MVC DOG BEHAVIOUR AND TRAINING PRESENTATION

MVC DOG BEHAVIOUR AND TRAINING PRESENTATION

welcome to Molly vet centers what your
dog wants you to know dog behavior and
training presentation I am Laura Ryder
I’m a certified professional dog trainer
and I’ve worked at Molly vet for over 20
years and these are my two very cute and
very cheeky balla terriers wicket and
milani
so we’re gonna talk about a few topics
today and the first time we’re gonna
start with his canine communication and
so how to speak dog so our dogs what we
classify as nonverbal communicators they
predominantly use body language to
communicate with other dogs and also
with us as humans were predominantly
verbal I will use some body language but
we’d like to talk and so
miscommunications and misunderstandings
can kind of creep up between us and our
dogs simply because we communicate so
differently so really important that all
of us become really fluent in how dogs
talk so I use the traffic light zone
analogy it’s nice and relatable you
probably got stuck at some traffic
lights today the idea is is that we can
categorize different signals that a
doggie offers a dog offers with their
body and categorized them into three
zones so red yellow and green
now our green is our happy dogs yellow
is our dogs who are feeling stressed and
our red zone is that our aggression
precursors our reactive dog now the
reason we use the traffic light zone
analogy is that the yellow light always
warns us before a red light so when
we’re driving in our car when it’s green
we always get that yellow warning before
the red light flicks on so dogs are
exactly the same a green dogs were happy
relaxed dog doesn’t jump straight into
red zone there’s always some yellow
signals that happen first to the
untrained eye though sometimes those
yellow zone signals are missed and a
classic one is I’ll hear a client say oh
you just lunged at the end of the lead
there was no warning but to the trained
eye and hopefully you will pick up on
some of that today and to the trained
eye what you’ll see is you’ll see some
of the really subtle yellow zone
before that red zone happens and what
we’re hoping to do is that if we see our
dog feeling a little bit stressed and
they’re up in that yellow zone we can do
something we can manage that environment
we can take action there and hopefully
get our dog back down to Green Zone by
being proactive about it rather than the
yellow zone and we don’t notice it and
then all of it you know then it’s got
the dogs in red zone and it’s a lot
harder to get them to come back and calm
down once they’re up in that red zone
when we’re looking at dog body language
it’s really important that we look at
the big picture
so our dogs can offer many different
signals with all parts of their body at
all at the same time so really important
we take it all into account in any given
moment so as well as noting those
individual signs really important we
observe the environment and be aware of
potential triggers so is it an
environment that your dog is really
comfortable in and has a trigger just
arrived so again they may be happy at
home but some small children have
arrived and your dog is a little bit
worried about them or is it out and
about you’ve taken them out to a new
environment somewhere there can be lots
of triggers around that they can
possibly react to our dogs also go
through conflicting emotional states
just like we do so if we think about
going on a rollercoaster ride we can be
really excited about it a little bit
nervous a little bit fearful so lots of
things going on and the same thing can
happen with our dogs and we’re also
gonna look at recovery rates so if we
notice that dog get up into a yellow
zone how quickly do they recover they
resilient do they come back down to
green and and become relaxed really
quickly or do they stay in that yellow
zone and they struggle to come back down
and relax or are they a dog who they’re
in that yellow zone can’t relax and and
they kind of tip up into that red zone
quickly and for those guys the ones that
find it hard to come back down to that
green zone they’re the ones that as dog
training professionals we want to know
about these guys we want to be able to
get in there and help them and and train
new responses to their environment and
teach them how to cope and how to be
more
resilient so we’re going to talk about
green zone hopefully this is what you
see 95 percent of the time with your dog
at home so we’re gonna run through it
really quickly but first of all you’re
looking for a real lack of tension the
body is nice and relaxed the lips are
nice and hanging loose around the mouth
the eyes are soft and blinking the ears
are relaxed the tail is what we call at
half-mast so it’s nice and loose and
sleepy and they may be even offering a
play bow or a greeting bow so really
looking at wanting to engage and
interact with the environment moving on
we have our yellow zone so these are
what we call our stress signals so as
humans when we get stressed about
something the first thing that happens
is we get very tense in our bodies so
some of us get those little worry lines
between our you know between our eyes we
also can get a sore neck or sore
shoulders from holding that tension and
stress there and others get that kind of
tense or jaw from kind of clamping down
so all of it is tension and it’s from a
stress response so if we look at our
dogs the first thing we are looking at
here is tension all the muscles start to
tighten up in the body and so what
happens along with that is those lips
start to get drawn back around the mouth
the ears also get drawn back on the head
they’re not hanging nice and relaxed
anymore the brow becomes furrowed so
they can get a little kind of those
little worry lines between their eyes or
over the bridge of their nose there
people start to dilate as well then we
can look at the whole body and what
we’re going to talk about now is what we
call displacement behaviors so some
displacement behaviors are really normal
doggy behaviors but offered out of
context are actually stress signals it’s
a federal response to try and cope with
a stress in their environment so the
first one is lip licking so we’re
looking at the dog in the middle here so
flicking out their tongue and doing a
big lip lick so if your dogs just eaten
something really yummy and he’s licking
his lips
chances are he just thought that was
delicious and he’s pretty happy about
himself
if however
the dogs in a new environment there’s
some triggers around that needs to be
worried about it and the rest of the
body is looking a little bit stressed
and tense and you see some big old it
leaks
that’s the displacement of behavior
there that’s him trying to cope with
stress yawning is another displacement
behavior so if you’ve been out walking
with your dog they get home they do a
big yawn and they stretch they go to
their bed they collapse and go into a
nice comfortable sleep chances are they
were tired but if your dog just got up
in the morning and you’ve popped him in
the car and he’s not really a fan of the
car and he’s sitting there he’s not
tired but he’s a bit stressed about
being in this environment and you see
some big yawns and there’s some stress
yawns that you’re observing panting is
another one so again the dog that’s been
on that big walk he comes back and he’s
panting but his body’s nice and relaxed
and he decides to go and sprawl out
somewhere to cool down and he is just
cooling himself down through panting but
if we go to that dog that doesn’t like
the car and he’s sitting in the car air
conditionings blowing it’s nice and cool
there’s no reason for him to be panting
because he’s hot but you start to notice
some panting absolutely that’s your
displacement behavior showing there
where he’s trying to cope with that
stress they can also get what we call
Wei Li so this is where we can see the
white rim around their eye they’re kind
of in conflict in this stage they’re
looking at something that they perceive
as a threat but at the same time they’re
trying to move their body away from it
and then we’ve got cowering moving away
pacing and their tail really low so the
cowering and moving away with these two
some dogs are really subtle in it some
it’s really obvious so some of them
let’s say for moving away they take
themselves off into another room they’re
like I’m out of here but some of them
what they do is they just shift their
weight their back end a little bit they
just move away that little bit that’s
the first sign they’re in that yellow
zone so if we see that hopefully we can
do something there again before they get
up into that red zone
okay so now we do have the redzone
hopefully we don’t see this with our
dogs but we need to know it’s there and
and be prepared if it does happen so a
few things happen when our dogs get to
red zone first of all the body becomes
really stiff and still with big staring
dilated pupils the hackles can come up
so this is where the hair will stand up
along their back if you’ve got a fluffy
guy you’ll never see hackle they’ve got
too much fluff now hackles just really
importantly to touch on is only a sign
of arousal so likely you’ve set about in
previous slides it is about reading the
big picture so if we see hackles up and
the dog is really stiff and still with
big dilated pupils absolutely he’s in
red zone but if for example I’ve got a
little puppy coming down to puppy class
and he is play bowing and bouncing and
he’s got his ears pricked forward and
he’s just really bouncy and excited but
his hackles come up a little bit that is
just excited arousal so it’s one where
it’s really important we do read the
whole picture the tail becomes quite
high on the body with this and it can be
very stiff and snarling growling barking
lunging the ones we kind of know so
really important to know that if we look
at a dog in their nice relaxed state you
can see the guy on the left here
compared to a guy in yellow zone on the
right I’m really important to get to
know your dog so all dogs are kind of
built different shapes and sizes so
observe your dog be mindful of it and
it’s a good one to watch other dogs as
well it’s amazing what you’ll pick up on
okay so most aggression and reactivity
is fear-based and this is one that we
kind of need to remind ourselves of
because what happens is our dog is
offering what’s called distance
increasing behaviors so those red zone
behaviors the snarling the growling the
barking the lunging what they’re doing
is they’re trying to make the stressor
go away so they’re kind of trying to
throw the first punch because they were
scared so it’s like I’m gonna act big
and tough in the hope that you leave me
alone now sometimes what happens is
about
does get into red zone it can be a
little bit embarrassing we don’t want a
dog that’s barking and growling and
lunging at the end of their lead and so
we kind of jump in and think we might
have a quick fix and what we do is we
start to tell the dog off for red zone
now the issue that happens here is that
first of all it’s only gonna increase
their anxiety remember it is fear-based
if they’re already really fearful about
something and then we start telling them
off and getting grumpy at them it’s only
gonna make it worse
now we may extinguish the aggression
precursor and what I mean by that is
that if we punish a dog off let’s say
for growling and we do it often enough
we may get rid of the growl but the
underlying fear and anxiety still
remains and the scary part is we now may
have potentially have a dog that bites
without warning so the example I use
here is little fluffy comes to the vet
clinic and is a little bit worried about
seeing the vet so sitting in the
reception area showing some yellow zone
signal so lip-licking cowering and then
what happens is the vet actually
approaches so the trigger is worse now
the vets near so little fluffy starts to
growl now fluffy Zoners a bit
embarrassed cuz fluffy is now growling
at the vet so fluffy Zoners that
slapping and starts to kind of reprimand
fluffy now again we may get rid of that
growl but fluffy still is really scared
about the vet and the vet clinic so now
what we’ve potentially done is have a
dog that doesn’t have a warning system
and can potentially bite so in Dunbar
says beautifully punishing a growl is
like taking the batteries out of a smoke
alarm now we’re going to talk about
responses to stress so we have a dog
who’s gone to yellow possibly red zone
so they’re stressed how do they cope
with that are they actually cope with it
in the same way that as humans do they
have four options now I am about to put
a spider on the screen I always warn
everyone just in case so there is so
what we can offer as humans if we are
fearful of spiders we
offer fight flight freeze or fiddle so
fight we go get the cannon mortein or
the rolled-up newspaper flight we kind
of run and leave the room and we refuse
to go back into the room until the
spider is gone freeze is where you kind
of stand still you’re frozen in fear and
you’re like oh it’s a spider
and the feel one is where you kind of
scream and jump up and down on the spot
so all of us are different and we can
all do for offer those different
responses and our dogs will do the same
so we’re going to have a look at them
individually now okay first of all
flight if I’m worried about something I
can move away from it which sounds
pretty logical sometimes what happens
though especially out and about is our
dogs are on lead so they don’t have the
option of flight so this guy here has
moved as far as he can to the end of his
lead he’s very stiff in his body you can
see a lot of yellows own body language
going on there that he’s really
uncomfortable about it so he’s kind of
tried fly it I’m gonna try and back off
and move away from the thing I’m worried
about but that lead is keeping him there
fly can also happen off lead so this is
a guy who’s decided that he’s gonna go
and use flight and go and hide behind
the couch so move away from something
this one I used the example of a dog
who’s maybe not being socialized around
little kids you know as a young dog and
so maybe he’s a little bit worried about
little kids and so friends come over and
bring their little kids and they see him
and they’re like oh it’s the doggie from
101 Dalmatians and they so want to go
and pass him but everything about his
body language is saying no thank you
so his ears are pulled back very tense
in the face you can see that whale eye
and he’s cowering behind that couch now
against the untrained eye someone
doesn’t notice this and allows the kids
to keep approaching this dog may then
move away so choose flight again go to
another area of the house try to move
himself away but he will come to a point
where possibly if no one helps him here
he gets trapped he reaches threshold
these kids have been following him
around for a while now that he decides
the flight isn’t working for him anymore
and sadly that’s when
you know you can make the newspapers
because it’s a dog that’s been a child
and it’s a really sad statistic that 75%
of dog bites to children it’s by a dog
that the child knows so really important
that we’re aware of this and we’re
observing our dogs ok flight can also
happen one more out and about with our
dogs so um I have a bit of a love-hate
relationship with our doggie parks I
kind of compare them to mosh pits so
there can be a lot of dogs there there
can be a lot of high arousal for a lot
of the adolescent dogs sure they can
think that it’s a great time and it’s a
big party for everyone but for a lot of
dogs it’s too much so the guy in the
middle here carrying down to the ground
moving away ears pinned back and looking
like he’s giving a bit of a warning
growl or a bar to the other dogs now he
is off lean so you think well he should
be able to go move away to somewhere he
feels safe but sometimes with the really
busy places with so much higher arousal
going on and is he’s got nowhere safe to
go because it’s just so busy and so be
mindful of that when you’re out and
about now we have our freeze response so
this is one that sometimes is missed
because outwardly the dog isn’t doing
anything he looks like he’s you know
he’s sitting there he’s tolerating it
but again we look at this dog’s facial
expression we can see the wrinkles the
ears pulled back very tense clamped shut
jaw people starting to dilate and he’s
kind of carrying down to the ground now
he’s offering a freeze response here but
for how long you know how what procedure
is happening here and before he may end
up choosing a different response so we
want to be able to see the freeze and be
able to help the dog here what can we do
differently how can we reassess this
situation to make him a bit more
comfortable freeze can also happen with
little guys that roll onto their back
I shouldn’t say just little guys the big
guys can do it as well so with our
freeze here the main thing we’re looking
for is tension so this guy you can see
all the muscles are really
tense in that little body we’re not
gonna go up and try and give him a belly
rub it’s not what he’s asking for he’s
free it’s a freeze response and he’s
really not comfortable about this person
taking his photo I’m small photos of our
freeze responses again this is about
being handled with people so you can
look at both of these dogs in their face
and their body and see that they’re
really uncomfortable about it we’re
gonna focus on the little guy down the
bottom so again
tense mouth big dilated pupils he is
pulled back outwardly not doing anything
but saying a lot and again in this
situation he’s tolerating it here but if
this little girl kind of squeezed his
face a little bit more or even worse she
decided she was gonna reach over and
give him a kiss on the nose because he’s
so cute
what may he do then again is this gonna
be another one that makes the papers
that someone’s been bitten by a dog and
we hear it there was no warning but this
guy it’s not outwardly saying anything
but there are a lot of warning signals
going on here now we have our federal
responses so we spoke a little bit about
them previously with our displacement
behaviors so the lip licking and the
yawning are two classic ones dogs can
also do a fiddle scratch as well so
again this is about observing their
environment and what else the body is
doing as well so absolutely if your dog
has some mild allergies and it’s that
time of year he’s having a bit of a
scratch because he’s been itchy yep
normal response if he’s been outside
rolling in the sand and the dirt and
then he comes in and he’s got doing a
bit of an itch you know cuz he’s kind of
a bit itchy from that sand in his coat
again perfectly normal but if we see
tension in the body if it’s as
environment there’s maybe slightly
stressful to them and they start to do
this scratching and absolutely be aware
it can be a federal response and we also
can do fetal sniffing as well so what
happens here is that again we’re looking
for tension in the body it can often
happen when it’s two new dogs meeting
they’ll tend to circle around each other
read each other’s body language a little
bit and weigh out per you friendly
should I go closer should I say hello
and if they’re not sure what they’ll do
is they’ll kind of go oh I’m not sure
are you friendly um oh go over here and
pretend I’m really busy sniffing so
there’s no actual smell there they’re
just going to do something else too you
know to fiddle and cope with that
response now we have our fight response
so with our fight response again looking
at body language here big dilated pupils
we have teeth out very tense in the face
and that tail is coming down quite low
on the body and those ears are pulled
back and another example of fight
response as well again very similar
facial expression here with these guys
again we have to remember this is a
fear-based response and these guys it’s
distance increasing behaviors they’re
saying I am scared go away so how do we
help our dogs I could spend an hour just
on this slide but two things to keep in
mind when you’re out and about
number one distance is your friend so if
your dog is showing some yellow signals
they’re a little bit worried about
something think about moving them let’s
move them away from the trigger let’s
give them a bit of space let’s see if
they can return to green and then
possibly observe from a distance and
also really importantly seek
professional help so that’s what we’re
here for and if we are seeing dogs in
have things in their environment that
they perceive as threats there is lots
that we can do to help them to change
that emotional state and make them feel
more confident and more resilient in
their world
ok doggies and they’re cute wagging
tails so that old wives tale of oh you
know he’s he’s wagging his tail he must
be friendly and is slowly disappearing
which is good but it is still around a
little bit so we’re going to talk about
a few different things our dogs do with
their tails so we do absolutely have the
happy wag what we do is we say that it’s
held a half-mast and this is half-mast
for your dog
so each breed of dog they all have kind
of different set tails some hold a lot
higher
the bodies some have naturally low-set
tails so it is roughly half-mast for
your particular dog the body is really
relaxed and it’s a really nice sweep you
wag and again I’m sure you see this wag
ninety-nine percent of the time now we
have our fearful and our stress dogs so
again we’re looking for that tension and
the tail becomes really low the body can
be very stiff but that tail can be still
wagging and again sometimes that’s where
miscommunication happens because people
stay here and go oh he’s fine he’s
wagging his tail but everything about
this picture here and is saying no I’m
really stressed we then have our
reactive dogs as well so again we’re
looking for stiffness and what happens
is that tail comes really high up on the
body so again this is about your dog and
where they hold their tail but really
high up on the body and there’s a real
stiffness to it and it can be wagging it
can be wagging pretty fast but it’s
really stiff and again another one where
miscommunications happen people just see
the wagga and go oh he’s fine but they
don’t see the stiffness and the
stillness and all the other reactive red
zone signs that are going along with it
okay this cute little picture so we’re
gonna talk about a shake off so when you
wash your dog and then you get soaked
cuz they shake and water goes everywhere
and they’re doing that to dispel water
out of their coat so to dry themselves
off but if you see your dog doing a
shake off so that same action but
they’re dry what they’re actually doing
is getting rid of tension so what
happens is they may have been in a state
of high arousal and then they’re shaking
it off and coming back down to lower
arousal so it can happen in a few
different scenarios it can be used in a
stressful environment so the dog was a
little bit stressed about something that
stress is then alleviated so the dog
does a shake off and comes back down to
Green Zone
it can also happen in play so if play is
getting a little bit full on arousal
levels are kind of going up you will
find that one or both the dogs may break
away kind of have a bit of a
rather and do a shake off and again just
come back down to a slightly karma level
so I’m going to show you a video in a
moment because it is a lot easier to see
a shake often see in a photo and I’m
gonna chat you through it okay so again
this was just a little bit of
inappropriate play a bit high arousal
from the younger dog the older dog said
hey mind your manners there was a quick
little like settle down but they
respected that you saw the stiffness but
then there was that nice shake off and
everything returned to normal now I
apologize in advance for the next video
but you will
[Music]
okay so again you will never forget the
shake off if I had a dollar for every
time I saw a dog – a shake off as they
walked out of the vet clinic I could buy
some really cool toys for my dogs so
keep that in mind the shake off is a
really nice one to watch for as they
come back down to that caramel level now
if you would like more of the body
language info and have it readily
available right at your fingertips and
the dog decoder app is a really really
good little app available for iPhone and
Android so all the body language signals
we spoke about in the last 20 minutes
they’re all there in really nice little
diagrams explanations about what your
dog dog is doing and what that means so
great for educating others dog owners
really good for educating friends and
family and also a really nice one to
help with kids and dogs get along safely
okay next topic we’re going to cover is
social skills for dogs so polite
greetings an appropriate play so dogs
are social species just like us so when
we were little we were taught to to
share to take turns to cooperate to work
together and we weren’t born with these
skills and our caregivers taught that
our role models taught us that and the
same thing happens with our dogs it’s
important to give them experiences so
that they can learn appropriate social
skills they’re definitely not just born
with them so we’re going to look at how
they establish these social skills it
does all start with mum and littermates
so first of all they learn what’s called
bite inhibition when they’re interacting
with their little mates so this means
that obviously dogs mouth and bite to
play but they do it with a soft mouth so
if one puppy plays too hard by it’s too
hard and is too rough the others might
kind of Yelp and run away and kind of be
like I don’t wanna play with you you
know you’re a big mean bully and so
they’ll start to adjust their play so
that the other puppies will come back
and interact with them mum is a bit of a
referee at this stage she does a lot of
what’s called splitting behavior so this
where if players getting to full-on she
will simply split it up she’ll walk
between the two puppies and just diffuse
the situation so just as simple walking
between them can often decrease arousal
levels you will see a lot of adult dogs
do this once you know what splitting is
you see it a lot so you will see a lot
of nice social adult dogs through this
if things kind of escalate and get a
little bit too full-on with other dogs
around they’ll just step between them
just calmly step between and it’s just
like a hey settle down we then have that
socialization period so this is where we
have to make sure we’re giving our
puppies lots and lots of positive
experiences we’ve been calm and polite
around other dogs greeting lots of
different people and also exposing them
in a really positive way to different
environments so we only get one chance
at this socialization period so really
important that we make the most of it
and give them lots and lots of positive
experiences to build up that confidence
about their world we also look at
appropriate activities for our dogs as
we venture through with them so lots of
training classes and and fun workshops
are available out and about and the idea
is that we’re going to focus on engaging
and playing with their owner and
building that bond and having that
really nice relationship do seek out
qualified pet care professionals what
you will find is the dog training
industry is completely unregulated so
there’s some lovely people out there
that can have the absolute best of
intentions and want to you know set up
their doggy daycare and set up you know
some you know pet training services but
really important that they go out and
they’ve spent the time to make sure that
they have you know the knowledge to give
your dog the best possible start then we
can talk about dog dog interactions so
how they should greet each other
appropriately cutoff signals when
they’re kind of saying no I’ve had
enough and also different playstyles so
we’re gonna delve into that a little bit
further so dog dog interactions when we
go out and about with our dogs and
before we go and say hello there are
some things we need to be mindful of
first of all I suggest you follow the
one-in-ten ratio for greetings what this
means is for every 10 dogs you see out
and about your dog actually gets to
physically say hello to one of them and
if we allow our dog to say hi to too
many dogs and you can go a bit
pear-shaped not every dog is going to be
really eager to say hi to every other
dog and if you look at us we’re kind of
the same we have our close group of
friends that we play nicely with and the
rest of the population we just polite to
you might walk you know along the street
and smile and say good morning to
someone but you don’t walk along the
street and run up to everyone and say
Jenna come to my house for dinner and
then the next person Jenna come to my
house for dinner the next person you
want to come to my house for dinner and
you could have mentioned like if I did
that people would start fighting the
police you know there’s this crazy lady
out there trying to get people to go to
her house but we kind of put that
expectation on our dogs they should go
up and say hi to everyone and that’s
really unrealistic for them they should
have a close group of doggie friends
everyone else they just pull up with so
follow roughly that 1 to 10 ratio and
things should go well now when we’re
choosing that one in 10 how do we go
about that first of all we need to
assess the other dog and the owner we
also need to read the body language of
our own dog and we’re gonna run through
it now the simple steps to some polite
greetings so how do we assess and then
how do we go about doing it so I always
ask the question shall we go and say
hello so this one I’m out and about and
there is a dog and the owner is on their
phone and I don’t say hi to this dog
purely because that owner they’re busy
doing something else they’re not
connected with their dog they’re not a
hundred percent like in the moment to be
able to make sure that that interaction
goes well you know they’re busy doing
something else and that’s fine but I
don’t know that other dog I don’t know
how it’s gonna go I need that owner
present so this one I’m gonna give it a
Miss okay
little cutie with a ball in its mouth um
looks pretty happy bouncy you know eager
to interact but there’s a toy and this
can sometimes cause issues out and about
with our dogs
so this dog has chosen I want to play
with my ball and that’s fine that’s the
game Dave chosen to do at this
particular time so I’m not going to go
and approach this dog with my dog
because that’s not what this little guys
after at the moment there’s a lot of
issues with other dogs running up and
trying to steal another dog’s toy or
trying to join in the game and this
little guy doesn’t want the game of keep
the ball off the dog this dog is like I
want to play ball with my with my owner
and that is fine so do be mindful of
that one we’re out and about toys can
sometimes cause a few issues all right
this one we’re completely reading body
language with this little sweetheart I’m
really really scared in this environment
he has pulled back huge dilated pupils
very tense in the face cowering and
hiding between mums legs there’s no way
I’d be going anywhere near this little
guy so worried about the world that I
feel that if we approached even a little
bit closer
this dog would be in red zone this would
be the dog that’s like barking growling
snapping at the end of the lead like
completely petrified and scared so
reading the other dog’s body language is
really really important
this sweet oldie and this isn’t a yes or
no as if we say hi to this dog and this
one is really about our dog so if I also
have an older dog who’s just kind of
hanging about having a sniff wandering
around and I might check with the other
owner or can they say hi
because it will just be like a little
sniff hey how are you and kind of off
they go again
they’re not gonna do big bouncy crazy
roly-poly play if I have a
nine-month-old 40 kilo puppy though you
know bouncy and excited and still
learning social skills so it can be a
bit over enthusiastic about the world
I’m I’m probably not gonna say hi to
this one one this guy you know ice
might be fading a little bit and so this
big bouncy puppy rushing up and getting
in his face maybe all too much for him
and also he’s older he may have a bit of
arthritis in those hips and he doesn’t
want a big bouncy dog kind of pushing
and shoving him around alright this guy
here so he’s looking calm but interested
so not pulling on the lead being all
over aroused and crazy and not kind of
showing any signs of being fearful or
worried either a nice soft face ears
perked forward tail at half-mast this
one though what I am gonna point out is
this dog is on lead and our leads kind
of again something that causes issues a
little bit out and about so if it is two
dogs on lead I would do a quick little
sniff hello how are you move along if
both dogs are looking comfortable if
however one dog is off lead and one is
on lead I’m not going to let the
interaction happen I’m moving I’m
getting out of there we’re really
setting up that dog who’s on lead can’t
interact naturally can’t move away and
so things can kind of go pear-shaped so
if they’re on lead both of them a quick
little sniff hello how are you that’s it
off we go but if there’s one off and one
on it’s a no-go zone it just can cause
too many issues alright we have our
little guys playing so our little guys
they’re doing like faster zoom in play
or look pretty happy and kind of zooming
and having lots of fun we then have our
Great Danes again really bouncy
exaggerated movements looking like
they’re having lots of fun so separately
sure these guys look like they’re having
having a great time but I have let’s say
a six kilo shitzu on the left and a 60
kilo great dane in the middle i’m
high-energy fast-paced zoomy play I’m
not gonna let the big guys and the
little guys pay that together the big
guys won’t mean to may not mean to but
can really accidentally bowl over a
little guy and send them flying and
cause an injury all too quickly
or go to pear-shaped so high arousal
games with big guys and little guys and
I recommend steer clear of saying that
though I’m not saying big guys and
little guys shouldn’t play I think it’s
really important they get used to dogs
of all different sizes and there’s
lovely big dogs out there who play
beautifully with little guys and this
picture here what they’re doing is the
big guys doing what’s called
self-handicapping so the big guys
getting down to the little guys level so
getting down they often do roly poly
play like here they may do kind of bitey
mouths kind of play as well but if the
big guy gets down and self handicaps
absolutely they can you know have a nice
little interaction but please do avoid
the really fast case
zoomy play with the biggies and the
little least together okay now we’re
going to talk about polite greetings so
we’ve gone through events with those
questions we’ve found that one in ten
dog of who we’re going to say hi to and
the first thing we need to be mindful of
is that dogs have personal space just
like we do so we’re going to put in
human terms you meet someone new and so
you greet them and you say you give them
a handshake hi how are you and then what
you tend to do is you take a little step
backwards so you release their hand and
you move out of their personal space now
you’ve all met that person who doesn’t
respect personal space and so they say
hi to you they hug you or they you know
they hug you and you’ve never met them
before or they shake your hand and then
they kind of step closer into you and
you start to feel really uncomfortable
and awkward and you start to feel that
tension because they’re in your personal
space and you don’t know them and you
may try to kind of back away out of it
so the same thing can happen with our
dogs so as they kind of get in each
other’s personal space to do a little
sniff hello how are you it’s really
quick it’s really important that it’s
quick its brief hi how are you get out
of personal space because I don’t know
you if we allow them to stay in each
other’s personal space for too long
makes it really uncomfortable and you
start to see that tension build just
like it would and for those you know
those human greeters that don’t respect
personal space so what we do is we
follow what’s called the three-second
rule
so what we’re going to do is we’re going
to have ticked all the boxes answer the
questions that we’ve about are we gonna
say hello we’ve read body language we’ve
checked with the other owner is it okay
for my dog to say hello and then we’re
going to let them do three seconds or
less so no more than three Smith hello
how are you
we’re then going to call our dog away
now we can call them away in a few ways
we could use name game we could use the
little treat on their nose to call them
away and then kind of reinforce them you
know you did such a good job you said
hello well done but three seconds that’s
it hello how are you get out of personal
space and when they’re doing this we’re
looking for body language so the guys on
the left here we’re looking for that
curved relaxed body so they’re doing
what dogs do they’re having a good sniff
but everything about their body is nice
and relaxed compared to the guys on the
right so guys on the right a little
puppy you can see the weight is shifted
onto those back legs
I’m very tight and tense in the face and
those ears are kind of pulled back then
the other guy you can see a lot of
hackles coming up
I’m tail is very high and stiff very
stiff in the face and both their bodies
again a lot of tension in it so I would
have preferred that these guys didn’t
even get that close to say hi I would
have hoped to have seen some body
language before it got that close and
kind of called them away beforehand but
if it gets to a point where it’s this
close I’m gonna take action now I’m
calling both dogs away in diffusing the
situation because both of them are
really uncomfortable in each other’s
personal space now I then get clients
asking me well is this how they say hi
to dogs forever you know three seconds
is that it
think about it with us if you’re gonna
go and see someone that you don’t know
terribly well you’re gonna do a
handshake you know but if you’re gonna
go visit your mum’s so if I’m gonna go
see mom tomorrow I’m not gonna walk into
her house and go hi mom and shake her
hand you know my mum gets a big hug and
a kiss from me so people we have
relationships with so our close friends
our close family we are more comfortable
in their personal space so we’re
more comfortable to go in and give them
a hug and a kiss so you will see with
your dog the same things start to happen
they may not hug and kiss but what you
will see is that that greeting they’ll
start to recognize that friend I mean
like oh hey it’s my doggie friend that I
saw the other day and they’ll go up and
they’ll be more comfortable in each
other’s personal space and then they’ll
start to initiate play now when they are
playing we’re watching for lots of
different things we’re looking for a
real curvy body language really bouncy
and exaggerated movements so if we think
about little kids when they’re playing
and they’re excited about something they
don’t just walk somewhere they skip and
they run and they bounce and so our dogs
are the same when they’re playing it’s
big and it’s bouncy and exaggerated they
will also be offering our play balls and
pauses so now we’re going to look at a
couple of slides here with some more
body language so first of all these two
guys here take them out
but bouncy exaggerated movements a bit
high arousal I’d be managing this but
absolutely you know both of them are
kind of having fun at the moment they
are like little kids it could go
pear-shaped rather quickly but at the
moment it’s loose and it’s bouncy
compared to these two guys here a lot of
tension in the body here with these two
so again being really mindful of the
difference in their body postures now
when they’re playing as well and as well
as that big bouncy exaggerated movements
they kind of get that goofy play face as
well and so they should look you know
like little kids look when they’re
having fun like be Greene’s ear to ear
like lots of kind of soft relaxed faces
tongues lolling out and really nice
bouncy relaxed bodies now back to the
play bars and pauses this is how we make
sure that the the play is is going
appropriately so a play bow is used to
initiate play and a pause what happens
with the pause is that the dog will
pause for a moment and arousal levels
decrease and it gives them a moment to
check in with the other dogs so it’s
kind of a question are you still having
fun and if the other dog offers a play
bow to re-engage
then yep absolutely they’ll go back in
and start having fun again so I’m gonna
show you a video of my two guys in a
moment and their little Terriers they
like to wrestle and have a good little
play but we’re going to observe for some
little pauses and play boughs in this
okay so they’re wrestling pause play bow
re-engage pause play bow re-engage pause
play bury engage okay so they like to
wrestle and they’re kind of bouncy and
having lots of fun with it but there was
those little check-ins you’re still
having fun and then that re-engaged yep
let’s do that again
now dogs can have different play styles
and we’ve seen some already in this
session so the retrievers doing the
roly-poly play my two guys now just
doing the wrestling the little guys and
the Danes doing the chasey play and
Milani who’s my little female in the
video one of her other really good doggy
friends is Parker who’s a border collie
and they don’t wrestle they chase and so
they flat-out hoon around my paddock and
then they’ll both pause they’ll come to
a screeching stop almost at the same
time they look at each other play bow
and then they go again so there’s these
little moments where they check in and
make sure that they’re having fun it’s
often when they’ll change direction it’s
often when they’ll change who’s chasing
who and it’s really nice to watch now if
it’s two adolescent dogs playing and I
don’t see any pauses it’s getting a
little bit too high arousal there might
be a bit of tension starting in the body
I will prompt some pauses so I may use
some little treatise or their name game
and kind of go pop up pop ups kind of
call them to me to kind of diffuse the
situation maybe ask for a little seat
yes give them that treaty and then free
go play again so just helping them come
back decrease arousal levels off you go
again so I’m just like little kids and
when they’re that all we’re kind of
there we’re not micromanaging but we’re
there to support and help them when
needed I’m really important we’re doing
that for our adolescent dogs as well
okay a quick little wanted to want to
talk about now is development of
sociability so this is inside our canine
brain so our dogs go through similar
development processes as what we do just
in a very condensed timeframe so about
juvenile pups these are kind of like our
toddlers and our primary school kids
most of them are really highly so sure
you think about you know little kids
they’ve got a new best friend at school
every week they are really dependent on
primary caregivers though so we think
about the little toddler who you know is
happy to venture off a little bit but
needs that security of coming back to
mom and dad as well and that kind of
builds as they get older so the same
thing happens with our pups
then the fun stage happens so this is
when our dogs become adolescents or
teenagers so they’re still usually
pretty highly social they start to
develop some close friendships but the
challenging bit is that they start to
become increasingly independent and they
take risks now that goes on and then we
get the adult dog so with the adult dog
firm friendships are established and
what happens with the adult dog the
majority of them is sociability actually
decreases now this doesn’t mean that all
of a sudden they don’t want to be they
don’t want to be friends with anyone
what it means is they’re just not as
open to new friendships and you know
again if we compare them to us we’re
kind of the same as adults we’re pretty
comfortable in our closed social groups
we don’t have a new best friend every
week like we did when we were little we
don’t go to the being teenage parties
like we used to you know we’re just not
comfortable with being with people we
know and the same thing happens with our
adult dogs and it’s often when we can
see issues start to creep in because
that adolescent dog has just become an
adult and instead of loving that mosh
pit that is the dog park they can start
to have a few issues and not want to be
there they don’t want to hang out at the
teenage parties anymore and and that is
perfectly fine now as far as ages on
this our young pups we’re looking up to
about 4 to 5 months of age and then they
will become a teenager and the important
numbers I want you to remember for this
though is teenage to adulthood happens
at around two years of age so this
causes some issues for our dogs this
number because we talked about a dog
being an adult at 1 year of age and
physically they’re pretty much fully
grown at one but socially they’ve still
got a lot of development to go and if we
look at ourselves the same thing happens
we put a number 18 is when adult we know
we become an adult and if we look back
to our 18 year old selves we may have
thought we were really mature but in
actual fact we weren’t fully grown up we
weren’t completely developed social
maturity in humans they record on
average is kind of mid 20s now if we go
back to our dogs we put this there are a
dot they’re an adult at 1 year of age
kind of label on them issues kind of
creep in so a lot of our rescue
organizations our shelter groups the
average age of dogs in their care are
dogs between 18 months and 2 years of
age now the reason for this the
predominant reason is that dogs been a
puppy you know the owner thing so he’ll
grow out of it he’s just a puppy and
then of the year of age the owner has
new expectations this is now an adult
dog you should start acting like an
adult why are you still being a puppy
why are you still taking risks and and
so the bond is broken they start to
believe that they have a bad dog
and sadly they can then be that dog is
then relinquished into a shelter or a
rescue organization so really really
important to know that our dogs really
are teenagers up to two years of age
there’s no magic cure for teenagehood
clear calm and consistent is always my
advice and also get into training have
fun with them bond with them have that
have that relationship with them and
they’ll get there okay we’re going to
really quickly run through some
environmental enrichment and what I’m
going to send you guys away with is to
hopefully
for to give a go with the no food bowl
challenge so dogs need jobs to do or
they will create their own historically
they naturally spent hours a day hunting
and foraging for food
we then domesticated them thousands of
years ago but we domesticated them for
working purposes so they would spend
hours a day working in a specific role
we would then give them food out of a
bowl because they’d worked all day doing
jobs for us so they kind of got a free
feed but they spent hours a day working
so important first of all for us to
think about looking at our individual
dog and what were they bred to do
because what you’ll find is there is
only a small percentage of dog breeds
that were bred just for companionship
majority of them out there were bred for
a working purpose so they do need a job
to do
so we have our gun dogs our retrieving
breeds our terriers our herding breeds
our guarding breeds so many different
roles that our dogs have done for us
over the years and our pet dogs now have
a have a pretty sweet life but along
with that can creep in some boredom
issues
they now don’t have a daily job to do
they don’t have that outlet for that
instinct and that energy and so we can
often see some destructive issues
excessive high-energy and inappropriate
behaviors like this guy here so what can
we do instead for our pet dogs because
they’re not out you know working ten
hours on a farm anymore for example so
first of all we need to find an outlet
for our dog’s instincts and also give
them interactive ways to work for their
food every day
so I suggest we throw out the food bowl
and we feed the fun way so I’m gonna run
through some ideas now with you and you
will find you can spend a small fortune
on interactive doggy toys or I’m gonna
give you some really simple easy cheap
options as well so you pick and choose
what you think is gonna work for your
dog so we’re gonna start with the Kong’s
they made a really hard durable rubber
stuff at full of yummy wet food and they
also come in lots of different sizes so
you can get them for every size dog
Under the Sun and we can teach the game
and then build up the challenge of the
cone so novice dogs we’re just gonna
stuff the wet food really lightly in
there and I use a lot of the prime 100
pull any roll so I chopped that up and
stuff that in there and we can help the
dog a little bit by holding the Kong and
encouraging them once they’ve kind of
got that down to a fine art we move on
to the intermediate option where we can
start to really stuff that food in
firmly so it’s harder to get out and we
leave it with them independently we
don’t need to hold it and help them they
can kind of lie there happily on their
match while we’re doing something else
and they can be working on it again once
they’re really happy with that
the advanced guys what we can do with
them to really challenge them and give
them a really fun job is that we’re
gonna stuff it full of yummy food and
then we’re gonna freeze it so again it
just takes longer for the food to come
out and again instead of just giving
them the Kong go hide it somewhere let
them use their amazing noses and go and
find the yummy the yummy Kong we then
have the treat balls quite a few
different ones on the market similar to
your calls your Kong’s for wet food your
treat balls are for your dry food so
again different options so we can to
start with just putting some dry foods
you can absolutely use some little dry
treats as well and we can help the dog a
little bit show them move it a little
bit encourage them to kind of interact
with it then we can get them working
independently and my final one this is
how I feed my guys a lot of the time is
that I use the so these are the Kong
wobblers so I’ll put their food in there
I will then rest tennis ball on top and
then do up the lead
and basically what the tennis ball does
is it just blocks that hole every now
and again so the food doesn’t come out
as quickly call have a lot of different
products on the market and so have a
look around see what you think your dog
might like there’s also the canine
connectable these are a fairly new one
on the market but these are really cool
is a definitely my dogs top Peaks
and they again you can stuff them with
food and they can go in the freezer so
you can stuff and freeze them and then
they all click and join together to kind
of make it kind of a food puzzle for
them to work out and chew on and play
with little kids play pools we can put
lots of different things so we could put
the balls in there that’s my guys in
there getting their dinner out of it for
a dog that likes to dig we can redirect
them to an appropriate digging area so
popping some sand in ER with some toys
and some treats to encourage them to use
that I also use a lot of indoor digging
pits so I get some old towels from the
back of the linen cupboard chuck them
into the pool add some food to it and my
dogs will get in there and they’ll dig
and scratch and rummage around and have
lots of fun trying to find the food and
absolutely we can put some water in it
you know lots of dogs love to have a bit
of a splash and a play around so you
know something one little toy that you
can do lots of different things with
nothing goes in my recycle bin until
I’ve had a look at it decided if my dogs
can play with it so it Canton’s cereal
boxes empty toilet rolls anything like
that again you can pop some of their
food in it close the lid and then give
it to them they can pull it apart and
shred it and have lots of fun working to
get their food occasionally I get a
client who’s like Laura I think up it’s
a cardboard all around the house and
that’s fine they can use something else
instead of cardboard boxes but my
suggestion is I say but I know but
you’re reticulation still in the ground
and your pop plants are still in one
piece this week so a win-win I’m really
quickly on plastic bottles I take the
lid off and pop some food in there then
I can crunch and chew and shake it to
play with it and the plastic bottles do
make sure you are a hundred percent
supervising this game purely because 95
percent of dogs will just chew and
crunch and shake till they get all the
food out and then I’ll stop finish the
game but there’s that small percentage
who then think it might be fun to chew
up the bottle and ingest it so if you
have a dog who you think might like to
ingest peace
sort of things and maybe avoid plastic
bottles popsicles are another nice
little one as well so I use either a
little silicone mold an empty plastic
container or I do use a lot of the glaad
Ziploc sandwich bags pop some of their
food in you can put some treats in there
you’re then gonna fill it with water
freeze it and in the next day you can
take it out of the container put it out
on the lawn and they can leak and chew
and crunch and play with it there’s also
lots of food puzzles and slow feed bowls
out there as well and so the idea again
is instead of them being able to Hoover
it up you know Hoover that food up in a
matter of seconds everything just takes
that little bit longer they’ve got to
work and use those brains and interact
with that toy to work to get that food
out also we use snuffle mats and licky
mats so these are really nice enrichment
ones but I do use them a lot for
husbandry skills as well so the snuffle
mat at the top I just used some dry food
I scatter it on so it’s just polar
fleece on a rubber mat and all the food
kind of disappears down into all the
little pieces of fabric so they’ve got a
sniff and snuffled and use their nose to
find all the little bits of food that’s
hidden in the pieces of fabric and then
the leaky mats they’re just little pot
holders came out Big W have them I think
they’re about two dollars and I use I
tend to use the baby food you can use
any sort of wet food but the baby foods
a good consistency and I’ll squeeze a
blobby and and kind of rub it into all
of those little grooves and the idea is
that they can leak at it and it takes
them quite a while to get all the yummy
food out of all of the little grooves
now the reason I use these for husbandry
and handling is that I am reinforcing my
dog for being handled I’m also kind of
distracting them a little bit so they’ve
got a job to do while I’m doing things
to them and it also kind of keeps them
relatively still so they’re kind of in
one spot which means that I can kind of
go about what I need to do so I might
have the stuff on that out and while
they’re sniffing and snuffling I could
trim some nails I could get some
brushing down and might wipe out their
ears we’re gonna start really gradually
we third introduced the handling skills
really slowly and we do have another
little video on on our website that does
go through that but absolutely snuffle
Matson Lee he mats are a favorite in my
household
okay last little topic we’re going to
zoom through I’m so the perfect pet dog
and this is the perfect pet dog in your
eyes and I’m sure you’ve already started
some training but if not the training
starts now and there’s a few things that
we’re going to have a think about so
first of all we need to make sure we
manage the environment as best as we
possibly can we want to set our dog up
to succeed so as much as possible take
temptation out of the way so it is like
having a toddler in the house and puppy
and dog proof the house you know the car
keys and the TV remote and your
sunglasses they don’t belong on the
coffee table anymore you know they’re up
high they’re on top of the breakfast bar
or on top of the fridge if you’ve got a
Great Dane and get things up out of the
way
shut the Wardrobe doors put the lid on
the laundry hamper as much as we can
puppy proof the house Kraig training
and/or using an exercise or a playpen is
also really valuable but we’re teaching
it in a really positive way so this
becomes like your doggies bedroom it’s a
nice safe place that they feel really
comfortable in it’s where I do a lot of
so they get their stuffed Kong’s in
there lots of really positive things
happen when they’re in their crate or
their playpen and again a really nice
management tool and also make use of
your lead you know we use the lead to
take them out and about for walks but we
can absolutely use it around the house
so you might have some friends coming
over and they’ve got some little kids
coming with them and your puppy’s still
kind of learning the social skills and
to you know not jump on people so pop
them on leads have some treats in your
pocket be ready to do some training lots
of little skills we’re gonna teach in
classes to help you with that but you
know that lead can really help you
manage your environment as well next one
is to know behavior is everywhere and so
what we’re gonna do is we’re going to
look at behavior and most behaviors can
be
into two categories so your desirable
behaviors and your undesirable so the
things you like your dog to doing I’m
really highly reinforced it at this
stage think about what’s reinforcing for
your dog so food what toys do they like
what games do they like what kind of
attention inter and interactions with
you do they really enjoy and whether
when they’re doing the good stuff when
they’re being a really good dog
make sure you highly reinforce it the
more we reinforce the behavior the more
they will offer it then we’re gonna move
to the undesirable stuff so a lot of the
undesirable stuff can be normal doggy
behavior it’s just in a family home it
may not be desirable so really important
that the big word I want you to take
away is to redirect so think about what
behavior would you like instead then
show them that teach them that reinforce
that so for example I have a young puppy
who’s deciding that they want to chew on
my really expensive running shoes I’m
gonna redirect them there being a puppy
there being a dog it’s what dogs do they
chew on stuff so I’m going to show them
oh look I’ve got a really yummy stuffed
Kong or look and here’s your bed how
about you lie on your bed or your mat
and you chew on that and then you tell
them how good they are and they get to
see and enjoy their Kong and have lots
of fun so keep that in mind if there’s
some undesirable stuff what would you
like to do instead show teach and
reinforce and I’m going to leave you
with a quote from the amazing dr. Susan
Freedman the key question is not how do
I stop the pets problem behavior rather
it’s what do I want that animal to do
instead then teach it and hopefully and
that’s what we’re here for we could help
you teach it thank you so much for
listening to the presentation I’m sure
your dogs there’s a huge big THANK YOU
as well hopefully you’ve learned a
little bit more about them today and
you’ve got some new skills that you can
introduce at home thank you very much
for listening