How to Help a Dog Cope After Divorce

July 24, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Divorce Dog Anxiety

It’s a Sad Time For Dogs Too

Dogs and Divorce — bit245/Deposit Photos

Divorces are brutal. They’re emotionally charged and cause massive disruptions within a family unit, including the family dog. Recently, a friend of mine went through a long divorce and was forced to move out and find a new home. The only things she had left were her clothes, some furniture and her beloved dog. So the process began for both of them, and even though my friend held her poker face firmly in place, her heart broke for her dog’s mourning.

Expect Your Dog to Mourn

Trust me, dogs know when disturbances ripple through a family. If a family member and her dog are forced to move, expect her dog to mourn. Similar to you, dogs have lost loved ones, such as other house pets, so this is their first time truly left alone.

As with humans, dogs enjoy predictability of daily routines and living within a familiar surrounding, so they need time to adjust. During the first week, your dog will become clingy. He wants to sit or sleep very close to you–you’re the one constant during this unfamiliar time. Indulge your dog’s needs and, honestly, you probably need your dog’s unconditional love right now too.

Huddle together, and you will weather the storm.

It Will Get Better

Keep Up the Normal Routine

Try to keep your dog’s daily routine as normal as possible and spend a bit of time playing and exploring the new yard and going for long walks daily. Take this time to enjoy your dog’s company with games of fetch or tug. This will keep you both occupied as time heals wounds.

Provide Your Dog With Food Toys

Start with leaving your dog home alone for short periods of time, such as leaving him to take a shower with the door closed while he chews on a bully stick. After a day or two, leave your dog inside, chewing on food stuffed toys while you mow the yard or work on a project in another room. You’re still there, but your dog is not velcroed to you. Plus, he’s learning that alone time is kind of fun with peanut butter stuffed toys.

Leave the House for an Hour

After a few days, run errands for an hour or so. It’s time your dog learns to enjoy being along while you are truly away from home. Don’t forget to give your dog something to do while you’re gone, so he’s not panicking. A nice long walk before you leave always helps too.

To drown out unfamiliar noise, play soft classical music in the background. Check out these tips for separation anxiety, which can promote confidence during this difficult time.

Postpone Bringing a New Dog Home

Many dog owners think it’s a good idea to adopt another dog, so your mourning dog has a friend. Before bringing home a new dog, it’s important to consider if you have enough time to care for two dogs. About 50 percent of the time, mourning dogs react negatively to a new dog in the household–they’ve already had enough disruption for now. Also, it’s not fair to the new dog since he’ll need adjustment time too and walking into an emotional situation can be scary. Wait until your dog has grieved, and then consider adding another dog when you’re both ready.

Within a couple of weeks, you’ll notice the twinkle return to your dog’s eye. This means you’re almost over the hurdle. There may be a few hiccups along the way, but you now have solutions to address them.

If It Doesn’t Get Better

Sometimes, it doesn’t get better. If your dog panics when left alone and tries to harm himself, seek guidance from a veterinary animal behaviorist. While your local veterinarian may offer some guidance, vet behaviorists are the experts in the field and can certainly help quickly.

If progress is moving slowly, but your dog is not panicking, there are a few calming supplements that can help along the journey. Always consult your veterinarian first, especially if your dog takes other medication.

We are cheering for both of you! There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Confessions of a Dog Owner: I’m Not Getting the Most Out of Class

July 22, 2015 by Fanna Easter

How to Get the Most Out of Your Dog Training Class

Dog Training Classes — amadeys/Deposit Photos

Committing to weekly group class sessions can be challenging, but it’s worth it. Make each class session count. It’s all about time management sprinkled with preparation and a dash of understanding your environment.

Arrive Early

Plan on arriving early, meaning you’re parking at the dog training center 10 minutes before class begins. This extra time cushion provides time for gathering treats, finding your clicker or giving your dog a quick potty break. Five minutes before class, find a corner spot inside and set all your stuff down so you are both ready for class to start.

If your dog is nervous about classes, arriving early provides extra adjustment time before other excited dogs begin filing in. For easily excited dogs, arriving early keeps your dog calm because you’re not rushing or piling in with the masses.

Bring Plenty of High Value Treats

Yes! The night before class, select and chop up high value treats into pea-sized portions. Plan on bringing 50-100 tiny treats per class session. It seems like too many treats, but usually it amounts to one cheese stick or hotdog if portioned correctly. If there’s extra treats after class, let your dog race the treat bag on the drive home or freeze large amounts of leftovers for next week’s class.

Running out of treats during class will halt your progress. Either you stand still and watch others practice or you’re running into the retail area purchasing more treats. Either way, you’ve wasted at least five to 10 minutes. This usually happens during demonstration time (i.e. the dog trainer provides feedback while you practice), which is a crucial part of the learning process for you and your dog.

If you’re busy, try this time-saving tip: Place cut-up treats in a plastic bag and keep refrigerated. When running home to pick up your dog, grab the plastic bag and shove in your bait bag or purse. Keep an extra clicker in the car along with extra poop bags, as clickers always go missing it seems (maybe they’re hiding with all those missing socks). Voila, you’re all set!

RELATED: Choosing Dog Training Treats

Keep Your Distance

By arriving early, you can choose your spot before others arrive. Usually, corner spots work best for easily distracted or nervous dogs. Corner spots allow more wiggle room, so you’re able to control distance between other dogs and handlers. Distance is important, especially during the learning process, because it ensures your dog focuses on you until he learns polite behaviors. When in doubt, take a few steps back from other teams, and keep and maintain a three- to five-feet bubble from others.

Ask Questions If Confused

The worst thing you could do is leave class confused and frustrated. Usually, this happens during lecture time when the dog trainer is explaining how to teach your dog a new behavior. If you’re confused, raise your hand and say so politely. More than likely, you’re not the only one.

If you’re confused, the dog trainer didn’t explain correctly. Yes, it’s true. A dog trainer’s (teacher) job is to explain how to teach dog behaviors effectively so all dog owners (students) understand how to teach their dogs. Remember this when your dog (student) becomes confused because you (teacher) may need to explain it differently too. 🙂

RELATED: Is Your Dog Confused?

As a dog trainer, I’m constantly interpreting your body language and checking in, so I can usually tell if you’re confused. There are moments when I’ve misread the group and everyone is doing their own things. That’s my fault. If I spot several confused expressions or someone staring into space, it’s my job as a dog trainer to stop and figure out how to explain it better. When new behaviors go seamlessly, I pat myself on the back.

Stay After With Questions

If you’re still confused, stay after class and ask more questions. Usually a third of the dog training class stays afterwards with questions pertaining to the session or behaviors at home, so be prepared to wait. Sometimes, a few seconds of one-on-one with a dog trainer answers your questions immediately.

If you’re pressed for time, plan to email your questions within 24 hours. Quickly emailing questions ensures you remember valuable details, which is important to understand the situation. Email is hard to interpret sometimes, but hopefully your dog trainer is able to send links to answer your questions and provide further research on specific topics.

Practice at Home

Practicing at home is very important! Ninety percent of behavior issues happen at home, so practicing within your environment is vital. Post homework sheets in a visible area, such as the refrigerator, and read thoroughly.

Set aside five minutes per day for practicing. Keep dog training sessions short (one to two minutes) and practice throughout the day. Another good thing about practicing at home is you can control distractions, which is not the case at the dog training center. 🙂

The secret to teaching foolproof behaviors is teaching and practicing at home, so you can polish them during group class!

Happy training!

Dog Breed of the Week: Great Dane

July 21, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Meet the Great Dane

The Great Dane is elegantly compiled of great size and power. So much so, they are known as the “Apollo” of dogs. Great Danes descend from Mastiffs like most breeds of dogs, which is not surprising due to their large size and short coat. They were bred for boar hunting in Germany and are known as “Deutsche Dogge” in their native country, which loosely translates to “german mastiff.” Great Danes are a member of the Working Group through the American Kennel Club (AKC). Instead of hunting, the Great Dane’s function is mainly serving as a companion.

General Characteristics and Temperament

This powerful dog usually stands at least 30” tall. Males typically stand at 32” or more while females stand at least 30” or more. Males weigh in at 130-180 lbs and females at about 110-150 lbs. They’re by no means a small dog.

Great Danes range within three color families: fawn and brindle; harlequin and mantle; and black and blue. An interesting tidbit of information: each color family tends to have different characteristics and even specific health issues.

Great Danes tend to be spunky, confident, friendly and easily trained dogs that are generally good with children and other pets in your home. However, with any giant dog, they should be supervised. Their size and spunkiness can be a bit overwhelming to children and smaller animals. In addition, their long wagging tail can clear a coffee table within minutes. Training will greatly benefit Great Danes and allow them to be well-mannered family companions.

Health and Dietary Needs

As with any giant breed, their lifespan is a bit short, so expect seven to 10 years of enjoyment. In terms of health problems, your major concerns will be: gastric torsion (stomach flips over), cardiomyopathy (heart disease) and osteosarcoma (bone cancer) while your minor concerns being hip dysplasia, CVI (Wobbler’s syndrome), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), HOD (skeletal disorder) and hypothyroidism.

Choosing a reputable breeder can drastically reduce heath issues. Parents and grandparents that have been health tested before breeding can reduce the chances of passing on their crippling diseases to your dog. If adopting, ask your veterinarian to complete health testing as well to rule out any lurking health issues.

Diet

Most likely, your Great Dane will thrive on dog foods blended for large breed dogs, meaning higher protein levels and reduced minerals to ensure they grow slowly, which is a good thing. Some Great Danes do very well eating balanced raw diets, but be prepared to order meat in large quantities. With Great Danes being so tall, it’s recommended you provide them with an elevated eating and drinking station to prevent bloat.

Dog Grooming Needs

Great Danes have a short, thick and sleek coat that requires weekly brushing with a rubber curry comb. While their coat is short, they still shed. Never use a deshedding tool, as it can cause brush burn (blisters and bleeding skin) in unskilled hands. To keep dander to a minimum, weekly or bi-weekly baths with a gentle shampoo is important. Remember to rinse completely.

Ears

Great Danes have medium-sized ears that are naturally floppy, but usually cropped (personal preference). Either way, checking their ears regularly for buildup is a good idea. Most of the time, a quick wipe down with an ear cloth will do just fine.

Nails

Oh, they have strong and thick nails, so keeping your Great Dane’s nails trimmed weekly is important. Using clippers or a nail grinder will prevent overgrowth and splitting, which is very painful.

Exercise and Dog Training Needs

You may think that this large dog needs a lot of exercise, but this is not exactly the case with Great Danes. They tend to have pretty low energy, so regular walks or even a daily game of fetch will suffice. Although, they do need enough room to move around and stretch those long legs. If you don’t have a yard for them to play in, I suggest taking them to a park or a safe fenced area.

The good news is Great Danes are easily trainable and learn fastest when using positive reinforcement. Due to their size, they can easily pull you around during walks or vet visits, so I would recommend a head halter. Personally, I’ve had great success with reward based training and the right tools, such as the head collar with the Great Danes I have trained.

Conclusion

If you are considering bringing a Great Dane into your family, I invite you to locate a reputable breeder or rescue organization from the Great Dane of America Club.

Capturing Dog Behavior

May 15, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Capturing a Dog Behavior: That’s It!

A teacher uses basic teaching fundamentals for humans, dogs, cats, fish and snails so let’s discuss capturing a behavior. This is a powerful way to teach your dog a new behavior.

What is Capturing?

Think about using a camera. When taking a picture, you’re capturing a moment in time. When capturing dog behavior, it’s the same process, except you’re using a clicker to capture a moment in time. And then giving your dog a treat so that moment in time continues.

Imagine you and I standing in a room. Then, after a few minutes of chatting, I move a chair in the middle of the room and you moved toward it to sit. As your behind touched the chair, I clicked and gave you $100. What did you just learn? Ha, that it pays to sit in that chair, right? This is capturing.

Capturing works best for naturally occurring behaviors.

When encouraging participation during a business meeting, reward questions with small bits of chocolate or mints. At first, participants will giggle, but after 10-20 minutes, you’ll have an actively engaging meeting. For introverts, I reward with two pieces of candy. These folks are tough to engage.

If you find need to slow down participation, withhold rewards a bit and reward every third question. Capture and reward know-it-all attendees every third time because constant rewards will ensure their hand is always raised. At first, they’ll become a little perplexed, but they will learn to control their behavior and hand. 🙂

How to Capture Dog Behavior

When using a clicker to mark behaviors you like and then giving your dog a treat, you’re saying, “That’s what I want so keep doing it.”

Capturing is very powerful so be careful of what you capture. 🙂 When dogs bark at us, we look at them–you just captured that behavior. Your dog jumps up on you so you push them down. You just captured that behavior. That’s why, as dog trainers, we ask you to choose good behaviors to replace naughty ones. If your dog jumps up, wait for all four feet to touch the ground and click/treat. When your dog barks, click and treat when she’s quiet.

Naturally occurring examples are:

Sitting.
Lying down.
Calming down.
Loose leash walking.
Stretching.
Barking.
Not barking.
Picking up a paw.
Looking at you.
Whining.
Licking.
Standing.
Yawning.
Keeping four feet on the floor (not jumping up).

Capture Often

If you attend my group classes, you’ll hear this phrase often. The more you capture good behavior, the faster your dog will keep offering it. Even if you must click and treat 10 times in a row when your dog stops pulling on the leash, you’ve taught your dog that keeping the leash loose pays!

Check out these videos to watch capturing in action.

VIDEO: How to Teach a Dog to Sit

VIDEO: Teaching Your Dog to “Touch”

You really can’t give too many treats. Just make sure your dog has earned them for good behavior. 🙂

READ MORE: Shaping Dog Behavior

Shaping Dog Behavior

March 5, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Shaping Dog Training

You’re Getting Closer

Shaping dog behavior is another extremely powerful way to teach polite manners. A teacher uses basic learning fundamentals for humans, dogs, cats, fish and snails so let’s discuss how dog owners can use shaping in dog training.

What is Shaping Dog Behavior?

Shaping means rewarding small approximations, or small steps, toward a goal behavior. When teaching complex behaviors that don’t occur naturally, shaping works wonderfully.

Think of shaping as the “hot and cold” game. When a learner is “warm,” you click and treat. When she is “cold,” the learner is ignored. In shaping dog training, reward “warm” behaviors often because we all know how discouraging it is after hearing “cold, cold, cold.” You want to quit, and it’s no longer fun.

Shaping Happens Everyday

If you want to increase the chances of your husband emptying the dishwasher, reward him with control of the remote afterwards. You don’t need to say anything. Just push the remote toward him when he enters the living room after tidying up in the kitchen. 🙂

Works at the Office Too

You can totally shape better behavior at the office. For grumpy co-workers, ignore or limit chit-chat when they’re complaining. Reward smiles and positive comments by engaging in conversations. If he should become grumpy again, disengage. Over time, you’ll notice a happier co-worker even if it’s only with you. 🙂

Bosses are different. We sometimes need to engage when they’re grumpy. Instead of grimacing or blankly staring back at your boss, try nodding often and offering direct eye contact. This will lighten the mood, as your boss is being acknowledged. When you notice the mood lighten even if slightly, smile. You may notice your boss smiling back even just a little toward the end of your conversation. 🙂

Shaping Dog Training Technique

When teaching a complex behavior, such as walking on a loose leash, spend some time figuring out what polite leash walking looks like.

Polite loose leash walking components:

Leash is loose.
Dog looks back at you (checks in regularly).
Dog walks around within three to four feet of your legs/body.
Your dog can easily ignore approaching dogs.
Dog ignores approaching people.
Now, she can ignore movement (bicycles, cars passing by, joggers passing you on walking trails, etc.).

That’s a lot of components, and learning all of these at the same time is like learning to ski or dance in an hour. It’s not going to happen. 🙂

Pick one component and practice during training sessions. Once your dog learns to keep a loose leash after three or four practice sessions, move onto the next component and practice. Now you’re clicking for when your dog looks back at you while keeping the leash loose.

Once your dog can do both at the same time, move to component three. If, at any time, your dog begins pulling on the leash, take a step back and work on “keeping leash loose.” It’s hard doing two things at once. Remember balancing and then squatting down on skis? If you lose your balance, take a step back and refresh.

Slowly add one component at a time until your dog walks politely on leash. Again, take one or two steps back, isolate the component your dog is struggling with, and refresh. Once she’s ready, try adding back the final behavior.

Don’t Get Overwhelmed

Shaping actually prevents that dreaded overwhelming feeling. Keep it simple, split tasks into smaller chunks and refresh often. When working on a complex project at work, you probably wrote high-level tasks in an outline, captured and categorized each task in an Excel sheet, and completed items by category–that’s shaping!

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