Crate Training

Too often I hear all the reasons why people do not want to crate train their dogs. I see where they might be coming from, but please see it from my perspective.
As if our family hasn't had enough drama the last two weeks, Saturday night we had to take Nigel (my Skinny Brown Dog) to the emergency room. He couldn't urinate and was frantically running around trying only to produce a few drops. We were afraid he might have a blockage so off we went to the ER. It turns out that he did in fact have bladder stones and one ended up lodged in his urethra. They put a catheter in him and he had to stay at the vet overnight and wait to have surgery.
Nigel started his crate training when he was 10 weeks old. He was in his crate when left unattended until he was about 18 months old (he is now five years old). Over the years I have randomly put him in his crate just to keep up with his training. All of this work paid off for us this weekend. Nigel had never spent the night at the vet and he was totally stressed out by everything that was going on. Thankfully, he is crate trained so he went right into his cage at the vet and laid down and got comfortable. Imagine if Nigel was NOT crate trained? Imagine if this traumatic experience was compounded with him being put in a cage for the first time? Why would ANYONE want that for their dog? Not to mention the stress of having to be confined to a crate at home for the week(s) of recovery.
I always always always stress the importance of crate training. It not only keeps your puppy safe while they are learning what's appropriate to chew on and help with potty training, it helps if and when your dog might have to stay overnight at the vet's office.
Nigel is home safe (in his crate) recovering from his bladder surgery and the only thing stressing him out is that darn Elizabethan collar.

Update

The reaction from friends, family, co workers and random strangers has been interesting to say the least. I am shocked at how many people basically called me stupid for getting involved in a dog fight or don't understand how I "let this happen". If they only truly understood the situation, that I was completely trapped, scared and helpless, they might have a little more sympathy but apparently dog trainers are expected to be perfect and have perfect dogs. Maybe they should take into consideration that I have only lived with these Saint Bernards for one year and in that year I spent nearly four of those months in a relapse with my MS plus had to have two rounds of Solumedrol infusions which have their own set of side effects. We also planned our wedding, got married and I got a new job. All of these things are exhausting for a person with MS which leaves no extra energy for training dogs. Yes, I have Multiple Sclerosis. No, I don't use it as an excuse but it is the reason that I can no longer walk dogs or teach obedience classes.
This event was extremely traumatic for me. It has changed me and broken my confidence a bit. If you want to sit back and judge me for having imperfect dogs or for doing my best to stop a horrific, unexpected incident, so be it. To the people who have been sending kind words, prayers, love and cookies (thank you Tammy!), we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We are not only dealing with me trying to heal my body and spirit, but we are facing what could be a very difficult decision with our beloved pet.

Proof of Bite Inhibition

***WARNING***GRAPHIC PICTURES BELOW***

This morning as I was getting ready for work, two of our dogs got into a fight while coming in from the backyard. My American Pit Bull Terrier Enzo and one of my husband's Saint Bernards. I heard a couple of low growls and then it was on. It happened so fast and in the hallway that they go through all the time. The Big Blending Project has been going very well and this was the worst fight yet (we've had a few squabbles, but no real fights). As you may or may not know, I have Multiple Sclerosis and am not very strong and my husband was already out of the house. I have broken up probably a hundred dog fights through my various dog jobs so I'm pretty experienced and confident (and I've never been injured in the process). The problem with the Saints is that they are litter mates so when one gets into trouble, the other comes to help. Well, Rufus and Enzo were going at it (lots of noise, very little contact) and Bruno comes to help and is pushing his way through Rufus so I have 275lbs of Saint pushing toward a 60lb APBT (all in a narrow hallway so I have no option as to how to go at them and they have me pinned against the wall/corner). I was screaming and pushing them back but they would not stop. In the process, Enzo bit my arm and while I continued to try to pull them apart, Rufus escalated and bit my arm as well. The bite from Rufus sunk into me deep and it burned like fire. I finally got them to stop, separated them and surveyed the damage to my body. I had a huge chunk out of my forearm (I was actually missing some flesh), a puncture on the bottom side of my forearm and two punctures in my left leg (I was wearing my robe while all of this was happening so I was quite vulnerable). I immediately called my husband who hurried home, helped me get dressed and took me to the hospital.
I am always always always talking about Bite Inhibition to anyone who owns a dog. Most "civilians" don't know the term or have any idea how to teach it. Dr. Ian Dunbar always says you don't know if a dog has bite inhibition until it bites you which is why I try to make dogs bite me when I assess them for the rescues I volunteer with. Yes, I am a little crazy, but one of the main reasons that I adopted Enzo as an adult was because I was 90% sure he had great bite inhibition. Today I learned that I was correct in my assessment. In the heat of the moment, in the worst fight I have ever seen my dog in, he bit me and barely left a scratch. This first picture is of where Enzo bit me (you can click on the pictures to enlarge them):

If you can see the red dot on my wrist, that's where his tooth hit me and nicked the skin. It feels like I may end up having a bruise there, but no major damage.
The pictures that follow are of my arm and leg where Rufus bit me.

This is right after it happened:


This is my inner left thigh where Rufus bit me (the lower puncture is super deep):


This is at the hospital after they cleaned up my arm a little:


The under side of my arm:


They managed to pull the skin together and stitch closed the worst one and I got one stitch in my leg. They used tape/glue on the under side of my arm because I was not handling being stitched up very well. The only thing that I have experienced that was more horrible than receiving these stitches was having a spinal tap.


And it all happened in this narrow hallway (so my options were limited as to what I could do):




BITE INHIBITION IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN EVER TEACH YOUR DOG!!!!! There is a small window when dogs are puppies to teach them so DO IT!! It is nearly impossible to change their bite inhibition when they are adults. Get Dr. Dunbar's book "After You Get Your Puppy" to learn more about teaching Bite Inhibition. Click the link to download the book for free. It's FREE so read it and share it with others. Bite Inhibition should be a term known by all dog owners. Learn it and teach it to others.

The Things You Don't Think About

When I became a dog trainer I wanted to help people with their problem dogs and also help people raise puppies that were exactly what the human wanted. I raised my puppy Nigel this way. I formed him to be my training partner. He has hundreds upon hundreds of hours of training and socialization. I started his bite inhibition training and socialization the day he came home at ten weeks of age. He is as close to perfect as I wanted him to be. He is good puppy trainer and a great helper at in-home private training sessions as well as in obedience classes. I'm proud of him as a mom and as a trainer. Since him, I've adopted an adult pit bull and married a man with four dogs that have pretty good training considering my husband a "civilian".

Training priorities changed when I became disabled. I never in a million years expected to be diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. It really changes everything when it comes to how I want my dogs to behave. MS causes different issues for different people. For me, my main issue is balance. My legs are weak and spastic and I stumble easily. This poses quite a problem when two of our dogs are Saint Bernards that are clumsy and weigh nearly as much as I do. They love to bump into people, lean into people and their brakes don't work very well when they are gallivanting around the yard chasing each other and don't see you standing there watering your plants. They also take up a lot of space when they sprawl out on the floor (and they always have to be touching each other-yes they are litter mates-so they ALWAYS lay near one another). If I'm touching a wall or a piece of furniture for balance, I have no problem stepping over them. We also have five other dogs of various sizes that mill around the house, under our feet. They all now know "out" when we need them to move out of the kitchen and they all (mostly) know "move" when they are laying down or standing and we need them to move out of the way. One thing that both of us humans have been working on is making sure that the dogs lay still unless we ask them to move. We don't want them to get spooked when we try to step over them. If a 130lb dog stands up suddenly it could knock anyone over let alone someone with balance issues. Certain things that I had no reason to think about in the past are now priorities in my home.
As a trainer I had considered training service dogs but now I'm even more interested in helping people train their own dogs to be exactly what they need them to be. When my legs feel weak I can count on my pit bull to stand strong in front of me so I can push off of him to help me stand. So far the that is the extent of useful things that I have taught my own dogs to help me with. The other six are here for comic relief, head-dip push-hugs, snuggly cuddles and to make sure that I never get so down that I forget supper time.

Long Overdue Update-Blending Families

A lot has happened since my last blog post. Scott and I are now married and living together with all seven of our dogs who all live reasonable well together considering that we combined all adult dogs including five males, two females. Luckily Roxy has always been good with small dogs so I wasn't worried about her getting along with the resident female in the house (who weighs six pounds). They actually share the Queen Bitch title quite well.
When blending families or integrating a new furry family member it is important to go slow. We spent more than six weeks working on introducing all of the dogs. Luckily our house has a split yard so we had options for slow, safe introductions. Once we all moved into Scott's house I realized that Nigel was afraid of the Bigs. He would growl whenever they came near him. I thought I did a great job socializing Nigel but apparently I forgot to introduce him to enough gigantic dogs. We did one on one interactions with Nigel and a Big until he became comfortable enough to play with both Bigs at the same time. Again, we went slow and didn't force anything so that today, this is my living room: (Charlie, Nigel, Rufus, Bruno)



The next challenge was my Serial Rapist of a pit bull. He is a horny guy and when he gets excited, he humps. I didn't figure that Rufus would have a problem with it but Bruno was a concern. Enzo got to know Rufus one on one off-leash first and he did mount him but Rufus thought it was a fun game so they wrestled. Next stage was meeting Bruno one on one, off leash. This went well. He did try to mount him but Bruno gave him a snarly-snap and Enzo stopped! I was so proud. Slowly we started adding more dogs to the play groups. ALL initial play groups were supervised by both myself and Scott. Once I saw Enzo do his signature roll-onto-his-back-googly-eyed-crazed pit-bull-open-mouth maneuver, I knew were making great progress. (Bruno, Enzo, Rufus)



We eventually had all seven dogs in the yard together. When play escalated we jumped in and calmed the crew before they could resume playing. We kept the all-seven group play sessions short at first and built up time over a few weeks. Once we had a few all-seven meet and greets outside, we tried having all seven dogs in the house together. Again, we didn't force anything and kept the time brief that all seven were loose in the house. Luckily all dogs are crate trained and the Bigs have their own room so we could crate and rotate when needed.


We have had a couple minor scuffles in the house since we started this whole project but nothing major. I truly believe that if we had gone too fast or forced introductions, this could have been a total disaster. Now, we can let all the dogs out into the yard together, unsupervised, for potty breaks. I don't believe that we can EVER trust them all together loose in the house when we are not home, but this is an easy thing to manage. Rufus and Enzo even have a relationship now that allows Enzo to be himself (and Bruno allows it to happen).


As a trainer, this has been one of my biggest challenges. I've learned a lot and now have more knowledge to pass along to clients. Here are some more cute pictures of our dogs living peacefully together:

Blending a Family

One question that has never come up for me in dog training is how to blend a family when both families include multiple dogs. I had never thought of how to blend multi-dog families until now. I have three dogs and my boyfriend Scott has four and we are moving in together at the end of the month. Of the seven dogs, two have minor issues that are concerning. My boy Enzo is a Serial Rapist and Scott's boy Bruno isn't always perfect with all dogs. If Enzo tries to mount Bruno it could be a disaster. Enzo weighs 65lbs and Bruno weighs 140lbs. Neither one would back down from a fight and that's not a fight that I would want to have to break up...

We are combining five males and two females. Here's the breakdown:
My dogs:
Roxy-seven year old Border Collie/Australian Shepherd, rescued at eight months old, female, 60lbs
Enzo-six year old American Pit Bull Terrier, rescued at five years old, male, 65lbs
Nigel-four year old Skinny Brown Dog, rescued at 10 weeks old, male, 40lbs

Scott's dogs:
Kaida-four year old Rat Terrier, from a breeder, female, 5lbs
Charlie-three year old Rat Terrier, from a breeder, male, 9lbs
Bruno-three year old Saint Bernard, from a breeder, male, 140lbs
Rufus-three year old Saint Bernard, from a breeder, male, 130lbs
Bruno and Rufus are litter mates.

Scott's dogs are classified as The Bigs and The Littles. The Littles and my dogs all get along well. The Bigs met my dogs for the first time this weekend. Scott and I and my friend Laura (who is an experienced dog handler) met at my training studio to do "neutral territory" introductions. We started easy with Nigel and Rufus. Rufus was on-leash, Nigel was not. Piece of cake, no problems other than Nigel being a little scared of Rufus because he is huge. Next we took Rufus out and brought in Bruno on-leash to meet Nigel off-leash. Piece of cake, no problems. Then I put Nigel away and brought in Roxy off-leash with Bruno on-leash. Roxy curled her lip a litte when Bruno got too close too fast and Bruno backed off. Good boy Bruno! Bruno was swapped for Rufus who was completely fine with Roxy.
Now it was time for Enzo and Bruno to finally meet. I had Enzo on-leash, on a Halti and Laura had Bruno on-leash. We made wide circles in the room gradually getting closer together. The boys noticed each other but I had chicken jerky so Enzo's focus was on me. We finally got close enough for the boys to sniff and Enzo slammed his face into Bruno's chest trying to rub off his Halti...oops. Should have seen that coming, BAD TRAINER! Bruno appropriately snapped at Enzo, telling him he was being rude and Enzo snapped back half-heartedly. We widened the circle, I removed Enzo's Halti and we started again. Enzo did a half-bark-lunge at Bruno on our first pass post-Halti, which Bruno ignored, and we slowly made the circle smaller again. After less than ten minutes, the boys were sitting next to each other taking treats. We then brought Rufus back into the room, on-leash, and tried all three together. Again we circled wide moving closer together and within a few short minutes all three were sitting nicely by each other taking treats. Enzo was taken out of the room (on a super positive note) and we let Roxy and Nigel out off-leash. They were all getting along so well that we dropped Rufus and Bruno's leashes. All four were coexisting peacefully, off-leash.
They all did so well that we decided to take all three of my dogs to Scott's house and give it a real life trial. The Bigs have their own room in the house so they stayed there and the Littles and my three roamed the house for about an hour. After they all settled in, Rufus came out briefly to say hello to everyone and all was well. We didn't want to push our luck so the Bigs stayed separate for the rest of the evening.
Phase 1 was a success! I was surprised at how well they all did and am looking forward to our next session. Hopefully one day we can all live peacefully together but for now we have separate rooms and separate yards while all the pooches settle in.

Legendary Trainer Thinks Dog Training Might be in Trouble

Dale, Steve - My Pet World

September 2, 2009
Dr. Ian Dunbar fears dog training may be going down the tubes.

Dunbar, arguably the most influential dog trainer of the past four decades, shifted the standard from punishment-based techniques to positive lure reward training, motivating through food and toys. Dunbar first appeared on the scene when most dogs weren't even trained at all. It was Dunbar who supported the notion that good canine citizens need early socialization. In 1981, he developed the first puppy classes likely ever offered, and marketed the idea. Dunbar wrote several books and founded the Association of Pet Dog Trainers.

There's no argument that Dunbar's influence has been profound. But as he rolls past 60 and toward typical retirement age, instead of bursting with pride, resting on his numerous accomplishments and handing the leash over to others, he's worried about who will be taking that leash.

"If we don't change what's happening in dog training, I'll look back on nearly 40 years as a waste," he says. "That's why I'm out talking. That's why we began the website (www.dogstardaily.com)."

If there's a single nemesis to counter Dunbar's gentle and fun approach, it's Cesar Millan, the self-proclaimed "Dog Whisperer." Clearly, Dunbar has a loyal following among professional dog trainers and savvy dog owners. Still, Dunbar just isn't the household name Millan is.

In an interview earlier this year, Millan conceded that he's only one person with one point of view. True enough, but Millan has big business behind him, websites (including one that's membership based), best-selling books and a line of products, not to mention that TV show. It's no wonder some trainers follow Millan as their leader of the pack, accepting his idea that training by being dominant forces dogs into a calm, submissive state.

It's one thing to sincerely believe a certain methodology to train dogs. It's another to purposely mess up dogs for economic gain. "Today, clients hire trainers to deal with behavior problems the trainers themselves created," says Dunbar. "There was no problem going into (the training classes), but causing problems means more business."

Dunbar's wife, Kelly Gorman Dunbar, also a trainer, disagrees. "I don't believe that people are actually trying to mess up dogs to get more business, though I suppose that does happen. Mostly it's trainers following bullying techniques who find themselves causing problems, or trainers who are just ignorant."

Gorman Dunbar agrees with her husband and others that dog training today, in some ways, is regressing. It may begin with Millan's assertion that we need to dominate our dogs.

"It's a bit ridiculous, isn't it?" says Gorman Dunbar. "Why would we have to dominate our best friend to (make the dog) comply? Years and years ago, I went to a traditional (dog) training academy (to train people to train dogs). I had a wonderful Rottweiler puppy (named Ivan) who I had bonded with closely for the first six months before we began the program. We were told dominate over our dogs, and it was compulsion training. In a few weeks, my former best friend was growling back at me. And the school's response, 'Well, then correct him really hard on a prong collar (a spiky collar with spikes pointing inward around the dog's neck).'"

What Gorman Dunbar soon realized is that Ivan was correcting her for hurting him, and the response she was instructed to offer was to correct back even harder. "It became a vicious circle," she says. "All Ivan learned was to dislike training and to not trust me. How does that make sense?"

"And I'm afraid that's what's happening all over the country today," Dunbar adds. Some of the theories espoused today by Millan and others are based on long disproven 1950s and '60s notions of training, and others are simply "made up."

"A lot of trainers are out there who can't train dogs but they can jerk them around and zap them (with electronic collars)," says Dunbar. "For some, it's appealing for us to feel we can dominate our dogs, but for most owners, in our guts we know this is know way to treat our best friends."

Dunbar says he began the www.dogstardaily website so the public could see videos of how to motivate dogs through positive reinforcement training; read what others (some of the most well known experts on behavior and training in the world) have to say on nearly 30 blogs; hear audio descriptions on training techniques; read articles, and have one-on-one contact with the Dunbars and their blogging colleagues -- all for free.

"Dog training shouldn't about intimidation; it should be fun again," says Dunbar. "I'm determined for dog training to make a quantum leap in the direction of motivation and fun by the end of the year."

(NEXT WEEK: Dunbar describes how came up with the idea of puppy classes, talks about appropriate punishment, and notes that too many people are treating their dogs as surrogate children. Full disclosure: Steve Dale is a blogger at www.dogstardaily.com -- for which he is not paid.)

(Steve Dale welcomes questions/comments from readers. Although he can't answer all of them individually, he'll answer those of general interest in his column. Write to Steve at Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207. Send e-mail to PETWORLD(at)STEVE DALE.TV. Include your name, city and state. Steve's website is www.stevedalepetworld.com; he also hosts the nationally syndicated "Steve Dale's Pet World" and "The Pet Minute." He's also a contributing editor to USA Weekend.

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