Goobers

Goobers

Wednesday 29 July 2015

Camping with your DPDO Dog: It Can Be Done!

Snug as a... Corgi in a tent (Photo by Laura McKinney)
I will be the first to admit, I have not been camping with my dogs in a long time, and I don't think Marlo has ever been (although we did stay in an RV once!)  However, many of my clients and some of my friends take their dogs camping, and there are some steps and equipment that you can use to make your camping experience with your reactive dog as easy as possible.

My first recommendation is to make sure that your dog will actually enjoy the trip, and that safety is appropriately considered.  Dogs who don't care for other dogs or people in their space but who are generally able to relax in new places are the best candidates for camping trips.  Dogs who are always hyper-vigilant, highly reactive to sounds or visual stimuli, or extremely fearful will not enjoy the experience as much, and since camping is supposed to be a vacation for you the human, these dogs will almost certainly be happier left at home with a trusted pet-sitter. Continual barking is not fun for you, your dog, or the other campers.  The same goes for those dogs who have serious bite histories: it would be irresponsible to visit busy public campgrounds with them.


Don't let your reactive dog do this!

Next, consider where you are going to be camping.  If you are hiking into the great beyond and making camp along the way, your setups are going to be a bit easier than if you are camping in a busy, noisy campground with dogs and people all around.

Camping in out of the way spots gives you more freedom for set-ups (photo by Laura McKinney)

I'm going to focus on the latter category, since most of my clients participate in that sort of camping, and offer five steps to low-stress camping with your reactive dog.

Step One: Pick a good site with a good set-up.  Beware of campgrounds where the sites are bare patches packed together like tiny garden plots.  With visual stimulation coming at your dog from every angle, it will be much harder to relax.  Ideally, a site that backs up onto non-occupied space, or has barriers with RVs on each side will  make your dog feel more secure.  You are looking for a campsite with a "private" feel.

You are looking for a site like this.


Not like this! 

Step Two:  Make sure your dog has a safe place at your campsite.  If they're noise-sensitive, perhaps a trailer or RV is the best way to go, so your dog has a familiar place they can rest and have a break from the stimulation of the campground.  Just like at home, you can use fans, music or window film to make your RV a quieter and less visually stimulating rest spot (for you too!)  If you're tenting and your dog is more chill, an x pen makes a great safe place, especially if you're camping with multiple dogs (they can each have their own safe zone).  You can use sheets for visual blocking as appropriate.  And if your dog does not know Relax on a Mat, I strongly recommend you train this behaviour as soon as you can!  It will make it so much easier for them to settle in the camping spot.


An example of an x-pen and crate "safe spot"


Your dog decides where they feel safe :) (Photo by Shanda Drawdy)

Step Three: Make sure your dog is safely secured.  Most campgrounds require dogs are on leash at all times, which is an essential safety rule.  For reactive dogs, this is even more important.  If your dog respects an x pen, you can make a larger set up for them to hang out in while you're at the site (leaving them alone in an x pen while you're away from the site is not recommended).   Another option is a secure tie-out.  Use a harness, not a collar, and secure them to an immovable object (no picnic tables for big dogs!)   Make sure that should your dog run out to the end of their rope, they cannot reach or scare any person or dog passing by.  For example, tether them to something at the back of your site so they can't run past where you're sitting.

A dog on a safe tether (photo by Kayte Lawrence)


Step Four: Bring stuff for your dog to do.  A busy, mentally engaged dog is less likely to be looking for things to react to.  If you've got a trailer with a freezer, bring stuffed Kongs for all meals, frozen bones or animal "parts".  If you lack freezer space, bully sticks, pigs ears, or food-dispensing toys and puzzles are all good choices.  Be prepared with lots of food treats too, as even less-reactive dogs may be more on alert in a new place:  playing some games of "Find it!" to create positive associations with sudden noises or sights of other dogs will make your lives easier.

Busy happy camper! (photo by Laura McKinney)


Step Five: Exercise smart, not hard.  As many parks will be full of other dogs and strange people, if your dog has issues with either, be careful about how you exercise.  Pathways through campsites may have loose dogs at some point or another.  Finding alternate walking routes or driving a small distance to go for a walk may help.  If you're just doing a short weekend trip, you may be able to provide enough exercise for your dog at your site (tug, fetch, tricks etc) and so can avoid busy pathways.  Having another person with you to help navigate new areas and politely dissuade off leash dogs or friendly strangers can be a big help with a nervous dog.

There you have it: my five steps to enjoying camping with your reactive dog.  Have I left anything out?  What are your favorite tips for making camping fun with your dogs?

 
Surveying the domain (photo by Jenn Gill)

EDIT: Bonus tip!  After returning from your trip (or even if you've been away and not taken your dog with you), it is not unusual to see a regression in any behaviour problems you've been treating.  A change in routine and additional stress can manifest in more barking, more anxiety, a lower threshold for reactions, etc.  So do you and your dog a favour and do a few low-key days when you return: play some mental games, do some easy and fun obedience games, do some relaxation work, plenty of chews, and just relax together.  Then you can return to working your way through your dog's challenges.

Friday 24 July 2015

Friday Round-Up: Enrichment From Around The Web

Great week for enrichment!  I've got lots of good stuff to share with you.

"Hey, maybe less typing on that box thing and more enriching us?"
(Yes, they already had a walk and breakfast from food toys ;) 
Tips to Entertain Bored Dogs: A basic list but always good for reference.  The last option mentions the book Chaser: Unlocking the Genius of the Dog who Knows A Thousand Words, which is a fascinating book and great for a rainy day hanging out with your pups like today.

Venus Williams and The Best Ball Boys in the World:  My husband is a big tennis fan, so I had to include this one.  A cute video of some dogs using their natural instincts to assist in a tennis game.

Scent Rolling: Why Do Dogs Roll in Smelly Things?:  Learning about enrichment includes exploring the natural behaviour of dogs and why they enjoy the things they do.  Here's an interesting blog entry from Dr Sophia Yin's blog about one of the weirder dog behaviours: rolling in gross things.

Enrichment Ideas for Dogs:  From The Modern Dog Trainer, this is a really great, really thorough list of enrichment ideas and mental exercise for your dog. With this list on hand, you and your dog will never be bored!

The Right to Walk Away: Another important aspect of giving your dog an enriching life is understanding and respecting their choices and preferences (when it's safe and appropriate of course).  This article on using animals in psychological research discusses the idea of consent in experimentation: critical in human research but essentially non-existent in traditional animal research.

Top Ten Water Sports for Dogs: A listing of activities you and your dog might enjoy in the heat of summer, from the formal and competitive to the fun and casual.

Ditch the Dog Bowl: From one of my favorite sites, Your Pit Bull and You, a great first hand account of how you and your dog's life gets better when you replace feeding from the bowl with feeding from foraging toys.  This is something I encourage all my clients to do and I love to hear about the fun that the dogs have!

Enrichment Strategies for Cats: I hope to be able to include options for other species in this feature, so I was happy to come across this article on enrichment for felines.  We are often encouraged to keep our cats inside for safety, but few cats get the outings that dogs do, and they suffer from boredom as well.  So if you've got an indoor kitty, read up!


Friday 17 July 2015

Friday Round Up: Enrichment Resources from Around the Web

Lucky for us enrichment nerds, there is a lot out there being written on enrichment and mental exercise for dogs.  This is also lucky for pet owners and their dogs because it makes it easier than ever to incorporate enrichment in their lives.

I'm going to try to do Friday Round Ups of cool enrichment stuff I find on the web during the week.  I hope you will try some of the things out with your dogs!

Planet Dog Frozen Treats
I'm a fan of Planet Dog products, and these are 3 super easy recipes for stuffable, freezable toys.  Awesome for the hot weather!  And don't forget that dogs, like people, enjoy a variety of flavours of foods.

Five Ways To Make It Up To Your Dog
Modern Dog writes a simple but helpful article with a variety of social activities you can do with your dog at the end of a work day.

6 Boredom Busters for Dogs
These are really beginner activities, such as tug and teaching tricks, that most of you will probably know about already, but they're still really fun for your dog!

Barks from the Guild: To Walk or Not To Walk?
The Pet Professional Guild's July magazine has a good article on when and why walking your dog may not be the best choice for exercise and enrichment.  Hint: it's more often than you may think!

Do Dogs Have Emotions?
Most dog owners and enthusiasts think this is a silly question: obviously they do.  But science has been a little slow on the subject of animals and emotions.  This page uses Panksepp's various systems to explain what's going on inside the brain.  Why is this related to enrichment?  Keeping animals happy is a major part of why enrichment matters, and to understand that we need to know exactly what it means to say that an animal is "happy".

Bonus:
I love blogs, especially blogs about dogs!  So here's a page I found this week with a whole bunch of great dog blogs, all in one spot for your viewing pleasure.  Sadly, mine is not on there (yet ;)
Companion Animal Psychology: Blogs To Follow

That's all for this week!  PS If anyone has any resources on enrichment they'd like to share, please send them my way and I can include them in the round up.

Friday 3 July 2015

Chuck The Food Bowl Challenge: Intro to Enrichment for Canines

Since a main focus of this blog will be enrichment ideas and activities, I should probably do a quick intro to the concept of enrichment itself.  The Wikipedia definition of behavioural enrichment is this:

Behavioral enrichment
, also called environmental enrichment, is an animal husbandry principle that seeks to enhance the quality of captive animal care by identifying and providing the environmental stimuli necessary for optimal psychological and physiological well-being.



Enrichment has widely been a key component of keeping wild animals in captivity, although debate definitely goes on about whether or not the use of enrichment is an acceptable substitute for life in the wild.  Enrichment is also widely used in the keeping of research animals, shelter animals, and in some cases, farm animals.  I will be concentrating on enrichment for domestic pets, primarily dogs (although I do share my home with several other pet species!)

Why is enrichment important to pet dogs?  The standard for care in urban or suburban pet dogs has long been "the walk" (either on or off leash).   Walking can certainly be beneficial for dogs who enjoy it, who feel safe, and who are confident in different environments.  There are, however, many types of dogs for whom traditional walks aren't the best choice.  This includes:

  • New puppies
  • Newly adopted or foster dogs
  • Dogs with behavioural problems 
  • Fearful dogs
  • Injured or recuperating dogs
  • Senior dogs with limited mobility
All of these dogs, as well as "normal" dogs, can gain huge benefits from the introduction of enrichment in their lives.  In fact, highly active or energetic dogs can really use enrichment to provide a different type of activity in their lives.  Those dogs who can run or play all day and don't seem to get tired need more mental exercise and encouragement to relax, not more physical exercise.  

So really, all dogs can benefit from the inclusion of enrichment in their lives!  Here's a short list of some of the benefits you and your dog can gain from adding some enrichment:
  • Mental exercise
  • Confidence building
  • Building of problem solving skills
  • Providing appropriate outlets for natural behaviours
  • Stress reduction
  • Bonding with caregivers
  • Reduction of problematic behaviours
  • Impulse control
What constitutes enrichment for dogs in general is usually some sort of activity that allows them to engage in behaviours similar to behaviours that come naturally to them, such as chasing, chewing, destroying, sniffing/foraging, digging, socializing, exploring, problem solving and resting.  Interestingly, a lot of these behaviours are the same behaviours that people find problematic in pet dogs, so providing them with appropriate outlets is a win-win situation!  And while dogs can certainly engage in a lot of these behaviours while out on walks, the most effective way to use enrichment is to incorporate it into your dogs' everyday life: at home and away from home.  This way, they get mentally engaging activity in small doses throughout their whole day, as opposed to just one dose of a walk.  It's also an ideal way to help keep your dog happy if you have a busy work schedule, children, or physical limitations that mean you just can't take your dog for a 2 hour walk each day.  

The internet is absolutely full of awesome ideas for adding enrichment to your dog's life, which makes it really easy to get started!  Briefly, here are a few of my favorite ways to add enrichment to the day for my dogs:
  • All meals from food toys or for training - no bowls!
  • Frozen Kongs, bones or bully sticks for chewing
  • Walks where lots of sniffing is encouraged
  • Clicker training
  • Massage/TTouch
  • Playing ball 
  • Soothing music when left alone
  • Scent work
  • Backyard agility
  • Taking naps together
And there are so many more!  Here are some great links to other sources on enrichment:

K9 Aggression: Environmental Enrichment (part one of a 4 part series)

If you want to get started on adding enrichment to your dog's life, my first suggestion and challenge to you is to get rid of the food bowl for a week and see what happens!  Challenge accepted?  Good luck!










Wednesday 1 July 2015

I Promise You Moments, And You'll Give Me Memories

Welcome to the first post of my new blog.  This blog is intended to be a resource for enrichment activities for pet dogs, with a highlight on quality of life for reactive or aggressive dogs, but also including plenty of enrichment for all dogs: puppies, high energy dogs, physically restricted dogs and senior dogs.  I will periodically also share training tips and other thoughts from my job as a professional trainer at Ethical Canine Training and Behaviour Modification.

My first post, though, is going to be about adventures and moments.  You see, a Very Good Person I know and her Very Good Dog are going through a Very Hard Time.  My friend's dog has been given a serious medical diagnosis that may mean her life will be unfairly shortened.  She has posted on Facebook that a priority now is making sure that she gets to share some beautiful memories with her dog before the time comes to say goodbye. 

Before learning about my friend's situation, I had just been thinking that with the way my summer has gone so far: school, work, illness - I hadn't been giving my dogs enough attention.  I'm lucky enough to have fairly low-maintenance dogs and a very helpful husband.  But still, I want to hang out and do activities with my dogs...after all, that's kind of the point of having dogs.   Specifically, I want to share moments with my dogs that we all enjoy.

This led to more thinking about what it means to spend "quality time" with my dogs, or any dogs.  I've come to two main conclusions: one, the moments don't need to be "momentous"; and two, what every dog (and every person) considers quality time or experiences will be different.

Very often, people with reactive or aggressive dogs feel guilty that their dogs don't get to enjoy all of the activities that "normal" dogs do.  I understand that feeling all too well, although it's less of a worry since I moved from a city apartment on the mainland to a farmhouse on the Island.  The amazing thing about dogs, though, is that it's so easy to create a special moment or go on an adventure with them: they don't always have to day long hikes or parties at the dog beach.  Creating a memory with your dog can be as simple as sitting in the sun giving them a massage, taking them for a car ride to the drive thru, playing some games for a few minutes, or bringing them a cold meaty bone on a warm day.  Some of Marlo's favorite moments from the past little while include things like group walks with my roommate's dogs, getting a new food toy, napping in sunbeams, playing ball in the yard with his sister, running in the hayfield and visiting with a (human) relative who stayed with us.  These seem like small things, but to Marlo they were all times that he was really enjoying life, and his enjoyment made me happy as well.  Becky's moments are the same in some cases but different in others: she has had lots of leash walks with Timo, nose work classes, time hanging out in the farmyard (eating goat poop), car rides, and sitting on the porch surveying her domain.

These differences lead me to my second point: what constitutes a special moment, adventure or memory for you and your dog will probably be different for everyone, and that's OK.  Many dogs don't need to or want to attend big events (yes, even if they're pet friendly), or hang out at a busy farmer's market, or go to a party, or even go to the pet store.  Some dogs do, and those dogs are having a great time: if you are the owner of a dog like this, you will be making some very special memories indeed.

But if your dog prefers quieter adventures, don't force both of you into situations because they look like the sort of thing that dogs and owners are "supposed" to enjoy.  Instead, look for adventures that make you both smile, and allow you to re-charge while you enjoy each other's company.  After living with reactive dogs for more than 10 years, my criteria for successful time spent together has changed from "my dog held it together and didn't freak out" to "my dog and I spent time together that strengthened our bond, reinforced our working relationship, and/or helped him feel safe around his triggers."

I don't know if my dogs save memories the same way I do: I don't know if as Marlo naps on the couch he dreams of what it's like to play in the grass or chase his ball.  I do know that some day, we all will be faced with the mortality of our dogs, and for some of us it will be a lot sooner than it should be.  I also know that when that day comes, I will have many memories to look back on, even if they are small ones, and I will be able to tell myself "my dogs and I had it pretty good together".

This summer I will also be thinking of my friend and the memories she's making with her dog. I know she's going to be so awfully sad, but she is a person with a lot of compassion and caring for other people and their dogs, and I think it might help her just a little if her story inspired others to collect and cherish a few more adventures and special moments with their dogs.

So for the rest of the summer, I invite you to join me in creating, enjoying and if you like, capturing and sharing special moments with your dogs (one of my favorite things about Facebook is being able to look back at the memories I've made with my dogs: it helps so much in the fight against "dog park guilt").  This morning, I got up an hour earlier to take my dogs for a long-line run in the hay field while it was still cool and quiet outside, and it made me feel great.  This won't happen every day, but that's OK.  That memory of the half hour we spent together is in my collection now, forever and always.

(For Casey and Mokie's story, and a link to donate funds towards Mokie's medical care, please visit: http://www.gofundme.com/bouncingback )