Dog Behavior Blog

What Made You Choose This Puppy?

One of the questions I usually ask my clients is how they chose their dog. The answers often illuminate much about the dog. I find this especially revealing when the choice involved picking a puppy from the litter. The answers generally lead me to ask other, more direct questions that are relevant for learning about the dogs and whatever issues may have brought them to see me. Here are some of the most common answers I receive, and some possible interpretations of those choices. (Exceptions abound!)

 “I didn’t choose him. He chose me.” Typically, the way a puppy chooses people is by racing at them full speed, leaping into their lap, licking their faces, biting at their fingers or hair, and generally pulling out all the stops to be charming and irresistible. I find that this most often means the puppy is bold, curious, inquisitive, fearless and friendly. Sometimes they are mouthy, status seeking, and relentless.

 “I felt sorry for her.” It’s not uncommon for people to choose the puppy that the other puppies seem to be picking on or the puppy who is off alone while all the other frolic together. Many of these puppies are shy, sensitive to being touched, quite fearful, and some have difficulty with basic social skills.

“He was the only one left.” This comment is hard to interpret. It may mean that the breeder has a great reputation, the puppies are very popular, and the family was lucky to get one at all, which is a good thing. I’ve also seen it mean that the breeder was giving the family the hard sell to try to unload the puppies, and there are actually a number of puppies left, but they are off in the barn or another part of the house to keep them out of sight. Sometimes it just means that this particular puppy has some trait that made it less desirable to others. This could be having less attractive markings or being small in size, neither of which is likely to have anything to do with the pup’s future behavior or how good a pet he will become.

 “The breeder felt that she was the best puppy for our family.” This is an answer I love to hear. Often, breeders know very well what sort of puppy may be best for which type of home. For example, a high motivation, high drive puppy may be great for a person who plans to compete in agility, but not so great for a family with three small children. If the breeder chooses the puppy for you, there’s less chance of choosing a puppy that you may adore but that may not actually be the best fit for you.

 “He had an adorable spot over his eye, just like my first dog did.” This tells me that the puppy was chosen more for looks than for any behavioral trait. This can work out fine, just as it sometimes does in relationships between people, but it does represent some risk. The biggest concern I have when I hear this comment is that the puppy will be facing unfair expectations to be the same as the other dog he resembles instead of being cherished for who he is as an individual.

 “She was the only female and we wanted a girl.” This comment often tells me little other than that the family didn’t actually make a choice between several puppies. Interestingly, though, in some large litters of puppies, a single female may have developmental effects from the presence of the hormones of so many males before birth. Sometimes, lone females will have broader muzzles and faces typical of males of their breed or even grow up to lift their leg when urinating. This is not common, but it does happen.

 Sometimes amusing comments come out of the conversation about what made someone choose the puppy. My favorite by far came from the friend who told me that as they left the breeder, and just before they closed their car door, they heard one of the breeder’s kids say, “There goes psycho.” The dog did not, by the way, ever show any serious behavior problems.

 --Karen London

 

 

Yawning And Dog Theory Of Mind

Note from Con Slobodchikoff: This week we have a guest post by Kristina Gage, CPDT, Ph.D. Candidate in Biopsychology at University at Albany, and at SmartDog Dog Training, www.smartdogschool.com. She is currently conducting a survey on yawning in dogs.

               We engage in social interactions with our dogs every day and they interact with us and with other dogs.  The study of social cognition is the study of the thought processes that underlie these interactions.  Research on social cognition in dogs will give us insight into aspects of their relationships with us and other animals, such as attachment, social learning and aggression.  A better understanding of the development and treatment of these problems will lead to a better quality of life for dogs and their human companions.  This, in turn, would help reduce the amount of dogs surrendered to shelters or euthanized for behavior problems every year.

                Theory of Mind (ToM) is one aspect of social cognition.  It refers to the ability to understand that other individuals have a different mental experience than your own.  For example, I know that I experience the world differently from my friends and that my emotions, memories, political views, etc. are different from theirs.  ToM is also connected to self-awareness.  If an animal is not aware of its own experience, it cannot speculate about the experiences of others.  ToM is also a precursor to empathy.  Animals with ToM can make inferences about how another is feeling and react appropriately, thus showing empathy.  It is likely that ToM abilities exist on a continuum, with some individuals showing stronger ToM skills than others of the same species. 

                We do not yet have enough evidence to say definitively whether or not dogs have any kind of ToM.  However, there is reason to believe they may.  First, dogs evolved from wolves which live in social groups and hunt and raise offspring cooperatively, so they are likely to have developed some kind of social cognition.  Dogs also evolved alongside humans, so they may have been selected for certain types of social intelligence (either intentionally or unintentionally).   Indeed, dogs have shown unique social skills in relation to interacting with humans, such as their ability to follow pointing cues to obtain food – they are actually better at this than our closest relative, the chimpanzee!  There are also many other studies that have provided evidence for some level of social intelligence in dogs – including forming strong social bonds with their owners (similar to those between children and parents) and learning to navigate through obstacles by observing a human doing the same.

                This is an important research topic for a number of reasons. There is evidence that certain mental illnesses in humans, such as autism and schizophrenia, involve ToM deficits.  If dogs do have ToM, it’s possible that different levels of ToM could be related to certain behavioral disorders in dogs, as it appears to be in humans.  For example, dogs that have more difficulty reading body language in humans and other dogs may be more likely to be aggressive because it’s more difficult for them to interpret intentions.  Understanding whether or not dogs have ToM and how it relates to other aspects of their behavior will make professionals better equipped to prevent and treat behavior problems in dogs.  Finally, looking at the function of social cognition across many different species provides a clearer picture of the role it plays in species survival and evolution in general. 

                One way of examining ToM in dogs is by looking at contagious yawning.  Susceptibility to contagious yawning in humans appears to be linked to ToM abilities – individuals that score poorly on ToM tests are less susceptible to contagious yawning.  In addition, children with autism don’t show contagious yawning.  I am conducting a survey that will ask dog owners to observe and report their dog’s yawning behavior to determine if dogs yawn contagiously.  If they do, this could indicate that dogs possess some degree of ToM.  This would provide a jumping off point for additional studies on ToM in dogs and how variations in ToM ability affect different aspects of their behavior.   

                Many dog trainers and behaviorists have observed that dogs appear to yawn when stressed or anxious.  Therefore, this study will also try to determine if dogs that are stressed and anxious in general, or are in a situation likely to trigger anxiety (such as going to the vet) are more likely to yawn.  The results of this study will help us understand the mental processes underlying social behavior in dogs and provide insight into the significance of yawning to help us more accurately interpret body language in our dogs.  Both of these things will allow us to improve the relationship between people and dogs and improve the quality of life for dogs in general.

               

                 

 

What Makes A Good Dog Trainer?

Over the years, I have watched a lot of dog training classes and I have found that there are certain qualities that all good dog trainers have.

One thing that good dog trainers always remember is that the people in their classes genuinely want to have a good relationship with their dogs. The people are there voluntarily. No one forced them to come. So that enthusiasm for a good relationship has to be nurtured and encouraged.

Dog training is a people-oriented activity. As the old joke goes, dog training teaches the people more than it teaches the dogs. And a good trainer has to like both people and dogs to be really effective.

Good trainers know that different people learn in different ways. Some people learn by watching. Others learn by doing, in a trail-and-error process.  Still others learn by listening. So the lessons have to be presented in a way that includes all of the people with different learning styles. The trainer has to tell people what to do, then demonstrate with a dog, and then let people try it for themselves. Throughout all this, there has to be abundant praise for both the people and the dogs.

In my opinion, the best way to teach dog training is to make it fun for everyone. People and dogs learn best when they have a good time.

For those of us who have been training dogs for a long time, it is very easy to forget that a lot of people don’t know how dogs learn. In fact, a lot of people don’t know much about their dogs. I believe that it is always best to take the time to explain how and why a dog does something, even if it takes a few minutes of class time.

A frustration of teaching dog training classes is that many people do not do their “homework,” or work with their dog outside of class.  When I find this frustration building up inside me, I always stop and think about all the things that I should be doing that I don’t do because of time pressures. My intentions are good, but my time is limited. And so it is with people who don’t work with their dogs outside of class. I think that having a fun time in class is more conducive to learning than reprimanding people for not working with their dogs.

For the dogs, part of the fun of a class is seeing and interacting with other dogs. They are social creatures and thrive on seeing, smelling, and perhaps licking their fellow dogs. In my classes, I have a dog socialization period in the first few minutes of class, where the dogs can greet and meet each other, and I have a socialization period at the end of the class, where the dogs can romp around with one another.

I always end classes by asking people to lavish praise upon their dogs for a job well done, and I always spend a lot of time praising the people for making good progress with their dogs, even if it is only in class.

I believe that the ultimate goal of a good dog trainer should be to enrich the lives of both the dogs and the people that he or she works with. That can best be done by bringing out the love and joy that a dog and a person share for each other.

--Con Slobodchikoff

Canine Distemper in Puppies

We just had some friends lose two puppies to canine distemper. They got a lab puppy from a breeder and a lab mix from a shelter. The lab mix had a cough when they got her and the lab was perfectly healthy. Several weeks later, both dogs had died from distemper, despite extensive attempts to save them with excellent veterinary care, and despite being on track with the standard course of puppy vaccinations.

 

Canine distemper is a virus related to measles and for puppies, only rabies has a higher mortality rate. Puppies from three to six months seem to be particularly susceptible to this infection, which spreads to new individuals through contact with bodily fluids including nose and eye secretions as well as feces and urine, or through food and water contaminated by these same products.

 

Symptoms include fever, runny eyes and nose, followed by vomiting and diarrhea, dehydration, excessive salivation, weight loss and loss of appetite, trouble breathing and coughing. Later symptoms include twitching, seizures, swollen foot pads, loss of muscle, incontinence, circling, and sensitivity to light and touch. Sometimes the serious symptoms show up right away, and sometimes they appear many weeks later.

 

Any suspicion of canine distemper should be followed by a consultation with a veterinarian. There is no specific treatment for the disease, although antibiotics can often help with the secondary bacterial infections that often result. Prevention is best accomplished with vaccinations, although obviously in puppies that is not always successful because it takes more than one shot to get full protection, and in the meantime, puppies can be exposed to the disease.

 

My friends who lost their puppies to canine distemper suggest being aware of puppies with a suspicious cough, which they originally thought was something milder such as kennel cough. I give my heartfelt sympathies to these friends and anyone else who has lost a puppy to this disease.

 

Would anyone else who has lost a puppy to a serious illness like to comment or offer any suggestions/empathy?

 

--Karen London

Canine Intelligence: Ranking Dogs By Breed

Note from Con Slobodchikoff: This is a guest post by Dr. Stanley Coren.

Dr. Stanley Coren is professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia and author of many books on dog behaviour, including The Intelligence of Dogs,  How to Speak Dog, How Dogs Think, The Pawprints of History, Why We Love the Dogs We Do, and a children’s book, Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses? which won the Best Children’s Book award from the Animal Behavior Society. His website is www.stanleycoren.com.

Just as everyone wants to have smart kids, most people want to own clever dogs. However whether a dog is “smart” or “dumb” depends upon the specific aspects of its behavior we consider. For example, was Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein intelligent? Obviously, to derive the theory of relativity required a mathematical genius. Yet Einstein was so bad at simple arithmetic that his checkbook was always out of balance.

Intelligence has a variety of different dimensions. In human beings we might subdivide intelligence into verbal ability, numerical ability, logical reasoning, memory, and so forth. The intelligence of dogs also has several different aspects, among which we recognize three major dimensions. The first is called instinctive intelligence. This really refers to what a dog was bred for. For example, herding dogs were bred to herd animals. Their ability to round up animals, keep them close together, and drive them in a particular direction is inborn and only requires human intervention to keep it under control and to give it a bit of direction.

Different breeds obviously have different types of instinctive intelligence. Guard dogs watch over things, retrievers fetch, hounds track or pursue, pointers sniff out birds and indicate their location by pointing, while companion dogs are attuned to human social signals and respond to our moods to provide comfort. Every dog has an instinctive intelligence, but it is senseless to make comparisons across breeds as to which are “smarter” in this respect—their abilities are simply too different to compare.

The second dimension of dog intelligence is adaptive intelligence. This is basically a measure of what a dog can learn to do for himself. It includes learning and benefiting from experience with his environment, solving new problems, and so forth. Adaptive intelligence can differ among individuals of the same breed. Thus, all Golden Retrievers have the same instinctive intelligence, yet while most are quite clever you will occasionally encounter one that seems totally clueless and makes the same mistakes over and over again. The difference between the various Goldens is a matter of difference in adaptive intelligence, and this can be measured by using the appropriate tests.

When most people think of dog intelligence they often think of the dog working his way through complex obedience exercises in an obedience ring or on a stage. They might also think of highly trained animals such as police dogs, guide dogs for the blind, hearing assistance dogs, or search and rescue dogs. A dog responding appropriately to his master’s commands and signals tends to give us the impression that we are viewing the peak of dog intelligence. Thus when a dog demonstrates through his response that he understands what particular commands from a human mean, he is demonstrating one of the most important aspects of his intelligence. It is important because if dogs did not respond to human instruction, they would not be capable of performing the utilitarian tasks that we originally valued them for, which means that they would never have been domesticated and wouldn’t be with us now. This third type of intelligence in dogs is appropriately called working and obedience intelligence. It is the closest to what we might call school-learning ability, and is based upon what the dog can learn to do when instructed by humans.

        It should be possible to actually rank dog breeds in terms of their working and obedience intelligence. Using statistics from kennel club records based upon obedience competition trial results doesn’t work, because it gets mixed up with popularity. For example, in one recent year, according to American Kennel Club (AKC) trial records, Otterhounds earned no obedience degrees while Golden Retrievers earned 1,284. This doesn’t tell us that Otterhounds are stupid, however; there were approximately 670,000 Golden Retrievers registered with the AKC, while in that same year there were only 300 Otterhounds. Even if Otterhounds were the most brilliant of all dogs, and if every single one of them earned an obedience degree in the test year, that would amount to only 300 obedience degrees as compared to the 1,284 degrees for Golden Retrievers.

            While their records can’t help us assess dog intelligence, the kennel clubs do provide us with another resource, namely the dog obedience judges themselves. These individuals are trained to observe and evaluate how dogs perform under controlled conditions. It is not unusual for a judge to spend 12 to 20 hours on any given weekend judging and scoring dogs of various breeds. In addition, most judges are also dog trainers, spending many more hours observing and working with dogs. Because of this extensive experience watching and evaluating dogs, if any one group of people should have the accumulated knowledge of the relative performances of various breeds, it is them. They see each dog perform under the same conditions, and should be able to separate out the quality of the performance from the number of competitors.

            For my book The Intelligence of Dogs (Free Press, 1994), I contacted all of the dog obedience judges registered with the AKC and the Canadian Kennel Club, and provided them with a long questionnaire that allowed them to rank the various breeds in their working and obedience abilities. Despite its length, 199 judges provided complete information, which is approximately half of all the obedience judges listed in North America. If we limit ourselves to breeds for which at least 100 judges provided assessments we end up with a ranking of 133 breeds. This is shown in the sidebar where dogs are ranked from a high of 1 to a low of 79 in terms of their obedience and working intelligence. Dogs that share the same rank number were tied with identical scores. You will note that in the middle (around average obedience intelligence levels) there are a number of tied ranks, which is what you would expect if there are some notably bright and some notably less brilliant breeds, with the vast majority of breeds coming in around average.

            The degree of agreement among the judges was amazingly high, suggesting that there were real observable differences that were being reliably detected. For example, when we consider the dogs ranked highest in obedience or working intelligence, we find that 190 of the 199 judges ranked the Border Collie in the top 10! There was somewhat less agreement as to which breeds showed the poorest working or obedience intelligence, yet even here the degree of agreement was still high among my sample of experts. Of the 199 judges, 121 ranked the Afghan Hound in the bottom 10.

            According to the judges rankings the top 10 dogs in terms of working and obedience intelligence are, in order:

Border Collie

Poodle

German Shepherd Dog

Golden Retriever

Doberman Pinscher

Shetland Sheepdog

Labrador Retriever

Papillon

Rottweiler

Australian Cattle Dog

While the bottom 10 dog breeds  (moving downwards) are:

Basset Hound

Mastiff

Beagle

Pekingese

Bloodhound

Borzoi

Chow Chow

Bulldog

Basenji

Afghan Hound

             Does this mean that everyone should rush out and get one of the top 10 breeds of dogs? Definitely not! While a smart dog will learn everything that you want it to know, it will also learn everything that it can get away with. This means you may have to spend much more time “civilizing” your clever dog so that it learns the limits of behaviour in your household.

            Does this mean that we should stop breeding the dogs low in the rankings to “improve the species”? Definitely not! Every dog has an instinctive intelligence for which it was bred. Thus the Afghan Hound, at the bottom of the list, was bred to spot, pursue and pull down antelope and gazelle. If you ever saw one of them running you would appreciate how refined that skill is. Also most dogs in our urban society were chosen as companions—did you take the time to give an intelligence test to the last person that you were considering as a possible spouse, lover or companion?

            In addition, some of the dogs lower in the intelligence list have other qualities. The Afghan Hound is arguably among the most beautiful of dogs. I notice that every year People magazine has a special issue presenting “The 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.” I don’t ever remember People ever having an issue featuring “The 50 Most Intelligent People in the World.” Just think about what we consider to be the most important aspects of humans—well, the same applies to dogs!

Getting Your Adopted Dog Off to the Right Start

Note from Con Slobodchikoff: This is a post by guest author Nancy Frensley, CPDT, CAP2, who is Manager of Behavior and Training at the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society in Berkeley, California. She will write periodic posts about the behavioral challenges and joys of shelter dogs.

Once you make the decision to add a dog to your life, you begin a journey. Choosing a dog you can love, one that fits your lifestyle and is safe to live with is challenging in itself. It is easy to think choice alone will give you everything you want in a pet. But, it is only the first step of many in creating that livable, lovable, give and take relationship we all strive to have with our dogs.

 

Many adopters are surprised when they bring that ‘ideal’ puppy or dog home. Behavior, being a very fluid attribute of any species, changes as animals adapt to new environments and seek ways to get their needs met. So, new adopters are often shocked to find what their perfect puppy (or adult dog) is capable of mastering. Besides destroying shoes, a remote control (or two) and plants, he seems to have no interest in settling down. How could this happen… when the choice was made so carefully and thoughtfully?

 

Those of us who observe adoptions on a daily basis know from experience that starting out with a solid plan; consistent rules and good management will prevent a lot of behavior problems from the get-go. And, we know that what you see is not always what you get. However, you will get what you reinforce and mold. Doing what is necessary to get a dog successfully situated in your life will go against every instinct you have. Taking home a new dog is akin to falling in love. You are fascinated by him, love him, and want to do right by him. Chances are you want to make up for the poor life he had before you adopted him. The last things you’ll want to do are to confine and limit your new canine friend.

 

But, to confine and limit is exactly the recipe for success! From day one, limiting his freedom in order to show him the right way to get things provides the best start in your home. Dogs are opportunistic and great at adapting. They are good at figuring out what works best to get their needs met. The secret to setting up the situation for success is getting them to understand that all of their needs will be met through you (and other family members). I have always said that dog training can be summed up in two phrases: “Dogs want stuff” and “we show them how to get it.” It is that simple. Limit them through supervision and a good (but humane) confinement system to prevent impulsive acts. Give them plenty of structured interaction with people in their new home. Make sure they get enough exercise, chewing material, play and training to keep them from getting bored. Allow them to earn their freedom, one bit at a time, by working for you. They will repay you by becoming good canine citizens, learning what is theirs and how to behave in their new environment.

 

A recent study* showed owner consistency resulted in a higher level of obedience and fewer training problems. So, as the song says, “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” When you adopt your new dog from a shelter, start with a good plan that includes consistent rules. Make sure everyone in the household abides by these rules.  Don’t feel guilty about confining your dog in a way that prevents mistakes. Be fearless in asking your dog to do little tasks, like waiting before going out and sitting before getting affection and food. Dogs really appreciate it when they know the rules. They are willing to give us everything we ask and more.

 

*The Importance of Consistency in Training Dogs, G.E. Eskeland, R.H. Hillung, M.Bakken, http://www.atferdssenter.no/IVBM_poster_tekstprintes%20word%20fil.pdf

 

Do Dogs Understand Contagious Yawning?

When we yawn, it seems like the whole world yawns with us. Let one person start to yawn, and pretty soon everyone else is yawning too. Chimps also yawn contagiously, and possibly some other primates as well.

But what does yawning mean to a dog? Because dogs and humans have been associated for so long, is it reasonable to expect that when we yawn, our dogs will yawn along with us? These are the questions that are asked by two recent articles.

In one of the articles (Joly-Mascheroni et al. 2008. Dogs catch human yawns. Biology Letters 4:446-448) the authors had 29 dogs watching a human yawning, and recorded that 21 of the dogs yawned in response. The authors suggest that this represents a rudimentary form of empathy that dogs might feel for humans, causing the dogs to yawn after they see a human yawning.

In the other article (Harr et al. 2009. Do dogs (Canis familiaris) show contagious yawning? Animal Cognition DOI 10.1007/s10071-009-0233-0), the authors showed 15 dogs video clips of either humans yawning or dogs with either yawns or open mouths, and recorded how many dogs yawned under these circumstances. Only one dog yawned in response to the video clips, and this was to human yawns.

So here we have a difference. One article says that dogs yawn in response to human yawns, and the other article says that they don’t. How do we find our way out of this?

One problem is that there are a lot of unknown factors that could influence the interpretation of these results.

For example, can dogs see and understand video clips? My dog Raja seems utterly indifferent to what is happening on the TV screen, even when there are dogs bouncing around in commercials.

And even if they can see what is on the screen, can they interpret what they are seeing? The other day I came across a website that was talking about the work of Samuel Renshaw, a pioneer in human perception research. The website had a picture that Renshaw showed to people, asking them what the picture represented. I could not figure out what was in the picture until I saw the answer, and then it was obvious to me. If you are curious, take a look at the picture at: http://www.enter.net/~torve/critics/Renshaw/notassmart/notassmart1.html and see if you can identify what is there.

Also, when seeing real human faces yawning, are the dogs responding by yawning through empathy, or are they yawning because of discomfort?  In a book called On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals, Turid Rugaas describes a yawn as a calming signal that one dog gives to another (or to a human) signifying that the dog is not a threat, as a way of defusing a potentially stressful or aggressive situation.

When I first got Raja as a rescue dog, I would extend my hand to him to try to get him familiarized with my smell. He would often yawn in response. I understood this to mean that he was stressed and nervous, and I made sure that I did not push my attention onto him. Could the dogs watching yawning humans have responded by yawning because they were feeling stressed in the experimental situation?

What it comes down to is that some of the time, we know surprisingly little about why dogs do what they do.

--Con Slobodchikoff

It Doesn’t Mean She’s Been Abused

“She must have been abused.” I hear this so often from people whose dogs cower or otherwise express fear in response to certain objects or certain types of people. It’s natural to think that reactions to seemingly innocuous stimuli must be indications of previous abuse. It’s easy to imagine that a dog who is scared of children has been teased by them in the past. Similarly, it’s perfectly understandable to imagine that the only reason a dog would react so aversely to a broom is because of a previous terrifying experience with one.Many clients have told me that their dog immediately cowered the instant that they picked up a broom, a mop, a stepstool, or even a garbage can.

 

The behavior that most commonly elicits concerns of abuse in a dog’s past is that the dog is only scared of men. While it is always possible that a man has harmed the dog, it is a fact that fearful dogs are often more reactive to men than to woman or to children. To dogs, men are generally more intimidating due to factors such as larger size, broader shoulders, deeper voices, and facial hair. It is very rare to meet a dog who is more afraid of women than of men. Is this because the sickos out there abusing dogs are all men? No! It’s because of fearful dogs’ natural inclination to be more afraid of men.

 

A variation of the assumption that a fear of men results from abuse by a man is that fear of people with hats, or backpacks, or carrying clipboards indicates past abuse by a person sporting those same objects. While this cannot, of course, be ruled out absolutely, it is much more likely that the dog is simply not used to people with these extra objects. Dogs don’t seem to understand about removable parts and many are frightened by anything that changes the overall silhouette of a person. Instead of seeing a person with a hat and backpack for example, dogs may see a strange shape that they can’t identify. In fact, many dogs have shown fear towards a person they know well and love until they remove the hat, at which point the dog stops appearing fearful.

 

Not every dog who exhibits fearful, reactive behaviors was a victim of abuse. Certainly, and most regrettably, there are dreadful people out there who abuse dogs, and there is no question that dogs who are abused are reactive to objects and types of people with whom they have had bad experiences in the past. However, for many dogs, other explanations are much more likely. I do find small comfort in knowing that there are many dogs out there who people suspect of being abused that were not likely victims of it.Dogs often react to sudden movements or anything that is unfamiliar, especially if they are genetically prone to develop neophobic tendencies or they were not exposed to many novel experiences as puppies.

 

I’ve had many lovely clients who have had a dog since the dog was only weeks old with these fearful, reactive behaviors and they say, “People are going to think we’ve abused her, but I swear we’ve never hurt her.” It’s a pleasure when I can reassure them that I do believe them and for very good reason.

 

--Karen London

 

Is It Normal For Dogs To Eat Grass?

My two Standard Poodles, Zephyr and Raja, are as different as night and day when it comes to eating grass. Zephyr would make a beeline towards any grass stems that he saw and start munching on them right away. After a few minutes of chomping on grass, he would have the tell-tale signs of what comes next: his stomach would start to heave, he would start to make gulping noises, and soon all of the grass would come back up, accompanied by a frothy yellow liquid from his stomach. Zephyr was so enthusiastic about eating grass that one time he ate some kind of grass leaves that had sharp edges, damaging his throat. He went around coughing for about three weeks after that, but the experience did not deter him from wanting to eat as much grass as he possibly could. Raja, on the other hand, could take it or leave it. When Zephyr was eating his fill of grass, Raja would take a few mouthfuls to be polite, but otherwise he was not interested. And he never vomited what he ate.

As I was thinking about this difference in behavior, I came across an article that was published last year about plant eating by dogs (Sueda, KLC et al. 2008. Characterisation of plant eating in dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 111: 120-132).

This article reported the results of a couple of surveys of dog owners whose dogs had eaten grass or other plants. One survey was given out to people who brought their dogs to the outpatient clinic at the University of California, Davis, Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. To guard against any biases in reporting, the owners were not told that the survey was designed to assess plant eating by dogs. Instead, they were told that the survey was to provide information about the general eating behavior of pet dogs, and there were questions about the diet of the dogs, whether the dogs ate non-food items, and also whether they ate plants. Of the 47 dog owners whose responses were analyzed, 79 percent reported that their dogs ate plants, and 95 percent of those dogs primarily ate grass.

The authors then did an internet survey of plant eating by dogs. They analyzed 1571 responses. Most people (98 percent) reported that their dogs ate grass at least some of the time. Other plant material included berries, sticks and leaves. Most of the owners (92 percent) said that their dogs were not ill before eating plants, and relatively few (22 percent) said that their dogs vomited within one hour of eating the grass. Those dogs who were fed a commercial diet were more likely to vomit after eating grass than dogs fed a home-cooked or raw-food diet.

When the authors considered the results by age and breed of dogs, some interesting trends showed up. Older dogs (9 or more years old) tended to eat grass more often than younger dogs (less than one year old), although younger dogs tended to eat more different kinds of plants overall than older dogs. Also, older dogs tended to vomit more after eating grass than younger dogs. Among the different breeds, hounds and toy breeds tended to vomit more than other breeds.

Ultimately, the authors of the study could not come to any conclusions as to why dogs eat plants, particularly grass. Here I should say that some plants are very toxic to dogs, particularly some houseplants, and dogs definitely should not eat those plants. But as to why dogs eat grass, the authors were left only with some speculations. One idea was that the grass somehow helps remove internal parasites from the stomach, and the authors suggest that this might explain why older dogs, who might be expected to have accumulated more intestinal parasites, eat more grass. Another idea was that the dogs are somehow extracting medicinal qualities from the plants that are beneficial to their nutrition.

To get back to Zephyr and Raja, this still leaves me puzzled. Zephyr always had problems with his stomach being upset, and perhaps this was a way of clearing out a painful accumulation of stomach acids. Raja, on the other hand, has a cast-iron stomach. Maybe this is the reason, or maybe it is something else. At least I know that my dogs have good company – most of the other dogs in the world probably eat grass too.

--Con Slobodchikoff

Behavior Problems in Dogs Relinquished for Re-Homing

 Note from Con Slobodchikoff: This is a post by guest author Nancy Frensley, CPDT, CAP2, who is Manager of Behavior and Training at the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society in Berkeley, California. She will write periodic posts about the behavioral challenges and joys of shelter dogs.

 Among the most fascinating and troubling phenomena I’ve observed while working in shelters and performing temperament testing are the difference in test responses between dogs found in shelters and dogs surrendered directly by their owners. Overall, more dogs already residing in shelters pass temperament testing and are more likely to be placed up for adoption than those brought in by owners. I have seen this hold true for over twenty years.

 The most common items that owner-surrendered dogs do not pass are guarding of food, objects and space, and also, being handled by strangers. It’s amazing that you do not see as much of this in dogs who have been in shelters – even for a few days. Many of these have been picked up as strays or have simply been back yard dogs without any family experience at all. 

During routine temperament screening for adoptability, evaluators attempt to identify dogs that will be safe when placed in a home as a companion animal. They also look for aspects of the dog’s personality that will make him a pleasant, affiliative pet, and fun for an owner or family to interact with. They also want to find out enough about the dog to match him successfully with a family or individual.

 The tests are not designed to push a dog over the edge. Or, to assess how much stress he can handle. They are solely based on typical types of interactions a dog might experience on a normal day within the home.

 A very problematic part of the tests for dogs who arrive with owners involve stroking and touching different parts of the body (including ears, eyes, paws and muzzle) to see how they tolerate being handled. A side benefit of this is it gives the evaluators an opportunity to screen the dog’s body condition for any health issues he might have, such as being under or overweight or having signs of a common illness. A surprising number of dogs have dental problems and are in need of medical attention for this alone.  Dental work can be anything from a dental cleaning to tooth extractions. And, it is not uncommon for dogs to be surrendered for re-homing because the owner cannot afford the vet bills.

 Other tests include those that measure a dog’s tendency to guard food or objects. Dogs with guarding issues are frequently unsafe to live with as pets. While guarding behaviors can certainly be worked with and modified, it is not a good idea to place a dog that is known to have this problem in a new companion home.

In today’s economy, more people seem to be forced to give up loved pets to shelters for re-homing. It is a heart-wrenching decision, but one that must be made under many circumstances.  Whatever the reason, I have never seen this to be easy for anyone.

 

When someone arrives at a shelter with a dog they must surrender, the dog is temperament tested and screened for health issues without the owner present. This is where I see a lot of differences between un-owned and owned dogs.  The owned ones are usually dogs that have been treated as pets and lived (for the most part) successfully with people for a number of years. Amazingly enough, a large number of these dogs growl or snap at simple, gentle stroking or just upon making eye contact with a person. An extraordinarily large number of them guard a bowl of food or an item such as a bone or chew stick.

 The owners typically have never experienced any of this with their dogs, but here are a couple of things that might be going wrong: 1.) The dog finds himself in a situation that reminds him of the veterinarian’s office and/or 2.) The dog feels the tension and sadness in his owner. This might explain why he suddenly feels intimidated or frightened by simple eye contact or being touched by a stranger. However, it does not explain guarding. Possessiveness of food and other items is closely tied to a dog’s survival traits and is more than likely a fixed pattern of behavior. The fact it did not appear in the home setting could be a result of gradual habituation and the build up of trust in his owner and the living environment. In the new situation, it surfaces and as a result the dog becomes difficult to place into a new home.

 These experiences make it incumbent upon me to stress the importance of full and complete socialization of any companion dog from the first day he arrives at your home. From my experience in teaching puppy classes to that of working with difficult and aggressive dogs, nothing jumps out as being more important than giving a dog the ability to trust people in all situations. And it is, truly, we who have the unique ability to create trust in our dogs. They cannot do it on their own. As dog owners, we own the obligation to help our dogs trust others beside ourselves, so if needed they can make it through the difficult times in their lives as well as ours.