Dogs and Halloween

With October comes the changing leaves, the cooler weather, and the ghosts and goblins of Halloween. You may not be spooked by Halloween, but this can be an extremely stressful night for your dog which can make it pretty chaotic for you. While some of us are lucky to have a dog who happily anticipates the arrival of kids in costume looking for their treats, the majority of us dog guardians are not quite so lucky! With trick-or-treaters come little people who are excited… ringing doorbells, yelling, running, and looking quite different from what your dogs are used to!

If your dog is only moderately stressed out by this chaos, you still have time to teach him that the ringing of the doorbell can result in good treats for him too! Even if you have the world’s friendliest dog, it’s not usually a good idea to let them greet the trick-or-treaters. You never know which costume is likely to set him off, especially for those of us who were lucky enough to have rescued our dogs but without knowing too much about their past. Remember that your dog is counting on you to keep him safe.

Fergie in a kilt

Between now and Halloween, you can teach your dog that the ringing of the doorbell is a cue to run to his bed or crate for a treat. This is taught just like any other cue. You give your dog the auditory cue, guide them to their bed/crate and then reward them for going there. I would recommend starting with the bed/crate close to the door so that it doesn’t take you 5 minutes to get your dog from the door, where he will naturally run to, to his bed. As you practice, you can begin pausing between ringing the doorbell and leading your dog to his bed. If he makes any movement on his own, with less of your assistance, jackpot-reward him! That is, throw him a party, give him lots of praise and keep the treats coming!

It’s okay if you have to lead him for a while, it just means he doesn’t quite get it yet, or maybe he gets himself too worked up from the sound of the doorbell. If this is the case, you may need to take a step back. Use the bell as an auditory cue that you are about to give your dog a treat. Use high value rewards and keep it simple. As soon as the bell rings, you toss your dog a yummy treat. Practice this 5-10 times per session, take breaks, but practice multiple times a day. When you ring the bell and your dog looks at you, you’ve successfully counter-conditioned his response to the bell! Now you can continue with the above training techniques.

If your dog goes off the deep end at the sound of the bell, then it will probably be a much longer process to change his response and it would probably be in his best interest and yours to either give him something yummy to chew on Halloween while you hang out outside waiting for trick-or-treaters, or consider taking him for a car ride while another member of your household is in charge of the ghosts and goblins.

If you do continue with the doorbell training, don’t expect that your dog will calmly hang out on his bed or in his open crate while you answer the door and hand out candy. The purpose of this is to help diffuse his anxiety and overall reaction to the doorbell when the time comes. If you think your dog can handle it, I would suggest giving him a stuffed Kong or tasty rawhide to chew while the Trick-or-Treaters come and go. The other option would be to crate him but toss in some yummy goodness on your way to answer the door each time. Again, if you think this would be too much, don’t hesitate to get your dog out of the house for a few hours. As mentioned above, this could be with a car ride, a visit to a friend’s house without trick-or-treaters, a kennel, or you could simply wait outside so people don’t have to ring the bell.

As a final note, remember to keep your Halloween candy in a safe place. A lot of families leave them in kitchen drawers, on the table, or spread out on the floor while going through it. Please remember that while chocolate is delicious to you, it is extremely toxic to your dog!

Body Language in Your Dog

Dogs have many methods of communication, some of which are obvious and well known, such as growling, tail-tucking, and barking. However, as your dog’s guardians, do you know what Fido is trying to tell you when he yawns? Or how about when you are telling him to do something and he seems to be looking everywhere but directly at you? Or lastly, how about when he shakes his whole body off, as if he is wet when he’s not?

The above examples are all methods of communication either to a person, another dog, or even to himself. Many of these signals are known as calming signals. There are many types of calming signals. Some are meant as distance-increasing, a dog’s way of telling the other party that he needs some space. Some are cut-off cues, your dog’s way of needing a time out. Others are just your dog’s way of coping with minor to moderate to severe stress or competition and these signals often come far sooner than the more obvious growl or bite. As a general rule, these calming signals are meant to do just that. They are meant to calm the situation, the other person/dog, or themselves. Depending on the situation and the environment, these signals become your cue as your dog’s guardian to address what might be stressing them out.

Some of the more common and mild calming signals include:
• Yawning
• Lip licking
• Avoiding eye contact
• *Full body shake off (as if they are shaking off water)
• *Sitting
• Drooling
• Mouthy-ness
• Jumping on you

Some of the more moderate signals include:
• Wrinkled brows
• Dilated pupils
• Wide mouth panting – tends to be shallow or forceful and their mouth is opened wider than usual
• Whining – often anxiety or excitement

Some of the more severe and more well-known signals include:
• Whale eye (eyes bulging, with the white of the eyes exposed)
• Tail tucked
• Body trembling/shivering
• Ears plastered back
• Dog appears to stop breathing
• Crouching or low body posture
• Shrinking away from being touched
• Stiffness

It is very important to consider all these signals in context. If you have food in your hand and your dog is licking his lips, he is probably doing so because of the food and not due to stress. However, if you are allowing your child to hug your dog and he is licking his lips, stiffens up, or stops breathing – this means your dog is NOT comfortable with this full body embrace. These are the signals that come before the growl or the bite but often people are unaware of them.

As a less serious example, if every time you try to take a picture of your dog, he turns his head away from the camera, that is avoidance – not a dog that is purposely trying to keep you from getting a good picture. It means he doesn’t like having his picture taken. Still using that example, that is a good time to teach your dog that if he looks at the camera… right after the snap of the picture, he will get a treat or the ball thrown. Very quickly, your dog will probably create a much more positive association with having a camera pointed at him!

The behaviors above that are marked with an asterisk are the cut-off cues. You will often see these when a dog is interacting with another dog. If he needs a break, he may shake off or sit down. Sitting down leans towards a less-than-comfortable interaction, while the shake-off tends to happen when the dogs just need a moment between play. You may also notice that when one dog shakes off, their playmate does as well!

If you notice these signals in your dog, especially repetitively, consider what is happening in the environment and help your dog out. Either remove your dog or remove the threat, and then start teaching him that what makes him uncomfortable can actually be a good thing! Of course, consult a Dog Behavior professional who uses positive training methods if you feel that you need extra help or if your dog is showing signs of the moderate to severe signals.

Dog Trainer Turid Rugaas coined the term “calming signals” and wrote an excellent book on the topic called On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals. If interested in learning more information on this topic, I would highly recommend picking up a copy.

For more information, please contact Laura Chapman, Miss Behavior
(603) 509-3877 http://www.missbehaviortraining.com/

August 30, 2010

Best Staffordshire Bull Terrier video ever!

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