24 SepEpisode 171 | My friend has puppy problems: Advice on resource guarding, enrichment, e-collars & more
One of Annie’s best friends from high school got a puppy and called Annie to get some advice on managing a puppy in a household with four kids (and a husband who isn’t totally in favor of keeping the dog…). Annie gives her friend some helpful tips.
Subscribe: iTunes
Mentioned in this episode:
Slow Food Bowls at Store for the Dogs
Canine Enrichment Facebook group
Flirt Pole Tug Toys For Dogs by Squishy Face – Store For The Dogs
How to make a flirt pole – easy, DIY dog toy
Clickertraining.com – search for local dog trainers
Related episodes:
Episode 20 | Wonderful “Work To Eat” toys: Slow Food Bowls
Episode 26 | Teach a foolproof DROP and COME using Classical Conditioning
Episode 152 | 10 products that new dog owners need (and probably don’t know about)
Transcript:
[music and intro]
Annie:
What you are about to hear is a conversation I had about a month ago with a friend of mine from high school. She lives in the Midwest, in the suburbs of a big city. She has four little kids. She texted me saying that she had just gotten a puppy, but things were not going so well, and her husband really wanted to get rid of the puppy, and she was feeling rather desperate. So I said, give me a call. Let's talk this through. Maybe I can give you some ideas, but Hey, would you mind if I recorded our conversation? And perhaps I can share it on the podcast.
As regular listeners know, I got a lot going on these days. In addition to running School for the Dogs, I have these two tiny kids. And so I'm looking for any opportunity I can find to multitask. So, she called while I was doing Play-doh with my older daughter. And yeah, enjoy this little, you get a little snapshot into my life. Kids in the background while I spoke to her and tried to talk her through some of her puppy problems.
—
Annie:
I'm going to make spaghetti.
Magnolia:
No, make duck.
Annie:
You want me to make a duck?
Magnolia:
Yes, that’s my favorite.
Annie:
Rubber ducky is your favorite?
Magnolia:
Yes, rubber ducky my favorite.
Annie:
What else was your favorite?
Magnolia:
Make a rubber ducky for me?
Annie:
[singing] Rubber ducky, you’re the one. You make bathtime lots of fun. Rubber ducky I’m awfully fond of you. Doo doo boo boopee doo. Hello?
Friend:
Hi, I'm literally in my pajamas.
Annie:
[laughs] I'm playing, I'm in the middle of playing Play-Doh. So we're both…[laughs]
Are you having a puppy crisis?
Friend:
I feel like it's a life crisis.
Annie:
Well, I'm glad it's a life crisis. That means that we get to chat. [laughs] Do you mind if I record for the podcast?
Friend:
Oh you really want to record? Okay, sure.
Annie:
Tell me what's going on.
Friend:
So he is four months old.
Annie:
How long have you had him?
Friend:
We have had him since he was about eight weeks on June 3rd.
Annie:
Okay.
Friend:
And yeah, so everything's going really well, except this whole resource guarding thing. So regardless of whether it's me or one of the kids or my husband, like if he goes upstairs and snatches a sock, or grabs a piece of paper towel from the floor, or he gets something really special, like a big toy to chew on? Like a really special bone toy. Then I’ll come up to him and say “Drop it. Here's a treat, drop it.” He'll growl. And sometimes snap at you.
Annie:
Right. Well, first of all, separate issue, but tangentially related, definitely would suggest that you try and figure out a way to get him some really good playtime with other puppies everyday. What's his name again?
Friend:
Kody with a K.
Annie:
Because puppies really need to play with other puppies. And I'm guessing that some of his, like, “Hey, no, it's mine” energy might be actually appropriate play if it were with another puppy. It’s inappropriate, obviously, when with you guys.
But more than that, puppies tend to learn good manners from each other on how to play with one another. And they're sort of like a short window where they're going to be able to learn how to interact with other dogs in an appropriate way and not be scared of other dogs.
Especially like, I know you're in a kind of suburban situation. You might not be seeing a whole lot of other dogs a lot of the time, even on leash. You could probably, I’m guessing, can go a couple of days probably without necessarily seeing other dogs leash.
So you wanna make sure he's getting that good interaction time, play time, and that he's not looking to the kids for all of his social engagement. So I would suggest looking on Facebook for like local groups, see if other people have puppies, see if anyone in your neighborhood has a puppy, see if there's any trainers that host puppy playgroups or if your vet knows anybody.
But ideally, I mean, even if he could just get like 15 minutes a day of playtime with one other dog, and I would say one other dog is ideal. It doesn't need to be a dog run. It could just be in your kitchen. You just want to make sure he's getting that in his life. And on leash is also not ideal because they're, you know, like literally restrained.
And also, are you using a crate with him at all?
Friend:
We are.
Annie:
How does he do in his crate?
Friend:
He does really well. At random times, like if we want to go to the pool, he'll go in the crate for two or three hours. And he seems to be asleep. Like when we get back. He goes in–
Annie:
Oh, that's awesome.
Friend:
And like sit, and then he sleeps there at night. So.
Annie:
So that's another thing is, you know, you could try and make sure if you are giving him a special bone, give it to him in his crate or even his food.
But the main thing I would suggest is rather than doing trades with him for objects that he's really into — I think that's kind of…like a trade is, I don't know, high school level material, and he's still in kindergarten. You want to just toss delicious things at him while he has something that he values.
So that means like he's chewing — and I would start with something relatively low value that he has and give him something relatively high value. So if he has, let's say — do you use bully sticks with him or anything like that?
Friend:
We have some peanut butter, like long sticks that are like, sort of like hard and —
Annie:
Okay. So figure out what his number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 thing is. And start with number five. Like whatever is the least interesting of the interesting things, and let him have the thing. And then while he is enjoying it, I would just say “Drop it!” and toss him like a tiny bit of steak or something really delicious.
And try and do that, I don't know, maybe 20 times a day. So in the morning cut up 20 pieces of something, and throughout the day just say “Drop it” and throw him the thing. And it's not, you know, “Drop it, Kody, drop it, drop it, drop it.” Cause you're not even asking anything I'm from at this point. You're just pairing the word with, you know, “I say drop it. And then I throw this yummy thing at you.”
What's going to happen is he's going to learn like, “Oh, every time they say drop it, they throw this yummy thing at me. So I better have my mouth wide open and ready to receive the yummy thing.” But I would say do that for a few weeks before you get to the point of making it conditional in any way. At this point, it's just about pairing it.
Likewise, like when he's eating it, have the kids go just toss something in his bowl from a foot away, while he's eating. Again, just to get him accustomed to this idea of like the kids around me while I'm eating is no big deal. They don't take something from me. They actually give me something.
Because at this point it's all about like, what are the associations he's making, and less about is he learning that if this happens then this happens. Because I'm guessing what's happening is like he's chewing his sock. You're like, “Hey, drop it, here's a treat.” And he was like, “Screw you. I got a sock.” Like “chewing the sock is so much more interesting than whatever it is you have to offer me.”
So you want to put a lot of money in the bank account of “I'm not ever even asking you anything, I'm just giving, giving, giving, giving, giving.” Because when he has like a bank account, that has a hundred thousand dollars in it, he's not going to care that you're making a little bit of a little withdrawal, if that makes sense.
Friend:
That is helpful.
Annie:
So, but again, the key is I think to not rush it and just do a whole lot of repetitions. And of course, making sure that he doesn't have access to the things that he really, really shouldn't have, which is like human training. Like, kids, pick up your socks. [laughs]
Friend:
And what do you think about, like right now we have some baby gates that are not secure, sort of blocking off two different staircases. And I ordered this collar with these discs, from chewy.com to keep him out of our upstairs.
Annie:
What do the discs do?
Friend:
It’s like an e-collar.
Annie:
Oh. Yeah, I mean I wouldn't suggest that. I mean, the problem with e-collars is you don't know what association he is making. So, you have the kid running down the stairs, and he's trying to run up the stairs. And all of a sudden he gets shocked. You don't know necessarily that he's like, “Oh, the problem is I was going past this boundary, going up the stairs.”
You face the problem of like, you know, him possibly making the connection of, “I saw Finn and I got a shock. Finn must be scary and dangerous.” Or, I don't know, “I heard a woodpecker outside just as I got shocked, I got to tell that woodpecker what's what.” So, you know, that's the main reason why I would avoid anything like that.
I would do whatever you can to manage his space as carefully as possible. So, whether that's gates, or a pen or…if he can be in his crate for two to three hours at a time, that's not, I don't think for a puppy that's an inhumane amount of time. So I think that's fine if you left him in the crate some of the time when you're around.
And actually even better if you're leaving him in the crate sometimes when you're around, so that he doesn't start to think, “every time I'm in the crate, it means I'm going to be left alone.” So, and that too, you can have him in the crate and have the kids just get in the habit of dropping good things in the crate while he's in the crate. So he starts to feel good about being in the crate.
I also like having a crate — or even multiple crates in the house — but having crates in areas where people are, so that he can get used to kind of like having you coming and going and being involved in what's going — sorry, there's babies crying. And I'm making some killer Play-Doh also while we're talking.
Also so that he can get used to being around you guys, but having his own space, having a controlled space. Which is a favorite to him too, because you have four kids. Sometimes he's not going to want to interact with the kids and he's going to want to have his safe place, but he also still might want to be involved with what everyone else is doing.
Your house is pretty big, so you might want to get a couple of crates, which you're not going to necessarily have to have forever. These are not permanent pieces of furniture, but you can get crates for like 20 bucks online. So, I would maybe get a couple so that wherever you guys are hanging out, he has his comfy cozy spot.
Are you, are you using any kind of food toys with him?
Friend:
Food toys, like things to engage him?
Annie:
Yeah. Yeah. Like what is he eating and how is he eating?
Friend:
Well, he's eating three meals a day from a dog dish. Which, and I also started feeding him out of my hand because someone told me that was a good idea for dealing with them.
Annie:
Um, yeah, I don't think that matters too much. But I would get some toys for him that he could really use his mouth on. I mean, in the bigger picture, that's going to help with stuff like stealing the socks. Like he's looking — my guess is he's looking for things to do, things to pull apart with his mouth, problems to solve. He's like a working dog, right?
Friend:
Yeah, yeah, he’s a hunting dog.
Annie:
Yeah. So he's doing all this stuff he's supposed to be doing. You just need to focus that energy into appropriate ways. So I'm a huge fan of work to eat toys. I could send you some specific links.
Magnolia:
Mama. I made a doggo
Annie:
Oh, good job. I love it.
What are you feeding him for food? Dry food, wet food, canned food?
Friend:
Dry food. Just dry food.
Annie:
Yeah. So there are tons of toys that you can get for dry food. Some are, we call them slow food bowls. They're bowls that have mazes in, or there are ones that I call kibble balls that they kind of can knock around. They're often weighted at the bottom. They can knock them around. There are ones that are like puzzles that have drawers that can open up and be pulled open. If you go to storeforthedogs.com, you'll see they have tons of different ones.
And then there are a million kinds of things you could make yourself. There's a Facebook group, I think called Canine Enrichment. I mean an easy, like the easiest one that you could make tonight is get like an ice cube tray and just dribble the food into the ice cube tray so that he has to get the stuff out of where the ice cubes would go. Or you can put it upside down. Or a muffin tin.
But the idea is to focus his energy into problem solving, into getting the stuff out of a toy. You could even, if that's too easy for him with like the ice cube tray, for example, you could put the dry food in the ice cube tray and then put some water or like chicken stock or bone broth and freeze it and then give that to him.
And I would give it to him in his crate. Again, you want to do everything you can to control his physical space. Because I mean, it's a relatively easy thing to control, and it's gonna keep him away from the socks and the kids' toys and all this stuff. You know, the couch, like all the problem areas. If you can control his space, you're going to have more control over that stuff.
And if you can control his energy by like, like his actual — not energy like “chi.” Energy, like the energy he has to expend on playing and problem solving by making sure you get some playtime with other dogs that's appropriate, and making sure that he's getting to let some of his energy out by actually eating his food.
Because if it takes some — like right now, I don't know, I'm guessing it probably takes him two minutes to eat his food. You can stretch that out to 20 minutes. And then that's like all the more calories he's expending and eating it rather than trying to chase after the kids or, or whatever. So.
Friend:
Well, what about just like pure exercise?
Annie:
I think that's a great idea too. I love flirt poles. Do you know what a flirt pole is?
Friend:
No.
Annie:
That too, we carry them. I can send you a link. They're basically like really big cat toys. You could even make your own out of a piece of PVC pipe and rope and put a toy at the end, kind of like a big fishing rod. But that's a nice way actually, both to practice Drop it and to sort of play with them indoors. But of course, you have outdoor space, it's fenced in, right? At least part of your space.
Friend:
Yeah.
Annie:
So yeah, I mean, like playing ball is also a really good way to practice, drop it, because you can throw the ball and he's going to bring it back. You can say Drop it, throw that little bit of steak or whatever, get the ball, throw the ball again. Like that's a really nice way to get in lots of repetitions. Or the reward could even be, drop this ball and then I'm going to throw this bully stick for you, or drop this ball and I'll throw this treat for you.
But I think exercise at this point is a good idea too. The only thing, I would caution against long runs. I would talk to your, I don't know that much about the breed. I would talk to your vet to make sure that he is okayed for long runs, just because his joints are probably still developing.
But I'm all for playing tug. And like I said, I think tug can be a really good way to to help teach them that Drop it, which it sounds like it would be a good idea for you guys to work on.
Friend:
Thank you so much.
Annie:
Yeah. I wish I were there. I wish I could meet him. Is he snuggly and adorable, or is he just a nightmare all the time? [laughs]
Friend:
[laughs] He is so snuggly in the morning, right when he wakes up. Well, he's very snuggly. He snuggles a lot. And he's not, this is, I mean, he's so great. But this is the only thing that I'm really confused about.
Annie:
Well, check out that podcast episode I sent you on drop it and come and the blog post, and I will send you some links. I mean, I think food toys, I would feed him every meal in some kind of food toy. I think it's just a really easy way to get some more mileage out of his meals.
And definitely, definitely, definitely see if you can get him some play dates, ideally one-on-one. One-on-one, or unless it's like a play group, like a trainer that's running a playgroup, but even then I would say maybe like four or five puppies maximum. I think otherwise it can get really overwhelming. But you know, half an hour, 20 minutes, even 15 minutes of play with another puppy, I think is going to change who he is as a dog.
Friend:
Oh wow.
Annie:
And you're going to be like, this is such a better puppy to deal with. And you know, so many people are getting puppies right now. It might be easier than you think to find other owners. Or even older dogs or young dogs who like puppies. Not all older dogs or teenager dogs like puppies. But it doesn't necessarily have to be a dog his age as long as it's a dog that someone is sure is really good with pups. But I bet if you look into it, I remember like where you live. I bet there are a lot of people with young dogs right now.
Friend:
I bet there are, too. I have one that we play with, but it's a Great Dane, he doesn't move much. I mean, it's still good.
Annie:
[laughs] And then the other thing is go to clickertraining.com and you can see if there are any good trainers near you. I think that they are. But that's a good place to look for trainers. I think you can sort there by zip code.
Friend:
Okay. Thank you so much!
Annie:
You're welcome. I'm so happy to talk to you. We have to talk more. Alright, I gotta go wrap up my Play-Doh time here.
Friend:
Good luck.
Annie:
Bye.
[music and outro]
