Parents Get Involved! Educate Yourselves and Your Kids Train Your Dogs Keep Everyone Safe

Parents, you have taught your kids about common hazards and how to reduce risks from such things as sharp objects, traffic, the stove, electrical outlets, fire, deep water and strangers. Be sure to add dogs to the list so that kids are not learning by trial and error. If you have a dog in the family, it is important to train the dog to accept and enjoy the attentions of children and to teach the kids how to read dog body language and respect the dog. All dog owners should be teaching their dogs to be accepting of everything that life dishes out, but parents cannot count on this, any more than you can count on all drivers to act safely around kids, or all other parents to be as safely conscious with your kids as you are. Kids will be out in the world without you and they need to know how to keep themselves safe.

In order to keep your kids safe and to teach them what they need to know, you as a parent need to educate yourself. As a dog owner and a parent you need to be sure that the family dog is ready for life with kids.

Dog Bite Prevention Week is coming up in the 3rd week of May and to celebrate we want to let parents know about some excellent resources to help keep kids safe.

Family Paws Parent Education - Educational Webinars for Parents or Expectant Parents with a Dog in the Family

Here is information and links to watch two free webinars from certified dog behavior consultant Jennfier Shryock:

Welcome Home! Introducing New Baby and Dog Class: FREE! 

Click HERE to watch now!

New parents often have anxiety about the initial introduction of their new baby and family dog. This is the perfect option for immediate help from your home when you need it. Take it before or just after baby arrives. Videos, handouts and live support are all included in this hour long webinar. Led by Jennifer Shryock, leading dog and baby expert, this class is packed with information to ease your mind and increase safety and enjoyment so that you can focus on the most important things … mom’s recovery, nursing, and bonding with your newborn. This class will be offered the 2nd Thursday of every month.

Postpartum and Family Dogs … Impulsive Re-homing Phase (IRP) Class: FREE! 

Click HERE to watch now!

Overwhelmed new parents each year make a heart wrenching decision they often regret. Usually this peaks when baby is 2 – 6 months of age. This is Impulsive Rehoming Phase (IRP) or “Better Off” Phase. Mom may feel the dog would be “Better Off” with another family as she is too tired or unable to meet the needs. Other family members may feel mom would be “Better Off” with one less thing to take care of. These are the situations heard time and time again. There are many factors at play here and our goal is to offer ongoing support and solutions to help professionals and families work through this challenging time. I have found with simple steps and support, families can successfully work through this period with their companions remaining in their home.

Be sure to check out the additional webinars with essential information for parents available from Family Paws Parent Education. Click here for information and to register.

Basic Body Language Online Course

The Basic Body Language Online Course is on sale for $20 (regular price $30) until the end of May 2012. This course provides essential information for all dog owners and especially for parents with dogs in the family. Learn the basics of dog communication so that you can see for yourself what you dog enjoys and what he merely tolerates from the kids. Teach the kids to respect the dog, have empathy for the dog and recognize that dogs have feelings too. By learning to observe and recognize dog body language your kids will become excellent observers and will become more aware of the dogs moods and will realize that the dog is not always interested in play, affection or attention. They will learn to know when the dog is receptive to their attentions and when they should leave him alone.

Basic Body Language Online Course - $10 OFF!

Click HERE to register!

This course will teach you to read dog body language and to understand how dogs communicate with their various body parts. You will learn how to look for clues in a dogs body postures and in the environment to help you decide whether a dog wants to interact or is best left alone. Happy dogs are easier to train, less likely to develop behaviour problems and less likely to bite. The information you gain from this course will be useful to anyone who owns a dog, works with dogs or encounters other peoples dogs on the job or during leisure time. If you own or work with dogs, you will learn how to tell if some aspects of the dogs life are causing anxiety so that you can work to reduce these, resulting in a happier dog that is easier to train and live with.

"Recently I had the pleasure of reviewing the Basic Dog Body Language course, one of several excellent online courses that are a joint effort between Doggone Safe and Doggone Crazy! This is an amazingly thorough and useful course, whatever your existing knowledge might be. I highly recommend it because it emphasizes both safety and empathy for dogs." Judy Johns, Editor, The Latham Letter. Read the full review

Dogs and Storks DVD for Expectant Parents

Dog and Storks DVD - 50% OFF! 

Click HERE to purchase now! (use discount code doggone safe)

Get the answers and solutions you need to help decrease stress and increase your confidence and comfort once baby arrives.
Dogs&Storks™ is the trusted program for new and expecting families with dogs. Our Educational DVDs have supported families since 2002! Mother of four, certified dog behavior consultant, Jennifer Shryock offers practical tips and clearly explains how and why preparing before baby arrives helps everyone towards a smoother transition.

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Why Does Doggone Safe Teach that Panting Dogs are Safe

Here is one of the most frequently asked questions about the content of the Be a Tree program:

Panting can be a sign of stress in a dog - why do you tell children that panting dogs are happy?

A panting dog is dealing with the stress by panting. A stressed dog that is not panting is much more dangerous because it has no mechanism to relieve the stress and is therefore more likely to react. Not all stress is bad stress. The dog might be waiting for a child to come and say hello. The waiting and wondering causes mild stress and the dog starts to pant. "Are we going for a walk?", "Are you going to throw that ball?", "Am I getting the cookie?" These are all circumstances that will cause panting due to mild stress and anticipation. We are trying to keep things simple for children and not providing an exhaustive course in dog behavior. Children obviously cannot be expected to tell the difference between a dog panting under mild stress or a dog panting with rapid frantic breaths that indicates extreme stress (still a dog less likely to bite than a highly stressed dog that is not able to pant).

Other things that the children learn during the program should prevent them from interacting with a dog panting out of extreme stress. They are taught to stand sideways and allow the dog to come to them to sniff their fist. A very nervous dog is apt to move away and not come forward to sniff - so they would leave that dog alone. They may also see the half moon eye, yawn, lick or the fore paw lift and realize that the dog is anxious. They are taught that if the dog stops panting if they come closer, that the dog does not want to meet or interact with them. Hopefully, handlers whose dog are very anxious will say no, when a child asks to pet the dog.

So for the most part a panting dog is a dog waiting with happy anticipation for something good to happen, or at least is a dog that is dealing with its stress. The panting/not panting differentiation is simple for children and immediately rules out many dogs that they may otherwise have wanted to pet and gives them a way to decide whether their own dog (who is the one most likely to bite them anyway) is open to interaction with them. We also teach that children should ask the dog handler to tell the dog to sit before they meet it. The cue "sit" is a stress reliever for most dogs because it is familiar and generally has a positive association and gives the dog some control of the situation. A dog that does not sit for the handler is not under sufficient control for a child to pet. An extremely anxious dog is unlikely to follow instructions and is ruled out on that basis, whether panting or not.

To summarize (so that a child can understand):

Panting and wiggly = safe

Not panting and stiff = dangerous

 

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Dog People And You Thought High School Was Bad

Hey, everyone!


For those of you that are heavily involved in the dog world (and since youre either blogging  and/or reading a dog blog, I assume thats all of you), have you ever noticed the parallel between dog people and your stereotypical high school cliques?

No? Well, darlings, let me enlighten you. Below you will find a convenient guide to identifying these people, including what activities they tend to participate in, and the breeds they usually own. This is by no means a full list, but it does hit on all the major points.

(Note: this is, for the most part, entirely tongue-in-cheek. If marginally snarky humor and honest truths offend you, I suggest skipping this post, or at least not bombarding me with comments lamenting how not everyone fits a stereotype.)

High School and The Dog Enthusiast: A Guide

The Jocks -

Summary: These are the people that live and breathe "hard core" dog sports, the ones that go broke and rearrange their lives around trials that are hours away from them. Sport dogs are to The Jocks as big trucks are to... ehm, small men. 

Often socially inept in real life, they thrive online, tutting behind their screens about those owners who have mere pet dogs. Dont even get them started on those pitiful people that dare to trial with an "off breed". The horror, truly. 

Sports or Activities: Agility, DiscDog, Flyball, occasionally protection sports such as IPO and French Ring.

Breeds Owned: Sport bred Border Collies dominate here, sometimes with a Sheltie or Jack Russell thrown in for good measure. Aussies, Malinois, and the occasional field bred Golden Retriever or Standard Poodle may make an appearance.

Telltale Signs Youve Found A Jock: Abbreviated speech patterns (dont you dare mix up those Qs, NQs, AXJ, MACH, ect or youll be burned at the stake), the need to share every single title the dog has earned whenever they share the dogs name, the flashing of big name kennels, a catty but tight knit community, and a penchant for yoga pants and those creepy as fuck tennis shoes with individual toe spots. 

The Jocks Claim to Fame: Much like real life high school Jocks, dog sports are the Golden Era of the Jocks life.

The Mean Girls -

Summary: Log in to any forum or Facebook, and its easy to spot a Mean Girl. The Mean Girls are the first to jump in with a snarky, high horse comment, which is soon backed up by their hoards of loyal minions. Mean Girls rule the roost, luxuriating in their devout following and power online. Loud, obtuse and vicious online, Mean Girls wouldnt dare look at you cross-eyed in real life. 

Mean Girls are the best at everything, with the best possible dogs, and dont you dare forget it. Just like real life Mean Girls, these people are big on bragging about This Kennel and That Kennel, loving that what theyre wearing owning is the name on everyones lips.

Sports or Activities: Occasionally conformation or any of the Jocks activities, though Mean Girls tend to be "just" dog owners. Because lets be honest here: forget stalking those they feel threatened by (those damn outspoken people who dare not bow before them) and talking behind peoples backs takes a lot of time and effort.

Breeds Owned: Mostly high dollar purebreds, though its possible to get the occasional Mean Girls: Mutt Edition in the mix.

Telltale Signs Youve Found a Mean Girl: A plethora of Me & My Dog selfies, a condescending introduction, lax Facebook privacy settings, excluding conversations amongst other Mean Girls, and plenty of holier than thou attitude. Mean Girls are the quickest to cry fowl if you have a different opinion.

The Mean Girls Claim to Fame: Living the life they wish they had in high school.

The Nerds -

Summary: The Nerds are an interesting sort without too set a mold, though facets of the other groups may be present in certain individuals. The Nerds are a plethora of information, and usually focus on one subject to drown themselves in; food and training are the most common types of Nerds, though everything from breeding to bloodlines to structure to vet care can be a Nerds livelihood. 

The Nerds prides themselves on being up to date -or at least well versed - on their specific subject. Despite their eagerness to contribute, The Nerds often easily quelled into silence and submission by The Jocks and Mean Girls.
There is also the very rare but frightfully obnoxious Know It All Nerd. These are the people that will shove information so far down you throat itll make your eyes water, and refuse to quit.

Sports or Activities: The Nerd may compete in less popular dog sports such a Dock Diving and Nosework, but tend to focus more on trick training or fitness and conditioning.

Breeds Owned: The Nerd does not have a set breed, and mutts are very popular.

Telltale Signs Youve Found a Nerd: The Nerds are an elusive bunch, but are fairly easy to spot if you know what to look for. Tentative but eager to connect, gentle coaxing can get them blathering like a 12 year old girl jacked up on coffee.

The Nerds Claim to Fame: Thinking theyre smarter than most of the population, but are too afraid to show it.

The Goths -

Summary: The Goths are, unsurprisingly, incredibly dramatic and yet incredibly deadpan. They tend to be fanatical in their morbid views, and take great pleasure in informing you that feeding kibble will kill your dog. Or that feeding raw will kill your dog. Or that vaccines will kill your dog. Or no vaccines will kill your dog. Really, they just want you to know that your dog will die unless you follow their views. Theyre like those annoying chain emails or Facebook tags: forward this to or tag 10 others or youll die next Tuesday.

Sports or Activities: None usually, because thats another thing that will kill your dog.

Breeds Owned: Mutts and various bully breeds, primarily. Occasionally a smattering of toy breeds.

Telltale Signs Youve Found a Goth: Watch the posts about questions or experiences, and youre sure to find a Goth. Just watch, and youll see them latch onto any marginally happy topic like a starving baby onto a juicy tit, ready to share some horror story and offer their incredible wisdom on how to prevent such a tragedy.

The Goths Claim to Fame: Striking fear and annoyance into the hearts of dog lovers across the interwebs, depending on the person.

The Potheads -

Summary: The Potheads are a motley crew, and can be split into three main sub-genres. Their common denominator is their more relaxed attitude and less cutthroat nature.

The Hippie Potheads - 
Holistic, natural, organic, alternative. These words are always on the Hippie Potheads tongue, and boy, do they love them. Theyre quick to offer their remedies with a big smile and lots of "helpful" links. Youre dealing with a flea infestation, in the middle of summer, in Florida? Sprinkle some diatomaceous earth down! Struggling with your aging dogs arthritis? Try some coconut oil! Your dog has terminal cancer! Some turmeric will clear that right up!

The Artsy Pothead -
Creative grooming, anyone? These people may also teach completely useless but very flashy tricks, have brightly colored hair themselves, and have a love for dog photography.

The Pothead Pothead -
What happens when you need a blunt just to deal with all the other cliques.

Breeds Owned: Anything and everything! Hound breeds, mutts, and various large and giant breeds are most prevalent.

Telltale Signs Youve Found a Pothead: Theyre actually tolerable, for the most part.

The Potheads Claim to Fame: Making you realize that the only semi-sane person in this discussion - aside from yourself - is a pothead.

The Rebel -

Summary: Ah, the Rebels. Often the most amusing ones to watch, The Rebels tend to be instigators. There are two types of Rebels: the "I dont give a fuck what you think" Rebels, and the "I love drama" Rebels.
Whichever category they fit into, both parties have the same general though process. These are the people that support most types of breeders (show, sport, working, pet, cross), support and/or own outdoor dogs, support and/or own doodles, and have more "outside the box" views on dog ownership.

Sports or Activities: The Rebels dont have a set sport, but may participate in any and all forms.

Breeds Owned: Usually purebred or purposefully bred cross breeds, but again, theres no set type.

Telltale Signs Youve Found a Rebel: That Facebook or forum thread thats blowing up? Odds are, a Rebel is keeping it going. They relish in ruffling the feathers of all the other cliques.

The Rebels Claim to Fame: "I may not have started it, but Ill damn sure finish it!"

Will I have a bit of The Artsy Pothead and The Rebel in me, I am more of the loner type. I dont do cliques, because I have a 0 tolerance for catty bullshit. Raise your glass if youre on of the few sane people sitting back in astonishment that the above kinds of people actually exist.

So there you have it: Dachshund Nolas Guide to Navigating the Dog World! Youre welcome.

Share your favorite, any Ive missed, and your experiences below!

- Dachshund Mommy

P.S. Ive never stepped foot in a high school (homeschooling FTW - and I mean For The Win, not Fuck The World), and had to rely on my guilty pleasure of young adult books and plenty of googling. 

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Back to School Sale Doggone Crazy! Board Game 20 Off

The Doggone Crazy! board game was created as a fun way to teach kids and parents how to read dog body language and act safely around dogs. Statistics show that most dog bites are by the family dog. In most cases the family is stunned and did not see it coming. The dog has always been good with the kids, he loves kids, he bit out of the blue with no warning. These beliefs are generally fasle and stem from unrealistic expectations about the dog. No-one has ever watched the dog closely to see whether he really does enjoy the attention he gets from the children, or whether there are signs that sometimes he does not want to be bothered. The family just assumes that because the dog has tolerated certain behavior from the kids (hugging, kissing, lying on the dog, lying in the dogs bed, taking the dogs toys and food away), that he will continue to do so, or that he "lets the kids do anything". The fact is that dogs do not bite for no reason and they give many warnings before they do get to the point of biting or growling. Most people simply do not know what to look for and so do not notice that the dog is communicating his discomfort with the kids. The Doggone Crazy! board game offers a fun way for kids and parents to learn about the signals dogs send and how to tell if a dog is happy or anxious.

The game also teaches about the proper way to act in any scenarios with dogs that kids might encounter both with their own dog, with other peoples dogs and with strange dogs running loose. Playing the game provides many opportunities to practice the critical skill of "being a tree" if a strange dog approaches or any dog is frightening or bothering them. This practice give kids a much better chance of being able to do the right thing in a stressful situation with a scary dog. Indeed many parents have written to tell us that their child (or even themselves) remembered to be a tree in a situation with a loose, threatening dog and the dog went away.

Parents have also told us that playing the game reduced a previous fear of dogs in their child. We think this is because the game clearly shows the difference between a safe and a dangerous dog and shows many ways of interacting safely with a dog. This knowledge empowers children to make safe choices and to know that dogs communicate their feelings and that happy dogs are safe. The notion that dogs have feelings too makes them less scary for kids with fears.

"Doggone Crazy! is the first board game in a long time to keep my kids attention...they played the game so much that I wasnt allowed to touch the game for review until the week-end was over." Alyice Edrich - Editor-in-Chief - The Dabbling Mum - National Parenting Magazine

"This game makes it fun for children to learn how to behave toward dogs, and how to understand what dog expressions and actions mean. Its a positive and reinforcing tool for enhancing child safety, reducing bite risk, and improving the human-animal bond." Karen Pryor, author of Dont Shoot the Dog and CEO of Karen Pryor Clicker Training (clickertraining.com)

"I love your game! Its the best...my dad, my mom, my sister and I played. We all loved playing your game. It taught me a lot about dogs and how to act around them." Rachel - Age 10

The game is on sale until the end of September 2014 at the Doggone Safe store. Use the code FALLGAME to get 20% off. North America only.

Watch this video for an overview of the game:

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Cat and Dogs seeking solutions with sniffing canines and science

Hi Mia and Julie, 

First of all, I LOVE your blog! 

After meeting at SPARCS this past summer (summer for us in North America.. I take it summer is just beginning in Australia!), I’ve followed it closely. 

You do amazing things for the promotion of  canine science. Serious love.

A bit of background for the readers: I’m currently doing my PhD at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada, under the supervision of Dr. Simon Gadbois. 

Dr. Gadbois has an amazing amount of knowledge and experience in the science of sniffing (just check out Gadbois & Reeve, 2014 link below!). 

He’s trained sniffer dogs for the conservation of ribbon snakes and wood turtles, to track coyotes, and to detect invasive pests in lumber. He and I have taken on a different type of project and are studying the intricacies of biomedical detection dogs, specifically, the very interesting phenomenon of Diabetic Alert Dogs. 

Cat Reeve at #SPARCS2014 where she won the Best Emerging Researcher prize

I say interesting because there’s anecdotal evidence suggesting that some dogs alert their owners to hypoglycemic events (low blood sugar). In 2008, Deborah Wells published a series of case studies where dogs were reported as signalling (barking, licking, pawing etc. the individual) while their owners were awake, while they were sleeping, and even when their owners were in a different room with the door closed! And this is with no previous training! 

Isn’t this fantastic! Severe hypoglycemic events can be extremely dangerous for individuals with diabetes. If not treated, they can lead to seizures, comas, and even death. The fact that dogs may be able to alert an individual before a serious hypoglycemic event means less worry about hypoglycaemia unawareness, and blood sugar dropping over night when individuals are unconscious.

Given that dogs are signalling through closed doors, it is assumed that the dogs smell something that alerts them to a change in the physiology of their owner (as opposed to behavioural cues, as is believed to be the case with seizure alert dogs). There are many companies that have taken advantage of this supposed ability, and have trained Diabetic Alert Dogs (DADs) to sell to individuals with diabetes. 

In my own searches, I have found no company that publicly provides information as to how they train their dogs. However, according to recent studies (see Gonder-Frederick et al., 2013 and Rooney et al., 2011 below) these trained DADs dogs contribute greatly to the families of individuals’ with diabetes; they signal consistently and, consequently, significantly reduce the number of hypoglycemic events an individual experiences. 

Now, if it is in fact an olfactory cue that dogs use to identify a drop in blood sugar in their owners, one would expect that if you presented one of these trained DADs with the “scent” of hypoglycemia without the individual present (just like having the owner with diabetes on the other side of a door), the dog would still signal. 

Dehlinger and colleagues recently tested three DADs in a lab setting, presenting the dogs with human biological samples that were obtained identically to the way the samples used to train the dogs were obtained. In this study, none of the three dogs could pick out a hypoglycemic sample from a normoglycemic sample! DARN!

So what is it that these dogs smell? How is it that some DADs are accurate at signalling hypoglycaemia but evidently cannot signal in the lab? 

Enter ME! This is what I’m trying to figure out!

One possibility is that, at least in the study outlined above, the use of sweat samples was misguided. Maybe the volatiles are more strongly present in an individual’s breath. I am currently in the process of testing whether there is one channel more likely than others to expel the volatiles needed to detect a change in blood sugar, i.e. breath, sweat, or saliva. 

So far we’ve found that, after being trained to detect extremely low saliency scents, our dogs can detect and discriminate between human breath samples with incredible ease and accuracy (see the video of Koda discriminating between breath samples). 

Little Koda discriminating between breath samples. The jar that has the check mark on it is the target sample. The jar with the x+ is a different breath sample. When Koda first enters the room, he smells a jar that is the “sample” (it matches the target sample)... This is the smell we want him to find amongst the three jars that are closer to the camera. He chooses the right one!

Preliminary tests with patient samples suggest that our dogs can also tell the difference between breath samples taken from the same individual when their blood sugar was low, when it was normal, and when it was high (unpublished). 

Also, it’s possible that in the Dehlinger et al. (2013) study, the sample collection procedure was simply not sufficient enough to contain the volatiles produced during a hypoglycemic event. With the help of a fantastic chemist at Dalhousie (Dr. Peter Wentzell), we have perfected a procedure that coats cotton balls in silicone oil. This is believed to help contain the volatiles through the *magic of chemistry.  

*may actually be science, not magic - check with the chemists

Another potential is that these DADs are simply responding to a general stress response in the body. It’s possible that DADs (and untrained dogs who signal to their owners) are picking up on the physiological change associated with stress (changes in cortisol, adrenaline etc.). Kind of how people say animals can smell when you’re scared. 

If this is truly what’s happening, you would expect to see DADs giving a lot of false alarms. 

And in fact, personal communication with friends of friends who own DADs tell me that their DADs alert to not only hypoglycemic events, but to asthma attacks, anxiety attacks, etc. If you read carefully, few studies ask owners of DADs if their dog gives a lot of false alarm signals (dog signals to their owner and after the owner checks their blood sugar, they discover that they are not low). 

Isn’t this fascinating? 

The dogs I work with are incredible (shout out to the amazing owners that let me work with their dogs every week), and have incredible work ethic and sniffers. 

Our dogs are extremely motivated to work (because we make it super fun!). This is Nutella on her “break”. She doesn’t want a break. She wants to keep working! She’s whining and pawing at the door of the work room.

With the assistance of these amazing dogs, hopefully Dr. Gadbois and myself will be able to shed light on how exactly DADs do their job in the near future - Ill let you know how we go!


Cat Reeve
PhD Candidate
Dalhousie University
CANADA

Follow Cat on Twitter

Follow the Dalhousie Canid Behaviour Research Team on Facebook

Check out #DogsOfDal on Instagram

Further reading:

Brown S.W. & Strong V. (2001). The use of seizure-alert dogs, Seizure, 10 (1) 39-41. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/seiz.2000.0481 

Dehlinger, K., Tarnowski, K., House, J.L., Los, E., Hanavan, K., Bustamante, B., Ahmann, A.J., & Ward, W.K. (2013). Can trained dogs detect a hypoglycemic scent in patients with Type 1 Diabetes? Diabetes Care (Observations), 36, 98-99. 

Fier, B.M. (2004). Morbidity of hypoglycaemia in type 1 diabetes. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 65, 47-52. 

Gadbois, S., & Reeve, C. (2014). Canine Olfaction: Scent, Sign and Situation. In A.  Horowitz (ed.). Domestic Dog Cognition and Behavior. New York: Springer. 

Gonder-Frederick L., D. Warren, K. Vajda & J. Shepard (2013). Diabetic Alert Dogs: A Preliminary Survey of Current Users, Diabetes Care, 36 (4) e47-e47. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2337/dc12-1998  

Rooney N.J., Morant, S. & Guest, C. (2013). Investigation into the Value of Trained Glycaemia Alert Dogs to Clients with Type I Diabetes, PLoS ONE, 8 (8) e69921. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069921

Matyka K.A. (2002). Sweet dreams? - nocturnal hypoglycemia in children with type 1 diabetes, Pediatric Diabetes, 3 (2) 74-81. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1034/j.1399-5448.2002.30203.x   

Wells D.L., Lawson S.W. & Siriwardena A.N. Canine responses to hypoglycemia in patients with type 1 diabetes., Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), PMID: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19040375

© Cat Reeve | Do You Believe in Dog? 2014

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Keeping Your Dog Safe on Evening or Early Morning Walks

By Suzanne Alicie

We love hearing from our readers. Mary M. recently gave us a great topic to address to help you keep your dog safe when walking in low-light situations, such as evenings and early mornings. As you know by reading some of our other Responsible Pet Ownership posts, we’re all about finding ways to help you keep your pets safe, healthy and happy.

Do you walk your dog early in the morning as the sun is coming up or late in the evening when dusk makes dangerous shadows? Believe it or not, wearing reflective clothing yourself is not enough to protect your dog. Driving at this time of morning or evening is dangerous, and no matter how careful a driver may be there is always a chance of them not seeing your dog. Yes, I know that the side of the road is supposed to be a safe area for walking your dog, but accidents happen. People look away from the road and veer off the side, or shadows can make it difficult to discern where the edge of the road is, not to mention making it hard to see a person or dog in the gloom.

Reflective Equipment

Besides having some sort of reflective clothing on yourself, you should also make sure your dog has a reflective safety vest, reflective leash and collar. Glow in the dark items are also helpful in the event that headlights don’t hit you. Making you and your dog visible even in very low light is important for keeping you both safe. There is no such thing as too much reflective safety gear when it comes to keeping your dog safe.

Watch Where You Walk

If at all possible, alter your routine to walk during these dangerous times on a bike path or nature trail rather than along the road. If you have to walk beside the road, keep your dog on the side away from the road and always make sure you have full control of where he goes. Follow pedestrian traffic rules by walking facing oncoming traffic. You don’t want anyone to drive up behind you and strike you or your dog.

These are simple solutions for when you are walking your dog in low light situations, but what if he gets loose and takes off in the same kind of lighting? You won’t be able to see him any better than someone driving a car, and you chasing him may cause him to run out in front of a car.

The Tagg GPS tracker makes it easy to locate and leash your dog. The lightweight GPS band transmits to an app on your Smartphone showing you where your dog is at all times. It makes rounding up a loose doggie much easier than simply walking the streets shaking a container of CANIDAE Pure Heaven treats and hoping your dog tires of his adventure and comes to you without disaster.

To learn more about other ways to keep your dog safe, check out these posts:

Summer Safety for Dogs

Traveling With Your Dog

Is Your Yard Safe for Your Dog

What to Do if a Snake Bites Your Pet

Eight Things Every Pet Owner Needs to Know

Photos by Takashi Hososhima

Read more articles by Suzanne Alicie

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Doggone Safe Coordinator Tonji Stewart Wins Video Contest

We are thrilled to announce that Doggone Safe Eastern Canada Coordinator Tonji Stewart was the co-grand prize winner of the Canis Film Festival. The award was presented at Clicker Expo in Chicago on the weekend. This is an international video contest for clicker trainers and the videos must demonstrate how to teach something using clicker training. The videos are judged on entertainment and teaching value and the winners must demonstrate excellence in the application of clicker training principles in training.

We are very proud of Tonjis accomplishment and her efforts to promote force free training methods that are safe for kids and dogs.

Click here to listen to an interview with Tonji on CBC radio

Click here to see all the winning videos

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Dogs in the Classroom for Bite Prevention Doggone Safe Says No!

When Teresa and I first started doing dog bite prevention presentations in classrooms more than 10 years ago we took our wonderful dogs Clipper and Blitz. Many of you may recognize them from the many photos of them that we use in our materials. These were both exceptionally stable and friendly dogs who loved kids. They enjoyed coming to the sessions, we enjoyed having them there and the kids loved to see them. So why did we stop taking them you might ask? There are various reasons, the most important being that we were focusing more and more on body language and less and less on "dont do this and dont do that around dogs". We found that even these exceptionally tolerant kid-loving dogs would show signs of stress after being greeted and petted by many children. If we stopped the petting because of the subtle signs from the dogs that they had enough for today, then the remaining kids would be upset. If we allowed the petting to continue, then we were contradicting the lesson we have just given, which is: Respect the dog and if he shows signs that he doesnt want to meet you, then you leave him alone. We were disrespecting our own wonderful dogs and setting a bad example for the kids! There are few if any dogs who will truly enjoy being greeted by a whole classroom of kids. The goal of bite prevention education we realized is to educate the kids in the most effective way possible, it was not a forum for us to show off our terrific dogs or have a fun outing with our dogs. After much experience doing classroom presentations with a and without dogs, we are absolutely convinced that the kids learn better without the dogs and the dogs are better off without the stress.

Licensed presenters for Doggone Safe sign an agreement stating that they will not take a live dog into a bite prevention session. We recommend that if presenters wish to include a live dog component that they do this separately from the Be a Tree session and that the dog be used for a demonstration (grooming, tricks, training, service work, etc) and not be the subject for petting by the children. We encourage presenters to take a stuffed dog if they wish to allow the children to practice dog-greeting skills.

Be a Tree presenters who do not sign the licence agreement may not use the Be a Tree logo and may not represent themselves as being part of Doggone Safe during presentations where they bring a dog (even if they are a member). They may use the Be a Tree materials as they see fit.

Here is a link with more information about the Doggone Safe no dogs in the classroom policy.

Here is an article with more detailed explanations, published in the Spring 2012 issue of the Pack Rat, newsletter of the Association of Professional Humane Educators (a terrific organization with lots of resources for humane educators)

Dogs in Bite Prevention Classes

The Be a Tree dog bite prevention program for school age children is a well-established, popular program. There are over 800 presenters worldwide and nearly 1 million children have attended a Be a Tree session over the nine years the program has been in operation. This program has the support of many veterinary and humane organizations and recognized experts in the field of dog behavior.

The creators of the Be a Tree program, Joan Orr and Teresa Lewin, do not recommend the use of live dogs in dog bite prevention teaching sessions. Licensed presenters of the program must agree not to take a live dog into a session as a condition of the license agreement with Doggone Safe, the administrator of the program. All the dog behavior experts consulted in the setting of this policy by Doggone Safe agreed that it is better to use a stuffed dog and not a live dog when teaching groups of children.

This article will explain why we came to this conclusion about the use of live dogs in bite prevention presentations.

The main focus of the Be a Tree program is on teaching children to read dog body language and to recognize the key signals that a dog sends when he is happy or anxious. We teach the children to look the dog over (even their own dog or a dog they know well) to see what the dog is indicating with his body language and to pet only happy dogs that want to meet or interact with them. Any dog that licks his chops, yawns, closes his mouth when they approach, shows a half moon of white in his eye or turns away from them does not want to meet or play with them right now. They should respect the dog’s wishes and leave him alone. They should interact only with dogs that are happy and who come to them for attention. The Be a Tree program focuses on creating empathy with the dog and respecting a dog’s feelings.

When we started doing dog bite prevention sessions in classrooms we used to take our dogs. These were highly trained and socialized service dogs - Newfoundlands and a German Shepherd. They were very happy to be petted by the first 25-30 children and after that they started yawning or licking their noses or trying to lie down facing away from the children. These were kid-loving dogs, but they did get to the point where they had had enough and were no longer happy and receptive to the children. They were simply tolerating the attention. Since we had just taught the children that a dog yawning or licking his chops or turning away does not want to be petted, it was contradictory to allow the petting to continue, even though the chance of these dogs actually being stressed enough to bite was negligible. Since most children wanted to meet the dogs, this caused a problem.  If we took our own advice and stopped the petting, then children would be disappointed. If we continued to allow the petting when the dogs were obviously not interested, then we were going against all that we had just taught. Some children even pointed out to us that the dog was yawning, so he doesn’t want any more petting right now.

At first we were able to elicit many stress signs from the dogs in order to demonstrate these for the children. Soon the dogs got so used to any classroom situation that they just went straight to sleep and we were left without any body language to demonstrate! This is when we got the idea to use the large format pictures that eventually became the basis of the Be a Tree program. With the photos we knew for sure that we could show the main body language signals that we wanted to teach.

We also found that many children are distracted by a live dog and they want to look at the dog and ask questions (how much does he eat? how much does he weigh?) that were not relevant to the topic of the presentation. Sometimes the dogs were feeling too friendly and would gradually wriggle and creep over towards the children while we weren’t watching, which caused great hilarity. One of my dogs was a real clown and he would roll over on his back with all his feet in the air in the middle of a presentation, just to make the children laugh.

At the end of the Be a Tree session we play a number of noisy games. These are much more fun when the presenter does not have to worry about what the dog is doing while boisterous activity is going on.

Another reason that Doggone Safe does not allow presenters operating under the Doggone Safe name to take live dogs into the classroom is that there is no way to evaluate the dogs or the handling skills of the presenter. Even certified service and therapy dogs handled by professional dog trainers and behaviorists will show signs of anxiety and stress when large groups of children are allowed to pet them and so it is better if the dogs are not subjected to this.

We have discussed this issue with many other experienced bite prevention educators and all agree that live dogs do not have a place in a bite prevention seminar. Delta Society Australia uses a stuffed dog as do others and we are working toward securing funding so that Doggone Safe can also have a stuffed dog with which the children can practice their skills. The children can practice their dog meeting skills with the stuffed dog and the presenter can use the stuffed dog to demonstrate what a friendly tail wag looks like.

The classroom is not the place for people to show off how nice their dog is, or how nice their breed is. Surrounding a dog with children sets the dog up to fail. If dogs are taken into the classroom as part of another presentation separate from Doggone Safe, we recommend that this be done as a demonstration only (grooming, tricks, obedience, service work etc) and that the children be allowed to watch but not to interact with the dog. This will avoid any chance of a dog reacting and hurting a child, will avoid stress to the dog and will avoid giving the children contradictory messages

Many schools do not allow live dogs due to allergies or children with fears of dogs. The no-dog policy of the Be a Tree program has made the program welcome in many places where it otherwise would not have been.

In summary, live dogs distract the children from the presentation, and the majority of dogs do not enjoy handling by large groups of children. Doggone Safe cannot evaluate the temperament and handling skills of all dogs and handlers that may want to be involved in the program. Even certified therapy dogs, service dogs, guide dogs and dogs that have passed the canine good citizen test are not evaluated for their ability to handle crowds of children or to be petted by many children. Service dogs or guide dogs required by presenters should be placed where they cause the least possible distraction and the children should be told that the dog is working and that they will not be able to pet him.

In our experience after doing many, many bite prevention presentations with and without live dogs, it is much better without the dogs. The children are not distracted by either their interest in or fear of the live dog, they learn consistent messages, they have just as much fun without a live dog present and the dogs are not put in a stressful situation where their innate love of children may be eroded over time.

Joan Bio

Joan Orr is the president and cofounder of Doggone Safe, a non-profit organization dedicated to dog bite prevention education. She is also the co-creator of the award-winning Doggone Crazy! board game, Be a Tree Teacher Kit, Clicker Puppy training DVD and the co-author of the book Getting Started – Clicker Training Your Rabbit. For more information, visit www.doggonesafe.com or www.doggonecrazy.ca.

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Less Talk More Touch Whats Your Dog Saying to You

Guest post by: Erica Feuerbacher, PhD, of Carroll College Anthrozoology Program (Facebook)

via Flickr creative commons

Hi Mia and Julie,
 
Like you and your readers, much of my energy is devoted to my dogs’ happiness. I can identify a plethora of things they do that make me happy and I want to know what makes them happy; I explore this in my research. What types of human interactions do dogs prefer and under what circumstances? Knowing this might help us understand how to produce and maintain better bonds with our dogs. 

Two common ways of interacting with our dogs are petting or verbally praising them. My collaborator, Clive Wynne (@caninecognition), and I decided to ask dogs which of these interactions they prefer. 

Schematic and dimensions of the room arrangement for concurrent choice procedures. The drawing is approximately to scale and the room dimensions based on those of the room at the shelter.

We gave dogs a choice between two concurrently available options and measured whether they spent more time with one than the other—and how much more—as common way to measure preference. One assistant provided petting whenever the dog was near her, and another assistant provided vocal praise whenever the dog was near her. The dog was free to interact (or not interact) with either person for ten minutes. To test whether the dog really preferred the specific interaction and not just that specific person, we had the two assistants switch interactions halfway through the session. That is, the person providing petting switched to providing only vocal praise and vice versa. If the dog preferred petting in the first five minutes of the session, would the dog switch to the other person who was now providing petting? 

 Twinky, a shelter dog, receiving petting from the assistant on the left, but soon alternates to the assistant on the right who previously provided vocal praise but now provides petting.

We tested shelter dogs and two groups of owned dogs: in one group both assistants were strangers, which was the same as the shelter dogs, but in the second group, one assistant was the dog’s owner. This allowed us to test whether the owner providing these interactions would change dogs’ preferences.
 
Across the board, dogs preferred petting to vocal praise. This difference was most pronounced in shelter dogs (out of the first five-minute period, dogs spent an average of 3.5 minutes with the petting person and only 7 seconds with vocal praise person). This result, however, held up across groups, even when the owner was one of the assistants and even when the owner was the assistant providing vocal praise. Additionally, when the assistant providing petting switched to vocal praise, dogs left …some immediately! When they found the other person was now providing petting, they stuck with her. Dogs even left their owner when the owner switched to vocal praise! 

Patsy, a shelter dog, receiving petting from the assistant on the right but soon alternates to the assistant on the left who previously provided vocal praise but now provides petting. 

 
Dogs clearly prefer petting to vocal praise, but what if vocal praise was the only game in town? Maybe vocal praise is good as long as there isn’t something better available. We tested this by giving dogs only one alternative at a time and measuring how much time they spent when the person provided petting and when the person provided vocal praise. The results were the same: dogs remained with the person providing petting but spent very little time when that person provided only vocal praise. In fact, we found that dogs spent as little time with the person for vocal praise as when the person was ignoring the dog! To dogs, vocal praise was equivalent to being ignored. On the other hand, we also tested dogs that received eight three-minute sessions of petting and those dogs spent almost all their time with the person providing petting, even in Session 8. There was no evidence that dogs get tired of petting; as long as you are willing to pet them, they are willing to be petted!
 
Our results point to the importance of touch or our pets and for us. Petting is an easy way to relate to a dog and help build a relationship. One thing to note is that in our study dogs were free to approach or leave the assistant—that is we never forced the dogs to receive petting. So, as much as dogs like petting, don’t rush out and pet every dog you meet! You need to allow the dog to come to you to be petted and to leave when it wants. 

Scorch, an owned dog, receiving petting from the assistant on the left who is Scorchs owner. When his owner switches from providing petting to providing only vocal praise, he soon alternates to the assistant on the right, a stranger, who previously provided vocal praise but now provides petting.

 
It was surprising that dogs did not prefer vocal praise—even when it was the only interaction available. We often get the comment from people, “Well, my dog loves when I talk to him!” We have to remind them that we only praised the dogs whereas most people praise the dog and simultaneously do something else really fun (like petting). We also praised the dogs for a long time—as long as the dog stayed near the assistant. This is harder than it sounds and worth trying—a few dogs did spend a good amount of time with the vocal praise assistant and that poor assistant had to praise the dog for few minutes on end!
 
Now its your turn... Put YOUR dogs preferences under the Microscope
You can certainly do a mini version of our research at home: talk to your dog for an extended period without doing anything else—don’t grab the leash or pet him or reach for a treat. Does he stick around? Does he wander off? Dogs do learn to love certain words, like “walk,” “cookie,” or “good girl,” but those are only meaningful because they are usually associated with other good things—like going for a walk, getting a treat, or being petted.
 
What I enjoy about my research is it gives us the dog’s perspective and asks the dog, “what do you like?” rather than assuming we know what they like. Our results regarding vocal praise are really interesting given how much we talk to our dogs; perhaps all our chattering is more for us than for them and if you really want to communicate with your dog, you should try petting. 

~ ~ ~

Dr. Erica Feuerbacher joined the faculty of the Anthrozoology program at Carroll College in 2014, after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Florida in the Canine Cognition and Behavior Lab. Her research goal is to enhance our understanding of the dog-human relationship to improve the welfare of both.       

Further reading:

Feuerbacher, E. N., & Wynne, C. D. (2015). Shut up and pet me! Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) prefer petting to vocal praise in concurrent and single-alternative choice procedures. Behavioural processes, 110, 47-59.[Open Access PDF until Jan 2016]

Feuerbacher, E. N., & Wynne, C. D. (2014). Most domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) prefer food to petting: population, context, and schedule effects in concurrent choice. Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 101(3), 385-405.

Feuerbacher, E. N., & Wynne, C. D. (2012). RELATIVE EFFICACY OF HUMAN SOCIAL INTERACTION AND FOOD AS REINFORCERS FOR DOMESTIC DOGS AND HAND?REARED WOLVES. Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 98(1), 105-129.

Udell, M. A., Lord, K., Feuerbacher, E. N., & Wynne, C. D. (2014). A Dog’s-Eye View of Canine Cognition. In Domestic Dog Cognition and Behavior (pp. 221-240). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

© 2015 Erica Feuerbacher | Do You Believe in Dog?

Feuerbacher, E., & Wynne, C. (2015). Shut up and pet me! Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) prefer petting to vocal praise in concurrent and single-alternative choice procedures Behavioural Processes, 110, 47-5 - See more at: http://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2015/01/do-dogs-prefer-petting-or-praise.html#sthash.hdkEDN4o.dpu

Feuerbacher, E., & Wynne, C. (2015). Shut up and pet me! Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) prefer petting to vocal praise in concurrent and single-alternative choice procedures Behavioural Processes, 110, 47-59 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.08.019 - See more at: http://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2015/01/do-dogs-prefer-petting-or-praise.html#sthash.hdkEDN4o.dpuf

Feuerbacher, E., & Wynne, C. (2015). Shut up and pet me! Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) prefer petting to vocal praise in concurrent and single-alternative choice procedures Behavioural Processes, 110, 47-5 - See more at: http://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2015/01/do-dogs-prefer-petting-or-praise.html#sthash.hdkEDN4o.dpuf

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