Lead Pulling!

This is a very common issue!

A video clip of me doing a little heelwork can be seen here.

Your dog will have a strong association with the lead going on, going through the doorways and exiting the home, as these are all early signals of the walk itself. Once outside, your dog will be exposed to a mass of sensory input so you can imagine the effect this will have on your dog. It’s your job to guide the dog’s uncontrolled excitement into more manageable and calm behaviour. The trick to attaining this is to break things down into bite-size pieces. Firstly, your dog will need to be calm and exercising a good degree of self-control before you place the lead on him. If over the first week you have to wait an additional five minutes before your dog is calm enough to place the lead on, then this is what you will need to do!

Calm behaviour on the dog’s part results in progress…excitable behaviour results in no progress!

Now we need to move to the door you leave the house by. Once you move off with the lead on, do not allow your dog to drag you through the home. Stop, walk back a few paces and then slacken the lead. Wait a few seconds and then progress again ensuring your dog is calm before moving off again. Repeat this until your dog can walk with you in an attentive and relaxed manner as you approach the door.

Once at the door, place one hand on the handle, and the other should be holding the slack lead. I prefer not to say anything at this point, as the dog will learn better by its own learning process - rather than you issuing a stream of commands. What you need to now do is to repeatedly open and close this door (only an inch or two to start with) until your dog is standing back – looking at you as if to say, “Ok, I give up…after you!”

Every time your dog goes to either rush the doorway, claw at the door, or use its nose to force the door open, you will close the door in front of the dog. Do be careful not to knock his face with the door, most dogs see the door closing and step back. Once your dog is showing clear signs of standing away from the door, this is your chance to open the door more each time until you are able to step over the threshold (slowly go out backwards so you can block the dog again if needed). Count to five once you are outside looking back at him with a slack lead between you, and then invite him on with a bright call.

So, you should now have a much calmer dog than you have been experiencing. Be sure to take your time and to control each step. As you move down your pathway to the road for example, you will need to stop each and every time he pulls and bring him back a few paces and then to offer slack on the lead again. You are telling him at this point that you will only progress a) when you say so, and b) when he is calm on a slack lead.

Once you are onto the pavement area, you can begin to practice your heelwork. You are in a corrective zone with him at this point, so again, each time you move off with him using a bright voice you will I expect find that he resorts to rushing ahead. This time when he is ahead of you I want you to stop still immediately, at which point he will continue forwards and come to an abrupt halt. At the same time you stop, turn and walk away in the opposite direction (180 degrees) without waiting for him or encouraging him to follow you. When you find him coming alongside you, be sure to reward him with your bright pleased voice, catch his eye as you walk and smile to show your pleasure.

I find that many people simply don’t communicate enough with their dog when on the lead, and so the dog looses interest in the owner and then pulls ahead to fresh scent. When again you find him in front you should stop and change direction as before. This simple method of changing direction when he is in front, and rewarding him verbally when alongside works very well with most dogs, so stick with it and practice daily.

You can begin to extend the length of your walks as he begins to walk to heel as you would like. If for example you have been clicker training your dog, or you know he is well driven by food, then by all means introduce such lures to establish the position you would like him to be in as you walk along together.

The combination of general leadership (seek out my other article on this subject) controlled exit from the home and the above technique can make an immense improvement in a matter of hours with practice.

I recognise that there is not a ‘one size fits all’ method, but the above is my standard procedure due to its success rate and speed of change in the dog. If you continue to experience problems in this area please contact me directly.

www.alphadogbehaviour.co.uk

A dogs nose...

A dog's nose is a very sensitive thing you know!

For example, did you know that:

1. Usually, the longer the nose, the better the sniffer.
2. A dog’s nose also has lots of mucous inside. If unfolded and spread out, the surface area of the dog’s nasal membranes would be about the size of a handkerchief! It's this mucous that allows the dog to have such an elevated sense of smell.
   
3. A dog's sense of smell is 1-10,00 times greater than ours!
4. Dogs have been known to detect cancer with their nose. According to the national Geographic website, this is because breast-cancer and lung-cancer patients are known to exhale patterns of biochemical markers in their breath. The different metabolic rate of cancer cells helps a dog sniff them out. See the Youtube link below for more information.
   
5. A discharge from the nose generally means trouble. Several diseases involve nasal discharge, including distemper, bacterial rhinitis, infected sinuses, and kennel cough (in puppies and toy breeds), so a trip to the veterinary clinic is definitely in order if the nose begins to run.
   
   http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EH4_nxS1w2c
   

Dog exercise!

Exercise that dog!

Not all dogs require a daily flogging until they come back wet and exhausted. I think it's just as easy to do too much as it is to do too little.

About 18 months is in my mind the best age to start opening the throttle more and exposing the dog to longer and more strenuous exercise. By this time the muscular and skeletal systems are well established, and able to take the strain.

How much is enough then? Well this really is something that I advise you to think about and to develop a routine that suits you and your dog. Our dogs need to fit in with our lifestyle of course, and ideally your choice of dog would compliment your lifestyle, rather than find yourself with a dog that is constantly in need of fresh air and big runs. This will only leave you feeling guilty, and your dog's behaviour may reflect the lack of exercise if this happens to be the case for you.

The other thing to consider should you be looking at a new dog is the fact that your lifestyle may change later on. Maybe you become a new parent, retire, or start back to work? These things can work for the better in many cases, so no need for a pessimistic forecast on the above, but they are all changes that the dog will need to handle.

Off lead exercise is hugely different from on lead exercise. I would like to see a little diagram that enables me to analyse the distance covered by the dog in a field in comparison to the route I walk. My guess is that depending on the breed and the activities undertaken, it could be anywhere from 5-100 times more than me!

A few of the activities I enjoy with Pip are:

* Ball flinger (what a neat invention!) This really works her hard and involves nose-work when done in longer grass.
* Frisbee (Whilst not quite comp. standard, I'm quite good at this now...and so is Pip. Amber used to be the past master however!)
* Cycling. (View the link at the bottom of this post for some amusement).
* Treadmill. I have placed her on the treadmill a few times, but I don't think it's her favourite activity. One should be very careful in the way that this is introduced, due to the potential danger.
* Freeform agility. This is using natural obstacles that one might find in nature. Log jumps/limbo you name it! Rather like dog Parkour! Video clip here
* Running between us as a family. Great to develop the recall, especially if you have a little food to reward her efforts ;)

I do see some dogs that are over stimulated, and seem overly hyped. Some collie owners do this as they think that the dog needs to do 100 miles every day. Not so. Any dog should look pretty content once home, and be able to settle within a reasonable time. I have seen good improvements in a number of dogs once the obsessive element of exercise has been prevented for a couple of weeks, and we work on a more relaxing aspect to help bring the dog into a more balanced state. During that time we can look at improving the dog's behaviour by implementing a modification programme.

Obsessive exercise? What's that? It's when the dog changes from seeing a ball (for example) as a really enjoyable means to play, to it then not being able to drop it, pushing it into you in the home, and never being able to relax. This may then connect back (believe it or not) to other areas of concern such as dog to dog aggression due to the dog's general level of stress. This is remember all in my experience and opinion. All play items should be either left outside in an enclosed area or shed/car. The house should be a place to relax...for you and the dog :)

So somehow we have gone from exercise to obsessive behaviour! Enjoy your dog doing what feels good to you and yours. Try to keep control of the game with a decent recall and give (if fetching is involved) and look out for over-exercise. You'll be in a minority if you do, as most dogs are under exercised...rather like us to be utterly honest.

Moderate exercise is the way to go at first, and then build things up gradually for both the dog and your own sake.

As always, feel free to contact me or comment here should you wish to discuss this further.

Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?hzjmmyzrkjz 2/3 minute download


Nick Jones MCFBA

www.alphadogbehaviour.co.uk