THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH

Poor dogs. Some of us think getting a manicure is akin to heaven, but for dogs, getting their nails done is more often like going to hell. I was thinking about this last night while I was working with Willie on nails that grow extra long and extra fast because of his restricted exercise. I just switched him over to a “grinder” (Oster Grinder or Dremel, mine is an Oster) and asked myself this question: “What took me so long?” I used the Oster on both Pippy Tay and Lassie for years and with great success, but was a tad lazy about conditioning Willie to it until now. Although I’ve only cut into the quick of one of his nails one time, (and then not badly — but still, I hate it when that happens) and have used buckets of treats while trimming his nails, Willie clearly hated having his nails trimmed and seemed to more and more as the years went on.

Over the years I’ve clipped a gazillion nails, and worked with hundreds of clients whose dogs objected to having their nails trimmed. I thought it’d be interesting to share some thoughts and to hear about your experiences. Nail trimming may seem like a trivial subject, but given Lassie’s face when I used to use clippers on her (“I’M DYING!”) and the clients who were bitten by their dogs when they tried, it’s actually pretty important.

Here’s why I think some dogs get worse with a clipper: the “click” of clippers actually makes things worse for some dogs. I first wondered about this when several clients told me that their dogs hated having their nails trimmed until they went deaf, and then didn’t care. Wow. Really? But I noticed the same thing with Pippy Tay; starting around the age of 15 years, about when her hearing started to go. When she was younger, Pippy was never aggressive about nail trims, she just acted as though having her nails done was a nightmare beyond belief. Oh yes, it was easily managed and we got through it fine, but Pippy clearly found it extremely aversive, even with the best conditioning and tons of treats. Once I switched to the grinder she completely relaxed, and would lie on her side as if being massaged when  I’d say, “Let’s go to the spa!” She’d lie down and practically raise a paw. It was all I could do to not ask her to select her color and pay up before I finished the manicure.

Lassie never liked having her nails done, but appeared to be much less stressed with the grinder than the clippers. Luke and Tulip didn’t seem to mind much, so I clipped their nails because it’s faster and easier, but the device was a godsend for both Pippy and Lassie. Willie didn’t mind his nails being done at first, but after I cut into the quick once he seemed to hate it. He’d tense up as if expected doom, and flinch each time the clippers made their ‘clipping’ sound. That, and my client’s dogs, got me to thinking: Could the click of a clippers condition dogs to expect something aversive as easily as something good as in Clicker Training? Why not?  After all a ‘click’ is extremely effective at getting a dog’s attention. A clicking sound has an instant onset, abrupt escalation from no power to full power, and a full range of frequencies  (the better to light up more acoustic receptor neurons), and few sounds are better at getting at becoming meaningful to a mammal.

As I mentioned, I’ve switched Willie to a grinder and I like the way it’s going. Is he still thrilled with getting his nails done? No. I suspect part of this is because he already has some arthritis in his paws (my vet says: “What Border Collie doesn’t, the way they short stop through life?”) and it hurts to have his paws handled. So I’m very, very gentle with his paws and nails.  But he’ll lie on his side quietly, let me hold his paw and do one paw at a time now before he gets a treat, and he doesn’t get up as if panicked.

Here are a few things I’ve learned about using the Oster. Be forewarned, I’m not a groomer, so groomers please, please jump in here!

1. Obviously, start slowly. First I sat down with a bowl of treats on one side, Willie lying in front of me and the grinder in the other. Holding it behind my back, I’d turn it on, give Willie a treat, turn it off. Repeat about 10 times. That was Session One. Session Two was moving the device toward Willie, as he got the treat, eventually holding a paw and moving the grinder to within an inch of a nail. In Session Three I ground 2 nails down just at tiny bit, giving him a treat between ‘grinds’(would have given them during but needed 3 hands). Then we did some more ‘Turn grinder on, Give Treat” with no contact. In session Four I trimmed an entire paw, although again only doing about half of what needed to be done. In Session Five I tried to do two paws, with lots of treat between, but that was too much. He scrambled to get up once I started on paw # 2, looking all panicky. I gently restrained him so that I could end the session rather than he, but touched the Oster to one nail, gave him 5 treats and then let him up. The next session I did paw, took a break and did one more nail… and that’s where we are now.

2. Be sure that the grinder spins in the direction of the nail growth, not against it. You can figure this out easily just by touching it to the nail. If it spins in the other direction it pushes the nail back into the bed and it clearly is uncomfortable for the dog. It almost bounces off the nail. If I hold my device in my right hand and move it away from the dog’s paw it seems to be best.

3. Watch out for hair, yours or your dog’s, getting caught in the rotating head. If that happens, it instantly winds up around the base of the area with the grinder on it. Not good. Although my Oster is an electric one (you can get battery operated ones too), when this happened when I first started using it shut itself off (or did I just turn it off instantly? Eeeps, not sure now!) and it never hurt anyone, but it did surprise Lassie and I a few times. Basically you need to be ever alert about keeping hair away from the rotating head. Once you get used to it it’s easy to do, but you do need to pay attention!

4. Just as in clipping, don’t take too much off at a time. One advantage of a grinder is that it is much harder to cut into the quick… you can see exactly how close you are getting, even on dogs with black nails.

5. Keep supplies handy. I’ve kept the grinder out for the last week. My plan, and the one I used with Lassie and Pippy, is to keep it out for a week, work a little bit at a time on each paw each day, then put it away for a few weeks. I’m much more likely to keep after their nails if I can see the Oster right in front of me. Of course, that means that my living room now looks like a gym/grooming shop, what with Willie’s exercise ball, his wooden poles and holders for stepping over, a ‘step-up’ exercise step, a grinder on the rocker… but Jim doesn’t complain and it makes life easier for me right now.

6. Never forget the always handy “Take your dog to the groomer or vet to get his/her nails clipped” option. For me that’s just more time and expense, so I don’t use that option, but it’s a great one if you are having trouble AND if you know a groomer who you totally trust.

Groomers? I’d love to hear your comments about nail trimming. I know some dog lovers on Facebook mentioned that your dogs love having their nails done. That’s fantastic, good for you. If your dog doesn’t, don’t feel guilty. Remember that Pippy learned to love her manicures, Lassie endured them. Each dog is different and will react differently to the exact same methods. There are also at least two brands out there for medium size dogs: Oster grinders and Dremel. (I thought dremel was actually the name of the tool, but it turns out it is a brand name. See, I told you I’m not a groomer.) Any comments from groomers about which brand they like best?

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Still gorgeous weather, and the Goldenrod and Joe Pye weed are flashing plumes of yellow and pink  all around. We’re busy busy at the farm, finishing up a garage clean up and getting ready for Scotland. I had a root canal go bad on me last week, so much of late last week was spent in first a pain-induced and later a Vicodin-induced haze (the latter preferable to the former), so I missed several days of work. (That’s why this blog is tardy. My apologies. A Vicodin powered blog would have been interesting, but perhaps not professionally wise of me. I suspect it would have made the subject of nail trimming especially interesting. I am happy to say that my brain appears to be up and running and I no longer look like a chipmunk with a wad of nuts in her cheek.)

Willie is doing well, I’m just floored at how good he’s been since February.. FEBRUARY! when he was first injured. I just can’t believe what a good boy he’s been, we are so lucky. And in less than a month he can be off leash! Oooooooo, I can barely wait. He’ll be in twice a week for treadmill work until we get back, and then, the Hobbles go on and the leash goes off. EEEEE Hah!

Here’s an unidentified insect (any entomologists out there?) on the Joe Pye weed. This one and several bees were there early this morning, all immobile, presumably from the temperature being too cold for them to be able to move. Were they there all night? Did they miss the boat back to the nest so’s to speak, forgetting to fly away before the temperature went down? (All are up and busy now by the way, I just checked.) I know much of the US is either boiling hot or reeling from wind and water… hope you and yours are safe and comfortable.

I just returned from a quick trip to Washington DC, where I was on the Diane Rehm show and taped a segment for Animal House, the WAMU replacement for Calling All Pets. (You can listen to the Diane Rehm interview on her website, and you should check out her show if you haven’t yet — she’s such a great radio host and dog lover; I’ll let you know when the Animal House segment runs.) I also snuck in a quick dinner with my pal Meg Boscov of MuttMatch who came up from Philly and the next night’s dinner with folks from Dream Dog Productions and All About Dogs. During the last dinner, those of us who have been teaching puppy classes for years got to talking about our perception that the pups are getting more difficult, even on the first day of class.

Trainers at Dog’s Best Friend here in Madison first mentioned this to me a few years ago, and I have to admit at first I was a bit skeptical. “Oh, perhaps you just don’t remember that every puppy class wasn’t a Kodak commercial,” but as time went on I became convinced that something seems to have changed. I’m not raising the issue of whether puppy classes are constructive or not (I think good ones are); I’m talking about the FIRST day of class when pups enter into the training room and you get a good sense of their temperament before class even begins. The general impression of some of us is that there are more problems with barking, with frustration intolerance, with dogs who can’t be allowed to play with other pups, with pups who are aggressive to people, even at 9 weeks… I’ve also talked to some people who do rescues and they’ve mentioned to me that the litters they see, of any breed, also tend to be less docile and more potentially problematic. But without any real data, how can we now this for sure?

Well, we can’t, but I’m still curious. I’d love to hear from those of you who have been teaching for several years (at least 10, but 15 or 20 better!): Have you observed an overall change in the demeanor of pups as they enter puppy classes? I don’t want this to be a rant about “ain’t it awful,” so please keep your comments objective and specific as to whether you believe you have seen changes in the general temperament of pups entering class, and if so, exactly what those changes are. Of course, if there is something going on, then one can’t help but speculate about what is causing it, but let’s do first things first: IF you’ve had enough experience to compare over the years, what is your general impression? Perhaps it’s just true in a few areas in the US? What about trainers in other countries? I look forward to your comments.

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: It’s a gorgeous day, Willie and I were downright ridiculous when I got home-rub/kiss/hug/moan/pet/snuggle….Time to unpack and work on my talk for tomorrow night at the Dane County Humane Society about cats. (Yeah! I love talking about Feline Ethology.) Then later tonight it’s time to feed the sheep their grain, and do Willie’s PT. Then I’m in bed as soon as I can get there!

Here’s some photos I snapped in DC, close to my hotel: First, a regularly colored “Eastern Grey Squirrel” and a “melanistic” one. This black phase is quite common in some areas of the country, apparently especially in areas where the risk of predation is low. I’ve seen a few is Wisconsin, but not many, and none around the farm.

And here’s a lovely sitting area that I want to pack up and put into my yard! What a gorgeous tree and a peaceful setting:

During the seminar I did a few weeks ago in Denver we did a case study with a Corgi named Tucker. Tucker had gotten along well with the dogs of the household until a new female came in and they began to fight. Then he had an aversive encounter with another dog at day care and he became more and more aggressive, both to unfamiliar dogs and the other dogs in the household. Things got so bad that Tucker had to be kept completely separate from other dogs.

We spent much of the afternoon with Tucker and his wonderful owner, Janelle, and talked about a lot of ways to help things along. The good news is that Janelle had already switched from a trainer who used lots of harsh, positive punishment — leash jerks, etc. –  to one who had methods that she preferred. (Note that positive punishment was effective in some ways in decreasing the behavior, but created a relationship that Janelle did not want to continue with Tucker). She began working with a trained behaviorist using positive methods and had made lots of good progress by the time we worked together. But she still had a long way to go to be able to let the dogs loose in the house together.

We did lots of brainstorming during the afternoon session about things she could do to improve the situation, and came up with lots of things that we thought might help. Janelle sent me an email not too long ago and said she was very happy with the suggestions and the progress that Tucker was making. One of the keys changes was a relatively easy one: Tucker had been crated in such a way that the other dogs ran right past his crate when they went outside. When this happened Tucker would charge the door of the crate, barking and growling. We suggested that it was critical to avoid that situation, which was basically conditioning Tucker to go on offense every time he saw the other dogs. Recently Janelle sent me an email and reported that he was MUCH better, and that moving his crate had changed his behavior from loud, aggressive barking and growling to a few barks when the other dogs are let out.

She has also changed his diet (no more hot dogs as training treats!), is teaching Tucker “Where’s the Dog?” with a baby gate between them (he apparently loves the game), is working on teaching him to be more patient and polite, has found a ‘natural medicine’ vet to work with in the future and is continuing working with Dr. Norton for training and conditioning. Yeah!

Here’s something I didn’t get time to talk about when we talked as a group about Tucker: The use of a Blocking Board once the dogs are allowed to be in closer proximity. I learned about Blocking Boards from Nancy Williams, a creative animal behaviorist in Maryland who I’ve learned a lot from over the years. Nancy began using “blocking boards” as a way of interrupting eye contact between dogs who aren’t getting along. Although the details of when and exactly how to use them safely depend on a multitude of factors, the basics are simple. You use an opaque board to cut off visual contact between two dogs, or between a dog and a person if the dog is uncomfortable around people. Usually the board is a thin square of plywood or something firm but light, that is large enough to block one dog’s view of another. Nancy, and I too, have usually used it by placing it on the ground between the two individuals. It is especially helpful, in my experience anyway, with dogs who want to greet other dogs, but can only tolerate a brief visual interaction and then need to have the pressure taken off. Of course, there are many ways to do this, and one of my favorite is to teach the dog (either on cue or based on the dog’s own behavior) that barking and lunging doesn’t increase the distance between you and another dog, but calm relaxed behavior does. Blocking boards have the same effect in a way, in that the other dog ‘disappears’ and for some dogs, that ‘s a great relief.

Ironically, the same action can also act as a kind of benevolent punishment, in that if a dog begins to stare or charge toward another dog, the result is that the board comes down and the dog is faced with a blank wall in front of it. It’s an interesting theoretical question of how the dog interprets what happens, but however they perceive it, it often leads to a dog becoming more and more comfortable around others.

Here’s an example of using a “blocking board” between a dog and a person. Floss is a young Border Collie who was adopted from another family by good friends of mine at about a year of age. She was extremely uncomfortable when unfamiliar people came to the house, tending to run right up to them as if she wanted to be friends, and then leaping up and on occasion lightly nipping them. My interpretation was that she was extremely ambivalent — she both wanted to greet visitors but was afraid and anxious about them. She’d find herself all of a sudden too close for comfort, and then she’s panic. As she got more comfortable the relaxed, friendly part came out more and more, but she’d still get highly aroused when you sat on the couch. She’d leap up toward your face and suddenly her pupils would dilate and she’d switch from friendly and relaxed  to uncomfortable and agitated.

After working with her for months, her family has made tremendous progress. Because of the way she is being managed and trained, Floss is now 97% happy to see visitors and only 3% uncomfortable, but she still leaps up into your face and can sometimes get too close for her own comfort. The video below shows me using a “blocking board” (also known as a notebook in this case, flexibility is good!), simply to keep Floss from getting too close to my face. I was in no way concerned that she would harm me during the taping, but wanted to illustrate how easy it was to use in this case. Of course, for a dog who was truly aggressive this would be the last thing you’d try, but when Floss was initially adopted it was extremely helpful to let her exuberant, friendly side out without worrying about her getting too close for her own comfort.

The first part of the video shows me (with Katie behind me with the camera) entering the house. We actually taped this at the end of the session, after I’d sat on the couch. I didn’t want to set her back by barging in before Floss had had a good time with us. So we’d already been at the house for 20 minutes or so when we re-entered, and I was thrilled with Floss’s reaction. Sooo much more comfortable than months before… but can you see that she was still a bit uncomfortable?

The next part of the tape is me blocking Floss every time she tried to get too close to my face, allowing her to be all happy and friendly without getting so close that she all of a sudden found herself  ‘”too close for comfort.” You can see Katie do the same thing with a book when she begins to leap up at her face while she’s taping. You can also see what a good job the family has done teaching Foss to settle down around visitors. Here’s what made me happiest: the first time I met Floss her leaping up was 90% anxious and controlling, and 10% relaxed and friendly. The third time I met Floss she was much, much more comfortable, but lightly nipped my hand (and I mean lightly) when I reached to rub her belly. This time, look at how well she’s doing! Yeah Floss!

I’d love to hear from you – any of you ever used a Blocking Board? How about a Calming Cap? That was another tool that came up at the seminar that I know that Suzanne Hetts and Dan Estep have used successfully with aggression cases.

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: My wasp bites have receded (see my Facebook page!), Willie got a wonderful walk 17  minute (15 is his limit, but hey…..) walk in the cool weather with a dear friend (thank you Beth!) and has an entirely new set of exercises to do. I’m about to get 430 bales of hay delivered, the ragweed is pollinating (achew), the goldenrod is blooming and the light is starting to fade before 8:30 pm instead of 9:15. The lambs are growing by leaps and bounds, the electric fence allowing us to let them graze the front lawn for weeks, and the hummingbirds are already carbo loading for their huge, long trip down south. There’s a bittersweet quality to those last weeks of summer, I love it in some ways, but also hate to see the light lessen and the leaves begin to fade. What’s it like at your place?

Good news, bad news (as always in life, right?)

Willie had his first session in the underwater treadmill with Courtney Arnoldy at UW – Madison. He did super well, given how sound sensitive he is. I wish I had a video of him when the water first began to flow. His face was hysterical — honestly, as empathetic as I am to Willie (and if anything we are co-dependent), it was impossible not to laugh. He didn’t look terribly afraid, just a bit anxious but mostly confused and should I say it? — appalled at the rising water. The water flows in from the bottom, so first his feet got wet, then the water level slowly rose to above his shoulder. He reacted by raising his left paw higher and higher so that he kept at least one paw above the water. The look on his face was reminiscent of someone trying to avoid something that they found disgusting. I imagine that if he could have spoken he would have said EWWWW. I had to put my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

This video is after he had already done 4 minutes total. It was his first time in the water AND with the treadmill on, so Courtney wisely kept the speed very slow. After his 4 minutes, Courtney stopped the treadmill, and then started it up again just to get the video so that we could compare how he is using his left leg now and in the future. What’s especially interesting is the very obvious difference between the use of his right foreleg/shoulder and his left one (the injured one). See how he raises his left leg higher and has a shorter and somewhat jerkier stride than on the right? This is barely visible (even to Courtney) when he is walking regularly, but as soon as you put him underwater it is exaggerated and makes it so clear how far he has to go in his rehab.

I’d love to hear from others of you who have had dogs in rehab underwater treadmills. Did your dogs react to the water rising in a way similar to Willie’s? Any water dogs out there who began to play, or are most dogs so surprised at “the water from nowhere” that they react like Willie?

The not-so-good news is that Courtney wants us to wait to let him off leash until after we get back from Scotland. Just one tiny movement in the wrong direction, in a split second, could destroy everything we’ve worked for, so as excited as I was to think of him off-leash (even in the Hobbles) in 3 weeks, it was a no-brainer. Willie has been severely restricted since the injury in February, we don’t even know yet how much he’ll be able to recover, and once you’ve got 6 months in already, what’s another 3 weeks! So we’ll wait until we’re back from Scotland to let him have some freedom. Then he’ll be in Hobbles for 4-6 weeks… so by mid-November we should be celebrating for real!

Here’s a little bit more of summer: