Category: Health

SpiritDog Training.

I have relaxed my rule about posts from commercial concerns.

For the first time since July, 2009, I am presenting a guest post from a commercial business. This is how it evolved.

On the 11th February this year I received the following email:

Hi Paul,

Anne here from SpiritDog Training!

I came across Learning From Dogs while researching supplementary dog training materials and I am impressed with the articles you shared on your website.

I noticed that you are accepting guest contributions on your blog and I was wondering if our team can contribute an article for your site?

Our founder, Steffi Trott, has been featured in major publications such as Reader’s Digest, FitBark, Romper and Rachel Ray In Season so you can be assured that the content will be of high-quality.

I’ve prepared some topics here which I’m sure your readers would enjoy:

1. How Much Exercise is Too Much?
2. How To Teach Your Dog To Bark On Command
3. Which Doodle is The Best Fit For Busy Families?
4. Dog parks: Yay or nay?
5. Fetch or keep-away? How to teach your dog to return his ball every time
6. Nail trim horror? How to get your dog used to doggy pedicures

Please let me know if you are interested in any of these.

Looking forward to hearing from you, Paul!

Kind Regards,
Anne

I was minded to accept the invitation. I have received no income and I am not endorsing SpiritDog Training. But I thought that on balance this post should be allowed.

First, some words from Steffi Trott:

I am Steffi Trott, the dog trainer at SpiritDog Training (and hopeless dog enthusiast!). I am an energizer bunny who loves everything related to animals, the outdoors and – of course – training. I have four dogs of my own that I – of course – train every day and that participate in competitive agility as well.

I am always committed to finding the right approach for every dog and owner team – taking into consideration the individual disposition and natural strengths and weaknesses of everyone involved.

I have been teaching dog training to thousands of clients both locally and through online lessons since 2013.

I train with clients all over New Mexico and travel to teach seminars – which has taken me as far as Germany!

I studied dog training with European trainers such as multi-worldchampions in agility and European Open winners Silvia Trkman, Polona Bonac, Martina Klimesova and Anna Hinze as well as US trainers like Kim Terrill and Daisy Peel.

I have a lot of personal interest in dog cognition and behavior and keep up to date with all scientific publications on the matter.

Dog training is a very new field and just over the past couple decades trainers have gained an understanding of how much we can influence a dog’s behavior with positive, game-based methods. I firmly believe that every dog trainer needs to strive to perfect their own training skills and never stop learning and exploring.

Let me join you in finding the best possible approach for your dog!

So to the guest post submitted by Anne Handshack, the marketing associate, on behalf of Steffi.

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Adult dogs and playing – rethinking our expectations

By: Steffi Trott

In my work as a dog trainer, I frequently encounter the expectation that adult dogs should enjoy “playing” with other dogs. In many cases this is a misguided idea. It can cause owners to push their dogs into situations in which they are uncomfortable and may even show reactivity. Today we will look at how adult dogs interact and whether or not “playing” is a common behavior for them.

Puppies love to play

Everyone knows that puppies love to play. You can pretty much put any two puppies of any two breeds into the same space and they will run and wrestle with each other within minutes. This intense desire to play starts as soon as puppies can move around – as early as 3 or 4 weeks of age. Puppies retain the play drive until they are somewhere between 6 and 24 months old. In general, working or guard dog breeds stop to play with any other dog earlier, while companion dogs and many Doodles continue playing for longer. Some dogs completely stop any play – others get more selective in when, with whom and how they play.

Interaction yes, play no

Most friendly and socialized dogs do not dislike other dogs once they stop actively playing. They simply don’t want to race, tug and wrestle anymore. A well-mannered and social adult dog will still greet other dogs, sniff them and wander around and mark bushes with them. If your dog e.g. was friends with the neighbor’s puppy, chances are that they will both stop the wild playing at roughly the same time and switch to more laid-back interactions.

Once a dog reaches this specific point in his life at which he stops to constantly seek out play with other dogs, we need to rethink the social situations which we put him in. Have you been taking your dog to a busy park regularly? Chances are there were many other, young and playful dogs there. If they bother your dog with incessant playbowing, barking and running up to him, he may not enjoy these outings anymore and you may want to change your walking routines.

Ideally you should find canine friends for your adult dog that have the same energy level and are looking for the same interactions.

Time to quit daycare?

My clients frequently come to me with the same concern: Their puppy used to do great at his doggy daycare, but around the first birthday he stops interacting and playing as much with the dogs there. Their report cards say that the dog spent time sniffing around by himself or perhaps even got a bit snarly with the other dogs. Of course, owners are worried – is their dog regressing in his social skills?

Not at all. Again – daycares are mainly filled with young, boisterous, energetic puppies who want to play all day long. As dogs grow up, most of them reach a point at which that just does not sound like fun anymore. This is completely normal and not a reason for concern. Again, it is important to take your dog’s cues into consideration when deciding on activities for him. For a lot of adult dogs, daycare just is not so fun anymore. They might need to quit going there as the energy level is too high and they do not participate in wild play.

How much play is appropriate?

Even if you have an adult dog who does still occasionally play with other dogs, you need to monitor his play behavior. Dogs should ideally always be supervised when playing together so that owners can intervene if issues arise.

It might be that your adult dog enjoys a bit of play, but eventually wants to just sniff by himself and be left alone. If the other dog now keeps on pestering your dog the situation might escalate. You need to always be the dog’s advocate. If your dog doesn’t want to keep playing, help him to make that happen!

Play drives can vary

While puppies always want to play with any other dog; the same adult dog might have varying interests in playing based on the day. It could depend on:

What he has done so far on a given day – if he has only relaxed he may be more open to playing than if he has gone on a long hike or trained a bunch
If “something better” is around – many adult dogs would prefer e.g. playing frisbee over playing with another dog, but if the owner puts away any toys the dog may choose to then play
The environment of their interaction – in a new place many adult dogs want to first sniff and explore, whereas they may be more open to playing in a known and somewhat “boring” place such as their own yard
Their play partner – adult dogs generally prefer to play with dogs they know rather than “doggy strangers”

The Bottom Line

Puppies love to play with any other dogs. Once they reach adulthood, it can be difficult for owners to recognize the signs that they are not so interested in this anymore. The change can be sudden or gradual.

It is important to never push adult dogs into playful interactions. Your dog will decide himself if or when he wants to play, and you should be mindful of his preferences. Perhaps he only wants to play with a certain other dog or only for a short time. Or maybe he does not want to play at all!

You need to always be his advocate and make sure that he can be comfortable in interactions with other dog.

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If any of the readers of today’s article have views as to whether or not this guest post should have been allowed then please I would love to hear from you.

Dogs can be so smart!

But the day is tinged with sadness!

Today, Tuesday, we went across to The Red Barn to get some hay, a regular occurrence.

Tyler, the manager, was not there but his brother, Zach, was. But just as important were Jean & I seeing Tully again. He is such a sweet dog and so full of life. A Labrador cross. But we learnt that recently he had been hit by a car, suffered severe injuries, and had to be put down. Even Duke, another dog of the same breed, seemed sad.

Apparently Tully was hit by a car and the driver didn’t even stop!

So on to today’s post.

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Dog Pretends To Go Outside To Go Potty So She Can Get A Treat

Such an adorable little liar 💛

By Caitlin Jill Anders
Published on the 8th February, 2021.

Even though Dakota is almost 12 years old, she still acts like a puppy most of the time. She loves meeting new people and taking naps, and is happy pretty much all the time. Her absolute favorite thing in the whole world, though, is food.

“She acts like she is innocent but … is an evil genius inside when it comes to food of any kind,” Cheryl Dorchinsky, Dakota’s mom, told The Dodo.

When the family got a new dog door and wanted to teach Dakota how to use it, they of course turned to treats to help encourage her. She was scared of it at first, but once treats were involved, she quickly turned into a dog door pro and never looked back.

Once she knew how to use the dog door, though, she also quickly figured out how to use it to her advantage to trick her family into giving her extra treats.

Whenever Dakota goes outside and goes to the bathroom, she gets a treat, so one day, she came up with a genius plan. She decided to start going outside through the dog door, sitting right outside it for a little while, then coming back in as if she’d gone to the bathroom and asking for a treat.

What Dakota failed to consider is that the dog door is clear — so her mom can see her sitting right outside it, very blatantly not going to the bathroom.

“At first I believed her but then questioned how she came back in so fast,” Dorchinsky said. “I would watch and noticed that she was doing that. It’s almost like a child who thinks you can’t see them if they can’t see you. She always looks away. It’s funny!”

Even though Dorchinsky has totally caught on to the sneaky scheme, Dakota doesn’t care. She still does it every single day, because the potential treats are absolutely worth it.

“She seems very proud of her scam,” Dorchinsky said. “There is no shame in Dakota’s game.”

Despite knowing that Dakota isn’t actually going to the bathroom most of the time, Dorchinsky still gives her treats anyway. It’s hard to say no to that face.

“If I don’t react she will bark at me to let me know she went potty (fuzzy liar),” Dorchinsky said. “She is adorable and I totally give in. Maybe she deserves the treat for not going potty on the porch?”

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As I said, dogs are very smart!

Picture Parade Three Hundred and Seventy-Six

More fabulous photos from Nimbushopper.

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In a sense these are an extension of yesterday’s post about the wolves.

But so far as these dogs are concerned I shall never tire of downloading them and sharing them with you.

The Wapiti wolves

Stunning photographs.

I subscribe to Ugly Hedgehog, a forum about all things photographic.

It is a mine of information, people share incredible photographs, and much more.

On February 17th this year Photolady2014 published a set of photographs of wolves that were just gorgeous.

This is how she introduced the pictures:

So I am still on cloud 9 seeing wolfs rather close. They were about 150 feet away. Not the quality that the pros were getting who were there. I have seen their photos and well I still have a lot to learn. But, for someone who just started wildlife a couple of years ago, I will take these! If you do the download you will see they are not all bad. I have had to do some sharpening and noise reduction. The pros were all using the 600mm F4 with 2x extenders.
Me: Canon R5, 100-500 & 1.4 extender. All are at 700mm.

I asked if I could share them on Learning from Dogs and said Photolady2014 of South West Colorado said ‘Yes’.

Here they are:

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Photolady went on to report:

This is the Wapiti pack in Yellowstone.

We sat in below 0 weather for about 4 hours watching them and the coyotes who were patiently waiting their turn to eat!

Fabulous pictures and one can’t help thinking that some 23,000 years ago there started the long journey of domestication, and the bonding between humans and wolves brought about the dog.

It doesn’t get any better than that!

Dear Lulu!

She is now a wealthy dog!

From the BBC News of seven days ago:

Lulu the dog inherits $5m from deceased US owner

Lulu the border collie was left $5 million (£3.6 million) after her owner died last year.

Bill Dorris left the dog in the care of his friend, Martha Burton. The will states that Burton is to be reimbursed for Lulu’s reasonable monthly expenses.

The love for dogs shows no bounds at all.

Beautiful creatures!

Now here’s an idea!

Using the dog’s nose to sniff out positive Covid cases!

I follow Tony and I have been across to his blog before One Regular Guy Writing about Food, Exercise and Living Past 100.

But on the 15th February Tony came up with a brilliant idea; read it for yourself:

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Dogs’ highly evolved noses can rapidly detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus

For some 15,000 years, dogs have been our hunting partners, workmates, helpers and companions. Could they also be our next allies in the fight against COVID-19? As a dog owner with a small poodle who could sniff out a chicken bone in the middle of a football field I was not surprised to learn this.

According to UC Santa Barbara professor emeritus Tommy Dickey and his collaborator, BioScent researcher Heather Junqueira, they can. And with a review paper published in the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine they have added to a small but growing consensus that trained medical scent dogs can effectively be used for screening individuals who may be infected with the COVID-19 virus.

I would volunteer my 15-year-old poodle, Gabi, for this study.

This follows a comprehensive survey of research devoted to the use of trained scent dogs for detecting COVID. “The most striking result is that studies have already demonstrated that dogs can identify people who are COVID-19 positive,” Dickey said of their findings. “Not only that,” he added, “they can do it non-intrusively, more rapidly and with comparable or possibly better accuracy than our conventional detection tests.”

Not surprisingly, the magic lies in canine sense of smell, which gives dogs the ability to detect molecules in tiny concentrations — “one part in a quadrillion compared with one part in one billion for humans,” according to the paper. Add to that other optimizations for smell, such as a large nasal area and the structure of their noses, which allows inflow through the nostrils and outflow through nasal folds. Further, with 125-300 million olfactory cells and a third of their brains devoted to interpreting odors, dogs are well equipped with the ability to sniff out the volatile organic compounds that indicate the presence of COVID.

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I must gently disagree with Tony’s opening statement. Dogs evolved from the grey wolf something like 23,000 years ago.

But what a great article and will we see the authorities take him up on the idea? I certainly hope so.

German Shepherd

A wonderful video.

This was sent to me by Jules. Julie is the partner of my friend of too many years, Richard Maugham. Richard and I go back many, many years. Indeed we met on a flight in the Commodore PET Jet over 40 years ago. Prior to that Richard was working for Olivetti and me for IBM Office Products. We were then selling electric typewriters and the early forms of dedicated word-processing machines. As I said a long time ago!

This is what ‘Frosty Life’ has to say about the video:

My daughter has a German Shepherd puppy that is huge, but is only 7 months old. This German Shepherd has never experienced snow before. Watch as Rollo, the German Shepherd experiences snow for the first time and then he barks at the snow. This GSD has his hackles up as he growls and barks at the new fallen snow. It is amazing to watch her German Shepherd as he experiences snow for the first time and barks at it. He ate the snow and now he likes it.

Enjoy!

Picture Parade Three Hundred and Seventy-Five

It’s Valentine’s Day and yet more dogs!

Yes, they are from Nimbushopper and you can go across to his Flickr account here.

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And the last one for today is a non-doggy one but is still a beautiful photograph.

So on to next Sunday and, hopefully, more photographs.

You all take great care of yourselves.

Finally, a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Communicating dogs!

Not just for kids!

The Conversation blog recently had a question in the Curious Kids section:

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

But to be honest the answer is just as interesting for those a tad older than a kid!

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When dogs bark, are they using words to communicate?

By Clive Wynne
Professor of Psychology, Arizona State University
February 8th, 2021

When dogs bark, do they have words? – Sarah W., age 9, Clinton, New York

Does your dog bark a lot? Or is he one of those quiet pooches who barks only when things get really exciting? Most dogs bark at least a little.

Dog barks are not words. But although your dog will never tell you about his parents or the weather or the amazing bone he had yesterday, his barks still communicate important information.

Dog barks are much closer to the noises people make when they accidentally hit their thumb with a hammer – “Ow!” – or open a fantastic present – “Wow!” These sounds convey how someone feels, but not why they feel that way. When other people hear these kinds of sounds, they often come over to see what has happened: How did you hurt yourself? What is this wonderful gift you received?

All dogs, even the tiniest chihuahua, are descended from great grey wolves. Wolves almost never bark. They howl. Sometimes dogs howl too – but howling is rarer in dogs. Understanding why wolves howl and dogs bark helps explain what barking is for.

United in sound. Fotosearch via Getty Images

A howl can be a beautiful sound – almost like a kind of music. And, just as group singing brings people together, so too does group howling help a pack of wolves feel united.

Dog barking also brings groups together – but it’s not a beautiful sound. It is a much more urgent noise, just like the sounds you make when you are hurt or very pleased. Many smaller animals, like scrub jays, meerkats and California ground squirrels, make such noisy sounds. They do this when they feel frightened by something. In dogs, barking can bring a group together to defend against a danger that can’t be coped with alone.

Wolves don’t need to make sounds like this because they are big and fearsome and don’t often feel threatened. Dogs, on the other hand, are much smaller and weaker than their wolf ancestors – and often need to call the group together.

A call for assistance. Seregraff/iStock/Getty Images Plus

This is why dogs bark. They are calling their group to get help with something they are not confident they can handle on their own. This doesn’t mean a barking dog is always frightened. He may just be very excited. He badly needs the family to know that there is a stranger coming to the door, or another dog coming close to the house.

Your dog’s barks may not be words, but he probably barks a little differently depending on what kind of thing has got him excited. If you listen closely, you may find you can tell the difference between a bark directed at a package deliverer and one directed toward a friend at the door. The bark to a passing dog may be different than the bark at a passing car.

Your dog doesn’t understand much of what you say, but he listens hard to try to make sense of human language. If you return the compliment and listen hard to his sounds, you may find you can also understand him better, and the two of you will have a richer life together.

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This touches on something that I saw elsewhere; the business of dogs having emotions (which they really do!).

I will try and find the article and see if I have permission to republish it.

Until then, keep safe all of you!