I have to say… it always surprises me when I see trainers on social media complaining about their “average” clients. I must get the best clients in the world, because I figure if they are investing in helping their dogs, and coming to see me, they must already be ***above average***!
The vast majority of my clients are super-committed to helping their dogs have a good quality of life. That’s why they are wiling to invest a not insignificant amount of money to make sure their dogs are medically healthy (or treat whatever needs to be treated – like the many thousands of dollars the family of the GSHP puppy has spent from the last blog who was bitten in the head) and then to pursue also not-cheap behavior modification solutions. I appreciate these people. Are my clients always 100% “compliant”? (I hate that term – it reeks of old-fashioned coercive dog training…dictionary definitions: obedient, docile, submissive). Of course not. But the vast majority really do everything they can to help their dogs, and I appreciate that. Of course not everyone can afford to do everything that might benefit their dogs, and I appreciate that too.
Speaking of quality of life… a high percentage of my clients come to me with dogs who have aggressive and/or reactive behaviors, which can be hugely stressful for the human as well as for the dog. One of the things I will remind my clients is that their quality of life is every bit as important as their dog’s quality of life, and the client is invariably grateful that I acknowledge this. That came up for one of this week’s clients – the English Lab SRB case described below.
It is also an important point if the behavioral euthanasia topic comes up (fortunately extremely rare over the 28 years of my behavior and training practice!). There’s nothing like the emotional trauma of euthanizing your dog to improve your own quality of life, and if/when this happens we need to reassure the client that the dog’s quality of life is very poor (the behavior issues tell us that) and that yes, they, the human, deserve to have a good quality of life as well.
CASE #1 – MAGGIE, THE ENGLISH LAB WITH SRBS
In case you haven’t heard, “Separation Related Behaviors” (SRB) is the new, modern term for “Separation Anxiety,” (SA) and refers to any undesirable behaviors that occur in the caretaker’s absence. SA was a way overused term for a whole continuum of behaviors a stressed dog might do in the human’s absence, when in fact true SA should have been reserved for those behaviors at the very extreme end of that continuum – a true clinically pathological condition. A dog who barks for a few minutes when the owner leaves would be labelled with SA when in fact what she had was a low level of “separation distress” at the other end of that continuum.
Maggie is a 6-year-old spayed female English Lab who had no indications of SRB for the first 5 years of her life. She is a very lovely, calm, easygoing dog – not the type you’d except to break with SRBs as a mid-life crisis, but there you have it.
She lived in a mid-sized town in a home on a busy road with a fair amount of pedestrian traffic and enjoyed watching the activity outside her window every day. Then her person moved with her to a lovely, peaceful, rural environment (which many dogs would give their canine teeth for!) and she immediately (on Day 1) began SRB barking when left alone. She had never done this before.
My evaluation of this behavior is that the combination of the stress of the move and the absence of her daily out-the-window enrichment combined to set off this stress-related response. It’s not just, “Hey, where did my human go,” it’s “Hey, where did EVERYBODY go????”
On the positive side, the John's female companion, Susan (who lives at a different location) has been able to take leave from her job and come stay with Maggie all day, every day. But as she said to me in our session – she can’t do this forever – she needs to get her life back. Quality of life, right?!
Discussion
We talked about medication – my first line of defense for any dog who has significant levels of SRB. Susan is all in favor. Unfortunately, John is very reluctant to consider this step, having bought into the old-fashioned concern that it will change her personality and “turn her into a zombie.” We are working to convince him that it will be in everyone’s best interests, and that properly done, medications should not have the effects he is concerned about. (Here is a link to an excellent article that I share with clients on Behavior Medications from Dr. Jen’s Blog: http://www.drjensdogblog.com/behavior-medication-first-line-therapy-or-last-resort/ )
Meanwhile, we will hopefully get Maggie start on some of the over-the-counter products that can help with stress relief, such as L-Theanine, Ashwaghanda, Adaptil, and Purina Calming Care (a probiotic).
Maggie was diagnosed with bilateral hip dysplasia and osteochondritis at the very early age of 1 year. (Hence the concern about poor breeding…) and is noticeably overweight. I pointed out that pain is a significant stressor and emphasized the importance of maintaining without fail her schedule of pain medications, and reducing her weight to put less stress on her body, legs and joints. I also suggested a full thyroid panel; Labs are one of the breeds prone to hypothyroidism, which can cause weight gain as well as stress/anxiety.
It hurts my heart to see dogs being bred (by real breeders, not puppy mills) with such significant structural weaknesses that are a definite detriment to quality of life. I urge my clients to tell the breeders – not to place blame or be confrontational – but because breeders need to KNOW – so they don’t keep repeating breedings that produce puppies with such horrendous conformation and medical conditions.
Our Plan
Finally, we are instituting the UPenn Relaxation Protocol – a very thinly-sliced program to help Maggie become comfortable with being left alone. It is very similar to Dr. Karen Overall’s Protocol for Relaxation, but slightly simplified.
Fingers crossed!! Susan is gung-ho to implement this procedure, and since she's there all day every day with Maggie I am expecting great results.
CASE #2 – FRANNIE, 3-YEAR-OLD GERMAN SHEPHERD – DOG AND HUMAN REACTIVE BEHAVIOR
This was Frannie’s second visit to Peaceable Paws. She came to see me last June and Carla purchased a consultation package. The plan was to see her again much sooner, but she has had a long run of very challenging gastrointestinal issues which made Counter Conditioning and Desensitization (CC&D) very challenging. It’s hard to feed a dog lots of treats when everything upsets her stomach! They have finally resolved (knock wood) her GI stuff, so we are back on track.
Carla has done an amazing job working with Frannie in the interim with the 1-2-3 Pattern Game, using a Klimb for “Place” and “Back Paws,” and lots more . Most impressive is her success with teaching Dr. Karen Overall’s Protocol for Teaching a Dog to Breathe.” Yes, of course, dogs already know how to breathe, but this protocol teaches a stressed, panting dog to close their mouth and breathe through their nose, which is a lovely relaxation technique. I have introduced this to a number of clients, and Frannie’s person has done the best job of any in teaching her dog the protocol. Here is a link to a video of Dr. Overall discussing and demonstrating this very useful protocol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdffTkxqlZQ
On the not-so-successful side, Frannie still presents with very reactive behaviors when faced with people in motion, or dogs in general. After 45 minutes of sitting and talking with Carla with Frannie seemingly comfortable with me, as soon as I got up and started walking out of the room she began barking. When I returned to do CC&D she was over threshold at first with me at a distance of 75 feet, but was able to settle and stay below threshold as I gradually reduced the distance to 40 feet. (My CC&D protocol is simple – let the dog look, feed high value treat. Let her look again, feed treat. Over and over until you start getting CERs (conditioned emotional response looks) – then very gradually increase intensity of stimulus – increase motion, decrease distance, etc.).
When we tried CC&D with my dog Kai, we were not able to keep Frannie below threshold in the training center even with feeding treats. Normally we would go outside where we could increase distance but it was nasty cold/windy outside so we tabled that for our next session.
I had forgotten that in addition to Frannie’s behavior challenges, she also has all the worst conformation characteristics of a poorly-bred Shepherd – roached back, very weak hind legs that wobble as she walks, also diagnosed with hip dysplasia at any early age… come on breeders – you have to do better!!!
We still have a long road ahead of us, but as committed as Carla is to helping Fannie, I am optimistic about our long-term success.
FREDDIE GETS NEUTERED
We had put off Freddie’s neutering until it warmed up a bit… we didn’t want him trying to recover from surgery when it was sub-zero even with a blanket and heat lamp. I had never seen a pig neutered before, so I found it very interesting. Apparently pigs have quite large equipment!!! Our boy is already up and about (surgery was at 2:30, it’s now 6:30) and seems none the worse for the experience. So far.
Another beautiful sunset tonight, deer in the pasture, geese flying over… I LOVE life here on the PPaws farm!!
Warm Woofs,
Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA
Look at you working on an SRB case, I never would have guessed! Who would have thought moving to the country would stress out poor Maggie? Sounds like a dream for most dogs. But here's wishing her a speedy recovery!