04 FebEpisode 117 | Dog Training Q and A! 2/4/2021: Is it okay if my dog only “goes” once a day? Also: Counter surfing, curbing barking in the dog park, helping a dog feel okay about the car after a car crash, and more
This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A.
Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A on Instagram most Thursdays.
Discussed in this episode:
-How do you get a dog to eliminate more than once a day?
-My dog likes dogs on TV but not in real life
-What do I do if my dog just wants to bark at other dogs in the dog park but not play with them?
-How can I keep my dog from stressing out now that I'm going back to work?
-How can you keep a dog from counter surfing?
Disclosure: These Q and A's give very cursory to questions that are sometimes pretty complex! We encourage dog owners to seek out personalized profession training help whenever possible.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Treat and Train – Remote Treat Dispenser
Load Up Harness – Dog Seatbelt
Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs by Malena DeMartini-Price
Related Episodes:
Episode 59: Separation Anxiety Expert Malena DeMartini on Helping Dogs Learn To Be Alone
Featured image: Flapjack and Wanda by cseeman is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Transcript:
Annie:
Hi, this is a bonus Q and A episode. I try to go live every Thursday on the School for the Dog's Instagram account. If you would like to be alerted when I'm going to go live, or if you'd like to answer a question in advance, go to School for the Dogs.com/q and a. Thanks for being here.
Annie here. I have some training questions to answer. I was going to be starting this at three, but I'm a little late for a very serious reason, which is that I ordered food. Specifically if you must know, I ordered shake shack lunch, and I was waiting for the delivery to come so I wouldn't be interrupted by the delivery.
I'm actually pregnant. And so I had a real jonesing for French fries. So I ordered shake shack French fries, which for those of you who are not able to be eating French fries right now, I am not going to eat while I am doing this. So I'm sparing you that.
So let me see if I can figure out how to get my questions up here while I'm talking. Here we go. I think I have it here. Okay. And I also have a dog owner named Megan who might be joining me live to talk about some housebreaking issues she's having.
So first question is from Four Paw Ragnar who asks, how can I get my dog to play with dogs in the park rather than bark at them when they play?
So my thoughts on this are probably not what you want to hear, which is, Hmm. Maybe don't bring your dog to the dog park. You know, this is always a hard piece of advice to give because we, as human beings who love dogs, like going to the dog park. It's fun to see dogs run around with other dogs. In fact, it's one reason why a lot of people get dogs, right? Hey Devin. Nice to see you.
But I don't think the dog park is necessarily the right place for all dogs. And at least not at first. Perhaps it's something a dog can work up to.
So if your dog is in the habit of barking at other dogs, incessantly at the dog park, I would suggest trying to focus on having like, one-on-one play dates for your dog. Whether that's in a fenced in outdoor space, or in one of your homes. But you know, like in the school yard, we run what we call school yard at School for the Dogs.
For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's basically like a private dog run. We limit it to four dogs, I think during COVID it's up to six dogs, I'm sorry, during non COVID times. I mean, it's six dogs, but right now with COVID, it's four dogs and we do it that way because we can kind of curate who's playing with whom.
I suggest, if you don't have access to School for the Dogs or a similar situation, to try and kind of curate your own appropriate place situation for your dog, because dogs do tend to play best one-on-one. I'm guessing your dog is just a little overwhelmed at the dog park and may do better in a less chaotic situation. And then perhaps might be able to eventually go back to the dog park.
If the dog park really feels like the only option, try going to the dog park with a friend, and sort of corner your dog and your dog's friend into one area of the dog park. And see if you can help them focus on each other.
Another tip is to make sure you're playing with your dog at the dog park. Sometimes we think about going to the dog park like it's, you know, we're going to sit on the perimeter and the dogs are going to be in the middle like gladiators in the Coliseum. We're just going to watch as spectators.
But I encourage you to think about the dog park as a place where you're going to hang out with your dog, where you're going to be playing with your dog. It's just a place where your dog can be and be off-leash. Okay. Hope that's a little bit helpful.
I have a couple other questions that people wrote in, but I invited Megan to talk. Megan sent me a question and it was kind of long and it sounded like there might be updates since she wrote it to me. So I decided I'd rather talk live than try and communicate this in a more one-sided way. So let's see if this works.
Megan? I'm trying to let you in here again. I'm clicking, trying to request, Oops. Hold on. I just requested you back. Let's see if this works.
Hi! Hi, Megan. Nice to meet you. So tell me what's going on with your dog?
I know you wrote it out, but why don't you start from the beginning because it sounded like a situation that might be progressing with time.
Megan:
Yes. So probably on week eight or nine [inaudible]. We adopted a retriever who is four or five years old. Came from a really loving family. They just had to surrender him to a rescue just because of their life circumstances.
Annie:
And what kind of dog is he?
Megan:
A golden retriever. He's a big guy. He's about 80 pounds. And we seem to have, he doesn't seem to want to go to the bathroom. He can hold his pee for, I kid you not, close to 20 hours, if he chooses to. And it's not medical related because we've been to the vet a few times now concerned that it was something else was going on. And they said he checks out just fine.
He just seems to… it's like he has to go, but he doesn't want to go. Like, whether it's he can't find the spot or he gets distracted. So we can spend all morning, we can spend our whole day trying to get him to go out.
Annie:
Do you live in a city? Do you have a yard? What’s your setup?
Megan:
We are upstate, so we have a nice big yard for him. Plenty of grass, bushes, whatever he would want to choose. But he has spots he seems to go to that he prefers, but he might smell and do several passes and you might think he's going to go. And then he just like, Nope.
Annie:
Hmm. This is when you're taking them out for a regular walk, and when you let him loose in your yard? In both situations, is it the same?
Megan:
So we're trying to not rely on the walk for him to go out. We've done that before with dogs and it makes it hard if we go away and someone needs to come and watch them or take them because we have to take them to a rail trail. So you have to get in the car and drive them to go take a walk.
So we're trying to get him to learn to go in the yard. And it's not a fenced yard, so we don't really, we think it would run if we let him off. So his previous house, we know we had a fenced yard, so we're assuming he had control. They just let him outside and he could go as he wanted. And they would just let him back in whenever he probably came back to the door. So we’re now walking him on a leash to take him out. I don't know if he likes that.
Annie:
So when you have walked him on a leash, does that make any difference? No. So you've tried walking him on a leash outside. Have you tried walking on a leash in your yard?
Megan:
Yeah. Yeah.
Annie:
Does he go in the house at all?
Megan:
Nope. No, he has a bladder of steel.
Annie:
Wow. You know, I have to be honest. I haven't really encountered this specific issue before. And my gut tells me there's something going on with his bladder that maybe hasn't been diagnosed yet. Although, I mean, behavior wise, do you have the feeling that he's in pain at all? Does he seem generally like a happy dog?
Megan:
He's generally a happy dog. He just, it just seems like I have to go out and he kind has a moan that he lets us know, like, and we're using a command word. We started to train him to know the command, goout is his cue. So he's learned that and he gets excited to go to the door and the times when he does go, we reward him for it. And he's very happy. He knows what he's supposed to do.
It's just all the times in between where… and maybe it's time, you know, maybe it's continued reinforcement with those cue words and —
Annie:
But he's not having accidents inside.
Megan:
Nope.
Annie:
All right. Well, I mean, it seems like it might be less of a problem and more of a kind of curiosity [laughing] of a dog who really maybe only needs to go out once a day. Again, I mean, is his bladder normal, is he okay? If you're not seeing any clear signs that he's in pain, then maybe he's not, maybe he just really does have like an extra big bladder.
You know, one reason that we try and avoid punishing dogs for making mistakes, like peeing and pooping inside and then yelling at them, is because they can get scared about peeing or pooping in front of us at all, or peeing or pooping at all. You know, like the, the behavior itself can become like, gosh, am I going to get punished every time I do this kind of thing.
So, I mean, it's possible that he associates peeing and pooping with being punished in some way. It's possible he associates doing it in front of you in some way, like maybe he would prefer to do it in private. I mean, that's why I was asking if you do it on leash, because I mean, I would suggest, you know, trying everything. But he might actually prefer doing it when you're not when you're looking.
But yeah I mean, I would definitely check it out with your vet. I would experiment with different kinds of foods. What are you feeding him normally?
Megan:
Oh, he's been transitioning. I'm not in charge of the food. So I can't readily answer to that. He's been transitioning with help of the vet from. He was just on a Purina food when we got him. So we've been working with the vet to do that. The gradual transition to..
Annie:
To what?
Megan:
I don't take care of the foods.
Annie:
Are you transitioning to a wet food or a dry food?
Megan:
It’s a dry food.
Annie:
I would definitely suggest, you know, while you're experimenting, switching to like a more fresh foods, like a more whole food diet, just as it'll probably run through his body in a cleaner way. And you know, what we eat certainly affects what we put out. Happy to suggest some brands.
I love Evermore. It's the only brand we sell at School for the Dogs. They deliver. They'll ship. what other, what other brands are there? I mean, we have a lot of clients who use Farmer's Dog or Nom Nom is another one and they all, all these companies now — or Ollie. I mean, there's so many fresh food companies.
But even if you get something frozen, like go to the frozen section of the pet store. And there's raw foods. I think lightly cooked is usually preferable to raw, but if you get something frozen, usually it's going to be a fresher food than stuff that's going to be canned or dry. So again, just in the, in the spirit of experimenting to see if you can get him on a more normal schedule you know, maybe foods, I don't know, foods, foods that are higher in fiber.
Seems like he's drinking the right amount?
Megan:
Yeah.
Annie:
All right. Well, I think a lot of people would like to have this problem of a dog who doesn't have to go out that much. I mean, I certainly know that there are people who eliminate on weird schedules as well. So you know, he might just be idiosyncratic as far as this goes, but yeah I would definitely lean on your vet. Certainly would suggest going to a holistic vet who's looking at the whole picture. If you want to offline tell me where you live I’d be happy to see if I have any recommendations of anyone in the area.
But you know what, again, keep experimenting. Try letting him be outside by himself with, you know, you may be looking on. Try letting him try some different substrates, grass, or some dogs like to pee on, you know, weird stuff. Like I had a dog who loved going on grates, like metal grates on the sidewalk. And then of course, like the supers of the building would be all pissed off. They'd be like, you know where that pee and poop is going, don't you?! Dirt.
You could even experiment if you wanted to, with putting a peepee pad, wee wee pad down inside or getting like a grass patch inside. Like maybe that would make him more comfortable. There are these grass patch delivery services. I've been using one, actually, I think it's called Doggie Lawn, but there are lots of different ones like that too.
Yeah. Curious to know how it goes. Have you been able to interact at all with the people who had them before? Do you know if this was like a new problem? No.
Megan:
No, it was handed over to foster and that's just kind of — he came through a rescue organization. So it was a pretty quick transition from what we understand. So,
Annie:
How's he doing otherwise?
Megan:
He seems good. Although I do think he misses his former family, so.
Annie:
Really?
Megan:
Yeah, they had kids and there aren't any young kids here and it's a big change for him, but he's a sweetie, so yeah. It might just be time, too.
Annie:
Well, if you haven't already, I would suggest maybe trying to do some trick training with him or just do some fun training with him to see if you can just get him to sort of get him to be excited about his new life. Probably something he didn't do before. Sounds like you're not in a situation where he's has tons of dog playmates or kid playmates or whatever, so that's something you can do in your living room.
And I find sometimes clicker training can give dogs like a boost of, I don't know, dopamine, serotonin or whatever, improve their mood. And I don't know, maybe if you improve his mood it will improve his bathroom habits as well. Right. Well, keep me posted, let me know how it goes. I'm curious to hear.
Megan:
Some good ideas, so well see, we’ll try.
Annie:
Well, please report back. I'd like to know how things go.
All right. Interesting question. All right. Have a couple other questions here.
Another golden owner. This is Lindsay who is @GoldenMadisonAvenue, who has her dog Madison, a student of ours, says: tips to stop counter surfing?
Hmm. Well, I think that's a really good idea in the kitchen to have, if you have a dog who's a counter surfer, to have a designated spot where your dog can hang out. I call it a sticky mat sometimes. We use yoga mats a lot for this purpose at School for the Dogs. But it could be a towel or whatever, something where your dog can learn, when I'm on the spot, I get really good things. And it's as easy as putting that spot on the ground, ideally away from the counter and then every 20 seconds or so go put a treat on that spot.
Even if your dog isn't on the spot, if you just start putting treats regularly on that spot, your dog's going to get the idea pretty quickly. I love using Treat and Train for this kind of thing. Remote controlled treat dispenser that can work at a pretty great distance. You could set that in the corner and just press the button continually. You can even put it on a timer.
But you want your dog to know that there is a place in the kitchen where lots of good yummy things are gonna happen, and it's not going to involve having to jump on the counter. Oh, Hey, Leo. Of course also a good idea to not have things on the counter that your dog is likely to want to get. You just want to make the ground of your kitchen as interesting as possible, specifically the ground of your kitchen that is away from your countertops.
Another little trick that I've done a few times, although I still would suggest having a sticky spot for your dog somewhere in the kitchen, is if you don't mind getting your cabinets a little bit dirty, put some peanut butter or something like low, low down on your kitchen. Like on your kitchen cabinets or even on like the baseboard in your kitchen, here and there, so that your dog can develop an interest in licking or scavenging way down low in the kitchen, rather than trying to get up on the counter.
Okay. I think a couple more questions have come in while I'm doing this, if these folks are still here. Hi, George and Wally and Willie. Let me see if I can find these questions. Oh, Hey Kenny. Hm.
Joes_pet_homecare says:
I had a head-on car collision with my dog in the back of the car. He used to run and jump in the back, but now tiptoes down to the car, licking his lips off. He shivers once in the car.
Well, first of all, get a seat seatbelt on that dog ASAP. We sell one in our online store by Ruffwear, it's called the load up harness. I think it's really important that dogs wear seat belts in cars for this kind of reason, God forbid you have a car crash. If you're not going to put a full on seatbelt harness for your dog, you can at least buckle them in. They make little straps like leashes that will plug into the seatbelt lock in a car.
And start trying to put your dog in the car when you're not going anywhere, feed meals in the car, practice going into the car, eating some treats, getting out of the car. But try spending some good time with your dog in the car that's not when the car is moving. Totally understandable that he's a little fearful about the car at this point.
I mean, it wouldn't be surprising if you're fearful about the car at this point, but when you think about it, you've had many, many, many, many hours in the car without incident. And in his life now, the incident that you had is like a much bigger percentage, a big percentage of his car experience.
So you want to try and temper that with lots of experiences of the car, not moving the car, just being a place for eating treats, eating a full meal. He doesn't have to sit, he doesn't have to do anything. No specific things that in the beginning that I would even ask him to do in the car, just have them go in and with the car not moving and have good times.
Gun Jan for You says: my little pug has major separation issues when I go to the office, probably because I spent a lot of time with him during lockdown. But now that I go to work, it's difficult.
You know, so many separation issues that people are having right now. Certainly a much bigger topic, Gunjan. If you have not already checked out my podcast, I have a couple episodes specifically about separation. You can find it at School for the Dogs Podcast, if you look it up on iTunes or wherever.
The short Q and A answer to separation issues is to go slow. Of course it might be hard if you have to really leave all day for the office right now. But I would try and work him up to being fully alone by seeing if you can find maybe a babysitter, someone to hang out with him. Especially with so many people working from home right now, and students being home.
Might actually be easier than ever before to find a neighbor or someone who you can say like, Hey, you hang out in my apartment, pay you 30 bucks or whatever to hang out with my dog for the day. You don't even have to take them out. I just want him to not be alone. I'm a big fan of when I call dog share, this way, right? Sharing your dog's love and care with other people.
Maybe if your dog has a friend that he likes, that person would take the dog in. So he could be with his friend while you're at work. But I don't think you need to necessarily bring him to a daycare. I would investigate friends and neighbors and see if someone will just hang out with him.
And then practice letting him be alone for amounts of time that he can handle. So that might be 10 seconds. That might be three hours, I don't know. But figure out kind of a baseline and then work under whatever that threshold is. So if you find he's really fine for 10 minutes, but 15 minutes, he starts to get anxious, start leaving him alone for nine minutes. Always set him up for success.
Also make sure always to keep your comings and goings pretty low key. You want him to just feel like mom comes, mom goes, mom comes, mom goes, it's not a big deal. She's in and out all the time.
I also always suggest if you're dealing with any separation issues, check out the books by Malena DeMartini. I have interviewed her for the School for the Dogs podcast. She has a couple of books out, including a new one. Her first book is called Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs, very straightforward title. And I always tell clients, give this a read before you work with a trainer, because the trainer is going to hold your hand through the steps that are in this book.
So, you can certainly, it's more of a bargain to just use the book than to work with a trainer, although certainly a trainer can really coach you through what can be difficult. Dealing with separation issues can be very difficult.
All right. Last question from Bambino Star, hi there, says: My dog has a six pound Yorkie. He loves seeing dogs on TV, but not in real life.
Okay. interesting. Right. Every dog is different. If he likes seeing dogs on TV, then I would certainly let them see dogs on TV as much as possible. You can even use the TV to start teaching them to feel good about other dogs. Click and treat for him just looking at the dogs on the TV. And then you're kind of going to mimic the same thing outside.
Now, the tricky thing with dogs who don't like seeing other dogs outside is you're probably going to want to work on it in choreographed situations, just going out on the city street and trying to counter condition your dog, is what we call it. Counter condition your dog to help your dog change your dog's feelings about seeing other dogs on the street. Well, you don't know when another dog is going to turn the corner. It can be pretty difficult to maneuver training in that way.
But what you can do is set up a, with another dog, where another dog is at maybe 30 feet away. Work in a parking lot, if you need to. And I want you to reward your dog for looking at that other dog at that great distance, at a distance that your dog can handle. So, you know, when your dog is not freaking out, stressing out. If your dog is freaking out, stressing out, go farther away.
And that reward could be food. That reward could be running further away from the other dog. Sometimes getting to put more distance between your dog and the other dog is what's actually going to be more rewarding for your dog.
So there are lots of protocol for this. Again, I'm giving like the very condensed Q and A answer to this question. Definitely something I would suggest working with a trainer on. I think a trainer can really help set up protocol that will help your dog learn to feel better about other dogs. But not unlike with the separation issue, start at a place that your dog can handle and work from there.
And then when you are outside, if there is a dog coming at you, and you can't sort of get to your dog fast enough, do what you need to do to get your dog's attention. That might mean standing in front of your dog. It might mean teaching your dog to change sides very quickly, changing directions.
If you have a small dog like a Yorkie, which I think is what you said you have, you know, you could even just pick the dog up. I like picking a dog up with giving some peanut butter or something at the same time to condition the dog to feel good about being picked up.
But you know, do what you need to do to get the behavior to stop with as sort of little fanfare as possible. It's not about punishing the behavior as much as it's about getting the behavior to stop and sort of helping your dog chill out as quickly as possible. Because the more excited your dog gets, the longer it's gonna take for all those like excited brain chemicals to go away.
All right. Thank you for being here. Hope this has been helpful. I'm going to try and do this again next week. If you would like to submit a question in advance, I may see if you would like to go live, like we did with Megan today. You can submit a question and sign up to be notified when I'm going to go live at schoolforthedogs.com/QandA. All right. Thanks a lot. Bye.
