Behavior

Socializing Your Puppy

Socializing your puppy is a critical part of raising a well adjusted dog. Through socialization, puppies can learn to fit into society, learn to live with humans and also with other dogs. This leads to a calm, adaptable dog who isn’t fazed by what they encounter in day to day life.

If dogs are not correctly socialized, they may develop inappropriate behaviors when exposed to new situations or new dogs and people. This can include being overly aggressive or fearful in unfamiliar circumstances.

Socializing starts when a puppy is still with its mother and with the breeder. A puppy first learns canine body language and pack structure from around three to four weeks of age, while playing and interacting with its litter mates. It is important that a breeder handles her puppies and plays with them regularly, to give them positive early experiences with people.

The ideal time to bring your new puppy home is when he is eight weeks old. The period from eight to twelve weeks of age is very important for socialization, as your pup is very open to learning and enjoying new experiences. It is vital to take advantage of this stage of your puppy’s social development.

It’s a good idea to invite friends and families to your house to visit, bringing with them their well behaved dog. You can also introduce your puppy to calm, well-mannered children.

Puppy preschool is also very important for your young dog. It allows puppies to meet and interact with other dogs of a similar age and level of development, as well as learning some basic obedience commands. This improves the communication skills of your puppy, as well as enhances the bond between dog and owner. It also allows your dog to sniff and explore in a safe and supportive environment.

Other options for socializing your dog can include going to dog friendly places such as off-leash parks and beaches. It is vital to make sure that your puppy is up to date on its vaccinations, as there may be an increased risk of disease in these places. Also, you need to remember that the other dogs which are there may not necessarily be under complete control. There may even be under-socialized dogs who may frighten your puppy and set it back in its learning. It may even be better to keep your puppy away from these areas until he is more mature and better able to cope.

It takes a lot of work and effort to socialize a puppy well, but it is an investment in his future, and will help him to fit into his world. Doing a good job will lead to a well adjusted and happy companion who can take anything in his stride.

How to Successfully Mate Dogs

Mating dogs takes patience and good timing, but can be successful if you plan carefully. Here are the things to consider to make the process go as smoothly as possible.

It is a good idea to introduce the dogs you plan to mate before the female comes into heat. This gives you the opportunity to see how they get along – whether they act aggressively toward each other, or whether they are quite friendly. A few days together should determine whether they are compatible enough to consider breeding them.

If so, when your girl comes into heat, you can safely move on to the next stage. A female dog (bitch) usually comes into heat twice a year, starting with proestrus, which generally lasts between seven and ten days. When she does, you will notice a small amount of bloody discharge from her vulva, and it will swell and become more pliable. The first heat usually takes place between six and twelve months of age, but it’s not a good idea to breed your female on this first heat. She’s still young, and would benefit from a bit more physical maturity before becoming a mom.

The most fertile time to breed dogs is between ten and fourteen days after the female starts bleeding. If the dogs have not been introduced, you should allow supervised periods of interaction every forty-eight hours until the bitch will not allow the male dog (stud) to mate any more. That way, there are no risks to either dog from personality clashes.

Dogs that haven’t been bred before may not know what they should do, and may require the assistance of an experienced breeder to help them mate successfully.

During mating, the two dogs will “tie” – they will be locked together at the genitals for 20-45 minutes. This is nature’s way of improving the odds for a successful mating. However, even if the dogs don’t tie, pregnancy is still possible.

If you’re new to breeding dogs, this tie might concern you. It is a normal part of dog mating, and is nothing to worry about. It’s very important that you don’t try and separate the two dogs before they are ready. This can lead to damage to the genitals of both male and female dogs.

Dogs that are new to breeding may also be distressed at their inability to separate, and you may need to reassure them, and calm them down. Having said that, in many cases dogs just get down to business and mate successfully without any human intervention.

Sometimes dogs just don’t get pregnant, in spite of your best efforts. If you still want to breed your dog, there may be a veterinarian who specializes in reproductive medicine in your area. He can help identify why your dog isn’t conceiving, and help you work around it.
These days, there are many reproductive technologies available to dogs, including artificial insemination. They are expensive, but can often result in pregnancy when nature doesn’t take its course.

Canine Intelligence

Canine Intelligence

There are many theories about the intelligence of the dog. The majority of dog owners know that their dogs are very bright: these owners can tell any number of stories that demonstrate the animal’s high intelligence.

In addition to the clever ways in which dogs outwit their owners, canine intelligence shines when dogs are asked to perform the tasks for which they were bred. For instance, the Border Collie is exceptionally quick to learn how to herd a flock of sheep, and only risk appearing stupid when you ask him to scent out a bird.

The bird dog who finds the bird naturally, without training, is labeled extremely intelligent. Yet this same genius will look dumb, and probably get trampled, if allowed to mingle with a flock of sheep.

Motivation is a big part of intelligence. One dog owner scheduled an appointment to have her dog evaluated after a discussion with her friend. The dog owner and her friend were convinced that the dog had a learning disability because the friend’s Labrador Retriever could open doors with his nose and paw, whereas the other dog would just sit in front of the door and wait for someone to open it.

The idea never occurred to this person that the dog didn’t want to go through the door all that badly or that he was smart enough to wait for her to open it instead of expending energy.

Another client who owned and trained Border Collies labeled one of her dogs retarded because the dog did not appear to grasp the concept of retrieving as quickly as her other Border Collies. Once the training method was adapted for the dog’s particular temperament, which was different from that of the typical Border Collie, she learned and enjoyed retrieving.

This same dog would display aggression toward other dogs by growling and curling her lips to show her teeth. The trainers thought the owner was quite effective and consistent in correcting the lip curl until one of the trainers observed that when this “retarded” dog approached another canine, she quietly curled only one side of her mouth, the side the owner could not see.

Frequently, people believe that females are smarter than males. However, there is no evidence to date to support the theory of a significant difference in intelligence between the sexes. Those who claim there is a difference may be tainted by their prejudice toward or preference for one sex or the other. Intelligence is more apt to vary individually rather than by the sex of the animal.

Dog Runs Away

When Your Dog Runs Away

A dog that runs away from home has somewhere to go. It is quite amazing that in most cases the owners cannot tell where their dog goes. The usual answer is, “Just out in the neighborhood to see the other dogs or something.” These dogs have a definite objective in mind and usually cover the same route during each journey. Why is that route or objectives more appealing than his home environment?

It must be that his environment is lacking in some respect. The root of the problem usually lies with the owner. The dog is often either over- dependent or is not in a subordinate position in relation to the owner. All corrective procedures must start with the relationship between dog and owner, except when minor external environmental adjustments are needed, such as gaining a misguided neighbor’s cooperation to stop feeding the dog when he comes around.

The relationship between dog and his owner must always be considered first when solving a runaway problem. When the dog is over-dependent or too independent, he must be taught, without physical manipulation, to Come, Sit and Stay on command. The owner must make a general environmental adjustment and avoid all fondling or other stimulus-response situations that subordinate the owner to the dog’s whims.

For example, a dog that nudges for petting, food tidbits, or to be let outside must be given some simple command, and then told “Good dog” and petted briefly when he obeys. The pet should then be ignored while the owner continues whatever activity was interrupted by the dog’s solicitation. This helps reorient the dog to his owner’s control and reverses the leadership position. Combined with daily training sessions and other corrective measures, this procedure produces results within one and three weeks.

Owners who allow their dogs to roam free in the neighborhood are contributing to the runaway problem, and should be made aware of the dangers related to this practice. The pet’s safety and health are at risk because of poisoning, road accidents, fighting, and diseases contracted from other animals.

The animal may become lost, picked up by animal control officers or stolen. What is seldom considered also is that the owner may be subjected to civil suit or criminal charges if the wandering pet causes destruction of property, including fights with other dogs, or human injury.

If an owner cannot appreciate the folly of allowing a pet to roam, any attempt at teaching the animal to behave at home is wasted. When the dog has been taught to accept the confines of his own property, the problem of running away is solved, and such associated problems as dashing in or out of doors, jumping fences, and other escape behavior can be dealt with effectively.

Jealous Dog

The Danger Of A Jealous Dog

In the case of jealousy the mind of a dog works in almost an identical way to that of a human being. It wants the full attention and love of its owner whether the jealousy occurs only when another dog enters the home or when the beloved owner talks to another dog outside, or whether the jealousy is aimed at another person in the home. The same driving force is at the root of the evil in all of these cases: the intention of the dog to reign alone and supreme in his household.

The guarding instinct so prevalent in some breeds has its roots in the same sort of thing; a desire to let no one enter the precincts of his master or mistress. Jealousy nearly always takes the form of a show of viciousness toward the dog or person the animal is jealous of.

Quite often it is a mild form of jealousy and only involves its bone, toy or the piece of rug that it is fond of. It jealously guards them and woe betide anyone trying to take that object away.

This jealousy is particularly pronounced when puppies are reared and kept in the household. As the puppy reaches the age of about three months the mother will begin to feel jealous as her maternal instinct fades and the time draws near for another heat. In spite of the attempt to treat both dogs equally and always to talk to both at the same time, feeding both at the same time and exercising both together, the jealousy continues to grow.

Correction works at first and then bit by bit grows less effective. In the dog’s mind a usurper has entered the scene, and, as in the wild state, it is trying to turn the young out of the nest. As she fails to get rid of the now grown up pup, her temper gets worse and worse in the effort to dislodge the now adult and unwanted member of the household. She becomes more and more thwarted as her owner attempts to make the newcomer as welcome as the old established member.

Often she will turn on her owner when he is trying to make peace, as if she were trying to impress an ignorant person that it was time the youngster went out into the world to fend for itself.

If you are a really good handler your training methods will be good enough to make both dogs obey the command “Leave” when they are in your presence. The danger lies in the times you leave the dogs together on their own, for the slightest boldness on the part of the youngster in approaching the older one’s basket or toy, etc., will infuriate the older dog, and she will set on the youngster tooth and nail.

Why Does my Dog do That?

There are some things a dog cannot help doing. If he is going to bite someone, he needs to look at his target, and he needs to bare his teeth.

If he is going to defend himself, he has to tuck his ears back and his tail down and turn aside. In the dark unrecorded mists of wolf history, wolves that had the wits to notice these things had an edge over their more obtuse pack-mates.

Being on the lookout for the fangs or the intent stare of a more powerful member of the pack was a way to avoid unnecessary physical injury from a wolf one had no intention of challenging anyway; being on the lookout for the cringe or the averted gaze of a weaker member was a way to avoid the unnecessary trouble and danger of fighting with a wolf who was prepared to give way without a fight anyway.

Once wolves were on the lookout for unintentionally dropped hints, it became possible to start dropping them intentionally. A wolf that can accurately read a fang or a stare as a threat can avoid a fight and a wolf that can show a fang or fix a stare can then express a threat without a fight.

This evolutionary feedback loop between receivers and senders is what was almost surely behind the development and rituals of the visual signals that wolves, and now dogs, use.

Most of these signals are directly related to the very serious wolf business of dominance and submission within the pack. Dominance and threatening signals include baring the teeth, pricking the ears, and staring.

Submissive and nonthreatening signals include laying the ears back, averting the gaze, approaching obliquely rather than head on, tucking the tail tightly under the belly, and (the ultimate gesture of passive surrender to superior force) rolling over and lying belly-up.

Over sufficiently long time, these signals become ritualized. Every time a wolf lifts his lips and shows his fangs, he is not literally about to bite; rather this is a symbol of threatening intentions, and, at this point in the evolutionary history of the wolf, read as such by other wolves.

Wolves are predisposed to read it that way because of the indisputable fact of evolutionary history that fangs really do bite. Wolves became in turn disposed to use a show of fangs as a threatening gesture precisely because wolves were predisposed to react to fangs as a threat.

Just about all vertebrate animals long ago acquired an innate appreciation of another biological fact that is frequently exploited in visual communication: big things out there are more dangerous than small things. Thus threatening or dominance-asserting wolves try to literally look big.

They stand erect, sometimes astride the animal they are attempting to impress, they raise their tails, they stiffen their hackles.

Submissive or fearful dogs try to look small by crouching low, sometimes even dragging themselves along the ground. It is important to realize that this does not mean that the big- looking wolf is conscious of how big he looks, nor that any other wolf is fooled into thinking he really is big.

Again, these are rituals. But they ultimately derive from the fact that wolves have been wired to react in ways that make these rituals effective.

Dog Hates Men or Women?

Dealing With Dogs That Hate Either Men or Women

Hating men or women is the most peculiar form of instability in dogs. They seem to be sweet and happy with one sex and nervous or vicious with the other. What form of neurosis causes this we don’t know. What can an owner do to make a dog with this nature livable?

First, examine the owner’s mind. Has he or she ever had a grudge against the opposite sex? Did an overpowering schoolteacher make the young boy’s or girl’s life a misery? Does he or she boast that they only get along with men or women?

Alsatians are peculiar in this way and will hate men or women instinctively if thought transference comes from an owner with a similar dislike. Many women like big guard dogs, and the big guard dog thrives in this state of affairs and easily develops a dislike of the sex the owner wishes to dominate.

Corgis do the same. This has been particularly noted in these two breeds, partly because they are highly intelligent breeds and telepathy is very marked and partly because the shepherding instinct is uppermost and they have a natural suspicion of strangers. Correct them firmly when young and one gets no further trouble. Accept their suspicious natures, and you will have dogs that hate men or women, usually women.

Now how do we live with such dogs? The world being what it is, we can’t mix with only one sex. Even husbands or wives are a necessity, and it is often against the one or the other that the particular hate is centered. I think the solution is either to send the dog to be boarded or trained by a person of the sex it hates, or else get friends of that sex to feed it or take it for walks.

If it shows any signs of being vicious, muzzle it and send it out for a long walk with the person it dislikes. Greet joyously that person when he or she returns and praise the dog. Make the person pat the dog and praise it before saying goodbye and, if possible, give it its food.

Of course there aren’t many good friends who will do this, but I think that if an advertisement was put in the local newspaper, some dog lover would respond. It might even help to employ a “dog sitter” of the hated sex when you go out so that when you are out, the only comfort the dog would get would be from the sex it dislikes.

Only by being made to tolerate people will it respond. Obviously, if a female owner has been jilted and hates all men, her dog will naturally pick up this feeling when the owner is talking to a man. In many cases, all these faults in dogs can be traced to some minor mental disturbance of the owner, although the owner may be unaware of it.

Dog Getting Old

Changes In Your Aging Dog

Aging dogs are less adaptable to, and more adversely affected by, stress and change. Yet so many dog owners do not take this into consideration when making plans involving their older dog. For example, for years you and your dog enjoyed those races through the woods or around the playground. You may still enjoy it now, but your older dog possibly finds it difficult to keep up with you.

What used to be lots of fun may now make him a bit grouchy and force him to breathe abnormally hard. You have just redecorated the house, and what used to be your dog’s favorite spot to relax in, is now occupied by a piece of furniture. Your dog becomes restless, temperamental, may even urinate or defecate in the house or right on that piece of furniture, and you cannot understand why.

It is not necessary to baby or spoil a dog just because he is aging. In fact, this should be carefully avoided, as it is a trap into which many dog owners readily fall. You should encourage your older dog to take part in family life as always, but you must be alert to avoid undue stresses or unnecessary changes.

That piece of new furniture does not have to stand on the exact spot where he has snoozed for more than ten years. In his mind that spot is his personal territory. Even in his youth such a loss would have been upsetting, but he would soon find another acceptable location. The older dog finds it more difficult to adjust and can develop undesirable behavior as a result.

A dog is both a dependent and an independent animal in his relationship with you. In youth he will follow your every footstep even to the point of getting underfoot. His greatest joy is to be with you everywhere, and there are few times he wants to be by himself.

As he gets older, however, this will often change, and he may seek solitude much more of the time. He loves you still but, depending on his physical state, he just prefers to be by himself. He will play with you and be your companion, but do not expect necessarily the same kind of response you got from him when he was a lot younger.

Take care not to “kill him with kindness” by offering what you consider tasty morsels of human food such as cake, ice cream, bacon, or liver pate. Such sudden changes in diet can produce serious stomach and intestinal upset, resulting in profuse vomiting or diarrhea. It may also encourage your dog to refuse his normal food and hold out for the “goodies” which in time can cause severe nutritional imbalance.

Dog’s Sense Of Smell

The canine nose has something like twenty times as many primary receptor cells as the human nose. How all of this works to detect odors is one of the great scientific wonders of the world.

Studies in a number of species have found that different regions of the mucous lining within the nose have different chemical properties, more readily absorbing chemicals of one particular molecular shape or another, or preferentially absorbing in one region chemicals that are more water soluble and in another chemicals that are more fat soluble.

The ability of the nose to make precise chemical distinctions is truly extraordinary. Some pairs of chemicals that exist in nature are identical in every way – they are made up of exactly the same elements, joined together in exactly the same three-dimensional sequence – except that one is the three-dimensional mirror image of the other.

Yet such “stereoisomers” frequently have a dramatically different odor, indicating that the nose can sort them out by their complex shape alone. The molecule carvone, for example, has the odor of caraway in one of its stereoisomers, the odor of oil of spearmint in its mirror-image form.

Measurements of the acuity of the dog’s nose suggest that the dog is many times more sensitive than man to the presence of minute quantities of odor molecules wafting in the air, but the data are all over the map.

This is probably in part because the threshold for detecting different chemicals no doubt varies dramatically according to the particular chemical involved. Some comparative studies have found that dogs can detect certain organic chemicals at concentrations a hundred times less than people are able to; for other compounds the dog’s edge may be a factor of a million or more.

In police and security work, dogs can detect the odor from natural gas leaks, concealed narcotics, explosives, and currency, all at levels well below the threshold at which humans are aware of the odor.

In controlled studies dogs could detect human scent on a glass slide that had been lightly fingerprinted and then left outdoors for as much as two weeks, or indoors for as much as a month. They could pick which of six identical steel tubes had been held in the hands of a person for no more than five seconds. They could distinguish between T-shirts worn by two identical twins who ate different foods, or by two nonidentical twins who lived in exactly the same environment and ate exactly the same foods.

More than such a remarkable sensitivity to trace odors, it is the ability to pick out particular odors of interest from a welter of competing smells and to match and distinguish them that is the dog’s most impressive olfactory feat. This ability is surely a reflection of the dog’s superior olfactory computing powers, for it requires not just smelling but analyzing.

Dogs have no innate interest in the smell of people, narcotics, or hundred-dollar bills; but if trained repeatedly to focus on certain categories of smells, they can perform mind-boggling feats of cross-matching.

Dog’s Sense Of Smell

Adpoted Dogs

Most shelter dogs come with some ready-made behavior problems, and those that don’t will usually develop a few out of sheer ingenuity. And the stress of adapting to a new living situation and a new family is especially likely to bring out new bad habits or exacerbate old ones.

Don’t panic, and don’t take it personally; your dog isn’t doing anything unusual, incurable, or ungrateful. She’s not being “bad” out of spite, so don’t correct her in spite; your goal is to stop her improper behavior calmly and authoritatively, not to get revenge. Remember, she may never have had to abide by anyone’s rules before, but that doesn’t mean she can’t learn yours.

We’ve listed a few of the more common doggie problems here, but a few overriding principles apply to all of them:

1. Don’t ask for trouble. If you know your dog likes to chew your socks or dig in your plants, don’t leave your socks and plants where she can reach them just yet. If she only causes trouble when she’s left unsupervised, don’t leave her unsupervised until she’s trustworthy. In other words, give her as few chances as possible to be bad during these early weeks. But don’t go overboard and lock her in her crate all day either; that’s not fair to her, and besides, she’ll never learn if she’s never allowed to make mistakes.

2. Be consistent at all costs. Set rules, and stick to them. Correct your dog every time she errs, not just when it’s convenient (and not just when you happen to catch her – which means you need to oversee her activities constantly at the beginning). And hold a family meeting to make sure that everyone in the household is correcting the same problems in the same way; don’t let anybody try to play the “good cop” by being soft on your pup’s uncouth behaviors. That won’t earn anybody points; it will just result in a very confused and unmannered dog.

3. Catch her in the act, or don’t catch her at all. Just as in housebreaking, you have to correct a mistake as it’s happening, not a minute or an hour later. You can scold your dog if you find her chewing up your favorite book, but not if you find your favorite book chewed up on the floor and no dog in sight. If you wait too long to make the correction, she’ll have many happy memories of eating your book and no idea that your anger is in any way related to it. Guess what that means? Yep. Supervision.

Entrapment isn’t illegal in dog training. Suppose you’re having trouble catching your dog in the act of stealing food from your counters. Why not set her up? Leave some irresistible tidbit where she can see it, and be ready to correct her with your shake can or spray bottle and your sharp voice when she goes for the goods. Cheating? Maybe – but it works. Don’t forget to tell her when she’s good. You don’t want to be a naysayer all the time; if you’ve told her she’s naughty for pouncing on your house plants, then tell her she’s terrific when you see her resisting the urge to do so.

Adpoted Dogs