How To Teach Dogs To Trim Their Own Back Nails

June 30, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Trimming a Dog’s Back Nails

Dog Nail Trimming Tips — Mikkel Bigandt/Adobe Stock

Trimming a dog’s nails can be difficult, especially if your dog hates nail trims. Holding your dog down to trim his nails only makes him hate dog nail trimming even more, and eventually he’ll learn to bite. There’s an easier way to keep your dog’s nails trimmed, and you don’t even have to touch your dog’s nails!

Trimming Back Nails

Instead of trimming a dog’s nails, teach him to grind back his own nails. You’ll need pea-sized treats, a concrete surface and your dog. Sit outside, preferably on the ground, and toss treats along your driveway.

Now, there’s an art to tossing treats for maximum back nail grinding. Instead of throwing treats up high, toss them along the concrete surface—almost like skipping a rock across a lake. Listen carefully as your dog scampers across the rough surface; you should hear his nails scraping along the concrete. If not, grab really good treats (e.g. cheese chunks) and toss about 3-4 feet away from you. Once your dog learns to run after a treat, slowly increase the distance.

Keep sessions short, about 3-4 minutes, but practice every other day to shorten nails quicker. Running and chasing treats for a long distance can cause paw damage because your dog is using his paw pads to stop himself, so keep the total distance traveled under 6 feet.

Watch your dog’s paw pads during this process to ensure he’s not rubbing his paw pads raw, and only play this game on cool concrete.

WATCH: How to Teach a Dog To Trim His Own Back Toenails

Trimming Front Nails

For front nails, teach your dog to scratch his nails against a sandpaper-covered board. Dogs get really good at this behavior so much so they can scratch their nails bloody. For details and a video demonstrating this behavior, check out this article on DIY dog nails.

Keep dog training sessions short, about 2-3 minutes per day, and practice every other day. Once your dog’s front nails are shorter, it will take a day for the quick to recede back a bit, so your dog won’t bleed.

WATCH: Trimming Dog Nails With a Scratchboard

https://youtu.be/XXx8HTT2has

Put down those nail trimmers, and teach your dog to trim his own nails instead!

Helping Dogs That Become Stressed When Guests Visit

June 26, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Greetings for Stressed Dogs

Dog Afraid of Guests — nukul2533/Adobe Stock

It’s uncomfortable and awkward meeting new people. Both parties are unsure how to greet the other person respectively. One person may try shaking a hand while another opens his arms for a hug. This awkward greeting results in everyone standing stiffly and trying to think of common topics to ensure no one feels awkward. If a person is easily stressed, then meeting new people can be downright frightening.

Well, this applies to dogs too! Some dogs are afraid of guests and will start barking or become aggressive. Instead of asking guests to pet your dog, try this dog-friendly greeting instead.

Treat & Retreat

When guests enter your home, it’s best if they completely ignore your dog. Ignoring means no making eye contact with, walking toward, touching or petting your dog. Dogs should be allowed to approach a person in their own time if they even decide to approach. Allow a dog to make her own choices.

If your dog gets stressed when guests come over, and the ignoring tactic is causing a barking frenzy, try playing “treat and retreat.” Ask a guest to stand still; I find asking him to stand against a kitchen island works best because it prevents him from wandering around.

With your guest standing sideways toward your dog, ask him to toss treats behind your dog. It doesn’t matter where the treats land as long as your dog is able to turn away from the guest and eat the treat. Then, your dog can decide whether or not she’ll get closer to or look at your guest for more treats.

Rules of the Game

Now, there are strict rules for this dog game. This game is all about choices, and it’s your dog’s choice to walk closer to or look at the person. A guest should not advance toward the dog—ever. Guests can reward your dog for taking steps closer to him, but continue having them toss treats behind your dog.

Never drop treats close to a person and expect your dog to creep up for treats. This never works. If a guest has a difficult time following these guidelines, even with your helpful reminders, then it’s best to choose another guest to play this game.

Start playing this game in a controlled environment with one person for a few minutes, then put your dog in a safe room with a food stuffed Kong. This is hard work for your dog, so she must have breaks. Once your dog is safely relaxing in another room with soft music playing, you can sit back, relax and enjoy your guest’s company.

Add another person only when your dog is comfortable approaching a new single person. Start slow with one person sitting down while the other person tosses treats. Then, they can switch. After a few minutes, put your dog in her safe room with a food stuffed toy.

What Your Dog is Learning

Pairing good things with something works. The perfect example of this is our patience in long lines for a Starbucks drink. 🙂 This game teaches dogs that good things happen around people and provides them choices.

Choices are powerful and are just as rewarding as food treats for dogs. Dogs learn how to greet people politely without charging toward and barking at them. Plus, they learn to disengage and turn around during stressful situations instead of lunging and biting. When a dog chooses to disengage, reward her profusely!

Getting Help

Sometimes dogs need help, so please contact a positive reinforcement dog trainer who is experienced with fearful and anxious dogs. If needed, contact a veterinary behaviorist too, as he will have a wealth of information.

WATCH: Greetings for Stressed Dogs

How The Delta Air Lines Incident Could Have Been Prevented

June 21, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Man Attacked By Emotional Support Dog

Emotional Support Dog Attacks Passenger — bychykhin/Adobe Stock

On June 4, an emotional support dog attacked an Alabama man inside a Delta Air Lines plane prior to takeoff.

When Mr. Jackson boarded the plane to take his assigned seat, he found Mr. Mundy sitting in the middle seat with his 4-year-old chocolate lab-pointer mix on his lap. Immediately after Jackson took his window seat, the emotional support dog started growling at him.

Shortly after, the approximately 50-pound dog lunged at Jackson and started biting his face. Mundy, a military service member, tried to pull his emotional support animal off from Jackson, but failed. Jackson received severe lacerations and 28 stitches.

Mundy was re-assigned to another flight, but with his emotional support animal in the kennel that time.

Why This is So Tragic

This incident could’ve been prevented. However, with loose emotional support animal laws and regulations, it’s easier said than done.

Service Dogs vs. Emotional Support Animals

Service dogs and emotional support animals are completely different. It’s so important to land this point. Service dogs are specifically trained to perform a function for a person with a disability. Emotional support dogs have minimal training.

Honestly, the level of training emotional support dogs have are equivalent to everyday pets living with their family. Many pet owners enroll their dogs as fake emotional support animals online so they can fly with their dogs on a plane at no cost.

Mundy’s dog should have never been put in that situation. He wasn’t trained for it. Dogs bite when they’re scared, and obviously that situation was too stressful for this dog.

Usually, airlines place service and emotional support dogs in the first row, so a large dog has room to lie down and move around. Allowing a 50-lb lab-pointer mix to sit in his pet owner’s lap during a flight is ludicrous. But who is to blame? We don’t know the full details yet.

Airlines

Let’s look at this situation from an airline’s perspective. They were following the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) pertaining to service dogs. These laws are very strict, but there’s a huge gray area that is not discussed in the ADA regulations—and that’s emotional support animals.

Until emotional support dogs are addressed, airlines will continue to assume all dogs are fully trained to follow service dog requirements. As a result, service and emotional support animals, regardless of size, are allowed to fly on a plane unconfined for free.

Military Service Member

Many veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and bring a service dog into their homes for comfort and to perform specific tasks. It’s unknown why this military service member was assigned or purchased an emotional support dog, but I’m sure there’s a reason.

So many veterans become extremely attached to their new canine friend because there’s no judgment—just pure unconditional love. Folks with disabilities tend to purchase service dogs and emotional support animals for $20,000 per dog, which is usually fund-raised.

Unfortunately, there’s no training standard for an emotional support animal, so it’s a potluck what type of training each dog receives. Most reputable service dog organizations have a long waiting line for dogs while minimally trained dogs are always available (which is a red flag). Unless you’re in the dog training industry, it’s easy to believe slick marketing claims. Without a doubt, Mundy will fear for his emotional support dog’s fate when lawsuits ensue.

The Gap: Dog Trainer?

Nothing was mentioned about the dog trainer or organization that trained this service member’s emotional support dog. Maybe this dog never received formal training at all, or was trained by a novice dog trainer. As a professional dog trainer, I’m not blaming the dog trainer by any means, but I seriously wonder why a dog was put into this situation if he wasn’t ready.

What You Can Do

If you need an emotional support animal, only acquire a highly trained dog from a reputable organization. Refrain from training your own emotional support dog because it’s impossible. Only experienced service dog trainers are able to equip both pet owner and dog for extreme situations that are common for emotional support dogs.

What Every Dog Owner Should Know

June 19, 2017 by Fanna Easter

7 Things Dogs Want You to Know

If dogs could speak, this is what they would tell their pet owners. As a professional dog trainer with more than two decades of experience, I often explain these concepts to pet owners every day during consultations. Before you continue reading, throw away your perceived notions of how dogs should think and behave and remember they are dogs. These are 7 things dogs want you to know. 🙂

1. I’m an Individual

Regardless of breed, every dog is an individual. While dog breeds can determine some characteristics, it’s not always a given. Many times, pet owners will have shared their homes with a specific breed for years that they become shocked when their new chosen breed behaves differently than their previous dogs.

During dog training consults, I hear, “He’s not like my last _____ (fill in the blank with a breed). He’s totally different.” That’s because each dog is an individual, and require different needs to be met. Never assume every German Shepherd Dog will be the same. Some may be friendly, others nervous and a few completely lazy. Similar to humans, dogs have their own personalities.

2. I Don’t Want to Meet Every Dog

Please hear this request, and honor it because it’s true. Not every dog wants to meet other dogs or people. Your dog would rather walk away and ignore the other dog than walk over and meet her. Do you greet everyone at the grocery store? I think not, and it should be the same for your dog.

Never drag your dog over and force her to meet other dogs. This is a recipe for disaster. Eventually, your dog will learn to act aggressively to stop you from forcing her to meet other dogs—and that’s a tough dog behavior to change.

3. I Like Choices

Choices are just as rewarding as food treats for dogs, and this applies to people too. Using positive reinforcement dog training to reward your dog for good choices is powerful and an extremely successful dog training technique.

Dogs hate force, yelling and physical corrections because they’re scary and confusing. I mean, do you like them? Your dog feels the same way too. How do you provide your dog more choices? Reward good behavior and redirect unwanted behavior.

4. I Can Bite

Every dog can bite—even small dogs. While small dogs may leave a smaller bite, it’s still dangerous behavior. All breeds of dogs, even mixed breeds, are capable of biting when they’re pushed too far. If someone is pushing, pulling, teasing or hitting you, then you have the right to defend yourself, right?

Dogs are not toys. They have teeth, and will defend themselves when pushed. Never allow anyone, including children, to pester dogs until they’re forced to defend themselves because it won’t end well.

RELATED: Dogs and Children

5. I’m Not Spiteful

Studies have proven that dogs don’t feel spite. They’re not trying to punish you for leaving them home alone by chewing on your favorite shoes. Dogs chew your shoes because they were available to chew, and made of super soft leather, which is fun to chew. Dogs potty on rugs because they need to potty, or haven’t been taught to potty outside. Throw spite and vengeance away.

6. I Don’t Come With a Manual

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Puppies and dogs are not pre-programmed with polite manners, and they certainly don’t come with a manual. If you want a well-behaved puppy, you should enroll her into a puppy group class and basic manners group class. Just like children, pet owners must teach puppies and dogs polite manners. There’s a saying in the dog training industry: Don’t complain, train. 🙂

7. When I’m Scared, Back Me Up

Everyone gets scared, including dogs. While dogs may look a bit different when they’re scared, always back up your dog’s choice. If your dog is fearful of a situation, leave the area immediately. When a person or dog is bullying your dog, speak up and say something. Dogs know and appreciate when their pet owners listen to their needs instead of fitting into social situations. When in doubt, leave. Your dog will love you for it!

What You’ll Need To Fly With A Small Dog In-Cabin

June 9, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Flying With a Small Dog In-Cabin

When traveling, it’s nice to bring your small dog along for the adventure. But before flying with a small dog in-cabin, there’s a bit of planning that should be done at least two months prior to your flight. If you plan to fly with a small dog, such as a puppy, follow these tips before boarding the plane.

Airline-Approved Pet Carrier

Two to three months before purchasing flight tickets, you should check each airline’s pet policies. Ensure your dog meets size and weight restrictions to fly, then purchase an airline-approved small dog carrier that you can bring with you on the plane.

A dog should be able to lie down, stand up and rest comfortably inside a small dog carrier. If the pet carrier is too small, you will be turned away during check-in, so double-check beforehand.

In the past, I’ve had excellent results with Sherpa and SleepyPod pet carriers, and both are airline-approved. Just to be safe, contact the airline directly and ask if these brands or the carrier brand of your choice meets the airline’s pet carrier restrictions.

Dog Training Skills

For a safe and stress-free flight, it’s important to teach your dog a few valuable skills. Even small dogs flying inside the cabin should learn a few dog training skills before a flight. It’s not very pleasant traveling with a barking dog on a plane filled with strangers. Check out these tips on teaching a dog to enjoy flying.

Health Certificate

Depending on where you’re traveling, your dog may need a health certificate from a veterinarian. You should get your dog’s health certificate either 30 days or 5 days before a flight, depending on an individual airline’s restrictions. A health certificate verifies your dog is in good health and is up-to-date on vaccinations before traveling. Bring the original health certificate that is signed by your veterinarian to the airport.

Items to Bring

You should always have the following on hand and in easy access when traveling with your dog, especially inside the cabin:

Veterinary health certificate
Six-foot leash (no retractable leashes)
Plastic water bowl
Bottle of water
Snacks
Paper towels

Your dog should wear a collar with up-to-date ID tags, and have an updated microchip. Several canine pheromone brands sell pheromone-scented towelettes, which are lightweight and super easy to transport. Grab a few and tuck into your purse or bag. Pheromones will keep your dog calm during a bumpy flight, so lightly wipe inside your dog’s carrier.

What You Should Not Do

Flying with a small dogs in-cabin is becoming increasingly popular. So much so airlines are complaining about inappropriate pet owner and dog behavior. Here are a few reminders, so please plan ahead.

No Fake Service Dogs: Please don’t register your dog as a service dog unless he or she has been specifically trained. Airplanes are packed with fake service dogs lately, and it’s causing quite a commotion due to passenger complaints. If you fly with your dog (non-service dog), follow polices and procedures for all pets and not service dogs.

Never Walk Your Dog Through the Airport: Keep your dog inside his or her carrier. Walking your leashed dog through an airport is asking for trouble. Airports are packed with people moving really fast, and small dogs can easily become injured by suitcase wheels and shoes. I recently witnessed a small dog bite a child while walking past her in a super busy airport.

Keep Your Dog Inside the Carrier During the Flight: Per airline restrictions require dogs to be inside their carriers at all times. If your dog becomes sick, pick up the pet carrier and bring it inside the bathroom. From there, you can remove your dog to clean up any mess.

Plan ahead, teach your dog valuable skills and safe travels!