courtesy of www.dogstardaily.com

You are probably aware of how important it is to socialize your puppy.  Having good socialization skills will help your dog respond with acceptable and healthy behaviors when faced with situations that may be disturbing or disrupting to their normal routines.

Siblings and Roommates Don’t Count

posted by Cindy Bruckart, February 24th, 2010, dogstardaily.com

I’m often asking dog owners about their dog’s socialization history.  Even if the dog owner tells me that their dog is “good with other dogs”, I have to ask more questions.  Time and again, the dogs that their dog is good with include the siblings he played with at the breeder’s home, the dog he lives with and a relative’s dog.  That’s it.

When I tell them that siblings and roommates don’t count, we get to the truth of the matter.  The dog may be nearly a year old and have only met one or two other dogs, besides siblings and roommates.  Now, I know that dog owners reading this might not see this as a big problem, as long as the dog was good with those dogs, we should be able to assume he’d be good with others, right?  Wrong.

Socialization is a continuing process, not a single event.  We can’t say that a human is well socialized if the only people he sees until his teen years are his siblings and his parents.  Imagine a child who had only played with his siblings for 14 years being dropped off at middle school!  No matter how well he may have played with siblings, I think we’d expect him to be lacking severely in social skills.  It’s certainly unfair to expect dogs, with their shorter “childhoods”, to become masters of social grace after being exposed to only two or three of their species.

Read the rest of Cindy’s article.

Socialization is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

What dog behaviors should I encourage?

by Nicole S. Silvers, March 3, 2010, dogstardaily.com

Behaviors to Encourage is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

Old dog behavior changes

by alexadry, hubpages.com

Senior dogs get Alzheimers too!

Owners of geriatric dogs often call their veterinarian office concerned about their dog’s recent behavior changes. They may report that their dog may wake up in the middle of the night and start howling. Others may report their very well house-trained dog gets up and has accidents around the house or wakes up to drink and then shortly after urinates on the carpet.

I know about these instances as I have personally often taken these calls.

I recall particularly, an owner one day calling concerned about her dog because he started wandering around the home at night bumping into furniture and hardly recognizing her. He would then sleep for most of the day undisturbed. The owner was unable to sleep properly and was very concerned by this recent worrisome behavior. Afterward, the dog also changed behavior, from an outgoing dog he became an overly submissive and timid fellow.While all the above instances required a careful evaluation by the vet via a thorough physical and geriatric blood-work sent to a lab, most instances turned out to be simply signs of good old aging.

Read the rest of the article.

Behavior Changes in an Older Dog is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

courtesy of www.dogblog.dogster.com

They say “Music soothes the savage beast.”  Yes, I realize that is a misquote; it is actually “Music hath powers to soothe the savage breast.” However, I believe in this case, we’ll go with the first one.  Now, perhaps you don’t consider your sweet little pooch to be savage, but then again…

Dogster Exclusive Interview: Calming Dog Musician, Lisa Spector

by Maria Goodavage

Dogster’s for the love of the dog blog

We’ve got another terrific interview for you this week, with Lisa Spector, concert pianist and graduate of The Juilliard School.

“But this is DOGster, not MUSICster,” you might say. True. Fortunately for us, Lisa has a foot in both camps.

Lisa is co-founder of BioAcoustic Research & Development, where she presided over the groundbreaking music and canine research conducted with 150 dogs. She is the pianist on the Through a Dog’s Ear music series. If you have a dog who could use a little calming at home or in the car, these CDs are for you.

Lisa has won first prizes in prestigious national piano competitions and performs concert tours internationally, so dogs and people lucky enough to hear her music are in for a treat. Click here for a few free downloads and samples of her calming music for dogs.

Read the rest of Maria’s article

Tunes for your Dog is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

A lot of people are feeling the effects of “cabin fever” this winter with all of the snow we’ve had, so imagine how good it feels to finally get out and see new sites, other people, and generally just stimulate our minds with new adventures.  Well, your dog needs new adventures once in awhile, as well.  Read this article explaining why it is important to take your dog on field trips.

Field Trips: why it’s important to get your dog out of the house

by Rachael Pan, February 6, 2010

Examiner.com

Dogs are highly intelligent creatures and as such, can quickly and easily become bored. Stimulation—both physical and mental—is very important to the overall health and well-being of your dog. Taking your dog on a “Field Trip” is a great way to give him some extra stimulation.

A field trip for your dog is going anywhere new, unusual or rarely visited. Your dog may surprise you with how fascinated he is with something as simple as sniffing (or marking) some new trees, nose-to-nosing with new canine friends, or exploring some different territory. Field trips give your dog something to “think about,” and, when used to stimulate a destructive dog before leaving him alone at the house, can contribute to helping him be less inclined to seek and destroy items in your home.

Read the rest of Rachael’s article.

Taking Your Dog on Field Trips is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

Stop the devocalization of dogs in your state

by Stephanie Modkins, February 1, 2010

Dogs Examiner

Did you know that some breeders and canine owners devocalize their dogs in order to reduce the sound of their barks? Sound strange? Seem barbaric? Well, it is. For this reason, passing a bill in your state that sets parameters for this type of sugary is a must.

Overview of devocalization

During the process of devocalizing a dog, a veterinarian surgically alters a canine’s voice box. This procedure permanently reduces the volume and pitch of a dog’s bark making it sound more like a hoarse or whisper. The side effects of this kind of surgery are infections, laryngeal paralysis and airway stenosis. Devocalized dogs often struggle with eating and drinking. Also, they can’t defend themselves or alert an owner of trouble because they can’t be heard from far away. These side effects, of course, are life altering ones resulting in a lower quality of existence for a dog. (See video below.)

For video and rest of  Stephanie’s article.

Devocalization of Dogs is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

The Life of the Party: Holiday Entertaining Success for Dog Owners

by Casey Lomonaco KPA CTP

The holidays are here and many of us are expecting to welcome company into our homes to celebrate the season.

While the holidays are a wonderful time, they can also be stressful for dogs and their people.  When we entertain, we hope to enjoy a nice, relaxing time and provide our guests with the same enjoyable experience.  A significant contributing factor to the likelihood of accomplishing this goal is the behavior of the family dog.  At our holiday parties, our dogs can be a significant source of pride if they are well-behaved, or can turn the fun quickly into a nightmare if they are behaving at their worst.

Read the rest of Casey’s article on successful holiday entertaining.

Holiday Entertaining and Your Dog is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

Just because your dog tucks his tail and runs, does that mean he knows he’s been bad, or is it something else, behavior specialists call an avoidance response?

For an interesting perspective on this question check out this article:

Do dogs know when they’ve done something naughty?

You might realize that if your dog is consistently “misbehaving” and you think he’s doing it on purpose… that you have a much bigger problem on your hands.

This is often a sign that you are not communicating clearly with your dog in a way he understands, and that you probably are effectively listening to what he wants either.

This is a common problem with people who try to stop dog barking.

Their dog’s will tuck tale and run when their owners yell at them over a long period of time.  This causes the dog to fear the owner, and doesn’t necessarily mean the dog knows what he did was bad.

And it certainly doesn’t even begin to address the owners complete lack of understanding the underlying issue of what’s really causing the dog’s barking in the first place.

Take this as a reminder to always try to get at the root ‘emotional’ cause of your dog’s problem if you want to have the most success.

Can your dog REALLY tell if he's in trouble? is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

What I really like about this video is when the trainer talks about how we need to realize that the reason our dog’s are barking is to communicate an underlying emotion.

Traditional training techniques seek to PUNISH the communication, where newer training strategies like the one being used by the trainer in this video, attempt to change the emotional reaction that causes the annoing communication.

So the next time you find yourself wanting to punish your dog’s communication, try to think about what the underlying emotion of that behavior is.

Treat your dog’s emotions like personal workout trainers approach working with a new client who’s never been in a gym and who’s bodies aren’t in the physical condition to go all out right away.

Our dog’s emotions are a LOT like a person’s muscles who’ve never been to the gym… they need to practice on some easy weights before they’re ready for the big stuff.

I thought this video expressed that perfectly, which is why I wanted to share it with you.

Please leave me any questions if you have them!

How To Stop Dog from Barking At Washing Machine is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog

In this article, Debi Davis really lays out some interesting points about why using suppressive or punishment techniques don’t work to stop dog barking.

She believes that when you are dealing with a dog who just ‘locks on’ to a person or thing and continues to bark at it, that adding more emotion to the situation actually reinforces it…. positive or negative.

To put it in my own words, and forgive me Debi if this is NOT what you mean, but it’s almost like the thing that causes a dog to Manic bark is the amount of “heightened emotions”… or in her words “stress”.

Because stress can be both positive and negative, a dog who get’s ‘positively’ stressed when he sees a person walk by the car he’s in at the grocery store parking lot has more stress, then if he were in a state of rest… and if you then have an owner come in and reprimand the dog, what does that do?

It ads MORE stress.

Stress can become addicting, and trains the dog to continually expect, prepare and get ready for more and more stress, with each day the Manic Barking behavior is attempted to be stopped with training techniques that add more stress to the situation.

Debi’s article puts it more clearly then I can though, so I’ll just shut up and let you go read it.  Here’s the link again:

Retraining Manic Alert Barking

Retraining Manic Alert Barking is a post from: Dog Obedience Training Blog