Category: Dog Training

Dog Behaviour, Dog Equipment, Dog Training, Puppy

Do you take water out for your dog on their walks?

Joanne Hinds

What ever the weather, it’s always important to take water out with you for your dog on walks. Dogs get thirsty the same as us and often are running about more. You might say “but my dog doesn’t drink on walks”, continue reading to find out why that might be.

If you don’t have water with you, dogs can end up disappearing in search of water, possibly drinking from a puddle or worse a stagnant ditch. Now don’t get me wrong some dogs just love drinking dirty water, and different water sources can have different minerals that they could be potentially seeking. However having a fresh safer options on you, is far more preferable. 

Have you ever been training your dog and they stop taking the treats? This could be because they are thirsty and it’s not rewarding, when you have a dry mouth to take more food, especially if you are using the dry biscuit type. Therefore it could become punishing to the dog to perform the behaviour you are actually training at the time.

Water is also another resource you can use as a reward for recall, as we all know if we are thirsty having a drink feels good. What is important however is never withhold water from them for training purposes!

Dogs with anxiety or ones that find some experiences outside stressful, often drink more water. So it’s vital when working on behaviour rehabilitation that these dogs are offered water on a regular basis, or you may find they switch off from treats quicker. 

I have been told on a number of occasions by dog guardians, that their dog will not drink water when out on walks, this maybe the case however the first questions I ask is:

“Has your dog drank from the bowl or bottle that you’re offering them to drink from when outside before?”

“Was enough time given to your dog before the walk to be come familiarised with the item, to enable them to feel comfortable with it?”

You will be surprised how many dogs I see that are actually scared of the water bowl/bottle dispenser that is being offered to them, or the way in which the water is presented to them. For some dogs it can be quite unsettling to be suddenly introduced to a weird novel object, then to have said object enthusiastically thrusted into their face or under their nose, this can appear to be somewhat threatening to a dog.

It’s really important with all equipment, that your dog is actually comfortable drinking from it, so it should be introduced in the house first with them happily using it, comfortable with you approaching them with it and then taken with you on the walk. Always get your dog to walk towards you rather than you moving to them with it in your hand. Normally they drink from a stationary bowl at home, and you are now moving towards them with something odd, sometimes in a forceful way (because you care), as you can see they are thirsty.

Another factor is how much water is dispensed, licking shallow water or dribbles out of a bottle doesn’t quench thirst and therefore some dogs do not bother. Dogs use the back of their tongue like a scoop, lifting the water up and into their mouth see the following video https://youtu.be/63Ch2pNkZwU so ensure you have poured enough out before calling your dog over. 

If they generally do not drink outside and also rarely do at home it’s worth considering the following, mains water in different locations can be highly chlorinated which can prevent dogs from wanting to drink it and actually can have other adverse effects. This is why some dogs prefer filtered or natural spring bottle water.

Dogs can also be getting lot of moisture from the the food/treats they are getting, so it consuming it that way.

an option for these dogs not only to take water just incase, but also more watery treats like melon, cucumber any juicy fruit to provide a refreshing alternative, of course that’s if they like fruit, and it’s provided in moderation.

What ever dog you have, it’s vitally important that dogs have the option to drink whilst they are out.

Happy walking.

Jo

Dog Behaviour, Dog Training, Puppy

Don’t leave your dog hanging!

Joanne Hinds

Transcript:

“This is a quick one today but I think it is a really important one because we often leave our dogs in a state of not realising when things are over, which can for some dogs lead to frustration and more desperate attempts to get more treats, play or more fuss. Now I like to teach dogs what I call “The End Signal” which can be named what ever you like but what it means is that we have finished whatever we were doing. I think this is fair because its really hard for some dogs particularly, to understand that now there is no more treats or now we have stopped training and there are some dogs that are particularly more addicted to training, play or fuss even, so its important for our own benefit as well as them to let them know that it is over now and there is no point carrying on trying. Your word can be anything; most people say all gone when it comes to treats, they might say enough, finished, go find or go play, what ever it is it needs to be consistent and I tend say use one word that means that is it, its finished. “Finished” and a hand gesture is useful for your dog, when we would use this is say we were training with them and we have been giving loads of treats and we have been doing some sits, downs and stays and I like to teach a settle at the end so they relax after at the end of the session we say “Finished” with the gesture so they go off and they know that it is the end of training, there is no more treats and we are going to put them away and its clear to them its futile to continue trying. This should apply when you are playing as well particularly for dogs that are ball obsessed but for any dog so they are not just left hanging there like “What happened?” you know we often just carry on, “oh we have done that bit now” and we will carry on doing whatever, we just need to let them know, right that is the end, its all gone you can go and sniff and relax now, so we are not training any more, we are not playing any more. You can obviously use that for fuss and anything where you dog tries to continue to pursue something. Finished means right go and settle down, go sniff if you want to, go an play with your mates whatever but what it should mean from us that it does mean the end. There is no point saying finished and then go and give your dog another treat at the end of that because you then undo what you are trying to achieve, you want your dog to understand that finish means no more now, you can do something else and I am going to do something as well. I cant say enough how important I feel this is for dogs because as i said it just leaves them understanding it is the end and they are not left in limbo. OK I told you it was a short one today so please do the usual like a subscribe and catch me next week take care.”

Dog Behaviour, Dog Training

Ask The Dog

Joanne Hinds

My latest book is out, called ASK THE DOG. What made me write this book? Many things; my now 4 year old son, the adults that go straight up to dogs and stroke without asking because they are ‘dog lovers’, the people that have had dogs for years but are missing the subtle body language that dogs display, when they would prefer to be left alone, the number of children that try to come running up to us, when I am out with a client and their dog and of course the many cases I deal with where dogs have bitten.

Ask the dog by Joanne Hinds cover page mum and son asking a owner and the dog whether they are happy to be stroked

Children below the age of 15 account for a high percentage of all dog bites, with the most vulnerable group being kids around 5 or younger, with this group at higher risk of being bitten in the face and are more likely to require hospitalisation than older children. Nearly 90% of the dogs are known to the children that are bitten. Children unfortunately do not recognise canine emotional expressions like growling for example, very well and sadly boys seemed to recognise fearfulness less in dogs.  These are the many factors why I felt it was important for me to help educate children, parents and people in general, on how to recognise when dogs are saying they do not want to be touched.

Now let’s think about it, how much are we touched on a daily basis by known or unknown people? If we walked down the street stopping and physically touching people unsolicitedly, we would not only get some strange looks and make people feel uncomfortable but we might get someone shouting at us or worse. Now think about how much we physically touch and handle dogs. You could be having a BBQ for your friends and family, and as the family dog (big dogs in particular) moves from one room to the next, it may have been touched by at least 80% of the people in the room, just on the way through. Little dogs can often move away quicker but people often pick them up instead which makes them feel uncomfortable, vulnerable and threatened. Not many dogs like being picked up, an indication of this can be when they start licking your face repeatedly, ears back we like to call this the “Kiss to dismiss” which is often the dogs attempt to stop the interaction, see the following article on this https://www.familypaws.com/kiss-to-dismiss-not-all-licks-are-the-same/ by Family Paws Parent Education, they have some excellent information on keeping children safe on their website too. Yes there are some dogs that are on top of you licking you repeatedly because they do like being close but others only do this when you grab or hug/restrain them as this is not normal in the dog world, you don’t see dogs hugging and stroking each other.

Now it’s not just children that this book is aimed at, its for adults too, we are human and designed to read human behaviour, so we often miss when a dog doesn’t want to be engaged with. It’s a credit to many dogs that they don’t bite, many use the subtle signals like lip licking, turning a way and moving away to indicate that they do not want to be approached, and it’s only when these signals have been missed over and over that they have to use bigger displays like barking, growling, snapping or biting to get their message across more effectively. These behaviours are no different from us shouting, lunging or hitting at someone that made us feel uncomfortable too. The common thing I am told is my dog is so good, he tolerates anything we do to him and my response is but is that fair?

ASK THE DOG is about giving dogs the choice to interact or not, giving them the choice to say “No”, to keep people safe and to be mindful that dogs do not always want to be petted. It encourages children to make sure any dogs they encounter are happy to be stroked, and how to recognise signs that a dog may not want to be approached. The message is delivered in the form of a poem. With colourful, eye-catching illustrations to draw in younger readers and help to underline the points made in the text. 

Available in paper back and Kindle Ebook, get your copy today on the following link https://amzn.to/2Kg6sRY and help me spread the word so more people are kept safe.

Bye for now.

Dog Behaviour, Dog Training

10 Reasons why dogs pull

Joanne Hinds

Ever wonder why some people just struggle to stop there dog pulling, even though they have been to many training classes. Lack of time of course is one reason, if a dog has not been taught from a puppy to walk on a loose lead, it take a lot more time, effort and dedication to correct this behaviour and lots and lots of patience!

However there are a number of reasons why dogs pull on the lead:

We pull first

Pulling against a dog that is pulling away from you is counter productive, if you pull them back they will pull forward it is as simple as that. This is why techniques like jerking on the lead or simply pulling them back, makes them pull away from you and sometimes even pull more.

We take control

If we dictate their every move on the lead, insisting on being at heel, correcting the position manually or constantly stopping them sniffing, they again will fight against you to get to the sniff that they want and in fact need, dogs get a lot of information from sniffing and stopping them can cause frustration and even anxiety. There needs to be a compromise between us and our dogs without them having to drag us.

Wants to get home


If your dogs is pulling on the way home, it is could be that either your walk is too long or see point 8 your dog is not enjoying the walk.

To get to something


Is your dog one that walks nicely until they see a cat, squirrel, person or another dog. 9/10 times this is because of how we handle the lead, over time you can trigger the behaviour because by pulling them back, you make the target much more interesting then it really is. Like toddlers you take something away from them they want it even more. We pull the dog away sometimes before they have even seen the stimuli.

Practiced behaviour


If dogs pull and we follow they learn to get where they want to go, this is standard advice because yes of course the behaviour get rehearsed, however I always look at what they are pulling for. Taking your dog out when you are rushed, means you are more likely to encourage pulling as the dogs feel pressured into just walking and can potentially put them in a sense of fight or flight. Pulling to the park gets them to the park is another saying. Often this is also because the park has become more rewarding than the journey to the park or that it’s more relaxing for them there away from busy loud traffic for example.

Too short a lead


If you walk your dog on a short lead, a lead you wrap round your hand or even standard length leads, do not allow the dog enough freedom to explore as much as they need to, so some dogs learn to pull quickly and shoot across you just to get that sniff they are longing for.

Different Pace



Your dog just the same as other people, walks at a different pace than you. Your dog has four legs you have two, your dog has to learn to match your pace and that’s difficult, this is why during lead walking training, they often drift forward to their natural pace. You try keeping up with someone that walks faster or even slower than you, you will not sustain that pace for long!

Wrong equipment

Ill fitted or poorly designed dog walking equipment like harnesses, can cause discomfort due to rubbing or preventing relaxed strides, it is like a pair of uncomfortable shoes this can trigger dogs to pull to relieve the pain. Getting the right harnesses is key see my blog poorly fitted harness blog 


and another two often overlooked reasons…

Anxiety


Commonly these dogs pull on the way home, pull past busy places, pull anxiously when other dogs/people/or traffic is approaching. Dogs that are scared of noises are often ones that pull, like they want to get the walk over as soon as possible. Fear on walks is something that should be addressed professionally, fear and stress can have long term health implications and effect behaviour, seek help from a professional behaviour advisor.

Health

Dogs that have an injury, pain or discomfort can often find trotting or walking fast relieves the pressure. Dogs do not show injury or pain easy, pain has to be at about a 6 to see something like limping and about 10 for them to Yelp. Often the first sign of pain is behaviour change.

You see, pulling on the lead is not just about training, the above points are just some of the many factors that you need to consider when working on lead walking.

This is why lead walking techniques like, jerking, luring them back into position and changing direction, does not work for a lot of dogs. Not all dogs and I would actually go as far as to say most dogs are not happy walking to heel either and you know what it’s not necessary for a dog to walk to heel, or and asking them to be on the same side all the time can cause imbalances in the body as they are always look at you one side and not the other causing tension in the neck back and more and guess what they can be in front of you as well, it does not mean the dog is being dominant. Your walk should be a compromise between you and your dog, learn how to help him cope when anxious and work on a good loose lead walking technique that allows your dog to sniff and explore what they want but with out them pulling/dragging you down the street to do it.

Dog Behaviour, Dog Training, Puppy

A Walk to Remember

Joanne Hinds

How stimulating is your dogs walk?

Is it round the block or the same park once a day?

Do you always take the same route?

Has your walks become predictable and stagnant?

The best way to know if your walk has become stagnant is by looking at your dog, does he avoid being put back on the lead, when you reach the car or a certain point on the walk? Along with predictable walks often comes poor recall. Does your dog on the walk, stick there heels in and want to go in a different direction. Does your dog know the route off by heart. If your dog pulls you all the way to the park, again the walk has become predictable as your dog knows you always go there.

Our dogs lives are very much dictated by us humans, we decide when they eat, play, at worse; when they have to sit and lie down and of course when they get the privilege to leave the confinement of the house and garden, and go for “their” walk. You may have a lovely big house with a large garden but it is vital that dogs as well as us get out the house and get stimulation from many different environments too. When we think of walking the dog, the main thing we often think about is exercise. For our dog however it is much more than that. It’s a chance to finally get out of the house, no matter how big or small your home is, it is still the same four walls your dog sees day in and day out, they cannot decide to leave, its all dictated by us, when and if we decide to take them. Think about it from a human perspective, when you are stuck in the house for one reason or another you can end up getting cabin fever. A walk for a dog means a chance to explore, take in new sights, smells, meet people, other dogs and much more. When you walk your dog try and keep one thing in mind “The walk is for your dog and he/she might need it more than you”. How we walk our dogs can have a huge impact on there mood state and can cause all-sorts of on lead problems, lead frustration, reactivity to other dogs, people and more.

When you start taking your dog just on round the block walks, you make the walk boring for your self, in turn the walk then becomes a chore “I have to walk the dog” exercise is important for dogs but so is the quality of walks, if your dog is not allowed to sniff, it’s not being naturally stimulated, studies have revealed that dogs get a lot of information from scent, such as when the last dog was about, what sex they were and more. If we constantly interrupt the sniffing, this makes the walk unpleasant and could make your dog anxious as its is not getting full information about the dogs that are around. Let the walk be about them. Variety is the spice of life, keep your walks interesting go to different places, woods, fields, canals, parks, lidos, journey in the car to different places, go in different directions. Walking in the same direction round in a circle in a park two or three times can be frustrating too, you walk round the path meet a dog, you walk on again then repeatedly meet the same dog, this can be frustrating for both dogs.

Now some of you may have a dog that does not like walks, they are fearful of cars, novelty, busy places, you may have a dog that is reactive to other dogs or people, these behaviours must be addressed for the health and well being of your dog, so please seek professional modern advice. These are behaviours that can be changed with the right person helping you, they should work with you at your dogs pace and help you both enjoy getting out again. If you don’t like the idea of letting your dog sniff because you have a dog that constantly picks things up of the floor, this may be because you have accidentally reinforced the behaviour, by making everything they picked up from a pup a big deal or they are not getting the opportunity to forage naturally see my Banish the Food Bowl blog for some ideas. If your dog is a puller find a good trainer to help you teach them to walk loosely on lead. If your dog has a condition which means it cannot walk for long, drive it to different places, if you also have a condition which means you cannot go far again either drive to new places or hire a dog walker

Don’t make your walk all about throwing a toy/ball for your dog either, this can actually keep their arousal levels high, which I typically hear from owners who says they have played for an hour and the dog comes home with as much energy as they went with. This kind of exercise is like going to the gym, when you have finished your work out, you are full of endorphins, which make you feel good and gives you more energy. Ball throwing can make some dogs obsessive and can stop them doing natural behaviours like sniffing and exploring. This in turn can also make them so obsessed that they pull all the way to the park rather than enjoying the journey too. This can then be a dog that is highly stressed out on the lead and can trigger other unwanted behaviour. Although it is vital to play with our dogs, throwing a ball is overused by us and is generally for our own convenience, to “exercise” the dog by us standing still, it is not a natural behaviour for them to be solely focused on a ball or toy of any sort. It often causes conflict/fights with other dogs in the park when your dog becomes possessive of it. It is normal for a dog to resource guard however it is not normal for your dog to resource aggress. I have spoken to a lot of physiotherapists and they say if they had their way they would ban ball play altogether, as it causes many injuries in dogs, sometimes that their owners are not even aware of, dogs are good at hiding pain. Dogs that are injured can act out of character and be more reactive generally. Now as mentioned it is crucial you still play with your dog, but you can play hide and seek with the ball instead, or hide and seek yourself so your dog has to find you as well, this game is a good way of strengthening recall.

Walks also where you take your dog for a jog/run with you or on a bike ride, also can be unpleasant for dogs, especially if this is the main way you walk them. On these kind of walks they are forced to run with you and can only generally stop when you decide, their arousal levels will also be high from this type of endurance exercise, it’s not particularly relaxing or stimulating, again make sure your dog is getting something out of this kind of walk.

A walk where your dog gets to investigate and explore is much more rewarding than a dog that is marched from A to B in a strict heel, when your dog is looking at you the whole time on the walk, who’s the walk benefiting, this is not the only way to stop your dog pulling their are other techniques out there, in fact in my time working with dogs, just changing the equipment the dog is walked on and allowing them to sniff has made a significant improvement to dogs that usually pull and ones that are reactive on lead. Those of you that know me, will know that for many years I have not taught heel walking and instead have taught loose lead walking, the dog still learns that pulling on the lead gets them no where and they are taught to correct their own behaviour. The compromise is that if they do not pull, they get to sniff what they like pretty much when they like. More about my lead walking technique in my later blog!

Now you can teach two different walks, as I am aware that some times you need to get to places with your dogs, you can teach one where you want there nose off the floor and one where they can sniff until there hearts content however make the no sniffing walk the exception rather than the rule!! Try not to take your dog out when you do not have much time or if you do, make the walk shorter but allowing them to sniff more, they will get more out of this kind of walk than a rushed stressful one.

You may feel you have no time for the kind of walks I am describing but you need to make time for the health and wellbeing of your dog, so miss that episode of Eastenders and make your dogs walk interesting.

Of course for those of you that already provide variety for you dogs, keep up the good work!

Dog Behaviour, Dog Training, Puppy

Banish the Food Bowl

Joanne Hinds

There are many behaviour problems that can be resolved in our dogs by just providing them with mental and environmental stimulation. One way of doing this is by Interactive feeding. For many years we have fed our dogs out of food bowls, as this is the way we eat ourselves off a nice clean plate. Many dogs don’t enjoy eating this way, some may take the food from the bowl and then eat it off the floor, others may regularly go off there food, especially the ones that have one large meal once a day (not good for many reasons) or ones that have their food left down all day, imagine me leaving your roast dinner on a plate all day and expect you to eat it, you might pick at it because you are hungry, but would you really enjoy it! Now if you look back in history at how dogs evolved, you will find that they are natural foragers, eating small quantities up to 12 times a day or more and of course hunting is a strong instinct that we have bred into them too although most dogs no longer consume prey. Although a large number of dogs are now bred to be family pets, they still have these instincts hard wired into them. You see this when they raid the bin, when they watch the floor like a hawk when you are preparing food, just incase you drop a bit, when they pick up everything that looks like food on their walks. Dogs have natural instincts and needs to but we are so busy making them conform to our lifestyle dictating how, when and where they do things, they can often get frustrated as they have no job to do. When dogs are lacking mental stimulation they often go what we like to term as “Self Employed”. Your dog may hunt socks, the remote control, chase shadows or reflections, pace the house looking for something to do, chew, start barking at things and more. Now I don’t recommend exactly encouraging them to use the hunting skills they were bred for i.e. hunting birds, local vermin or the neighbours cat but we can provide them an equivalent.

It’s time to change the way we feed our dogs!

At the very minimum dogs should be fed their daily recommended allowance twice a day, this helps sustain their energy levels, but splitting it down to 3, 4 or more meals is even better. After all how often do we eat if we include snacks.

Use every meal time, everyday for the rest of there lives, as an opportunity to mentally stimulate your dog, there are many ideas out there nowadays  and the good thing about this type of stimulation, is you can do it no matter how old your dog is. Here are a few suggestions:

Please note: It’s important that your dog enjoys it, feed differently at different meal times to keep it interesting and make sure it is not so hard that it’s almost impossible to get the food out

  • The simplest way to start off with (if your dog is on a dry complete food, wet food could get messy!) is by scatter feeding, which literally means throwing the food all over the kitchen floor, out in the garden or even on your walk, just make sure other dogs are not around, alternatively use a snuffle mat you can make your own too see here.
  • Hide some portions of the meal around the house or in the garden in small piles, at first let your dog see where you put it and say “find it” once your dog understands what you are doing make the game more challenging by hiding it whilst they are out of sight.
  • There are obviously the classics like the Kong or the cheaper version Busy Buddy Squirrel Dude, which are so versatile you can put the dry food loose in them to start off with making it easy, then if you have multiple ones you can then hide them in different places around the house. You can soak their dry food, stuff them with it and then freeze them, making a popcicle for hot days or just use feed wet complete food stuffed in it. These are good for when visitors arrive too.
  • There are plenty of other Interactive feeding toys on the market now, like the Kong Wobbler or the Buster Activity Mat, just ensure they are not too over exciting or frustrating. see the following link for many more ideas www.johinds.com/dogentertainment

Of course the cheaper alternative is to make your own. If your dog likes to chew and consume then some of these ideas are not for them, always supervise your dog and remove the item when empty, and completely if you have any concerns of them choking on or swallowing bits. Again there are some innovative homemade ideas out there:

  • Snuffle mat
  • Refill old marrow bones
  • Fill up Plastic bottles (with lid and ring round neck removed) with there dry food
  • Old slightly split tennis balls can be filled and dotted round the house or garden to hunt and find
  • For your diggers out there; take 1 cardboard box and hide the meal between layers of fleece, towels, plastic milk cartons, toys etc
  • Wrap the food in an old blanket or towel
  • Take one juice carton, remove any plastic, rinse, dry and fill
  • Buy a cheap kids ball pit, scatter the food in with the balls

With some of the interactive toys you might need to help them to start off with, showing them how it comes out. You must then leave them to try and work it out themselves, this is how it becomes stimulating for them. Always make sure the toys are not left down after they have finished with them, to keep them novel and interested the next time. Ensure your dog has opportunities to rest, there should be a balance between mental stimulation which includes sniffy walks as well as ample opportunities to rest and sleep.

Be inventive and share your ideas in the comments below.

Lets make our dogs lives even more interesting.

Thats me for now, will blog again real soon…