If you whisper to dogs, you must be very quiet

Sometimes people call us ‘dog whisperers’ because we know how to behave in a way that makes dogs intuitively engage with us with focus and respect. I appreciate the compliment and I also want to scream from the rooftops that anyone can enjoy this subtle relationship with their dog if they learn the guidelines.

My sweet dog Harley just turned ten in December. She has recently started putting herself to bed, choosing to leave my side on the couch and go to my bedroom before I do. If you have done a training session with me, you may notice that Harley sits with me on the couch and sleeps in my bed (only in the winter, as summers she prefers to be under my bed). As long as Harley is behaving and listening well, I don’t mind her having privileges! My guidelines for privileges is that my dog’s behavior be good in all other areas, so when I say ‘off’ without any hesitation or stickiness, she will oblige.

I love seeing this independence from Harley. She used to suffer from terrible separation anxiety before I started applying the methods I now teach my training clients. If you live with a Dachshund or another burrowing breed, you know that any lumpy blanket likely has a dog under it. When I got into bed the other night and she was all sleepy and snuggled, I was tempted to lift the blanket, give her a pet and tell her goodnight. This is a normal, and loving, human moment of desire. I witnessed the urge arise, but  instead of acting on it, I imagined that experience from Harley’s perspective.

If I was exhausted and went to bed early, I would certainly notice if someone joined me,but if they lifted the covers, exposing my body to cold air, rubbed on me and spoke to me, ensuring that I was roused from my sleep, I would probably be a little upset. What may be loving in human gestures, can also be a little rude, especially for a creature who doesn’t live by human cultural norms of expressing or experiencing love.

I knew Harley would love a pet, squeeze and kind word when she woke up in the morning, so I resisted the urge to tell her goodnight with words and simply thought it in my mind. Our dogs invite us to a more subtle level of communication and sensation. That lesson isn’t wasted on me. People say ‘dog whisperer’ as a compliment, but the truth is that most of the time I feel dog psychic! I’m able to ‘talk’ to dogs by shifting my attention, my energy, my body language or my gaze. It is incredible how sensitive our dogs are once they are calm and focused. It’s also a calling for me to take advantage of the opportunity to practice communicating on that level.

To me, this is love. Even though I would have liked to show Harley affection and she probably wouldn’t have minded much, for me to refrain in that moment, because I knew it wouldn’t be the best thing for my sweet, sleeping pup, felt good. It was also a moment of awareness for me that even though I have been practicing tuning into my dog and seeing things from her perspective for 10 years, I still had to remind myself to control my human urges and put what I know into practice. My training suggestions are a big change for my clients - I went through the same journey myself and still practice every day! What keeps me going is the calm, happy, attentive state my dog gets to live in as a result. If that isn’t love, putting my dog’s happiness ahead of my momentary urges, then I don’t know what is.

So you want to board your dog?

We are down to the wire on the holidays and I have been getting a lot of calls from desperate dog owners who waited to make a booking. We only do boarding for dogs in our hiking group, and even those clients started booking for holiday travel in August. It’s competitive to get the best care for your dog and smart owners (who have been burned in the past) learned the lesson to book ahead and adjust dates or cancel (with lots of notice please!) instead of scrambling days before a trip.

When I tell people I’m booked, they usually ask me for a recommendation and the truth is, I have no great ones because I haven’t been a client of any business. When I travel I have been lucky enough to always have a friend watch my sweet pup Harley or to be a client of my own business. That is wonderful because I have directly felt the value of the service we offer getting the photos of her hiking and I know I don’t need to worry about my dog because she is getting great care.

For me, step one is to train your dog!

A trained dog who is calm, obedient, and listens well to other people is going to be a much easier dog to ask someone to watch than a wild hound who jumps on people and furniture, pulls on the leash, doesn’t listen to commands, or is all around unruly.

Start building mutually beneficial relationships with your family, friends, neighbors. You can even make dog friends at neighborhood parks with the owners of dogs your dog plays well with. If you can trade off watching each other’s dogs that is a huge help! Again, people are usually more than happy to welcome an easy, well behaved dog into their home for a few days, so get your dog under control and save some money long term. All this needs to happen months and months before a big trip, not at the last minute.

If you are weeks or days away from a trip and need help, here are the pluses and minuses of all the services available. 

You almost always get what you pay for. Be wary of inexpensive services because they may make their income on quantity instead of quality. 

*Disclaimer- I haven’t used most of these services for my own dog and what is written is only my opinion from what I know and experiences of others. All circumstances vary business to business and sometimes depending what staff is on duty. The quality of the care and play time will be affected by who is on duty each day - not every staff member is equally skilled, experienced or caring. 

I like services similar to what I offer where one person cares for your dog the entire stay, but that isn’t usually possible or available. Always trust your gut and evaluate each business for yourself.

Board before you need to board

When you are first trying to find somewhere to board, it’s good to do a trial stay and see how your dog comes back. Not every environment is right for every dog and there is only one way to find out how your dog will react. 

I love switching up my dog’s routine and getting them comfortable spending time away from me.  

Are they stressed? Scratched? Overly tired in a way that indicates they didn’t rest well? Or are they comfortable and happy? For me, the mark of a good relationship with my dog and quality care is that your dog isn’t too excited to see you. That means they were comfortable where they were and would be happy to stay or to leave with you. Now let’s go over the options.

Rover, the Uber of dog care

What I like about Rover is that your dog gets to stay in someone’s home, not a kennel, which is an environment most of our pets are not used to. With Rover, there are a ton of variables. Since anyone can sign up, does the person know anything about dogs? Do they have their own dog? How many dogs will they watch at once? Where are the dogs kept? I like a situation where only one or two temperament tested dogs are there at a time, the dogs will be crated when no one is home, and where they are not left for longer than 6 hours. 

Know that during the holidays it can be tempting to overbook since so many people need help, so it’s likely that someone may take on more dogs than usual and possibly more dogs than their home and ability can handle.

Pet sitter

This can be a good option because your dog gets to stay in your home. I may prefer a college student who can stay there instead of someone who stops in, one to three times a day. Personally, my dog wouldn’t be happy spending that much time alone. If your dog is more independent, pet sitting is an option for a short trip or long day at work, just be sure your dog is getting sufficient exercise and can cope with having the house to themselves. (This is not a good fit for dogs that are crated while you are out of the house.)

Trusted Housesitter

Check out Trustedhousesitters.com as a way to find in-home and free pet care! Someone will come and stay in your home, taking care of your pets and house in exchange for a free place to stay. Use your discretion, read reviews, and have a conversation with someone before confirming the sit to make sure they can keep up with your routine, rules and boundaries and can give your dog sufficient exercise. This is the best way to keep your dog in the best possible place for them while you are way - your home!

Your vet

Please don’t leave your dog at the vet. If you went away for the weekend, would you stay in a hospital? NOPE. They smell weird and it’s not a pleasant environment.  Many times dogs are not allowed to socialize at a vet office, for obvious reasons. 

Some vets have great setups for boarding. Some offer private rooms and play areas for dogs on a whole different floor or in a different building than where the doctoring takes place. If your dog will be kept in a cage, in a kennel, or outdoors, this change in environment will be moderately unpleasant at best and traumatic at worst. This should be a last resort - depending on the set up! Ask to see where the dogs are kept before you book. 

Upside is that if your dog has health issues, or is on special medications or if your dog injures himself, they can take care of it immediately.

A kennel

Kennels are large facilities that care for many dogs at once. Their indoor setups vary,  but typically the dogs are kept in a cement floor and wired individual kennel or cage in one loud room and let out to play or walk once, twice, or several times a day. 

My dog has always been at home, so I don’t think she would be comfortable being kept in a kennel most of the day, especially in a large sterile room filled with barking dogs. That sounds like a nightmare. Especially when your hearing is as good as our dog’s is!

Pet resort

I don’t know much about these and imagine they vary from place to place, but from what I understand, dogs get their own room to stay in and have supervised play times and potty breaks. 

I like this idea for a dog’s safety and the fact that it may be more quiet in a room with walls versus an open room of crates. 

It is HARD to find any photos of facilities on the websites of local businesses. This is the only one I found for a pet resort. These rooms also often tend to have cameras so you can watch your dog. I still think my pup would be stressed and lonely here, but it seems like the best of the options so far.

Dog ranch

These could be a great fit for a larger more energetic dog. The dogs stay in kennels, sometimes in a covered outdoor area, and get to romp around a large property during the day. I wouldn’t be inclined to send a small dog here unless they have a separate area for small dogs.

Board and Train

I love board and train if you have researched the trainer and facility, gotten references of past clients and made the decision you want to dedicate 2-4 weeks and several thousand dollars to having your dog professionally trained. Ultimately how well your dog behaves in the long run will depend on how much you can keep up with the trainer’s recommendations. 

I used to get a lot of calls asking if I could ‘board and train’ for a long weekend. Someone couldn’t teach me French in 3 days, but could maybe teach me a few words and give me some basics. Same is true for our dogs and a true board and train needs to last several weeks. Board and train is expensive and not something you should rush into at the last minute because you need care and want to kill two birds with one stone. Those calls would make me really sad because it shows how our industry does a bad job of explaining how dogs learn and what different services mean.

Also- strong strong recommendation to not do board and train over a holiday. During holidays I was up to my ears in dogs and taking care of the basic needs took all my time and energy. Any dog hoping to get some extra training would be getting less than my best self and less time than I could usually dedicate. I simply wouldn’t take on this request during holiday times because I knew I couldn’t do the best job possible, but not everyone would say “no” to extra money. Please don’t  board and train over holiday times. Unless the facility’s trainers are separate from their caregivers, it’s not the best use of your dollars.

Happy traveling and best of luck!

When commands trail off...

Austinites loooove their dogs, so when I’m out and about I get to see a lot of dog/owner interaction. One of the most common mistakes I see people make is to drop a command when their dog doesn’t comply. I think this happens so often because people simply don’t know what to do in those moments where their dog doesn’t listen.

From a training perspective, it’s important that I have a lot of integrity in my relationship with my dog. Because, ultimately, all of the training we do is for safety, it’s really really important to me that the twenty-odd times a day I give my dog a command they listen. I need for my dog to know that if I start asking them for something, I’m not going to quit till I get it. This helps my dog understand that the best way to make me quit saying that word is just to do the thing it means, then life gets fun again! If I quit, however, and don’t follow through on a command my dog learns that I have a breaking point, and if they can push me to that point they will never have to do the thing I asked them. The only way you can fail at dog training is by giving up!

I’m a dog trainer, but that doesn’t mean I’m not a person too! Sometimes I want some time off, and my dog or the dogs boarding at my home are doing something I don’t like (playing too rough in the house, going into a room they don’t belong in, barking at a noise), when this happens, I’ll start with my ‘eh-eh’ sound as a correction. ‘Eh-eh’ is great because it just means ‘stop what you are doing.’ Easy enough! If I slip up and say something like ‘sit’ and my dog, who is activated and involved in being a little naughty doesn’t comply, that means I have to get my lazy bum off the couch and walk over to my dog, get their attention, and make sure we follow through on the command I just gave.

Knowing how to teach your dog to sit is great and important. Knowing what to do when, for whatever reason, your dog doesn’t want to do that thing you are asking them to do, that you know they know how to do, is just as, if not more, important! That is one of the things we cover in our training series, and something that can really help your relationship with your pup as you guide them towards being more reliably obedient. Often those moments when it’s tough to get their attention and compliance are the ones where it can matter the most!

The short goodbye... Proper etiquette for leaving your dog

When people drop their dogs off at my house for boarding, I notice that the owner's behavior can unintentionally cause stress instead of confidence in their dogs. We love our dogs so much, but sometimes when we express that love in a human way it can actually stress out our poor pups. While goodbyes are good etiquette when it comes to human manners,  dogs don't naturally share that cultural norm.

As a new client, who has never left their dog before, you may arrive nervous,or even as a seasoned client  you know you will miss your pup, so you may draw out the goodbye, pulling your dog's attention back to you when really the dog is interested (as they should be) in being in a new place and smelling new smells.

Your nervous, unsure, emotional energy gets transmitted to your dog. Instead of being excited to be somewhere new, they take a cue from you that the situation is distressing and therefore they feel more distress than necessary.  Your dog may even start to worry about you!

In general, I find quick, unemotional hand offs are best. If you  have calm, confident energy, you passively transmit the message to your dog that everything is fine and therefore they feel good about what's happening. 

Parting with your dog is always tough. Once I see my dog is happy and content without me,usually after receiving the first photo of my dog, I can relax.. Do your dog (and your boarder!) a favor and try to have a smooth hand off when you drop your dog for boarding. 

Our favorite 4-lettered word is C-A-L-M

The reason a lot of people love dogs is their easy access to states of exuberance and joy. As anyone who has ever walked down a city street or met a dog knows, dogs are easily excitable. Most dogs today are little, furry instant gratification machines.

See another dog? Freak out. 

Human looks at you? Freak out.

Going for a walk? Freak out.

Someone has a treat? Freak out.

Dogs are natural pros at getting amped up so what they need from us is an incentive to calm down. In order to be healthy, your dog needs to learn how to regulate their emotions - just like a person! 

You can create a container where this is possible by:

Pre-empting your dog's reaction in potentially exciting situations

• When you know you are going to subject your dog to those situations that are exciting for them, such as answering the door, passing another dog on the street, getting your dog into the car or approaching water on the trail, be sure to take a deep breath, give a touch on the leash or a verbal command and ask them to focus on you. 

• Down regulate their energy before they get distracted instead of just trying to manage them after.

Making the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard

• When your dog is being reactive and getting overly excited, do what it takes to get their attention back on you and be sure to  move away from what they want instead of towards it. 

• When your dog is jumping around, panting, whining or pulling towards something, stop where you are or move away from it. 

• Only when your dog is walking calmly and retaining their composure,  can you move steadily towards the awesome thing. 

• Have a picture of what you want in your mind and do whatever it takes to make reality match.

• As a leader for your dog, it's important that you always have a picture of what you want reality to look like. 

• When you put on the leash, you want your dog sitting calmly. 

• When you open the door, you want your dog ready to wait at the threshold.

• When you walk, you want your dog by your side and not pulling. 

• When you greet another dog, you want your dog's energy to be calm. You want them to be able to approach the other dog with a cool head so they can read and demonstrate prosocial body language. 

• If your dog is matching the picture you have in your mind, great! Life can keep being awesome! 

• If your dog's behavior doesn't match what you want, apply pressure with your voice, eyes, body language, leash and energy till you have their attention and they are calm again.

Everyone lies on social media, even dogs!

We all know that someone's social media image isn't necessarily indicative of the reality of their life. Well, the same is true for dog photos. We, as humans, are terrible at reading dog body language and this holds true for photographs as well. 

One of the most common  misconceptions is an easy one. Panting looks a lot like smiling! When a dog is panting, it can mean they are hot, but it can also be a sign of anxiety. A few weeks ago on a bar patio someone offhandedly commented on all the happy dogs there. He saw a few dogs sitting or laying down and panting, or, to his eyes, smiling. What I saw was dogs that were warm and anxious. They were most likely uncomfortable on the rocks by the picnic table their owner was sitting at. The music from the nearby stage was likely too loud for them. Being held on leash or tied up in a public space where there are people and other dogs can be stressful. These dogs were okay, but it probably wasn't their favorite day. Dogs are good sports about most things, but if owners were able to accurately read their dog's body language, they may make different choices about when to bring a dog along and when the dog may prefer to be left home.

The truth is, we are part of the problem! The photos we choose to post online or send to owners conform to these misinterpretations. We may not post this photo to Instagram because the dogs all look so serious. Some are distracted by a sound, a few are looking at the camera, only one is panting, but because of their ear position they don't necessarily look happy. The truth is, these dogs are calm and focused on the job at hand, which is staying in the position we put them in and maintaining the stay till they are released, despite whatever that distracting sound off to the left is. Judging by their body language, these dogs would be able to be calmly released from the pose and continue on with the hike without too much fuss (meaning us fussing at them).

Don't these dogs look happier? I don't know how long we were hiking before this photo or how warm it was that day, but the truth is they are probably hot.

Check out Nell's expression in this photo. She looks so serious! The truth is that she is calm and focused. Her ears are perked and her tail is up, telling me that she is perfectly content. 

Beware the lie of the tail - not every wag is a happy one. A slow deliberate wag can be a sign of discomfort. A tail that is out and up, but stiff can also be a sign of tension. In both of those scenarios, I may try to get my dog's attention or shift the situation so my dog feels more comfortable.

Nell is a Rhodesian Ridgeback so she has a stripe of hair that grows in the opposite direction along her spine. On any other breed of dog, the look of her back would indicate discomfort and be referred to as 'having her hackles up'. It's the body's version of growling. 

For me, when it comes to what I want to see from my dog, I care more about a calm energy and mentality than them looking happy. Wouldn't it be weird if you had a friend that was smiling all the time? Like, all the time? Well, intermittently riling our dogs up so their affect conforms to our perception of happiness can be detrimental to your dog's mental health and general obedience. I mean, I get it. These dogs really do look a bit blue or grumpy, but this is a place we have to retrain our brains so that our perception of our dogs more closely matches the reality. While I wouldn't post these pictures because they don't match our idea of a happy dog, this is, in actuality, more of the look I want the dogs who are with me to have.

If it ain't workin', stop doing it!

I get calls from a lot of owners who are struggling in some area of their life with their dog.

"I keep going to the dog park and my dog is having problems"

"I keep letting my dog off leash and they don't listen"

"I keep having people over and my dog always jumps on them"

I feel like a big part of my job is saying things that people respond to with "oh, that seems so obvious now that you've said it." Here is my gift to you: if it isn't working, stop doing it. 

If I keep having a problem it's a sign that I have over-faced my dog and I need to step back, regroup and re-approach. It's not enough to stop doing the thing (which you should, for now, if you keep getting the same bad result). In order to change the outcome, you need to address the underlying causes outside of the high intensity situation.

That's where a good trainer comes in! While you are researching trainers or waiting for your appointment, stop doing the troublesome activity or avoid the tough situation. I love to advise my clients on what changes they can make in their behavior and the way they relate to their dog that will have exponential effects on the way that their dog views the world and conducts themselves in it. 

For now, if it ain't working, it’s best to take a break (and get a trainer on the phone!).