How to Raise the Perfect Dog (30 page)

COMMON PROBLEM 7
Digging (21 Percent)

All dogs are natural diggers. Some dogs, such as the terrier breeds, have that extra boost in their DNA that makes their drive to dig even stronger. For them, digging can become their primary outlet for relieving stress, boredom, or anxiety. We need to provide for our dogs an outlet for this perfectly normal activity.

The area where the new Dog Psychology Center is located is teeming with local wildlife. From the moment two-month-old Angel arrived at the ranch, he began to fixate on my four-year-old Jack Russell terrier as Jack scoured the ranch for gopher holes. Angel’s DNA was crying out in recognition—“Digging! That’s what I was born for!” But despite the fact that Angel’s ancestors were bred to dig for rats and other earthy rodents, I didn’t want him to pick up catching gophers as a hobby. I needed to redirect his digging energy in a safer way, while keeping his mind and his genes engaged.

I have created a special area at the center for this very purpose. A tall, sandy embankment mottled with abandoned rodent holes has become the official “digging place” for the dogs, where we do simple activities to fulfill that need in them. I’ll take a tennis ball, focus the dogs’ attention on it, then stick it deep into the recesses of one of the small abandoned rodent holes in the bank. It’s wonderful to watch the puppies’ different breed-related talents and tendencies emerge when I do this simple exercise. Junior, with all his brawny pit bull might, will fly at the bank with all four paws, hurling giant chunks of earth behind him as if he were a bulldozer. He’ll widen out the hole in no time flat but in a totally undisciplined manner—all agitation and muscle, with very little focus. With Mr. President, it’s easy to see why digging and retrieving buried treasure is not a bulldog’s forte. He’ll try to join in the excitement, but with his flat snout and large head, he can only clumsily poke inside the hole in the general direction of the hidden object. Angel, however, has been a digging star from day one. While Junior is still knocking himself out trying to make the hole in the embankment bigger, and while Mr. President is looking around, wondering if anyone is going to bring the ball back, Angel will simply slip into the hole like a trained navy diver, disappear for a moment, then come out proudly carrying the ball.

For this I reward him with extra praise and affection. It’s important that he understand how proud I am of his ability, that I take joy in his joy, and that I’m nurturing the terrier instincts in him—but directing them in the right way. He is learning that we dig for balls, not for gophers—and we dig only for what the human wants us to dig for. This is prevention at its best; I know Angel is not going to dig up my Zen landscaping in the future, because I am already fulfilling his genetic need in a much richer, more entertaining way.

If you have a terrier breed or another breed with a powerful digging drive, or you are having problems with your puppy’s obsessive digging, I suggest you section off an area in your garden or yard appropriate for your dog’s or puppy’s size. You can also provide a sandbox, if it is deep enough. This will be the place where your dog can dig to her heart’s content. Bury something interesting in the area, like a bully stick or a scented toy. Then bring your dog to the area, and let her sniff. If she doesn’t begin digging, start moving the dirt yourself, just a little bit. Eventually she’ll start to get excited and want to join in with you. If the area you can provide is very shallow, you can participate in the game and re-cover the area that your dog has already dug up—making it more challenging for her. Or you can just leave her to enjoy the adventure for herself, nurturing her achievement when she’s brought you the buried object. After the exercise, replace the dirt, sanitize the object, and put the soil back the way it was before the dog began digging, to keep it interesting, as if every day it is still the first time anyone has ever dug in that space.

The next step is showing your dog that your designated digging spot is the only place where she can practice this activity. After she has succeeded in her digging challenge for the day, bring your dog to your garden or any area that you want to be off-limits. Put something in the ground, but block your dog immediately if she even attempts to come near. Direct her attention to you and don’t let her engage her nose, eyes, or ears. Use your body language to claim the area as “yours.” Then go back to the digging area and repeat the joyful digging exercise. Repeat this process a few times a week or, if your puppy has already lapsed into bad habits, every day, until it becomes clear to you that the puppy knows the rules, boundaries, and limitations of digging in her environment.

If you live in an apartment, find an area in the park to practice digging exercises, or perhaps a dog-friendly beach. For digging activities indoors, Angel’s breeder, Brooke Walker, provides her newborn miniature schnauzer puppies with a labyrinth of carpeted cat tunnels, to nurture and fulfill their schnauzer’s “submariner” needs from birth onward. When we fulfill our puppies’ inborn needs from day one, we can actually prevent almost any troublesome issue from developing.

COMMON PROBLEM 8
Won’t Walk on a Leash (20 Percent)

Angel has never had a problem with a leash in his short life. And one of the reasons for that is his very proactive breeder, Brooke Walker. She has her miniature schnauzer pups wearing colored bands made of paper at four weeks old and introduces them to the sensation of the leash by eight weeks.

When I am walking my pack on the beach, people often come up to ask me questions because it’s very unusual to see a woman walking six perfect miniature schnauzers, all well behaved, all in formation. The other day, a woman came by with a schnauzer that was six months old and didn’t know how to walk on a leash. Well, that’s disgraceful. It turns out she got the puppy at a pet store, which absolutely explains it. A puppy purchased at a pet store at six months has waited too long and never really experienced the world. But walking on a leash, well, that’s one of the first skills your puppy has to have. All my puppies are leash trained by the time they leave my house.

A puppy may be leash trained when it comes to its new owners, but that doesn’t mean the owners are leash trained. When I saw the CNN newsfeed of the Obama puppy pulling little Malia all over the White House lawn, I knew that the First Family had not taken the time to master the walk. Mastering the walk, which we touched on in Chapter 4, means having your puppy walking beside you, head up, with no tension on the leash between you and her. She is not pulling you or exhibiting the zigzagging behavior that we saw with presidential puppy Bo. Zigzagging (or what one of my more colorful clients calls “fly-fishing”) is a sign of an overexcited dog. The walk should not signify excitement to a dog; it should signify structure, and the foundations of structure are laid in puppyhood. In nature, puppies know they have to follow their mother in a disciplined manner, or else they will get lost or left behind. In thinking you need a long lead in order to give your puppy “freedom” to explore out in front of you, you are actually working against Mother Nature. You can take breaks in the walk to allow for exploration time, as well as scheduling play sessions that involve supervised exploration in your yard or in the park. But there is absolutely no substitute for teaching your puppy to master a structured walk.

As she learns to walk on her leash, however, you should expect certain behaviors from a very young puppy. Remember, everything is new to her. It is absolutely natural that she is going to get distracted by grass, by trees, by other dogs, by humans. At those times she will pull on the leash and that will create tension on it. If you pull back on the leash, you only increase the tension, which makes walking with you a stressful experience. Make sure the leash is high up on your puppy’s neck. Carry it loosely, like a briefcase or purse. If your puppy sees something exciting and starts to move toward it, keep the tension loose but continue in the direction you are going, focusing on keeping your puppy’s head up. Use a scent, a treat, or a bully stick to engage her nose and keep her moving forward; engaging a puppy’s nose is a surefire way of redirecting her attention. If the puppy continues to pull, turn around, stop, face her, and make eye contact with her until she sits. Relax all tension on the leash and wait. When she is focused on you again, totally relaxed, only then should you continue the walk. You may have to repeat this several times until your puppy gets the message that you are in control of the walk.

When Crystal Reel brought Mr. President home with her during my weeklong vacation, she had a different issue on the walk. “Sometimes he’d walk as far as he wanted to go and then he’d just sit down. He’s not a fan of long, drawn-out walks—especially when it was warm outside and he’d get overheated.” We’d had several unseasonable heat waves in Los Angeles that year, and bulldogs are notoriously sensitive to the heat. Crystal solved her problem by adapting to Mr. President’s physical needs. “On hot days, I tried to break up our walks into smaller ten-minute walks throughout the day. I would also use the scent of food to get him up and moving if he sat down.”

Another behavior that is totally normal occurs when a puppy gets a little unsure in a brand-new place and doesn’t want to keep moving forward. When Melissa took Angel on his overnight adventure, the first thing she did was bring him to an outdoor café at the top of a flight of marble steps, something he’d never experienced before in his life. Angel merrily trotted across the parking lot on his leash, but when he saw those stairs, he balked. This is perfectly natural, and it’s a sign of good instincts, good common sense. Here is a four-month-old puppy with a brand-new person, in a new situation that he is unsure of. Instinct is telling him, “Use your nose, check it out, don’t do anything rash.” You never want to discourage a puppy that’s listening to its instincts.

Melissa handled this situation correctly, stopping and letting the tension fall on the leash while Angel took in the stairs. Then, before he could become too overwhelmed, she put the bully stick in front of his nose, then brought him up one step, let him sniff, then another, let him sniff, and so on. After the fourth or fifth step, she upped her pace, and Angel—still a little tentative but now back in the mode of moving forward—followed along quickly behind her. The same thing happened in her apartment building, but by the third time he faced a flight of stairs, Angel was going up and down like a pro.

COMMON PROBLEM 9
Crying or Whining (18 Percent)

When puppies are separated from their pack in the wild, they will cry out or whine to get their mothers’ attention. When your puppy cries, it’s usually just to get your attention, because of either loneliness or a need to eliminate. It’s normal for a puppy to whine a little on her first few nights away from her mother and siblings—remember, we are asking dogs to do something very unnatural when we separate them from their packs—but they do adjust quickly, and being alone comfortably is a skill they are going to need for living with humans the rest of their lives. You want your puppy to develop this ability as soon as possible, to prevent the issue of separation anxiety later. If your puppy starts to cry a little during her first few nights, ignoring is the best medicine.

One way to prevent the situation of a puppy that whines or barks from her crate is to make sure she is calm and submissive before you close her in.
Never
shut the door on an excited, anxious puppy. Wait next to her in silence until she relaxes, then gently close the door and walk away. Make sure to drain the puppy’s energy before bed or quiet times, especially in the early days when she is first getting used to her new environment. If she’s happily exhausted, she’ll have a lot less energy for whining and be more inclined to simply crash for the night. Also, make sure she pees and poops on a regular schedule so that she’s not physically uncomfortable in her crate or sleeping place.

Most of my clients with puppies admit that they have a very hard time not responding to a puppy’s pitiful cries during those crucial first nights. Diana Foster of Thinschmidt German Shepherds is adamant that new owners take a “tough love” stance, for the good of the dog, not for themselves.

It is very important to completely ignore all the noise, regardless of how loud it gets. When dogs are stressed and are trying to work out their frustrations, they will try as hard as they can to get their way. Their behavior will escalate and continue to get worse instead of better. Dog trainers call this “extinction burst.” Unfortunately, it is just at this point when frustrated owners “give in” to their dogs’ demanding behavior, as they just can’t deal with it. Had they waited it out for just a short time longer, the behavior would eventually improve. Interrupting the escalation reinforces the exact behavior people are trying to avoid. Soon after it reaches a peak and the dog is absolutely out of control, he will give in and start to settle down.

COMMON PROBLEM 10
Excited (15 Percent) or
Submissive (11 Percent) Urination

Like housebreaking issues, unplanned urination, whether it is excited or submissive, is another behavior that owners will take serious steps to correct. Again, it seems to be a universal human motto: “You can drag me all over the dog park—you can even eat my shoes—but don’t you dare stink up my living room.”

Excited urination is exactly what it sounds like—an overstimulated dog gets caught up in the moment and forgets to control or loses control of her bodily functions. It’s the canine version of “I was so excited, I wet my pants!” Since it’s easy to overstimulate young puppies and since they are still new to their elimination routine, accidents can happen. The most obvious solution to this problem is to closely monitor the intensity of your puppy’s play, not letting her get too overwhelmed by people, places, or things. If the problem seems chronic, you should see your veterinarian, to make sure your puppy doesn’t have urinary tract problems or a neurological inability to control her bladder when excited.