to use in the military, similar to what you see "The Dog Whisperer" using on television, and one that I outgrew more than a decade ago, the approach the Dutch take with their dogs seems to work. Both on my last trip and this recent one, short of seeing a few dogs pulling on their leashes, I didn't see one aggressive dog, not one dog barking in the window at all the noise outside, not one dog barking at another, and not one dog in a café or in elsewhere in public misbehaving in any way.

Considering the fact that there are hardly any professional dog trainers in a city like Amsterdam, with a population of over 700,000, more than 25% less than San Francisco, where there are several dozen "professional" dog trainers, I think that the behavior of the dogs I observed speaks volumes to my developing theory that one of the issues we are having with our dogs here in this country is the massive amount of conflicting and often bad information that is widely available to dog owners. Most of my clients, when they come to me, have tried so many different approaches, and have been given so much conflicting advice, that both they and their dogs are completely confused. For a human being, this confusion and the resulting frustration is processed using tools developed since childhood, but for a dog, this confusion and the subsequent (though not intentional) inconsistency that it causes, creates incredible anxiety issues that often result in severe behavioral problems.

I've always maintained that while it's easiest for me to call myself a "dog trainer" when asked what I have been doing for a living for the past 20+ years, and while I do think it's necessary to teach a dog basic commands like "sit", "stay", "heel", and "come", what I really do is try to teach people a different way to relate to their dogs. Again, I differ from some of the personalities you see on television who often imply that you can't spoil your dog, and who advocate affection as the least important thing to show your dog. (In fact, I believe that it's the MOST important. What's the point of having a dog if you have to administer discipline and exercise before you can show them affection???) What I do is first help people digest the massive amount of information and misinformation they have been given about their animals, then teach them a consistent way to communicate with their animal in a way that their dog can understand, while also helping them correct their dogs behavior issues so that they can live more peaceful and calm lives together.

Each time I visit Holland and look into the culture of dog training in that country (or lack of it) I'm reminded of the importance of consistency, and the reward to both dog and human.

Matthew and Roxy's (Now) Excellent Adventures

This blog seems like as good a place as any for me to post some of the occasional emails I get like this one that came to me over the past weekend:

"Hi John.
Just wanted to let you know that the dogs are doing pretty good. Matthew has not gone after the neighborhood pitbulls since you were here last. And Roxy is doing better when we walk her. Tonight when we walked both of the dogs (we take them to the school yard and run with them and put them into their downs) she saw a dog she normally lunges at. She started to but Sean but her into a down and she calmed down. Then when she saw the same dog later she decided not to lunge. We're working on all of the other stuff too - Sean and I are really happy with their progress. I told him that we should probably get lots of your cards and hand them out on the night walk to all the dogs Roxy has harrassed in the past! . Thanks so much!"



Despite having gone through a few training programs with other trainers, Matthew and Roxy's neighborhood walks used to be quite the adventure. Their people usually had to walk them one at a time, and would have to always be on the look out for other dogs so they could cross the street or go the other way. Unfortunately, their aggression issues were never addressed and continued to get worse. We still have some work to do, however after just two sessions, it seems that they are well on their way to behavioral recovery!

I also look forward to participating in their progress!!!