How do we ‘Socialise’ our puppies whilst either in lock-down or social distancing?

 

Could we perhaps, by looking at things a bit differently, turn this situation into an advantage?

Two words: Habituate and Socialise

Habituate means ‘make or become accustomed or used to something’.

Socialise means ‘mixing sociably with others’.

They both take time and depend upon exposure.

Exposure.

Exposure involves being aware of the ‘thing’ at a distance or intensity, a ‘safe zone’ where the puppy can cope without being scared or over-excited. Where he can look at it, be aware of it and process it.

Exposure also involves counter-conditioning to anything that is causing her fear by immediately finding that ‘safe zone’ – and then pairing that ‘thing’ with something puppy loves, food or fun.

Puppy needs both socialisation and habituation from the very start, well before he’s ‘allowed out’ after his vaccinations. See this from Linda Michaels, Puppy Socialization and Vaccinations Belong Together. The fallout from leaving it to late is that he may enter a sensitive ‘fear period’ where any negative experience may even colour the rest of his life.

Habituating

Habituating is about puppy generally getting used to everything in her new world, indoors and out. Everything is new. A falling leaf, a car horn, wheelie bins, scooters and traffic, the vacuum cleaner – and people, children, dogs…… The list is endless.

The important thing is not to overwhelm her, to take it one or two things at a time if possible.

Could social distancing actually have it’s plus side?

Social distancing may even be to puppy’s advantage because it may prevent her being flooded with too much too soon.

Ideas for habituating while social distancing or in lock-down: Gradually get him used, at an intensity or distance okay to him (his ‘safe zone’) to household items like vacuum or hairdryer. Watch out for any wariness about anything and immediately work on it, increasing distance and pairing with food or fun.

You can sit in the car and habituate him to traffic and outdoor sounds, bearing in mind all the times the rule about distance/intensity/adding something he loves rules.

There are some good tracks on Spotify that play different sounds and also YouTube, useful for getting the puppy used to the outside world.

Socialising

We tend to associate ‘socialisation’ with meeting people and other dogs. The very worst thing people can do, even worse than no exposure at all, is to ‘flood’ the puppy with too much, too soon and too close. To scare her.

We get our new puppy home and invite all family and friends for a meet and greet. Poor puppy can’t cope and this could well cause trouble and lack of confidence later on.

Again, social distancing may even be of benefit!!

Ideas for socialising while social distancing: People-watch and dog-watch either from the car or well back behind a gate. Every time a dog or person is in view (or puppy becomes aware), feed him. Build up strong positive associations with people and other dogs.

It seems that while people are ‘staying at home’, the dog walks are much more crowded. There are countless stories of off-lead dogs. Virus apart, this is not a good environment for a young puppy, even if vaccinations are complete.

It takes just one unpleasant encounter to colour his life eventually causing reactivity to other dogs. No ‘socialising’ at all is less harmful as you can always carefully build up. Once damaged, the harm has to be undone first.

Exit procedure for puppy

Then, when the restrictions are lifted, you can gradually expand his/her world and get closer to people and dogs. Have your own puppy ‘exit strategy’.

You will now be an expert at introducing puppy to things gradually and making him feel good about them, so you will now know what to do!

When you are able again to have people to your home, ask them to come in quietly one at a time to start with, move slowly and sit down. Then let puppy decide. Postpone young excitable children till puppy can cope.

Working hard on socialising and habituating with its limitations during lock-down may actually be more beneficial to puppy than otherwise would have been the case  if you had waited for vaccinations to kick in at 12-14 weeks and then overdid it.

TV – Do our dogs love it or do they endure it?

To take this photograph I have been searching for a football match on TV – a first!

Many of the people I visit have their TVs on all the time, whether or not they are watching anything.  They leave television on ‘for the dogs’ when they go out.

I myself live with someone whose hearing is not as good as my own and who has different tastes to myself. I find it impossible to concentrate on what I am doing with the noise of football crowds yelling beside me or a background of shouting and shooting from an old movie (I accept that many people would feel the same with opera or heavy metal).

Unwanted TV, or any TV too loud (apart, for me, from rock group Queen!) makes me irritable and can give me a headache.

How then must it be for dogs who have to put up with the constant noise in their much more sensitive ears – noise that can be of little or no interest to them?

In addition, to quote Samsung: ‘All electronics will create a slight hum, buzz, or whistle during operation or standby. Depending on how pitch sensitive your ears are you may hear this noise.’

Food for thought?

In order to de-stress our dogs we naturally think of what we can ADD. Add a plug-in to the room, add Zylkene or Valerian to the dogs diet, put on a Thundershirt, add TV or radio when we are out and so on. Should we not also be considering what we could be REMOVING?

Turning off TV, turning electronics off instead of leaving on stand-by, removing the batteries from automatic fresh air dispensers, removing chemicals and perfumed cleaning products… there must be many things.

Turning the power off at the mains for half an hour may be an interesting experiment if we have a highly stressed dog (okay, we will need to re-set time clocks, but it would be worth the effort surely).

 

 

Stress causes dogs to go grey too.

In most of today’s papers (23rd January, 2020):

Stress speeds up hair greying process (in humans), science confirms.

Fight-or-flight response nerves pump out hormone that wipes out pigmentation cells.

So it is with dogs

Does Stress Cause Premature Graying in Dogs asked Stanley Coren Psychology Today, December 2016.

My Pickle, soon to be 10 years of age

‘History records that something remarkable happened to Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), the ill-fated queen of France. The night before her jailers walked her to the guillotine her hair allegedly turned white. She is not the only person whose hair lost its color because of a major stressful event. According to historical reports, Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) also had his hair suddenly turn white in the tower of London. This was the night before his execution by King Henry VIII for refusing to sign the act that declared Henry to be the Supreme Head of the Church Of England. More modern accounts tell of survivors of bombing attacks in World War II whose hair turned white as a result of the anxiety they had experienced. Furthermore an examination of “before and after” photographs of United States presidents shows a highly visible increase in the amount of gray hair by the end of a four-year term. Some scientists suggest that this is a consequence of the stresses experienced in that office’.

Of course, the age when a human’s hair begins to turn white varies from person to person. The same goes for dogs. Genetics will play a part, but stress also contributes.

Below is my Pickle at seven months old.

Pickle, 7 months old

To quote Coren: ‘Hair color comes from melanin, a pigment which is produced in each hair follicle. There are two hypotheses as to how graying comes about. The first is that aging wears down your DNA, somehow inhibiting the production of the cells called melanocytes that produce melanin. The second hypothesis says that your hair gets bleached from within because hydrogen peroxide is also produced in small amounts in the follicles. Normally this bleaching compound is kept in check by another enzyme called catalase but eventually this enzyme ceases to be produced’.

Anxiety and impulsivity levels in the dog were analysed and a correlation was proved. Interestingly, female dogs tend to show more greying than males.

So, if a young dog is already beginning to show grey on its muzzle, then we may be able to help with his coping skills.

I wonder, had I not actively always helped my very alert, busy, easily aroused and alarmed little Pickle, whether he would be even whiter around the muzzle?

‘Me Too’ for Dogs?

I was lying on the sofa, just thinking, observing my own dogs doing their own thing.

They have their casual hello code. They may politely acknowledge a dog they happen to approach or to pass by.

Humans however regularly break the hello code when approaching a resting dog. This a is a code they are unlikely to break with another human. It involves respect.

Of all the species, many of us assume dogs ‘should’ accept if not actively enjoy being touched/molested by us.

‘Me To’ for dogs?

How dogs do it.

Each of my dogs has his or her particular inter-relationships with another, but whatever that is, manners are observed.

The resting dog mostly ignores the one approaching or walking past.

At most, the passing dog may have a gentle sniff of the body and a gentle lick of the face. He or she is alert for any subtle message saying ‘no thanks’.

My peace-loving Labrador Zara may arc around a sleeping GSD Milly. If wanting to engage, she will roll onto her back in front of her.

Cocker Spaniel Pickle may also approach her, wriggling onto his side, tail wagging, then offering her his bits to sniff. Unlike Zara, he’s merely acting submissive I’m sure. It’s manners.

If they want the attention of the resting dog, they may bow and entice. There is unlikely to be any more than the lightest of physical contact (puppies would be given leeway as they learn).

Other hellos between my four dogs when one is lying down are mostly a brief face-to-face sniff, maybe a body sniff and then move on.

One dog may stop and settle beside the other. There is little equivalent to stroking or touching it. At most there is a gentle lick of face or in ears, always sensitive to whether the attention is welcome or not.

Not even my impetuous Pickle will say hello by pawing a resting dog, barking at it or jumping on it!

But what do we humans do?

We approach our lying, sitting or sleeping dog, completely breaking break the dog hello code. No ‘sounding the dog out’ for how he feels. Without warning, a big human paw roughs up the fur. The human is noisy.

The human may even force him from his comfortable spot.

Some dogs may quietly grumble. Then we humans then think we have an aggressive dog.

A dog may have to absorb a lot of human emotion, love, demonstrativeness and so on. Many dogs love it. It can however be hard for a more introvert or nervous dog.

‘Me Too’ for Dogs, I say!

Shameless anthropomorphism – and why not?

Well, the only reason I can see for avoiding anthropomorphism is it’s impossible to spell.

Wikipedia says: Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities.

For me, in my dog behaviour work, I am teaching dog owners who mostly don’t fully understand their dogs’ reasons for doing things. In fact, many don’t consider the reasoning or emotions behind their dog’s behaviour as relevant at all.

How can we get them to see some of their dog’s world from their dog’s perspective?

Our yardstick for judging human behaviour can be so different to the way we respond to our dog’s behaviour, but is the cause so different?

Putting human words into the Alfie’s mouth can suddenly make sense of why Alfie reacts in a certain way. More importantly, it can give us a clue as to our best response if we want to understand and help him.

Selectively used, anthropomorphism gives me a three-way channel of understanding between myself, the owner(s) and the dog. A large percentage of a behaviourist’s job is teaching the humans how best to behave in order to help their dog.

People I go to would say they love their dogs. It can be eye-opening to them to see, giving the dog a voice with words, how misguided and unintentionally unkind their responses have been.

“What would Alfie be saying to me if he could talk?” is such a simple question. It can open up some very obvious and powerful solutions.

Here are a couple of examples:

Alfie hears something. He barks in alarm. His owner ignores him for a while and then tells him to shut up.

What if their child was screaming, “Help! There is a hooded man outside with a gun and we will all die!?”.

What might Alfie be saying? “Danger! It could be the end of the world! Help!”

Solution? We wouldn’t leave our child to deal with it by ignoring him. We wouldn’t get angry with our scared child. We would help him out.

Alfie is on lead. Another dog approaches. Alfie barks. His owner tightens the lead, keeps walking towards the dog or makes him sit as the dog gets nearer. The owner scolds Alfie.

What if they held their child’s hand in a tight grip. A big dog approaches and he’s terrified of dogs. He might be screaming “Let me go! I’m scared!”

What might dog Alfie be shouting?  “I want to run and hide. I’m scared! If it comes much nearer I shall have to defend myself.”

Solution? Increase distance and gradually teach Alfie to trust them.

Ahropomorphism helps me to put my point over. Hearing their dog ‘speak’ can really open people’s minds.

Distraction ain’t Counter-Conditioning

I frequently go to dogs that, when on lead, react aggressively to other dogs. I explain how the way to change this is to keep ‘distance under threshold’ and then add ‘good things’ that are triggered when Bonzo sights another dog.

Counter-Conditioning.

Sometimes (often, in fact), over the following weeks the process becomes distorted in clients’ minds. This is even when we have gone out and have worked on the process together.

People extract the easy bit.  They see another dog and then do all they can to prevent Bonzo spotting it. They increase distance or hold Bonzo’s attention. They make ‘good things’ happen for ignoring the other dog (that they have done their best to ensure Bonzo isn’t aware of).

Proudly, they report to me that they are successfully avoiding most dogs. If they see one, they take off in another direction. They ask Bonzo to look at them, ‘watch me’, preventing him for clocking the other dog. They feed him.

These ‘good things’ – food or fun or both – can be connected to nothing in Bonzo’s mind other than their Person having a sudden fit of kindness!

Then they understandably say after a few weeks, “We aren’t getting anywhere. We live in the real world so we are going now to force him up closer to other dogs”. That will, sadly, wipe out any trust they may have built up.

In the time they have wasted, Bonzo would almost certainly have made progress. With regular one-to-one sessions out on walks, an experienced trainer would keep them on track. That’s not always possible unfortunately.

My railway train analogy

I like analogies. I find this helps clients to understand the principles involved.

I ask them to imagine Bonzo is terrified of trains and the only place they can walk him is in a very large field with a railway line at the end of the field.

There will be a distance at which he can see and hear the trains whilst still feeling safe. Closer, and he’s over threshold and will react. Over threshold, he won’t eat and he won’t play.

So, from this comfortable distance, as soon as he hears an approaching train, the food and fun starts. As Bonzo looks in the direction of the train line, either chicken rains from the sky or they start his favourite game.

When the train has passed. The food or fun ceases. No train, no ‘good things’.

With regular sessions, in principle, bit by bit, Bonzo’s threshold should reduce over time until he stands near to the train line without feeling any fear, waiting for his chicken. Counter-Conditioning.

Distraction

Now I ask Bonzo’s person to imagine she can see a distant red light. When this turns to green she knows a train will soon be coming. Immediately, before Bonzo can see or hear it, she takes his attention, feeds him and runs off away from the field and the train line. He’s not aware of any train.

Distraction can’t ever change how Bonzo feels about trains.

To my mind the command ‘Watch Me’ is Distraction. Used to extreme, ‘Watch Me’ is walking along looking up into his human’s eyes, shutting out everything else.

Distraction doesn’t build up any associations, either good or bad, between Bonzo and the other dog. Distraction might make life easier, but it doesn’t change how Bonzo feels.

If Bonzo first clocks the other dog and then looks up at his person for the good things he now expects another dog to trigger, that is Counter Conditioning.

Here is a nice visual explanation from Donna Hill.

 

Dog Owner Reality Check .

LOSING HEART

Why do so many clients with fearful or reactive dogs, who often have started off so well, lose heart?

The reason is because they just don’t fully accept the time and work that changing fear-based or guarding behaviours in particular can take.

Teaching people is the easy bit. A large part of my job is about keeping people on track.

REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

We live in an age of devices and gimmicks which make things work quickly or instantly. Extra fast broadband, instant online ordering of goods, instant communication and so on.

Changing behaviour is to do with having realistic expectations.

I can say ‘it will probably take many months’ but somehow my words evaporate.

I can say ‘it needs to be broken down into small increments – tiny baby steps’.

I can say ‘follow steps 1, 2, 3 and so on. Don’t attempt step 4 until step 3 is solid. If Step 4 is a disaster, take it back to step two for a couple of days…..and so on.

But somehow, after a couple of weeks of carefully following instructions and perhaps dramatic improvement, they then may think what the hell, and jump from step two to step ten. Now everything has gone pear-shaped.

THINGS CAN ACTUALLY GET WORSE

There is the natural learning curve where things go downhill before they get better – the extinction burst. Behaviours that used to bring results no longer do, so frustration and perhaps anger set in. This can happen both for us and for our dogs.

Another fact to face is that when work that starts off in the right direction is then abandoned or interrupted, things can actually go DOWNhill – even becoming worse than before they started.

Imagine if that you were in constant fear, of attack for instance. Then things start to look safer to you and you dare relax a little. Then, suddenly you discover it was all a con – a sense of false security. You won’t be so easily ‘fooled’ the next time. You will be on extra guard in future. It will take more to convince you another time.

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BOY AFRAID OF THE DARK

A friend’s adolescent son was terrified of the dark. His ‘course’ under the advice of a child psychiatrist was for nine months, with daily assignments for the family to work on. Nobody questioned the length of time. I don’t know exactly what the assignments were, but nobody thought it was unreasonable for it to take that long and for everyone in the family to take part and to support him.

Of course, if it ‘doesn’t work’ quickly with a child, we can’t then take him to a shelter for re-homing.

SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION

Systematic desensitisation takes a long time, and as it says – is systematic.

If we want success, we simply have to put in the time and effort.

DESIRE TO ACHIEVE A GOAL

Another question is – just how much do we actually want the end goal? How much are we prepared to sacrifice and how much effort are we prepared to make?

None of it is something we can pay a trainer or anybody else to do for us. Rich people’s dogs are no less fearful than the dogs of poor people, are they?

We have to do it ourselves.

Whatever our work commitments or other constraints, anything is possible if we want it badly enough.

THAT THRESHOLD

Dealing with anxiety and fear is about identifying constantly shifting thresholds. One day the dog may be okay within ten feet of a particular dog and the next will start to react at fifty feet.

Ignoring things that cause fear altogether will get us nowhere, but nor will pushing over threshold – flooding.

That line, where the dog is aware but still able to cope – to sniff, eat or play – is the threshold.

There are so many variables dependent upon the dog’s own particular combination of anxieties, location, objects of fear and so on.

A SIMPLE EXAMPLE OF WORKING AT THRESHOLD

An easy example, because it doesn’t move about, is taking a dog that is spooked by noisy young children and walking towards a distant school playground while the children are running about and making a noise, watching the dog carefully. His body language will show the moment he starts to become anxious. This is the distance to STOP and to work on making good associations with children.

Gradually, bit by bit, day by day, week by week, the threshold will get nearer to the playground. This also will be variable upon how many times you do it, on the ‘handlers’ demeanor, just how reactive to other external stimuli the dog is, how calm or stressed he is before setting out and so on.

SOMETHING SOMETIMES HAS TO GIVE

Some dogs, for instance, find everything outside the house terrifying. Then it is a case of desensitizing a dog to the world just outside the front door, or even just inside with the door open.

Now this is a tricky one. How can someone go no further than the front doorstep whilst exercising their dog properly?

Something has to give.

Have they a garden for ball and chase games? Have they a quiet area they can get to by car? Again, there has to be a way if you want it badly enough.

You can’t successfully systematic desensitize just outside the front door whilst later walking the dog down a noisy street full of the very things that scare him.

Which is the lesser of two evils? Lack of exercise or exceeding his threshold?

Lack of exercise can be addressed to some extent if one is creative, whilst exceeding threshold will throw all previous desinsitizing work out of the window.

QUICK FIXES

Punishment or gadgets may look like a quick solutions – they sure do on TV – but they can cause far worse problems further down the line, with shut-down or erupting elsewhere, very likely by way of increased aggression.

I have been to countless dogs where new owners are trying to make good the sometimes unintentional cruelty of past owners.

I went to a Whippet who in his previous life had been punished with a shock collar (which beeps a warning first). In his new home, every time that he heard a beep of any sort he would run around the house screaming, trying to escape from he didn’t know what.

Would anyone imagine giving an electric shock to that friend of mine’s child for screaming when the lights were turned out (punishment), or forcing him to be in total darkness for a while (flooding)?

MODERN BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE

Despite modern behavioural science proving that the use of punishment and aversives is the least efficient way to correct behaviour, many people would not question doing to their fearful dog something they wouldn’t dream of doing to a child.

This is especially the case if the fear is manifesting itself in embarrassing aggressive and antisocial responses like barking, lunging, growling or even biting, and people are watching for them to ‘control their dog’.

The likes of Cesar Millan still unfortunately promote the out-of-date notion that the use of force solves problems quickly and permanently (good TV) when the opposite is actually true.

SO IT’S GOOD NEWS ACTUALLY

What all this means is that, given the right approach, all issues have the potential to be dramatically improved, and many can be totally resolved.

Keeping the ultimate goal held constantly in mind will keep us motivated; holding that image of the life we will achieve for our dogs, in time, should help us through the inevitable tough times.