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Not everyone wants a guard dog and most people do not want a dog that is not sociable enough to be anything but a deterrent to visitors. It is important to lay correct foundations and ensure that your dog’s guarding behaviour is manageable at all times.

Socialise the Young Dog and Encourage a Positive Association with Visitors

It is important to socialise every dog from a young age. Take the dog as many different places as possible when still a puppy or it will be fearful of strange situations. It should meet as many other dogs and people who will provide a favourable or non-threatening response to avoid fear of these as it ages too.

Never worry that allowing visitors to greet and treat your young dog or pup in your home will mean that he or she allows anyone to enter the house in your absence. The dog will be taking a lot of cues on how to respond to strangers from you. When you are relaxed and friendly, your dog will be happy to welcome visitors. If you are not around, the dog will probably react far differently and dogs do tend to be very good at reading suspicious behaviour.

In and out of the house encourage the dog to sit when approached by strangers and to accept a kind and gentle fuss as often as possible. Don’t expect it to put up with being rough-housed by people who approach you both, or allow people to behave in a way that could seem intimidating to your pet. The objective is to encourage polite interactions on both sides, show your dog that you will take the lead in deciding what interactions are to be permitted, and prove that your dog can trust you to make the correct decision in the matter.

Draw Boundaries and Enforce Them Quietly but Firmly

Many dogs will bark at visitors to the house and most people do not find this too objectionable considering it a reassuring response to people at the door. It may be more worrying if this develops into growling, snarling and even nipping. Show your dog where the boundaries are. Never shout at or strike the dog which may only encourage an increasingly excited and aggressive response, but introduce a firm, short command that states enough is enough, e.g. Right! At that point remove the dog from the situation by immediately shutting it out of the room. Only allow it back into the room that the visitors enter when it is quiet and then praise it if it maintains a relaxed demeanour in their presence. Always give the dog a chance to behave appropriately, however you define this. Make sure everyone in the household is consistent with what the boundary is so that the dog is never confused and allowed to bark by one person but expected to meet visitors in silence by another member of the family.

 

Don’t Allow the Dog to Consider Doorways ‘Their’ Place

Some guarding dogs may display a tendency to rest and sleep in the doorway of your home. They then see this as their bed area, and they will consider it their right to defend it to trespassers. As any owner is likely to have been taught, a dog’s bed is its place and it is not to be disturbed there. This will definitely worsen reactions to visitors that the dog feels are entering its space. Baby gates or dedicated pet gates are useful for restricting access to the doorway if needed.

Warn Your Visitors of the Dog’s Response and Encourage a Positive Reaction from Your Guests

It is unfair not to warn your friends that your dog will bark at them when they visit, particularly if you have a larger dog that they may find intimidating. If you are confident that, as with many dogs, it is purely a vocal response and they will never bite your visitors, emphasize this. When they visit ask that they greet the dog in the friendliest possible way, smiling, talking in a low and calm voice, and importantly, use the dog’s name. This seems to be quite effective in convincing the dog that they are ‘legitimate’ visitors. A nervous visitor and a noisy, defensive dog is not a fair combination to anyone, so practice this with dog-confident friends first.

Get Professional Help if You Feel You are Losing Control

If you do feel that your dog is becoming increasingly antisocial and is rough with your guests or appears to be becoming aggressive, it is time to get advice from a specialist trainer. If you feel that your dog could represent a danger to anyone if he or she ever got loose or if being walked, you have a serious problem on your hands and must get advice to prevent your dog from being involved in an ugly incident.

All puppies love to chew. Some lose interest as they reach adulthood, but some dogs never kick the habit. Early training can save pet owners frustration, tooth-marked chair legs, and shredded shoes.

Why Do Puppies Chew?

To eliminate destructive chewing, it’s important for pet owners to understand what motivates the behavior. Like babies, puppies who are teething often chew to make their gums feel better. Puppies also are curious like little babies and find chewing a good way to explore the new world around them. Many puppies chew to get exercise. And some chew just because they enjoy it.

Exercise and Mental Stimulation Lessens Destructive Chewing

Pet owners can eliminate a great deal of destructive chewing by making sure their dogs get enough physical and mental exercise. Many dogs chew when they become bored. They’re not doing this to get back at their owners for leaving them alone. They’re just looking for an activity to pass the time.

Pet owners can stimulate their dogs even when they have to be away. Here are a few ideas:

• Try leaving a stuffable toy with a treat in the puppy’s play pen or crate.
• Freeze stuffable toys to make the treats harder to extract.
• Change out the toys left in a dog’s crate for variety.
• Make a dog work for his dinner by putting food in a dispenser ball.

These are just a few ideas for keeping a dog’s crate time becoming boring. They also offer a little bit of exercise when pet owners cannot be around.

 

Dogs and Puppies Need Supervision

Dogs can’t be expected to know the difference between a chew toy and a treasured belonging without a lot of training. For this reason, puppies should either be under close supervision or in a crate or play pen.

Allowing a puppy free reign of the home not only invites destructive chewing, but may result in serious injury. Electric cords or sharp household objects can be common targets for a new puppy’s eager jaws.

Puppy Proof to Prevent Destructive Chewing

Pet owners bringing a new puppy into the home will need to puppy proof just as they would for a curious toddler. Valuable items should be put out of reach, and baby gates should be set up to block off areas where family members aren’t able to supervise.

Reward a Puppy fore Chewing on an Appropriate Item

Puppy games often center on ropes and chewy toys. Playing with a puppy provides positive reinforcement for chewing on the things an owner wants him to chew on.

Chew toys are essential purchases for a new puppy, but don’t bring them all out at once. Variety keeps a dog interested. Plus, if a dog has too many options for chewing, he may conclude that anything in the near vicinity is meant to be mouthed.

What Pet Owners Should Do When a Puppy Chews

With most puppies, chewing is inevitable. It’s important for owners to keep their calm and look at the situation from the dog’s perspective.

For example, if an owner has been away for several hours and returns to find a mutilated designer handbag on the sofa, she needs to realize that punishment is futile. Dogs have very short-term memories and are unable to associate their behavior an hour ago with a torn, leather bag, and their owners’ yelling.

Sure, the puppy may slink away in what seems like a guilty manner, but he’s really just cowering at his master’s terrifying new dark side. In the future, this owner will want to remember to crate the puppy while out and put valuable items out of reach.

Another interesting problem occurs when owners actually reward their puppies for chewing without realizing it. Say a dog picks up a sock and heads for his favorite spot under the table. A vigilant owner may spring into action to chase the puppy down and retrieve the object. Unfortunately, the puppy will only interpret this as his favorite game of chase. It’s likely he’ll try the sock trick whenever he wants some fun and attention. In this case, an owner should calmly walk to the puppy and offer a favorite toy in exchange for the sock.

A final error pet owners commonly make is offering their dogs chew toys which look strikingly similar to shoes, or other off-limit items. Some owners actually give their puppies an old shoe and expect them to distinguish between the worn out sneaker and a new one. These types of toys will only confuse a dog and set back the training process.

Now that pet owners are on their way to eliminating destructive chewing, they may also be interested in related articles covering training puppies not to bite, working with dogs to eliminate jumping up for attention and basic obedience commands including sit, stay, and down.

If you’re looking to adopt a dog from a pet shelter, use these tips to choose a dog that will fit with your family, and respond well to dog obedience training.

Mixed Breed Dog or Pure Breed Dog?

Both types of dogs are available at adoption shelters. The benefits of choosing a pure breed are that, to a degree, you know in general what to expect in terms of size (in the case of a not quite fully grown dog), temperament, and potential health issues. It is important to remember, though, that dog obedience is as much a function of training (or lack of it) as breed. While the characteristics of a pure breed dog might be more predictable, shelter pure breeds may have uncertain histories which could include inbreeding.

Mixed breed dogs tend to be healthier due to a lack of inbreeding. Sometimes, the breed of the dog’s parentage is obvious, in which case, the dog will probably have characteristics of that breed.

How to Choose an Adult Dog for Adoption

Julie Fudge-Smith, professional dog obedience trainer with A Positive Connection says, “The most important thing you can look for in your dog is the social drive towards people.” Having a strong social drive in your dog insures that your new companion fits with your family and can protect against potentially serious future problems.

Dog Behavior Indicates Socialization

According to Fudge Smith, when you arrive at the pet shelter and choose a dog to look at, you should first take a few minutes and watch the dog. See if he comes up to you without being asked to. If he does approach you, how does he interact with you? Does he touch you? If so, does he do it softly and gently? Is he interested in talking to you, or does he simply sniff you and move on? Think of each three second interval of interaction that the dog initiates as one point. The more point the dog scores, the more socialized he is.

Be aware of the manner in which the dog carries himself. Is he loose and wiggly? Does he seem relaxed in his environment? Or, is he tense; constantly looking around, and not focused on you? Does he settle down and enjoy your attention? Attention is something he gets little of living in a shelter, so he should be happy that you are there with him. If he’s not interested in being with you, then his social drive is not very high.

The way a dog wags his tail can tell you a lot about him. His tail should be held at middle height (not tucked in, and not looking like it’s sticking out of the top of his head). The wag should be gentle, easy and circular. A frantically wagging tail indicates arousal rather than socialization. Aroused dogs are more interested in the environment than in you. They will sniff around, look for ways out, and pay attention to things rather than people.

Dog Behavior of a Well-socialized Pet

Once you have watched how the dog moves around you, pet him once down the back from the top of his head to his tail. Then, watch how he responds to your touch. Does he move towards or away from you? Does he seek out your touch or does he merely tolerate it? Repeat the pet a few more times and look for a positive response; the dog should move closer for more petting, turn to look at you, or stay where he is for more touching.

Plan multiple visits to your new dog, and bring family members to meet him. Use these tips to help choose a dog that will engage with you, respond well to obedience training, and be a comfortable and loving member of your family.

Canine behavioral problems are frustrating for owners and are one of the leading reasons dogs are surrendered to pounds and shelters. Fluoxetine is one of the behavior modification medications which may be used to treat dogs for various behavioral problems.

What is Fluoxetine?

Fluoxetine is probably better known as Prozac® when marketed for people. For animals, fluoxetine is marketed as Reconcile®.

Fluoxetine is an antidepressant in the selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. As a SSRI antidepressant, fluoxetine differs from other medications such as clomipramine which act as tricyclic antidepressants and therefore act on the central nervous system through different mechanisms.

Fluoxetine exerts its influence at the pre-synaptic neuron level by inhibiting the uptake of serotonin. It does not act as a sedative.

Fluoxetine is a fairly long-acting medication, with an elimination half-life of 2-3 days for fluoxetine and 7-9 days for norfluoxetine (an active metabolite of fluoxetine).

 

How is Fluoxetine (Prozac®, Reconcile®) Used in Dogs?

Fluoxetine (Reconcile®) is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an aid in the treatment of canine separation anxiety in conjunction with behavioral modification training techniques. Fluoxetine should not be used solely, without the use of behavioral modification, as the behavioral modification training is the process by which the dog learns new and proper behaviors, with fluoxetine simply making it easier for the dog to learn the desired behaviors.

Though separation anxiety is the only behavioral problem which fluoxetine (Reconcile®) is labeled to treat, fluoxetine is also used off-label to treat several other behavioral problems in dogs, including:

• thunderstorm phobias
• numerous other phobias and fears
• canine aggression
• obsessive-compulsive canine disorders

As with canine separation anxiety, when used to treat any other canine behavioral disorder, fluoxetine is best used in conjunction with behavioral modification techniques.

Because fluoxetine takes approximately 10 days to reach steady-state concentrations in the blood stream, many veterinary behavioral specialists advocate the use of shorting-acting “rescue” drugs, such as alprazolam (Xanax®) or diazepam (Valium®), to help calm fearful or anxious dogs during times of intense need during the first 10-14 days of treatment with fluoxetine. For instance, a dog owner dealing with a dog suffering from separation anxiety may be advised to administer alprazolam to the dog shortly before leaving the dog alone in the home to produce sedation for a short period of time, allowing the fluoxetine blood levels time to reach an effective level.

Potential Drug Interactions with Fluoxetine

Fluoxetine is known to interact with other drugs and may enhance or interfere with the effects of these medications.

• Fluoxetine may increase the half-life of drugs such as diazepam and alprazolam, making them more effective for an extended period of time.
• Fluoxetine may increase the extrapyramidal effects of haloperidol.
• Fluoxetine may increase the blood levels of lithium.
• Fluoxetine may increase the side effects seen with L-tryptophan, tricyclic antidepressants and buspirone.
• Fluoxetine should not be used in conjunction with monoamine oxidase inhibitors, such as l-deprenyl or selegiline, because the combination appears to result in increased morbidity.
• Fluoxetine is tightly bound to plasma proteins and its effect on other drugs which bind plasma proteins is unknown at this time.

Potential Side Effects When Administering Fluoxetine to Dogs

Side effects noted in dogs receiving fluoxetine include:

• lethargy/calmness
• gastrointestinal effects
• anxiety
• irritability
• insomnia
• hyperactivity
• panting
• lack of appetite

Fluoxetine is known to alter blood glucose levels and it should be used cautiously in dogs with diabetes mellitus.

Rarely, fluoxetine has been found to produce signs of aggression in previously unaggressive dogs.

Using Fluoxetine (Prozac®, Reconcile®) to Treat Behavioral Problems in Dogs

Fluoxetine (Prozac®. Reconcile®) may be used, in conjunction with proper behavioral modification therapies, to correct or treat several behavioral problems in dogs, including canine separation anxiety and other phobias or fears. When coupled with appropriate training techniques, fluoxetine can be quite effective in treating various behavioral issues for many dogs.

Conditioning is a method that was first applied to dogs back in the early 1900s when Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov began eliciting certain responses – called conditioned responses – in a group of dogs. Since then, dog trainers and canine behaviorists have been using Pavlov’s discoveries to benefit fearful and phobic dogs the world over.

Pavlov and Classical Conditioning in Dogs

Pavlov began his experiment by pairing a neutral stimulus – a bell – with a stimulus that was significant to the dogs – a meat-flavored powder. The dogs would exhibit a natural response to the meat powder – they would drool and salivate. This innate, natural response was termed an unconditioned response. Initially, the dogs showed no acknowledgment of unusual behavior at the sound of the bell. But as the meat powder and the bell were paired for a period of time, the dogs learned to associate the taste of the meat powder with the sound of the bell.

Over time, Pavlov slowly removed the meat powder, but the bell remained. And the dogs would salivate (a conditioned response) at the sound of the bell (a conditioned stimuli) in anticipation of the meat powder, which they had learned to associate with the sound of the bell.

Conditioning and Its Role in Overcoming Canine Fears and Phobias

In the decades since Pavlov’s discovery, dog trainers and dog behaviorists have adapted the workings of classical conditioning, and this method is among the most common and most successful when it comes to training and re-training dogs to perform skills, to overcome fears and it’s even been used to help dogs resist instinctually-driven compulsions.

Pavlov’s work illustrated just how powerful associations can be and when used strategically, this is called conditioning. Pavlov’s method has been adapted for use as a training method for use with essentially every type of canine behavior.

In terms of basic obedience training, conditioning is used in a manner that pairs the desired behavior with hand signals or vocal cues, with reinforcement provided in the form of reward, such as treats or praise. An unconditioned response – such as sitting – is naturally elicited by holding a treat over the dog’s head in a manner that causes the dog to sit. The action is paired with a vocal or hand cue – a conditioned stimulus. And the behavior is rewarded with treats that serve as reinforcement. Over time, the dog will begin to associate the act of sitting with the trainer’s cue, and the act of sitting will be associated with a positive occurrence – receiving a treat or other reward. When the latter scenario occurs, this is known as a conditioned response.

When it comes to phobias, conditioning can be used in several ways. The most common method involves tapping in to the power of association through gradual exposure to the feared stimulus, which is presented in a less threatening way, combined with positive, pleasurable experiences, such as treats and praise, which serve to neutralize the negative experience.

Re-conditioning as a Way to Treat a Dog’s Phobia

Re-conditioning occurs when a trainer or pet owner works to counteract a conditioned behavior. Conditioning does occur naturally throughout the dog’s life, and often, the result is not desirable – such as the formation of an intense fear or phobia. Re-conditioning serves to counteract and undo that negative or undesirable conditioning.

To re-condition a dog with a phobia, the process typically begins by presenting the feared stimuli, such as thunder, in a less threatening manner. In the case of thunder, a recording is played at a low level that is less threatening and frightening to the dog. The dog’s trainer then pairs the toned-down stimuli with positive experiences for the dog, such as praise, treats, play and other positive attention. Over time, the dog will begin to associate the feared stimuli, like thunder, with good experiences, rather than negative ones.

Gradually and over time, the volume of the thunder recording will be increased, to simulate the experience as it occurs in real life. The dog trainer will continue to provide treats and other positive attention, which the dog learns to associate with the thunder. The calming effect that occurs due to the treats and other positive attention is known as the unconditioned response. This results in a reduction in the amount of fear and distress experienced by the dog.

Once the experience of hearing the sounds of a thunderstorm is neutralized through association with treats and positive experiences, these unconditioned stimuli are removed from the situation gradually. But the dog’s association of good experiences of treats and attention with the thunder remains, resulting in a new conditioned response to the thunder or other frightening stimuli that’s at the center of the situation involving the phobia or fear.

Conditioning and Pavlov’s discoveries are the basis for all effective dog training methods, particularly when those training methods target problematic canine behavior involving fear, phobias or other undesirable responses. And while an owner may feel comfortable trying to tackle a phobia or fear using training that’s rooted in conditioning and Pavlovian theory, dog owners should always consult a professional dog trainer or dog behaviorist, as conditioning is a powerful tool that, if mistakenly used in an incorrect manner, may exacerbate an already bad situation.