TRAINING A DOG

This weekend we learned a very valuable lesson about caring for your dogs in the Pacific Northwest.  Slug bait, used in gardens to prevent the freakishly-large area slugs from consuming veggies and other plants, is highly toxic.  The main ingredient, metaldehyde (say that three times fast - or once even!) is a poison that attacks the neurological system, causing tremors, seizures, high fever, trouble breathing and eventually death.

Unaware of the deadly risks, Apple poisoned herself only inches away from me.  Saturday afternoon, after I had finished with the day's lessons, I was in the yard picking blueberries.  Lots and lots of blueberries in fact.  Apple, always on the lookout for something to eat, was following me, happily munching on the blueberries that had fallen to the ground, either over-ripe or plucked free by birds.

The blueberries had mainly landed directly below, where there is a large patch of strawberries.  Turns out slugs love strawberries as much as we do, so there was slug bait all around them.  Old slug bait, that had been sitting out in the sun and rain for months (okay, this is Oregon, mostly rain!).  Seems the stuff remains highly toxic, because a few hours later (since Apple isn't graceful or selective enough to have only eaten the blueberries themselves), my husband noticed something was amiss.

He tried calling Apple out from under the bed because she was panting very heavily.  She wouldn't come.  He tried calling her again, and just got a glassy stare and more heavy panting.  He sent for me, and while I was able to get her out from under the bed, I knew immediately that something was very wrong.  Apple was panting like she had just run up and down Mt. Hood.  As can happen when she gets worked up, her breathing wasn't just fast, but coarse and raspy, making horrible grating noises every time she drew a breath.  Which was about every second.

As she tried to walk she had a bit of a drunken look to her, not placing her feet in quite the right places, and swinging her legs wide as if even her frying brain knew she was likely to tip.  Her hind end was trembling, not the excited muscle twitches she gets when she's waiting for someone to throw the ball again, but a heading-for-seizure kind of shaking.

I made a beeline for Dove Lewis Emergency Animal Hospital,  even running a red arrow (shh, no telling!).  I promise no one was coming.  The wonderful staff there took a quick look at her and rushed her straight to the back where their ER clinic and ICU areas are.  Thank goodness for a 24 hour hospital.  Even more thanks for one of the best in the country.

The veterinarians and staff took wonderful care of Apple, bringing down her temperature (105 by the time we walked in) with cool IV fluids and wet blankets, stopping the tremors with medication, sedating her to slow the swelling that was causing her so much trouble breathing, and giving her oxygen to help her until the worst past.  It was a terrifying night.  I went home with the passenger seat empty, praying that Apple would pull through.  I had been told before I left that if her breathing didn't improve soon they would need to put her under anesthesia, put a tube in her throat and breathe for her for a period of time.  What a way to try getting some sleep - wondering if that's the path your dog is taking.

Sunday morning brought great news.  Apple had not only survived the night without anesthesia, but was eating and wagging her tail, convincing the veterinarian who had taken over her care that she would be ready to go home by the afternoon.

Today, you wouldn't even know that Apple had a brush with death, aside from the telltale shaved patch on her forearm that allowed the Dove Lewis staff to place the IV line.  Apple was running around, chasing the ball and trying to instigate games of tug.  The slug bait has been carefully removed, and once she's done pooping out all the charcoal she was given (to bind with the remaining toxins), she really will be 100% healthy.  We are a little poorer, but with Apple home to sleep on the bed and greet Ethan when he comes home from school, it doesn't really matter!

It's hard not to fall in love with those soft, brown eyes, or to coo at the tiny features of a new puppy.  Puppies melt our hearts.  They also bite our hands with their sharp little teeth, jump on our legs as we try to walk, and pee on the floor (oops!) instead of the yard. 

But that's what puppy class is for.  That, and the critical puppy-to-puppy socialization that nothing else (not even playing at home with your other dogs) offers.  We have to protect these little ones who are still on their path to becoming fully-vaccinated adults, so romping off to the dog park is a big no-no (way too many chances for disease, and also a risk of an unfriendly dog doing some serious damage).

Puppy class allows growing dogs (ages 8 to 16 weeks) to learn lots of life skills.  It also gives their owners the opportunity to ask the burning "should he really be doing this?" and "am I handling that right?" questions.  We cover things that puppy parents may not have thought of, with the hope that every graduating puppy is well on his or her way towards becoming a well mannered adult.

Puppy class is a joy, one of the perks of being a dog trainer.  A client once asked me, towards the end of a rollicking play session where 6 adorable puppies were tumbling around on the floor, "you actually get paid to do this?!?" 

Well, yes.  It's not as bad as, say, a leash walk through cold, sleety rain with a ninety-pound dog who wants to take a chunk out of my arm.  But it all comes with the territory.  And I take pride in knowing that my puppy classes are well run.  They are jam-packed with good information, covering all the necessary topics in a fun way.  The play sessions are kept to the right length so puppies don't get too crabby with each other and so we get in plenty of "work" too. Overall, they are a joy not just for the dog trainer, but for the puppies and their owners too.

Now, don't you want to sign up?!

Next Class: Saturday, July 28th at 4:00 PM
Location: Rose City Veterinary Hospital, Portland
Cost: $140 for the 5 week course
Requirements: Puppies must be enrolled and current on their vaccines (at least one DHPP/DAP and one bordatella two weeks before the first class).  Ages 8 to 16 weeks; no more than 8 puppies per class.

I'm sure everyone is reading this and hoping for a magic button to press and problem behaviours go away, well unfortunately, that doesn't exist with anything in life. Instead I'm going to tell you the secret to train your dog, which it's almost like a button, a button that you push in your brain to start training your dog the right way!

DON'T ALLOW BAD BEHAVIOURS TO HAPPEN.....

Simple.

I'm sure you're screaming at me, "but my dog eats food off my counter! How am I suppose to not allow that to happen when I'm not there?" Set the dog up to succeed in the first place! Don't put food up on the counter where your dog can grab it, block off your kitchen while you're not home so he can't surf for food if you leave something up there, the list goes on.


When a dog exhibits a bad behaviour, whether it's barking, stealing food, jumping or biting, he or she is LEARNING FROM IT (figuring out if they enjoy it enough to do it again). When you don't allow a behaviour to happen, the dog doesn't learn from it even if the dog has already been practising it. The behaviour will eventually extinguish itself with a little help from you to guide them in what you DO want them to do.


Dog's will always do what is most reinforcing to THEM. Every dog has a difference reinforcement system (check out my video for Different Types Of Reinforcements) so you must figure out what your dog enjoys.


Does It Work With Behavioural Problems?


This secret also applies with aggression. When you allow your dog to exhibit aggressive behaviours, your dog is learning from it and learning that it makes the scary things go away and the dog gets what it wants. Usually people put their dog in situations where the dog is highly uncomfortable and has to resort to aggressive behaviours to make things go away. Don't bring your dog in situations where he or she is uncomfortable, let the dog stop learning how to be aggressive. Once you stop that, you can start the rehabilitation if you want your dog to go in that situation again. 


When you train an alternate response, the same rule applies, don't allow the dog to get to that growl, lunge etc. Keep the dog under the threshold, train what you want and you are set!


Being Proactive!
Next time when your dog is doing something you don't like, ask yourself how you can prevent that from happening again. 


Not what can you do to let that dog know you don't like that!

In my line of work I see people doing horrible things to their dog, some things that are excusable because that is all the person knows and some things are absolutely horrific.