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| A sleeping Blizzard |
Juliana Weiss-Roessler, the writing and research director for my Internet newsletter and blog, conducted an online reader survey, asking our subscribers to list the most common and frustrating issues they have had with their puppies. Here are the results from the 1,342 top responses, along with my solutions for raising a problem-free puppy.
COMMON PROBLEM 1
Jumping Up on People (51 Percent)
When a puppy comes running up to us and jumps on us, we think, “She loves me, she is so happy to see me!” We feel special and chosen and cherished. And who doesn’t thrill to watch puppies jumping and leaping about in play? They are so carefree, so full of the joy of life. These are the reasons we want puppies in our lives, to bring us that enthusiasm, that appreciation of the everyday things we take for granted.
But clearly, 51 percent of our newsletter survey respondents have had more than enough of their puppies’ jumping on them. Generally, when jumping up on people is a chronic problem for a puppy, it will continue to be problematic as she grows older and larger. “A German shepherd puppy jumping on you may seem cute,” says Thinschmidt German shepherd breeder Diana Foster, “but a 120-pound German shepherd dog can actually knock you down and injure you.” Puppyhood is the best time to nip this behavior in the bud.
Since puppies’ strongest ability is their sense of smell, and since their primary purpose during the first eight months of life is to investigate and learn about everything in their new world, they will naturally want to check out and smell every human that comes into their environment. As humans, the strongest scents we project come from our genital areas and from our mouths. We’ve all had the experience of a less-than-well-mannered dog sniffing our crotch areas—though within the dog world, sniffing genitals is considered good manners! Puppies need to stand up on their hind legs and put their paws on a person in order to get close to those areas. Since we tend to cover our genital areas with clothes, the next strongest scent for a dog to check out is coming from our mouths. Puppies and small dogs will want to jump up to get closer to our faces and find out what’s going on there.
It’s a challenge for humans not to see a puppy jumping on them as an “I love you” or a “hug.” The truth is, sometimes puppies are just anxious, and they have learned that if they jump on the human, the human will pick them up and bring them toward them and calm them down. A lot of people say, “Well, as soon as I pick him up, he calms down.” Unfortunately, this is a Band-Aid solution. The behavior you want to remove is not gone. It’s only put on pause. When you stop a puppy and scoop her up in the middle of an anxious moment, you are never allowing her to develop the vital life skill of learning to calm herself down, on the ground.
As always, I advocate that prevention is the best medicine. You can avert a jumping-up problem from day one by practicing the simplicity of the no touch, no talk, no eye contact rule whenever you first greet your puppy. This sends a calming signal and helps a puppy to stay focused on her nose. Her nose will keep her on the ground, and her eyes and ears will react differently. Chris and Johanna Komives took the prevention route with Eliza from day one, and the results have paid off. “We don’t give affection if she’s jumping on us. We wait until she’s seated (or better, goes to her place) before acknowledging her when we return from work.”
The second step is to really claim every step you make. Own your space and ignore or actively discourage the jumping behavior by moving through it calmly and assertively. When Angel had his “sleepover” at Melissa and John’s apartment, he never even attempted to jump on John, but when in a playful mood, he attempted to leap at Melissa’s legs as she walked through the apartment. Right away, he was able to distinguish John’s stronger energy from Melissa’s softer energy—even with her experiences working with me for nearly six years!
Although Melissa could not change her essence, she did have the education and knowledge to know how to refocus her energy and stop the unwanted behavior. All she had to do to discourage Angel’s jumping was to turn around, look him in the eye, and put the palm of her hand out in front of her, a gesture Angel immediately recognized as meaning “stop.” She would wait until he backed out of her space, sat down, and relaxed, and only then would she go on about her business. It took doing this several times over the course of his visit, but eventually she was able to stop him right at the moment he looked as if he wanted to jump. “Patience and repetition” were the solutions, she reported. “I had to stay consistent with my discouragement of his jumping, even though it looked so adorably joyful.”
Ultimately, that is the key to stopping any unwanted puppy behavior—making sure you don’t go into your own emotional fulfillment mode and get caught up in how extremely cute the puppy is. Yes, she may be the cutest thing on four paws. But as a pack leader, you have to go beyond that and really honor what the puppy needs from you at that moment.
COMMON PROBLEM 2
Chewing (38 Percent)
For a puppy, the activity of chewing serves three important purposes. First, they’re exploring new things, and since they don’t have hands, they use their mouths. By touching with their mouths, they learn “this is okay, this is not okay.” Puppyhood is an era where everything new is an adventure, and it is in the puppies’ natures to be curious and use their noses, then their mouths, to investigate.
One of the wonderful things about my new Dog Psychology Center is that it is in an area with many varieties of fauna—plants, trees, and grass—for my pack to play in and explore. When Mr. President was about four and a half months old, I observed him following his idol, Daddy, up to the grassy ridge at the top of the property. Daddy would poke his nose through the grass and, using his fifteen years of wisdom, smell a few different varieties of weeds before deciding on the right one to chew. Mr. President watched him closely, his attention rapt. Daddy would go to one piece of grass, smell it, then move on to another and chew on it. Then Mr. President would do exactly the same thing—smell the first piece of grass, move on, and chew only the grass that Daddy was chewing. In all my years working with dogs, this kind of simple moment never ceases to amaze and inspire me. Daddy was actually teaching Mr. President which grass was okay to chew on and which was not. That’s a real-life puppy class right there.
If your puppy doesn’t have a role model like Daddy to look up to, it falls to you as her owner to make sure she is not chewing on anything that could be harmful or poisonous. Puppy-proofing your home and yard are the first steps in this direction, but puppies seem to be able to find trouble anywhere, even when you’ve gone to great lengths to protect them. If your puppy puts her mouth on a potentially hazardous or valuable item, a gentle touch on the rear or neck or an interesting scent or treat will redirect her attention and get her to drop the object. I prefer a touch to a treat in these circumstances, because that’s what another dog would offer, and you don’t want your puppy to associate chewing something bad with getting a treat reward. It’s also my experience that you should never take an object away from a dog; you should make the dog leave or walk away from the object. Supervision is key, as is having plenty of allowable, safe chewing objects on hand for your puppy to investigate.
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| Mr. President |
Number two, chewing relieves anxiety or boredom. Some breeds are more driven than others to chew as a way to release tension—as you recall, chewing was Mr. President’s Achilles’ heel. Chewing can become a behavior a dog turns to in order to calm herself, or it can also be a way to control you, the human in her life. Many a puppy has learned that if she grabs an object, it becomes a way to get a human to come to her. It’s very similar to the way that puppies learn that if they’re excited, jumping up and down, the human will pay attention to them. In these cases, your puppies are training you to respond to them, not the other way around.
Finally, chewing is important to a puppy between the ages of four and six months because it relieves the pain of teething. It is absolutely not natural, especially during this crucial time period, to ask a puppy not to chew at all. Instead, have plenty of different acceptable chew toys on hand that you can use to redirect the behavior. I always prefer something more natural like a bully stick, or even a plush toy with something hidden inside it, instead of a rubber object. The more natural the object or the more layers the puppy has to chew through to get to the scent or taste inside, the more it will engage her mind… that’s the reason why your puppy always digs through your closet and pulls out your very best leather shoes—because of the challenge of the hunt, and because they have the most natural material in them. I’m a big fan of bully sticks these days because in this economy, it helps that they are so long-lasting. One seven-dollar bully stick can last up to six months—nearly all of your dog’s puppyhood. By your hiding the bully stick inside or behind something, burying it, or otherwise finding a new way to challenge your puppy, the same chew toy can be used over and over in new and stimulating ways.
Before leaving Crystal with Mr. President for the two weeks my wife and I would be away, I made sure she was aware that he was very much a bulldog when it came to expressing himself through chewing. “I’m really grateful Cesar warned me about this ahead of time,” she recalls.
I used a light touch on Mr. President’s neck or hindquarters to get his attention. Then I could claim whatever object I wanted Mr. President not to mess with and introduce an appropriate object for him to chew on. The biggest challenge I encountered that week was claiming my space in my car. At first Mr. President really wanted to chew on my gear shift, emergency brake, door handles, and seat belt release. I had to use my energy because I couldn’t use eye contact to claim my space while driving. Treats didn’t work because they were only a quick distraction and I think they were even reinforcing the bad behavior. But if I gave him a bully stick when we first got into the car, he’d forget all about chewing on the seat belt.
If you do come home to find your dog destroying your best leather purse, try to keep in check any immediate anger you might have. Take a deep breath, stay calm and assertive, and remember there is nothing “personal” in the puppy’s actions. Do not carry the puppy away from the object or yank the object away from her. Instead, calmly correct and redirect. With puppies, redirecting with scent is almost always effective. Utilize the momentum of the puppy’s nose and let her get engaged with the new, acceptable object. Then immediately claim the forbidden object as your own. Fortunately, normal puppies have short attention spans, which you can use to your advantage when you want to guide them away from unwanted behaviors.
Remember, dogs naturally understand the concept of ownership, of claiming an object or space. They do this with one another all the time. Chris Komives used the power of “claiming” to nip Eliza’s anxious chewing in the bud:
The only times Eliza ever destroyed anything, I’ve chalked it up to anxiety. She chewed the power supply to Johanna’s laptop when we went to a concert and left her alone all day (approximately twelve hours). We figured the power supply smelled like Johanna, so she relieved her anxiety on it. The next day I brought out a pile of wires and taught her that they belong to me. I thought her chewing wires might mean she needed more metal in her diet, so I started feeding her liver as a treat. She hasn’t touched a wire since. She’s also chewed a couple of shoelaces (but left the shoes alone). I repeated the wire exercise with the laces and she’s left them alone ever since.
COMMON PROBLEM 3
Barking (32 Percent)
If you were to drive by very slowly or walk past my house with your dog, you would probably have no idea that the Dog Whisperer and his many dogs live here. Meanwhile, there’s a single dog a few streets over that we can hear from our house, constantly yapping away.
What’s the difference? Simply rules, boundaries, and limitations. And the fact that the dogs in my house are always active, fulfilled, and balanced.
We have to remember that a dog’s bark is something that early man encouraged in the wolflike ancestors of modern canines thousands of years ago. The fact that a dog could alert them to danger in their camps, settlements, and farms was one of the many qualities of dogs that brought our two species together. In short, the reason dogs bark is as much our doing as it is theirs. Some people, especially people who live alone or in remote areas, want to encourage their dogs to bark every single time something new happens or someone unexpected stops by. Others prefer a loud dog with a tough, territorial bark to scare away possible intruders. Then there are those who live in close quarters—apartment buildings or condos—whose dogs’ chronic vocalizations could land them in deep trouble with the landlord or the neighbors.
How many barks are too many? It’s simply a matter of preference, but in my opinion, when it goes beyond four barks, it can turn into more than simply the alert to the pack that barking was intended to be. Obsessive barking can turn into a conversation, and the dog is really trying to tell you, “I’m not happy with my life right now. I’m bored. I’m unsure. I’m frustrated. I’m not getting enough exercise. So the only activity I have available is to bark for thirty minutes.” When a dog barks for extended periods of time or barks at any little disturbance, it’s usually speaking the canine language of anxiety or frustration.
In my house, one bark is enough. That’s it—one bark. In my pack, it’s usually Coco the Chihuahua who will pick up on a strange presence, scent, or vibration, and then he will alert the pack. Once I tell Coco to be quiet, none of the other dogs will imitate his bark. But all the dogs will then indicate to me where the object or person or animal is coming from and how they feel about it by using body language. Different breeds will sometimes use different body language—holding one leg up or “pointing,” sitting down near the spot or lying down, standing in an alert posture, or stalking. With ten different dogs, you will have ten different physical expressions of alertness yet exactly the same energy. But it’s my preference that there be no sound after that first bark. I’m telling the dogs, “Okay, you did your job, now the humans will take care of this.” I’m taking the load off their shoulders.
With your new puppy, you make the call—many barks, a few barks, or peace and quiet. But you have to start early. Since you have already taught your puppy to associate a certain sound or word with something you don’t agree with, consistently correct using that sound. If your puppy’s intensity level has escalated to very high, you may need to use a firm touch to snap her back to your attention. But don’t stop there. Your puppy may pause and then go right back to what she was doing. She may be sitting back, but her brain is still on alert. Be patient. Wait until she completely relaxes before you go back to what you were doing. You can also reward with affection or a treat, but only after your puppy is completely quiet.
If your puppy is barking over and over again at the same object, person, or place, then it’s time to step up and claim that item as your own. Use your body, your mind, and your calm-assertive energy to create an invisible wall that your puppy is not allowed to cross. This kind of focused energy and body language is exactly what your puppy is looking for you to give her—a direction. But remember, with puppies you have a chance to prevent unwanted barking before it becomes a habit or a chronic way of relieving stress.
COMMON PROBLEM 4
Nipping (24 Percent) and Mouthing (19 Percent)
Nipping, or play biting, is something that puppies do with their litter-mates, and it is a very instinctual behavior for them. It’s a form of social interaction as well as playful practice for survival in the wild. In nature, a dog’s siblings, mother, or older dogs in the pack will quickly teach her how hard is too hard. Junior loves to roughhouse with Mr. President and Blizzard, but if the pressure in their mouths gets a little too aggressive, he’ll shut them down in an instant. It’s important to keep in mind that a bite that a strapping adolescent pit bull finds to be too much would be extremely painful, perhaps even wounding, to a human. Mouthing, like chewing, is a natural way for puppies to explore the world with their mouths. Neither behavior necessarily indicates an aggressive or dominant temperament. But if you constantly allow your puppy to play-dominate you with her mouth while her harmless baby teeth are tiny and soft, she will learn to use it as a tool to control you when she’s big enough to do some real damage. “If allowed to continue, this playful biting from the pup often turns into serious aggression as an adult,” warns breeder Diana Foster of her juvenile German shepherds. “He has now learned to use his mouth and teeth to get what he wants.”
With Blizzard, Angel, and Mr. President, I allowed them to explore my hands in the way they would naturally, but only using a soft mouth—no pressure allowed. When they would naturally start to increase the pressure and test the limits of my tolerance, I would gently but firmly cup their necks or the tops of their heads with my hand curved into the “claw” shape that mimics another dog’s mouth. Then I would hold that position until they relaxed. It’s natural for puppies to test limits, but it’s just as natural for them to accept them. All I am doing is mimicking what their mother or Junior or Daddy or even another puppy would do in the same situation.
It’s important, however, that your timing be precise. Don’t over-correct, don’t pinch, and don’t hold on too long after your puppy has relaxed, because she might interpret that as a further challenge. In attempting this exercise with your puppy, it may be helpful to wear a glove while playing, to make sure you are relaxed and in control at all times. If you are worrying about your own discomfort or injury, you will be projecting a weak energy to the puppy, which she will naturally try to take advantage of! She will not respect any limits you set with her if you are in a weak or unsure state of mind. Puppies are instinctual—if they sense even a split-second gap in leadership, they will move in to compensate for it. Projecting constant calm-assertive energy and a sense of confident leadership during the months of puppyhood is like buying an insurance policy, so that you will continue to be respected in your dog’s eyes for the rest of her life.
Another advantage of using a glove when teaching your puppy bite inhibition is that you will avoid the common mistake of yanking or pulling your hand away when you sense the dog’s teeth digging into your skin. This kind of motion triggers your puppy’s prey drive and will only increase her excitement. “Too much petting—longer than five seconds at a time—pulling the hands away quickly from the mouth, and raising the hand in a repetitive motion above the dog’s head, which is something children tend to do, will actually encourage play biting,” says Diana. Once Blizzard moved in with the Barnes family, he quickly learned he could dominate Christian with his play biting for this very reason. Blizzard grew at a tremendous rate and was in danger of really hurting Christian. It was actually fourteen-year-old Sabrina who taught Christian how to stay calm during these incidents, and how to make Blizzard submit to him before they continued their play sessions.
COMMON PROBLEM 5
Housebreaking Issues (24 Percent)
We’ve already dealt with housebreaking earlier in this book, where I’ve indicated that housebreaking a puppy is not rocket science, because you’ve got nature working on your side. Most issues with house-breaking that I see occur because the owners didn’t stick to a schedule, didn’t properly sanitize areas where accidents occurred, and, perhaps most important, got caught up in the emotion of a ruined piece of furniture or carpet. Your dog doesn’t understand that you paid a thousand dollars for that sofa, but she does understand that you are in a highly unstable, emotional state, that you are projecting strong negative energy, and that you are directing it right at her.
In order to prevent this from happening, don’t even give your puppy the chance to create an accident of epic proportions in your home. Until you are sure of her elimination habits, keep her in a safe, contained, easy-to-sanitize area when you can’t be directly supervising her. Use wee-wee pads if necessary, and always sanitize the area under and around the pads. Set her up for success, not failure. If you reduce the drama involved in housebreaking, you may be surprised at how easily it all comes together.
With all the complaints I hear about the horrors of housebreaking, it’s interesting to me that it’s number five on the list of most common puppy problems, not number one or two. I chock that up to the fact that in America, people take the condition of their homes very, very seriously. They may be a little bothered by a puppy’s jumping, nipping, or barking, but they absolutely, positively refuse to live in a house that smells like pee or poop. They can live with a couple of bite marks on their hands or a few complaints from the neighbors, but a stain on their prized Oriental rug will make them immediately lay down the law. Is there any better evidence of the fact that a puppy can tell exactly how seriously we take the limits we set with her? With all these common problems, if you are on the fence about whether or not you are willing to set the limits necessary to correct them, your puppy will sense your ambivalence, and the unwanted behavior will continue.
COMMON PROBLEM 6
Not Coming When Called (23 Percent)
First of all, we must remember that in your puppy’s world, there is no such thing as a “name.” Another dog’s identity is its scent and energy, and has nothing to do with a sound. We give dogs names for our own convenience, and fortunately for us, dogs as a species are such natural masters of association that they quickly come to connect the unique cadence and syllables of a certain sound with what we want from them when we make that sound. At the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Germany, a border collie named Rico proved he could recognize the unique names of more than two hundred different objects. Dogs don’t reason, but one of the ways they constantly amaze is that they are simply brilliant at making connections. When a person says about a puppy, “He already knows his name,” however, it’s not in the way a child would know his name—that is, assuming it as part of his identity, or his “me-ness.” The dog understands its name relative to how, when, and why it is communicated and, most important, the energy with which it is communicated.
When the Obama family named their puppy Bo, I was asked by many in the media, “Won’t that confuse the dog, because it rhymes with No?” Perhaps, but it’s also likely that as long as the name Bo was used in relation to positive things such as playtime, feeding time, walks, and praise or affection, he would have no trouble distinguishing it from a word used in relation to negative things, such as “No.” A dog isn’t a poet—it’s not just the word he’s concerned with, it’s the energy behind the word that sends the message. This is one reason that I always instruct my clients to refrain from using a dog’s name when correcting him. I use my dogs’ names when calling them, when praising them, and when we’re playing or doing a positive challenge or exercise.
Let’s assume you are doing everything right, using your puppy’s name only in a positive context, yet your puppy still doesn’t come when you call her. It’s not that your puppy doesn’t want to come to you or is rebelling or challenging your authority. The number one reason why dogs don’t come to people when they call is that their noses are more powerful sensors than their ears and they are distracted by fascinating scents. Remember, everything to a puppy is new and exciting. A new scent can so engage and mesmerize a puppy that to respond to a sound—far less interesting to him—just doesn’t get through to him in that moment. If you yell out your young puppy’s name over and over while she is being distracted by a scent, you run the risk of her associating that sound with the action of not paying attention to you. Remember, the energy you are projecting when you call your dog’s name is what the puppy actually hears. If all the pup gets from your calling her name is, “I’m impatient, I want to get out of here, I’m frustrated with you,” that is not a very attractive energy for her to follow.
Dogs learn in the order nose-eyes-ears. In raising our friends Junior, Blizzard, Angel, and Mr. President, I followed the example of nature and used sound as little as possible in the beginning. Instead, I engaged their noses. This is especially effective with puppies. If I am walking Angel and his powerful terrier nose gets distracted by a scent, I will place a bully stick in front of him until it gets his attention, then walk away. I will start saying his name or making a positive “kissing” sound only when he is already coming toward me. That way he begins to associate the name or sound with the action of following—“This is what I hear when I’m following.” The connection becomes clear and unambiguous.
The next level of this exercise is done on a long lead, using sound and your puppy’s automatic instinct to follow. Let your puppy wander away from you. Put your foot on the line to anchor it, then turn your back to the puppy and walk away. As soon as he starts to follow you, turn toward him and call his name, or make the sounds that you want him to associate with “coming.” Reward him as soon as he reaches you.
Practice using the positive sound or your puppy’s name only during the natural times she is following you. When you get her out of the crate in the morning, while you are praising her during potty training, when you are calling her at mealtime, and when you are engaged in activities that she likes. Make sure the energy behind the name is positive as well as calm and assertive. The more scent-oriented your dog, the longer it may take for her to understand that sound trumps scent when it is time to decide upon an action. But with a patient, dedicated owner, any puppy can learn to make that connection. In the meantime, carry a bully stick, scented item, or treat with you, in order to get your puppy’s attention. Try to think like a puppy and see the world as “nose-eyes-ears,” and eventually your puppy can learn how to think like you.
COMMON PROBLEM 7
Digging (21 Percent)
All dogs are natural diggers. Some dogs, such as the terrier breeds, have that extra boost in their DNA that makes their drive to dig even stronger. For them, digging can become their primary outlet for relieving stress, boredom, or anxiety. We need to provide for our dogs an outlet for this perfectly normal activity.
The area where the new Dog Psychology Center is located is teeming with local wildlife. From the moment two-month-old Angel arrived at the ranch, he began to fixate on my four-year-old Jack Russell terrier as Jack scoured the ranch for gopher holes. Angel’s DNA was crying out in recognition—“Digging! That’s what I was born for!” But despite the fact that Angel’s ancestors were bred to dig for rats and other earthy rodents, I didn’t want him to pick up catching gophers as a hobby. I needed to redirect his digging energy in a safer way, while keeping his mind and his genes engaged.
I have created a special area at the center for this very purpose. A tall, sandy embankment mottled with abandoned rodent holes has become the official “digging place” for the dogs, where we do simple activities to fulfill that need in them. I’ll take a tennis ball, focus the dogs’ attention on it, then stick it deep into the recesses of one of the small abandoned rodent holes in the bank. It’s wonderful to watch the puppies’ different breed-related talents and tendencies emerge when I do this simple exercise. Junior, with all his brawny pit bull might, will fly at the bank with all four paws, hurling giant chunks of earth behind him as if he were a bulldozer. He’ll widen out the hole in no time flat but in a totally undisciplined manner—all agitation and muscle, with very little focus. With Mr. President, it’s easy to see why digging and retrieving buried treasure is not a bulldog’s forte. He’ll try to join in the excitement, but with his flat snout and large head, he can only clumsily poke inside the hole in the general direction of the hidden object. Angel, however, has been a digging star from day one. While Junior is still knocking himself out trying to make the hole in the embankment bigger, and while Mr. President is looking around, wondering if anyone is going to bring the ball back, Angel will simply slip into the hole like a trained navy diver, disappear for a moment, then come out proudly carrying the ball.
For this I reward him with extra praise and affection. It’s important that he understand how proud I am of his ability, that I take joy in his joy, and that I’m nurturing the terrier instincts in him—but directing them in the right way. He is learning that we dig for balls, not for gophers—and we dig only for what the human wants us to dig for. This is prevention at its best; I know Angel is not going to dig up my Zen landscaping in the future, because I am already fulfilling his genetic need in a much richer, more entertaining way.
If you have a terrier breed or another breed with a powerful digging drive, or you are having problems with your puppy’s obsessive digging, I suggest you section off an area in your garden or yard appropriate for your dog’s or puppy’s size. You can also provide a sandbox, if it is deep enough. This will be the place where your dog can dig to her heart’s content. Bury something interesting in the area, like a bully stick or a scented toy. Then bring your dog to the area, and let her sniff. If she doesn’t begin digging, start moving the dirt yourself, just a little bit. Eventually she’ll start to get excited and want to join in with you. If the area you can provide is very shallow, you can participate in the game and re-cover the area that your dog has already dug up—making it more challenging for her. Or you can just leave her to enjoy the adventure for herself, nurturing her achievement when she’s brought you the buried object. After the exercise, replace the dirt, sanitize the object, and put the soil back the way it was before the dog began digging, to keep it interesting, as if every day it is still the first time anyone has ever dug in that space.
The next step is showing your dog that your designated digging spot is the only place where she can practice this activity. After she has succeeded in her digging challenge for the day, bring your dog to your garden or any area that you want to be off-limits. Put something in the ground, but block your dog immediately if she even attempts to come near. Direct her attention to you and don’t let her engage her nose, eyes, or ears. Use your body language to claim the area as “yours.” Then go back to the digging area and repeat the joyful digging exercise. Repeat this process a few times a week or, if your puppy has already lapsed into bad habits, every day, until it becomes clear to you that the puppy knows the rules, boundaries, and limitations of digging in her environment.
If you live in an apartment, find an area in the park to practice digging exercises, or perhaps a dog-friendly beach. For digging activities indoors, Angel’s breeder, Brooke Walker, provides her newborn miniature schnauzer puppies with a labyrinth of carpeted cat tunnels, to nurture and fulfill their schnauzer’s “submariner” needs from birth onward. When we fulfill our puppies’ inborn needs from day one, we can actually prevent almost any troublesome issue from developing.
COMMON PROBLEM 8
Won’t Walk on a Leash (20 Percent)
Angel has never had a problem with a leash in his short life. And one of the reasons for that is his very proactive breeder, Brooke Walker. She has her miniature schnauzer pups wearing colored bands made of paper at four weeks old and introduces them to the sensation of the leash by eight weeks.
When I am walking my pack on the beach, people often come up to ask me questions because it’s very unusual to see a woman walking six perfect miniature schnauzers, all well behaved, all in formation. The other day, a woman came by with a schnauzer that was six months old and didn’t know how to walk on a leash. Well, that’s disgraceful. It turns out she got the puppy at a pet store, which absolutely explains it. A puppy purchased at a pet store at six months has waited too long and never really experienced the world. But walking on a leash, well, that’s one of the first skills your puppy has to have. All my puppies are leash trained by the time they leave my house.
A puppy may be leash trained when it comes to its new owners, but that doesn’t mean the owners are leash trained. When I saw the CNN newsfeed of the Obama puppy pulling little Malia all over the White House lawn, I knew that the First Family had not taken the time to master the walk. Mastering the walk, which we touched on in Chapter 4, means having your puppy walking beside you, head up, with no tension on the leash between you and her. She is not pulling you or exhibiting the zigzagging behavior that we saw with presidential puppy Bo. Zigzagging (or what one of my more colorful clients calls “fly-fishing”) is a sign of an overexcited dog. The walk should not signify excitement to a dog; it should signify structure, and the foundations of structure are laid in puppyhood. In nature, puppies know they have to follow their mother in a disciplined manner, or else they will get lost or left behind. In thinking you need a long lead in order to give your puppy “freedom” to explore out in front of you, you are actually working against Mother Nature. You can take breaks in the walk to allow for exploration time, as well as scheduling play sessions that involve supervised exploration in your yard or in the park. But there is absolutely no substitute for teaching your puppy to master a structured walk.
As she learns to walk on her leash, however, you should expect certain behaviors from a very young puppy. Remember, everything is new to her. It is absolutely natural that she is going to get distracted by grass, by trees, by other dogs, by humans. At those times she will pull on the leash and that will create tension on it. If you pull back on the leash, you only increase the tension, which makes walking with you a stressful experience. Make sure the leash is high up on your puppy’s neck. Carry it loosely, like a briefcase or purse. If your puppy sees something exciting and starts to move toward it, keep the tension loose but continue in the direction you are going, focusing on keeping your puppy’s head up. Use a scent, a treat, or a bully stick to engage her nose and keep her moving forward; engaging a puppy’s nose is a surefire way of redirecting her attention. If the puppy continues to pull, turn around, stop, face her, and make eye contact with her until she sits. Relax all tension on the leash and wait. When she is focused on you again, totally relaxed, only then should you continue the walk. You may have to repeat this several times until your puppy gets the message that you are in control of the walk.
When Crystal Reel brought Mr. President home with her during my weeklong vacation, she had a different issue on the walk. “Sometimes he’d walk as far as he wanted to go and then he’d just sit down. He’s not a fan of long, drawn-out walks—especially when it was warm outside and he’d get overheated.” We’d had several unseasonable heat waves in Los Angeles that year, and bulldogs are notoriously sensitive to the heat. Crystal solved her problem by adapting to Mr. President’s physical needs. “On hot days, I tried to break up our walks into smaller ten-minute walks throughout the day. I would also use the scent of food to get him up and moving if he sat down.”
Another behavior that is totally normal occurs when a puppy gets a little unsure in a brand-new place and doesn’t want to keep moving forward. When Melissa took Angel on his overnight adventure, the first thing she did was bring him to an outdoor café at the top of a flight of marble steps, something he’d never experienced before in his life. Angel merrily trotted across the parking lot on his leash, but when he saw those stairs, he balked. This is perfectly natural, and it’s a sign of good instincts, good common sense. Here is a four-month-old puppy with a brand-new person, in a new situation that he is unsure of. Instinct is telling him, “Use your nose, check it out, don’t do anything rash.” You never want to discourage a puppy that’s listening to its instincts.
Melissa handled this situation correctly, stopping and letting the tension fall on the leash while Angel took in the stairs. Then, before he could become too overwhelmed, she put the bully stick in front of his nose, then brought him up one step, let him sniff, then another, let him sniff, and so on. After the fourth or fifth step, she upped her pace, and Angel—still a little tentative but now back in the mode of moving forward—followed along quickly behind her. The same thing happened in her apartment building, but by the third time he faced a flight of stairs, Angel was going up and down like a pro.
COMMON PROBLEM 9
Crying or Whining (18 Percent)
When puppies are separated from their pack in the wild, they will cry out or whine to get their mothers’ attention. When your puppy cries, it’s usually just to get your attention, because of either loneliness or a need to eliminate. It’s normal for a puppy to whine a little on her first few nights away from her mother and siblings—remember, we are asking dogs to do something very unnatural when we separate them from their packs—but they do adjust quickly, and being alone comfortably is a skill they are going to need for living with humans the rest of their lives. You want your puppy to develop this ability as soon as possible, to prevent the issue of separation anxiety later. If your puppy starts to cry a little during her first few nights, ignoring is the best medicine.
One way to prevent the situation of a puppy that whines or barks from her crate is to make sure she is calm and submissive before you close her in. Never shut the door on an excited, anxious puppy. Wait next to her in silence until she relaxes, then gently close the door and walk away. Make sure to drain the puppy’s energy before bed or quiet times, especially in the early days when she is first getting used to her new environment. If she’s happily exhausted, she’ll have a lot less energy for whining and be more inclined to simply crash for the night. Also, make sure she pees and poops on a regular schedule so that she’s not physically uncomfortable in her crate or sleeping place.
Most of my clients with puppies admit that they have a very hard time not responding to a puppy’s pitiful cries during those crucial first nights. Diana Foster of Thinschmidt German Shepherds is adamant that new owners take a “tough love” stance, for the good of the dog, not for themselves.
It is very important to completely ignore all the noise, regardless of how loud it gets. When dogs are stressed and are trying to work out their frustrations, they will try as hard as they can to get their way. Their behavior will escalate and continue to get worse instead of better. Dog trainers call this “extinction burst.” Unfortunately, it is just at this point when frustrated owners “give in” to their dogs’ demanding behavior, as they just can’t deal with it. Had they waited it out for just a short time longer, the behavior would eventually improve. Interrupting the escalation reinforces the exact behavior people are trying to avoid. Soon after it reaches a peak and the dog is absolutely out of control, he will give in and start to settle down.
COMMON PROBLEM 10
Excited (15 Percent) or Submissive (11 Percent) Urination
Like housebreaking issues, unplanned urination, whether it is excited or submissive, is another behavior that owners will take serious steps to correct. Again, it seems to be a universal human motto: “You can drag me all over the dog park—you can even eat my shoes—but don’t you dare stink up my living room.”
Excited urination is exactly what it sounds like—an overstimulated dog gets caught up in the moment and forgets to control or loses control of her bodily functions. It’s the canine version of “I was so excited, I wet my pants!” Since it’s easy to overstimulate young puppies and since they are still new to their elimination routine, accidents can happen. The most obvious solution to this problem is to closely monitor the intensity of your puppy’s play, not letting her get too overwhelmed by people, places, or things. If the problem seems chronic, you should see your veterinarian, to make sure your puppy doesn’t have urinary tract problems or a neurological inability to control her bladder when excited.
Submissive urination is usually found in fearful, nervous, or very submissive dogs that are sensitive and easily overwhelmed. They urinate under stress in a way to overcompensate, by showing complete submission and respect. If a dog is overly shy or submissive, make sure all new people she encounters practice the no touch, no talk, no eye contact rule until the puppy is ready to meet them. If someone in your household or immediate social circle has an overbearing, high-octane, or very assertive energy, that can also ignite the problem, even if your puppy is familiar with that person. Instruct people who seem to trigger your puppy’s issues to ignore the dog until it becomes absolutely clear that the puppy is comfortable with them.
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