DOG TRAINING AND BEHAVIOR

Q: I have a whippet, Greta, and a Border collie, Lex. Both are rescues whom I adopted last year within a couple of months of each other. Greta about three and Lex is perhaps four years old. Whenever I rub Greta's belly or give her any special attention, Lex seems to appear out of nowhere and starts to paw at my arm or even lets out a slight growl at Greta. Is Lex acting jealous? How can I give Greta some one-on-one time without Lex butting in?

A: You won't find envy in the canine dictionary, but the phrase "mine, mine, mine" certainly exists. Lex's behavior is triggered more by resource guarding than by jealousy over the attention Greta receives. Watch closely the next time Greta and Lex play with a toy and you can identify clear canine communication. Chances are that one will body block the other or lift an upper lip or make steady eye contact - signals that possession is nine-tenths of the law in the land of dogs. As hunters and pack animals, dogs have always demonstrated a "this is mine" attitude toward other canines when it comes to prized possessions, from the best part of the kill to a fuzzy chew toy.

When you rub Greta's belly, Lex steps in because he wants to guard the most valuable of all possessions - you.

Q: My three-year old beagle is a delight, but he has one vice: He insists on jumping up onto my furniture. His spiky hair gets embedded in the upholstery until it's nearly impossible to clean. I've tried putting old bed sheets on the furniture when I'm gone, but when I come home I find the sheets on the floor and Peppy happily snoozing on the sofa. I got him about a year ago from a rescue group and can only assume that he was allowed to get up on the sofa in his previous home. I'm planning to purchase nicer furniture and upgrade the interior of my house soon. Before I do, I want to find a way to end Peppy's possession of my sofa. How can I accomplish this?

A: Credit Peppy for having the good sense to bypass boring bare floors and seek a comfy sofa for his snooze sessions. However, it's your house and he needs to play by your rules. First, you need to provide him with a designated spot of his own. Before you begin picking out your new furniture, buy Peppy a comfy bed and put it in a spot where he will still feel...

Wouldnt it be wonderful if all it took to calm a high-strung dog was an off-the-shelf product? So sought after is a solution for the barking, quaking, biting, and cowering some dogs exhibit that there is a plethora of items on the market - ranging from pheromones to compression shirts that act as swaddling devices to pleasing aromas - with promises to ratchet down stress behavior resulting from provocations like fireworks, strangers, and separation anxiety.

Henry Goldstein of Vail, Colorado, is confused. I know that pulling the house apart while the owner is away is a sign of separation anxiety, he says. However, my dog, Nikko, is always fine while we are away but has started going into my trash bin and pulling everything out while we are home. He sneaks into my wifes study and does his thing. This is a brand new behavior. Nikko is already five years old and has never done anything like it. Whats going on?

One model that has been put forth as a quasi-justification for the use of aversives in training is pack theory. Ever since the linear hierarchy was postulated in wolves, dog people have gone cuckoo in their efforts to explain every conceivable dog behavior and human-dog interaction in terms of dominance. We really latched onto that one. It is a great example of a successful meme. Dogs misbehave or are disobedient because they havent been shown…

Dog owners have been admonished for decades by trainers, breeders and veterinarians to never play tug of war with their dogs because it risks increasing aggression and/or dominance in the dog. I think theyve muddled predatory behavior, which tug actually is, with agnostic (conflict resolution) behavior, which tug is not. Played with rules, tug of war is a tremendous predatory energy burner and good exercise for both dog and owner.

Dogs bark for a variety of reasons. 1) Watchdog Barking serves the dual purpose of alerting other pack members that there is an intruder or change in the environment and warning the intruder that they have been noticed. Dogs bark much more than their ancestors, wolves, who hardly ever bark. In domesticating them, we have selected for more barking. The predisposition to watch-dog bark varies among breeds and individuals. The modifying principles are the same, though,…

A classic culture clash example is greeting rituals: in most human cultures, we shake hands or bow. In dog culture, they buzz around excitedly, lick and sniff each other. The origin of jumping up is in infancy. Wolf pups will jump up to lick the corners of adults mouths, triggering the latter to regurgitate food that the puppies can eat. This jumping up and licking is

People are terribly mystified by any change in their dogs behavior and go on a lot with the why? WHY as though there should never be any variability whatsoever in this living organisms behavior. Training regressions are a frequent occurrence and no big deal. It is so important to remember that behavior is always in flux, constantly subjected to whatever contingencies there are in the environment as well as being influenced by

Q: How can I get my beagle, Jake, to stop barking whenever someone rings my doorbell, knocks on my front door, or walk past my house? A few barks are okay, but Jake barks on and on and at a volume so high that I want to take out my hearing aid so I dont have to hear his noise. When I yell at him to stop he ignores me and barks even louder.

Q: When I get ready to leave the house and when I first come in the front door, my dog is always underfoot. She wiggles her whole body, wags her tail a mile a minute, tries to jump on me, and gives me kisses. More than once, I've spilled a bag of groceries because I've tripped over her or tried to reach down to pet her in an attempt to quiet her down. I love Katie, but what can I do so that I can come and go without this over-the-top demonstration of affection?

A: Now you know how a rock star or other celebrity feels when surrounded by adoring but obnoxious fans. Katie is doing all she can to deliver canine love your way,

The game of Tug has an undeserved bad rap in some training circles, while others, most notably the Agility world, have fully embraced it as an excellent activity to create focus and high arousal. Those two extremes aside, its a great game just because its fun, many dogs adore it, its the perfect play activity for human family members who might otherwise want to get in appropriately physical with the dog and its a terrific energy-burner.

One of the most commonly-heard myths about playing Tug is that it makes the dog dominant. Theres so much misinformation passed around about hierarchy in dogs - this is just another log on the fire. If you are concerned about what Tug might do to your relationship with your dog, just remember that the definition of leader is the one who controls the good stuff, and orchestrate your Tug-play accordingly.