12 NovEpisode 94 | Dog Training Q and A! 11/05/2020: Cody doesn’t want to go out with walker, Peaches won’t pee on the patio & more

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In this episode: A young labrador no longer wants to go to Fiesta Island with his walker. Is he being lazy? Peaches the Chihuahua doesn't understand why her human wants her to pee on the patio. Is it wise to get a second dog if a finicky dog seems more interesting in eating meals when other dogs are around?

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Transcript:

 

Annie:

Hey everyone. This is a bonus Q and A Episode. I try and answer questions live every Thursday. You can sign up to come to my free live Q and A at schoolforthedogs.com/QandA and you will see the next one I'm doing. I then am trying to take recordings of those Q and A's and post them here to the podcast feed. If you have a question, you can email me directly Annie@schoolforthedogs.com. You can also go to anchor.fm/dogs and record your question there. Thanks for being here.

 

This is Annie Grossman here. I am doing a Live.  We had some technical difficulties, but you you can join now at schoolforthedogs.com/Qanda. Or you can just hang out here. I have some great questions here. We have Max and Melissa in the room with us right now. Max has a two year old standard poodle named Lolo. I'm not sure I met Lolo, but how is Lolo doing?

 

Anyway thanks for sticking with me. There were some technical difficulties just now. But I have some great questions. I am not sure if those who ask these questions are in the room, but if you are, do say hello. All right.

 

Our first question is from Michelle Adams who has a Labrador, 70 pounds, lives in San Diego. And Michelle writes me this:

 

Hooper has been going to Fiesta Island, a large off-leash park where he can chase a ball and play with other dogs, for about three months now.  He has been going with a dog walker who also has other dogs. He absolutely loves Fiesta Island this week.

 

This week he has decided he does not want to leave the house when they show up to take him.  He is home by himself and simply needs to go out the doggy door. Rather, he sits on the sofa and looks at them through the window. If they come into the house, he will go with them. He then has a blast while he is at the park, pictures to verify (I guess she's saying they take pictures to verify this). 

 

The first time he refused to go, they asked him if he wanted a treat and he went right out the dog door.  The second time he refused to go, they again tried asking him if he wanted a treat and he still refused to go. They had to go into my home to take him. I am not certain if he is just being lazy, it's not really his style. Or if I should listen to him and realize that he doesn't want to go?

 

Really great question. I love these dog training questions that are kind of like, you have to play forensic dog trainer to try and figure out what happened. And of course we can't ask our dogs like, Hey, did something happen on the way to did something happen on the way to Fiesta Island or at Fiesta Island?

 

So my suggestions to you, first of all you know, listen to him, there's something about this situation that is making him uncomfortable. Is it getting off the couch? Is it going through the dog door? Is it the trip to Fiesta Island? Is it something that's happening at Fiesta Island? We can't know unless we sort of do our forensic behavioral investigation. 

 

I would suggest maybe starting with making sure, you know, stay closest to home. Is it the dog door? Is he fine going out the dog door when you're home and the dog walkers come? What if you are outside and you hand him off to the dog walker, how does he seem about going at that point? I also think you might want to ask them to send you a video of him rather than photos, because that might help you get a better sense of his body language, how he's doing, if he really is comfortable.

 

I should plug, we do have a really great body language course you can take, a self-paced course, it's at schoolforthedogs.com/corecourses. Because you really want to make sure that, sometimes in a freeze frame, it can be hard to tell exactly what's going on. I mean, you can make some guesses and you're only ever really going to be making guesses, but you want to make the best possible educated guests that you can. And making sure that you can really understand what body language he's showing that might show you he is, or isn't comfortable.

 

But you know, something might have happened one day. And again, because we can't talk to them, we can't know.  There's this, there's this quote that I love. Uh, I love this quote so much. I'm gonna read it. It's from the cocktail party by T S Eliot:

 

“We die to each other daily. What we know of other people is only our memory of the moments during which we knew them. And they have changed then.  To pretend that they and we are the same is a useful and convenient social convention which must sometimes be broken. We must also remember that at every meeting, we are meeting a stranger.”

 

I think about that quote all the time. I think about it in my own life. How I am not the same person I was yesterday. I think about it certainly in terms of dogs. So Cooper is not the same dog as he was yesterday. We are the sum total of our experiences. Our environments can change who we are, how we feel.

 

And think about all the experiences Cooper is having when you're not around. I mean, experiences he's having when you're around that are shaping his future behaviors, of course, but think about all the things that are happening when you're not around, because he's alone on Fiesta Island. So you know, something might have happened on Monday that, Tuesday, you know, different dog, he has different feelings about Fiesta Island. 

 

Another thing I was going to suggest is that you go to Fiesta Island. I love that it’s called Fiesta Island. Sounds awesome. Go to Fiesta Island with him, if you can, whether that's with the dog walker and the other dogs, or just on your own. But investigate how he does when you're there. Because I think you ideally should be a point of safety and security for him. So having you there might give him more confidence, might make him feel better about being there.

 

Okay. The question here from Max.  Max says, here's my question, if there's time for it:

 

I have a two year old standard poodle who graduated from School for the Dogs’ puppy program, Lolo. He's an excellent dog and has only had one accident when he was a young pup. However, when I have visitors, he gets so excited, happy to see them, that he pees a little. I've tried things like having him on a leash when visitors arrive or having him wait in a separate room. And although it does help, I'm wondering if there are other things I should be doing so that it doesn't happen at all. 

 

My best quick suggestion for this, first of all, you know, it could be — is he neutered? I'm not sure, but I think sometimes when dogs are neutered it can make some of them more inclined to have small bathroom accidents both male and female, but I could be wrong.  Could be something to ask your vet. 

 

As far as excitement Pee goes, it sounds like you're doing a lot of the things I would suggest, keep comings and goings low key.  Having him on leash.  Maybe having him in a crate and the people could approach the crate and greet him in the crate where at least then if he's peeing, he's peeing in a very specific area.  Practice some crate greetings in that way.

 

I think that the best thing to do though, would probably be to practice lots of visitors coming and going, but that's sort of a weird thing to be suggesting right now while we're still in some degree of of quarantine.  You're probably not going to want to have people coming and going all the time.

 

But you could, you could try and establish some kind of routine of what happens when people come, come in, when people come in low, low is in his crate, they approach, they hang out with him sort of by his great, in like a low key way. You could practice even just with you and your partner coming in and doing that so that he learns, and you know, give him treats in the grade or give him meals in the crate. I don't know that much about the crate use that you are doing. 

 

But I think the more that you can get him used to the sort of pattern of like people come in and then I go to my crate and they say hi to me there, dah, dah, dah.

 

Max says the hardest part is having the visitors greet him in a calm manner!  Okay, well that is human training.

 

Melissa is here and writes, Olly will be eight weeks when I bring him home. How quickly do you suggest potty training? I know you want to start pretty quickly, but do I give them one day to just “be” as opposed to trying to get him on a schedule that very first day? 

 

That's a really good question, Melissa. It's funny because I don't think we should encourage too much weewee pad training with dogs, too much like newspapers on the ground, because we don't want dogs to get super used to peeing and pooping on things that are soft. But on the other hand, I don't think you need to be too agro about it either. If you feel more comfortable to put a wee wee pad down and let him pee and poop on the wee wee pad, you know..

 

You're right, are you asking too much? Maybe, I don't know exactly what your situation is. If you have like a beautiful little private grassy area outside of your front door and you want to put him there and it's private and it's secure and he doesn't have to be on leash, then do that. 

 

Actually when I first got my dog, I lived in a really ideal situation. It was a ground floor little studio apartment, and I could pick him up and get him right outside ASAP. But if you live in a high-rise building, just getting the dog from the apartment to outside can be pretty stressful. For you and for the dog.

 

So yeah, in my opinion, if you want to get your dog feeling okay, just about existing with you in this new apartment, et cetera, et cetera. I think you could take it easy and not stress out about it too much because introducing your dog to being outside is in and of itself a stressful thing.  Or can be, you know, but it's, it's like adding a new layer of craziness to, to a world that has already been turned upside down.  Because they go from, if you're getting a puppy from a breeder, livinng with its mother and siblings, et cetera, to living with a new person in an apartment in an urban environment is already asking a lot.

 

That doesn't mean that peeing and pooping can't be on cue. Like you could start adding a cue to it. I mean, the cue can quite simply be the wee wee pad, you know, Oh, there's a wee wee pad on the ground? That's a place where it's okay for me to pee and poop. And I actually like suggesting that people like pick up the wee wee pad.  Your dog can learn that when there's a weewee pad down, I go on that wee wee pad. And when there's not a wee wee pad, I don't go on the wee wee pad.

 

And if you have a dog that you're going to travel with, if you're going to be on an airplane and you need your dog to go.  There are lots of reasons why — if you live in a very high up building and there's a thunderstorm.  There are lots of reasons why, especially if you have a small dog, you might want a dog who knows, Oh, when there’s a wee wee pad on the ground that's where I do my biz. Does that help answer your question, Melissa? All right.

 

A couple other questions that came in recently that I love to get to. Okay. Rachel also in California and Santa Barbara has a Chihuahua mix, 13 pounds named Peaches. And Rachel says:

 

My dog and I just moved, and in my new apartment, I have a lovely patio. I bought one of those real grass patches for my dog Peaches to use out on the patio, but she won't use it. She is housebroken and will go pee and poop on walks, but so far nothing on the patio. In our previous apartment, there was no outdoor area, so she exclusively did her business on walks. How should I train her to use it? I'm hoping she can use it for at least peeing in the morning, first thing, and at night since I get home from work late and I don't want to walk by myself late at night.

 

So far, I walk her up to it on her leash. I use one of those go here training sprays, and I use the same word I use to encourage her to go on walks. I have treats on hand, but since there has been no success, yet, she has not gotten a treat. She typically ends up sitting or laying down on the grass and looks at me, expectantly.

 

Aww. God bless dogs. They're just like, what is it? This person wants from me? What is it? What is it? I don't know. I want to do the right thing. All right. So again Rachel, and I don't think Rachel's in this room right now, and I don't have details about Rachel's setup. Again, it looks like she lives in Santa Barbara. 

 

I'm guessing that the turf that Rachel wants Peaches to be going on on her patio is quite different than the substrate Peaches is used to going on outside, right? Usually we ask our dogs to go on cement, right on the sidewalk on the street. And I've seen people get these grass patches, or they make ones with chips, like wood chips or whatever. It's very different, you know, a lot of dogs really like to go on soft things. A lot of dogs like to go on grass, but a four-foot square rectangle of grass does not resemble the grass that your dog is probably going on outside.

 

So my suggestion is, well, a couple things. One, I think I've mentioned this in Q and A's before I think on the podcast.  A trainer I know, another trainer in New York City Jay Andoors gave me this idea, which is to put a piece of cement on your patio. I'm not sure how to do this. I've never done this myself, but I guess maybe you can go to home Depot and get cement and pour some, I don't know.

 

I'm sure if you look on Pinterest, there must be a way to make some kind of homemade little sidewalk area on your patio. That might be more familiar to her. I also think using the word that you're trying to use to encourage her to go, if she doesn't know what you're talking about, it doesn't really matter what you're saying to her. And it sounds like she's not that clear. So I wouldn't worry too much about saying like a word to encourage her.

 

You just really want to focus on giving her a lot of opportunities to go on your patio and to not have opportunities to go elsewhere. So, set out kind of like a schedule where you're going to take your dog on walks on leash on your patio.  And then yeah, if she does go, then the trick to adding a cue with when you're teaching a dog to eliminate where you want them to go is to give the cue right as they are about to go. And then slowly over time, you're going to start saying it a little bit earlier and earlier.

 

But in the beginning, it's just like, you're attaching the word to the behavior. The behavior's not happening because you've said the word, which is like, I think a mistake that humans make when thinking about it.  It’s not, like I say, go potty and it like pulls the potty out of my dog who's never heard the words go potty before, right? It's like, you're attaching a symbol to this behavior. And then later you will be able to give that symbol, be it a word or a whistle or whatever you want. And your dog will know what the hell it is that you're talking about.

 

So you're going to say the word, “business” as your dog is lifting that leg only once. And then you are going to reward it with really, really great stuff. And that could be your dog’s food. I mean, it's not like you're going to be starving your dog. Your dog has to eat and your dog has to pee and poop.

 

So it's just a matter of sort of using the food that you're going to give your dog for meals anyway, or at least some of it, productively in order to reward this behavior, which you desperately want, which is your dog to go on your patio. All right. Let me know how that goes with Peaches. It's such a cute name.

 

Okay. last question here is from Bristol, who has a Morkie, a four pound Morkie in Kansas. The Morkie’s name is Velma:

 

My five-year old Yorkie mix Velma refuses to eat 75% of the time. I have tried switching foods and offering her alternatives when she refuses. But sometimes she just isn't interested.  When she refuses to eat, it causes a bile buildup in her stomach, which leads to her vomiting and eventually having diarrhea. We can combat this sometimes if we force feed her peanut butter immediately after refusing food, at which time she will either decide she is hungry and she'll start eating, or she will vomit up the peanut butter and feel better and be able to eat. Her finicky eating habits are driving us up a wall. This is a multiple times a week occurrence.

 

We notice a change in this behavior if she is around other dogs, though.  It's almost like she is more willing to eat when other dogs are around because it introduces competition. (This is so interesting.) My parents and their dogs stayed at our house while we were out of town a few weeks ago and had no problems with her getting sick or eating. She stayed with another family who has dogs and they didn't experience any issues either.

 

The whole thing has come to a head, now, since we had to take her to the emergency dogtor at 4:00 AM, because she left us a murder scene after missing two meals, bloody poop, everywhere. Incredible that it came from such a small thing. The emergency dogtor was unconcerned and send us home with antibiotics.

 

My frustration really peaked when Velma expressed an interest in our McDonald's hash Browns, as we pulled out of the parking lot at 5:00 AM. Now she wanted to eat?! ([laughs] It's, it's funny, but it's not funny.) After inexpensive emergency vet visit in the middle of a work night, I'm thankful that she is okay and ate something, but my new carpet isn't thankful for the blood spots.

 

The question that my husband and I have been circling for months now is should we get a second dog.  Spending so much time working from home right now would allow us ample time to train a new dog and fighting puppy accidents for a bit wouldn't be a big deal if it means that we don't have to fight Velma’s sick accidents in the future.  We don't particularly want another dog since we are going to be starting a human family soon, but we would love another dog well, and if it were to make Velma's life easier…

 

Okay, this question is, is I, wow.  The forensic dog trainer work here is not easy. First of all, if your dog is like pooping blood a few times a week, I think you need to find a really good vet. It's curious that you're saying the, I mean, it's interesting that you're saying that the competition makes her more interested in eating. And I believe that could totally be true.

 

And you could certainly try other things to see if you could get her interested in eating, like feeding her in toys. You know, maybe if she sees the food as like points in a game.  You could also try feeding it to her in training. I assume that you have tried lots of different things. You said you tried different foods and alternatives, but try giving her the food in these new kinds of ways could pique her interest.

 

But even if that does pique her interest, I mean, please like find a vet who can get to the bottom of this. If you don't have success with like a normal, definitely look for one that's more holistic.  I'm happy to give you some recommendations.  I recently worked with a couple of vets to do with Eastern medicine with dogs. 

 

I think this is something that you need to investigate from on the medical side before you take the step of getting another dog.  Certainly, try some of the things I'm suggesting, but vet vet vet vet.  I don't think getting another dog is necessarily a terrible idea if you think that would make her life better, happier.

 

Maybe, but I just want to point out that the phenomenon could go away if she's no longer worried about losing her food from another dog. And I'm not sure that's the best reason to be getting another dog.  Because like I said, it could wear off.  And if she's eating her food faster, because she stressed that another dog is going to take her food, you know, that's still stress. Which is also not going to be, you know, particularly good for her, although maybe it won't cause her to be pooping blood so imminently.

 

I'm wondering if it has to do — you said it didn't happen at other people's homes. I'm wondering if it has to do with you or your home. So those are also maybe variables you could test out. How does she do if you're with her in a completely different environment where there are no other dogs, how is she with someone else in your home?

 

Kind of like we were talking about with the Fiesta Island dog, there are so many variables that you could be breaking out here to try and get to the bottom of what her issue is. If this is related to something 100% behavioral. But I want to make sure you're getting the medical side of things checked out.  And there are veterinary behaviorists who specialize in dealing with dogs who have issues that can require medication.

 

The veterinary behaviorists are kind of like –I think of it like dog trainers are like dog psychologists, and veterinary behaviorists are like dog psychiatrists, or dog psychopharmacologists. And they're not very many of them.  The ones that we recommend most are also in New York City, Behavior vets, and they actually have dog trainers who work with them too.

 

So anyway, it's a field that a lot of people aren't aware of, but veterinary behavior practices are out there and they can often do regular medicine too. So something to check out.

 

All right. Thank you so much to those of you who have joined. I will be attempting to do this again next week, live.  You can sign up at schoolforthedogs.com/QandA, and I will also be posting this to the podcast.  School for the Dogs podcast. If you have a question for me just go to Anniegrossman.com/ask.  Bye!