During a holiday gathering, our new dog, Rowan, greeted my mother in the face with his muzzle…better known as a muzzle punch, which broke skin and drew blood. It happened during their first introduction to each other at the start of a family gathering. Needless to say, the ‘incident’ (as I refer to it) put quite a damper on our holiday weekend. 

Rowan was then a 7 month-old Border Collie mix we’d adopted from a local shelter six week earlier.  He was a stray that was picked up in Eastern Washington, then transferred from one shelter to another, ending up here. Click here to read more.

Actually, dogs are amazingly attuned to subtle – as well as not-so-subtle – changes in our state of mind and to fluctuations in the group dynamics that surround them. After all, dogs have lived successfully with people for hundreds of thousands of years. The relationship would not have worked if they could not detect, correctly read and successfully adapt to the subliminal signals that we send out all the time.

Many of us have had first-hand or second-hand experience with the phenomenon. For example, have you ever heard someone try to explain why she feels such closeness to her dog?

“He knows how I feel,” that person might say. “He knows when I’m happy. He knows when I’m sad.”

And that person would be dead on.

This amazing canine ability can work in ways that might surprise us, however. Let me tell you the story of a dog I’ll call Joe, and his owner, whom I’ll call Ann. She had been bringing Joe to us for several years for extended visits, and we knew him well. Joe was a medium-sized dog of a breed renowned for its intelligence, and he lived up to the breed’s reputation. On top of that, he was a super-nice dog. Every year, his human family went overseas to visit relatives for several weeks, and Joe came to stay with us. We looked forward to his visits.

A couple of summers ago, Ann brought Joe for his extended visit, and asked me to keep an especially watchful eye on him. He really hadn’t been himself for about the past six months, she said. He had been uncharacteristically aggressive with other dogs, had destroyed some things in the house, and even once or twice had aggressed people. She asked me to tell her if I saw the same kinds of behaviors. She worried that if Joe didn’t mend his ways, she might eventually have no choice but to euthanize him.

We had Joe for about six weeks, and during that time we saw all the things Ann had described to us. He was full of anxiety, stress and frustration. Sometimes he tried to pick fights with other dogs.

At the end of her vacation, Ann came back and asked if we had seen any of the behaviors she had described. We told her we had seen them all. The look that flooded her face revealed her terrible disappointment. She had hoped we would see no behavioral problems, but instead we had confirmed them. She feared what that might mean for Joe’s future.

So I decided to delve a little deeper into what Joe was undergoing.

“What’s been going on at home, Ann?” I asked.

Well, over the course of the last year, her husband had unexpectedly lost his mother, she said. Then, her husband unexpectedly lost his father. Then, in his early 50s, he switched careers. Then they sold a house, and bought a house, and moved his family into the new home. Then, their teen-age daughter went out of control.

Wow!

“Anything else, Ann?” I asked.

My point was that every one of those things was traumatic and life-changing. Taken together, they must have been almost overwhelming. It was easy to see how Ann and her husband – the pack leaders – could temporarily become weak entities, carrying the burdens and stresses they had been carrying. Their dog had been accustomed to nice, strong structure and leadership in their house. Joe had had a happy life in that house.

But when pack leadership essentially disappears, for whatever reason, a dog has no choice but to step up to the plate. That is what Joe was attempting to do. It was not a role he was innately equipped for, and he was making a lot of poor decisions.

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. During the time he was with us, Joe was away from his environment of angst and stress. He got to run, to play and to be a dog. He began to decompress. At the end of six weeks, his family returned and they, too, had experienced a similar decompression. They had gotten to spend some quality time and healing time with each other and with their extended family overseas, away from the pressures of work and of every-day life. By the time they got back, they were well on their way to recovery, as individuals and as a family, including their daughter. So was Joe. They went home together, and the entire family continued to heal.

We’ve had Joe with us again the last two summers since that incident. As a matter of fact, he left us just a few days ago. And I’m happy to tell you the change in him has been substantial. He is the same great dog he had been before.

Dianna Young is a certified, professional dog trainer and canine behaviorist from Camano Island, where she operates Camano Island Kennels Dog Boarding, Grooming and Training Facility. She can be reached at (360) 387-DOGS or at info@camanoislandkennels.com. Her web site address is http://www.camanoislandkennels.com, or visit us at facebook.

Okay, your dog goes berserk when somebody rings the doorbell. It happens in a lot of households. And a lot of people don’t know what to do about it, so they do nothing.

The problem with doing nothing, however, is that it silently endorses the dog’s behavior. We have to disagree actively with that behavior if we want to change it, and we do so by employing a physical interruption of the behavior, a verbal interruption or both. A physical interruption consists of firmly taking hold of the dog’s leash or collar and admonishing it when it attempts the bad behavior. A verbal interruption is a voice command or the warning, “No!”

In many households, the behavior bar for canine members is set far too low, and what people get out of their dog usually is not a lot. They often are satisfied if their dog meets just three low standards; that it doesn’t defecate in the house (at least not very often), that it doesn’t bite people (at least not very seriously) and that it doesn’t wreck stuff (at least not most of the time). Some people believe that’s as good as it gets.

They’re wrong, of course. Our dogs have so much more to offer. But we have to expect good behavior from them, and require it. We have to set the bar high. Every household has its own standards concerning pet behavior, so there are no clear rules that apply to every family and all of its pets. But whatever the rules are in your house, they should be established by you, not by your dog.

Many dog owners routinely deal with bad canine behavior by avoiding situations that provoke it. (My dog doesn’t like strangers, so I’m not going to introduce him to strangers.) (My dog goes crazy when he sees other dogs, so I have to keep him away from other dogs.) However, behavioral mistakes by your pet actually provide a wonderful opportunity for teaching. Obviously, you can’t sit your dog down and lecture him about the dangers of chasing cars or the moral turpitude involved in aggressing other animals. Our dogs first have to make a mistake in order to be corrected for it and to learn from the experience. So, view mistakes as positive things. Don’t waste the opportunity they provide.

For example, your dog goes ballistic when the doorbell rings. If you have friends coming for dinner at 6, put your dog on his leash at 5:45. When the doorbell rings, allow him to make his mistake so you can interrupt the bad behavior physically with the leash.

If your dog chases cars, put him on leash and take him to a place where he’ll be tempted to chase. When he attempts it, interrupt the behavior. The lesson is the same for aggressing other animals.

A leash is not an absolute requirement for transmitting a message to your dog, by the way, but it is the most efficient means. It’s similar to using reins to direct a horse, and is not likely to be short-circuited. If your dog is not wearing his leash and you attempt to correct or interrupt his behavior, his first impulse will be to avoid contact. If we give a dog an opportunity to elude us, he will do so. The leash takes away his opportunity to elude.

Something that goes hand in hand with correcting negative behavior as it occurs is taking away a dog’s ability to make decisions that should be yours to make. If you give the dog an opportunity to take over decision-making, he will do so. This include making decisions about household security (Should he aggress visitors at the door?), about whether to dig holes in the yard, about whether to bark incessantly.

Other decisions also should remain in your own domain as leader of the pack. It is a mistake to fall into the error of allowing your dog to require things of you. The things you provide your pet should be gifts to him from you, not something that you produce at his demand. For example, if I decide when dinner will be served, and I present it to him, it’s a gift from me. If he decides when he will eat, and demands it from me, he doesn’t view that meal as a gift.

If your dog demands that you take him for a walk, you need to make a judgment call about the urgency of his need. I try to give my dog the opportunity to relieve himself prior to him insisting that he needs to do it. We teach our dog to be demanding when he demands food from us and we comply, when he demands that we play with him and we comply, when he demands that we take him for a walk and we comply. We want to do all these things with our dog, but we want to do them on our terms. We want our dog to view them as a gift from us to him.

That doesn’t mean that you have to be rigid in your relationship. It is not wrong for your dog to initiate play, but you must be the one to decide whether it will occur and how it will occur. If you throw a stick for your dog, for example, he may demand that you chase him to get it back. In the canine world, a leader never will chase. You must insist that, if he wants to play, he bring the stick and drop it for you.

Every dog, old or young, is in training all of his life. No matter how well he has been schooled, he occasionally is going to experience what I call a behavioral “hiccup.” This is a golden opportunity for you to spring into your leadership and teaching role.

Dianna Young is a certified, professional dog trainer and canine behaviorist from Camano Island, where she operates Camano Island Kennels Dog Boarding, Grooming and Training Facility. She can be reached at (360) 387-DOGS or at info@camanoislandkennels.com. Her web site address is http://www.camanoislandkennels.com, or visit us at facebook.

Yes? That’s commendable. With more than 55 million dogs in the United States, plenty of them need to be rescued. You probably can find a previously neglected or abused canine at your local animal shelter or dog-adoption agency.

But here’s something to chew on. It’s likely that by the time you meet the dog you have gone to adopt, its rescue already is over. The rescue is over, in fact, just as soon as the dog is out of harm’s way, and that’s usually about the time it goes into the shelter or adoption agency. A lot of adoptive owners don’t realize that. Being good-hearted people, they take the animal home, then continue to “rescue” it long after the neglect or abuse has stopped. Sometimes they continue to rescue for years. It not only doesn’t help the dog, it may actually harm it.

Here’s an example of what can happen. A client of mine owns a dog that was rescued from a puppy mill, where the dog spent the first few years of her life as a professional mom and had been neglected. Because of this, the dog had limited socialization and limited life experience. But the puppy mill, as poor an environment as it was, was the only environment she had known, and when she was removed from it she was uncertain and lacked the tools and the confidence to deal with the world.

The woman who adopted her was a lovely person, full of good will and good intentions. Unfortunately, she tried to make it up to the animal for all it had lacked earlier, and all the wrong doing that had been done to her in her life, and so she over sympathized with every behavioral abnormality the dog displayed. She overindulged it, coddled it and failed to create rules and boundaries for it. The result is that she inadvertently encouraged the dog’s lack of confidence by daily reinforcing its own low opinion of itself.

One of the ways the dog’s lack of confidence showed was that when guests came to the woman’s home, the dog ran to the farthest bedroom and hid from the visitors. The woman allowed this behavior to occur and to continue, thus reinforcing not only the behavior but also the lack of confidence that prompted it. The woman didn’t understand that by allowing the dog to hide, she encouraged it to hide. When we do not actively disagree with a behavior, we are silently agreeing with it.

Unfortunately, as this continued, the dog’s flight reflex became stronger, not weaker. The woman didn’t realize that, when given a choice about whether it wants to engage with strangers or with other animals, an unsure dog will always — always — choose not to.

What should the woman have done?

She should have leashed her dog when guests arrived and required it to experience encountering them, even from across the room. She should neither have forced the dog on the guests nor the guests on the dog, but should have required the dog to remain in the same room with them for however long the guests were there. The point would be to show the dog that having guests in the home is normal. Eventually, the owner should have worked gradually toward expanding the experience on subsequent visits by introducing the guests to the dog or vice-versa.

Fleeing from strangers is only one of several possible problems a rescue dog might exhibit. For example, a new owner might discover that the animal is aggressive to other dogs. Improper canine socialization at an early age can lead to dysfunctional canine relationships, which can result in a dog that picks fights because it’s afraid.

Another dog might display aggression for other reasons. For example, it might be one of a breed that is hard-wired for aggressive behavior. Or it might be a dominant canine that finds itself in the presence of another dominant dog. That usually creates a ruffle.

If you have an aggressive dog, you probably will need professional help to determine the reasons for the aggression. But in most cases a professional can easily assist you in managing the problem. Often, that is done by exposing your canine to other dogs and properly correcting it through its leash and collar when it misbehaves.

Not all dogs necessarily like other dogs. We can’t change that. But it is critical that they learn to put up with each other. A dog that is well mannered and well controlled can tolerate the presence of other dogs, and we must insist on it.

Because, with more than 55 million of them in the country, they’re bound to bump into each other from time to time.

Dianna Young is a certified, professional dog trainer and canine behaviorist from Camano Island, where she operates Camano Island Kennels Dog Boarding, Grooming and Training Facility. She can be reached at (360) 387-DOGS or at info@camanoislandkennels.com. Her web site address is http://www.camanoislandkennels.com, or visit us at facebook.

I had been working recently with a training client and her two dogs who had been through several obedience training sessions, and they were doing wonderfully well. The woman was intelligent and perceptive, her dogs were likewise, and they all were making great progress.

One day, my client offered a suggestion. She was scheduled to join a large gathering of people at a private social event, and she said, “Let’s take my dogs to this meeting and see how they do around people.”

I said, “See how they do? Wow! I wouldn’t turn that power over to two dogs. How about we decide how the dogs will do, and we relay it to them?”

That’s exactly what we did. We did it by assuming the leadership role from the get-go, instead of following the dogs passively on their leashes and waiting to see what they proposed.

What I wanted my client to understand is what I call “the power of intention.”

I don’t want to fault my client for her suggestion, because it’s a trap that we all fall into. People do it in almost every conceivable situation. They’ll say, for example, “I’m going to introduce my dog to a house guest, and see how he’ll do.” Or, “I want to introduce my dog to other dogs, and see how he’ll do.” “I want to take him for a ride, and see how he does in a car.”

That’s far too much power to give to a dog. Say that you’re outdoors walking your dog on a leash. You encounter another person who is walking another dog. Dog owners often greet each other and stop to see if their dogs want to be friends. Watch the owners, and you’ll see that while holding the leash, they often move back a step and observe their dogs to find out how they will interact. It’s a passive role.

I say to clients, “Why do we give a dog, of all things, the power to make important decisions about whether there’s going to be bloodshed? A leader would not stand on the sidelines and watch. A leader, with his energy and physical presence, would dictate how this interaction will take place.”

This is where the “power of intention” comes in. I might also describe it as “attitude is everything.” When I work with a dog, I decide beforehand that the dog will behave appropriately in whatever situation I introduce it to. I already know what outcome I want, and I insist on that outcome.

Leadership is about assertiveness, and a dog receives your assertiveness message through your body language. You must project leadership, and in order to project it, you actually must feel it.

Canines and people have shared each other’s lives for hundreds of thousands of years, and canines have become truly expert at interpreting human body language. They are attuned and aware of what you are doing and what you are feeling. If you aren’t confident, with head high and shoulders back, you won’t have to tell your dog about it. He’ll already know. If you are unsure or lack confidence about walking near other dogs or about meeting a stranger, for example, you won’t have to tell your dog, because he already will be aware of it.

This is where the services of a knowledgeable trainer can be invaluable. A competent trainer who knows how a dog’s mind works can help coach you to project the kind of message you want your dog to receive. Such a trainer can help you avoid inadvertently sending a message that you don’t intend to send.

Those two dogs-in-training that my client and I took to the social event, by the way, made their owner proud. They looked to us for leadership – for direction as to how we expected them to behave – and they gave us what we required. Their behavior was almost flawless.

Dianna Young is a certified, professional dog trainer and canine behaviorist from Camano Island, where she operates Camano Island Kennels Dog Boarding, Grooming, and Training, Facility. She can be reached at (360) 387-DOGS or at info@camanoislandkennels.com. Her web site address is http://www.camanoislandkennels.com/. Or visit us at facebook.

Classes will meet on Mondays from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. They are open to all breeds, 20 weeks and older.
Course fee is $150 for members of the public, $135 for members of the Senior and Community Center. Space is limited, and advance registration is required.

For more information or to register, you may call (360) 387-3647, or email us at info@camanoislandkennels.com. Please stop by our website, www.camanoislandkennels.com or visit us on Facebook.

Service Dogs of America has recognized Romeo, a mixed-breed dog belonging to Phyllis Kidwell of Camano Island, as a Certified Service Dog. The recognition came Friday upon passage of a battery of tests, after more than a year of intensive training that involved both Kidwell and the dog. Kidwell obtained Romeo, now 2 ½, from an animal shelter when he was a puppy. His duties will involve assisting her elderly father to deal with physical disabilities. As a Certified Service Dog, Romeo is entitled by law to accompany and assist his human companion in business places where dogs usually are prohibited. His training consisted of extensive obedience work and socialization to diverse environments and situations. Congratulations to both Phyllis and Romeo on their achievement after months of hard work!

Remember, during the cold, harsh, winter months, take care of all our animal friends. This chart helps us understand the elements outside.