Quite Logical

It's been my experience that dogs are logical creatures. But as another Vulcan proverb concedes, “Logic is only the beginning of wisdom” and that means that dogs make mistakes based on otherwise logical assumptions. Without question, the most common one is jumping on people. While not a mistake necessarily it is a misunderstanding between we humans and our dogs. Here's why. When dogs are puppies they're amongst the cutest things in all creation. Small, furry, helpless and given the opportunity, jumping all over us. Most puppies are encouraged to do this by us. It's harmless enthusiasm at this stage in their lives and very few dog owners discourage it, quite the contrary in fact. When I was a kid, Pepsi ran it's famously effective ad featuring grandparents unleashing a litter of Labrador Retriever puppies on their grandkids. It's the perfect illustration of the information that's changing hands quietly beneath the adorable bedlam. I'm not implying anything sinister is being sewn into this exchange, not even that it should not be allowed to happen. It's beautiful if you ask me, if only all of us were this unabashedly enthusiastic about one another. There is a very big “BUT” however. Little 2lb puppies are fuzzy and delightful but some of them grow exponentially in their first year becoming adult dogs 50-150lbs and more. Now jumping is a problem and we don't want them doing it anymore. Imagine those Lab pups jumping on those little kids one year later,...YIKES! The kids aren't laughing hysterically, they're traumatized. Things have changed for us but for our dogs, well, they haven't got the memo and if they're unaware of your sudden distaste for them leaping into your grill for sloppy, wet smooches, then it's not fair to assume they'll understand why you're sticking your knee in their chest when they do.

 

To assume dogs know they're doing something wrong is to both ignore the messages we've unconsciously etched in their brains when they were puppies and assume they'll grasp an abstract concept like right and wrong. What's this? No right and wrong? It's anarchy, ahhhhh!!!! Relax, it's not the apocalypse. Consider this. If I were to shake hands using my left hand you might think it's odd but you wouldn't think it's offensive. Yet in some parts of the world it's a cultural norm to wipe with the left hand only, so offering it is not advised unless you intend to offend, in other words it's “wrong”. It's right to tip your waiter but wrong to tip the person at the drive thru window (Thanks to Mr. Pink for that revelation.) Dogs are not confronted by a jury of their peers, they don't editorialize, they don't pontificate, postulate or castigate. In other words, the concept of right and wrong is a societal construct, to assume our dogs are privy to them is not,...logical. 

So now we agree it's not wrong so to speak but we still don't like it. It's potentially dangerous and we want to bring an end to it. What can we do? If our dogs learned that we liked them jumping on us they can learn that we like it even better when they greet in a sit. I had this discussion with a local family I'm working less than a week ago. They're expecting a baby in the fall and with their 18mos old Golden Murphy jumping impulsively on his mom Kelley, this problem took on a real sense of urgency. It was with great satisfaction that as I got off my soap box, Murphy's dad Ryan produced a photo of his daughter Tori welcoming Murphy, then about 12 weeks old, as he jumped on her. I knew at that moment they got what I'd been droning on about. As Murphy began showing a marked preference for greeting in a sit (praise and treats) Kelley was able to sit down with a baby doll standing in for the real thing as Murphy greeted politely in a sit. Just as he'd been encouraged to jump as a puppy, he'd been encouraged to sit as an adult dog, it was a Vulcan mind meld! Fascinating...

Sammy

“Dreary”,  a combination of “depressing” and “weary”. It’s how today feels, starting with a text from my sister letting me know that she and her family had come to the conclusion it was time to let their dear dog “Sammy” go. A sweet Yellow Lab that I first met as a playful puppy and who’d been around to occupy the earliest memories of my nieces and nephew. Old age had taken the usual toll, ocular clouding, loss of hearing and in the last few weeks a steady decline in mobility brought on by cancer. The family has had to wrestle with the big questions. Is my dog still happy? What's her quality of life? Answers to those questions led them to the most difficult and painful of conclusions. 

    In an interview with Sam Simon, a writer on the TV series “TAXI” a creator of the TV series “The Simpsons” and of late, creator of The Sam Simon Foundation, said that when it came to his dogs, he’d loved each one of them, he’d also had to put each of them to sleep. His criteria for knowing when that time had come involved writing down each dog’s three favorite things. When they were no longer able to enjoy any of them, it was time to let them go. That might be the best way I've heard of knowing the absolute worst thing you can know about your dog. With two geriatric dogs at home, it's something I think about every day. Of course having a criteria for such a thing isn’t like having criteria for when it’s time to clean the storm drains. Assuming your dogs are family, it’s as awful a conclusion you can arrive at and yet our relative lifespans mean we will be confronted with it at some point.

    None of this will make going to sleep tonight any easier for my sister and her family. Memories of my final moments with Reno, my ear against his chest as he slipped away, are nearly as crisp and poignant as when I first experienced them. That was three years ago and I recall there was little sleep to be had knowing we’d wake up without him in our lives. Despite the empty feeling that comes when we lose someone we love, there is also profound beauty. We emerge from nothingness  to make our entry on the corporeal plane and eventually we return to it; so too do our dogs. The details I’ll leave to your individual beliefs, what I take from it however is the complete apparent randomness with which our paths cross with one another. It defies the possibility for love and yet many of us love our dogs unconditionally as they appear to love us. Of course without this there would be no pain. That’s the bargain we make when allow ourselves to feel so deeply for them.

    Greg Proops, a comedian hewn from the same stone as George Carlin and Richard Pryor draws from ancient customs, paying homage to those who have passed as iridescent lights swirling magnificently in the night sky. Tonight, Sammy ascends to the night sky to join legions of other great dogs and while for my sister and her family, the world will be a less for her absence, the sky will be brighter for her being there. I suggested to my sister that she make Sammy a cheeseburger and have some wine on hand to toast their departed friend and family member. Tomorrow they'll wake with her alive in a lifetime of great memories and the healing will begin. Goodby Sweet Sammy.

What Do You Want?

Training is fundamentally about communication. It forms the nucleus of any such dynamic, branching out in often unexpected sometimes elegant ways like fractal geometric structures spiraling off to form into something beautiful. It can also deteriorate into a terrible mess. Like all trainers I'm working not just on inter-species communication, I'm also channeling ideas vicariously through a dog's human counterpart(s) . At it's best it's what I imagine fusion jazz must be like. A free floating exchange of information back and forth between multiple individuals each communicating in their own way, saxophone, standing bass, piano and drums. Everyone bringing an innate understanding of each other that transcends language in the traditional sense. What and how we communicate determines direction, comprehension and can have a big impact on whether the ideas that come out of training are going to take hold over the long term. 

"Tis nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so" - William Shakespeare

            So what do I want to communicate with this entry? As the title of this entry asks, "What do you want?" Answer, to shift the focus of training to addressing what we want and away from what we don't want. This could easily be brushed aside as a semantic argument but it's much more than that. Proof lies in how difficult it can sometimes be. A common scenario, "My dog loses her mind when the doorbell rings. She scratches the hell out of the door and jumps all over whoever walks in." Traditional, pack leader, dominance training punishes the bad behavior (P+) with the punishment subsiding only when the behavior itself subsides. If the net result is that the dog does not bark or jump the next time someone rings the doorbell and comes in, no punishment is inflicted  and the behavior is reinforced by it's absence (R-) This approach has been used for a very long time, it sometimes works and often creates collateral damage in the process. To make the shift away from "How do I stop this?" to what you want, "I want her to be quiet and greet calmly with her paws on the ground or better still in a sit." requires a change in the way you think about conflict and how to address it. Well framed questions can do this. Veterinarian/Behaviorist Dr. Ian Dunbar, speaking at a TED convention, CLICK HERE, asks how dominance training would work if you were training a bear. Answer: Not well at all. I like to pose the hypothetical question: Can a 5'-2" tall female dog owner weighing 110lbs have and train a French Mastiff weighing 150lbs? Answer: Yes, but you'd be well advised not to make it a battle of wills. To expect a dog to have an innate understanding of good and bad is to invite conflict. An understanding of good and bad is crucial in societal terms but strictly speaking, an abstract assumption in a human/animal relationship. Conversely, to communicate to a dog how great it is to do the things you want them to is responsible for amazing feats both familiar like Canine Agility CLICK HERE and less familiar, like Freestyle Dog Dancing CLICK HERE.

Screen Capture of Joyce and Kaia in the Agility Ring

           
             Now if dancing with your dog strikes you as silly, that's fine, it is a little silly but it would be unfair not to concede that there's a breathtaking amount of inter species communication going on and that neither dog dancing or my friend and colleague Joyce Gauthier (That's her with her dog Kaia in the agility ring) could every achieve that level of cooperation without first communicating to their dogs how much fun they're going to have and how rewarding the whole thing is going to be. What I want is for you to come over here and weave in between these upright poles. Huh? Try just one, click, treat, now two, click, treat etc.

Louie, Archie & Miles: No dogs in the kitchen rule.

            Only a fraction of dog owners will every venture into the worlds of agility or freestyle but the information that's extracted from these sports trickles down in meaningful and profound ways for far more common scenarios that unfold between regular dog owners and their canine family members. They should also prove as examples of what's possible. That's a big deal if you're feeling helpless to resolve a conflict with your dog and you're in desperate need of some perspective. The next time you're agonizing about bringing home a new couch (Ernie's going to lie down on it when we're watching Game of Thrones and get Labradoodle fur all over it.) try convincing  Ernie how great the dog bed on the floor is instead of yelling at him for being on the couch. Now if George R.R. Martin would just stop killing off all the best characters, how great would that be?

New Year's Resolution

We're an inpatient culture. At the very least we've developed into one. If you're old enough to remember Dana Carvey's grumpy old man eschewing the virtues of the old days, "Why, if we wanted to go to the bathroom we had to walk a mile in the rain and mud to a wooden shack in the middle of the night,...and we liked it that way." then you're old enough to know how much things have changed. Each generation views their respective realities through they're own period lens. The lens Du jour expects instant gratification, consider on demand movies (on your cell phone no less) books, music, etc. Home delivery is available, overnight if you like, for just about anything.

Inevitably this sensibility has spilled over into my world as well with the occasional dog owner assuming little more effort than that needed to call or e-mail should be required for a miraculous transformation in their dog. It comes across in different ways but I've gotten pretty good at ferreting these dog owners out and that's important because there's no better opportunity to set things straight than at that moment. Serious behavioral problems take time to address, in some cases so much time that it tests the will of even the most steadfast of the dog owners I work with. It's critical dog owners struggling with behavioral problems in their dogs understand this before they dig into the business at hand. For my part this idea cannot be understated.

As behaviorist Katenna Jones suggests in her book "Fetching the Perfect Dog Trainer" dog owners should expect to see a tangible response to training and conditioning very quickly. Some indication that the trainer's  hypothesis has merit and that the predicted outcome will come to fruition. The hard work comes in the day to day business of working and living with these dogs; fast food and  instant downloads this isn't, not by any stretch. It's also not for every dog owner and communicating that from the outset is critical. Julie K. Shaw, RVT, KPA-CTP, VTS (Behavior) at a recent seminar emphasized how important it is to assess the strength of the human animal bond. In other words, "How do you feel about your dog?" That's an enormously important question that plays very neatly into questions of expediency. If the bond you have with your dog is fractured, then the notion of pouring time, energy and financial resources (training, veterinary care etc. all have costs associated with them) into that relationship is pointless, it's also a disservice however expedient the draw of a new client may be. 

For dog owners who are informed and ready to put in the time, work begins. There are so many smart, creative thinkers working on ways to make training, counter conditioning, desensitizing and management more effective and often times more fun. It's an embarrassment of riches and yet it remains an imperfect science. A favorite Facebook page (Swipe to read) I Fucking Love Science posted a quote by 20th century philosopher Bertrand Russell, "Science does not aim to establish immutable truths and eternal dogmas; it's aim is to approach the truth by successive approximations, without claiming that at any stage final and complete accuracy has been achieved." For me that means I can sleep at night so long as I've been honest about my role in helping dog owners make their own successive approximations. It's also my responsibility to know when I've done as much as I can and whenever possible appreciate that the problems a dog owner is dealing with are outside my skill set. On that front I intend to do a better job. That's my New Year's Resolution. To listen more closely to what dog owners are telling me, to ask better questions and be a better part of that process of successive approximations. Oh, and eat more vegetables, can't forget that.

Pinch Me

Last night the local NBC affiliate, channel 10 news, attempted to do what television news is poorly suited to do. That is, to try to encapsulate an important subject in a piece lasting a couple of minutes. The subject was the use of prong collars, focusing it's vitriol on Rhode Island based dog trainer Jeff Gelman. I've referenced a well known quote by Eleanor Roosevelt before in this blog and I'll do it again, "Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." The piece focused on an individual, vilifying him in the process. Did he have it coming? Maybe; this is an outspoken person with a Saturday morning AM talk show, a podcast, perhaps there's even a sandwich named after him but when it all shakes out it really doesn't matter. The impact of the story will be short term and while the message board, CLICK HERE, was lively with discussion afterwards (I chimed in as well) most everyone who's seen it has or soon will forget it as our attentions will turn to other things. That's too bad. Not because I would've indulged in some schadenfreude watching this trainer thrust into the spotlight for public ridicule or for that matter watching my friend Katenna provide some insight into effective alternatives. What disappointed me was the missed opportunity to focus on the debate. There's more than one trainer in our little state using pinch, choke and e-collars. For the record, I used to be one of them so it's not my first impulse to wag my finger at Jeff Gelman. What I do find maddening is the steadfast adherence to old ideas that no longer hold up to scientific scrutiny. I think trainers in the not too distant future will look back on traditional training methods the same way we look at phrenology and spontaneous generation, with a collective "Huh?". For all the horn blowing any of us do, there will be a time when we won't be here anymore and only the ideas will survive. Katenna stayed on point never talking about Jeff but instead on methodology, again, on the IDEA.

Lively debate is good, discourse is good, ("Fire Bad" - Frankenstein,...sorry, couldn't resist) particularly if we learn something along the way. In contrast, trotting out one guy to be the poster child for pinch collars is silly but I suppose that coliseum mentality lies just beneath our skins. It reminds of the George Carlin bit where he pulls up to a car accident and asks the police to drag the body closer to the car so his wife can get a better look. If that's why you tuned in, and thought to yourself, "Holy cow, that guy's a jerk" then you're missing the point. Not that Turn to 10 didn't do their part to take your eyes off the shell with the marble under it.

Traditional training is fading, I've done my little part to help that along and would encourage my peers in the training world still employing those methods to do the same. It's a scary prospect, if you've got a family, a mortgage, bills to pay and a successful business model predicated on aging ideas it can be downright terrifying but it's the smart move because it's where the training world is headed, undeniably, like a slow moving juggernaut. It's also evolving as emerging ideas and peer reviewed research adds to the knowledge base. 

Finally, since we're on the subject of pinch collars. If you've moved on to No-pull harnesses or head halters and have some old choke chains and pinch collars lying around, please consider donating them to FoF-RI. Katenna, in her "spare time" transforms them into beautiful bracelets and key chains then sells them, (See them at Dog In Harmony) all proceeds going to Friends of Fido Rhode Island, a grass-roots group of Rhode Island dog lovers who are volunteering to improve the lives of outdoor dogs in Rhode Island. Hey, that's an idea.

An Ode to Bo

Several weeks ago I got a call from my son's art teacher. She'd adopted a 4 year old Wheaten terrier from the Warren Animal Shelter and needed some help. While all had started well enough he'd given her two superficial bites when she'd tried to get him out of her car and now she wasn't sure she could trust him. I told her to keep a leash on him at all times, the only exceptions were when he was alone in the house or at night when they were sleeping. It's significantly safer to handle a dog who resorts to aggression to address conflict. Dogs on leash are less likely to have aggressive outbursts at all, particularly once they know you can handle them without getting close enough to their teeth that they can deliver a bite. Grab a collar and there's a high probability of a bite, grab a leash and the probability is relatively low. Nothing punitive, as I tell my dog owners, the message is, I'm not going to hurt you but you're not going to hurt me either. Things improved immediately and we scheduled a series of lessons that involved both her son and boyfriend. The first two lessons went nicely and everyone was getting to know each. By any measure, Bo had made a successful transition to life with his new family. Fear had given way to confidence and it is at this critical juncture where, in my opinion, things can either settle into a good routine, or things can go horribly wrong. When confidence gives way to letting your guard down, to assuming your dog is  "cured", mistakes are made. Behavior can be modified by multiple means but for new, more desirable behaviors to be sustained, a certain amount of hyper-vigilance in required. It's not for everybody and while I'm careful to advise dog owners that behavior modification is like exercise, keep it up and things should go well, stop and things will deteriorate, lapses in judgement are still made, myself included.

Shortly after our second session I got a message that Bo had aggravated his ACL and was limping, we'd have to get the all clear from the vet before resuming training. There was the possibility of surgery, so his next lesson was "wait and see". A couple of weeks went by and I received the good news that it was nothing serious and we could resume working with him. The next lesson was scheduled, then, the worst most rattling thing you can hear from a dog owner you're working with, an e-mail from Bo's Mom that he had attacked her son. There were red flags throughout the message, "...he was sitting with a bone at my feet..." , "My son was sitting on the floor near him..." It would be extremely easy assign blame, to dump this squarely on the shoulders of Bo's new family. "Shouldn't they have known better?" Or on me, "Didn't you warn them about this sort of thing?" So let's get this out of the way quickly since this isn't about either of these things. Bo's new family were kind, compassionate people. Though it was a kind of resource guarding that had led to his initial aggressive overtures, they hadn't seen that behavior from him in several weeks, and even his initial overtures were mild by comparison, her son had been hurt badly.

We had addressed resource guarding and while Bo was on the floor as opposed to furniture, they were comfortable enough to let him have his bone out of a crate. A mistake to be sure and something Bo's entire family ached over both literally (the attending police officer who took Bo from the home described the living room as looking like a crime scene) and figuratively. The attack started from a distance of roughly eight feet as the owner's son recognized some emerging resentment with respect to his proximity to Bo and had begun to back away. The gesture was too little too late to stave off Bo's response however. He bridged the gap and delivered several bites before the son grabbed him and threw him into the next room. He returned for more but was stopped by Mom, who managed to separate him from her son.

There are more details to be sure and I haven't pressed for any of them. It's important to note here that the son is an able bodied 20 year old, but what if he hadn't been? What if he were only 20 months old? What if he were 12 years old and alone in the house? Was this the first time Bo had done this? He was four years old. He was turned in by a family in Warren who reported no aggression from him. With the benefit of hindsight, I simply don't believe that's true. In four years it's not reasonable or plausible to think this was the first time he'd guarded a resource with such ferocity. It makes far more sense to assume he had. Why hadn't it been reported? Why would a dog owner be so irresponsible as to risk putting someone in harms way? To let someone fall in love with this dog unaware of what it's capable of? The gravity of what could have happened makes this roll of the dice so reckless that it rattled my otherwise libertarian sensibilities. Amidst talk of Bo's future, I wondered with his Mom if there was a legal course here. 

Coming to the realization that a dog is dangerous is painful beyond measure. It's a horrible truth that not everyone has the resources to address properly. As I write this entry I can't help but think again of Katenna and Dave (See "I Am Spartacus") or my own attempts to ferret out this proclivity for aggression in temperament tests.

In light of the ferocity of the attack, we agreed that as painful as this episode had been, there was more pain in store for everyone involved. Bo was taken to the Warwick Shelter the night of the attack where he was held for observation pending euthanasia. I visited with him, sitting on the floor outside his kennel feeding him bits of string cheese with the door between us. He was calm, no signs of resentment, he stayed as close to the kennel door as he could manage, at one point stretchin his for-paw through the kennel door towards me eliciting some physical contact. I'm not sentimental nor do I indulge in the fanciful notion that he knew what was coming, I'm certain in fact that he did not. In a way that was more upsetting to me than for me to think he could appreciate the gravity of his actions, again, I'm sure he did not. Tears followed and I left knowing I would not see Bo again, not for a lesson, not at the park or out for a walk.

I've written that the shelter keeps me grounded, it does, so much so that Sunday that I wondered if this was even for me anymore. Is anyone listening? Are we learning anything as a culture of dog owners? About responsible breeding, about puppy mills, pet stores and hobby breeders, about the responsibility of dog ownership? There's been time to think about these questions, I do think we're learning but not fast enough. Bo's owner knew what had to be done and made the most difficult of decisions a new dog owner can expect to have to make. This past Friday Bo drew his last breath. To the pretenders out there who "guarantee" they can rehabilitate these dogs with shock collars and the like, you know who you are, I hold you with the utmost contempt. You lack the depth, the intelligence, the integrity and the fortitude to ever hope of making good on such claims. To the pet stores, puppy mills and hobby breeders, please stop. Who can profit from misery without losing themselves in this Faustian bargain? To Bo's family, in particular his adoptive Mom who mustered the courage to take him on one more walk before the end, who had the strength of character to let him go peacefully,  you are in my thoughts and my heart is broken with yours.

Tuning In

A few months ago Sue and Harry Parker of Dynamic Dog Training hosted a seminar with noted trainer/behaviorist Grisha Stewart, the mind behind Behavioral Adjustment Training (BAT) it was a great opportunity to see her at a local venue and I jumped at it. I always bring a pad and paper to these things to scribble down notes, details etc. but what I really hope will happen is for one really strong idea to emerge and stick with me once the lecture or seminar is over. For that one it was a question that precedes every exchange with a animal, "How is this for you?" It's such a simple idea but what really struck me about it was how easy it is to forget to ask that basic and so important question. That question is empathy distilled down to it's simplest form. "How are you doing?" "Is this alright?" "Are you enjoying this?" In earlier posts I've framed my move from traditional to science based positive reinforcement training as identifying problems and making them stop to understanding why those problems occur and addressing the underlying cause and effect. In other words traditional training doesn't ask or care necessarily (beyond vaguely arrived at notions) why something bad might be happening, it just wants it to stop. Behaviorists like Grisha Stewart are asking these profoundly simple, relevant questions and blazing a trail for trainers like me who are keen on distancing ourselves from the dark ages of traditional training. In a recent interview with Allen St. John of Forbes Magazine, Dr. Ian Dunbar described his training methodology like this, “When I’m training a dog I develop a relationship with that dog. He’s my buddy and I want to make training fun,” - “Training a dog to me is on a par with learning to dance with my wife or teaching my son to ski. These are fun things we do together. If anyone even talks about dominating the dog or hurting him or fighting him or punishing him, don’t go there.” That's about as good a way of capturing the spirit of modern dog training as I've ever read. It's absent any pretentious notions, any narcissism. It's someone relating the process to something they do with a loved one, with someone they care about. 

Of course trainers are going to be called on to intervene in situations where the human and dog are no longer buddies and they're no longer having fun. Does Dr. Dunbar's model apply here?

Yesterday, I started the day with with Jean, a dog owner in Cranston who'd lost her husband two years ago. This was our 3rd schedule lesson together. Her dogs, Samantha and Rudy, a 10 year old Chihuahua/JRT and 4 year old Lhasa mix respectively, had helped her through a difficult time. Recently however, Samantha had begun to behave aggressively, biting her several times with little warning. Resource guarding the bed and food appeared to be the antecedent. We took a multifaceted approach. With a clean bill of health from her veterinarian, Sam was prescribed fluoxetine (antidepressant), we changed their food and set about training them. Even at 10yrs, Sam's energy level is relatively low. Jean had become fearful of handling her and their relationship had deteriorated. How were we going to right this failing ship? Our ace was Rudy, a lively, happy go lucky little guy who bounced around the house not a care in the world. He was the polar opposite of Sam who was serious and appeared to have little joy left in her. More specifically, Rudy, who Jean trusted completely, was the dog we wanted Sam to be more like and Samantha, we agreed, was not about to let Rudy get all the attention. At our first session, we headed out to the yard with Samantha on a 6ft leash and Rudy on a 30ft leash. Jean would walk around the yard with Rudy at the end of his 30ft leash practicing his recalls. I picked a prime stationary spot with Samantha where she could see Rudy having all the fun, getting all the treats. It didn't take long until Sam's interest in participating peaked and she was straining at the leash to get in on the action. We swapped leashes and dogs and just like that Sam was doing recalls for treats. Jean was on the right track and it all started with a simple hypothesis, "How do we think she'll react to Rudy getting all the attention?" or "How will this be for her?" It even managed to be fun. The exercise represented a dramatic shift in momentum for Jean, it was an eye opener since we were able to draw a behavior from Samantha without force, by putting our heads together and without putting anyone in a situation where they could get hurt. When we were done, Sam was exhausted, (a tired dog is a good dog). Jean would leave a leash on Samantha whenever she was home and awake. This provided her with a way to move Sam out of situations (e.g. chicken bone falls on the floor) without exposing herself to a potential bite. She now knew that she could draw Sam out of her malaise by turning her attention to Rudy. We found ourselves resorting to this approach again yesterday morning when Sam's aggression resurfaced momentarily during the 'down' lesson. No one was bit, though Sam could easily have done so if she wanted to. She'd shown restraint. Was this the fluoxetine? The training? Was it the change of food? It could be any one or the combination of the three. No way to know for sure but there's little doubt that this constituted an improvement in her behavior. Nevertheless it remained inappropriate so, Rudy to the rescue! Sam had to sit out the next several minutes (five for fighting) as Rudy did 'down' after 'down' with Sam initially sulking then perking up again with earnest, as if to say, "Can I try again?" We were looking for that indication so when we brought her closer for another try, plunk! Down she went again and again. That lesson could easily have been derailed by her initial outburst but with Rudy there to help shape the situation and Jean ever mindful of the question, "How is this for Samantha" it was productive on several fronts. In a sense she had managed to teach someone to dance who initially wanted to bite her. Not bad Jean, Tango on.

Archie at Fifteen

Fifteen years ago, Sue and I were reeling from the loss of Louie’s younger brother Floyd. The pain of his loss was extreme both because we loved him and because it had been preventable. Floyd was a wonderful little dog and remarkably close to his big brother Lou. It stings to this day, right now in fact as I think back on it. Louie had softened measurably since we’d brought Floyd home. Fearing a return to his earlier ways we began in earnest to look for a similarly sized companion dog to fill the terrible void left by Floyd’s loss. Our search eventually brought us to a farmhouse in Exeter, RI where a litter of Jack Russell Terriers were up for adoption. Only one was left, a chubby little white and brown fellow that had escaped attention while his litter mates had found homes. Even in the big workman’s hands of Eugene, the breeder, it was apparent that Archie was, like Lou before him, big for his breed. “He’s a fat little guy.” said his son Eugene Jr. We were smitten, Lou was somewhat indifferent, perhaps understanding on some level what we were up to and perhaps not altogether approving of it.

We had just moved into the house we’d purchased in Warwick. Situated near City Park, we were looking forward to walks in the woods with Louie and Floyd. Those days would not come as we’d imagined but with this helpless pup who for weeks I could not help but call “Chet” for my friends Jon and Maria’s JRT who I saw when I looked down at him. His name came to us after quite a lot of brainstorming. The comic strip "Andy Capp" came to mind, the little British guy with his newsboy cap and a ciggy hanging off his lip, but he didn’t strike us as an “Andy” for some reason, so I began to think of other comic strip characters, there had to be a gem there somewhere. “Jughead” came up and was quickly dispensed with but of course you can't consider “Jughead” without some thought of “Archie”. We looked at each other, Sue and I. We knew we’d hit upon it. He was Archie and that’s all there was to it. Over the years, he's picked up the nicknames, "Bear" and "Scrapper", depending on the mood.

It wouldn’t take long to realize what we’d gotten ourselves into. Though we hadn’t been influenced by Jack Russell Terriers in the media, eg. Skip, Wishbone, Eddie etc. we had not done our homework. Chet was the only real point of reference. Chet was funny, smart, enormously entertaining and friendly as can be. He’d clearly seeped into my consciousness. Archie was different though. Not as bouncy, there was a nervous quality to him. He’d been born in the summer and while the impact of thunder, lightning and fireworks are well known to me now I understood next to nothing about early canine development at that point. Nutricalm for dogs and later Thundershirts were both heaven sent but there would be years of intense panic whenever those terrifying sounds were present. An early encounter, in hindsight, during a fear impact period, with an off leash dog triggered a panicked race around my leg. On a leash he’d unwittingly tangled himself around my leg, aggravating the situation. I tore into the dog's owner, “Is that a leash in your hand?”, “Uhhh,...yes”, “Then maybe you should put it on your goddamn dog huh?” He leashed his dog, a goofy, harmless Golden Retriever but the damage was done, Archie was never completely at ease around other dogs from that point forward. Archie was a handful in ways we'd never encountered with Louie or Floyd. A preference for TV remotes, sneakers and wallets would develop. I wasn’t a trainer then, but between Floyd’s loss and our new bundle of joy I had all the reasons I would ever need to get some help. First, and with no sense whatsoever of the impact it would have on my life, I worked with my friend and fellow trainer Ron (who’d also introduced me to Sue. Do you think I might owe him one or two?) Archie and Lou would be the first two dogs I’d ever train. I was a traditional trainer in those days. Choke chains, pinch and e-collars were in my toolbox and regrettably on my dogs. Miles is the beneficiary of the mistakes I made working with Louie, Archie and later Reno. They were an integral part of my learning process. I think (hope) they’ve forgiven my shortcomings. I’ve tried to make it up to them.

I love Archie intensely. He’s been a gigantic pain in the butt throughout his life but I think I’m finally old enough to appreciate how much I’ve learned because of who he is. There was never a conscious decision on Archie’s part to engage in some twisted, life long, altruistic endeavor to shape me into an empathetic dog trainer. “Archie you asshole.” was likely the first use of an obscenity my son Keir ever heard. No dog’s made me angrier, more frustrated and no dog, not even Reno, has given me more to think about when it comes to the bifurcated  approach of behavior modification coupled with management. I’ll come clean. Archie is the reason that while I love dogs in general, I’m a big fan of terriers. Man do I love that defiant quality. That, “Who’s gonna make me?” bravado that seems imbued in so many of them.I can remember not caring for them much as a kid, terriers seemed,...grouchy but Archie and other dogs like him have grown on me in no small way. The attitude is infectious and rarely fails to make me smile. Over the years I've tried to relate that to every client with a Cairn, Scottie, Westie, etc. Oh, and Jack Russells of course. You've got to love them if you're ever going to put up with them.


Fifteen years ago I was a different person. Less wise, less fat, less grey and by no means a dog trainer. I wasn’t a father yet either. Keir’s entry on the scene brought to light one of Archie’s most endearing qualities, his lifelong fondness for Keir. At his most frustrating, I was always impressed with Archie's intelligence, taking to anything I spent the time to teach him. At his physical peak he was something to behold, a natural athlete, but when it all shakes out, it was his obvious and enduring affection for Keir both Sue and I appreciate the most. Tomorrow Archie turns fifteen years old. His hearing has started to fade as has his eyesight. He’s not the marvelous physical specimen he once was. What he remains in spite of these losses is content and that sustains me as I wrestle with being Dad to two geriatric dogs (Louie will be seventeen in October). Always assessing their quality of life, asking the question, “Are they still happy?” As I type this, Archie is asleep, stretching from time to time on the rug by my feet. He is happy, and I am too. Thank you brother, and happy birthday. 

I Am Spartacus

There's a well known scene from the 1960 Stanley Kubrick film Spartacus where, following defeat at the hands of a Roman legion, a general asks the surviving members of the slave army, "Who among you is Spartacus?" Kirk Douglas, playing the titular role, stands and says, "I am Spartacus". Then, out of loyalty to their friend and leader, his comrades rise, one by one identifying themselves, "I am Spartacus", "I am Spartacus" and so on. As a kid most of Kubrick's work went over my head but that movie meant something to me and in particular that scene. To say those words meant certain death but each man stood together side by side no matter the cost. It's a strong message that speaks to what's best in all of us and how difficult it can be to be that kind of person, it's a decision very few people will ever make, not with those consequences. That's been on my mind the last few days since first seeing an invitation to a fund raising breakfast for Defenders of Animals. I've been aware of the D.O.A. for several years and while individuals within the group no doubt have feelings that may not hold in lock step with the group's mission, the organization is not held in universally high regard in private conversations. "Exploitative", "Sensationalist" have been used to describe a group who's name suggests the most altruistic of intentions. For myself, these conversations have tinted my view but I avoid drawing conclusions from anything but primary sources. That invitation was my first primary source. It described two people I consider friends as mindless, blood thirsty hooligans (Hey, one hyperbolic rant deserves another, no?) Recklessly presiding over the future of two pit bull terriers. Katenna Jones and Dave Holden were the targets dujour in this D.O.A's latest effort to whip the rank and file into a furious lather. No one who knows know either Katenna or Dave would see that invitation without a resounding, "What the...?"

                      I'm going to backtrack a little because to understand where I'm going with this I have to tell you what I think the real problem is. Where the attention of Defenders and the like should be focused. Poorly bred dogs, many of them bully breeds, from puppy mills, hobby breeders etc. Individuals and groups with little or no regard for the future of the dogs they're breeding and the unpredictable consequences that often occur because of what they do. The toll is difficult to quantify because it expands beyond the actual monetary impact to real pain and suffering and sometimes death. That's the problem and anyone who's spent any time in a private or municipal shelter sees it every single day. I've been shown the door at evaluations more times than I can remember for explaining to dog owners that their pet store dogs likely came from puppy mills. "But if I didn't buy him, somebody else would have" and the cycle continues and the dogs are unwitting, innocent participants in this most existential of quandaries, "To be or not to be?"

                       The mess is left for others to deal with and that brings me back to the central theme of this entry. Katenna and Dave, both former founding members of the Rhode Island Animal Welfare Coalition, co-workers at the RISPCA and current members of Friends of Fido. Katenna, a graduate of Brown University, published author and shelter worker, was among the first on the scene to help in Joplin, MO following the tornado that destroyed that town. She's a certified behaviorist, worked with American Humane and spear headed an effort to improve the lives of all the animals at the Providence Animal Rescue League, a project I'm proud to say I helped her with. At the RISPCA Dave and Katenna worked together investigating animal cruelty cases doing real, meaningful things to improve the lives of the animals and sometimes the humans they lived with as well. It's not something anyone can do. It requires brains, compassion, and skill. It requires a degree of focus unhindered by the desire to judge. I've known both of these people for years and I ask you, do they sound like the source of the problem to you? They clearly are not and yet the invitations treats them as if they've been commanding a death camp. This in the wake of evaluations that lead to two dogs being euthanized at a local shelter. This is not about kill vs. no kill shelters. That's a book not a dopey blog entry and I'm not the person to write it. I know where I stand on this issue however and while I bring only a fraction of the expertise either of these two do to their jobs, I have logged hundreds of evaluations on dogs at my local shelter over the years. Some of those evaluations were mitigating factors in whether a dog was going to be made available for adoption or considered dangerous and euthanized. Temperament tests are far from perfect and there are different ways to do them, some considered more scientific/accurate predictors than others however, the ones I've seen share a common theme which is fundamentally how a dog responds to different stimuli including play, handling, food and loud noises. It is a snapshot of a dog, in a moment, responding to you (large, heavy male with glasses and a beard) in a small room in a strange, scarey place. Of course these tests aren't perfect, they also are not the source of the problem. Temperament test are typically done with big picture sensibilities in mind. The more information you have on any particular dog the more effectively you can screen applicants for adoption. The more effectively you can screen potential applicants the greater the chance of a successful adoption. Less information, lower likelihood. That's the corollary. Successful adoptions can and often do have secondary effects. Chief among them are that families that adopt one shelter dog will adopt other shelter dogs, I've adopted two, nearly all of my training/behavior friends, including Katenna, have shelter dogs at home as well. Friends, family and co-workers aware of your satisfaction with a shelter adoption may choose the same route rather than go to a hobby breeder or pet store who gets their puppies from puppy mills. Don't be fooled by semantics, puppies in pet stores come from mills, period. No thoughtful breeder leaves the all too important vetting process to a part time employee at a pet store. In the starkest of contrasts, an adoption that goes poorly has the opposite effect and because the connection that dogs in shelters often come from hobby breeders and pet stores (mills) is rarely made, the next dog often comes from one of those two sources and the cycle continues. Awareness and education are good starting points in stifling the flow of unfortunate animals into shelters. Temperament tests like MYM Safer and Assess-A-Pet are another and that means having smart, experienced and compassionate people to carry the tests out, people who understand the big picture. No one who knows either Dave or Katenna could reasonably dispute their intentions or their qualifications. They personify all of these qualities and where they should be the object of our collective admiration, they've been offered up as hapless fodder to otherwise caring individuals who, if they did a little homework, would know as I do that these are good human beings, the best among us in fact.

                      Everyone in the shelter/rescue world can have a discourse about the best way to address the issues associated with dogs in shelters, kill/no-kill etc. There's not a reasonable person I know who would expect anything less. To demonize these two people however, neither with a cruel bone in their bodies, is absurd, dumb and a waste of perfectly well intentioned angst. My message to Defenders of Animals and it's membership is simple, focus your energy on the real problem. We all know what it is so stop with the nonsense already, stop and think. There's not a soul alive who knows Dave and Katenna who'd believe for moment that they're not the good guys. If they aren't then I'm not either, I am Spartacus.

2012 IAABC CONFERENCE

The 70’s Funk band BT Express said it best , "Do it, do it, do it till you’re satisfied" this past weekend I did exactly that. A cosmic convergence of the greatest minds in animal behavior from the scholarly to the practical descended on Warwick, RI bringing with them their collective insights, not to mention, Vietnamese pigs, rabbits, crustaceans, a Costa Rican Armadillo and an African Horned Tortoise. You might be asking yourself, "Did I miss out on something truly bad ass?" If you weren't there, then yes, you missed something truly bad ass. I did not however and for that I will be forever grateful to Katenna Jones, Marje Alonso and Co. for having me along to thump the Thinkpads into submission whenever they acted up. A small price to pay for such unbridled awesomeness. Come now, surely I'm exaggerating and by the way, is awesomeness even a word? Well the bright red squiggly line that underscores every entry of the word "prestadigitation" (right there, I did it again) is absent so yes, it's a word and no, I'm not exaggerating.

This year's conference was very different for me than last year. My first time around as a conference volunteer, chronicled in this blog, was an experience that so expanded on my world and my role in it, no future conference could have the same impact. There was plenty of time to take notes, chat with the other volunteers. The glow from that conference stuck with me for several days. It was life changing. This for me was the best of sequels but by now I've lived for one full year in a world where these brilliant individuals exist, this was The Empire Strikes Back, awesome beyond measure, but not my first light sabre. When the conference wrapped I thought I’d better start collecting my thoughts before they start getting fuzzy, so here it goes. Last year I came away from the conference with some very big ideas to think about. It was broad and in many ways couldn't have been a better initial exposure. I don't think there's any conscious attempt at creating a theme, they seem to have emerged organically and to that end, this year seemed more nuts and bolts with a big emphasis on scientific method. Here's a brief outline of the speakers beating that drum. Dr. Sophia Yin on forming a hypothesis and subjecting it to scrutiny. Linda Case MS on understanding the science behind dog foods, Dr. Moon Fanelli on the influence of genetics in animal behavior, and that's just scratching the surface. Gail Fisher, Dr. Aubrey Fine, Dr. Ruth Colwill, one great speaker after another sharing the results of their hard work with us. Every speaker I saw stayed around afterwards to answer questions and every one of them was gracious with their time.

My favorite speaker was Brenda Aloff and while I couldn't manage a decent photo of her (see below) no one rolled with the punches like she did and no one I saw was more down to earth or approachable. There were technical problems with the rented equipment throughout the conference, and while everyone deftly made use of the time to answer questions from the audience no one had more fun with those moments than Brenda did. She should've bludgeoned me with that laptop, but she managed that whole room like a pro, myself included, with good humor and a great boisterous laugh. She could not have been kinder to me as I fiddled to kick start her presentation over and over again.

Lily Strassberg, a volunteer last year, was a presenter this year. Wowing attendees, including Karen Pryor, with her clicker training research on fiddler crabs and crayfish. Lily started with the genesis of this idea which started when she was a junior in high school, accepting a challenge from one of her teachers who warned her this was a nutty idea that will never work. She proved it did work, earned the nickname "Crab Girl" (though she prefers Poseidon) and just like that a future star was born. For the conference Lily walked attendees through this process and while this might strike you as a bit goofy, watching the crabs respond to cues and race across their small pools to "ring" a  sinker for a bit of food was one of the coolest things I've seen in some time. 

It was an exciting three days, running from room to room for spur of the moment problem solving, rubbing elbows with the best in the business, it was exhilarating. In the end though I had less time to sit through as many of the presentations as I did last year and less time still to talk with some of the other volunteers and new friends, many of them my peers in the training world. Joyce, Shana, Jenn, Sue, Liz and Alysha, you guys are the best. I hope we can all get together and do this again. 

One last thing. It's difficult for me not to notice how disproportionate the ratio of men to women are at conferences and seminars. At several points throughout the long weekend I took a random head count. The average I came up with was 1:5 men to women. Growing up in the 60's and 70's there were plenty of professions with gender contrasts including nurses, secretaries and librarians. Of course much of that has changed over the years but here's the rub, the contrast is only apparent when it comes to the academic component of training. There are easily as many male trainers as female so where were they? I don't have the answers, it's a genuine mystery to me and I'm surprised this contrast exists at all. To this point I echo my opening sentiment and say to my brothers in the training world, don't miss it if it comes this way again. You'll be missing something truly great. 

No veg from Cranston? Who knew?

Rage Against The Machine

I'm pissed off. No other way to describe it. It's been at least two years since a call from a dog owner left me feeling this way but that streak ended abruptly just twenty minutes ago. Long enough to get home, feed the dogs and get to the computer. Earlier I'd received a voice mail from someone asking for help "Scolding their dog". I've never heard someone phrase it quite that way and of course on it's face "scolding" is a word subject to interpretation. Are we talking Spanish inquisition or my son losing his IPod for a day scolded? Curious to find out I called back. The dog was described as a four year old female that came from an abusive home. The owner had great success training her with a shock collar,...wait, what? Had I heard that right? Best money they'd ever spent I was told.

Honestly folks, I try in earnest not to pontificate. After all there was a time I'd turned to shock collars etc. to curb behaviors but the truth is that I've had far more success since I stopped using them. It doesn't matter what anyone's feelings are about them, the science doesn't support their efficacy in any meaningful way and in fact provides us with empirical data to support that they do more harm than good. Dr. Sophia Yin's website, click HERE is a great place to start understanding why. Something I tried with all the sincerity and non-judgmental zeal I could muster to communicate to this dog owner. To no avail. I was talking to someone who steadfastly embraced dated and cruel notions that include sticking her dog's nose in her excrement when she had an accident; doesn't work, never has. Worse yet was that this dog has been "rescued from an abusive home". I tried to reach across the divide; explaining my experience with shock collars before and since; I tried to share the data, explain that there were locking trash cans she could get at the local home improvement store that effectively manage garbage surfing and the response was, "I don't want to have to shut doors in my house while I'm not at home, I am my dog's master" Holy shit! Where to begin? Uhhh,...no you're not. The notion of "Master" is the worst kind of dated nonsense. It shares a place in history with other nutty ideas like phrenology and spontaneous generation. It reminds me of the witch scene from Monty Python's Holy Grail, "If she weighs as much as a duck, then she must be made of wood, and therefore a witch". I'd bet my house that my dogs have no notion of what a "master" is. Even if they did I'd have no interest in playing that role. My dogs are family and in that dynamic there are rules but those rules are realized through a sense of cooperation and reciprocity.

I wanted so badly to reach some common ground with this dog owner but there was no getting through. I failed and now a bad situation is likely to get much worse. A dog who, if the account of her past is accurate, has no reason to trust humans, is now getting all the wrong signals from a yet another human counterpart uninterested in learning anything. Quite the contrary, she was clearly upset with me for trying. Will this dog end up at the Veterinary Clinic that referred her owner to me only to be euthanized for a bite? That's a distinct possibility (I did contact them to fill them in on the details.) More likely first will be calls to other trainers in an effort to find one that won't challenge her to think about it first. This poor dog has some misery in her future and there's nothing I can do to stop it.

Worse yet is that this is not an isolated case. This dog owner is in dubious company with countless other vapid, empty headed twits. Who am I to judge? An old friend once told me when he was asked that question, he responded with, "Someone has to, it may as well be me." Owen, if you're reading this for some strange reason, I get it now. I don't judge dog owners remotely as much for what they're doing so much as what they refuse to do. It's infuriating to be asked for help and subsequently resented for trying but I'll have a couple of beers tonight and get over it. I'm no slave to a "Master" bent on finding more effective means of scolding me.

The word's getting out that there are better ways, not better feeling ways, not ways that are much nicer, capital "B" Better, demonstrably better but every one of us in the training community has a responsibility to get that message out more effectively. Tonight was a wake up call that I need to do that. Tonight left me enraged, I'm still boiling, typing, deleting, and retyping so this doesn't end up just an angry rant. There are lots of good trainers out there, some of them I'm happy to say are my friends. If you call one of them for help, don't be afraid to learn something. Age has provided me with perspective and the blessed ability to be at peace with sometimes (often, if you ask my wife) being wrong about something. James Joyce once said that mistakes are the portals of discovery. This time it wasn't but if for no other reason than the dog I failed tonight, I'll do a better job of bridging that divide the next time I get the chance to. Good luck girl, I'm sorry.

What's The Big Idea?

Early this past Friday evening I’d worked with a young Lhasa-poo that while good natured and sweet had his owner’s nerves severely frayed by his compulsive behavior of eating every bit of road debris he could get his mouth on. This little guy has some manic energy to burn and was terrible on leash to boot. We’d had great success initially with a Newtrix head halter but after three days it was apparent that the classical conditioning routine I employ to introduce dogs to head halters hadn’t stuck, we needed a Plan B that would address both issues effectively. I pulled a ThunderShirt out of the car, paired it with a Premier harness and within a few minutes we were doing greets in a ‘sit’ followed by a walk free of trail mix, get it? Trail mix? Rocks, twigs…things you’d see on a trail…moving on. The lesson ended on a high note and as I sat later that evening with the owners of a pair of Welsh Cardigan Corgis it struck me what a great time it was to be a dog trainer.” Twenty years ago the tools I was using to work with the Lhasa-poo weren’t around and while it’s not my first instinct to wax “Q” like, festooning dog owners with high tech gadgetry it’s great to have them at my disposal when a leash and martingale aren’t getting it done alone, add to this the collective wisdom of generations of animal trainers evident in an exhaustive and ever growing library of training books, internet message boards not to mention living in a part of the world where interest in the subject appears to be peeking with everyday dog owners. It’s an embarrassment of riches.

Also this past Friday, I received an e-mail sent in error by someone who’d mistaken me for another trainer. She said she’d attended his recent “seminar”. Why the quotation marks? The Webster Dictionary defines a seminar as follows: A group of advanced students studying under a professor with each doing original research and all exchanging results through reports and discussions. I don’t doubt that it was described as a seminar, in full disclosure I haven’t attended one of them but I feel comfortable speculating that it no more qualifies as a seminar than it would a Bris. It could however be described as a sermon, defined as A religious discourse delivered in public usually by a clergyman as part of a worship service. I’m agnostic by nature so a sermon would require I suspend disbelief to enjoy and appreciate the spectacle dujour. The e-mail in question inquired what the best method was for fitting a pinch collar to a 6 month old Labrador puppy. I’ve worked with former clients of this trainer; no quotation marks there, technically there is training going on; there is however, nothing professorial about it. Eleanor Roosevelt once said that small minds talk about individuals and great minds talk about ideas. I’m no great mind, no delusions of grandeur here, but I’ll take a stab at the sentiment by sticking to the idea. With that, another quote from the recent IAABC conference, “I believe in science”, simple, easy to remember and with profound implications. Bob Bailey, a patriarch in the field of animal training said this in the second of two presentations. I believe in science as well. Science is evolving, it’s subjective and it requires those qualities in its practitioners, even we lowly dog trainers. For some time I relied on pinch collars to address a myriad of training issues. I had quite a bit of success with them as well but most of the dog owners needed a sort of indoctrination before they’d subject their dogs to something so draconian. Some of them wept openly they felt so badly about it and the dog owners who welcomed the notion weren’t ones I was connecting with in any meaningful way. I didn’t understand it very well at the time, pinch collars are a tool after all, like a chest splitter, an auger or a sledgehammer, I shouldn’t be all that difficult to remain dispassionate about them; but there were dogs whose response to them was so poisonous it would take weeks just to regain their trust. This was an aggressive measure for a problem that rarely required one. They’ve since been relegated to the bottom of my training toolbox, a tool of last resort and certainly not for any six month old Labrador or any other puppy I’ve worked with for that matter.

There were so many great ideas I came away from the conference feeling much more strongly about but the one that stands on top was the importance of free will in training and counter conditioning. Delivered with great poignance by Dr. Frank McMillan of the Best Friends Society, the merits of free will were contrasted with the horrors of forced confinement, and myriad other forms of animal abuse from around the world. Dr. McMillan outlined the kinds of permanent damage visited on animals forced to endure cruelty, both physical and emotional at the hands of humans. This subject was examined again later in the conference by Katenna Jones and alluded to by a number of other speakers.

A scenario I come across commonly involves a dog learning that it’s more rewarding to go to a designated place when they hear their doorbell as opposed to charging the door, barking and jumping on the guest(s). Less common is helping a dog crippled by fear learning to reevaluate the things in their environment that trigger fear responses from hiding to biting. Deconstructing these triggers requires patience and creativity and no small measure of cooperation with the dog’s owner. Coaching dog owners and their dogs so they can navigate slowly through these emotional mine fields is an awesome experience and it feels good, it feels really good. The big idea behind these experiences is education vs. subjugation. I’ve done both of these things and can tell you there is nothing special about controlling a dog through domination, been there, done that. Watching the wheels turn as a dog problem solves and/or learns to reevaluate scary situations is in contrast endlessly fascinating and satisfying.

As with most things there are exceptions. It is not alright for a dog to react aggressively towards another dog, person etc. Biting is not a reasonable choice. To that end there are tried and true methods that are not punitive in nature for modifying aggressive behavior. Counter Conditioning and Desensitizing (CC&D), Behavioral Adjustment Training (BAT) and Constructive Aggression Training (CAT) are three methods I’ve employed with great success. There is some discourse on both BAT and CAT as technically they fall under the umbrella of positive punishment, negative reinforcement. Both involve exposing a dog to a negative trigger, removing either the trigger or the dog when the desired response is given (calming signal). I take issue with the idea that these approaches can be associated with choke chains, pinch collars etc. for the simple reason that within the course of a normal day some dogs will encounter a negative trigger, i.e. another dog, cat, person etc. It’s not a decision, but a naturally occurring part of their environment. Add to this that the dogs I’ve worked with using CAT and BAT are clearly coping with these triggers with measurably more confidence and it’s hard to ignore their respective merits. In the end, both approaches afford reactive dogs the option of reacting to these triggers as they typically do or with relative composure.

Bob Bailey discussed how in his early years he spent a lot of time observing how animals behaved without thrusting himself into the equation. What were animals doing? Why were they doing it? It formed the basis for a career that’s stretched from the 1950’s to the present. Aversion methods turn a blind eye to this kind of inquiry. If the goal is to control through domination then it hardly matters much why an animal is doing something. They need to stop doing “that”, whatever “that” happens to be. Ethology based training assumes our pet dogs are, as Brenda Aloff mused, “trying to conquer the world”. Imagine Charlton Heston in “Planet of the Dogs”,…”Get your paws off of me you damned dirty mutt!”

Memories of The 2011 IAABC Conference

Several weeks ago I got a surprising e-mail from Katenna Jones asking if I'd like to attend the IAABC (International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants) conference on the bubble in exchange for working the conference as a volunteer. I'd wanted very much to go but was still reeling from last spring's vet bills. Katenna was giving a presentation on animal stress research and was allowed to invite three friends to join the corps of volunteers. I happily accepted. The conference was this past weekend and well, I owe Ms. Jones a solid, maybe six or seven, I'll have to get a head count of all the amazing speakers, (Katenna was one of them) to be sure. She'd also invited Connie Buldoc from Providence Animal Rescue League, a remarkably kind hearted and needlessly self effacing energizer bunny and the keystone of the volunteer effort and Joyce Gauthier who I'd first met several years ago at a Kathy Sdao seminar and again at symposium held at Brown University. Joyce is a gifted and extremely smart trainer who I got to swap notes, anecdotes and ideas with throughout the conference. Both contributed to an amazing weekend that I'll be thinking, reading and talking about for years to come. While I'm still digesting everything I saw, read and heard I'll share some of the highlights while they're still fresh in my completely blown mind. Here it goes.

The volunteer effort began this past Thursday night stuffing conference bags and organizing name tags. It'd been an exhausting day that started at 3AM and ended with me whining about organizing the name tags. Right away I met Lily, a college student who'd clicker trained a crab to ring a bell with mussel meat (later gaining the attention of the esteemed Karen Pryor) and her friend Nikolai, a 17 year old immigrant from Moscow studying chemistry at Tufts, yup, I was the dumb guy in the room again and I'd only been there five minutes. Lily and Nikolai were modest, deferential and mature beyond their years. I've had decades to forget how relatively not like these two I was when I was their age. How's that cloning business coming along guys? We could use more young people like these two. I copped to having used a digital projector a few time and just like that I was handling audio/visual for several of the speakers, making sure they were seeing the same images on the big screen and their respective laptops. That started in earnest Friday morning with Dr. Nick Dodman, a pioneer in the field of veterinary behavior at Tufts University. I managed to get a laugh from him before he got things off the ground with his presentation on compulsive behavior, in the process expanding my vocabulary to include words like “stereotypie”, disorders like Acral Lick Dermatitis and phrases like “flank sucking”. That segued nicely to the first of two presentations by Dr. Frank McMillan of Best Friends Animal Society who shed light on the affects of animal abuse including truly horrific practices like bile farming, click HERE to help and learn more and the plight of the Spanish Galgo click HERE for more information and to help that rescue organization. I came away from Dr. McMillan's presentation feeling fairly Pollyann-ish. This was disturbing stuff not strictly in relative terms, I appreciate that a good deal of the rest of the world does not share the same kind of relationship with dogs Americans do. Nikolai explained to me that children in Moscow are taught to fear dogs in fact and that he was still acclimating to life here where dog ownership is comparatively common. This was disturbing on basic human terms. The complete absence of empathy exposed in Dr. McMillan's piece was on a measure previously unimaginable to me. Thankfully, a break followed and the first opportunity to start talking to Connie, Joyce etc. about what we'd experienced so far. I'm still taken aback by the restrained egos, the sense of community, there were rock stars in attendance without the rock star bowl of green M&Ms and pitted apricots. Even early on the conference was proving what my friend Darcy would call “juicy”. However, nothing could have prepared me for the next presentation. It was the “Inception” experience of the conference, that small totem still spinning in my brain for hours afterward. Dr. Myra Milani's “Where the Sun Don't Shine”. You should probably sit for this one.

Before I give you my impression of Dr. Milani's presentation I should say that, like Inception, I should probably see it a few more times, there's a good chance I missed what she was driving at, I ordered the audio and may revise this post accordingly. Alright, there's my disclaimer, now, everybody someplace cozy? This presentation looked unblinkingly at Zoophilia, defined as either consensual or non-consensual sexual intercourse between a human and non-human animal. I'll give myself credit for not giving into a sophomoric giggle reflex, (used to come in handy in life drawing years ago) What Dr. Milani postulated was that climatic changes are assumed in part responsible for the increase in documented cases of animal hybridization (e.g. The widely covered case of a grizzly/polar bear hybrid killed by a hunter in Northern Canada) and that there may be a corollary with documented cases of Zoophelia. Furthermore, that as climate changes unfold we should expect an increase in these documented cases. That's right, Zoophelia may in fact be a form of hybridization. This was not your grand daddy's conference folks. I was in dog nerd heaven. All of the ickyness of bestiality aside, is there, at the core, a biological impulse to procreate with animals of another species, even if the odds of yielding successful offspring was infinitesimal? Forget labradoodles, we're talking labrapeople, hippopotahumans. Moving on,...

Next up for me was probably the most amusing presentation of the conference, Ken McCort's piece on intentional thinking which started with an idea posed by Tufts University philosophy professor Daniel Dennett, in his book “The Intentional Stance” that we humans are only capable of six levels of intentional thinking. Funny right? It was in the hands of Ken McCort who spends some of his time chumming around with Ray Coppinger (author of the “Dogs” a terrific book on the subject of canine ethology and human canine relationships) as well as wolves, coyotes and foxes at Wolf Park in Battle Ground, IN. Ken McCort is who I want to be when I grow up. With respect to intentional thinking, he believed the rules of parsimony provided dogs, cats etc. with no more than two levels of intentional thinking. Attendees challenged him with some terrific anecdotes and you had to be there to appreciate how funny it all was but it was a concept that came up again and again throughout the conference.

Of course the big draw for many conference goers was Victoria Stillwell. Oddly, I've never seen her very popular “It's Me or the Dog” show on Animal Planet so I wasn't star struck when she sat down next to me. Her presentation drew some of the most enthusiastic applause when in a segment from her show she was seen bringing a client keen on breeding his American Bull Terrier to the Fulton County Animal Shelter to see first hand, kennel after kennel of homeless bully breed dogs, the euthanasia log and finally the shelter freezer wreaking from recently euthanized dogs. It was a powerful and potent message delivered with a great deal more effectiveness than any attempt I'd made to get across the importance of spay/neuter to would be hobby breeders. It was the most polished presentation of the conference.

Next up was Dr. Sheila Arpino who's work with food aggressive dogs was a model of the patience, smarts and thoughtfulness that goes into a good counter conditioning protocol. Steve Dale followed with his excellent presentation on animal enrichment. I left that with renewed appreciation for food puzzles, it also occurred to me that moving the bird feeders away from our front windows was a bad idea. That's high definition tv for my three dogs. They're getting moved back, nose prints on the glass be damned!

One of the more shocking revelations of the conference came when Marilyn Krieger announced Katenna Jones; I'm paraphrasing but it went something like, “Animal behaviorist, educator with American Humane with a Masters Degree from Brown University, Katenna Jones lives at home with her cats, two husbands and her dog...” Who knew? No gay marriage to date in Rhode Island but polygamy is apparently alive and well. Amidst the many useful bits of information on research into animal stress was the revelation that an unsheathed penis was a sign of stress for male dogs. Over the years I'd witnessed countless “pink lipsticks” as they're often referred to; little did I know that something other than the prurient interests of the dog was at play.

Bob Bailey, a chemist/zoologist (are you reading this Nikolai?) for over fifty years and a pioneer in operant conditioning in animal training proudly proclaimed no less than six times by my reckoning, “I am not a clicker trainer” so frequent were these proclamations that I suggested to Joyce and Connie that they “click” every time he said it or that it might make a neat drinking game. “This was done without a clicker!”,...click!, gulp! Sure Bailey was poking fun at the throngs of clicker trainers in attendance but amongst his many achievements he retains a more comprehensive grasp of the history of animal training I've ever witnessed. This is one smart guy and while he took time to applaud the work of luminaries in the clicker training arena like Karen Pryor, what I think he really wanted was to share his unique perspective on the subject. He made the last presentation of the conference, shortly after I hit the Dogwise table to see if they had copies of his “Quiet like the Chipmunk” DVD. Bob walked up behind me put his hand on my shoulder and said, “I hear that's a good one, would you like me to autograph it for you?” I hadn't even purchased it yet and he'd used his Jedi skills to seal the deal. Bastard!

Finally, a presentation that had the biggest impact on me. Brenda Aloff's “Negative Reinforcement Is Not an Evil Phrase”. I couldn't wait to see what this was about. Hardly an attempt to swim against the tide, this was more about things like body language, using high and low arousal and tension to shape behaviors. Admittedly this was not a revelation but an affirmation by one of the brightest minds in the business that I've been on the right track and was developing important instincts. I know next to nothing about horses but the what I saw there was truly impressive.

What an amazing, mind blowing experience this weekend's been. Today I had to come back down to earth but I come back with renewed vigor and inspiration to last until next years conference. Finally, in a generous show of thanks, volunteers were awarded with a membership in the IAABC. To Katenna Jones, Jaimie Whittaker and Marjie Alonso (I hope you found your Macbook) I'm extremely grateful.