Flying With A Large Dog? We’ll Help You Prepare

June 7, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Tips for Flying With a Large Dog

Many decades ago, we were living in a foreign country for several years. When it came time to move back to the U.S., we knew we wanted to bring our dogs back with us. One was a Rottweiler and the other was a German Shepherd Dog.

While it was challenging importing dogs into the U.S., knowing my dogs were traveling as checked baggage freaked me out even more. For the most part, airline travel is safe for dogs, but there are a few precautions every pet owner should follow before flying with a large dog.

Consider the Weather

Airlines have strict pet restrictions now due to previous accidents or deaths from traveling pets, unfortunately. One such restriction is weather. Many airlines won’t fly dogs over or under certain temperatures since they will be kept in the storage area of the plane.

While a plane’s storage area is pressurized, tarmacs are extremely hot during the summer and frigid during the winter. Depending on your destination and current location, choose a cooler time to fly with a large dog. As an example, fly to the southern states during winter and northern states during early spring or fall. Before scheduling a flight with your dog, check for pet weather restrictions by contacting the airline directly.

Wait, Your Dog’s Nose!

Many airlines won’t transport brachycephalic dogs because they react to extreme temperatures and pressure changes very quickly. Dogs with short muzzles and pushed-in noses have narrower nostrils and very large plates, which makes breathing during hot or cold temperatures more difficult.

Pugs, Boxers, Shih Tzus, Bulldogs, Pekingese, Boston Terriers and French Bulldogs are a few brachycephalic dog breeds. Before scheduling a flight, make sure your chosen airline will transport your dog as checked baggage. Be honest about your dog’s breed and anatomy because you and your brachycephalic dog will be turned away during check-in.

Purchase an Airline-Approved Pet Carrier

Make sure you have an airline-approved pet carrier for your dog. Because your large dog is flying as checked baggage, you’ll need a sturdy, plastic carrier with bolted sides.

For the most part, Petmate Vari-Kennels are approved by most major airlines. These dog carriers contain the necessary food and water dishes, and has “live animal” stickers for the sides and top of your dog’s crate.

The dog carrier you choose should be spacious enough for your dog to stand up and lie down comfortably. Check out this article on choosing a crate for your dog, but always verify airline regulations first. Of course, you can add bedding inside the carrier too to make it a little more comfortable for your dog.

Teach Your Dog A Few Skills

Remember the first time you flew on a plane? It was stressful, right? It will be for your dog as well. About two months before your flight, teach your dog to love his crate and how to load up inside his crate quickly. For more skills, check out these dog training tips.

Bring Your Dog’s Health Certificate

Before a dog can board a plane, he must have a health certificate from a veterinarian. Depending on your chosen airline’s requirements, most health certificates must be completed 30 days to 5 days before a dog’s flight.

Health certificates verify a dog is in good health and is up-to-date on vaccinations during his examination. You’ll need the original copy during check-in and you’ll most likely need to tape it to the top of your dog’s carrier, depending on the airline.

Items You’ll Need

It’s important to bring:

Six-foot nylon leash (no retractable leashes)
Ziplock bag of dog food
Bottle of water
Duct tape
Health certificate
Poop bags

Attach a flat buckle collar with ID tags to your dog, but remember to remove them once he’s securely crated in his carrier. Ensure your dog is microchipped too.

Place “live animal” and arrow stickers on your dog’s carrier as instructed. Then, spray a calming pheromone on your dog’s bedding and provide a few toys from home. This will help keep your dog calm.

It’s best not to sedate your dog before a flight, as many dogs have had horrible reactions. Training your dog to love his crate and taking extra steps and precautions will ensure he has an uneventful flight.

Finally, when you arrive on the plane, ask a flight attendant to verify your dog has been boarded.

Sit back and relax. Safe travels to you both!

Before Flying With A Dog, Teach These Skills

June 5, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Dog Training Tips for Flying With a Dog

For a safe and stress-free flight with your dog, it’s important to teach your dog a few valuable skills before boarding an airplane. All dogs should know these behaviors before taking off in a jet plane regardless if they’re riding in the cabin or as checked baggage (in belly of the plane).

As a reminder, resist purchasing fake service dog certificates and vests. These “special” permits are not fooling anyone. Plus, airlines are cracking down on fake services dogs, so follow pet airline travel restrictions and teach your dog to enjoy riding in an airplane. 🙂

Crate Training

First, teach your dog that her airline pet carrier is a wonderful place to be, so she happily walks into it on the day of your flight. You’ll also want to train your dog to comfortably rest in her carrier for an extended amount of time. Check out this article for crate training tips.

Introduce Movement

Once your dog enjoys relaxing in her crate, it’s time to introduce movement.

With your dog inside her pet carrier, take a stroll through your neighborhood and reward her for remaining quiet. Vary your walking pace too, as sometimes we’re rushed at airports. Then, slip a few yummy treats inside when she happily remains still.

If you’re traveling with larger dogs, place your large dog’s crate inside your car. Now, load your dog into his crate, close the door and toss a few treats inside. Drive around your neighborhood, on the highway and around curving roads. Start slowly, then add additional distance, so your dog gets used to movement in his crate.

Simulate Airplane Sounds

As if being in an airport isn’t stressful enough, it’s very loud and the sound of jet engines is absolutely ear-piercing. All of this could be very distracting to your dog, so it’s recommended to positively introduce your dog to these weird sounds weeks before a flight.

For small dogs, bring your dog into your laundry room when clothes are drying. While inside the laundry room, play a few games of “touch.” (Of course, your dog should know how to play “touch” prior to this exercise.) Once she’s comfortable with the dryer noise, place her inside her pet carrier in the laundry room. Continue to practice for a few days.

Finally, set your dryer on low without any clothes inside and place your dog inside her carrier on top of the dryer. The bouncing and noise of a running dryer will feel like a plane ride. Reward generously throughout the entire process.

For large dogs, you can simulate the flying experience using this method too, but you might have a little trouble getting your dog into her carrier on top of the dryer. 🙂

Friendly Behavior

The last tip before flying with a dog is to teach your dog to be friendly. This means your dog isn’t barking at people, walks politely on leash, and can be easily picked up and carried.

Security areas are packed with noise and people. If you have a small dog, you’ll be walking through scanners together. Many bystanders might ask to pet your dog, so it’s vital your dog responds appropriately.

While large dogs don’t walk through main security gates, they will walk into the check-in area of an airport. This place is buzzing with people, rolling suitcases and, at times, hot tempers. From there, your dog will get inside her crate and be wheeled off by an airline employee. You’ll want to ensure your large dog is friendly at all times.

Safe Travels!

4 Dog Training Cues Every Dog Should Know

June 2, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Teach Your Dog These Basic Dog Training Cues

All dogs should learn a series of basic dog training cues to keep them safe while having fun. Most puppy group classes teach these important behaviors, but dogs are never too old to learn these training cues either.

Grab your clicker, super yummy treats and your dog. Practice daily for 1-2 minutes to ensure your dog’s behaviors are sharp. In addition, practicing these cues will provide your dog lots of mental enrichment, which is a good thing.

1. Touch

Touch is such a simple dog behavior that can be used anywhere and for anything; it’s my favorite cue for all dogs. Dogs love this behavior too because it’s easy and super fun.

Teach your dog to touch his nose to the palm of your hand when your hand is presented. There’s no verbal cue. Instead, your hand becomes the signal to play the “touch” game. Once your dog understands to purposefully touch his nose to the palm of your hand, move your hand farther away, so your dog walks over and touches.

This dog game can be played quickly or slowly, and can be played at your vet’s office, in the car, at the park or on the sofa. Touch is extremely useful when teaching loose leash walking and coming when called too.

2. Come When Called

Training a dog to return back to you on cue is invaluable. This training cue prevents dogs from running off and getting lost, chasing things, fence fighting, and so much more.

Start by playing this game indoors and use high value rewards. Every time your dog returns back to you, throw a party! Once your dog reliably returns to you indoors, it’s time to take this game outdoors and make it fun.

Try running away from your dog while rapidly repeating high-pitched sounds to prompt your dog to chase you indoors. When your dog returns to you, make treats rain from the sky. If you’re more interesting than the squirrel, your dog will return back every time.

3. Body Handling

All dogs should learn that body handling is super rewarding. Teach your dog that you touching his ears, paws, tail and belly make treats appear. Once your dog is comfortable with body handling, meaning he doesn’t pull away while you’re touching a body part, reward for longer sessions.

Start slow and click your dog when he comfortably allows you to touch and look into his ear for a second. Gradually increase the time by 1-2 second increments. Reward your dog for mouth handling too, which is a great introduction to tooth brushing. Don’t forget your dog’s rear end too! Click and treat when lifting your dog’s tail, touching his belly and touching his rear paws.

4. Leave It

The “leave it” behavior can be used anywhere too. Train your dog to ignore discarded chicken bones during walks, dropped food in the kitchen or another dog in the distance. “Leave it” is an amazing impulse control game too. Your dog will soon learn that his behavior really matters. Reward this behavior heavily and keep it light and fun.

UP NEXT: Does Positive Reinforcement Dog Training Really Work?

Help! My Dog Doesn’t Like Me

May 30, 2017 by Fanna Easter

10 Things Humans Do That Dogs Hate

Dogs do speak; they just don’t necessarily verbalize it all of the time. For some, reading dog body language is like solving a puzzle, but it’s not as hard as it seems. Dogs will make it clear when they don’t like something, and it’s our job as responsible dog owners to determine when something is wrong.

Also, if your dog doesn’t like something, please stop doing the behavior. This is how most dog bites occur. Here’s a list of 1o things humans do that dogs hate.

1. Forcing Our Dogs to Meet Strange Dogs

Dogs enjoy greeting strange dogs, right? Wrong. As a dog trainer, I’m called in to pick up the pieces after a dog greeting another dog has gone wrong. Nine out of 10 dogs are completely uncomfortable with dog-to-dog greetings whether you’re at the farmers market, pet store or even dog park.

Unfortunately, many pet owners are too busy chatting on their phones, selecting the best tomatoes or picking out a toy for their dogs to notice. When dogs are uncomfortable meeting other dogs, they:

Shrink back
Flip their ears backwards
Tuck their tail
Growl
Snap
Lunge

Instead, you should maintain at least 6 feet away from other dogs and listen to your dog’s body language. When in doubt, just don’t do it.

2. Skipping Sniffing Opportunities

After polling pet owners about daily dog walks, more than 50% feel powerwalking for a specific distance meets the criteria for a successful dog walk. There’s one huge piece missing though, and that’s allowing their dogs sniffing opportunities.

Dogs perceive the world through their noses, so make sure your dog has plenty of time to sniff blades of grass, tree trunks and bushes. When dogs sniff, they’re reading “pee mail” where squirrels had hunted for nuts, bunny trails and so very much more. Dogs will briefly sniff usually no longer than one minute unless something alive is hiding in that spot, and then they move along to the next sniffing spot.

Bring treats along during each walk to reward your dog for the “leave it” cue, especially when your dog finds chewed up gum or discarded bones. Sniffing provides plenty of mental stimulation for your dog and it exhausts him too, so let him sniff away.

3. Putting Our Faces in Our Dogs’ Face

Dogs enjoy close contact with humans, but they feel most comfortable when they can choose the distance. Humans get close—like really close to their dogs’ face. We enjoy showing affection by putting our face right in our dog’s face to snuggle or give kisses. However, this is way too close for most dogs.

Now, I’m not saying dogs dislike face contact. Some dogs will reach in and kiss our faces, but face contact should be your dog’s choice. You can tell when your dog isn’t comfortable with your face being next to his face when he:

Turns away
Yawns
Pulls away
Flips his ears backwards
Licks his lips
Freezes
Growls
Walks off

Listen to your dog, and remember most dog bites happen to faces because humans like to stick their faces too close. Give your dog the choice to make face contact instead.

4. Staring

It’s the same with humans; staring is one of those things dogs hate and find rude. While humans stare lovingly into their dog’s eyes, dogs hate it. Refrain from staring at your dog, especially during dog training sessions. Instead, focus on your dog’s chin or chest.

Also, spend a few moments teaching your dog that eye contact is rewarding by teaching the “look at me” cue. If you find yourself gazing into your dog’s darling face, and he looks away from you, then understand your dog finds staring very uncomfortable.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]And bringing another dog into the mix, so your lonely outdoor dog has a friend, is still cruel.[/perfectpullquote]

5. Secluding Our Dogs

Permanently banishing dogs to the backyard, another room or garage is cruel. Dogs enjoy lounging next to their humans—either in the same room or right next to their feet. Dogs are domesticated, meaning they need contact from humans and other pets.

Dogs are not lawn ornaments. And bringing another dog into the mix, so your lonely outdoor dog has a friend, is still cruel. Bring your dog indoors, and teach him polite manners, so he’s able to happily co-exist with his people. 🙂

6. Moving Straight Toward Them

Dogs hate when people walk straight toward them. They find it annoying. Instead of making a beeline toward a dog with outstretched hands, bend down and turn sideways. Keep your hands at your side, and ignore the dog. Allow dogs to make choices. Understand that dogs will run toward their pet owners, but they may also choose to ignore strangers and other dogs. Support a dog’s choice.

7. Repeating Cues

“Sit, sit, sit, sit. I said sit, no…SIT.” This is annoying to read. Imagine hearing this sound happening over and over again. When pet owners repeat cues, it sounds like you’re nagging, which never works. Instead, say a cue once. If your dog doesn’t respond instantly, she may not really know the cue (or understand the cue in that situation).

8. Pushing & Pulling

Pushing or pulling a dog into a behavior or giving physical corrections is beyond annoying to dogs. Plus, it can scare dogs, causing them to bite. If we can train zoo animals using force-free methods, we can certainly teach dogs polite behaviors without pushing or pulling. Choose force-free training, please.

9. Assuming Dogs are Guilty

Nope, dogs do not feel guilt nor spite. When pet owners yell at their dogs, it’s important to understand their dogs are not leaving the situation due to guilt. Rather, their dogs are scared.

10. Being Pestered by Children

When children constantly touch, pet, poke, harass or play with a dog, it’s exhausting. All dogs deserve a quiet place to get away from all the hustle and bustle. Children should learn not to pester dogs. Plus, children should never sit, lie down or stand on a dog. The same goes for forcing kisses and hugs. Dogs don’t like it.

Solutions To Common Dog Training Mistakes

May 24, 2017 by Fanna Easter

Don’t Make These Dog Training Mistakes Again

Everyone makes dog training mistakes; it’s part of the learning process. When mistakes happen, it’s important to recognize and learn from them and leave frustration at the door. If you’re making these common mistakes in dog training, give these simple solutions a try!

Mistake #1: Ego Getting in the Way

Solution: Record Your Sessions

Human egos can quickly interfere a dog training session. When pet owners justify that their choices were right and their dogs were wrong, that’s ego creeping in. Justification rears its ugly head when pet owners blame their dogs for certain choices when actually their dogs didn’t know what else to do instead.

It’s hard to hear it, but the human ego is part of each dog training mistake made. As humans, we assume we’re right and our dogs are “just not getting it.” Instead of assuming, look at each dog training session from the perspective of a learner.

Still not convinced? Record your dog training sessions using a dog camera and review afterwards. Are your instructions clear to you? If you’re still not convinced, mute the video and ask a truthful friend what behavior you’re teaching in the video. If you nor someone else aren’t sure, then your dog certainly isn’t either.

Mistake #2: Touching Your Dog

Solution: Use a Clicker and Treats

Humans are very tactile, resulting in numerous mistakes during dog training sessions. When teaching new dog training behaviors, refrain from touching, pushing, pulling or forcing a dog into a behavior. Physically reaching out and touching dogs get in the way.

Use a hands off approach via clicker and treats instead. At first, it might be difficult using new dog training techniques because you’re learning something new, but it’s so worth it. (Remember, your dog is learning to adapt to this training technique as well!)

Hands off dog training means no physical or verbal corrections either. Remove your dog’s leash when practicing behaviors in your home. If your dog disengages, then you need better treats or your dog will become completely confused. For dog training sessions outdoors, attach your dog’s leash to a body harness instead of a collar. This prevents collar corrections.

Taking a hands off approach to training your dog will boost your dog’s success. Quickly reward any of your dog’s attempts toward the desired behavior. As a rule, you should be rewarding more than withholding treats.

If your dog makes a mistake—remember, it’s part of the learning process—just withhold a treat. Take a break and rethink your training plan, and keep your ego in check please.

Mistake #3: Using Low Value Treats

Solution: Use Treats Your Dog Loves

Dog training treats are your dog’s paycheck, so pay him or her extremely well. Using treats during training is not bribery; it’s far from it. Rewarding good behaviors with yummy treats works, and it works super fast. High value treats include chopped up hot dogs, baked chicken, cheese cubes or anything your dog absolutely adores. Using a high value treat will make training your dog so much easier because your dog wants to earn it.

Mistake #4: Using Huge Cheese Chunks

Solution: Break Treats Into Small Pieces

Break training treats into small pieces. Pea-sized treats work best for all dogs. Clicking and tossing pea-sized treats ensures excitement during training, and sessions move quickly with lots of success.

While it’s tempting to toss a huge cheese chunk every time, it’s actually slowing down the process. Dogs take forever to eat a cheese chunk (well, most do), and they’ll fill up on the treat fast. There’s nothing wrong with tossing a cheese chunk, but use it strategically.

Save large cheese chunks for breakthrough moments, such as your dog responding to a cue for the first time, ignoring another dog or coming when called.

Mistake #5: Making Assumptions

Solution: Practice the Behavior

Again, the human ego is the cause of this common dog training mistake. Pet owners assume things too quickly, and will justify why their dogs should know a cue. Do the following sound familiar?

“But he’s done this behavior before.”
“He knows how to do this.”
“She’s ignoring me.”
“She knows better.”
“He’s choosing not to listen to me.”
“This is the first time this has happened.”

This is justification. Instead of assuming and justifying, teach your dog the behavior. 🙂

Dogs ignore a cue for two reasons: 1) They’ve never practiced the behavior in a specific situation before (e.g. a squirrel runs in front of them) or 2) They’re confused. So many times, pet owners convince themselves that canine confusion doesn’t exist, and their dogs should know the behavior.

Yes, human ego rears its ugly head again. Practice a behavior in a myriad of situations, including an environment where a squirrel runs in front of your dog. Always remember, dogs are a living soul, not a robot, so understand they may not respond every time.

Happy Training!