Willy washing and other bits.....

Be honest, the title drew you in.....!

Jack was very bonded with our first boy Rocky and then Tia when Rocky passed away. After Tia, Jack and Spudsy bonded quite closely.

Bringing a new dog into the house with two closely bonded dogs is always going to be potentially risky if it is not managed. 

We have to take things slowly and go at their pace, not ours.

To complicate things further, Freya had never lived inside a house before so that caused her anxiety. Jack is nervous of unknown dogs - more anxiety. Freya is very full on with other dogs which Jack would have been worried by. Put those together and if not carefully managed we would have had a disaster on our hands.

One of the reasons we talk about taking things slowly when introducing dogs is to avoid any negative situations. We must go at their pace, let them choose their interactions and help them feel confident and secure.

Nine months on and we are beginning to see moments of play. 

It starts with Jack rolling over and exposing his belly. Freya takes the time to sniff and clean him, from his willy to his ears....!

Then we see the beginning of play. It could get easily become out of hand so we interrupt it frequently to avoid it slipping into over arousal. We also need to take into consideration that Spud is in the middle of it and is quite a senior dog. She could easily get injured and possibly even snap at them.

You can see in both videos, lots of lip licking, ears back and shake offs, all indicating a bit of stress.

We have to put aside our agenda, our timetable and our expectations and let them go at their pace. 

The wait is totally worth it!!

The importance of feeling safe

As many of you who visit the page will know, we adopted Freya back in March this year. 

When she arrived, we took it slowly, really really slowly. Taking time to integrate, time to slowly introduce her to new things, time to build the relationship and for her to learn she can trust us and the other dogs.

We didn't have any visitors to the home for months, until she had truly settled. Her safe space was the conservatory.

Freya is like any other dog now inside the house. She visits us in the bathroom (!), jumps up on the bed, snoozes on the rug, picks up toys and interacts with them, interacts with the other two dogs, instigates play with them and basically sleeps wherever she feels comfortable. 

She is now comfortable and confident enough to tackle harder enrichment toys too (when she has the patience)!

Outside of the house is a different matter. She is still quite nervous although will happily jump in the car. She doesn't really enjoy going for long walks (unless with another dog) and would happily stay home. As soon as we turn for home, she pulls - hard!  She is outside her safe place.

So, when we walk, we might only go 10 steps or we might go 200 steps - it is her choice, every single time. When she indicates she wants to return home, that is exactly what we do and each walk is getting a little longer as her confidence grows and because she chooses to walk for longer.

We should never underestimate the importance of  feeling safe for our dogs.  

With the holiday period fast approaching, it is worth thinking and planning for your dog as well as visitors, meals, presents etc. Our dogs routines may be changed or interrupted and there may be an increase in noise and activity.

Does your dog enjoy lots of visitors or does he prefer his own space? - set up a quiet comfortable safe area that your dog can go to if he chooses, away from noise and busyness. Provide him with a stuffed Kong, safe chew toys, snuffle mat or other enrichment toy.

Will your dog try to get in on the action and join in "opening" presents? - set him up for success with a licki mat, safe chew toys or stuffed Kong to keep him occupied.

Does your dog jump up on people when they come in? - use a stair gate and give your dog something wonderful to do while you safely bring people into your home and get them seated.

Does your dog try to dash out the front door whenever it is open? - use a stair gate to manage him while visitors enter.

Is your dog a food hoover? - remember to keep him occupied safely away from any forbidden food. A great deal of food (and alcohol) is poisonous to dogs so use a stair gate to separate him from temptation and provide him with wonderful things to do.

A little extra preparation and some additional mental stimulation prior to visitors arriving will help your dog and you enjoy the festive season and help your dog feel safe!

Have a good one!

Problem behaviour?

I recently posted up these images on my own personal Facebook page. The bed was chewed by one of my own senior dogs. Comments that followed were all humorous and in keeping with what I intended. The behaviour was not a problem to me. It is very typical of the way she plays - pouncing, digging, ripping, shredding and deading!

My little senior is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross. We have no idea what she is crossed with (and frankly don't care - we love her for who she is). 

She has some typical terrier traits.

Terriers, whether they be Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Jack Russell Terrier or any other kind of terrier often enjoy:

• digging - she digs her bed, our bed and covers on the sofa
• barking - yep, she enjoys barking for sure
• pouncing, ripping and shredding style play - she has always loved pouncing on toys and ripping them to shreds

It occurred to me that we often talk about problem behaviours in dogs and these form the bulk of my work as a behaviourist. This shredding and deading of a dog bed could be identified as a problem behaviour and often is!

But who is the behaviour a problem for?  It certainly wasn't a problem for her - it is part of her natural behaviour repertoire. She thoroughly enjoyed pulling out the stuffing and slept soundly afterwards!

It might well be a problem behaviour for an owner though - dog beds aren't cheap! 

So what can we do? 

Dogs have various natural behaviours and preventing them from displaying these goes directly against welfare. Does that mean I should let her rip up all the dog beds? Not at all. Instead we must look for alternative ways to direct these natural behaviours.

• A dog that digs up flower beds - could have a sandpit or a specific area where he is allowed to dig
• A dog that enjoys ripping up toys - could have a cardboard box to be shredded or a selection of safe stuffed toys purchased from a charity shop
• A dog that scavenges and raids the bin - could have his dinner scattered, hidden around the garden or given in interactive food toys

It is our responsibility as their owners to understand their needs and their natural behaviours and provide opportunities that are acceptable to us, while meeting those needs.

This is one of the reasons I always talk about enrichment opportunities and using scent games.

In respect of my little one ripping up the bed - well that was my own fault. I knew there was a tiny hole in it and hadn't sewn up the hole. Consequently she spotted a tiny bit of white fluff sticking out and so she did what comes naturally to her - shredded and deaded it!

Update on Freya

It is now 7 months since Freya came to live with us and she continues to surprise us with how well she is doing. I can happily say she is fully integrated.

She had a laparoscopic spay at my fabulous vets just over a week ago. Considering how nervous she can be meeting new people and having only met Katharine once (my fab vet), she happily walked off with her ready for her operation. I am so lucky that my vets take time using fear free methods and truly understand nervous and anxious dogs.

My vets don't often use the inflatable or old style elizabethan collars, instead they use body suits. What a difference this has made to her confidence.

Just home from her operation

The body suit has worked in the same way thunder shirts work for some dogs. I've always been a little sceptical about these and hesitate to suggest these to clients due to the cost and the lack of studies to prove their efficacy. Well, it is safe to say, my view has now changed!

Freya sleeps in the bedroom, on her bed at the side of our bed - another huge step for her and regularly wanders around the house investigating!

We have discovered she has a toilet roll fetish too - she likes to remove them from the toilet roll holder and drop them, intact, along the hall! Hilarious.

All three dogs greet me together when I come home and all of them congregate at the door waiting for their walk!

She is learning about toys and often lies watching the staffies playing with a very inquisitive look on her face.

I cannot stress how important it is to take things slowly when integrating dogs. It is much better to go slowly and celebrate small successes than rush things and end up with a problem between dogs.

Freya's favourite toy

Gryffin update: 23/9/19

Gryffin has been learning how wonderful it feels to be calm. His lovely rescue person is slowly expanding his world in a carefully controlled way to avoid flooding him with stimuli. He is also learning impulse control, how to self-calm, and is slowly being desensitised to household noises and situations that would have provoked over arousal. 

Like many young dogs, Gryffin may sometimes try to jump up or even on things such as cupboards, people and window ledges. His rescue lady has been working on this and he now responds to his name being called in a happy positive way and leaves what he was about to do for a reward. It is essential not to punish or shout at dogs when they do things we don't want them to. 

In the past Gryffin had been quite stressed by household noises but he is now able to cope with various household appliances running if he has had sufficient mental stimulation/enrichment beforehand.

Gryffin could cope with the sound of a television but not with the moving images. In the image below, Gryffin chose to go to the bed and chew on his toy when the TV was turned on. 

The moving images (including a dog) provoked a fear response and Gryffin tried barking at it to see if he could make the scary monster go away.  Therefore, a little desensitisation and counter conditioning is needed around moving images on the TV. In other words:

When the "scary monster" comes on (TV): a prepared licki mat with pate appears like magic!

After a number of repetitions, the TV coming on predicts the appearance of the licki mat. After just a few repetitions today he was already looking to see if the mat was coming when the TV was turned on!

Over arousal is often mistaken for happiness but it can actually feel rather stressful. Whenever Gryffin's arousal levels increased, afterwards he gave a number of full body shakes.

People often say "I wish my dog could talk and tell me how he feels."

Dogs DO talk - with their body language. Have a look at the two images below. The first one was taken during desensitisation and counter conditioning with the TV on. Look how high his tail is and how alert his ears are. 

Now compare them to the image below. This one was taken a little later, after the desensitisation work had ended. Can you spot the difference?

Gryffin is waiting for his forever home with Terrier SOS. If you would be interested in adopting him, please contact the rescue - Terrier SOS website

Coco the wonder dog aka The Ginger Ninja

Met up with this stunner again today to progress his loose lead walking. What a star. He did so well especially with a kamikaze squirrel running around in one of the trees.

I'm already using less treats this week but reinforcing his behaviour with praise now. It is so important to avoid bombarding our dogs with cues - let them choose to follow us and reinforce this when they do. We need to make sure we are relaxed and calm too - dogs pick up how we are feeling and if we are impatient or stressed - it will affect their behaviour and responses.

After a few repetitions in the familiar area we moved on to the car park. A difficult task for Coco as he thought he was going off in one of the cars.

Next, out onto the street. Although Coco is choosing to follow me and to interact, he is not sniffing or interacting with his environment. He is still on alert for any possible "threats" (or squirrels)! Calm, relaxed sniffing will come next as he starts to feel more comfortable.

It is essential to set dogs up for success and to work at their pace. Coco is coming on leaps and bounds but if we try to rush it or take him somewhere too busy, he will struggle to concentrate. First we teach the connection and then we slowly introduce more and more stimulating environments.

Remember the four C's 

• Calm
• Connection
• Choices
• Confidence

This is how we finished our session - snog and cuddle time ;)

Coco the wonder dog!

Coco is in rescue waiting for his forever home ......... and pulls like a steam engine! 

I have worked with him once before, taking time to build a connection with him. He quickly remembered his training today.

It is essential to find out what motivates our dogs when working with them. Coco loves treats but he also loves affection and praise which we can pair with treats to reinforce the behaviours we want more of.

*Nb I would not usually wear flip flops when working with dogs but unfortunately my legs and feet are badly swollen due to multiple insect bites, making shoes impossible!

Coco was a star today. We spent a few minutes building up a connection again, reinforcing each time he checked in with me. 

We don't lure dogs to look at us - this does not feel good to them and we don't want dogs craning their necks to look up at us all the time. Instead, we wait for it to happen naturally and mark the behaviour followed by a small food treat. 

Connection not control!

As soon as a dog pulls in front we stand still, saying nothing and quietly wait for the dog to turn and come alongside. As they are coming, we drop a tiny food treat down to reinforce where we would like him to be. We also add praise. Coco even follows a hand signal here - such a quick learner as I only really introduced this today.

To begin with, Coco pulls ahead several times and is moving quite fast. Over time you will see him begin to match my speed and to keep an eye on where I am going. Another crucial element is to be calm ourselves. Dogs pick up on our emotions!

We must always remember to keep the lead loose - if we grab at it or take up the slack, we can be part of the pulling issue!

In the second video you can see he is much quicker to turn and follow me. I use fewer treats now and you can see how loose the lead is.

I am using quiet praise with him and at one point I give some affection. We need to make it feel good to be alongside us, to follow us, to walk with us: hence why it is essential to find out what motivates our dogs. For some dogs, affection could even be aversive!

Notice how I let him sniff and wait till he is finished. This is his walk, not mine and I want him to enjoy our time together! 

Coco is an absolute star and a real pleasure to walk with. 

Has he learned to walk on a loose lead now? Not at all. We need to practice his new skills and also introduce more distractions - at a distance to begin with.

Am looking forward to spending more time with this gorgeous boy.

21 weeks and counting!

How long does it take for a new dog to feel settled, completely relaxed and at home post adoption?

How long does it take to integrate dogs?

How long does it take for a fearful dog to feel secure?

The answer to all three questions is

It depends!!

The key is patience and consistency, keeping dogs below threshold, promoting calm, providing mental and physical stimulation, a nutritious diet, building positive associations every step of the way and taking things slowly at each dog’s pace.

It is now around 5 months since Freya came for her “overnight stay”. So many changes in this lovely girl, becoming more and more confident each day. She now walks on a lovely loose lead on familiar walks, shares the sofa with Jack, all stair gates are open all of the time, even during mealtimes. They all go out for synchronised peeing which is hilarious to watch.

She sleeps on the sofa overnight (her choice) and it is lovely watching the three dogs “reunite” in the morning.

If you are considering “adding” a dog to your canine family, remember to take things slowly, work at their pace and build positive associations every step of the way.  Prevention is way better than cure.

Let's talk about enrichment - again

Enrichment for our dogs seems to be the buzzword at the moment. In many ways, this is great news. We should be providing activities that are mentally stimulating and enrich our dogs environments. But - there is always a but......

Enrichment can actually cause more problems if it isn't suited to the individual dog. 

Individual is one of my favourite words whether we are talking about activities, walks, diet, motivators, environment - we must take into account the individual dog.

There are some amazing Facebook pages and groups that have lots of truly innovative ideas for mental stimulation and enrichment.

However, we must consider the individual dog! I have spoken to quite a few people who say their dog is not interested in puzzle games/mental stimulation/enrichment ideas.

Providing enrichment isn't as straightforward as just giving a puzzle toy though. As with any training we do with our dogs, we must set them up for success.

Gradually build up the difficulty level 

For example:

My male Staffie is a real problem solver but my female Staffie soon gets bored if she can't get to the food quickly enough. In fact, she would bark in protest! Not something we want to encourage!

Puzzle solved in 3 minutes by one of my dogs. My female staffie abandoned it 

My new girl is wary of new things and won't even attempt some puzzle games. If it hasn't got real chicken or ostrich treats it isn't worth attempting. If we make the game too difficult or too noisy she may become anxious.

A simple puzzle for a nervous dog

Things to consider:

How we introduce the puzzle - for nervous dogs it is a good idea to prepare the activity first to avoid making lots of noise while setting it up. Quietly place on the floor and encourage the dog to engage - and then let the dog explore. Choose something really easy such as a treat underneath an old towel or treats in a cutlery draw organiser, along with some toys.

The difficulty level - if the puzzle is too difficult, dogs will not engage and it can have the opposite effect. Instead of building confidence it can actually decrease it.  Start with easy puzzles so the dog enjoys finding the food and gradually increase the difficulty level. Set them up to succeed.

The food we use - if the dog is not motivated by the food he is unlikely to bother working to find it. Using a portion of their dinner might work later on, but we need to use something tasty, at least to begin with. Moist, soft treats tend to work best.

Where we use it - if you have a multi dog household we need to be careful not to cause problems between dogs. Some dogs will be reluctant to interact if there is another dog around. Stair gates between dogs or dogs in other rooms often provide a feeling of security and allow the dogs to explore. In multi dog households a little 1:1 time with each dog is a good thing to do anyway.

Which puzzles we use - A Kong Wobbler for example would not be a good idea for a noise phobic or nervous dog. These are designed to roll around - have you heard one when it hits a radiator?

If your dog does not seem interested in using puzzle toys, scattering treats in the garden or hiding them behind pots/seats/sheds etc can often encourage them to engage.

Update on Freya

Just a short update on how the integration is going. It is now just over 4 weeks.

Freya still uses the conservatory as her safe base but rarely goes in there except to sleep at night.

We are still taking things slowly, ensuring Freya does not feel the need to bolt in panic and that Jack also feels comfortable around her. We do separate at key times, using stair gates -preparing for a walk, meal times and enrichment times.

Freya is so much more settled and immediately heads for the sofa after her walk and breakfast.

She loves to run in the garden and has excellent recall there already. The next step will be recall with distractions. Lead walking is excellent on the way out but still some pulling to get home as we get closer.

Freya and Jack pretty much ignore each other most of the time with the occasional greeting/tail wags/sniffing each other.

We keep everything calm, manage resources such as food and toys and sleeping areas to ensure none of the dogs feel they need to guard a resource.

Update on Freya

It is now just over three weeks since we first brought Freya into our home and we have signed the adoption papers.

# Are the dogs fully integrated and able to be left together? Absolutely not!

# Has it been plain sailing? Not at all! 

It has been hard work, taking huge amounts of patience, careful management and time.

# Was it worth it? Absolutely!

Integrating a new dog in the home can go really smoothly and happen relatively quickly or take a long time, depending on the dogs involved.

Freya is an incredibly nervous girl and having lived in a garden for most of her life she had no idea that it was OK to be in the house. She still has moments of absolute panic when she bolts from room to room. She has never been outside on a lead or experienced many things.

She is gradually getting used to lead walking. We have good days and bad days depending on her stress levels.

Being in the house, in various rooms can cause her stress - which affects her lead walking.

Her lead walks can cause her stress depending on how busy they are - which affects her stress levels in the house! 

A balancing act always requiring careful consideration of her stress levels.  Something even a highly trained experienced professional can occasionally forget when it is your own dogs, with emotions involved and being eager to integrate them!

Lovely polite communication between the two females

Two days before we were due to sign her adoption papers I had a panic, a small meltdown culminating in a phone call to a behaviourist friend saying it isn't going to work! 

The night before had Freya running from room to room, bouncing around and narrowly missing bowling Jack over. Jack got a fright and air snapped!  This happened twice in the same day.

The reason for the increase in Freya's bolting, panicky behaviour?  

Increased stress levels with no opportunity for down time and.........entirely my fault. 

The previous two days she had met quite a few new people, been to new places and met new dogs.  If I had been speaking with a client I would have advised them to give her a rest day, keeping things quiet and calm allowing her stress levels to drop.

Because I wanted to fully integrate her, I didn't do this and full of cortisol from the previous two days, Freya bolted in panic several times when someone moved in a room.

Something else to take into account

I have talked about positive and negative bias in dogs a few times. Spudsy has a positive bias and Jack has a negative bias.

Spudsy sees something new and wants to investigate, expecting it to be something exciting. 

Jack freezes, expecting the worst! 

Freya's panicky behaviour causes him anxiety, expecting her to attack him. He has been attacked when on lead by dogs and a cat in the past!

So, we have gone back to using stair gates at key moments. Spudsy and Freya are pretty relaxed around each other and Spudsy is not at all phased by her panicky behaviour, even when she leaps onto the sofa narrowly missing landing on Spud!

Jack and Freya are back to being either side of a stair gate, being fed chicken, to rebuild positive associations. Slow, baby steps!

Never be afraid to ask for help or advice :)

Day 17

Tuesday 27^th March

Another trip to the big park for Freya today. We met up with Jo, another behaviourist and her lovely senior girl Scottie. Scottie used to be Jo’s stooge dog helping nervous dogs overcome some of their anxieties. She is such a great communicator with other dogs and Freya learned so much from her.

Watching Scottie swim in the lake

We used a very long training lead this time and saw some lovely check ins from Freya. Using a long lead allows Freya to keep up with Scottie and provides lots of recall opportunities too! 😊

Then home for a well-earned rest.

Day 16

Tuesday 26^th March

Lots of moments together in the house, passing in the hall and doorways. Freya is still very nervous around doorways and has a habit of bolting through from one safe space to the other.

Jack and Freya have been sharing our bed at times, supervised of course.

Took Freya down to meet the rest of the family today, including grandchildren and their dog. Kira off lead and Freya on lead (too early to let her off yet). Lovely introductions, polite and calm although Freya did want to go chasing off after Kira to play.

Freya is nervous of new people but quickly came over to sniff everyone and say hi. 

We introduced her one person at a time, outside. Freya had the choice of jumping back into the car or coming over to sniff.  Giving dogs choices helps their confidence and before long she was sniffing everyone. Very relaxed around both grandchildren too so we all had a picnic together!

Afterwards we all went into the house, dogs, kids and adults!

25th March

Freya and Spudsy clip off lead on the patio. You can see Freya is a little unsure but is given every opportunity to move away. 

Spudsy couldn’t care less and is busy sniffing!

Brief periods of togetherness but always with the option to leave the room.

Jack chose to come in and lie on the floor, Spudsy took a little longer.

This happened next….

Jack then chose to jump up next to Freya, lovely polite behaviour and everyone very calm!

Two weeks on from the “overnight” stay!

Two weeks of having Freya here – this happened! All the gates are open and after a little hesitancy ………

You can see she is a little stressed, lots of panting and lip licking but after a short while, with every opportunity to go back to her safe space, this happened:

After a short while she relaxes and goes to sleep 😊

Because they have been able to get used to each other over a period of time, seeing another dog walking around is no big deal. They all ignore each other and settle in their own spaces. 

Stair gates are left open so that any of the dogs can move away to feel safe.

Spudsy was outside and Jack stayed on the spare bed. 

Days 11 & 12

After her busy day walking somewhere new and meeting new people and dogs we decided on a quiet day for Freya. Rest days for our dogs are essential and even more important for dogs that are stressed by various things.

Just one gate between the dogs now so plenty of opportunities to sniff each other and time for Freya to get used to being in other rooms. I think she is doing well at it!

A stroll down to the local park for Freya and some recall while on a very long lead.

Some really lovely connected walking now too. Notice how I just stand and wait until she is ready to move on. She heard a noise (flapping polythene) and wanted to check it out. It is so important to say nothing and let them be curious and learn. Lovely eye contact afterwards.

Someone clearly loves the sofa!

More tomorrow.......

Days 8, 9 and 10

Freya is beginning to settle into our daily routines. More of the same – careful management and calm. Only one stair gate between the dogs now and lots of sniffing.

We keep everything C A L M. Over-stimulation and over excitement can easily spill into snaps and frustrations.

Brief off lead meetings with Jack outside – lots of consensual sniffing of “bits”. Spudsy and Freya are regularly going out for toilets together now and pretty much ignore each other apart from the odd sniff.

It is essential to continue to take things slowly, even though all the signs are good. Much better to take longer than needed than rush and end up with grumbles.

Introductions to another female dog and a trip to a huge park for a walk. Freya clearly loves the water!  

I posted her interactions with Scottie the other day.

Freya’s lead walking is coming along nicely. We are using a shorter lead and getting some lovely loose lead work. She is beginning to sniff much more on her walks and has better body language as she becomes used to them.

Freya has already perfected the cute look!

Day 11 tomorrow.