Was your first baby your dog? Mine was. In fact, I had two small mix breeds when I brought home my first of 3 babies! I want to give you some important advice and offer you some practical training that will help your dog love your new bundle of joy!

Let me first say “Congratulations” on your new addition or future addition!

Desensitization and training your dog can certainly help ease the transition of having a new, noisy bundle of joy in the home, but nothing is more important than safety. We know that most dog bites are directed at children. Why? The main reason is that dogs tend to be guarders, even the most wonderful dog can decide to guard food or a toy from a child. The second most common reason is fear. If a dog has never been socialized with children, they can be quite scary! The third most common is rough play or accidental bites. For these reasons, I do not recommend ever leaving a child under the age of 9 or 10 alone with a dog.

Here are a few tips I think you will find helpful in helping your dogs adjust to your new baby!

Positive Association/Desensitization:
Purchase or borrow a baby doll, one that cries, giggles or talks is best.  Wrap it up and pretend you are holding, burping and cuddling your baby.  When the dog comes to sniff, praise them while quickly setting boundaries. Ask for a sit and then reward! If you have two dogs, only allow one dog at a time to investigate the new doll, stroller, basinet, diaper bag, etc. If you like to use a clicker in training, then you would click and treat when the dog sniffs any new object providing the dog with positive feedback. A dog that gets punished every time he approaches the new baby will soon learn that the baby = punishment, I do not like the baby, grrrrr. Remember, the goal is that whenever the dogs are near the baby, great things happen with boundaries in place!  

If you get frustrated every time your baby cries, the dogs will associate stress with the sounds the baby makes which will cause the dog to be nervous/anxious. If the baby makes a crying sound as it approaches your pup, can he become reactive to the baby? People always say “there was no warning or reason for the dog bite.” There is always a reason, we just miss our dogs signals. Practicing “calm energy” will not only be good for your dog, it will be great for you!

Give your Dog Feedback/Set Boundaries:
Practice putting the baby doll in a stroller and walking the dogs with the pretend baby so they get use to keeping their toes out of the way, the sounds it makes and wide turns.  Practice having the dogs sit often especially when you see another dog, this is best done behind the stroller, just in case they dash toward a dog, you want your leashes to be behind the stroller so they won't risk knocking your stroller over.

Practice laying the pretend baby on the floor on his/her blanket. Teach the dog that the blanket is not to be stepped on. How? Put a leash on your dog and practice walking past the blanket, say “off” if your pup starts to walk on the blanket. When he begins to avoid stepping on the blanket, reward! After several repetitions of rewarding the dog for good behavior, practice with the dog off leash. Do this in several rooms of the house, even on the deck or yard. Once your dog learns the rules and gets rewarded for it, he will be happy to comply. (For more information on this topic, read my blog titled “When Your Pup Asks Why”.)

What boundaries will you set around the highchair? What if at 6 months your baby starts to eat solid foods from the high chair, and some gets on the floor. Now your baby is 12 months old and is a messy eater! For 6 months Max your sweet Labrador has been rewarded for sitting nicely by the highchair, hey, he cleans up the floor, who would complain? What if at 14 months Mom says “stop feeding the dog, please keep your food on your tray”. Your child’s arm often dangles over the side, but no more food is randomly dropped. Max is use to being rewarded, Max gets excited and jumps up to take the food, but bites through your child’s hand on accident. Is Max a bad dog? Could this have been prevented? Absolutely.

Appropriate Play/Accidental:
Teaching your dog the rules of play are essential, such as “take it” and “drop it”. If you allow your dog to jump up and steal the tug toy from you, then expect him to do the same to your toddler. Teaching him to only take toys or food on cue, will prevent him from taking things from your child’s hands. If you allow your dog to jump up then sit, he will again do this same behavior with children. Teach him to come, sit and reward!

The Anxious/Fearful dog:
Finally, keep your dog in a safe place if he is fearful of children. Many dogs come into rescue with a fear of children. Slowly letting them gain confidence at a distance is key to building his positive association. Having a toddler or child toss food to a nervous dog will help, the key is to take this SLOW and always just toss, do not attempt hand feeding for weeks. Make sure your anxious dog never feels confined with a scary child in the room, this is a recipe for disaster. Confinement can be on a leash, trapped in a crate, in a room, a car, small back yard, a hug (most dogs hate hugs anyway, please never let your child hum your dog). The bottom line is make your dog feel safe if he is anxious around kids until you work with a trainer to desensitize him.

I hope you understand how many dog bites can be prevented if we only pay attention to what we are teaching and rewarding our dogs for. So be an aware dog owner and keep both your child and dog safe!

You have no doubt at one time or another thought your dog was ignoring you! With so much information out there about dog training it is somewhat confusing to decipher what your dog is really thinking!

I am hear to set the record straight on the Stubborn Dog!

The REALITY is, dogs in many ways are just like kids. Some dogs will pick up things much quicker than other dogs and some will take additional repetitions. Often in my classes I will see a dog with a “wide mouth pant”, or “stop and sniff the ground” or “look away” from his/her owner, this is my cue to help the owner with their timing or body language as the dog is clearly becoming confused and often stressed.

Often times dog fail to learn a cue because the owners TIMING is off, even the slightest second can reward a dog for dropping a toy instead of picking it up! I know I have made this mistake myself!

When trainers say “reward the behavior you want”, this means over time! Please do not expect your dog to become consistent after one training session. Many people do not realize that dogs do not generalize well. For this reason we need to have them practice their behaviors in many different environments with a variety of distractions so their behaviors become automatic or spontaneous.

Always consider the “dogs point of view”, is there something scary about the environment? Often our dogs are distracted by the sounds, smells, and movements around them so they may have missed a cue. Does the dog have a positive association with his surroundings? Is the dog feeling well? Often dogs will sit at an angle to alleviate hip discomfort. Is your dog in conflict? You may be calling your dog, but the big black German Shepherd at the other end of the room already gave your pup the “look”, should he go to mom/dad and risk a reprimand or just stay where he is as it is safe!

When Annie did not want to heel for me on a street walk recently, I stopped and looked at her, knowing she was not being stubborn, I realized I was caring a full doggie poop bag with her leash. As soon as I moved the poop to the other hand, she resumed her place by my left side!

Another example, a client’s Jack Russell would not get in to her car anymore. She just ran around the car and refused to jump in as she had done for months. I asked her to drive her car out of the car port and ask her girl to get in, with no hesitation the Jack Russell jumped in the car like always. We realized on occasion she was receiving a shock from the wet floor. She was convinced her dog was Stubborn until we solved the mystery!

Finally, consider what motivates your dog. A recent client just installed an invisible fence and the dog is enjoying FREEDOM, rolling in the grass, sniffing, digging, peeing, you get the idea. Do you think the dog will come in? Come in from this new amazing freedom, in this context “come” is obviously a negative to the dog! But, if you reward your dog for coming in the house with a game of tug, belly scratch or cheese for a while then “come” becomes a positive!

So the next time you start to say your dog is STUBB...., stop and really ask your self why your dog is behaving the way he/she is, I am sure you will find a real reason!

Develop a lifestyle...

I say it all the time in class, “take your puppy everywhere you go” if possible. In order to get your puppy to be happy and balanced, you need to socialize him/her to the world we live in. But to get your puppy to respond to you here, there, and everywhere, she needs to be trained here, there, and everywhere! Train your puppy using many short sessions each day. A favorite author of mine, Ian Dunbar, says: “The secret is to totally integrate training into both your puppy's lifestyle and your lifestyle.” That is so true!

Like in Puppy class, ask your pup to perform many cues per day. For example, call your puppy for a body-position sequence (like a “Sit”, “Sit Stay") with variable length stays in each position whenever you go into the kitchen, go out to get the mail, sit in your favorite chair or go to the car. If you instruct your pup to perform a simple body-position sequence on every such occasion, you will easily be able to train your puppy many times a day without deviating from your normal lifestyle. Remember using the NIFF (nothing is for free) habit, not only teaches your pup to use polite manners, it also exercises his brain and helps remind him that you are his leader, not roommate!

Practice, Practice, Practice...

Helping your dog to see you as the calm confident leader will help him avoid many of the behavior problems people do not like. Such as door dashing, barking out the window, chewing on your arm and not coming when called. With this in mind, practice moving your dogs feet several times a day. This is a nice way of letting your pup know that you are in charge. Have your pup move out of your way rather than walking around him, ask him to move off his bed and have a seat yourself. Teach your dog to fetch your paper, his ball or toy! I often sit on the couch in the evening with my dogs (Sophie, my foster dog is against my leg as I type this) But the key is that she asks politely to join me. When she comes and bounces up and down, I know she wants up, I ask her to “wait”, she sits and waits until I say “ok”, then up she comes! We expect our children to ask politely, why not teach our dogs to have polite manners as well? Another example, people automatically assume that it is bad to let your dog sleep on your bed. The truth is it is fine, as long as it is on YOUR terms. My Pablo will stand by my bed with his head resting on the mattress and wait for me to say “ok”. Sometimes I say, “get in your bed” followed by “good boy” he does what I ask without question. When this becomes your new lifestyle, your puppy will see no difference between playing and training. Fun times will have structure and rules they can live with and training will be fun!

Forming habits you can live with...

Practice short training sessions with quick sits, stays and emotional control moments into your puppy's walks and off-leash play times. Each quick sit is immediately reinforced by allowing the dog to resume walking or playing, which becomes the reward. Practicing emotional control with quick sits before each and every activity with your dog (like riding in the car, watching you fix their dinner, lying on the couch, and playing doggy games). For example, have your dog sit before you throw a tennis ball, before you put the leash on. Add duration to your cues of sit-stay with each repetition. Ask your dog to wait before he goes out the door, before he eats, or before he/she jumps out of the car.

Right from the start, make frequent little quiet moments part of your dog's daily routine. Remember, a puppy is not like an irritating child's toy. You cannot simply remove the batteries from a rambunctious adolescent dog. Instead you must learn how to "turn off" your dog. Learn to use walks and your puppy's favorite and most exciting games as rewards for settling down quietly and calmly.

Throughout the course of the day, have your puppy settle down for longer periods of time at home. For example, when watching the television, have your pup lie down on-leash, or in his bed, but during the commercial breaks, release the puppy for short, active play-training sessions.

When playing with your puppy, have him take a break every 30 seconds or so. To begin with, have the pup lie still for just two seconds before letting it play again. Use a release command, such as "Free Dog," "Ok", or "Let's Play." After 30 seconds, interrupt the play session again with a three-second quiet moment. Then try for four seconds. And then five, eight, ten, and so on. Alternate "Settle Down" with "Go Play" and with each repetition, it becomes progressively easier to get your puppy to settle down quickly.

Once your pup gets the picture, the exercise may be profitably practiced on walks. When walking round the block, periodically have your puppy settle down for just a few seconds before resuming the walk. An entertaining way to train is to instruct your pup to settle down every twenty yards or so, while you read this article! I hope you will read and re-read it many times!

Positive Reinforcement...

Puppies are easy to train. In fact, a young puppy will do just about anything you ask, especially when we use that sweet pitch as a reward! As the puppy grows into an adolescence, however, it begins to ask world-shattering questions, such as "Why?"
Just because your puppy has learned what "Sit" means, it does not necessarily mean she will sit when you request her to do so. Therefore, the most important ingredient of any educational program, weather for children or dogs, is "Why comply?" You must teach the relevance of complying. I believe, once you have taught your puppy the positive consequences of cooperating, she will eagerly want to behave!

Make it Fun...

First ask yourself, what does my puppy love? Make a list! Then institute a simple and effective rule: Nothing will be denied, nor withheld from the pup, but the puppy has to sit beforehand. It's just common canine courtesy, really. Nothing more than a puppy "please."

Does your puppy like to play Tug? Great! this is a fun game and will give your pup some indoor exercise! The key to this game is following the rules: Your pup must wait until you make eye contact and say “take it” before grabbing the tug toy. After some good tugging, look away, relax your arm and say “leave it”. If your pup doesn’t know this cue yet, offer a treat to reward him for letting go. After some practice, you will not need to reward with a treat.

In no time at all, your pup will learn the importance of complying with your wishes and will be only too willing, eager, and happy to oblige. Now your dog will want to do what you want it to do because you make her life fun and exciting! Positive Reinforcement is “heads-and-tails” above any adverse training programs!

Basically, you need to convince your pup that he or she is the trainer and you are the pupil! As Ian Dunbar says in his book, After You Get Your Puppy, your puppy needs to believe, "Sitting is the canine cue — the veritable key to the door — which makes my owners do anything I want. If I sit, they will open doors (how courteous). If I sit, they will massage my ears (how affectionate). If I sit, they will share the couch (how cooperative). If I sit, they will throw the tennis ball (how athletic). And if I sit, they will serve supper (how well-trained)."

Rewards...

The rewards of having a well mannered dog are endless! For starters, you can take your dog anywhere and not be stressed. Having a well behaved dog saves time as you can get through your day with less hassle, and you can be proud of you pup! Inviting friends over to the house is no longer dreaded as your pup has a new set of skills to show off! Jumping on Grandma is no longer an issue because your dog has learned to sit when ever he meets a new person. No sit, no reward, it is that simple!

So be a great dog owner and give your dog plenty of Reinforcement for well performed behaviors!

While most of my topics are about training, I feel it is important that we are all aware of household toxins. There are actually many common household items which can be toxic for dogs and cats. Ingestion of just a small amount of some cleaning products, food, and plants can be fatal. Other toxins, exposed to paws and skin, can cause serious illnesses. Be sure to keep the following items away from your pet!

1. Laundry Detergent including fabric softener sheets can cause digestive problems, irritation of the mouth and tongue, and even death.
2. Mouse and Ant killer can cause enormous damage so take your pet to a vet immediately if you suspect your dog has been contact with this poison.
3. Chocolate even in small amounts can be harmful to your dogs nervous system so never feed a dog any food containing chocolate.
4. Ice melt on driveways and stairs can easily become stuck to paws and fur. When an animal cleans itself, ingesting the chemicals in the ice melt, there can be harmful reactions including skin irritations, seizures, and even death.
5. Oleander, mistletoe, and lily plants are toxic to dogs and cats. Just one leaf from an oleander can kill a small pet. When discarding these plants, do not burn them. Inhaling the smoke can be harmful.
6. Macadamia nuts contain a toxin that can wreak havoc on a dog’s digestive and nervous systems.
7. Tylenol can be fatal if given to a dog or cat.
8. Antifreeze is deadly for dogs, unfortunately the sweet smell does attract dogs.
9. Avocados, raisons, grapes and onions all contain toxins that can cause kidney failure.
10. Mouthwash contains boric acid, so never use this on your pet.

When training our dogs, we often expect them to read our minds. Well, they can’t! But you can help them by offering feedback to them. What is feedback? It is a way of helping your dog know when he is doing something acceptable or not.

Good dog handlers offer their dog feedback on their behavior throughout the day. When you see your dog laying calmly on the floor, let them know you are happy with this behavior! Say, “good dog, what a good dog”, in a sweet voice.

If you have a puppy, you should be giving him feedback constantly! I mean if you are with him an hour, then offer feedback 50-60 times! For Example, when in puppy class I am always encouraging my clients to reward their puppy when ever they allow another puppy near them or begin to play with another pup. I want puppies to know that I am thrilled when they play well with another dog.

What if we have a bully in the class? I follow that bully around and say, “good dog, yes, good girl, what a good girl”, when she is nice, so the second she gets to rough, I am there to say, “uhuh, take a break” in a lower tone, then again as she eyes another playmate, I am again letting her know, that she is a “good girl, nice play, gentle, what a good girl”, all in a sweet voice.

Remember puppies need to play rough to learn how to resolve problems so having a bully is not a problem, it just means they need more Feedback!

How about when teaching your dog a new cue? When you first say “Stay” your dog has no idea what you mean. But if you reinforce the stay cue by saying “stay, good stay, that is a good stay”, in a sweet voice then offer a quick reward of food or affection. Your dog will surely learn quicker when you talk sweetly and repeat the behavior that he is doing the right. This type of Positive Feedback quickens the learning process with your dog.

So be a Great Dog Owner and give your dog lots of feedback!!