Why ‘It’s All in How You Raise Them’ is Failing Dogs

 

Something seen frequently is the idea that a young puppy is a blank canvas, implying that how the dog will develop as they grow into an adult is the responsibility of the people raising that puppy. Anything that occurs with the dog that does not fit into the human idea of a ‘normal’ dog is the fault of those people who must have done things wrong. According to this thinking, if raised correctly, any dog should be able to fit into almost any home, any family. This insistence causes so many issues, for people and for dogs.

One of the most debated questions when it comes to biology and development is ‘nature or nurture?’ Which has more influence on the development, genetics or learning? If ‘it’s all in how you raise them’ then the answer must surely be learning, right?

Let Them Sniff

What if I told you that you do not need to run and run your dog to exercise them? That exercising their brains while out on a walk can do wonders for tiring them out. What’s even better is that it requires no equipment, other than maybe a long line if your dog’s recall isn’t as good as you would like or (as in the case of my dog) it’s safer to be able to gather them back in closer to you if something worries them?

Operant Conditioning

(A rather more technical piece than I usually publish on here. This is a piece of coursework I produced and I'm so pleased with it that I wanted to share it 😊)

It is a perhaps sad truth that the modern domestic dog lives their life in a world largely designed for the convenience of its human inhabitants. Living in close proximity with humans brings behavioural requirements for those dogs to continue living somewhat harmoniously alongside the humans. This means that most humans desire a way to control the behaviours that the dogs around them display.

Dreams vs Priorities

Some may have noticed that an entry has disappeared. Due to things that have happened which have been really upsetting the last article I wrote was removed. I’ve spoken before about the fact that living with a complex and sensitive dog can need a large amount of acceptance. Recent events added further highlight to that. There may be things we have to admit we can't ever do while sharing our lives with these special dogs. This is still a really sore subject for me at the moment but there is a lesson in it and so I’m going to share what happened. 

We Need to Stop Talking About 'Behaviour Problems'

 

How often do we hear dog guardians and the people connected with them say things like ‘Can you fix my dog’s behaviour problem?’ or ‘Can you stop our dog’s bad behaviour?’ There are issues with questions like these.

Thinking of situations as arising from a dog being ‘bad’ or doing something wrong places blame on the dog, which is not fair. This kind of question, this way of thinking, also approaches the question from entirely the wrong angle. It focuses on trying to work out how we can change the dog, rather than changing the environment or the situation to be the best fit for everyone, and meet the dog’s needs.

Because we all really want the same thing - happy dogs!

The very first thing we need to consider is what the function of behaviour actually is, what it’s for, what it does.

Our Most Important Responsibility to Our Dogs

If asked, I suspect most people could come up with a list of responsibilities that we have for the dogs in our care. This list will probably include:

• Food
• Water
• Exercise
• Mental stimulation
• Health care
• A place to rest comfortably
• Treat them with kindness and empathy

For me, all of these things come down to one central concept: our responsibility to our dogs (and any other animals in our care) is to make them feel safe. We can do this by fulfilling their needs, both in terms of things they must not be exposed to and ensuring they have access to what they need to live a happy, healthy, and comfortable life. By doing this, ensuring they feel contented and comfortable, we proved our dogs with the huge added benefit of feeling secure and safe.

What Are a Dog's Needs?

So what are the things that our dogs need?

In human psychology, needs are often represented in a pyramid made up of the headings from Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs (although the pyramid itself never appeared in Maslow's work). The pyramid construct works in such a way that the basic needs must be met before progression can occur towards the top of the pyramid.

 

• Physiological needs: food, water, air, shelter, sleep. The essentials for life.
• Safety needs: physical and emotional safety, a sense of security
• Belonging and love needs: a social species needs relationships, connections with family and friends.
• Esteem needs: respect, self-esteem, sense of self-worth
• Self-actualisation: achieving potential, becoming what they want to be.

Linda Michaels, a leading member of the force free training community, reworked this hierarchy to apply to dogs. In the pyramid she created, the levels move down the pyramid as follows:

• Cognitive needs: choice, novelty, and problem-solving opportunities.
• Force free training needs: kind and ethical management and learning.
• Social needs: social bonding with both other dogs and people (although I would say bear in mind that different dogs will have differing levels of social skills and many dogs are dog selective) and play.
• Emotional needs: security, love, trust, and consistency.
• Biological needs: good nutrition, water, air, shelter, exercise, sleep, and veterinary care.

The Five Freedoms

Arising from a UK Government report on livestock husbandry and formalised into their recognisable form in a 1979 UK Farm Animal Welfare Council press statement, these outline five aspects of animal welfare that are under the control of the humans caring for those animals. They have been adopted by many organisations, including the RSPCA and ASPCA, and professionals such as veterinary surgeons, and provide an easy to remember and understand guide to ensuring the welfare of animals in our care.

The five freedoms, which cover all of an animal’s basic needs, are:

• Freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition. This does not just mean making sure that your dog has food to eat. It means ensuring that your dog receives good quality nutrition, that you know what is in your dog’s food and that the ingredients in it are suitable and able to be utilised. A dog can consume plenty of food and still be suffering from malnutrition if the diet is of poor quality or doesn’t contain available nutrients in the right amounts. Poor diet can stress the dog’s system.
• Freedom from discomfort. Many dogs are stoic, very good at not showing discomfort. For this reason, it is very important that dog guardians make sure that they are doing everything they can to make sure nothing in their dogs’ lives could be causing discomfort, and to take action if something is causing a problem for the dog. This is particularly important with mental discomfort, which is even more difficult to see.
• Freedom from pain, injury and disease. This measure is largely preventive, as regular check-ups will help to prevent disease, and manage pain. Complementary therapies such as hydrotherapy and canine massage can also help with pain and keep the body in a good condition to help avoid pain and injury. Completing the holistic approach to this freedom is the important proper nutrition, including supplementation if required.
• Freedom to express normal behaviours. Modern society places many demands on dogs and their behaviours. It is vitally important to let our dogs be dogs. Dogs need to bark, run, dig and play and it is up to dog guardians to provide appropriate circumstances to let them do that. A dog that doesn’t get time to bounce around and chew something tasty and then have a nice nap is going to be a stressed dog as due to the suppression of their natural behaviours.
• Freedom from fear and distress. The things that can cause these feelings are wide and varied between dogs and sometimes between days, depending on how the dog is feeling. The best thing we can do to ensure dogs around us have this freedom is learn to understand how our dogs are communicating with us, and to recognise when they are showing signs of stress of being scared. We can also try to teach them to feel less scared by training and enrichment activities to give them confidence and positive alternatives, increasing their confidence and resilience.

The Five Domains

While the five freedoms have provided a useful shorthand explaining the basics of what we must ensure our dogs don’t have to deal with, they do have limitations. The freedoms only deal with negatives, things we must make sure our dogs don't experience. They make no recognition of how positive factors can also influence the lives of dogs. The five domains model has rectified this and the domains are under constant review and updating.

The five domains in their current form are:

• Nutrition. This includes providing the correct amount of quality, nutritious and varied foodstuffs and access to plenty of fresh clean water.
• Physical Environment. Provide suitable shade or shelter, fresh air, comfortable levels of noise and light, enough room for the dog to move around and enough comfortable resting places so they can get enough sleep or rest.
• Health. This covers all aspects of health, from maintenance of ideal body condition and fitness levels to injury, physical impairment, disease and toxins.
• Behavioural Interactions. Interactions with the environment, other dogs, and humans. Providing dogs with novel and varying experiences in their environment and allowing them to explore is so important for them. Appropriate interactions with other animals and humans (within the scope of the individual dog’s tolerances and preferences) is also important.
• Mental State. All of the above have an effect on the dog, combining to dictate their mental state. Awareness of our dogs’ mental states is vital in considering their welfare. I have written before about the importance of considering canine emotions, as it really is a central part of being the best guardians, the best dog people that we can be.

For more information on the five domains model, and its current up to date form as of writing this article, read the open access paper here.

Ensuring That We Meet These Needs

Looking at those lists of officially termed factors we must avoid or provide might seem a little overwhelming, but good dog guardians are already providing their dogs with the things they need to feel happy, healthy and safe. Have a look at this final list written in ordinary language. 

• Good quality food and access to plenty of fresh water
• Regular appropriate healthcare as and when required
• Regular appropriate exercise
• People who can understand their communication and heed them
• Allowing them to have as much choice as is possible and safe
• Enrichment activities (including breed specific enrichment)
• Able to do dog things: digging, running, sniffing - let them be dogs!
• Comfortable places to rest or sleep
• Peace and quiet when they want
• Minimising stress in their environment
• Kind and empathetic handling and training
• Respect for the dog's individuality and preferences

If you can tick off that all of these are covered, then your dogs' needs are definitely being met and that they are living their best lives with you. Congratulations, you are a good dog guardian!

* * * * *

I also have a new Redbubble shop, which has a mix of items in there from both the dog side of what I do and the imposter syndrome aspect. I've seen a few pieces in the flesh from the 'Feeling the Fear' design and they are absolutely gorgeous!

Why Environment Matters for Our Reactive Dogs

Dogs are very aware of the environment around them, often far more so than we are. This can have effects on our reactive dogs as well. My dog of choice is the Border Collie, which will come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog as my current boy Finn features regularly. His herding genetics mean he is very responsive to movement and very visual.

When working flocks of sheep, collies are using their eyes all the time. There is the classic collie ‘eye’ in which they stare hard at any sheep not moving the way the dog is steering them. They are also always scanning the flock to make sure there are no outliers about to make a break for freedom away from the main flock. Their sight is sharp and primed to take notice of any change in the landscape.

3 Alternatives to Your Usual Walks for a Reactive Dog

One of the very first things we often learn about dogs is the essential nature of the daily walk. For many dogs, daily walks are something they really enjoy. For those dogs and their humans, the hours spent out exploring together are a perfect way to spend time together.

For other dogs and the humans who live with them, the daily walk can be an anxiety-inducing, tense, and stressful experience. Never able to truly relax, constantly scanning the environment. Worrying about what might be coming around the next corner to cause upset and stress.

'My Trainer Said They'd Fix My Dog! What's Going Wrong?'

I had a conversation the other evening with someone I met through a Facebook group. She messaged me with a video of her lovely little dog who is reactive but is doing really, really well after years of consistent and careful counter conditioning and desensitisation work.

3 Excellent Places to Work with a Reactive Dog

At the beginning of realising that your dog struggles with some aspects of their world, it can feel overwhelming. The amount of change that has needed to be able to take your dog places as if they were a ‘normal’ dog can feel insurmountable.

A ‘Normal’ Dog?

I take issue with the concept of a ‘normal’ dog. Our canine friends are often subject to unrealistic expectations. Think of the differences between the women we see in the media and the average woman in daily life. Similarly, the expectation of how a dog should behave can bear very little resemblance to the reality of a dog being a dog. And we should be doing everything we can to let our dogs be dogs!

The Most Important Question to Ask Your Dog Trainer

 

Selecting a dog trainer can feel like an absolute minefield. So many dog trainers are out there, and many claim they can sort out your dog’s problems fast. These promises can be very tempting to a struggling guardian.

Why We Must Consider Canine Emotions

What emotions might this dog be feeling?

The relationship between humans and dogs stretches back thousands of years. We are continually finding new evidence of just how far back this amazing partnership goes, although we may never know for sure exactly how and when the first dogs and guardians came together. For much of this time together the relationship has seen two distinct levels – humans at the top (as our species considers us to be in so many ways) and the dogs beneath, the lesser part of the combination.

To Train or Not to Train?

I've read a few discussions recently on the ethics of training. I'm not talking about the ethics of how we train - there is no question that positive reinforcement reward-based training is the best way to train. Instead, I'm referring to why we train, or perhaps the better phrase is how much we train. All dogs need a certain amount of training to be able to exist safely and fit into what is a very human world. How much training should we be doing with dogs as standard?

3 Top Tips to Avoid Damaging Your Dog's Recall

One of the most common problems dog guardians report is that their dog won’t come back when called. Failure to recall can be frustrating, embarrassing and – in some cases – dangerous. A dog who will not return when called could run up to other dogs, who may or may not want to interact. They may run up to unknown people – surprising as it may be, not all people love dogs. Shocking, I know, but people do exist who don’t like dogs! The dog may reach the end of the safe area and run out into a road, with the potential for catastrophic consequences.

3 Awesome Reasons to Use Positive Dog Training!

Positive reinforcement reward-based training is the choice of many kind and ethical canine professionals, and an ever-increasing number of dog guardians, and here’s why…

4 Things to Watch to Keep Your Reactive Dog Under Threshold

When working on counter conditioning and systematic desensitisation to help your reactive dog relate better to the world, keeping them under threshold is vital. What is threshold, and how can you be sure to keep your reactive dog under their threshold?

Cooperation, Not Control

* Before anyone gets started, I'm not saying that dogs never need to be under control - they very definitely should be under control out in public, in areas where other dogs/people/livestock/wildlife may be or anywhere that they could be in danger.

So what do I mean by cooperation, not control? I'm talking about the way in which we train our dogs, teach them the cues that we need them to know and follow.

It's not magic, it's SCIENCE!

That title up there started its existence as part of a conversation with a friend about the fundamentals of dog training and the methods that we use, and evolved into that final phrase in a handwritten message in a signed copy of a book. (The fact that people want signed copies of things I have written is still prone to causing massive grins and occasional disbelieving chuckles. 😂)

One truth that becomes readily apparent once anything you have written is out and available to anybody in the wider world is that people will often have opinions on what you have created. They will then share those opinions if the mood takes them, and nothing the writer can do may stop that. It can be intimidating, but it is not something an aspiring writer should let hold them back. Bad reviews can be hard to swallow early on, but there is no reason to become obsessed with them, and certainly not to let them restrict any future writing plans.

What the nose knows

Dogs process their world in a way that is fundamentally different to humans. We are largely a visual species, relying on our eyes first to make sense of the environment around us. Dogs gather information mainly by the use of their nose. For around 6 million scent receptors in the human, dogs have somewhere in the region of 300 million. Brain area dedicated to analysing scent is approximately 40 times larger in the dog than in the human.

'But we've always done it this way!'

There can be a real sense when talking to some dog people that they are digging in their heels when talking about the ways in which we handle and train dogs. "We've always trained this way. My grandfather learned from his grandfather!" and so on. 

Punishments and Aversives - No, They're Not 'Needed'

A question I see frequently when perusing forums and social media etc. concerns the use of aversive training methods, and wondering why people think they are fine to use on dogs they say they love.

I still remember the first time I saw a picture of a prong collar, designed to be fitted and used around the neck of a dog. I remember that sense of disbelief, that prompted me to ask if this chain of metal prongs designed to sit around a dog's neck and dig in when a 'correction' is applied was real or if it was some kind of lingering warped April Fool's joke. Sadly, I discovered they are all too real, as are many other unpleasant devices used on dogs.

You Can't Always Get What You Want: Breed Traits & Individuality

It's a well-known fact that different dog breeds have different traits, usually connected with the purpose for which humans developed that particular breed. Labradors are friendly and like to carry things. Terriers like to dig and many also like to terrify small furry creatures. Border Collies are very intelligent, herd everything, and need 4 hours of walks a day to stop them doing a wall of death around the living room.

I write that last sentence with a wry smile (and in the case of the last part, a chunk of mildly sarcastic exaggeration) as I look at my own Border Collie Finn, who flatly refuses to set a paw outside the door if it's raining and is usually found upside down and snoring. He is indeed very bright, will herd a football if kicked to one side of him and, while he enjoys his walks, isn't overly fussed how long he's walked for, so long as he gets a few minutes of sniffing time.

My Reactive Dog - The Best Thing That's Ever Happened To Me

(I should note before I start that I do not regard my dog as a 'thing'! Thing in this instance refers to the whole bundle of events that happened after he joined our family.)

I know, that title sounds insane. I've written many times of the emotions that can run rife as the guardian of one of these complex, complicated, sensitive dogs. Of how hard it can be on us, as well as them, to drift through a sea of stress and fear, or spending a large proportion of our time outside both in a state of hypervigilance constantly on the look out for triggers and problems on the horizon. And yes, I still struggle with that at times. The tears come much less frequently now, but I remember that raw, embarrassed and humiliated feeling as yet another person sneered at me and my 'bad' dog.

Counter-conditioning or Desensitisation?

These are two terms that are often seen when discussing behaviour modification, particularly surrounding fearful and reactive dogs. As with many technical terms, the definition and usage of these can seem confusing when they are first encountered. This is not helped by the fact that often people will begin to describe what they think counter-conditioning (often abbreviated as CC) is but also include elements of systematic desensitisation (DS). So what then is each of these, how do they differ, and how do they work together?

To understand fully, it's necessary to go through a bit of learning theory. It might be worth getting a cuppa before getting going on this next part!

Confidence - it works both ways!

I talk a lot about how we need to increase the confidence of a fearful or anxious dog who struggles in their relationship with the world around them. What isn't so often talked about (with the exception of a few excellent examples like Janet Finlay's Canine Confidence Academy) is the fact that the human half of the partnership needs to feel confident as well.