Until one has loved an animal, a part of one s soul remains unawakened.

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2 Until one has loved an animal, a part of one s soul remains unawakened. Anatole France Copyright All rights reserved. Unauthorized distribution, copying or reselling of this material is unlawful. This material is protected under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1974 and all other applicable International, Federal, State and local laws. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without the written permission of the copyright holder, Dennis C. Fetko, Ph.D. The copyright holder, Dennis C. Fetko, Ph.D. reserves the right to use the full force of the law in the protection of his intellectual property including all language, ideas and advice contained in this book. The author and publisher disclaim any personal liability, loss, or risk as a direct of indirect result of use of any information or any advice contained herein. Nothing in this book is intended to replace legal, medical or other professional advice. The purchaser or reader of this publication assumes full responsibility for the use of this information. Ask Dr. Dog Published by Dog Success, 2007 Copyright All rights reserved

3 Table of Contents Our dog is constantly begging for food. How do we stop this? 1 How will our dog react to our new baby? 1 Will my dog forget me when I go on a long trip? 2 How do I help my grieving dog? 2 My dog won t come when I call him now. 5 We are moving will our dogs mark territory in our new house? 8 FREE ebook, Dr. Dog Answers the 15 Most Commonly Asked Questions About Dogs 10 ii

4 In Ask Dr. Dog you will read my responses to questions posed by callers to my radio show, Talkin Animals with Dr. Dog. I usually have a veterinarian on for at least part of my radio show. So when you see references to Dr. Richter, please note that he is my guest veterinarian. I invite you to call in to the show and ask me your pet-related questions. You can listen live on Sunday mornings at 9:00 am PST by going to and clicking on the Listen icon at the top of the page. Our dog is constantly begging for food. How do we stop this? Susie: Our dog is constantly begging. She really doesn t like dog food and it s almost disruptive to the family; a constant sort of begging for any food where are we going wrong? Dr. Dog: First of all, if you share your food at all with your dog, even if you give him dog food--which is proper--but then you pour some gravy or some leftover stuff on it to enhance the flavor so to speak, that s going to help a great deal to encourage begging. He knows what you re eating and if he s used to getting some as well, he s going to try to speed that up and say, Hey guys, before you, how about me? So, obviously, don t give your dog food from the table. Some people also make the mistake of saying, I never feed my dog from the table, BUT afterward we scrape it all off into his dish. Again, he knows what you re eating; he knows he s going to get it. A real good tip: anything that s rewarded continues. One of the simplest ways to absolutely end begging once and for all is to absolutely have it fail. If he never gets anything like that again, it will stop and that s as active as you ever have to punish him. How will our dog react to our new baby? John: We are expecting a new baby in a month and want to know how our Chocolate Lab will react to the new family member. 1

5 Dr. Dog: You have time to prepare your dog so that the baby is not a surprise to him. Get a doll, and I don t care if it does all the groovy things dolls do today as long as it cries when you squeeze it. Then start treating that doll as if it s the baby. In other words, Mom pretends she s nursing. When the puppy comes up to say hello, you squeeze the baby to make it cry. You teach the dog gentility. Now you also devote time to the doll. For example. you re going to bathe it. So you spend time at the bassinette ignoring the dog, but not making it a source of reprimand. By the time the real baby comes, the dog says, Well, this is old hat the only difference is a new scent. Will my dog forget me when I go on a long trip? Martha: I m going to be gone on a month-long business trip. Will my dog forget me? Dr. Dog: Not likely! Your return will absolutely remind him. Oh yeah, you re Mom--welcome back! He s not likely to forget you in a month, especially if he remains in the same environment. One of the things we humans overlook is that compared to dogs senses of smell, of hearing, etc., we re about as sensitive as a rock! So, your scent is on everything in your home. He may forget his behavior if you don t carefully instruct the caregiver what time to take him out, what time to feed him, etc. So without question, the behavior can change, that s right. But no, he s not likely to forget you. And upon your return, the memories will flood back. My gosh, dogs will remember for almost their entire lives for about ten years prior. How do I help my grieving dog? Carol: We re having a bit of a crisis at my house. I have had two dachshunds for fifteen years and last week I had to put one of them down. The female is still with me and she s inconsolable. She s 2

6 attached to me all the time--i can t get out of her sight, so I ve been taking her with me when I can. But I live in a condo and I can t always take her. She cries and barks, so I got medication from my vet to make her drowsy. It s chlorazepam, 7.5 mg--i give her half a tablet which makes her a little bit drowsy. Even so, if I move, she s up. Then I bought the citronella collar thinking that would help because I ve used it in the past and it did--but whenever I leave her--when I come back, she s barking her head off and that collar is empty. She s emptied out the contents. I don t know what to do! Dr. Dog: Did she see the body of the other animal after he died? Carol: Yes, but she didn t pay much attention to it. Dr. Dog: Sit down, have a cup of coffee because I m going to tell you something surprising. She is showing distress; you are suffering your own mourning and grief and loss over your beloved pet s departure. The more you share your feelings with her and the more you cater to her stress, the worse you make it. When you try to take her every place you go now and pay a little more attention to her, pet her more, groom her more, exercise her more, massage her more--whatever--the more changes you make in her lifestyle now as opposed to what it was when he was there, the more stress you give her to deal with. Now in her little mind she s saying, Oh, my gosh! How many things is this going to effect? The best gift you could give the surviving dog is to force yourselves to treat her pretty much exactly as you treated her before he died. Carol: I hardly every took her then, so Dr. Dog: First of all, no more attention, no more loving and cuddling, no catering to a grief expression--none of that! Because, again, the more you make a change in her lifestyle now, the more things it gives her to cope with psychologically and emotionally that are simply different. Her buddy isn t here to help her, so, please, fewer changes. 3

7 Secondly, what I would tell you as far as the citronella collar is good for you for not going with the electric shock collar. And you re right; some dogs can simply bark through the reservoir. They can literally empty the collar with excess barking. If that s the case, I would suggest you talk to your veterinarian about an actual sedative or tranquilizer because the drug you re using right now is simply too mild to calm her in your absence. One of the things that s bothering her is that she smells him everywhere. She sees things that she still associates with him. But he ll never be back; so that too, is stressful to her. So I would give her an opportunity to deal with that with a slightly stronger medication-- despite the fact that I m not a fan of drugs at all. You tried the anxiolytic--and good for you and your vet for trying that first. I absolutely would have suggested that, so I approve of your decision to do it. But it just seems that in her particular case, even with the collar on, the anxiolytic is simply not bringing her enough sedation or enough tranquility. So what I would suggest is simply a stronger med at least as a trial. Give it a couple of weeks and see. Now, needless to say, our long-term goal is to phase out the use of all drugs. But right now she may just need it to get over the hump. Dr. Richter: And it doesn t necessarily have to be a stronger drug. It could be just a different drug. There are some dogs that respond well to certain drugs, certain tranquilizers, certain anxiolytic and others don t. The chemicals in the brain are very complicated and what might work well for patient #1 might not work well for patient #2. Dr. Dog: I would try a change in med; however it s very important that you people immediately begin treating her exactly as you used to because the more changes you make, Carol, the more stress you bring her. Carol: Thank you very much. 4

8 My dog won t come when I call him now. Pamela: I have a two-year-old white Labrador Retriever. He s perfect except for one thing. He got it figured out in the last six or eight months that when I call him to come when we re outside of the house, he s decided not to come back. He ll eventually come back, but he kind of looks at me and cocks his head and then runs the other way. Up until that time, he would completely mind me. I m not sure if he s in a teenage stage. How can I train him to come back the way he used to? Dr. Dog: Did he ever reliably come when loose off-lead outdoors? Pamela: Yes, he did. Dr. Dog: And when he did, what would you do? Pamela: I praised him. Dr. Dog: And then brought him in the house. Pamela: Yes. Dr. Dog: His consequence to obeying your come command--your recall--is to get a few seconds praise and then to get brought in the house. In other words, coming when you called him cost him the whole world. It cost him not only the freedom, but all the scents, the smells, the excitement, what s going on, who s new in town, how close is Fluffy to breeding, is Spike loose lately. I mean he learns all of that running loose. When he came when you called him he lost all of that. Let me give you one tip. When people work with me and they get advanced enough to get to an off-lead recall--because as you know that s a very advanced command--i always tell them that when he comes, love his lips off, and then shove him away from you. So he learns: When I come when Mom calls me, not only don t I lose the whole world, I get a special treat that I couldn t have gotten if I 5

9 hadn t come. In other words, from his point of view, you just made coming when you call him BETTER THAN anything that could happen if he doesn t because he doesn t lose anything. SO, number one, you might try that. Number two, you might find a very powerful motive. By the way, you are very perspicacious. You hit upon something that most people don t think to realize. Yes, developmentally the age matters because NOW it s his job to not only defend his territory and his pack, but also to find out what will threaten you in the future. So his intimate knowledge of your entire environment is now all of a sudden much more important to him than it ever has been. Pamela: He has also gotten more calm in the last few months. His maturity is actually getting better. He really is a mama s boy. He looks up to me constantly. I know that I am the pivotal person in my family for him. Dr. Dog: But keep in mind there s a difference between affection and respect. They are not the same thing. In fact, oftentimes, a very unruly dog will favor one family member--whether it s the husband or the wife or whomever over the other--but not pay attention to either one of them. There s a difference between affection and respect. Now that he is a full adult, he s going to look at you and say, Are you still my boss? You are always my favorite person on earth, and you likely always will be, but are you still MY boss? I ve got more important things to do than come when you call me. This is new, because I ve got more important things to do now. Frankly as a kid, it was never my responsibility before. It was your job to make sure we were safe. Now that I am the adult male, it s my job. So, here are a couple of tips. Whatever you did to teach him to come when you called him in the first place, review--but not outdoors. You can create an automatic habit to have that dog coming to you if you have it happen often enough in different circumstances. 6

10 Secondly, you know that old phrase, You can lead a horse to water, but you can t make him drink? Don t tell that to a behaviorist because I can make him awful thirsty. Well, if I jump on his back and ride him around all day, I think he s going to drink. In other words, my point to that story is that you control everything that influences your dog. So when you get ready to take the next step and reintroduce him to off-lead recall, you don t give him breakfast. So now by the afternoon he s a little interested in food. Now you ve got some chunks of meat --I m not talking about dog biscuits have chopped up hot dogs, pieces of steak, really yummy morsels--and you let him know that you ve got them. And then you give him a recall. The likelihood that he will come is very high: first of all, he s very hungry; secondly, the treat is extraordinary; AND number three, he s already learned that when he comes, you are not going to drag him in the house. When he comes, you shove his butt away and say, Go mug a wino, you heathen. Pamela: So when I take him out, do I just turn my back and do my own thing like it s not important that he s out. Dr. Dog: No, don t ever turn your back and do your own thing because we don t ever want him to think he is no longer responsible to you for what he is doing. Now, if something clearly distracts your attention, by all means pay attention to it, but don t ever deliberately just ignore the animal. Pamela: So, I still keep my attention on him but I don t make it important that he s out. Dr. Dog: Right. It s like a ho-hum thing. Big deal, so we re out. We re in the front yard. Now we re on the street. Now we re in the park instead or wherever. It s a ho-hum attitude. But you give him an extraordinary motive to comply with the command and when he does, never have his compliance result in something he resents. 7

11 Pamela: Gotcha. Makes sense. I see the mistake right there, because when I called him, it was time to come in. Thanks so much! We are moving will our dogs mark territory in our new house? Bill: We re moving to a new house, and we put new carpeting in. We have two Shih Tzu's. They don t like to go outside because the grass tickles their feet. We re worried that when we go to the new house, they ll be nervous and perhaps try to mark some territory on the new carpet. What can we do to prevent that. Dr. Dog: Actually they will. Good for you for your foresightedness because they absolutely will. Keep in mind that the fact that it s a new house to you people does not mean that they won t be getting signals. For example, somebody had to lay that new carpeting in your new house. So they re not only going to smell the new carpeting with the poisonous formaldehyde and everything else in it, BUT if the guy had a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, they re also going to smell that. When he went back to work he s spreading that scent around as well. Now clearly, Bill, it s not strong enough for you folks to pick up--well the guy had a bologna sandwich instead of ham. You re not going to know that. The dogs are going to know it instantly. So it s not that your new home is not scented, it s that it s scented by strangers. So, you re absolutely right. Your dogs first motive is going to be to get rid of that scent and add theirs. So you re correct in your presumption that when you turn them loose, the first thing they re likely to do is-- not only vacuum the place with their noses--but lend their scent. Now you understand in more detail why. 8

12 Couple of tips: Number one, introduce them to the new home on lead. Bring them around, and naturally if they go to squat or lift a leg or chew on anything, that s where you step in with a very loud noise to inhibit it. When you finally turn them loose once you have introduced them to the home, turn them loose in the house at the rate of about one room a week. If you give them the entire house, you often overwhelm them to say, My god, I m not even sure this is ours yet! It isn t yet scented by Mom and Dad and the kids and us dogs. It isn t even our territory and am I supposed to defend it, am I not? Do I challenge people who come in here? Am I not supposed to challenge them because it s not even our territory, we re just visiting? You see all the stuff that goes on in their heads. So, number one, give them about a room a week, or every four or five days or so. Number two, when you turn them loose off lead in a room, my suggestion is-- do you feed dry food? Bill: Yes. Dr. Dog. Bless you re black little heart. Pick up a handful of food and scatter it across the floor in that room like birdseed. Bill: What about treats? Dr. Dog: Yes, that too--on the floor! And literally what you re saying to them is, OK, fishlips, graze!!! Now here s what you are really saying: Dogs, do you really want to pee on your dish? I don t think so. In other words, if you have to eat off of that floor, the likelihood of you ever soiling it is very low. And then when you introduce them to room number two, do the same thing. And do the same with each successive room. So that the first thing they do in every new room--after being introduced on lead--is to eat off that floor. 9

13 By all means, give them treats as you normally do, but NOT from your hand. Drop them on the floor. The more they eat off the floor, the less likely they will be to ever soil it. Bill: Can we do this as we move in? We re not going to move in one day. Can we take them over there as we are bringing stuff over there and get them used to the rooms one at a time then? Dr. Dog: Yes. FREE ebook, Dr. Dog Answers the 15 Most Commonly Asked Questions About Dogs Click here for this FREE ebook and audio book. Dr. Dog answers questions including: Can I change my dog s name? I hate the name he came with. Are pure bred dogs better than mixes or mutts? What is the most intelligent breed of dog? How do I introduce a new dog to my existing one? How old must a dog be to be trained? Is private training better than group training? I want to get two dogs right from the start. Any tips? Should I board my dog at a kennel or hire a pet sitter to come to my home? and more 10