27 AugEpisode 167 | Home Alone: Helping dogs adjust as we return to the office (Audio of live presentation for NYC’s Animal Medical Center)
This is the audio of a live presentation Annie gave for New York City's Animal Medical Center's Usdan Institute for Animal Health Education last week.
Annie offers actionable advice for preventing separation anxiety and handling other behavioral issues that may arise as people begin to return to offices after long periods of working from home, with their dogs constantly by their sides.
This presentation discusses:
- How to locate a certified dog trainer and understand what "Good Dog Training" is
- Changing a dog's emotional states
- Reading dog body language to assess stress levels
- Monitoring dogs remotely
- Creative dog care arrangements for when owners aren't around
- Conducting separation trials in a way that sets up dogs for success
And more!
You can view the presentation in full here.
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School For The Dogs' trainers are available for private sessions to deal with issues relating to true separation anxiety. Book a session online or call us at 212-353-DOGS.
Looking for online help? Check out Malena DeMartini's on-demand course on dealing with separation anxiety at schoolforthedogs.com/mission. Use code SFTD for 50% off.
Learn more about School For The Dogs classes and workshops, both virtual and in NYC, at schoolforthedogs.com/services.
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Transcript:
[music and intro]
Annie:
Hi. Today I am sharing the audio of a virtual presentation I did last week for New York City's Animal Medical Center. They asked me to talk about how people can prepare their dogs for them going back to work outside of their homes, which I know a lot of people are hoping to do soon.
How can we make sure that dogs who have been home with us, as we've worked from home for the last year, plus. How can we make sure to set them up for success if they are going to need to be without us for longer periods of time?
So yeah, I put together this presentation. If you want to see the presentation, not just listen to it, you can find the link to it in the show notes, I will put a YouTube link there. I will also link to some of the books that I mentioned on separation anxiety.
This presentation is really sort of about how to prevent separation anxiety, not how to deal with separation anxiety, but if you are already dealing with separation anxiety, I definitely suggest these books. I also suggest checking out Malena DeMartini’s course, which you can find at schoolforthedogs.com/mission. I had her on the podcast a few months ago to talk about it. I've done it. I learned a lot from it. You can get 50% off if you use that link and the code SFTD.
Also, before I play this for you, I wanted to let you all know that we have a lot of virtual offerings and we're adding even more to the schedule this fall. Of course, if you're in New York City, you should make sure to check out our website to find out about our local classes and workshops. You can also find our schedule on Instagram. We post it there every week at School for the Dogs on Instagram. If you're not already signed up for our newsletter, we mail it out every week. You can find that at schoolforthedogs.com/newsletter.
But I know for instance, we have a Puppy Kindergarten class starting on September 12th. We have a Tricks class starting on September 21st and also in September, we have a couple of workshops coming up. Workshops are just one hour sessions. We have one on nose work games and one on window and door barkers. So I hope that you will check those out.
And now here is my presentation that I did for the AMC enjoy.
Speaker:
Annie Grossman is a certified professional dog trainer and the owner and co-founder of School for the Dogs in Manhattan. Annie’s passionate about using dog training as a lens into better understanding the science of behavior as it applies to all species of animals, including humans. She's written about animals for the New York Times and Boston Globe among other publications, and she hosts the School for the Dogs podcast. Annie, thank you so much for joining us tonight.
Annie:
Thank you for having me. I'm going to attempt my screen-share here. Thank you all for being here. All right. Can you see my screen, Michelle? Yes. Okay. We're good. Thank you so much, Michelle.
I am going to talk today about the grand return that I hope we all will be making soon to more normal life, to our offices. I was already introduced, but this is me with some of my dog friends. I am the owner of School for the Dogs, host of School for the Dogs podcast. I curate an online store, which has a lot of fun called storeforthedogs.com. I have written for a lot of publications about pets among other things. And I dabble in illustration, and you will see some of my drawings actually in this presentation.
School for the Dogs has been around for about 10 years. We focus on reward-based, science-based training. We're located in the East Village. We have a lovely sun filled, two story facility. We also have a lot of online offerings, a store, both brick and mortar and online.
And today, in addition to talking to you about the return to offices and how you can help your dog prepare for being alone for some periods of time. I also want to talk to you about kind of what good dog training is and help you identify whether or not you really might need a dog trainer to work with issues relating to separation anxiety.
I think that a lot of people don't think about dog training most of the time, unless they have a puppy or unless they're having a problem. And so I would like to take advantage of this moment to give you some of my thoughts on what good dog training really is.
Good dog training is positive. What we mean by that is that we are adding something to the equation that your dog likes in order to encourage a behavior. So we are following a Sit with a reward, and in that way it is positive. It is not positive like we have to be nice and heart stars and flowers all the time. It's positive in the addition sense of the word.
It is not permissive. And that's often a misunderstanding about positive reinforcement dog training, that we only focus on the things we like and ignore everything else. Please erase that idea from your mind.
It is not punishment focused. We are not going to use a lot of harsh techniques, but punishment really by definition means that we are getting rid of behaviors. And you're going to see that because we are management focused, sort of setting up the environment in order to encourage likelihood of behaviors we want a happening to happen, we are not going to have to spend a lot of time getting rid of behavior. So that is how we are really able to avoid using punishment and sort of more punishment based, traditional methods of training.
You might hear people refer to science-based dog training. I do think of this, the training we do, as based in science in that it is an application of behavioral science, which I think is a fascinating field of science. And it has really helped me in my life think about human behavior in addition to dog behavior.
It is evidence based, and also I find makes a lot of sense because it is rooted in science. And because, I like to point out, we are working in the realm of animal behavior when we're working with dogs. And the good news is, dogs are animals who are behaving all the time, and you are an animal who is behaving all the time. So while we are not dogs and dogs are not humans, the laws of behavior and learning theory apply to both us and them. So you might actually find you know more about dog training than you think you do.
It is not myth or energy-based. I do not believe that you need to be born with any kind of special powers in order to be a good dog trainer. I believe it is extremely learnable. And when you hear people talk about needing to have sort of a special calm energy in order to have your dog listen to you, I think you could really not have your stuff together in life and still have a very well behaved dog.
And like I mentioned, we're working with things that are rooted in science. So there's a lot of myths out there. I mean, you'll hear things about, you know, you have to make sure you walk through the door before your dog for your dog to pay attention to you, or you need to not let your dog sleep in bed with you. Unless there's evidence behind those things, which I don't usually think there is, I tend to dismiss that stuff as myths.
It is reward based. We are using things dogs like in order to encourage behaviors we like. That may be food, that may be play, that may be attention. But I do not think of it as about spoiling dogs. That's another sort of often misunderstood thing about reward based training. I think that the difference between spoiling a dog and having a well-trained dog with whom you're using rewards is the timing with which you're giving those rewards. And as good dog trainers, we really make sure that we are giving rewards with excellent timing.
These are some certifications I suggest you look for if you are considering hiring a dog trainer. Dog training is not a regulated field. There is no required licensing. Anybody could say, Oh, Hey, I'm a professional dog trainer, which I think is a problem. But you can temper that problem by looking for these certifications.
I am a Certified Professional Dog Trainer Knowledge Assessed. That's the first one that is kind of the major certification out there. I think there's something like 5,000 CPDT-KAs globally. Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner is also a title I have as a graduate of the Karen Pryor Academy training program.
And then these are some other ones, the last one being the certification that we give at School for the Dogs to people who have completed our professional program. I believe Michelle is going to send these resources out, so you don't have to take notes.
One word to look out for when you're looking for a dog trainer is people who refer to themselves as balanced. Usually people who say they're balanced will not have any of these above certifications. Balanced usually means they believe in a balance between reinforcement training and punishment based training.
And that's sort of beyond what we're going to be talking about today, but I did just want to give you this quick link here to the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior’s Position Statement on Humane Dog Training, which really talks about why it is so important to use reward based science-based non aversive methods in dog training. It's not just about, you know, trying to be a nice person. There's a lot more to it than that.
Okay. Now, to the meat of our presentation, the great return to work. Of course, the joke is that every time you leave, your dog is worried that you're probably never going to come back. They've been probably thrilled by your extended period of working from home. Meanwhile, the cats thought you would never leave.
Separation anxiety at its heart is a real phobia of being alone. It's a panic based disorder. What's happening when your dog is truly fearful. Now I think that the term separation anxiety is generally overused. I think it's a pretty extreme situation when a dog truly has separation anxiety or sometimes it's called isolation distress. But it is a term that you will hear a lot, I think as people are worrying about leaving their dogs, so I would just want to give you some thoughts on how to spot it and what it is and what it isn't.
If your dog is having accidents, occasionally, maybe their walking schedule has changed because you are now leaving the home. Your dog is barking at noises in the hallway. Again, people's schedules are changing. Maybe there's more noise in the hallway. If you have a puppy and you're leaving your puppy out when you go, and your puppy is turning your coffee table into a chew toy, this is probably not separation anxiety. These are probably training issues that we can work on fixing with some management and some good training protocols.
If your dog is really barking excessively, crying excessively, not stopping crying and barking; if your dog is inappropriately chewing, especially chewing things near the door as if they're trying to get out, or is soiling beyond what is you know, oh, I just, haven't been out enough kind of peeing and pooping. Then you may be dealing with separation anxiety.
But it's really important to remember that dogs are not acting rationally when they are experiencing separation anxiety in the same way that we are not acting rationally when we are, for instance, having a panic attack. It really is a kind of panic attack for dogs.
So you might have to be the judge of it — is your dog barking because it thinks it's going to make you come home, and then when that doesn't work, it stops barking, or is your dog barking because they're out of their mind with fear that you're never going to come back? And if you are unsure, that's certainly a good time to talk to a professional trainer.
Just a couple of myths. One, if your dog is dealing with separation anxiety or any other real behavior problem, do not feel that this is your fault. I like to tell my clients that it absolutely isn't their fault because if they were so screwed up, they wouldn't be seeking the help of a dog trainer.
I know plenty of dog trainers who have had plenty of dogs, all of whom have been fine being left alone. And then lo and behold, they get one who has severe separation anxiety. It could be for any number of reasons. But I do not think that reason has anything to do with anything that the person is necessarily doing.
Another myth is that your dog can just cry it out if you leave them alone. You know, it might get rid of the behavior. A dog who is barking a lot when you're alone might eventually stop barking, but that is usually not going to help get rid of the underlying cause of the barking which then might develop into something else; chewing, scratching, other behaviors you don't like. When a dog is truly dealing with separation anxiety, you want to be addressing the root cause of the behavior, not just the behavior itself.
But again, all of this is beyond the scope of what we're talking about today. If you are worried, your dog is experiencing separation anxiety, I would suggest looking for a trainer and also these two really excellent books that give a true roadmap on how to deal with separation anxiety. And both of these writers, who are trainers also, on their websites have some great resources including trainers who they recommend, who you can work with. I believe they both have a lot of trainers too, who they recommend, who work remotely. So no matter where you are in the world I think they will be able to help you.
Okay. The topic today though, is prevention. And specifically, I want to talk about how we can set up our dogs for success, to really make sure that you are not going to have a dog who is going to develop more serious issues. And these are the things we are going to go over.
We're going to talk about creating good associations, avoiding creating bad associations, managing your dog space and energy, curating your dog’s schedule, monitoring your dog, shaping successes approximations. And I think Michelle mentioned this, but there is going to be time for a Q and A at the end. So you can go ahead and put those questions if you have them as I'm going in the chat. And if I don't address them in the presentation, I will address them when we're done.
So let's get started. The first thing I want to talk about is how we can help our dog create good associations. Now, I talk about associations so much of the time. It's a huge topic on my podcast. Cause I think it's really interesting and important to think about the way dogs learn.
Now, there's two types of learning that we're thinking about when we're working with dogs, learning by association and learning by consequence. Now learning by association is basically, if X happened, then Y happens. There's no specific behavior required from your dog.
And I'll explain that a little bit more in a minute, but I just want to point out the other kind of learning, which is learning by consequence. If I do X, then Y happens. And this is really the kind of dog training that people think about most when they think about, you know, taking a dog to a class, for example, right? The dog is going to arrive. The dog is going to learn to sit. Then the dog was going to be rewarded.
Learning by consequence is a sort of stereotypical dog training, but I am going to encourage you to think more about learning by association first, whether that's because you're working with a very young dog or a dog who might have some fears, or you're just getting started with training. I think it's actually often the much more important type of learning, both for setting up dogs for success and for creating a good relationship with your dog and avoiding a dog who is going to have fears, and sort of sets a good foundation for teaching things later on by consequence.
Now, learning by association goes by other names: classical conditioning, and also Pavlovian conditioning. Now conditioning is really just a fancy word for learning. So whenever you see the word conditioning, you can just sub in learning.
And you might have learned about classical conditioning or Pavlovian conditioning if you took Psych 101. Pavlov very famously rang a bell, gave his dogs food, rang a bell, gave his dogs food. Now he was working in the late 1800s, early 1900s. He was actually studying digestion in dogs and was trying to capture their saliva when he fed them.
But he noticed that they started salivating as soon as anyone in a white lab coat entered the room. And he thought that was interesting. So he started running these experiments to see if he could get the dogs to associate other things with food, like a light, a buzzer, a bell, et cetera. And he realized that anything that was repeatedly presented to the dogs before he gave them the food would quickly trigger reactions from the dogs that were as if they were reacting to the food, even if the food wasn't present.
And what I think is interesting about his experiment from a dog training perspective is that we don't know what Pavlov's dogs were doing, right. Were they jumping up and down? Were they peeing? Were they barking after that bell rang and before they got the food? We don't know, and the reason why is it had nothing to do with the experiment.
He was not focused on any of their voluntary behaviors. He was focused on whether or not this bell would elicit the feeling of hunger. And it certainly did. When we're working with creating associations, we are usually thinking about how to alter a dog's feelings.
Now, think about all the things your dog just feels good about, you know, think about how, you know your dog might be really excited when you put on your socks, right? Because when you put on your socks, that means you're going to put on your shoes. And that means you are going to take your dog for a walk.
Or the sound of opening the refrigerator causes your dog to run to you, right? Your dog was not born knowing about the sound of the refrigerator, but repeated pairings of the sound of the refrigerator with food have taught your dog to run to you, and in essence has become a cue for Come.
Think about how your dog loves their leash, a leash not being something your dog, you know, a piece of nylon not being something your dog was born knowing about, but they have developed good feelings about it.
So we can use these kinds of pairings to help our dogs start to feel good about being alone. So much of this is going to be about food. Where are you feeding your dog? Most of the time, you're probably feeding your dog in your kitchen, in a bowl on the ground. That's well and good, but you're essentially teaching your dog to feel good about the ground of the kitchen, right? Well, if you think you're going to want to start leaving your dog in a crate and you want your dog to feel good about being in the crate, you might start feeding your dog in the crate.
Your dog is learning all the time. Learning is not something that shuts on and off or shuts off and on. And they're doing particularly good learning when they are enjoying yummy stuff. So it's just a real opportunity. If there's a certain room where you're gonna to be leaving your dog when you leave, then I would start feeding your dog in that place.
When are you feeding your dog? Now, I think that it's a good idea to, at least some of the time, feed your dog when you are leaving. You don't want the presentation of food to become necessarily a predictor of you leaving, but you could feed the dog and leave and then come right back. Sort of like you want the dog to be like, You know what, when that door closes behind my mom, I get this yummy bowl of food, so that's a good thing.
It could be also just feeding your dog when you go into the shower, right? Your dog probably doesn't need to build up more good associations with you hanging around the food bowl. But you can start to build associations with food being present when you are not necessarily around.
You can also help your dog learn that food comes at different times of the day. I actually think — you know, there's some evidence that dogs enjoy routine, especially dogs who are very prone to anxiety. However, in a more wild iteration of a dog-dom, dogs did not get meals at set times every day. And if you plan to have a schedule that's going to be different day-to-day, you can start feeding your dog at the times of day when you will be leaving to try and establish good feelings about those times of day.
Who is feeding your dog? This is a big one for a lot of things, I think, beyond preparing your dog for your return to the office, because you want your dog to feel good about lots of people. This is something we talk a lot about when we're working with puppy owners. How can we socialize a dog to people with beards and big hats and people who, I don't know, smell different than you, look different than you, sound different than you.
But when we are specifically trying to build their confidence about being alone, I think it can still be a good idea to think about varying whoever is feeding the dog the meals, because it's going to help them be less attached to you in particular. And that might be helpful if, later on, you're going to have a neighbor sometimes come by and feed your dog or hang out with your dog. We'll talk about that more in a minute, or if you're gonna have a dog walker come.
But it could be as simple as just making sure different people in the household are feeding your dog, because you don't want your dog to think that you in particular are the sole source of food and things in the world. And usually if there is one person in the household who is a particular favorite of a dog, it is usually the person who is feeding the dog more than everyone else.
We've talked about how we can work to help your dog create good associations associated with your departures. But it's also important to avoid creating bad associations, which can be made as easily as good associations. So sometimes what we often suggest our clients do is think about all the things that you generally do before you leave the house.
This is a list of things I tend to do before I leave the house, right? Makeup, keys. I put on my socks and shoes. It's funny, a lot of people have said to me, ‘I haven't put on socks in so long because of the pandemic,’ [laughs] but let's say you're putting on socks. You're putting on shoes, coat, you get your handbag, you open the door, you turn off the lights.
Any of these things for a dog who has any degree of stress about you leaving can become predictors of you leaving in a way that might or stress out your dog. So what we suggest doing is to help your dog learn that these cues actually don't mean a whole lot.
And one way to do that is to literally put these things on note cards or post-its. And I would suggest like four or five times a day, or between two and five let's say, pick up two of those post-its and some random order, and do those things. So you are going to put on your socks and pick up your keys and then go sit down and check your email. Or, close the door and go pick up your handbag and then go make a cup of coffee. But the idea is you're teaching your dog that these cues do not predict anything that they need to be stressed about.
Another way of doing it is to make calendar items if you use Google calendar or the like, and then shoot yourself reminders, like I said, two to five times a day, to do two of these things at a time in some random order to help make sure your dog does not associate these strictly with, ‘Oh, no, I'm going to be left alone.’ Because your dog picks up on these things probably more than you realize.
Actually my old dog, Amos, he used to get excited — happy, not unhappy excited — but when I would erase the chalkboard at School for the Dogs, cause that would mean that a class was going to start. If I had him at the school, it meant he was going to be the demo dog, which he loved. So erasing the chalkboard to him and putting the chairs in a circle became cues for him that he was going to be the center of attention for a little while.
So if you tune in, you might start noticing that your dog is noticing things having to do with your departure even without you realizing it
It's really important when you are practicing comings and goings, as you prepare your dog to be alone that you keep your, your keep your exits and entrances low key. These are already emotional moments for your dog. I would say anything having to do with a door is probably exciting, either good excitement or bad excitement to a dog. So, I wouldn't burst through the door and say, you know, ‘Buddy, you did the best job. I love you so much!’ Try and keep your cool.
And you know, same thing when you're home with your dog. Try and have some parts of the day where your dog is in the other room to help them learn that not every moment needs to be spent in your lap.
Next I want to talk about managing your dog's space and time and energy. Now we talked a little bit about food. I wanted to mention not just where and when and who was feeding your dog, but also how you're feeding a dog.
I'm a big fan of what we call Work to Eat toys. These are toys that really help your dog engage their brain and body during meal time. And you can use them with any kind of food. And it's a way to help focus their energy and their excitement into a totally appropriate activity.
You know, if you think about it, dogs evolved to work and have jobs and do things. And by giving them their food in a bowl two or three times a day, we're kind of depriving them of the fun of figuring things out and problem solving. So I think Work to Eat toys can generally make dogs feel happier and can help burn some calories that might otherwise be spent crying at the door, wondering when you are going to come home.
Again, I do not think this is a solution for a dog who is having a full blown separation anxiety panic attack, but as we're working to help our dogs feel good about you leaving, I think presenting a toy like this can be a way to make them feel a little bit better about your departure.
Again, you don't want to associate, I'm feeding you and then I'm leaving. You don't want that to be the sole association because they could become fearful about seeing the food. ‘Uh oh, that means my human is going to leave.’ But you could do it some of the time or you could make an absence, like I said, that's going to the other room, going to the bathroom, that kind of thing.
These are just a couple of the kinds of toys that I like to suggest. This one, I call these bowls that have stuff going on in them. You can use this with dry food, wet food. This is a fabric toy. It’s called a snuffle mat, lots of different kinds of snuffle mats.
This is one that you can use with dry food. They like bang it around and stuff comes out. Actually, you can put this in wet food to put wet food in this too. And this one's a Toppl, a really cool toy. You can stuff it with wet food. You can freeze them. We carry these in our shop if you are ever in the East Village and want to come see them in person, but you can also get these pretty much anywhere online.
Also important to make sure that your dog is getting adequate physical exercise. When you're leaving especially, you want to make sure that your dog is tired out. So this might be some good walks, ideally low traffic times outside.
I think having play dates with other dogs is a great idea. Dog parks can often be overwhelming and are not necessarily safe. I think dogs tend to play best one-on-one. So if your dog has a good buddy in your building, or a neighbor, those one-on-one play times 10, 15 minutes at a time can do wonders. And it's a really good idea to do that before you start leaving your dog to make sure that your dog is a little bit tired out.
I'm a big fan of flirt poles, flirt poles are great for indoor play. They're basically like big cat toys. And you can buy them, but you can also make your own. Here I have a little video, this is in our very first School for Dogs studio, which was located in my apartment in my living room. This is one of our young students playing with a flirt pole here.
And you can see it's kind of like a way to play fetch without having to go running after the ball. This dog owner is doing a really nice job. As you can see rewarding the dog for sitting by playing with the flirt pole with him, and you can really get a dog to you can really tire a dog out in this way with this. Really this is a homemade toy.
Space management is also key. Now you don't have to have a dog in a crate when you're leaving. You don't have to use a crate at all. In fact, for some dogs, especially dogs who are anxious being in a small closed space might make things worse. But generally speaking, I think it's a good idea to have a dog who is conditioned to feel good about being in a crate, because it can really be like a nice, safe spot where your dog can feel good, kind of like a studio apartment within your apartment.
The crate pictured here is called the Revol crate. I really love this crate for a lot of reasons. One of them being, as you can see, it opens up really wide on one side, and actually also opens up on the other side and on the top, which I think can make it a place that your dog can kinda hang out without necessarily being closed in all the time. And that is going to help your dog feel good about being in it because your dog is going to wander in there on his own terms.
I think it's great to have a crate that you can either move from room to room. And that's another thing I like about this one, it has wheels. But either one that you can move from room to room, or get a couple crates so you have sort of one in every room, or one in a couple of rooms. There are lots of inexpensive crates you can just buy on Amazon.
And the reason being you want your dog to not feel like ‘I'm in the crate and I'm away from the action.’ You want your dog to feel like, ‘Oh, I'm in the crate. And the people come in. I see them. Sometimes they pass by me. Sometimes they stop and hang out with me. Sometimes they drop a treat in here while I'm in there.’ But it shouldn't necessarily be just like a place for alone time. so some of the time make sure the crate is in a high activity part of your home.
Some of the time you also might want to put the crate somewhere where you will be leaving your dog alone. I like having a crate for those times in a place where your dog is not going to have a clear visual on the door and not necessarily going to be hearing the door.
Like I said, doors, I think, can be very emotional for dogs. They don't necessarily know what's going on behind the door, when it's going to open, when it's going to close. So as you prepare to leave your dog alone, make sure they're getting used to being in a spot where they can't see the door, whether or not that is also in a crate.
Just a couple of other things that you can do to prepare your dog. These are like, you know, I think of management as like all this stuff we can do from the outside in, and this category is like can't hurt, might help. I would say DAP, dog appeasing pheromone, is a pheromone that resembles whatever's in dog's mother's milk and they make collars and plugins that can definitely help relax some dogs. You do want to start using these about a month in advance so that they build up. But certainly something to try that might be helpful.
Also, classical music for dogs. Lisa Spector is a wonderful musician who has created My Zen Pet. She also years ago created Through a Dog's Ear, which you can still get, I believe on Amazon. I have all the CDs. And it's music that is like simplified classical piano music that she worked to create with a vet to — I think it's like it has to do with the rate of the beats per minute. It has to do with the heartbeat of the dog.
I am not an expert on it, but I know that I chill out when I listen to this music. [laughs] So I'm assuming it's working also for the dogs. Again, you don't want the music to become a predictor of you leaving, but it's something that you can start putting on in general to encourage chill moments.
Now you're going to have to start curating your dog schedule as you go back to work. I hope that my suggestions that I'm about to make can help you do this in a smart way. First of all, call a dog walker, do it now, even if you're not sure when you're going to go back to work because you want to develop that relationship now, you want to find somebody good now. You don't want to be struggling the day before you have to go back to work to find someone.
You want to make sure that you're using someone who is bonded and insured. There's a lot that can go wrong when you have a dog outside, especially in the city street. And there's also just a lot that can go wrong, of course, by having someone you don't know in your home when you're not there. So I think this is really an important point.
I suggest avoiding anyone who is going to walk many dogs at once. I think two is about as many as I would feel comfortable with. If somebody is walking two dogs though, make sure you know what's happening when they're dropping off that other dog or picking up that other dog, right? Are they tying your dog outside on the street while they go in to get the other dog? That might not be a good idea.
Check references. Again, this is an important position in your life and your dog's life. Not a weird thing to ask for some references. And really important, I think, to be around for some of the walks, which is something that you can do if you're not going back to work yet. Just so you can see what's going on, see how your dog is when the person picks up your dog.
And again, you want your dog to feel good about this person and having you around, you being like the safe person that your dog feels good about, is going to help the dog feel good about this new person coming into their home rather than the new person coming into their home for the first time when you are not there.
Ideally you want to be having the same person each time. I would avoid hiring a walker, for example, from websites like rover.com unless you plan to hire someone there and have that same person each time. But you know, this idea of like Uber for dog walkers, you never know who you're going to get, doesn't generally work for dogs who have any any tendency towards anxiety. And also, again, it's an important role in your dog's life. I think it's worth developing a relationship with the same person to make sure they're taking good care of your dog.
Something that a lot of people haven't heard of is dog hiking. I've recently been sending my dog hiking once a week. It's a great alternative to daycare. It's a really good way to help them get out some of their energy and help them certainly have some good times while you are away at your desk.
These are some companies that I have used in New York City. They are all very good. I actually just featured one of them on my podcast. But you know, wherever you are, you could probably Google dog hiking and see if you can find someone. Again, make sure you're using someone who is bonded and insured.
Daycare is an option for some dogs. Not all dogs are gonna feel comfortable at a daycare, but if you are going to bring your dog to a daycare, make sure that you're not overdoing it. Every day might be too much for many dogs to go to a daycare. I think it's a good idea to make sure you're assessing whatever the noise level is at the daycare. Daycare can be very loud with people yelling, dogs barking for dogs who are at all sensitive, it can be a lot. So go in before you send your dog there and go in with your ears wide open.
I think it's great when dog daycares are a little bit exclusive. It can seem silly, but if they have an application, if they have a waitlist, if they have a lot of questions for you, in my mind, those are good signs that that they are vetting the dogs, because not every dog is going to be a good fit for a daycare and safety needs to be your number one priority. So make sure that they're asking you a lot of questions.
And look for a place, if they don't have cameras that you can use to look in on your dog, which a lot of places will today, make sure that they're at least giving you some kind of report when you when you pick up your dog or that they're emailing you some kind of report so that you can make sure your dog is having is having an okay time.
Lastly consider in-home daycares. Rover.com and Dogvacay.com are two places you can look to find people who might be willing to take your dog into their home, whether or not that's, you know, with one or two other dogs or just your dog alone. But that certainly is also an option.
And dog share is what I call it when you find someone in your building or some neighbor who works from home, a student, a senior citizen, who might be interested in spending some time with your dog. It could be someone with kids who you can swap babysitting with. But it's a nice way to help extend your dog's family. Sort of create some aunts and uncles for your dog who might be happy to spend some time with your dog while you are working on teaching them to be alone. Because we, like I said, we want to set them up for success. We don't want to be leaving them for longer than they can tolerate.
I suggest monitoring your dog using some kind of camera before you start leaving them alone to sort of create a baseline, figure out how they are when you are alone. Can they handle you being alone at all? So you can Zoom, you can FaceTime yourself. There's an app called manything, lots of cams you can buy online.
One question I get asked frequently is about these various Bluetooth cameras that exist now, where you can look in on your dog, talk to your dog, give your dog a treat. I generally think these are unnecessary. I think it might actually scare a dog if they are hearing your voice and you're not there. And a lot of these devices spit out treats in a way that I think can be a little scary actually.
But I am a big fan of a product called the Treat and Train which is a treat dispenser that you could use in conjunction with one of these cameras. It doesn't work from anywhere. You do have to be, I think, within like a 30 foot range of the dispenser for it to work. But for instance, you could be watching your dog from your hallway and you could reward your dog during moments of quiet.
And I think that's sort of a nice way to do it. And in a funny way, I think it can actually make a dog feel good about you not being there because Hey, you're not there, but the robot is there to take care of them and feed them.
Like I said, you want to make sure that you're establishing some baselines, that you're making sure that your dog really is okay for X period of time before you start leaving them for longer periods of time. And so while you're monitoring them on the camera, make sure you're watching out for signs of stress: panting, yawning, licking, pacing, pawing at the door, nonstop whining, nonstop barking. Again, these might be signs of true separation anxiety. And once these kick in, you've probably left your dog alone for too long.
Once you have that baseline, you're going to start shaping successive approximations. Now that's going to mean that you are going to leave your dog for only the amount of time that they can handle. And that's part of the reason that it's so important to really work at curating your dog's social schedule.
Because like I said, we want to set them up for success and we are not going to leave them for so long that they are going to have a panic attack, because the more they have panic attacks, the better they're going to get at having panic attacks. And ideally that should never happen. You want to work within your dog's ability and when in doubt make a departure shorter rather than longer while you're working up to real life, real departures. You can always go easier rather than harder.
We talk about pushing, sticking, and dropping when you're setting criteria. Again, this is something a professional trainer can maybe help you with, but this is just a general rule of thumb. When you do five trials and your dog is killing it each time, you can go to the next level. I suggest going next level, it could be between 10 and 50% of whatever the previous level is. We're talking about time here.
So if you're leaving them for one minute, you could go up to one and a half minutes. If the dog is okay three out of the five times, then keep on that level. If the dog is really not getting it and is only okay two out of those five times, then go back to kindergarten and drop to the previous level.
Like I said, you want to keep things low key when you're coming and going, and it can be really helpful to keep a log, a spreadsheet for example, of your departures. And make sure you're notating where was your dog when you left? What happened to it before you left your dog? Who were you leaving with? Did you leave alone? What time of day did you leave? These are all considerations. Did your dog get a lot of exercise before? These are all considerations that are going to affect how your dog is when you're leaving him alone.
So I just made up a sample log here. Let's say first five days, you do 30 second departures. And it might be that short. Maybe you're just going into your hallway and coming back, your dog's killing it, did a great job. No problem. You did another five trials. You raise the criteria by 50%, again no issue. Oh–the next day, this is the ninth day, he cried when you left. And so what does that mean? Well you’re gonna stay at that level for the next day. This time your dog did better. Maybe it had to do with the walk that happened beforehand.
So you raise the criteria a little bit, each he time started crying around a minute, Oop, typo there, you know what I mean. 45 seconds, he started crying. So you went back down to 45 seconds and this time he did really well each time. The next three departures were at night after a busy day. Did great.
But you know, these are 30 second departures, but you know, it could be starting out with 30 minute departures if that's what your dog can handle. Some dogs you're going to have to start with 30 seconds. Some dogs are going to have to start with one second or two seconds. Again, if you're dealing with increments that are that short, I probably would suggest reaching out to a professional trainer.
If you enjoyed this presentation, I do hope that you will check out my podcast. I have several episodes specifically talking about dealing with issues related to separation. I also have a master class that you can access. Again, I believe Michelle will be emailing you some of this information. The Masterclass is about an hour long and it's full of tips, full of free information. And I hope you've gotten something out of this presentation. We do have some time for a Q and A, and thank you. Thank you for listening.
Speaker:
Wow. That was phenomenal, Annie, thank you so much. I know for everyone, it's a lot to take in, but as I mentioned, we will be posting this again tomorrow. You can watch it again, and we'll be sending out the resources, information about resources. So well get that tomorrow. We do have some questions, so let me get right to them.
So any tips for creating positive associations for a dog that isn't food motivated? My Yorkie is pretty indifferent to food, especially when she's stressed.
Annie:
Hmm. Yeah, that's a really good question. Well, I generally suggest mixing it up, seeing if you can find some kind of food that your dog is psyched about. Fresh foods, especially if a dog was mostly eating dry food. If you go to like a fresh food or frozen food, rather than like a or a dry food, often you can spark some interest using treats.
But if a dog is indifferent about food, then you can create associations with anything your dog likes. So that could be play. That could be scratches. That could be, I don't know, it could be playing hide and seek with their dog. But whenever we're doing any kind of training, we're always, always the first step is, and it could be literally writing a list, is things your dog likes.
Because part of the beauty of dog ownership is that we're providing access to so many things that dogs like, and training is often just a matter of giving those things your dog likes to your dog, like I was talking about in the very beginning, with appropriate timing in order to create associations we want to make and to reward behaviors that we like. So I would suggest experimenting with foods, and beyond that sort of cataloging what it is your dog is into.
And, when we talk about food, we talk about, you know, we think about treats and draining, but really anything your dog eats could be considered a treat. So, you know, every kibble in a bowl of food could be used with intent. When there's intent behind the food that you're giving, that's kind of where training starts to happen.
Speaker:
Yeah, that's great. That's really great. We also have some people asking about if they're going to be bringing their dog to work or a hybrid or a mixture of both, how to handle that.
Annie;
See if you can find neighbors who might have opposite schedules than you, who might have dogs who your dog can have a play date with. I've been encouraging people to do that left and right these days. Cause I think if we expand our vision of dog ownership to be making it more about like, you know, what's best for the dog, not just about this dog belongs to me and only I am the keeper of this dog.
But kind of also, like I was saying, you know, we think about, dogs enjoy very a routine schedules, dah, dah, dah. While I think that is true of dogs who are highly anxious, I think a lot of dogs can survive with varied schedules. Like I was saying, you know, if you think about our dogs’ wolves ancestors, they did not necessarily know when the next meal was coming. So you might purposefully start feeding your dog at different times of day, purposefully walking your dog at different times of day.
Dogs are highly adaptable. So they — again, unless you're in a situation where you really might benefit from working with a professional trainer I would experiment with changing things up, and my guess is your dog is going to be okay with it.
Speaker
I really, I love how you were saying that too, about dogs being very adaptable. That's so true. So in our mind, we're like, oh, today I'm doing this and that. In your dog’s mind, it's not necessarily that way. Right. They're not thinking of it that same way.
Let's see. Okay. My puppy's associations with her crate seem to have been poisoned. We were trying to get her accustomed to being alone and now she doesn't even want to come near it. So any suggestions for that?
Annie:
Yeah, I would say you don't have to use a crate. You know, some dogs are going to be stressed about a crate, and it's not compulsory that you use a crate, but you could try using a different kind of crate. For instance, if you're using a plastic enclosed crate, use more like an open wire crate in order to help your dog feel a little bit more like they're involved in things, or also just to help create a new association.
The crate I mentioned, the Revol, which we actually do sell in our online store, if you want to check it out. I think is nice. Like I said, because it is open, so you can really acclimate your dog to it with it being open on the top or two of the sides so that they build good feelings about just being in it at all before you start closing them in it.
You could also feed your dog in the crate with the doors open, drop things in the crate when the dog isn't looking so that they can kind of go in and find things in the crate. Do training with a dog in a crate. I actually really liked training a dog in a crate because you literally have a captive audience. They're not gonna go wander off.
So, you know, even just doing — I'm a big fan of teaching tricks and fun, silly things to dogs, not for bragging rights, but just because I think it's fun for dogs. It's a nice way to get their brains going in a way that can help burn energy and help them develop a relationship with you and help them feel good about wherever they're spending time.
So you could work on doing a hand touch with a dog in the crate, or clicking a dog. If you're doing clicker training, click a dog for sitting in a crate. And actually speaking of that, that that Revol crate, they actually make a kind of cool product called the Groov that you can put in a crate and smear it. It jams into the side of the crate and you can smear it with peanut butter. So a dog can lick out the peanut butter from the Groov. So that's kind of a cool thing too.
Speaker:
That's great. Okay. We have a question about dogs either returning to the office with you when they've been away. Or I guess maybe the dogs now who are going to be going to the office for the first time. So any advice, I guess just for people who are bringing their dogs, allowed to bring them to the office. Just ways to prepare them.
Annie:
Oh. I mean, kind of a different topic, but I guess — I'm putting the Groov here in the shot. This is the Groov. I think that, my main suggestion for going to the office with your dog. Well, first of all, I think that's a really good idea for dogs of every size, and most people don't think of this, to get a dog used to going in a bag. Sometimes people think about it this only for small dogs, but whatever your dog size is.
You can get like a big boat and tote bag from LL bean or whatever, makes it so much easier to travel, especially in a city with a dog, if you can condition a dog to feel good about being in a bag.
I also think it could be a good idea to bring a crate to your work if your dog is used to being in a crate because you want to make sure your dog has sort of a safe spot where they're comfortable being in an office. And bring food toys, bring bully sticks or things for your dog, so that you make sure you have an arsenal of fun things for your dog.
But my main suggestion is to not let your dog roam around the office, unless you have like your own office with a closed door that other people aren't coming into with their dogs. Because I think there's just too many variables, too many bad things that can happen with, for instance multiple dogs in an office being off-leash and not necessarily getting along. Dogs will not always work things out in the way that we want to work them to work things out.
People coming and going in offices can result in dogs getting out of an office or ending up… I mean, I've seen dogs get into rat poison in places and offices where they shouldn't have gone. So keep your dog on a leash. Now it could be a long leash. It could be like a waist leash, which I like to use so that you're not having to have a leash in your hand the whole time.
I guess my other sort of big tip, which is along the lines of having a crate or a safe spot under your desk, but make sure that you have some place where your dog can be and won't be bothered. So that if other dogs or people are coming towards your dog and want to say hi, when your dog is in that spot, nobody bothers your dog. You're going to protect your dog.
Because, in an office, it can start to seem like fair game. Everybody gets to pet every dog, every dog has to play with every dog. Not necessarily a good idea. And you need to be your dog's advocate, so make sure they have that sort of safe spot where you're going to be their protector.
Speaker:
Okay. That's great. We had a question about why asking why it's important or why you recommend limiting the daycare time.
Annie:
Yeah. I think daycares often can be overwhelming for dogs. You know, it's hard to make blanket statements because every dog daycare is different. But I have seen dogs who have developed stress about other dogs because of dog daycares where the interactions with other dogs might not be well monitored by the staff. They're not necessarily experts in dog body language. Sometimes they can end up just sort of being parking lots for dogs, but the dogs are not very well monitored.
And like I was saying, dogs don't necessarily work things out in ways we want, and you want to have someone really keeping an eye out to make sure that if your dog is stressed, they're getting out of whatever situation is stressing them out.
The daycares that I recommend in New York City tend to be, like I said, pretty exclusive which I know sounds funny. Like it's like some social club or something. But they tend to be pretty, pretty small. They have a small group of dogs. I like it if a dog is going and seeing his friends every day, rather than entering sort of a group of strange dogs they've never met every day.
What we offer at School for the Dogs, actually, we offer our kind of daycare, but it's like super helicopter parent-y, basically. We only have six dogs at a time. There's two trainers there, it's half a day. And the dogs throughout the day are working with the trainers, having rest time, working with puzzle toys, playing. The trainers are like curating the groups of dogs that get to play. I mean, to me, that's like the ideal situation that you would want any dog to be in.
Maybe you go to a dog daycare that's similar to that, but that's also part of the reason why I think it's a good idea to have as much information as possible. Whether that's you looking at a camera or having someone, you know, writing up some kind of report.
Sadly I've had clients, who've had dogs who've had really bad separation anxiety and have had to leave their dog in a daycare. There's just been no other option. They have to go to work. And I'm thinking of one case in particular where the dog developed a real fear of men wearing hooded sweatshirts. And I don't, I can't say for sure, but I think probably there was someone in a hooded sweatshirt at that daycare who was not nice to that dog. And so that's another risk that you run when you're sending your dog somewhere where you're not able to know exactly what's going on all the time.
Speaker:
Hmm. That's very important. I have Bianca saying about your school, the play yard, ‘That sounds amazing. I wish you were in my neighborhood.’ It is. It's really great.
Okay, we also just have a question. I know we should address this a little bit, you know, about medication, and obviously that's a veterinarian to talk to you, right. So just, it's not a no-no, but just like you want to obviously talk to your veterinarian.
Annie:
The question is about medication?
Speaker:
Someone's bringing up medication, the idea of putting their dog, yeah.
Annie:
Yeah. If you're thinking about medication to prevent separation anxiety, I would first follow some of the protocols I've suggested here, find a good trainer, work with a good trainer. If you have a dog who is experiencing separation anxiety, I certainly think medication is a good route to go. And often sooner, rather than later.
Veterinary behaviorist is really who you want to be consulting when you're putting a dog on medication. There are very few veterinary behaviorists in the country. I think there's something like 60, maybe. They are vets who have a specialty in behavior in the same way kind of like a psychiatrist has a specialty in behavior and behavioral medications.
If you have any, any worry about your dog has separation anxiety. ‘Maybe I need a medication. Maybe I don't need medication.’ I would say, contact a trainer, and at the same time, see if you can get on the schedule of a veterinary behaviorist, because they often have very long wait lists and at least you'll have an appointment on the books, you can always cancel it.
You can also talk to your vet. Some vets know more than others about behavioral medications. Some will consult with a veterinary behaviorist. But I would not shy away from medication generally speaking. I think for a lot of dogs, it can be literally a lifesaver. So that's my general thoughts on medication.
Speaker:
For more on veterinary behaviorists, we had a presentation back in April with Dr. Katherine Hout and Kate Anderson from Cornell. We can send you the link to that. Also a lot of great information. You'll find that on our YouTube channel, we can put that in the link tomorrow too, but I think that was good.
So I guess just finally, just wonder, I hear this many times, it's kind of a funny thing, but just, this is helping your dog with separation anxiety, but what about ours about leaving our dogs? I think it's going to be hard for people too, right? Just leaving our dogs dor the day.
Annie:
[Laughs] Yeah. Well, I mean, that might be a good reason to have a camera on your dog. But I keep coming back to this idea of like, you know, let's, let's expand our idea of what dog ownership is. I mean, I'm very lucky. I mean, again, dogs are my life, but I feel very lucky that I have a lot of friends who are really close to my dog. And I feel like in a way I'm doing something nice for them when I ask them to come hang out with my dog, cause I have to go somewhere.
It's like, we're sharing the joy of this dog. So that can be one way to maybe make yourself feel less sad. I mean, cause not everybody can have a dog. And if you can, provide some dog time along with maybe your wifi and your coffee maker, it sure beats, you know, sitting at Starbucks. So make sure your dog has lots of aunts and uncles.
And it's also a good reason to make sure that you're training your dog. That training is something that you're always doing, so that you have a well-mannered dog that other people are happy to hang out with.
Speaker:
That's great. All right. Well, thank you so much, Annie, for this wonderful presentation. Just a reminder to everyone we'll send out the link and the resources tomorrow. I'd also just like to thank Andrew Weatherhead, he's AMC's director of digital marketing and communications, for helping out tonight so that my colleague Kimberly Young could take a much deserved week off. And I hope that everyone enjoys the rest of their summer. And I look forward to seeing you next time. Hey, good night, everyone. Thank you.
Annie:
Thank you. Bye.
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