May 2009

There are a lot of benefits to training. Some reasons benefit your dog, some help you. And some reasons help both of you.

1. Training a dog can help him keep his home. It’s a fact that many dogs are turned into animal shelters each year because they are considered by their owners to be out of control. They may be exhibiting “behavior problems” such as soiling the house, jumping on people or barking too much. Training a dog can help solve these problems. If a puppy continues to soil the house or jump on people or otherwise cause problems at home, chances are that many times his owner will end up turning him in to an animal shelter. It just takes a little training to solve these behavior problems and help a dog keep his home.

2. Training helps a dog be more responsive. Dogs that are trained are used to watching their owner and listening for commands. They are more attuned to their owners and focused on them instead of distracted. This makes a dog a pleasure to be with. You can teach these dogs more and more.

3. Training can be fun for dogs. If you train your dog with positive reinforcement then you and your dog can have fun while you train. Your dog is rewarded with something pleasant for doing each small thing right and you, the trainer, get positive feedback from your dog. What’s not to like?

4. Training is a great way to spend time with your dog. The two of you are working on something together. You have a project that you both understand. You’re comrades or, if you like, teacher and pupil. It’s one of the best ways there is to get close to your dog and really understand how he thinks and his true personality.

5. Training actually improves your relationship with your dog. As your dog learns more he becomes more educated and more intelligent. That means he’s more capable of understanding you, just as you’re more capable of understanding him. The bond between the two of you grows as you spend time together.

6. Training your dog can lead to other activities, such as agility, rally, flyball, canine freestyle and other things that you can enjoy doing with your dog. All of these activities depend upon you and your dog first establishing a relationship through training together.

7. A well-trained dog is welcomed nearly everywhere. Vets, groomers, and other businesses that work with animals will be able to tell that your dog has received the kind of training that sets him apart from other dogs.

8. Good training can save your dog’s life. A dog who responds to you when you call him — who immediately returns to you when you see a car heading toward him — there are situations where training can literally save your dog from disaster.

I have been receiving more questions about snake bites now that the weather is getting warmer.  I thought you might be interested in learning more about your dog and snake bites.

We may live in a much more urban world than we once did but there are still plenty of snakes around. In fact, Alaska and Hawaii are the only states that can claim they don’t have native venomous snakes. According to one estimate, some 15,000 dogs are bitten by poisonous snakes per year. Most of those bites — 70-80 percent — occur around a dog’s face and head. That suggests that the dog may have been bothering the snake.

There are at least nineteen kinds of poisonous snakes in the U.S.: fifteen rattlesnakes, copperheads, water moccasins, and two kinds of coral snakes. Most of these snakes are found from Florida northward, and to points west.

If your dog is bitten by a snake, even a poisonous snake, chances are that he will recover. Even with bites from Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes and coral snakes it’s estimated that dogs recover about 80 percent of the time. However, recovery depends upon a lot of variables:

Where your dog is bitten

The kind of the snake

The size of the dog

How many bites there are

The age of the snake

How bad the bite is

How much venom was injected

A Chihuahua and a St. Bernard will have very different reactions to a bite from a rattlesnake. Likewise, if a snake strikes 3-4 times it can be much worse than one bite. A glancing bite may not inflict much venom. A snake that bites at a Chow Chow may get a mouth full of hair. Not all snake bites are the same.

Your own quick actions can also do much to save your dog’s life. If your dog is bitten by a snake you should do the following:

1. Try to identify the snake. Look at its size, color and patterns. Is there a rattle? (But, whatever you do, don’t get too close to the already angry snake.) It will help your vet to know what kind of snake bit your dog.

2. Check your dog for the bite marks. The snake may have bitten him more than once.

3. If your dog was bitten on the leg you should make a quick tourniquet on the leg above the bite. Make it snug but not too tight. You want to slow the spread of the venom toward your dog’s heart. Keep it localized. Once it reaches the heart it will be pumped all over the body. You can use part of your shirt or any other piece of fabric to make the tourniquet.

4. Head to the vet or animal hospital. Go quickly but try to keep your dog calm.

You can try to prevent snake bites by keeping your dog leashed when you’re walking, hiking or running in unfamiliar areas, especially in wooded areas. Many snake bites occur when dogs are “just visiting” places they’re not familiar with.

Try to keep your dog from doing too much exploring of holes in the ground, woodpiles and other places where snakes may have made a place to hide.

Pathways are usually safer than wandering through the woods. Snakes are more visible on pathways.

Nighttime walks can be problematic. Rattlesnakes can come out at night.

If you hear a rattle, be alert. Locate the snake with your eyes. Keep your dog at your side and move away slowly.

If your dog seems too curious about something in a hole call him back and make him leave it alone. They say that curiosity killed the cat but the truth is that dogs can get in a lot of trouble because of their own curiosity.

Dog owners can have their dogs “snake-proofed.” This is a training program where dogs are taught to have an aversion to snakes. It can be a little extreme but dogs that have this training generally don’t go near snakes again. It involves exposing dogs to snakes (often harmless snakes are used in training) and using an e-collar. When the dog goes near the snake he is given a buzz from the collar. Other trainers use Diamondback Rattlesnakes to train dogs to have an aversion to rattlesnakes in particular. Rattlesnakes account for most of the snake bites to dogs in the U.S.

Do you have a dog bite story? Let us hear about it in the comments box below.

Until next time……….

It’s one of the most embarrassing things dogs do. You’re standing there talking to someone, having a nice chat, when all of a sudden your dog pokes his nose in your friend’s crotch. Needless to say, your friend does not appreciate the familiarity. It’s not very pleasant when your dog does it to you, either. But why do dogs do it? What makes your dog, who sees you hours and hours a day, shove his nose where it doesn’t belong and try to take a good long whiff like he’s never seen you before?

Well, unlike humans, dogs rely on their keen sense of smell to tell them a great deal about the world. It’s estimated that dogs have 220 million sense receptors in their nostrils. Humans have a mere five million. They can tell a lot more about the world by smelling than we can. When a dog wants to really “know” something, instinct and experience have taught him to smell a thing.

Not only does your dog rely on his nose to know a thing, but canine social interaction teaches him that it’s polite to get to know other dogs from the rear first. If dogs meet face to face for the first time it can be dangerous. That’s where the teeth are. It’s wiser to take things slowly and meet head to tail. So dogs greeting each other for the first time sniff each other’s behinds. This is more than simply being polite. They can tell a lot of information about each other by smelling each other’s bottoms. A dog’s anal glands are located in the rear. Anal glands give off lots of scent for marking. By smelling this scent dogs can get an idea of the other dog’s age, health, sex and other important information. They can tell things like his attitude and whether the other dog is hostile to him. This kind of dog behavior goes right back to their wolf ancestors and it’s very ingrained so it’s no wonder that dogs tend to use similar behavior when they meet other animals and people. They look for the smelliest part of other animals to get an idea of their status and intentions.

Thus, when dogs meet people they see no reason why they shouldn’t go for the crotch and check it out. Your dog is merely behaving the way he behaves around other animals and other dogs. People may not have anal glands but your dog is looking for a place on the body that does contain a high proportion of human scent glands. Your dog can tell a lot about a person by sniffing in such a personal place. It’s no reflection on the person and not any sign that the person is “smelly.” Your dog is just being a normal, nosy dog and looking for personal information. They say that curiosity killed the cat but dogs are probably even nosier. They don’t seem to believe that humans have any right to privacy. That’s why your dog can come up to you and sniff your crotch even though he has seen you all day. He’s just checking on you, making sure things haven’t changed since the last time he checked.

Of course, dogs don’t “have” to get so up close and personal to be able to tell a lot about you. It’s more of a bad habit. They are perfectly able to smell all they want about your personal parts from some distance away. You can teach your dog to give a more polite greeting (in human terms). You can teach your dog to sit when he starts to sniff you, or to sniff a hand instead of your crotch. However, you shouldn’t try to punish your dog for sniffing crotches. Your dog will probably be confused if you yell at him or punish him for doing something that seems so natural to him. Teaching him to do something more acceptable instead is usually a better approach. You can distract him with a noise, a squeaky, or a treat and start teaching him the substitute behavior.

Any comments? Leave them below.

Until next time…….