Multiple Dog Household Tips

September 22, 2014 by Fanna Easter

How to Manage a Multi-Dog Household

Do you live with two or more dogs? Are you fostering or pet sitting? I have fabulous multiple dog household tips for you! And yes, it’s possible to expect polite dog behavior even if you have a furry gang.

As a dog trainer, my home has fluctuated having between 2-4 dogs for the last 20 years. While each dog and situation is different, there are a few really good best practices to follow. Here are mine!

Provide each dog with his own area for eating

Preferably, it’s best to feed dogs in their crates with the door closed and latched. While some dogs may not have an issue, some dogs can resource guard (protect their food bowls) so an ounce of prevention is worth its weight in gold!

Don’t allow bullying behavior

If one dog is constantly bullying, scaring or pushing another dog around, don’t allow this to continue or let the dogs work it out amongst themselves. This almost always makes the behavior much worse. Instead, step in and teach dogs how to behave politely to each other. I recommend tethering the bullying dog. It’s not fair to the bullied dog, as I would not want to live with a bully for my entire life.

RELATED: Supervised Dog Tethering

Leaving dogs alone at home: When leaving dogs alone, always crate your dogs.

Leaving one dog loose: My older dog usually earns big girl privileges, which means she can safely be left loose in the house. I always crate my other dogs. Basically, only one dog is left loose in the home while the others are confined. When dogs are crated, I put visual barriers between crates to prevent any arguing when I’m not home. Visual barriers can be a wall or blanket covering one side of a dog’s crate.
Prevention: As a dog trainer, I’ve encountered numerous situations where multiple dogs can co-exist peacefully alone and loose in their home until a thunderstorm or doorbell (usually from the FedEx, UPS or solicitor) causes stress and they begin to fight. I remember one case where three dogs lived together for 5 years with no issues. Then a terrible storm passed through and two dogs killed the other one (no one was home to stop the fight). Yes, it can happen. Remember that ounce of prevention. 🙂

Training multiple dogs is much easier than you think!

Separating: When teaching new behaviors, I use treats and a clicker. To prevent one dog from outperforming the other dog, I confine one dog in another room with a luscious food stuffed toy. Then, the training dog and I practice for 2-3 minutes. Then, dogs are switched out until all dogs have had a few rounds of training.
Training together: The dog that sits first gets the treat and the dog that comes back to me the fastest gets the treat. Or, the best treat goes to the first performer, and the others get Cheerios. If you have an older dog, it’s not fair to assume a 12-year-old dog can outperform a 2-year-old dog so keep it fair. If dogs fight over treats, use praise and only train one dog at a time.

Exercising two dogs

First, teach both dogs how to walk politely on a leash separately. Use this time for training sessions and end it with a nice leisurely walk offering plenty of sniffing opportunities for your dog. Until your dogs learn polite leash manners, make sure each dog has his own handler so each dog has a different person holding his leash. Example: two dogs are walked with two people and so forth.
If your dogs become too excited and turn their over-the-top excitement on each other (start fighting), keep them separated by walking one dog at a time. Never allow this behavior to continue, it will only get worse. Focus on teaching the excited dog calm behavior. Once the excited dog learns calm behavior, then add the other dogs but only with their own handlers to hold the leash. If the excited dog has an excited moment, the other handlers should move away from the excited dog.

RELATED: Crate Training

Play sessions: Keep these under control

Even the best play sessions can become chaotic. Have you ever watched two young boys innocently wrestling? Eventually, one boy becomes upset because he was accidentally hurt, then a fight begins. This can happen with dogs too!

Too rough play: When dogs’ play session quickens or an increase of growls and snapping occur, split dogs up. You can stop dog play by making a loud repeating sound, such as smooching sounds, or calling dogs by their names. When they stop playing, call them to you and give them both treats. As a rule of thumb, when in doubt, split them up. 🙂
Bullying dog play: When one dog runs away from the other dog usually with his tail tucked, stop the play. It’s not fair to the scared dog to be constantly bullied by another dog. Tether the dog that is doing the bullying. He needs to learn this is not polite behavior and good things end when he acts rude. If you don’t step in, you are asking for a dog fight. This is a perfect time to teach consequences of behavior. If you’re rude, no more play. If you play nicely, play continues. And yes, dogs totally understand this game. 🙂
If a fight breaks out: Refrain from screaming, as this will only make it worse. Dump a bowl of water on the dog doing the biting or grab the biting dog’s back legs (by the hocks) and leave them up — kind of like a wheelbarrow — until the biting dog lets go. By lifting his back legs, he loses his balance and must let go. Still holding the dog’s back legs, grab the dog being bit and put him in another room to assess and stop the fight. Many times, if you let go of the biting dog’s legs, he will go right back and attack the other dog. It takes a lot for another dog to attack and bite a dog so I highly recommend contacting an animal behaviorist to prevent the biting dog from doing this again.

Provide each dog with his own special time with you

Provide each dog with special time alone with you. This can be individual training sessions or a walk in the park with you and one dog. Strive for individual time three to four times a week.

Toys

Now, I’m able to leave toys out at all times. Before, my four dogs would fight over who can play with certain toys. It was not pretty.

Fighting over toys: While I know you don’t want to hear this, but this is the only way to prevent fights: remove all toys. Toys are not worth having fighting dogs period. Instead, increase daily walks to 30 minutes per day and provide food puzzles while crated.
Offer food stuffed toys daily while all dogs are confined: This provides plenty of enrichment and confinement prevents fights. Use visual barriers between crates, as this prevents resource guarding. Yes, dogs can still resource guard when crated. My Rottie never ate the food out of his Kong toy. I videotaped him when I left and my Bull Terrier would growl and lunge at him through her crate, mind you, whenever he tried to lick his Kong. I was mortified! I put visual barriers in between both crates and now my Rottie enjoys his food stuffed Kong. 🙂 Yes, I confirmed it with multiple video sessions and I still check to make sure this does not happen again.

Please share a multi-dog household tip in the comment section below!

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Medical Modalities for Dogs

September 19, 2014 by Fanna Easter

Four Drug-Free Treatments

Dog Medicine — Four drug-free treatments for dogs.

Our motto is “we share because we care,” and I thought it was pretty important to “shelf” dog training for a nano-minute (very big grin) and share the latest information about dog health. I want to take a moment and discuss newer and successful medical modalities, which I’ve personally witnessed work and had loads of research supporting their reliability and effectiveness.

While the mentioned modalities may not necessarily cure your dog’s illness, they can certainly relieve pain, increase recovery and boost your dog’s immunity to continue fighting. Plus, pet insurance will cover these modalities! Not sure if your pet insurance will? Contact them to find out. My pet insurance covers 90% of these treatments. 🙂

Disclaimer: If your dog is sick, please seek immediate veterinary treatment. This article brings awareness to newer treatments. Always partner with your veterinarian. He is very open-minded. 🙂

1. Chiropractic Care

If your dog is moving stiffly, limping a bit or competing in any type of dog sport, a chiropractic adjustment may be just what your pooch needs. Chiropractic adjustments are a drug free hands-on procedure that adjusts joints back into place. When joints are out of place, the body responds by tightening muscles around the injury, which forms somewhat of a cast. This is the body trying to heal itself. When this cast forms, this causes your dog to move stiffly, if at all. Once a dog is realigned, chiropractics will continue to adjust along the dog’s body, which stops muscle spams and releases the cast around the previous injury. There are two types of animal chiropractors: a veterinarian who has completed additional training in chiropractic care and a doctor of chiropractic who primarily works with people, yet has completed additional training to understand animal structure. Cost ranges from $50-$150 per session. I usually pay $65 in the Nashville, Tennessee, area.

2. Acupuncture

This is an ancient procedure of inserting tiny needles along meridian points of the body, which relieves certain ailments, depending on which meridian is targeted. Acupuncture can relieve pain and nausea, decrease pain, increase healing for injuries and is extremely beneficial for dogs that are just feeling “off.” Personally, I’ve witnessed the power of acupuncture with Armond, my Bouvier, that is undergoing chemothreapy treatment for bone cancer. Armond refused to eat after a chemo session. It was going on for 10 days. My vet performed acupuncture and within 2 minutes, he wolfed down two cans of dog food. To say I was shocked is an understatement. I’ve always been a huge skeptic, but not any longer! Veterinarians must complete additional training to become certified in animal acupuncture, and dogs tolerate the needles extremely well. Usually, dogs will take a deep sigh and relax. It’s pretty cool to watch. Costs are usually $60-$100 per session. I usually pay $65 or $75 per session, depending on the targeted treatment.

3. Essential Oil Therapy

This is a newer treatment, which is gaining momentum in the veterinary world fast. Essential oils prevent bacteria and viruses from growing or continuing to grow in the body, plus they contain healing properties to help fight illnesses. Why not give your dog’s body a boost to fight infections, viruses, cancer or whatever disease your dog is currently fighting? There are many brands of essential oils. However, it’s best to do your research first and choose someone who has extensive knowledge on which oils are beneficial for your dog. Surprisingly, veterinarians are jumping on board so I would start there first. As dogs are living longer, many vet facilities are offering hospice, which incorporates essential oils to relieve pain and boost a dog’s defenses. Personally, I’ve not used essential oils on my dogs yet, but I’ve had great success when fighting reoccurring sinus infections. And I’m going to try using lavender during dog training classes, as some dogs are pretty stressed. From my understanding, place two drops of lavender in your hands, rub together, and then rub along the sides of your dog’s face and chest. I can’t wait to try it out! Cost is usually a vet’s office exam and cost of oils.

4. Laser Treatment

Cold laser treatment has become much more popular. I was first introduced to it about 8 years ago. My older Bouvier (12-years-old) had a luxuriating patella (moving kneecap) and laser treatments reduced inflammation and relieved pain so much so, she would act like a 2-year-old again. Laser treatment is a drug free option with proven results for decreasing healing times and decreasing pain. Even for spay or neuter incisions, they heal twice as fast! Sessions are usually 10-20 minutes long, and your dog lays on a mat while the vet moves the laser over your dog’s problem area. After a few minutes, most dogs take a deep sigh and relax. My dogs will close their eyes also. 🙂 Ask your vet about laser treatments, especially for older dogs (helps relieve arthritis pain). Cost is usually $30-$50 per session. Some vets offer multiple sessions at steep discounts.

How have these medical modalities affected your dog’s health? It’s so important to share what we know. 🙂

READ ALSO: Why You Should Get Pet Insurance

Dog Hospice

September 4, 2014 by Fanna Easter

Hospice for Dogs

Veterinarians are listening and adding hospice and palliative care to their services. These services are a great way to provide comfort for older, chronically ill or terminally ill dogs and their grief stricken pet parents.

Hospice and Palliative Care

Hospice care focuses on terminal illness and comforting a patient, not necessarily curing a patient. Palliative care focuses on treatments for chronic illnesses, such as cancer, Cushings Disease, kidney and heart disease with specialists, and the process can begin after a diagnosis. When facing chronic disease, it’s important to look at the big picture and try different modalities, such as essential oils and acupuncture, which can boost the immune system to continue fighting. Make sure you have a veterinarian to guide you in the right direction.

Dr. Denise Mankin DVM, emergency veterinarian at Iowa Veterinary Specialties, says, “We hope to aid our aging pets toward happier lives as they move into old age, with the potential for greater mobility, less pain, so their families can have more quality time with their beloved pets, with less use of the pharmaceuticals which may cause side effects.” Dr. Denise’s team will offer Hospice and Palliative Care at Iowa Veterinary Specialties soon, which “utilizes acupuncture and essential oils to address medical concerns of our furry friends as they age.” Bravo Dr. Denise!

When should dogs enter hospice or palliative care?

This is a personal decision between you and your vet, and it’s wonderful to have additional options now. If you’re worried about costs, rest assured most pet insurance companies will cover hospice and palliative care. Be sure to take a look at your dog’s policy.

After a diagnosis of a chronic disease, your vet can refer you to a palliative care center. Having a special focus on palliative care opens new doors with additional treatment plans most general veterinary practices are unable to offer, as they are busy seeing everyday patients.

If, unfortunately, your dog’s chronic illness becomes terminal, your dog can enter hospice.

Finding hospice care for dogs

While most veterinarians offer end of life care, ask your vet for a referral to a veterinarian whom specializes in hospice or palliative care. As a pet parent, you will have lots of questions about pain control, diet, exercise, immunity, personality changes and the dreaded decision — when is it time to let him go. Hospice and palliative care veterinary specialists can evaluate your dog’s needs, create a plan of care which controls symptoms while providing the best quality of life for your fuzzy one.

Not only will your dog be in the best hands possible so will you. We tend to forget about ourselves during this terrible process. We try so hard to be brave and do what’s best for our beloved ones until they pass away, then we fall apart. We need support too from someone who understands the process and can provide answers to heal our hearts. We need closure. As a pet parent, I’ve struggled to find support. In the past, I’ve reached out to my dog friends, but painful past memories of losing their fuzzy ones flood their minds, so they are at a loss for words.

Hospice and palliative care provides opportunities to surround yourself with experts and other pet parents going through this very difficult time. It’s amazing how quickly you can bond in a veterinary waiting room. I’ve been there!

I look forward to hospice and palliative care growing in the veterinary field. This can only mean good things for our pets and hearts. I wish with my entire being that this existed many years ago. Maybe I would not have so many scars on my heart. I miss my past dogs with every fiber of my soul.

It’s your turn. What do you think about hospice and palliative care for our precious dogs and cats?

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Separation Anxiety in Dogs

September 2, 2014 by Fanna Easter

Preventing & Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs

Is your dog barking due to separation anxiety (SA)? Learn how to identify and prevent dog separation anxiety, and how to seek professional help if needed.

What is Separation Anxiety?

Separation anxiety occurs when a dog has a panic attack when left home alone. It’s like your dog freaks out and can’t control his terror or panic. He’s terrified to be left alone.

Dogs with mild separation anxiety usually pant heavily, vocalize, spin in their crates or at the back door when they’re left alone. Moderate to severe SA dogs will self-mutilate themselves trying to escape, such as ripping out their teeth or crashing through glass windows in an effort to escape.

Identifying Separation Anxiety

As a professional dog trainer, I can usually spot dogs predisposed to separation anxiety. It’s almost like they’re super sensitive and feel things at a deeper level than most dogs. Lovingly, I refer to them as “velcro dogs,” as dogs with separation anxiety are always by your side and looking into your soul. 🙂

Most dogs with anxiety follow you from room to room, watch over you while taking a shower or bath (I think they’re making sure you don’t drown), scream in excitement when you come home and crawl in your lap when you’re sad.

While most dogs will bark and whine when they’re alone, especially when left in a crate, it’s important to differentiate between a dog that isn’t crate trained and a dog with separation anxiety.

When in doubt, revisit “Crate Training Tips” to brush up on your crate training skills. If after putting those dog training tips in practice and your dog still stresses out, then you need to seek professional help from animal behaviorists.

Still not sure if your dog has separation anxiety? Record your dog when left alone.

If you don’t have a dog monitor camera, use Skype or FaceTime.

How to Prevent Separation Anxiety in Dogs

Our behavior is critical to preventing and managing separation anxiety in dogs. Many times, pet parents reward separation anxiety behaviors because it’s really reinforcing us to be unconditionally loving and we don’t want to upset our velcro dog.

Trust me, I totally understand the feeling and emotion when coming home to your dog. He celebrates with unbridled enthusiasm and vocalizes as if his heart is full again. He’s thinking, “You’re home!” Be careful though. It’s not fair to your dog when you reinforce his excitement for your arrival. He needs to learn coping skills when left alone.

Make leaving uneventful
- Give your dog a yummy food stuffed toy about 5 minutes before leaving.
- Get your car keys, say nothing to your dog and leave.
Make your return uneventful
- The moment you step into the door, ignore your dog. Trust me, I know it’s hard! Not only are you preventing SA, you’re teaching your dog not to jump on you.
- Set your keys down and then take your dog out to potty.
- Once he potties, then reward your dog, but keep celebrations to a minimum. No more happy dances. 🙂

Teach your dog that alone time is good
- When taking a shower:
  - Give your dog a food stuffed toy.
  - Close the bathroom door to separate you and your dog.
  - When opening the door, don’t celebrate.
- When leaving for 5-10 minutes:
  - Get the mail alone every other day.
  - Work in the yard alone for 10 minutes, then bring your dog out to enjoy yard work.
- Close a door between you and your dog for a few minutes every day to teach your dog how to be alone.

Additional Valuable Tips

Exercise your dog or puppy daily. Most tired dogs will sleep when left alone.
Pair yummy food stuffed toys with leaving. This redirects his attention rather than worry about being left alone.
Turn on calming music for dogs. Personally, I use and recommend Through A Dog’s Ear CDs or downloads. They’re very relaxing—even for me. 🙂
Invest in pheromone plugins or sprays. These emit pheromones mimicking a nursing mother dog and have proven very effective with dog separation anxiety cases.

Yes, in the past and currently, I share my home with SA dogs with variable degrees of anxiety. It’s a tough road, but with professional help, this can be successfully managed and your dog can learn to be alone.

When Separation Anxiety is Serious

If your dog displays moderate-to-severe separation anxiety symptoms, you need professional help.

Your dog’s behavior will only worsen. It won’t resolve itself, and your dog won’t get over it. I’ve witnessed dogs de-gloving their ears trying to escape from their crates. One client’s dog amputated his own tail, trying to escape his home when left alone. It can get that serious.

What are your questions about separation anxiety? I’m listening!

Request Dog Barking

August 26, 2014 by Fanna Easter

How to Stop a Dog From Barking

Does your dog wake you up at 5 a.m. for breakfast? Or remind you it’s time to eat at 5 p.m.? Ah, this is “request barking” at its finest!

Request barking is pretty close to “attention seeking barking” except a few minor tweaks when teaching dogs to stop barking.

This is pretty easy to fix. You’ll just need patience. 🙂

Dogs thrive on schedules. They are pretty dependent on us so having a set schedule predicts when they will potty, eat and when you arrive home. Funny how dogs will wake up from a nap at exactly 5 p.m. because their person is due to arrive!

Let’s get back to your dog breathing in your face at 5 a.m. on Saturday asking for breakfast. 🙂

Try this:

o When your dog tries to wake you up, ignore him.

o Turn over and go back to sleep. Cover your head — whatever it takes to disengage from your dog. I know it’s hard to ignore a dog demanding breakfast, but this is the first step to teaching him to sleep in.

o Once your dog ignores you and lays down, sit up, put your feet on the ground, bring him potty and serve his breakfast. Now, I know you’re thinking you’ve just rewarded your dog by feeding him at 5 a.m., but actually you rewarded quiet behavior instead.

o Now practice every morning. Slowly add duration, meaning wait until your dog is quiet and it’s later than 5 a.m.

Start to finish, this usually takes two weeks to teach so hang in there. 🙂

What if my dog never stops barking?

If your dog has practiced request barking for a long time, the barking will get worse before it gets better. We call it extinction bursts, and they are very normal. 🙂

Think of it this way:

Your dog barks.
You ignore your dog.
Dog barks louder and longer. Maybe you did not hear him bark the first time (very big grin!).

Whatever you do, continue to ignore your dog. Even when barking worsens, your dog will think, “I need to scream for 10 minutes while standing 2 inches from my owner’s nose. Then, he can hear me.” Your dog is learning that any type of vocalization does not work. When the dog is quiet, then you’ll wake up and feed him.

If you live in an apartment or townhouse, begin the training process by sleeping in a room furthest away from your neighbor. Once your dog understands “quiet” means “breakfast,” then move back to your main bedroom. This really helps for extinction bursts. Again, this usually takes a maximum of two weeks to teach your dog.

Dog Barking Constantly to Go Outside

If you’re potty training a puppy, then acknowledge his request and bring him outside on a leash. Once he potties, he earns playtime in the yard so unsnap the leash.

However, if your adult dog is constantly asking to go outside, attach a leash and walk outside. Once he potties, then take off his leash so he has plenty of yard playtime.

If once you bring your dog indoors and requests to go back out, ignore him. If you’re not sure if your dog needs to potty, put him on a set schedule so he will predict when he will potty again.

Personally, my dogs have a specific cue to tell them they need to potty. Stella Mae, a mini Bull Terrier, decided to use her “potty alert” over and over again because this means I’ll open the door. After the third “potty alert,” I caught on real quick and ignored her requests. It took a few days, but she now knows this no longer works. 😀

Bark back! I’m listening! Any questions about request barking please add in the comment section below.

More:
Dog Barking – Finding the Trigger
Dog Barking at Sounds
How to Stop a Barking Dog
Attention Seeking Barking
Barking When Excited

Multiple Dog Household Tips

How to Manage a Multi-Dog Household

Provide each dog with his own area for eating

Don’t allow bullying behavior

Leaving dogs alone at home: When leaving dogs alone, always crate your dogs.