Neighborly Dogs

Just this past weekend on a long run, I heard birds (not crows lol) chirping.

The days are getting longer.

While I’m still waiting on some warmer temperatures, I know they are right around the corner.

Living in a new community, I’m also looking to ensure I keep the peace with my neighbors.

There is one neighbor to the right of us who has a gorgeous garden and he’s getting himself ready for his growing season.

Jack and Bernie are not quite used to him, yet.

They love spending time outside, but with the noises and people and their dogs milling around, us together are working on them being more comfortable when our neighbors are enjoying their space too.

Here are some tips on creating a safe and fun space for your dogs in your backyard regardless how much space you have to work with this spring and summer.

  1. Create an elimination spot. How?

Bring your dog out to the same spot every time. Bring your dog out on a leash and walk them over to the area. When your dog eliminates, loads of praise and reward.

After they are done, then they can have some free time outside. If your dogs are anything like Jack and Bernie, they love sun bathing!

  1. Create an area where your dogs can have a place to dig. I know, you don’t want your dogs digging, but let’s face it. Digging is a natural behavior, so work with them and give them a chance to practice what they were born to do.

You can bury bones and such which will encourage your dog to hang out in the pit rather than finding wonderful things in your garden bed

Bernie loved his digging pit in OK. This is another project on my husband’s to do list 🙂

  1. A fence is great! A privacy fence is better.

As a renter, I don’t have the privilege of altering my own space. We did choose a home with a privacy fence. Privacy fences work not only to keep people from looking in and gaining access to our space, but it also prevents Jack and Bernie to have direct visual of everything going on the other side of the fence.

If you don’t have a privacy fence, you can can create one that doesn’t permanently alter the structures of the home you may be renting or temporarily staying in. One client used bamboo which even extended the height of the fence. This is great for her dog that was a bit of a jumper!

Bamboo for a fence visual barrier and height extender!
  1. Practice Recall with your dog.

Start when its a low distracting environment. Always making it fun when your dogs trot their way back to you.

Remember don’t be the party pooper and end their fun of being outside when they come back to you. You want to be the party too, so keep it fun and work on slow transitions back into the home. This can be as simple as a couple of rounds of hide n’ seek with you outside. Slowly transitioning the game inside with finishing up with them on some settling activities.

  1. Practice a Positive Interrupter like “whoopsie”. This is just like any cue. This is a great way for your dogs to learn how to self manage their discomfort or over arousal. When your dog learns that “whoopsie” means something great, you will be able to interrupt your dog’s behavior without you getting frustrated too.

Saying “whoopsie” and when your dog learned this is a great thing for him, your dog is more likely to come to you and stop what he’s doing instead.

Also, you saying “whoopsie” is more fun for you too. Way more fun than saying “no”.

When you say “no”, there is nothing you are saying for your dog to differently. Saying “no” only gets you frustrated.

You repeat yourself, your dog continues.

You say “no” several more times, you start getting upset.

In turn, your dog is more reluctant to return to you. Which then continues this cycle of your frustration and your dog avoiding you.

Saying “whoopsie” when followed with your dog being rewarded for responding, you’re teaching your dog to do something different!

Your yard is an extension of your home and creating boundaries for your dog gives them a clear idea of what is expected.

Enjoy the start of spring and make your outside space as relaxing as your family room for you and your pooches 🙂

Bernie enjoying the sun and his stuffie 😂

From Ears to Tails

Not all tail wags are happy wags.

Dogs communicate through their entire body.

From the tip of their ears to the tip of their tail and everywhere in between 🙂

Your dog’s body language is the insight into at least having somewhat of an idea of what your dog is experiencing and feeling.

Knowing when your dog is happy, you know these are the times when your dog is learning the most, having the most fun and the happy wag is the easiest to see and understand.

The change in placement of the tail and the frequency and direction of wag can change.

These changes display your dog’s growing discontent, anxiety and even fearfulness.

Being able to read body language will enable you to know when its ok for your dog to say hello to a guest to when its time to take a break.

This insight is a gateway into how you can modify your environment and how quickly you can progress in training a new cue to whether your dog is feeling relaxed when meeting someone new.

The latter is especially important.

Becoming fluent in reading your dog’s body language can keep everyone safe when they are interacting with your dog.

Working with children, they often share the same misconception that all tail wags are happy wags.

One of the kids I have the pleasure of working with recently, is learning just this.

When we first met, Arwen approached her new puppy over the top of her puppy’s head.

Immediately, the puppy put her mouth on Arwen’s arm.

What happened next. Arwen stopped.

The puppy learned putting her mouth on an arm got Arwen to stop and therefore the mouthing behavior is reinforced.

Arwen didn’t do anything wrong from her POV. She’s a learner.

The puppy didn’t do anything wrong from her POV. She’s a learner too.

If a teachable intervention didn’t occur at this stage and Arwen continued touching the puppy in this manner, the puppy would most likely increase the intensity of the mouthing and resort to nipping and biting.

This escalation of behavior is contingent on both what the puppy is feeling and what is going on in that moment.

This experience opened a new opportunity for learning.

These teachable moments turn into life skill development moments.

Discussing concepts of responsibility and respect in an age appropriate way for a 7 year old, Arwen was able to articulate in her way how trust can be broken if she doesn’t “listen” to what the puppy is saying.

Not only does Arwen understand how and when her puppy wants to be touched, she also learns others can respect her in the same way.

Huge milestones.

There’s always more to dog training than just teaching skills to your dog.

Life lessons abound and become real life skills!

Leaders

When you read the word, “leader” what images does this convey?

What does this word mean to you?

How have you been impacted by leaders at work, in the community?

Not all leaders are cut from the same cloth.

I know when I was “growing” up in my professional career, there were some truly dismal leaders who micromanaged, were unreasonable and weren’t looking at fostering professional development, but rather focused on exerting control and power.

This didn’t lead for me or my colleagues to build morale, motivation or being autonomous in fulfilling my responsibilities which I set out to do after I graduated and entered into the workforce.

Quite the opposite happened.

These experiences led to avoiding the leader versus being connected to the shared vision and working towards the common goal.

Luckily, I’ve also had wonderfully remarkable leaders which fostered opportunities for growth, learning and setting myself and colleagues up for success and to become leaders in the field. This was their legacy.

In order for a leader to have effectiveness in meeting goals and objectives, they are also responsible for building camaraderie and building their team up too with fostering a positive workplace.

Being our dog’s leader can go either way too.

Many common practices exist in stopping a dog’s behavior.

Using tools which punish and suppress with the goal of decreasing behaviors can lead to a dog is displaying more of the same or even at an increased rate.

Leaders who use aversive tools like shock, choke and prong collars are not teaching their dogs what to do instead.

These unreasonable leaders are just suppressing behaviors like barking and lunging on a leash or at a fence.

Muddying the waters.

Suppression of behaviors is not learning.

Suppressing behaviors doesn’t equal the behavior goes away, it goes underground.

Dogs display escape-avoidance behaviors with the use of prong, choke and shock collars.

Aversive tools lead dogs to avoid the pain or force from them.

Avoiding a punishment is not your dog learning what you want them to do instead.

These tools exist only for the humans to control unwanted behavior.

Benevolent leaders approach learning with the learner as the focus.

The focus being how to teach, motivate and encourage the learner to do what we want to see more of what is appropriate and safe to do.

Benevolent leaders not only look at how consequences influence a behavior, they also dive deep into understanding and interpreting the emotions of the learner as motivating factors for a display of a behavior.

Any benevolent leader from pet professional to pet parent can do the same.

Approaching behavior modification with a Do No Harm approach.

Assess the dog in the environment and first assess how to prevent the unwanted behavior and how to motivate and reward the behaviors you do want your dog to do.

As you establish a solid and strong reinforcement history, the more of the wanted behavior will be displayed while the unwanted behavior will whither away.

No need for adding any force or pain to get your message across to your dog to stop a behavior.

Rather, you will be having more opportunities in acknowledging all the times your dog is doing the right thing.

There will be no room for anything else.