DOG TRAINING AND BEHAVIOR

The summer after I turned 17, I traveled cross-country to spend time with various friends I had made while working at a sleep-away camp a year earlier. One of my stops was Nederland, Colorado, a mountain road away from Boulder, where I stayed for a few days with a pal at his older brothers house.

One of the big things people worry about is drugging their dog, says Stephanie Borns-Weil, DVM, the board-certified animal behaviorist who heads the Tufts Animal Behavior Clinic. She is referring to clients reactions when she suggests that their dog could use a psychotropic medication to get them over the behavioral hump, whether for separation anxiety, fear aggression, or some other emotionally charged issue. They think that using a psychotropic medication means sedating a dog out of her troubles, the doctor says. Its sort of a holdover from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.

I think my cattle dog, Shorty, who is about 9 years old, has been squinting when it is very sunny out. I never used to notice this. Could he really have started squinting at this point in life, or is it something that has always gone on but I just never noticed it?

I read with interest your November editorial, which talked a little about pit bulls. Your comment about pit bulls having locking jaws is way off base and untrue. Please consider a follow-up. There is no dog that has magical locking jaws! As a pit bull owner who fights stereotypes every day, I hope you can understand that a comment like that sets us back 10 years. Thank you, and I am looking forward to your response.

The ALS (Lou Gherigs disease) that strikes people and the degenerative myelopathy that strikes dogs are similar in that they both affect the spinal cord. But they start - and play out - differently. ALS is a disease of the neurons - the cells that make up the nervous system (including the brain). Degenerative myelopathy, on the other hand, is a disease of the axons - long, thread-like parts of the neurons via which impulses (messages) travel from one cell to another to elicit movement of the limbs and other body parts. If you were to look under a microscope, youd see the disease in different spots in the two species.

Lets say your dog is aggressive to the point that you fear he will truly hurt someone. Or he wont stop jumping on people, or barking, or otherwise engaging in behavior that many find obnoxious. Or you simply would like to enjoy a relationship with him in which he is able to respond to your cues to come, fetch, wait, or whatever but havent had much success training him on your own. Where do you turn?

In How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves, veterinarian Sophia Yin, DVM, MS, explains that when animal behaviorists talk about the ways dogs learn, they talk about two main types of conditioning: classical conditioning and operant conditioning. What is the difference? Classical conditioning is learning by association. Operant conditioning is learning by trial and error. These two approaches actually guide learning in all animals, including humans. How does it work?

When most people see a behavior in their dogs that they dislike, they automatically ask, How can I stop that behavior? says late veterinarian and applied animal behaviorist Sophia Yin, DVM, MS. Instead, Dr. Yin deftly posits, it is more useful to ask, How has the undesirable behavior been reinforced, and what behavior would I reinforce instead? By which she means, every time we interact with our dogs, theyre learning something. Each interaction is, in effect, a training session. Were just not always training the way we intend.

My puppy has taken to chasing his tail. It was kind of cute at first, but he seems to be doing it more and more. Is this something we should be concerned about, or is it just one of those dog habits nobody understands but that he will grow out of?

My 14-year-old rat terrier sometimes becomes very anxious at night. He paces and pants; goes upstairs then down; digs at boxes and corners; and will shred anything paper-like. This happens only at night, which made me think of sundowner syndrome common in humans. Is this possible? If so, how is it treated, or how can I make him more comfortable? Ive tried sleeping with all the lights on, which helps some.

I have not been successful in finding information on cause and remedy for a dog who eats his stool. Can you provide some information? I work with families who adopt our kennel dogs, and a family is currently having problems with this.

Platitudes dont work, says veterinarian Alicia Karas, referring to the need for feelings to be acknowledged that brings bereaved callers to the Tufts University Pet Loss Hotline. Its understandable that people use them, she comments. More often than not, they really dont know how to respond to grief because there are few things you can say that wont end up sounding wrong. But uttering phrases like, he had a good life or hes out of pain or hes is in a better place falls short of the mark because the person is so severely missing the companionship shared with their dog.