Category: All Things Dog Blog

Crate Complications

Michael Baugh CPDT-KA, CDBC
To: Ask the dog trainer column
My little heinz 57 rescue dog is almost perfect. She is quite well crate trained but has 2 odd quirks. When I got her a new crate that has a solid lid we started having trouble with it. She does not have visibility through her roof; now it is solid. Everything is higher than her, when her crate is on the floor. She will whine until I take her out. If I put her in her old crate she is fine. How can I get her used to her new crate? I like this one better for our travels since it collapses easier. I thought she would like the side door that opens like a garage door but instead she fusses about the roof. She has always liked to be within sight of me, and this roof is an obstacle. 

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Dear reader:
Change is always tricky business isn’t it?  My Dad, for instance, loves his Grand Marquis.  He’s had several over the past 20 some odd years.  He won’t look at anything else.  I, on the other hand, love change.  Let’s mix things up a bit to keep life interesting; that’s my motto.  Regardless of where you fall on this spectrum (or more importantly, where you dog falls) change can be a little stressful.   Fortunately, you can help smooth out the transition.
First, make the new crate awesome for your dog.  Assuming Skittles is willing to go in the crate, leave her in there for short visits of 10-15 minutes.  (If she won’t even go in, watch this video to learn more about teaching her the ins and outs of crate training). Include a delicious stuffed Kong Toy to make the deal even better.  I like to stuff Kong Toys with a full doggie meal, not just some peanut butter and a few treats.  Let her out before the Kong is finished and when she’s not whining.

Helping a Dog Meet Baby

Michael Baugh, CPDT-KA, CDBC

Dear Michael:

My daughter has a 4 month old baby. Since his birth, my tiny dog has been nothing short of a nightmare around him. He wants to get close and lick him and play with him. The more we restrain him the more he cries, pants, and barks. We dare not let him anywhere near the baby unless we have him by the collar. He doesn’t bite, just licks and prods. He is fine with toddlers we meet in the street. How can we have the baby in the house without our little dog causing such exasperation?
Recently things have improved very slightly.  Whilst he is still uber uber interested in him, he now lies beside him, suffering all the involuntary arm and leg prods and jerks from the baby and rests his head on baby’s legs (when he is still, which isn’t often!).  He seems to have been wanting to be very close to him all this time and of course we were prohibiting that.  He is, it goes without saying, always supervised.
Cathy
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Dear Cathy:
Babies are unusual creatures to many of our dogs (and to many of us for that matter).  They move differently than adult humans.  They sound different and smell different.  From our dogs’ point of view they are new and unusual, weird even.  It sounds like your daughter’s dog is a bit nervous about the baby, or at the very least excited.  We need to help him out.

You have two goals here.  First, teach the dog that babies are cool.  Try very hard to never yell at or hurt the dog when the baby is around.  That’s only going to make things worse.  In fact, only delightful things should happen when the baby is on the scene.  If the baby does something weird, like scream and wiggle like a fish, you might even slip the dog a special treat.  That’s called respondent conditioning (classical conditioning).  Baby = good things for doggie.  The idea here is to make sure the dog doesn’t start disliking the child because being around him is so awful.

 

Safe Departures for Separation Anxiety

(from All Things Dog Blog – Ask the Dog Trainer)

Dear Trainer:

We adopted our 10 year old Bichon 3 years ago, when his elderly owner became disabled. He settled in with us just fine immediately and became very attached to me. Shortly thereafter, he began whining incessantly upon my leaving, slobbering and licking the point of exit. We have returned to pools of slobber and scratched paint. He has even climbed a doggie gate in an effort to get to me.

Alix has a housemate, Toby, with whom he gets along well. However, only human companionship is soothing to his anxiety. Please help us teach Alix to calm himself so we may return without a distressed, slobber-sodden little dog.

Regards, Cathy

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Dear Cathy:

Dogs, like people, are social animals. We like to be around each other. Some folks would go so far as to say, we have a built-in need for social interaction. There’s something in the core of our beings that says relationships are important for our survival.

It’s not terribly common, but some dogs have pretty upsetting behavior when left alone. In some cases, it’s triggered by the departure of a specific individual….

(Read more)