Dogs Talk While They Walk

Spring is here, the weather is warm and people are once again out and about with their dogs.  It is a wonderful thing to see people caring for their dogs.  Most people don’t understand what they are doing when they walk their dogs.  Sure you are taking the dog out to go to the bathroom and to get exercise, which is great, but that is not all that is going on.  Have you ever sat in an area where a lot of people will walk their dogs?  I am lucky, all I have to do is go sit on the porch and people walk their dogs right by my house.  If you watch the interaction you will see much more than a potty call and some exercise going on.  Some people are being pulled along by their dog, some are walking with friends without a clue as to what their dogs are doing, and some are walking in a very symbiotic way with their dogs.  Those that are walking with their dogs, as opposed to just walking their dog,  are so much more at ease and their dogs are comfortable, not pulling or darting off a the slightest movement.  It is really a remarkable thing to watch if you know what to look for.  The communication is all there as well.  The dog is part of a pack and at ease instead of nervous and jittery with no direction.

          
What most people don’t seem to understand is that a walk is a very social activity for a dog.  They meet other dogs, smell other dogs markings, and they see the outside world much differently while on a walk then they do if they are in the yard.  Walking creates an environment where you and your dog can bond.  Whether or not you know it, when walk your dog, you are communicating a lot of very important things.  You are discussing authority, caring, assertiveness, rules, and much more.  In your dog’s eyes, a whole other world is opened to them while on a walk, and a lot of communicating is going on without one sound being uttered.

          
A walk is a great time to take advantage of your dog’s natural instincts, and use them to your benefit.  It may not seem like your dog is paying attention to you while on a walk, but I can assure you nothing is further from the truth.  Just because your dog seems to be sniffing at everything and distracted by the slightest movement of a squirrel or a leaf, doesn’t mean the dog is not paying attention to you.  Your dog is always paying attention to you and your body language.  Once you understand that, you will find communicating with your dog not only simple, but a very rewarding experience.  If your dog is pulling, just stop; don’t say anything, just stop.  Wait for your dog to understand that you have stopped and they need to stop.  Calm your dog down standing in front of him; don’t let your dog walk until they are calm.  Once calm you can begin to walk again, and as soon as your dog pulls, do the same thing.  You will find yourself stopping every three feet, and it will be difficult to calm your dog down at first.  After a while you will see that your dog will understand that you are in charge.  This is one simple way to communicate with your dog without having to say anything.  Just stay calm, and don’t speak to your dog, let your actions do the talking for you.

          
Once you get the hang of it you will see that walking your dog is more like having a chat with your dog.  How the silent chat will go is all up to you.  If you are calm and you put yourself in the leadership role on the walk, you will see that it will translate to all other aspects of your life with your dog.  You may even notice your dog calming down and doing what you want, without you ever having to say a word.   That is a great feeling.  It will help to keep your dog calm and happy, and a calm happy dog is a great way to ensure your dog stays healthy and happy for many years to come.

Nick Carreno

DoggieDiaries4U@gmail.com

Scarlet Has a Home

          As some of you may know, I have been working with the Delaware County SPCA.  I have been trying to help them find dogs a home, particularly dogs that are having a hard time being adopted.  A few months back I did an article on Scarlet, entitled Scarlet Needs a Home.  I got a great response for her, I had people tell me they were interested in giving her a home, but it just didn't happen.  I usually don't speak about my personal life on this blog.  This blog is meant to be an informative blog concerning dogs.  I am breaking that rule today.

          I could not believe Scarlet was having such a hard time getting adopted, she was friendly, playful, young, and house broken.  What more could you ask for in a dog you want to adopt.  Scarlet was just having no luck.  She was placed in a foster home with really great people to look after her.  I had asked how she was doing a few times, and the answer was always the same, Scarlet is doing great but still has no "forever" home.  I decided that enough was enough.  If no one else would adopt this great dog then I would.  I took my family over to meet Scarlet and they loved her at first sight.  Scarlet put on a show, hamming it up for everyone in the room.  We spoke with her foster family for a little while, and they just loved Scarlet.  They had other dogs and Scarlet was doing well being around them.  We decided to have Scarlet meet our two dogs.  I have mentioned them several times in other articles.  We have a black lab and a siberian husky.  So we set a date for the dogs to get together.  Scarlet met Frankie (the husky) first.  Frankie has got to be the most mellow dog I have ever had, so she was the logical choice to be the first to meet Scarlet.  They hit it off right away, there were no problems at all.  They seemed to become friends very quickly.  Now it was Jasmines turn.  Jasmine is a very uptight dog, I know labs are meant to be mellow, but Jasmine has a really bad case of separation anxiety and gets very nervous when meeting new dogs and people. I was a bit worried how this would turn out.  Jasmine met Scarlet, and it went well.  There were a few growls that came from Jasmine when Scarlet tried to play, but other than that it went very well.

  

         I went to the SPCA last Tuesday (May 3rd 2011) and filled out the paper work to adopt Scarlet.  I picked her up that night from her foster home.  The adjustment has gone much better than I anticipated.  Jasmine warmed up to Scarlet with in the first few hours.  It seems Scarlet is very good at making friends.  It has been a couple of days now, and though I swore i would never have more than 2 dogs at a time, I know this was the right thing to do.  Scarlet is fitting in wonderfully, I have even caught all three dogs sleeping together at night.  I think I was very lucky to be able to give Scarlet a good home.  I intend to keep her healthy and happy for as long as she is with us.

Nick Carreno
DoggieDiaries4u@gmail.com

How to Housebreak a Dog

      

          Most people think one of the hardest things to do with a new dog or puppy is housebreaking them.  I have heard people say "if they go in the house, rub their noses in it and they won’t go in the house anymore."  This could not be further from the truth.  If your dog goes in the house and you get angry and rub their nose in the mess, all you are going to accomplish is to confuse the dog.  If you look at it from the dog’s point of view, they are going to know you’re mad, but will not be sure why you are mad.  Then you rub their nose in an area where they have just gone, your dog is going to think you are mad at the way they smell.  After all, marking is one way dogs communicate, and all you will be saying is I don't like you.  This is not a good message to send to your new dog or puppy.  Dogs are creatures of habit, and they also live by instinct.  If you take advantage of these things, housebreaking your new dog or puppy will be a breeze.  I am not going to tell you there won’t be a mess or two to clean up.  New puppies and dogs will mess in the house for all kinds of reasons.  Don't forget you are taking a dog and putting it in a new environment.  This could cause the dog to be scared and insecure, which will lead to a mess or two.

          I have covered this subject in another article of mine, "Puppies Need Care", however I felt this topic needed more than just a paragraphs worth of attention. If you have any questions feel free to make a comment or email me.  I will do my best to help you get your new puppy or dog housebroken

          The best way to housebreak a new dog or puppy is to confine them to a small space for the first few days you have them.  I know that may sound cruel, it is not.  What it does is take advantage of the basic instinct of a dog not to go to the bathroom where it sleeps.  Now you cannot just put your puppy or dog in a kennel and leave it there to mess in the area where it is confined.  You will need to take advantage of the fact that dogs are creatures of habit.  You will need to let your dog out at the same time every day, whether to go for a walk, or to play in the yard. When your dog does go to the bathroom outside, give it praises.  Let the dog know you are happy with what it just did.  The next time you take your dog outside bring it to the same spot where it went to the bathroom before.  The dog will smell the area and go there again.  Once the dog knows this is a good spot to go it will start to want to go there.   Be careful of the times you choose because this will set up a habit your dog will have for a very long time.  Once it knows it is to go outside at a certain time, it will want to go to out at that time for the rest of its life.   So if you decide 4 AM is the time it is to go out, you can expect to be putting the dog out a 4 AM for the duration of its time with you, and if you don't the dog will more than likely bug and harass you until you do let it out.

          If you already own a dog that is house broken, it will be much easier to housebreak a new dog.  As for having the new dog and your current dog meet and form a good relationship, that will be another article in and of itself.  Using the area where your current dog goes to the bathroom will make it that much easier for you to house break a new dog.  The same rules apply, confine the new dog to a small space for the first few days, but when it is time to go outside, take your new puppy or dog to an area where your current dog goes, the new dog will start to go there as well.  This will help you to housebreak the new dog much faster, and it will also help the new dog become equated with your current dog through all the scents your dog has left for the new one to find.  It is much like a greeting in dog language.  

          The sooner your dog is house broken, the sooner you will be able to let them explore your entire home.  Do not stop letting them out at the designated times however, if you do the puppy will start to go in the house.  You need to make the habit of going outside stick with the new dog.  Once the habit is truly formed your dog will start to remind you it’s time to go out if you forget.  Housebreaking a new dog is not that hard, it just takes patience and determination.  Housebreaking your new dog will help to ensure your dog is healthy and happy for a long time to come.  Thanks for reading, and once again, if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me.  I will do my best to help you with whatever doggie problem you may have.

Nick Carreno
DoggieDiaries4u@gmail.com
 

Food Aggression, a Serious Problem

            If you have a dog that is food aggressive, it is no laughing matter.  This is one of the most common ways people find themselves on the receiving end of a very nasty bite.  When a dog is near food, or even a toy, and it exhibits aggressive behavior, such as bearing its teeth, growling, lunging, it is a dangerous situation.  If you back off, your dog will take that as a sign that he has intimidated you and will continue to do so in the future, if you stand your ground or try to correct the behavior you may end up being bitten.  I know this seems like a lose lose situation.  I am not going to sugar coat this and say the problem is not a bad one, but I am also not going to say there is no hope.  There is always hope if we understand the dogs way of thinking along with its instincts.   Solving this problem is going to take time and patience as it would with any other type of training; the difference here is this is not an option.  If you have a food aggressive dog, you must fix this problem. If you don’t fix the problem someone is going to get bitten, and that is never a good thing.

            As I said before this is not a hopeless situation, I am going to offer a few tips in this article that might help, if they don’t you will need to seek the help of a trainer.  There are dog training classes everywhere and one should not be too hard to find.    All you need do is look.  Before you go spending your hard earned money on a professional, you may want to try some of these tips.  The first thing you must realize is why your dog is behaving this way.  There are all kinds of reasons for this type of behavior, but the most common is trust.  If your dog thinks you may take away its food or toy it will go into a protection mode.  That is to say the dog’s brain kicks in to a protective state and no longer views you as a provider, it views you as a threat.  If you know anything about dogs it is never good to be thought of as a threat.  It really doesn’t matter how this situation evolved, or if it’s a trust issue, what matters as that you understand your dog thinks you are going to take something it needs away from it, and therefore you are a threat.  Once you realize this you can start to formulate a plan as to how to become the trusted provider in your dog’s eyes.

            This method should be a good way to abruptly halt the snarling and growling at feeding time.  You will need to keep the food bowl up off the floor.  Keep it on a shelf out of the reach of your dog, but not out of sight.  When it is feeding time take the bowl, make sure your dog sees you do all of this, pour the food into the bowl but do not put it on the ground for your dog to eat as you normally would.  Instead, hold the bowl.  Lower the bowl low enough for your dog to eat, but do not put it on the floor.  If your dog does not eat, be patient, try feeding your dog from your hand with one or two bits of food.  Once your dog has started to eat slowly lift the bowl away from them.  Make the dog understand you are the one giving the food, and without you, there is no food.  If you do this at every feeding time you should be able to lower the bowl a little further each time until you are able to put the food on the floor.  If your dog starts to growl, put the food away, and try again in an hour or so.  Eventually it should click that you are the one providing the food, and the aggression should stop.  Along with this method you can try to hand feed your dog treats, put the treat in the bowl, lower the bowl and let your dog have its treat that way.  This is the best way I know of to break a dog from food aggression.  If you do this right, you should be able to put your hand in the dog’s food bowl while it is eating with no reaction.  If you don’t get this result it may be time to bring in a trainer.  Food aggression is not good for you or your dog, so break them of this bad habit; it will ensure your dog stays healthy and happy for many years to come.

Nick Carreno

DoggieDiaries4u@gmail.com

Lola

          It is once again time to feature a dog that is in need of a home.  The dog we have chosen is one of our Most Wanted Flower Pets in the month of April; this is a program the Delco SPCA has to help find homes for a few special dogs that have been there for a while, during the month of April.  From the moment I met Lola I was taken by her good nature.  As you can see from the pictures she is a young dog that enjoys lots of affection.

           If you are interested in adopting Lola you can visit the Delaware County SPCA and ask for her by name or you can give her ID number which is 40826. If you have any questions feel free to call them at 610-566-1370.  You can also check out their web site http://delcospca.org/.  I really hope one of you out there can find it in your heart to give this truly deserving dog a home.  Since Lola is one of the Most Wanted Flower Pets, the fee for adoption is dramatically reduced to $20.11 through the month of April.

          I got the chance to have a little play time with Lola and she was so willing to please, and such a lovable dog it is hard for me to understand why she has been there so long.  Lola has been without a loving home for far too long.  I hope someone out there can find it in their hearts to adopt Lola and give her a home, where she can be given the chance she deserves.  Can you be the one to help this loving dog stay healthy and happy for many years to come?

Nick Carreno

DoggieDiaries4U@gmail.com

Communicating With Your Dog

          There are many reasons to love dogs.  In my opinion one of the most unique things about a dog is the fact that they can communicate with us.  Now I am not talking about the dog that barks out I love you, and no I do not think dogs have the capacity to talk like we humans do.  They do however communicate with us.  It is one of the things that make having a dog such a wonderful experience.  Dogs more so than any other pet have the capacity to let us know what they want.  If you think about it you will realize I am not insane.  How many times has your dog let you know they wanted to go outside, or they wanted to play, or maybe when they needed food?  It is truly amazing when you think about it.  Dogs are one of the only animals that know what it means when a human points.  So not only are they capable of letting us know what they need, and want, as well as what they may be feeling, they have the capacity to understand what we are telling them.

          Dogs use body language more than anything else, we humans use it an awful lot as well.  We can tell how another person is feeling just by the way they hold themselves.  The same is true for dogs.  Many people think that there is some special gift to be able to read a dog, when in reality all you need is a little knowledge and some experience.  There are people who don’t even notice when a dog is trying to communicate, much less what they are trying to say.  At this point I would caution not to project human behavior onto any dog.  Yes they can communicate, but they are still dogs and live in a totally different reality than we do, but that is a subject for another article.  That being said, if you do enough research and you watch your dog closely, you will be able to see more than the standard let’s play or I need food signs that your dog may be tossing your way.

          Most people assume when they see a dogs tail wagging that the dog is happy, but if you look closer at the dog you will find that this is not always the case.  For example, if the head is hung low, and the ears are back, and the tail is wagging, clearly the dog is not happy, it is more nervous or anxious.  This could be due to being in a new situation, or around people the dog is not familiar with, the ears back tend to show nervousness and fear, the head hung low is a submissive posture that lets everyone around the dog know that they are not a threat.  The tail wagging in this case would show nervousness.  Now let’s assume we have an aggressive dog in the same situation.  The dog is in a place he is not familiar with around people he does not know, but instead of a low hanging head and ears back, this dog has his ears straight back, his head is up, his teeth are bared, the hair along his back is up, and his tail is wagging.  If you see a dog like this I would not stick around.  This dog is letting everyone who can see him know that he is fearful to the point of attack if needed.  The ears back and teeth bared are a warning to back off, the hair up along his back is showing extreme nervousness, and the tail wagging is a way to let everyone know he is unsure of what he should do next. 

          The above situations are two examples of how a dog may react to a crowd of strange people.  The signs are all there, one dog is no threat, and the other is.  Thankfully it is easy to spot a dog that is ready to bite, at least it is for most people.  Some of the other things to look for when trying to “read” your dog would be, the dogs posture, is the head up or down, up usually means confidence, head down is a submissive gesture, when a dog lowers its head to you, it usually means they are trying to let you know they are not a threat.  Tail up, down, between the legs, these three are good indicators as to your dog’s mood.  Tail up means confident, dominant. Tail down means calm, submissive.  A tail between the legs means fear and anxiety.  Ears are another good thing to look at when you are looking for clues to what your dog may be trying to say.  Ears up and forward usually mean the dog is curious about something or has heard something that they are trying to get a better read on.  Ears back are usually a bad sign.  Ears back often mean fear or aggression, which makes sense; aggression will often follow fear in almost every living thing on this planet.  A very old small green man once said fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate…  Very wise words for a little green man.   Barks and growls are another, often misread, way a dog will communicate.  When a dog barks or growls it is usually in some kind of context, such as playfulness, an alert to let you know someone is at the door, or a warning.  It depends what the rest of the dogs body is doing as to what the growl or bark means.   I hope some of these things will help you figure out what may be going on in your dog’s head. 

          I have been reading dogs all my life and have gotten pretty good at it.  You will find after a while of trying you will not even need to think about it.  Before long you will be communicating with your dog.  As for how a dog knows what you are saying.  Think body language.   If you are angry a dog will know it, if you are nervous, scared, happy, your dog will know it.  So it is more important that we know how to read our dogs, because they can already read us.  The better you are at knowing what your dog is feeling and needing the better you can take care of them.  This will go a long way to keeping your furry family members healthy and happy.  

Nick Carreno

DoggieDiaries4U@gmail.ocm

A Dog Cannot Say I’m Sick

          I have seen many a sick dog, the sad thing is most times their owners do not even realize they are sick until something drastic happens.  Dogs may not be able to say I am sick, but they do have a way of communicating to us.  Whether or not we realize they are trying to communicate with us is another story.  I have two dogs, and I can always tell when one of them is not feeling well.  It does not always require a trip to the vet, but it does prompt me to keep an eye on them to make sure things don’t get any worse.

          So how do you know when your dog is sick?  Your dog will let you know.  You cannot expect your dog to come moping up to you and say I don’t feel so well, but what you can expect to see is a change in behavior.  No matter what kind of dog you have I can assure you they have a pattern.  It is the one thing all dogs have in common, they are ruled by routine.  They go out at the same times every day, they know when you’re getting home, and if your late it throws the routine out of whack and they do not like it too much.  They will lounge in the same spot at the same times, they will sleep in the same area every night.  You see what I am saying.  Dogs truly are creatures of habit, even more so than we humans. 

          If your dog breaks its routine, it may be a signal to look more closely.  Make sure they are eating when you feed them, make sure they are actually going when you let them outside.  If your dog breaks its routine it does not always mean they are sick.  It could just mean you have a bored dog and they want to play.  However if they are not eating, or they are not greeting you at the door as they normally would, or they are not producing anything when the go out, or when you walk them, it could be a sign that your dog is sick.  Especially if they are not eating or going to the bathroom, in that case you should take them to the vet and have them looked at as soon as possible.

          So you think your dog is sick, how do you know when to take them to the vet?  That is not as easy a question to answer as you might think. Everyone has their opinions of when it’s time to take the dog to the vet.   If your dog is sluggish and does not want to play, it could mean you have very sick dog, or it could mean you just came in from a three mile hike and they are tired.  It is really up to you to know your dog.  You will know when your dog is not right.  For me, I take my dogs in at the first sign of illness.  I don’t want to wait around and see if things get worse.  I would rather take them to the vet and find out they are fine, instead of waiting around and realizing I should have taken them sooner.  It is always better to err on the side of caution.

          There are all kinds of things that can go wrong with a dog.  They can come down to anything from a mild cold all the way up to ingesting life threatening parasites.  It is always a good policy to keep an eye on your dog, and know when they are telling you things are not right.   Paying attention to your dog is often the best way to keep your furry family member healthy and happy for all the years to come.

Nick Carreno
DoggieDiaries4U@gmail.com