How to Give a Dog a Pill

December 19, 2014 by Fanna Easter

Easiest Way to Give Your Dog a Pill

How to Give a Dog a Pill — It’s not that simple. Learn the easiest ways to give your dog a pill. tonodiaz/Deposit Photos

Oi, having a sick dog is the pits and then having to give pills several times a day — I feel your pain. Recently, Sobek (my Rottweiler) has been sick and his tummy issue has lingered for days. I’ve had plenty of time to test the easiest ways to give dogs pills and I want to share my success!

Hide the Pill

Make it fun with lots of rewards or pill-giving will be you and your dog’s worse nightmare. It’s best to hide pills in strong smelling soft food, which hides the smell and taste of pills. My fav pill-hiding foods are:

Peanut butter
Cream cheese

Both foods have a low liquid consistency so they easily mold around pills while still tasting really good! During the day, reward your dog with random fingerfulls of peanut butter without hidden medication. By giving pill-free rewards, you’re lessening the chance she will not smell or taste the pill. Teaching positive associations to peanut butter ensures eager swallowing of pills.

Keep Pills Out of Dog’s Meals

Keep pill giving separate from meals. You don’t want your dog to associate meals with pills. This can cause her not to eat meals. I usually give meds right before meals, as they’re hungry and will gobble down their hidden meds.

Oh Oh, She Tasted the Meds

Don’t freak out. Pick up the pill and take a 10-minute break. If you immediately try to hide the broken pill in something else, your dog will refuse it. He knows what you’re up to. 🙂 Bring her outside to potty and try again using another flavored pill hider, such as cream cheese or canned pumpkin. This time, take a large glop and bury the pill from view. As your dog eats the pill glop, reward with lots of praise. Badabing! You did it!

VIDEO: Easiest Way to Give Your Dog a Pill

READ NEXT: Understanding Dog Nutrition

Dog Handling: Teaching Your Dog to Say “Ah”

December 16, 2014 by Fanna Easter

Body Handling Exercises

Teaching Your Dog to Open His Mouth — Mouth exercises are important for good health and behavior. membio/Deposit Photos

Check your dog’s mouth and teeth a couple of times a week. You’re looking for plaque buildup or lodged foreign bodies. It’s important to teach dog body handling exercises early on so follow these quick tips on teaching your dog to say “ah”!

Using a clicker and yummy treats, remember to click and treat as you’re touching, lifting or opening. Practice for 1-2 minutes with breaks in between. Usually, steps 1-9 take 2 or 3 short sessions to teach. If at anytime, your dog refuses to open his mouth, go back to steps 1-5 for several training sessions.

Using your index finger, touch the side of your dog’s muzzle. Keep clicker away from your dog’s ear. If that’s not possible, use a verbal marker “yes” instead.
Lift the corner of your dog’s lip.
Lift the other corner of his lip.
Place your index finger in his mouth.
Pull back his lips for a second.
Place one hand across his muzzle (keeping your fingers away from his eyes and not applying any pressure).
Place hand under his muzzle.
Using both hands, open front of dog’s mouth. Click or say “yes” as you’re opening his mouth. Keep it short. Open, click, let go of mouth and treat.
Open mouth for half a second.
Extend duration (time) of mouth. Open slowly in small steps until your dog is comfortable for 2-3 seconds.
Add a cue: Before moving your hands to open his mouth, say “Mouth.” Then, proceed to open and take a peek inside!

Mouth Work Means Less “Mouthing” for Puppies Too

Mouth work (touching and massaging gums and muscles of the mouth) works wonders for mouthing or nipping puppies too! Plus, give it a go for easily excited adolescent dogs (ranging between 6-18 months old). You’ll be shocked at the calming results.

How does it work? Using T Touch (Tellington Touch Training), you’re teaching body awareness using calming touch work, which promotes relaxation. Puppies and adolescent dogs have a tough time calming themselves so any opportunity to teach self soothing is highly beneficial.

Points to remember:

Move slowly. Each tiny circle should take half a second to complete.
Use light pressure just enough to lightly move skin around. T Touch is different than massage. You’re not kneading muscles. You’re promoting relaxation and body awareness.
Teething puppies’ mouths are sore between 4-6 months. Instead try using T Touch around his neck and shoulders. Once all teeth have erupted, begin mouth work again.

Tellington TTouch Mouthwork for Dogs

Here’s a great video demonstrating T Touch for mouth work. Notice how slow and soft her hands move around the dog’s mouth?

Have you taught mouth work yet? If so, how did it go?

Using Treats to Train Your Dog

December 15, 2014 by Fanna Easter

Dog Training Treats Work

A common question from dog owners is if it’s possible to give too many treats during dog training. They’re concerned about treat dependency, digestive issues or the wrong message being delivered during training. Let’s chat about why treat training is so effective as well as when to give treats for maximum effectiveness.

Why Use Treats During Training?

Think of dog training treats as currency for your dog. It’s payment for a job well done. When training your dog a new behavior, it’s important to reward your dog often with clicks and treats. This teaches him what is expected.

Another way of explaining the power of dog treat training is using the child’s game of “Hot and Cold.” Clicking and treating means “hot” and silence (no clicks and treats) means “cold.” As a child, it was pretty frustrating when you heard “cold” for several minutes so you gave up. The game was too hard and you didn’t know what was expected.

If you’re still not convinced, think of each treat your dog eats as money deposited into a banking account. You’ll have withdrawals while your dog is learning, but you’ll hopefully have a nice cushion to prevent overdrafts. 🙂 Each treat given ensures your dog repeats good behavior and, honestly, it’s much easier to reward with a dog treat or two than chase him down the street for hours.

Plus, dog treat training is much faster. You can easily teach a new behavior in minutes!

RELATED: Can I Feed My Dog Eggs?

Dog Training Treat Myths

Digestive Issues

Usually, this is a concern during the first week of class. Many dog owners are convinced that too many dog treats will cause projectile diarrhea and vomiting. This is far from the truth. Training treats are tiny (pea sized), used during short training sessions (1-2 minutes) and cause minimal, if any, digestive upset.

It’s important to choose training treats your dog loves. Would you rather be paid with broccoli or cheesecake? It’s your choice and what you find rewarding. Personally, I would do back flips for cheesecake. 🙂

If digestive issues sneak up, change treats. If you’re using hot dogs, switch to turkey hot dogs, which contain less fat for sensitive tummies. For food allergy dogs, chop up and bake canned variety of their prescription food at 200 degrees for 30 minutes.

Treat Dependency

Contrary to what you may believe, training treats don’t teach your dog to only respond to treats. In all my 22 years of training, I have never encountered a treat dependent dog.

If a dog is dependent on treats, he probably doesn’t understand the cue (i.e. sit, down, come) or hasn’t been weaned from continuous reinforcement (i.e. clicks/treats every time he responds to a cue). Continuous treats (lots of clicks/treats) are used for teaching new behaviors, such as loose leash walking.

Let’s use the example of loose leash walking. Once your dog understands to walk on a loose leash on cue (lets go), start clicking/treating for perfect behavior. Instead of rewarding every two feet, start rewarding every five feet. Now reward as you give the cue (lets go). This teaches your dog to respond to the cue quickly. Finally, reward when your dog when he ignores distractions, such as an approaching dog.

What are your favorite dog training treats?

You may also like: Pros, Cons & Myths of Canned Dog Food

Stop Your Dog From Pulling on the Leash

December 12, 2014 by Fanna Easter

My Dog Pulls Like a Freight Train

How to Stop Dog From Pulling on Leash — Is this you? We can help!

Woot woot! Was that you whizzing by powered by a four-legged locomotive? If so, check out a few dog training secret tips to stop leash pulling plus they’re pretty easy!

Why Dogs Pull on Leash

Dogs pull because they want to move forward. It’s that simple. There is nothing dominant about leash pulling. They learned if they move forward, you’ll likely follow. I know, mind blowing, huh? 🙂

Stroking the Leash

Confused Puppy — A confused puppy pulling against pressure. Stroking the leash will work wonders!

This was pretty new to me so I gave it a try and was amazed at the results! TTouch was designed to work with animals by using touch and body awareness, which builds confidence and promotes self control (self soothing in stressful situations). The stroking the leash technique removes leash tension, which is extremely beneficial for all dogs. Stroking the leash perfectly describes the process. You’re rhythmically pulling the leash towards you using light pressure. Not only does this work for strong pulling dogs, it also is hugely beneficial for scared or shut down dogs who become frozen during scary situations.

Stroking the Lead – TTouch Tips

Take a peek at this video demonstrating how to stroke the lead of a distracted dog.

Teaching Collar Pressure

Dog Pulling — Perfect example of opposition reflex where the dog is pulling against pressure.

Sharing my home with larger dogs through the years, my go-to tip for teaching polite leash manners is teaching collar pressure. This technique works extremely well for teaching dogs to follow pressure instead of pulling against it (opposition reflex). Opposition reflex is an instinctual reaction to pressure. If I push against you, you’ll push back and you don’t want to fall over. It’s a natural and life saving response, but sometimes opposition reflex is interpreted as stubbornness or resistance, which is furthest from the truth.

It’s difficult to work against opposition reflex so let’s work with it! Instead of continuing to pull against your dog, apply a bit of pressure and wait for your dog to release his pressure, then click/treat! When applying pressure, lightly pull your dog’s collar towards you. Applied pressure is enough to engage opposition reflex, but not enough to move the dog. Always click and treat when your dog releases the pressure.

Dog Training Tip: Teaching Collar Pressure

During this video, I demonstrate how to apply collar pressure for a large and small dog with and without distractions.

Say goodbye to your freight train and hello to polite leash manners! Have you tried teaching collar pressure or stroking the lead yet?

Dog Socialization Tips

December 12, 2014 by Fanna Easter

Socializing Dogs

Dog Socialization — Follow your dog’s lead. Walk away if he’s uncomfortable.

Pet parents are bombarded with: “You’re a terrible owner if you don’t allow your dog to greet other dogs,” “The socialization window closes before 16 weeks so hurry and meet as many dogs as possible,” “Dogs must meet 100 new dogs before a certain age” statements. These statements are valid, but it’s important to add limitations and boundaries first. Follow these dog socializing tips and be their voice.

What is Socialization?

Socialization means puppies and dogs learn how to interact within their worlds. Socialization is vital. Each interaction must be tailored to your dog’s personality with the purpose of teaching him how to interact within his world with confidence.

Greeting: Engage and Disengage

Greeting means a dog walks directly over to another dog with the purpose of engagement. During socialization, puppies and dogs are learning how to politely meet (engage) and end (disengage) greetings. Not all dogs are polite greeters. They can be downright rude by invading space, staring or being too rough. This is where disengaging becomes tricky. It’s kind of hard to move away from a rude greeter while on leash so some dogs will resort to threatening behaviors to make the rude dog go away. Now, your confused disengager learns threats work and is the normal way to disengage.

Living with a Gregarious Greeter

Beagle — “Hello! I’m uber friendly!” Note soft eyes, open mouth and slight panting moving forward.

Not all dogs are comfortable meeting your gregarious greeter. Always stop 15 feet away and ask first. It’s the polite thing to do. If the other dog looks uncomfortable or scared, walk away quickly. Sticking around will make it much worse.

Think of it from a human perspective: Do you shake hands with everyone shopping at the grocery store? “Hi, I see you’re buying grapefruits today. My name is Fanna,” “Hi, those pork chops are lovely. My name is Fanna” or “Oh I buy that type of toilet paper too! My name is Fanna.” Could you imagine?! You would think I was nuts, right? But what if I followed you down an aisle saying, “But I want to meet you. My name is Fanna!” Creepy, especially for people not comfortable greeting strangers!

Instead, while shopping at the grocery store, we make eye contact with a stranger, smile, nod and continue walking past him. When walking past, provide plenty of room by turning sideways, walking down a different aisle or politely allowing a stranger to walk past you because it’s human etiquette. This works in the dog world too! 🙂

My Dog is a Wallflower

Scared Dog — “Stay away, please!” He’s not sure. Hence, the backwards lean (away from you), mouth closed (no panting), still body and wide eyes.

If your dog finds greeting other dogs stressful, it’s okay. All dogs are individuals. Some are introverts while others are extroverts just like people. An introverted person (withdrawn from strangers) finds attending parties with lots of people torturous. Remember, people are able to control their outcomes. Dogs can’t unless their pet parents notice their uncomfortable behavior around strange dogs or people.

When a dog is forced to meet another dog, scuffles or fights often break out because one dog is not comfortable meeting another dog and tries to disengage using threats. Note, it only takes one scary incident for a dog to become terrified of other dogs. Then the vicious cycle begins. Well meaning pet owners forcibly socialize their newly terrified dogs to fix the aggressive issue, which only makes it worse. Pet owners say, “My dog was really good with other dogs before. So he must need more socialization, right?” This will only make the problem worse.

Never introduce a known aggressive dog to another dog, as this is a recipe for disaster. Socializing known “dog aggressive” dogs will not make your dog better. It will make him much worse. He’s practicing this behavior and we all know practice makes perfect. Plus, there’s a really good chance the other dog, now having a terrible experience, is afraid of other dogs too.

Instead, enroll newly terrified and dog aggressive dogs in a Relaxed Rover class or contact a professional dog trainer or animal behaviorist. By partnering with a professional, your dog will learn confidence around other dogs while developing skills to engage and disengage greetings without resorting to threats. Shoot, all dogs will benefit from learning these skills. 🙂

Socialization with Boundaries

Anxiety in Dogs — “Can we leave? I’m not comfortable.” Note leaning away from you, holding one foot up, ears pulled down and back and worried eyes.

Tip One: Follow your puppy’s or dog’s lead. If he’s not comfortable meeting another dog, walk away (before they greet). You’re teaching polite disengaging behavior by saying “hi” from a distance and politely walking away (remember the nod at the grocery store).

Tip Two: Enroll your puppy in Positive Puppy Manners class and Puppy Playtime after his first puppy vaccination series with a professional dog trainer. If your puppy chooses not to play with other puppies, it’s okay. He probably enjoys human contact more than puppy play.

Allow your dog to choose his friends. Sometimes, dogs and puppies love to play with certain dogs like your neighbor’s or sister’s dog, but he’s not comfortable playing with other dogs. That’s okay too. Personally, I have a tiny group of friends while my sister has unlimited friends, and we came from the same litter. 🙂

Tip Three: When accidentally meeting another dog on leash, allow them to briefly greet for two seconds, then walk away. You’re interrupting the greeting to keep it positive and teaching polite disengaging behaviors. By keeping greetings short with strange dogs, it prevents rude behavior from sneaking up.

Tip Four: If a person and his dog are making a beeline towards your dog, say, “We’re training, sorry,” and step away, turn around or cross the street. Trust me, you’re not being rude by moving away from the approaching pair. You’re speaking up for your dog and he thanks you. 🙂 As for the beelining dog and person, they’re learning that not all dogs should meet, which is a good thing!

I know this is a controversial topic and you can never go wrong by following your dog’s lead. Always socialize, but put a few boundaries in place first. 🙂