DOG TRAINING AND BEHAVIOR

You do have the time to train your dog. Whether you realize it or not, you already are spending a lot of time training your dog. Every minute you are with your dog you are training him. Your everyday interactions with him are the most powerful training tools you have.

Visual though primates may be, we humans often miss the signals that our dogs are sending us. For example, in my seminars I do a demonstration in which I pet and praise my Border Collie Pip for giving me a ball back. Pip is my sleeper Border Collie, who looks a bit like a goofy Labrador cross when in fact she's from pristine sheepdog lineage. But she loves balls like life itself, so to reward…

If humans are understandably a bit slow at responding to the visual signals that our dogs are sending, we are downright dense about the signals that we generate ourselves. Your dog, however, is a pro: he or she notices just about every move that you make. Heres an experiment that you can try, focusing on the signals that you give to your dog, whether you mean to or not. This one is really easy, because…

What is it about these dogs relationships that resembles human love? These pairs always get upset when separated and usually try to comfort each other, says Ms. Hirsch. The males tend to become protective of the females when they perceive them to be around a dangerous person or in a danger situation. And the females tend to care for their guys as well, grooming them, staying by their side, and playing with them.

My cairn terrier, Charlie, ALWAYS angrily barks at and attempts to ATTACK moving skateboarders, writes Barry Jagoda of La Jolla, California, a bustling suburb of San Diego. He doesnt go after anything else in our busy area - not buses, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, or other dogs (well, perhaps some really big ones, in addition to neighborhood cats and skunks from the nearby canyons). In Charlies previous residence in staid Georgetown, Washington, DC, skateboards were not much of a problem. But we…

"Imagine reaching out to shake someone's hand," says Tufts animal behaviorist Stephanie Borns-Weil, DVM, "and the person grabs you by the shoulders and kisses you on the lips. That level of social discomfort is what a dog might feel" if he comes up to get a whiff of you, and you bend down to his face and start petting his head. From the dog's point of view, it's much too intimate a response. By walking over to sniff you, he's just making an assessment, studying you while he tips his hat, so to…

[From Tufts November 2012 Issue]

Tufts Behavior Clinic Director Nicholas Dodman, BVMS, tells the story of a client whose way of making her dog stop feeling scared of car rides was to drive from Massachusetts up to Northern Maine and back. It didnt work. The dog was salivating, shivering, the whole time, Dr. Dodman says. By the time the 7-hour ordeal was over, the animal was in a dreadful state.

Dr. Dodman wasnt surprised that the woman thought she was doing the right thing. There are even certain trainers, he says, who, if a dog is frightened of the sound of a boiler going on and off, will tie the dog to the boiler. The theory is that if you leave the dog there long enough, she will go numb and become habituated. Or, if the dog is scared of …

In some cases, no matter how slowly you go and how patient you are, a dog's genetics or unfortunate experiences prior to coming to live with you may keep her debilitatingly fearful of some thing, or things. If it's the sound of a household object, you will probably be able to work around it. But if it's car rides, or people — that is, things in life from which you cannot keep her completely hidden — a prescription from your veterinarian for anti-anxiety medication may be in order. No one wants to give a dog behavior-modifying medications. But they are a reasonable last resort if a pet has been unresponsive to systematic desensitization and having the dog as a member of the family has become too difficult as a result.…

A few years back, a concerned owner brought his 9-month-old castrated male schnoodle called Ozzie to see me at the Animal Behavior Clinic. Ozzie, he reported, had begun exhibiting some rather weird behaviors when he was only 6 months old. First, there is what is called stargazing behavior, in which Ozzie would suddenly freeze and stare upward at the ceiling. Then this might be interrupted by a bout of fly-snapping behavior - the same as if he were snapping at flies, except none are present. Some people describe this behavior as snapping at imaginary flies.

Back in 2005 a troubled owner brought us her 5-month-old neutered male mixed breed dog, Chevy, for evaluation and treatment of owner-directed aggression. Specifically, Chevy had growled at and bitten his owner in various situations, all involving food or stolen objects. Some people refer to this type of aggression as possessive aggression, which is often a component of what is now known as conflict aggression.

Pamela Woods of Modesto, California, is frustrated. Its not that her four-year-old terrier mix, Butch Cassidy, isnt wonderful. He is. He doesnt chew things and is generally well behaved, she says. But from the time he came to live with me 16 months ago, he has been licking my furniture, my pillows, and the rug. Just before I get up, he jumps onto the bed and licks my pillow. He frequently licks the couch…

Heres the thing, says Nicholas Dodman, BVMS, DACVB, Director of the Tufts Animal Behavior Clinic. For the majority of dogs, especially young, fit, athletic breeds, walking them only on a lead is not sufficient. They need real exercise. They need to run, and they need to run off leash. Theyre bred for it. Its chapter 1 of dog ownership. I used to take my 84-year-old mother for a one-mile walk, and neither of us…