Search Results: Dog Behavior

Patricia B. McConnell, PhD, CAAB Emeritus is a Zoologist and Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist who has consulted with pet owners for over twenty-five years about serious behavioral problems, specializing in canine aggression. She taught “The Biology and Philosophy of Human/Animal Relationships” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for twenty five-years. Dr. McConnell has spoken around the…

I’m just back from the first phase of book tour, and so much of what came up on the dog-lover side related to “reactive” dogs. As I talk about in The Education of Will, dogs can be psychologically traumatized too, and one of the symptoms of that is “hyper-reactivity.” Just as a veteran soldier with…

Last week I received a topic suggestion from a blog reader who has a reactive dog. What in heaven’s name does one do about dogs who are off leash, while you are responsibly walking your dog on leash in “on leash only” areas, and yet some goofball dog runs up to your own and ruins…

If there is anything harder than euthanizing a beloved dog for serious behavioral problems, I don’t know what it is. And yet, sometimes, that is an option that dog owners have to consider. These were some of the hardest cases I worked with when I was seeing clients full time. I would drive home, sick…

I’m not seeing clients anymore, beyond helping out an occasional friend, but a conversation with some colleagues got me thinking about the value of thinking through an issue with your dog as if you were your own client. I’ve used this technique before myself–writing out the “problem behavior,” deciding what behavior I do want in…

How does a dog heal if it was raised in an abusive situation? Can it ever become a “normal” dog? I’ve been asked this question often in the last week because of the release (sale, actually) of 1,500 beagles from Ridglan “Farms”, which has gotten national attention. Primarily a place that bred beagles for laboratory…

Dog walkers do not show up on my radar very often, living as I do on a farm in the country. Jim and I are the dog walkers, and we like it that way. However, I am also aware how very lucky we are to have the time and the logistics to be able to…

I would be excited about lessons tomorrow with the GOAT sheepdog trainer/handler  Scott Glen, but the fact is it’s so hot and humid I know that Skip will only be able to work for very short periods of time. Like just a few minutes. I also just a pulled him from a new trial I…

A few weeks ago Skip and I were in a trial when it was in the high 80’s and humid. Very little breeze. In short, awful. Of course, I was worried about Skip, given his bad heart, and wouldn’t have run him if the course hadn’t been a short one. I got him in the…

I’d love to have a conversation about avoiding over heating in dogs. We all know that it can be a life or death issue for all dogs, but the fact is that my Skip overheats easily. Very, very easily. It may be that his bad heart is the only factor, or perhaps there are others,…

Maggie, all 35 exuberant pounds of her, has lousy leash manners. That is because 1) she is a dog and walking beside me, shoulder to shoulder, makes no sense to her. And 2) because I couldn’t resist working her on sheep when we have training time together. Not to mention teaching her to come when…

Grisha Stewart’s new book is an impressive piece of work, and I highly recommend it to trainers, behaviorists and dog owners who are ready to dive into the deep end to help their dog. Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0 (BAT 2.0) is a comprehensive and detailed approach to working with “fear, frustration, and aggression in dogs”. …

When I was seeing a lot of clients I could always tell when I was tired because I started working with the dog, rather than training the owners. Perhaps that’s the irony of language: It makes communication easier in one sense, and harder in another. Things were so simple and clear when I was working…

Last week’s post on teaching dogs “Enough,” when you are tired of being a petting machine, elicited a request from reader Nana-Mary: “Speaking of our two dogs, I would love some tips on controlling the BARKING! I know that we don’t want to discourage ALL barking, but sometimes it gets way out of control. It’s…

When Willie starting working sheep as a youngster, he didn’t want to quit. This is a high quality problem with a young sheepdog, but it’s still a problem. At some point you just have to end the session. It’s a common problem too–I’ve seen scores of adolescent Border Collies zoom around and around the flock…

I’m taking some summery time off this week, and so am repeating a post from May, 2014, How to Talk to Other Dog Owners.  Wanna talk about it? Here it is: When I was seeing a lot of clients I could always tell when I was tired because I started working with the dog, rather…

I recently read an interesting study about the effect of different types of music on kenneled dogs. (“Behavioral effect of auditory stimulation on kenneled dogs,” by Kogan, Schoenfeld-Tacher & Simon, J of Veterinary Behavior 7, 2012, 268-275.) The authors’ goal was to determine if different types of music, as has been reported in other species,…

I did a seminar last week in Pittsburgh for the Westmoreland County Obedience Training Club, and worked with 3 dogs who had “dog-dog reactivity” problems. In choosing those dogs I had a problem myself: I had to choose from over 12 people who offered their dogs for demo’s. Right now I’m working on choosing dogs…

First, a digression: Argh, how embarrassing.  Jim just noticed in that last week’s post I wrote “Next week I’ll write a full report of the talks at the Animal Behavior Society 2013 Meeting in Boulder. I was great, lots to tell you about!” I meant, of course, “It was great”. Jim’s very words were: “I’m…

“Oh no, he’s just fine! Go ahead and pet him.” If I heard that once, I heard it a thousand times, from owners anxious for me to pet their dog, while their dog begged me not to. Of course, the dogs didn’t say so, but their body language spoke volumes. Mouth closed, stiff bodied (even…

  The following is an update from posts I’ve written in the past, introducing Dog Bite Prevention Week. Here’s what I’d love you to do this week–comment about “Dog bites I have known,” (sigh), or “How I prevented a bite about to happen.” So, so, SO many bites could be prevented if dog owners, dog…

                  I don’t pretend to be able to keep up with all the dog/animal behavior books being published right now, but two books got my attention this week that I thought you might find interesting. In some ways, they couldn’t be much different from each other. Who’s…

If you are a serious student of domestic dog behavior, you need this book. Its full title is The Domestic Dog: Its Evolution, Behavior and Interactions with People (2nd edition). It’s not inexpensive, but well worth it. ($44.69 on Amazon, but don’t hesitate to contact your local Indie store to see what they’d charge you.) …

Here’s one of world’s greatest descriptions of a dog: “[Gander looks like] … the canine version of a forgetful old literature professor in a corduroy jacket with patches at the elbows.” I’ve never met Gander, but the photos of him  remind me of a grown-up, bachelor party version of Little Orphan Annie’s dog, Sandy. With…

I just spent a few days in The Big Apple, and not surprisingly found myself watching dogs and their people on the sidewalks of New York City. Here are the two things that I noticed first: One, many of the dogs had on coats. Lots and lots of coats. Granted, it was a tad nippy…

If you’ve been following the bouncing ball, we’ve been talking about how the concept of “dominance” and social status may or may not relate to dog behavior. Now I’d like to summarize a bit and discuss how we might handle conflict between dogs within the household. After all, whether you buy into it or not…

Last week I wrote about that ever-so-controversial word, “dominance,” and how it might or might not relate to dog behavior and dog training. To refresh: In animal behavior, dominance refers only to “priority access to a limited resource,” has little to do with controlling the actions of another in any other context, is highly dependent…

This is Part II of our case study about helping a dog after a loss (see August 24th blog for Part I). As usual, many of you came up with  insightful and helpful comments. I benefit from your thoughtfulness every day, and I thank you for it. If you are interested in this topic, either…

  “They SAID he was house trained!” “She said he loved EVERYBODY!” “He was FINE at my house! What did the new owners do to him?” Every trainer and behaviorist who does consults hears these phrases on a regular basis. About the “house trained” spaniel who pees on the rug, the “everybody loving” Border collie…

Having a dog with Separation Anxiety is no fun for the owner, and no doubt less fun for the dog. Mild cases include dogs who pace or whine for a bit after their owner leaves, while dogs with serious cases can injure themselves and/or destroy your house. I write about how to prevent and treat…

In hopes it will be helpful to others in the same situation, I thought I’d outline how I handled the introduction of lovely little Maggie into the family. Here’s some background on the actors: 1) Willie: Eight-year old BC neutered male, at one point extremely aggressive to unfamiliar dogs, relatively comfortable outside now with new…

If I was a dog in a noisy kennel I’d be the one flip spinning in circles, or chewing my mouth bloody on the cage door. I know that sounds a bit dramatic, but I’m afraid it is probably true. I am just one of the individuals who is especially sensitive to noise, and a…

It is Dog Bite Prevention week, and I am inspired to repeat a post I wrote last year about that topic. I don’t usually repeat blogs, but I’ve seen so much pain and suffering (and I don’t mean physical) over this issue that I am inspired to put it out into the universe once again.…

This summary doesn’t begin to address the subject in depth, to do so would require a book, but I hope you’ll find what I’ve written interesting nonetheless. My biggest problem with this was not spending all week on it… the topic is so interesting, and almost every fact led to a question. (Territorial? Well, that’s…

Maggie, Skip, Jim and I are just back from a lovely hour-long walk this morning. All four of us were serenaded by the songs of a newly-arrived migrating birds, including Yellow and Palm Warblers.                                              Bird photos from Wikipedia, such a great resource. Jim and I gloried in the sights of these gorgeous birds, the…

  My first experience in a dog training class was in 1968 in Southern California. We were to teach our dogs to sit, stay, heel and come from ten feet away. From a Sit/Stay. That was it. A lot of energy was put into perfect heels (using leash jerks of course) and long Sit/Stays for…

WRITTEN MID-JULY, POSTED WHILE I’M IN AFRICA: I recently spent three evenings with Jim’s son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter Taylor, and so the issue of kids and dogs is near and dear to me right now. I also, in that serendipitous way of the world, just received a question about how to find help for a…

It’s not often that a photograph motivates a topic for the blog, but when friend and colleague Melissa McCue-McGrath sent me this image of her dog Captain, along with a suggestion to write a post on pica, how could I resist? In spite of the amusing photo (no, Captain didn’t really drink any booze), pica…

A million years ago, my first Border Collie Drift lept up and nipped a man’s nose at the Wisconsin State Fair. Even though the man was clearly not injured, with virtually not even a red spot on his nose, I was shook up and appalled. He was furious. “Your dog attacked me!” Well, he did.…

Perhaps you’ve seen Amy Cuddy’s viral TED talk about Presence, or read her inspiring book Presence: Bringing your Boldest Self to your Biggest Challenges? While I was re-reading the book this morning I was reminded of Ranger, a large dog I worked with years ago who was agoraphobic and refused to leave the house. The…

Because it isn’t necessarily a fun topic, I thought I’d start off with my favorite story about dog poop. Imagine being at a sit-down lunch at two-day seminar I was giving on canine behavior and training. Picture a large room, with 150 people or so, sitting at round tables covered in white table cloths, the…

Did you hear about the study that taught dogs to voluntarily participate in research using MRIs ? The work was done by Gregory Berns, a PhD and physician who studies, in his words, “the neurobiological basis for individual preferences and how neurobiology places constraints on the decisions people make.” After working exclusively with humans for…

This post could be sub-titled “No, a tired dog is not always a good dog,” or alternatively, “Why We Choose Pasta with Cream Sauce Over Vegetable Soup on a Difficult Day.” Okay, maybe it’s just me that makes poor decisions about lunch when I’m exhausted, but this research suggests that I, along my dogs, are…

  A reader told us he’d repeatedly read that “dogs need a job.” Such advice is not hard to find, including on the AKC site, “How to Give Your Dog Jobs.“ Our reader then asked: Do they? Really? Ah, good question. Before we all try to send our border collies to coding school and turn…

The author Clive Wynne sums up his book’s thesis in its title: Dog is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You. He argues, compellingly, that dogs aren’t special because of their intelligence, but because of their social bond to us, which after extensive research, he is happy to call “love”. One might say that…

Not long ago I asked readers to tell me what they’d like to talk about, and got a plethora of great ideas. One of them that hit home was the question of whether dogs could “be autistic.” (Best described as on ASD, or Autism Spectrum Disorder, which effects social communication, learning, and behavior.) I’ve met…

This seems like a good question to begin a new year together in our inquiry about human/animal relationships. I’ve been engaged, as so many others are at this time of year, in writing out my goals for 2016. Some are personal, some are professional, and many, not surprisingly, relate to my dogs. I spent a…

Well, how fun was that? Last weekend I was at the “Im-PECK-able Training Seminar” put on by Craig Schultz and Sally Dickinson for the K9 Behavior Consortium in Manassas, VA. I went primarily to learn more about sniffer dogs for my next mystery novel (wheeeee!), but reveled in spending time with some great dogs, and…

I recently had a great talk with Emily Priestley, the author of Urban Sheepdogs. I reviewed her book a few weeks ago, and although I noted some issues, I am a big fan of her attempt to help people understand that the behavior of their border collies or cattle dogs is not a mystery or…

Stress? Why would I be talking about that now? Aren’t the holidays nothing but joy and cheer and hot chocolate with beloved Uncle Bob? But you know why . . .  Maybe you had to take three planes to visit Bob, or drive through fog for eight hours, or Uncle Bob is a . .…