THE CANINE BEHAVIOR SERIES By Kathy Diamond Davis Author and Trainer

Human esteem for dogs has risen in our times, and that is as it should be. After all, dogs are doing more and more things for all of us, and our understanding of them has greatly expanded. Even if you don’t have a dog, dogs are helping to keep your community and your country safe, enabling some of your fellow citizens with disabilities to remain independent and productive, and providing many other benefits.

As a result of the increasing interest in higher abilities of dogs, the word is gradually spreading that having a dog with a problem should not mean a trip to the nearest animal shelter to drop off the unfortunate canine. We view dogs as significant members of our families, and are improving our efforts to solve problems that arise.

Many more people are now able to earn their living training dogs and modifying the behaviors dog owners perceive as problems. Sometimes the real job is helping the owners understand how to modify their own behaviors, which is just one reason this job requires much more ability than you might think.

A particularly sad and increasingly common situation is the dog owner who puts a great deal of time and expense into attempts to save a dog, and ends, sooner or later, having to euthanize the dog anyway. Worse, some people in the business of “helping” dogs and owners actually cause problems that lead to this outcome.

Dog behavior is extremely complex, partly because it is so intimately involved with the behavior of the people who live with the dog. Changing the dog’s behavior is impossible if the problems are being caused by human behavior that people refuse to change—or are unable to change.

Training Class

For the average dog and owner, training class can be the ideal arrangement. You and your dog attend classes weekly and practice the class homework daily in a variety of settings. You pay for six or eight class sessions, progress through those, and then start another set of classes. This is the least expensive form of dog training and often it is the most effective.

If you have your dog as a puppy and the pup’s veterinarian approves in terms of the pup’s health, age and immunization status, you don’t want to miss the brief window of time to go through puppy class together. This experience can provide benefits you never get the chance to achieve so easily at any time again in the dog’s life.

Puppy class will not be enough. The puppy mind grows into the adolescent and adult dog mind, and the world looks entirely different to this other-species member of your family. An adult dog also requires more handling skill from you than a puppy does. So, you’ll need to continue training in classes until your dog is at least a year old for the more intelligent, active and working-type dogs. Some of the smaller, less active dogs may be okay with one more set of classes, but don’t bet on that. Training takes as long as it takes, and it’s much easier to do it right in the first place than to try to fix problems later.

Classes train you and your dog as a team and provide built-in experience training around other dogs who are controlled by their handlers under the watchful eye of the instructor. It’s the ideal place for your dog to learn to behave safely around other dogs, for you to learn to handle your dog around distractions, and to prepare for doing anything with your dog in public. If you can’t handle your dog in a training class, you shouldn’t take the dog around the public, either.

There are good and bad training classes. Ask your veterinarian, groomer and people in your community with well-trained dogs about classes to consider. Go and observe any class without your dog before signing up for it. [See Puppy Kindergarten and Training Classes]

Dog Trainers and Behavior Specialists

Before, during or after you take your dog to training classes, you may need or want to use the services of a dog trainer or behavior specialist. One reason for this would be if you have doubts about your ability to control the dog safely in a class. One or more private sessions with a skilled professional could get you up to that point.

Another reason for a private professional would be if you or your dog have medical problems that call for adapting the training methods beyond what could practically be done in a class setting. Some people choose private instruction because they can customize it to their own schedules. If you do this, be sure to also work your dog some in classes or fun matches. The structured work alongside other dog/handler teams who are also working is extremely important. Some classes will let you come on a drop-in basis and pay by the individual class session, with health certificate and the dog able to work safely in that particular class.  

You might work with a private instructor because you want to be highly competitive in a dog sport or because you want to train with your dog for a complex task that requires high reliability. In these cases as well as any other private training or behavior consultation situation, choose the professional with the greatest of care.

Classes provide a little built-in protection against some of the worst abuses of dogs. Especially if the classes are conducted at clubs with multiple instructors, others are around to see and to intervene if someone loses self-control and takes it out on a dog. When you work alone with a trainer, you can get talked into things that are inhumane and harmful to your dog.

Anytime something doesn’t seem right to you, say no on the spot and get your dog out of there. There are few safe situations to leave your dog for training without your presence. Do this only with someone you have very, very good reason to trust.

While there are organizations that dog trainers can join and tests they can take, there is no licensing requirement to be a dog trainer. There is no educational requirement and no test they have to pass. Since they don’t have to have a license in the first place, they can’t lose it by abusing dogs or other unethical behavior.

Dog trainers can be sued, but they are not required to carry insurance, so a suit might be fruitless for the aggrieved dog owner. They can be held accountable for violation of cruelty laws, but that may be hard to prove. It would also be hard to prove the trainer didn’t give you your money’s worth in the quality of the services. Buying the services of a private dog trainer is a “Let the buyer beware” situation.

The label of behavior specialist (other than a veterinary behavior specialist, discussed below) can mean anything from a dog trainer who wants to charge more, to a PhD in animal behavior with years of training experience. There is no licensing requirement for this job, either.

A trainer or behavior specialist might be able to give you an accurate evaluation of your dog’s temperament, the risks and your options—or not. You should not assume the opinion is a reliable one, unless you are dealing with a highly educated specialist who has solid experience and comes recommended by people you trust.

One problem is that if the trainer or behavior specialist tells you the dog’s problem--aggression for instance--can be solved, that is just what you want to hear. You will be advised to work with the trainer or specialist over a period of time. The longer that time, the more income the professional earns from you.

Meanwhile, you want your dog to make it, so you’re willing to pay. There is a special emotional trap people fall into with an aggressive dog. Unlike housetraining problems that mean you clean up disgusting messes every day and feel “disrespected” by your dog (though that is NOT what the dog means), having the dog bite someone only happens once in awhile.

People with an aggressive dog will say “95% of the time, she’s such a sweet dog.” The emotional pull of wanting to save the dog’s life causes them to keep trying even when they are putting people in danger. Meanwhile the person with the un-housetrained dog has placed that one in another home.

A responsible dog professional will know and tell you the truth about the risks of keeping the dog. But who wants to be the one to say a dog is dangerous and really needs to be euthanized? Especially when it means no more income from selling services to that dog owner? Financially the rewards are on the side of the professional stringing you along, and you need to be aware of that. Be careful about falling into the common trap of going from expert to expert until you find one who tells you what you want to hear.

A good dog handler can take your dog’s leash and have immediate control. This is really impressive to the novice dog owner, but says little or nothing about how much help you will get from using this person’s services to teach you to handle the dog. Dog handling is a skill that humans have to learn with in-person instruction, not just from books and videos. Training the dog makes the dog easier to control and makes the dog’s life much better. But if you as the dog’s regular handler don’t learn how to handle the dog properly, the dog’s training will progressively become corrupted.  

Another thing the dog owner needs to know about training is that professionals are at war about methods. Even the terminology is in constant dispute, with one trainer using a word to mean one thing and another using it for an entirely different meaning. Being famous doesn’t make a trainer the right one for your dog or for you. In any situation where a professional works with your dog, consider the following:

1. Does this professional own and train dogs like yours to do what you want to do? If not, have you gotten strong recommendations from other owners who have used the services for dogs like yours to do what you want to do with your dog? (Such as to live safely with children, go to the dog park, compete in agility events, etc.)

2. Does this professional communicate effectively and courteously with you?

3. Does the pro handle your dog only in your presence and always humanely?

4. Does the professional guarantee results? That usually means you could come back again if the training doesn’t work. Few people will go back to a professional whose work was unsatisfactory, so a guarantee means little.

5. Does this professional use the same methods and equipment for every dog? Considering the vast range of body shapes, sizes and sensitivities of dogs, this does not make sense.

6. Does this pro charge more than the others? That means nothing as to the value of the services. It is better to pay by the lesson, though, than to pay upfront for an entire program. Then if things are not working out, you can stop without being tempted to keep your dog in a bad situation just because you’ve already paid for it.

7. Does this professional recommend training all dogs on electronic collars? Some people love the idea of operating a dog by remote control. But dogs hide their pain and fear as a survival instinct, so it is not possible to tell when you are harming a dog with electronic stimulation. Those who use it insist it is not a “shock,” with today’s collars. But there are some things you need to know before considering the use of such a device.

The brain uses electrical impulses to communicate with the body and within the brain itself. No one knows exactly what effect it has to add the effects of electrical stimulation to the neck. We do know that it causes many cases of inadvertent learning, resulting in things like dogs learning aggression toward people of the type the dog was looking at when stimulated by the collar, or learning to be afraid of going into the back yard where the dog has been stimulated by the electronic confinement system collar.

Most troubling of all, research has found that humans are willing to administer a great deal more punishment remotely than directly. So what may it be doing to the brain of a handler who uses an electronic collar on a dog? We don’t know.

It is astonishing that at the same time it has become politically incorrect in dog-training circles to admit giving a dog any correction whatsoever, electronic dog collars are big business. Meanwhile, most trainers fall somewhere between the ends of the spectrum. It depends on your skill and your dog what will work best for you. It will be at least slightly different with each dog you train. Keep in mind that good electronic collars cost several hundred dollars, with tidy profit for the trainer who sells one to you. Inferior electronic collars can malfunction and deliver shocks outside your control. You do not need an electronic collar to train your dog as a good companion.

The Veterinary Behavior Specialist

A veterinary behavior specialist is a veterinarian who is board-certified in the specialty of behavior. Veterinarians have to be licensed, and they can lose the license to practice veterinary medicine if they behave unethically. This offers a great deal of protection for you and your dog.

A veterinarian can address what is probably the most common root cause of dog behavior problems:  medical issues.  Any time something points to a physical problem, a trainer or non-veterinary behavior specialist should send you to a veterinarian for a thorough physical examination before training and also at any time in the program. But in real life, that doesn’t usually happen. Be aware that we are finding more and more physical problems in dogs that cause in behavior problems. The first stop with any new behavior problem in your dog needs to be your veterinarian.

The veterinary behavior specialist is the expert best suited to evaluate your dog’s temperament. These are busy professionals, with not enough of them in all locations to go around. They are not interested in stringing you along to keep you coming back. They have every reason to tell you the truth about the risks involved with your dog’s temperament and behavior. They definitely do not want to play any role in encouraging an owner to let a dog bite someone.

The veterinary behavior specialist may refer you back to your regular veterinarian for medical follow-up treatment of a physical issue that is found to be contributing to a behavior problem, and to a trainer or non-veterinary behavior specialist for training or behavior modification. Being a veterinarian, this specialist is uniquely qualified to solve what can be difficult puzzles of how a dog’s physical state is coming out in the behavior.

People tend to fall on one side or the other when it comes to medication for their dogs’ behavior problems. A veterinary behavior specialist can help with medications for this purpose, either by you taking the dog to the specialist or by your regular veterinarian consulting the specialist about your dog’s case. These medications often have to be changed and/or adjusted for the individual dog.

The ideal is to use medication temporarily while carrying out behavior modification and management programs that can then take over and eliminate the need for medication. Some people just want to give the dog a pill and not change the dog’s management. This is fine if the problem is physical and relieved by a pill, but not good if the problem is due to the way the dog is being managed.

Most people want to use medication either not at all or only “as a last resort.” There are at least two problems with this. One is that you need to fix a behavior problem quickly, before it becomes a firmly set anxiety, fear or habit. The other problem is that a dog for whom a veterinarian would recommend medication is suffering. We have a responsibility to relieve that suffering.

The veterinarian is not going to want to keep a dog on medication any longer than necessary, because it could stress various body systems over time. So you’ll want to have the recommended blood checks done and work diligently on the management changes and behavior modification exercises the specialist recommends. Of course in the case of an old dog suffering from anxiety or cognitive disorder or any dog with a chronic condition requiring medication, you will need to keep giving it. When the sad day comes that the dog is no longer with you, you will take comfort from knowing you provided this loving care.

Solid Solutions

With many dogs you can develop a great foundation for avoiding and working through behavior issues through training class and practice, daily grooming, diligent veterinary attention, and good management structure in the home. It takes time, knowledge, skill and effort to learn and to do these things, though, and some dogs are just “problem children,” no matter what you do! The experts stay busy helping us with our dogs for good reasons!

Your regular veterinarian is the best resource to keep your dog’s health care in great shape and to help you figure out where to find the other expertise you need for your dog. A veterinary behavior specialist may be further away, but well worth the travel for an aggression problem, a dog who is obviously suffering from anxiety, or any other situation that makes an expert assessment of the dog’s temperament important. If you need a veterinary behavior specialist, ask your regular veterinarian to help you find the closest one. Follow-up to the work with the specialist will most likely include your regular veterinarian. Specialists are routine in veterinary medicine now, but our regular veterinarians are indispensable!

Don’t put off the veterinary behavior specialist until “the last resort.” A behavior becomes more set and more difficult to change when it continues for a longer time. With a young dog, you also want to use developmental periods to maximize behavior improvement much more than is possible if you wait until these critical periods are past. They pass quickly.

Whenever possible, take aggression and serious anxiety problems to the veterinary behavior specialist quickly, so the right assessment can be made and treatment begun in good time. It could very well save your dog’s life, or in some cases the life of a human. You will gain the knowledge to make good decisions about your dog’s care, and your family will benefit, too.

Date Published: 6/26/2006 10:49:00 AM

    

Kathy Diamond Davis is the author of the book Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others. Should the training articles available here or elsewhere not be effective, contact your veterinarian. Veterinarians not specializing in behavior can eliminate medical causes of behavior problems. If no medical cause is found, your veterinarian can refer you to a colleague who specializes in behavior or a local behaviorist.