A couple of dogs

It is possible to have several dogs under the same room provided that rules of domination between them are respected. On the other hand, if one dog refuses the hierarchical position it has been given by another of the pack, it will challenge the latter to claim the place it wishes to occupy. Once the introduction phase over, if hierarchy is conflicting, it will then be necessary to separate these dogs that don’t get along. Clashes often occur between two dogs of the same gender both with a dominant character. A dog-bitch couple lives according to the laws of nature, which is an assurance that they will get on quite peacefully.

The reasons that motivate a family to adopt a second dog are varied. Some people will see a necessity to give their first dog a companion whilst others simply live that particular breed. The latter might consider adopting a couple so that they reproduce. Others, finally, who like two or three different breeds, might want to have dogs of these breeds under their roof. In such a case, it is not necessary to same size choose dogs because dominance does not necessarily belong to the strongest dog. Relationships between dogs are not settled on a size difference but on age, character, physiological state, territorial challenge, etc.

There are contraindications to own two or more dogs but it is important to remember that most accidents that take place are not caused by a single dog but by two.

Sometimes, when your dog is getting older, you already plan to have a second one. It is an excellent idea to so whilst the first dog is still alive as this will ensure an easier transition for you whilst giving back a little bit of youth to your old companion as it is in contact with a younger dog. Moreover, you will certainly find it touching to see the friendship that will exist between them and the love they have for you.

Dogs and children

All children want a dog at some point or another. This request usually comes when around 10 years of age. The dog must be an ideal play mate, not aggressive and a good guard that is perfectly integrated into family life. Play mate and soul mate in times of doubt and distress, the dog is the family member that hears all of the little one’s secrets, can cope with the silly things the child makes it endure and comforts them during hard times. Whatever the child’s age, from the age of three, having a dog contributes to the child’s development; it helps in their awareness of the world around them and helps them bloom.

The dog must be able to tolerate everything coming from the child: shouting, annoyance, games, gestures and particular attitudes. In response, the dog has the right to flee and to warn the child if it finds something unsuitable. Under no circumstance must the dog be allows to bite or nip the child. It is up to the parents to reprimand a naughty or tyrannical child. They must also look after the well being of the dog, educate it and take all the necessary precautions so as to avoid unfortunate circumstances. For example, so that the dog can flee, the door of the room in which the dog and the child are must remain open.

If the dog tends to take people – grown ups or adults – as a loving partner, it is necessary to educate it or to give it medical treatment so that this behaviour ceases. Not only is this behaviour unpleasant, it can also prove dangerous if the child gets knocked over.

The arrival of a baby in a household is falsely identified as an issue. Pregnant women fear that their dog will have jealous reactions but a dog that fits well into the life of a couple or family will naturally be affectionate towards the child. On the other hand, if the owners amplify what should not be a problem, the dog will understand this perfectly well and take advantage of the situation.

By educating a dog, you let it find its place within your household and help it feel happy within it. It must learn to respect the child, not to lick it too much, not to steal food from the child’s hand or plate, not to pull on the leash, etc. The owner’s attitude must often be strict and fair. The dog must be punished as soon as it knocks the child over, bears it teeth or play bites too much. The child must in return respect the dog’s rest as well as its meals and must learn not to excite and tease the dog.

Hygiene is paramount. You must treat your dog against worms, ticks, fleas and lice, maintain its coat and keep an eye on what it eats. Do not let your dog search bins or play with carrion found in the woods and then lick your child’s face! The child must wash their hands and face before each meal. The dog must not be allowed in the child’s bedroom and even less lie on their bed. Vaccinating the dog is indispensable so as to prevent any risk of disease being transmissible to children, such as rage or leptospirosis. Tinea is also contagious but is more of a discomfort than a real disease. Allergies to dog hair are frequent and lead in children to a kind of asthma. If your child keeps coughing when in presence of a dog at home, it is possible to carry out an allergy test. If the test is positive, injectable desensitising treatments are available following a specific process.

If the dog does not fit in well and is not well balanced, the dog-child relationship will be even worse if the rest of the family is tense. Conversely, in a harmonious setting, a good dog will be sanctum for the child, a faithful companion, bringer of joy and fulfilment.

Solving behavioural problems

Through bad socialisation or lack of knowledge of canine psychology, owners can make mistakes when training their dogs. So as to have a dog that is as well balanced as possible it is necessary to know the training pitfalls or at least to know how to avoid them. Fighting behavioural problems requires that we modify our attitudes towards our dog. Any abnormal behaviour stems from a feeling of insecurity that is acerbated by a lack of firmness and training or by too much molly cuddling.

When its owner is absent, a dog might find it difficult to cope with loneliness. The damage it inflicts on the furniture, the carpet or the wallpaper when its owner is away is merely an expression of the dog’s anxiety. If the dog is punished upon its owner’s return, next time it will suffer from a double fear: being left alone and being punished. In this case, a better solution is to progressively accustom the dog to stay alone, maybe reducing this loneliness by finding it a well-balanced companion. This training must always take place in a pleasant atmosphere with adequate congratulations, because positive reinforcement is what is profitable for the dog.

Noise, anxiety and nervousness are problems cause by having badly socialised or not socialised a dog to the outside world. A dog that barks in untimely fashion whilst you are away will need to lose this habit through rehabilitation as described previously. As a dog is always trying to please its owner, you will be able to overcome these difficulties by displaying your joy and encouragements when it makes progress.

A dog is dirty either because it has been badly educated – a situation that will need to be changed - or because it feels lonely and anxious. If a dog is confronted with a new situation or to the intrusion of a new individual, it will soil your carpet. If a dog feels insecure outside its territory, stress means that it will not be able to relax its anal and urinary sphincters so it will only be able to do so when this ‘frightening’ walk is over and it is back on home ground. Gently, you will need to modify the dog’s environment, understand the reasons behind this anxiety and sometimes re-think your lifestyle.

A dog that scratches is seeking to organise its nest as so as to be as comfortably settled as possible. It smells your scent on the sofa or on a piece of clothing lying around and wants to mark it too by leaving its own scent on it so as to show that it is happy to find its owner’s scent. Sometimes a dog might do silly things to attract your attention.

If the feeling of neglect a dog might have is pushed to the extreme, this might make the dog destructive, as this will calm its nerves. A destructive dog will cease to be like that when it gets the attention it expects from you. When the environment where it lives is not a place of punishment anymore but a comforting place, it won’t think about destroying anymore. A dog that destroys the car when you leave it on its own inside it must learn bit by bit that you are not abandoning it. Training the dog will consist of making it adopt the car as a second refuge.

Finally, if your dog has its own armchair, any stranger that attempts to sit in it is seen as invading the dog’s territory. Dogs protect their territory whatever happens and challenge anyone that tries to take it. It may be that the dog’s aggressiveness comes out at that point, which can become a real danger for children that do not know the rules of territoriality that come with a dog. As far as the dog is concerned, it is only carrying out its instinctive duty to respect its place in the hierarchy and protect its territory. In order to avoid accidents, you must not run the risk that a dog is caught in a conflict with a child or a baby to defend its living area. Even if there is no child in the house, you can get the dog used to sleeping on a blanket that belongs to it and is easy to move whenever you want onto a sofa, in a car or in a room that the dog is not familiar with.

A four month old puppy sheds its baby teeth and tends to bite anything it can. Generally, this attitude can last until it is seven months or a year old. So as to channel the puppy’s energy without letting it destroy everything, you need to buy chew toys or beef bones that can keep the dog busy for hours and can be ingested without any danger. If the dog nevertheless tries to chew shoes that are lying around, the punishment must come from these ‘abandoned’ objects by placing in them objects such as mouse traps. If after one year old the dog still displays a destructive behaviour, it is because it is the victim of an inner-conflict that makes it unbalanced. This may be linked to a relational problem with someone in its environment with whom hierarchy is badly established. This can also be due to a lack of physical activity or boredom, in which case the solution will to find a substitute activity for this dog. You can for instance take it to a canine club where it will meet others of its own kind and experience numerous simulations that will allow it to release its energy in a channelled manner.

There are 5 categories of runaway dogs.

The first one is made of dogs that got frightened during fireworks or when hearing firecrackers or the thunder rumbling. Frightened by the noise, they take off, but that is only incidental.

The second category is made of dogs attracted to bitches in heat.

In the third category are dogs that are wandering without getting lost and come back home on their own. These daily wanderers stroll around with the tacit approval of their owners, as far as 3 or 4 kilometres away from home. But they always know how to come back. If - thinking you are helping - you grab a dog and drag it out of its route, it is at that moment that its owner has really lost it for good. This is even truer if you keep it in your home, do not let it go back and feed it. If it has got a collar, if it is tattooed, calm, healthy and not starving, chances are that it is just in the middle of its daily walk. If on the other hand it has been roaming for a few days, is panicky, starved and thin, it may be lost or a runaway. In all cases, leave it alone and see if it goes back or not. If it freely settle in your home and is tattooed, you can check its identity with the Kennel Club or your nearest vet, who will take all the necessary steps to find the dog’s owners. It this case, it is appropriate to keep the dogs until the owners come to fetch it. If it has neither tattoo nor collar, you can either keep it or entrust it to the care of an animal charity.

Dogs that get lost when going for a walk make up the fourth category. It may happen that during a walk in the woods your dog runs off to follow a rabbit’s trail and when it realises that it has lost the trail, you are too far away.

Finally, dogs of the fifth category are those that actually run away, leaving their owner’s home and do not seem to feel the need to go back there. These dogs simply do not like living where they are, so they take advantage of an open gate, jump the fence or dig under the wire fence and make a run for it. These are maladjusted dogs that did not recognise their owner’s home as their lair. By running away they show an unfulfilled need for affection and care which they go and seek elsewhere, in another home. If one of these dogs is returned to you, do not punish it. On the contrary, welcome it back home warmly.

Aggressiveness is a behavioural problem that takes place either when there are misunderstandings between people and dogs or when the hierarchy is challenged. Sometimes some circumstances might set off such anomalies in the relationship. Dogs communicate through facial expressions and postures to which their owners can respond using attitudes or gestures. Knowing the language of the dog and the rules of submission and dominance allows the owner to avoid most accidents. For example, the human stroking the head of a dog is perceived by the dog as a mark of dominance and can therefore be understood as an attack from the human, which will result in the dog attacking back. This would only be a misunderstanding.

A dog that is quietly sleeping on its territory can happen to be disturbed by a child on all fours that will come and pull its tail. If the dog has a dominant character, it will sharply reply to protect its territory, a response which is an accident waiting to happen as it is just a matter of circumstances… Precautions need to be taken, such as avoiding to disturb it while it is eating, avoiding competition over a right of passage (e.g.: when the dog is asleep in a corridor), not making it sit by pressing on its back, not putting your hand on its muzzle and kissing it, etc.

When a new individual is introduced into a pack/household, such as a baby, an elderly person, a friend or another dog, canine law dictates that a new hierarchy is established. The dog will attempt to put the newcomer in the lowest ranking place within the pack – the ‘scapegoat’ – and will assert its dominance according to the pack rules using the aggressiveness. The owner must immediately display its authority and put the dog back in its place. The dog must never decide what relationship it has with others of the pack. It must never ask for anything, be it stroking, food or walk. It must only have the joy of receiving what its owner wants to give it spontaneously.

If a good education does not get rid of the problems, castrating males or giving the dog hormonal treatments can have variable results. It is also possible to correct such issues using medicine, but it is after a very specific consultation that the vet is able to identify the dog’s problem and to prescribe the appropriate medicine and dosage.

In some cases owners must be advised not to keep a dangerous, aggressive dog especially if they have children or disabled people at home or if no one in the household is able to undertake training sessions nor to spot in the dog’s behaviour reactions that are spontaneous for a dominant individual.

Punishing your dog

So that your dog obeys you, it must perfectly understand what you are asking of it. Your demand must be clear, short and you must always give the same order to obtain the same result. A non-verbal communication is established between an owner and its dog in so far as it is not only expressed in words but also using the tone of the voice, a facial expression or a gesture that speak much better to dogs than words would. Let us look at how dogs understand and perceive our behaviours.

Firstly, our voice is important. For a dog, a low-pitched voice means authority, as it is associated with the voice of the mother growling when its puppy was misbehaving. A high-pitched voice, however, will not have the same effect. Quite on the contrary, it reminds the dog of the crying of a prey, the singing of birds, the meowing of cats and the shouts of children that are dogs’ play mates. This excites dogs more than anything else and annoys it. Finally, a voice that is hesitant tempts the dog to disobey because it does not take its orders seriously.

Dogs also understand our cajoling strokes. Stroking its head means authority whilst stroking it under the neck is the loving, maternal stroke. Stroking a dog’s collar is a sign of congratulation, stroking its back one of encouragement. Your dog can be appeased by stroking its belly. Tapping the dog’s back is a friendly invitation to play whereas tapping its flanks is playful pushing between friends. Not only do dogs pick up on our smallest gestures, but they also notice our emotions, joy and sadness.

As soon as a puppy has arrived in a household, it is important that each family member agrees on the ‘dictionary’ to use with the newcomer. The way demands are formulated must be the same for each order given. It is out of the question that one person says “come” while another says “here” and yet another says “heel”, etc. Within the family, even before the dog’s arrival, everyone will learn to use the same vocabulary.

After that, the orders need to be put into practice. It is not enough that a dog is capable of coming when we ask it to and to follow on the lead without resisting. When you ask a dog to come to your heels, you must give it the order then crouch down because the standing up position is threatening whereas the lower one is reassuring. As soon as the dog has obeyed, you must congratulate it by stroking it. When you want it to sit, look at it straight in the eyes, it should then sit without further prompting. It is only then that you should say “sit” and congratulate it. The method is the same to make the dog lie down. This might not work the first time round. In this case, place your hand above the head, a little towards the back. This may be enough but if it is not, you can encourage it using a treat. To raise its head, a dog must flex its hind legs then sit. It is important to give the dog time to react – 4 to 5 seconds – and accomplish the task. Your impatience may lead to bad timing and it accomplishing the task preceding the one you are trying to make it do. The dog thinks it is obeying and you think it is not. However, this is not disobedience but miscommunication.

A dog disobeys orders because what it is being asked to do is not fun and that it does not feel like doing it. In this case, if it obeys in spite of itself, you must remember to reward it. The reward must be immediate; if you waiting for 5 minutes, it won’t mean anything anymore. It is good to reward the dog from time to time but doing it every day turns this action in something like a wage.

Intelligence and memory

Both rewarding and punishing a dog must be done immediately. We must be careful, though, about what punishment we inflict on a dog because not all are effective. At times it can be a cruel or even harmful act that bears to link in severity to the mistake committed by the dog. It is a mistake to believe that beating a dog means that you are punishing it. According to the tone you use, this act can be perceived by some dogs as a somewhat rough game when the limits have not been established.

Let us consider five categories of dogs: rebels, independent, obedient, tender and fearful. For each category you obtain a different reaction when hitting a dog, which can be more or less dangerous. When hitting a rebellious dog, it will turn against you and bite you. So will fearful dogs. These will flee if they can but if they are stuck in a room, they will fight back and attack. If you hit an independent dog, it will learn to be mistrustful, lose its trust in you and thanks to its memory it will record the hits and will become gradually less obedient. If you hit a dog that is submissive, it will bear the hits so as to be kind and without understanding it will continue to be submissive without knowing why it is being beaten. It will undergo negative reinforcement. In such a case, the animal becomes more and more fearful and its temperament will change. If you hit an obedient dog, you also risk making it fearful or even dangerous even if it is more able to bear the hits than other dogs would be.

Through these examples, we saw that hitting a dog is useless. Even if punishing it is necessary, the punishment must be measured – i.e. adapted to the mistake, tailored – adapted to the dog’s size, and justified – adapted to the chosen training method. Aside from hitting a dog, there are other, more efficient methods. For instance you can threaten it with an object rather than hitting it. Dogs are very sensitive to the tone of voice you use. When you tell a dog off, you must sound deeply unhappy; similarly, when you reward a dog, you must sound excessively happy. You must not, however, deliver great speeches – a serious and short tone of voice will do the trick.

Dogs cannot stand their owner’s indifference. When puppies play together and one of them gets nibbled a bit too hard by another, the puppy that got nibbled inflicts on its litter companion a punishment: indifference. “OK, you bit me, so I’m playing on my own now. I don’t want to play with you anymore. I don’t care about you. I’m cross with you.” It is the attitude a human must have with its dogs: turn your back on it, push it aside and lock it in a quiet room for fifteen minutes without talking to it. You must not stay behind the door as the dog will sense your presence. You must let it cry alone in a corner. Once you open the door, don’t pet or cuddle it. This would be perceived as a reward that would be stronger than the punishment and the dog might disobey again so as to be cajoled again. Even if, when it leaves its solitary confinement, it begs for forgiveness, remain indifferent and continue to ignore it.

In case it made a serious mistake, you can grab it by the skin of its neck and shake it. This reminds it that there is a hierarchy that it must respect. Dogs instinctively know that this punishment correspond to very serious misbehaviour. In the litter, the mother teaches her offspring the limits that the puppies must not transgress. If a puppy nibbles a bit too hard, the mother pushes it back then nibbles it in return. If finally the puppy remains defiant to its mother’s warnings, she may go as far as killing it.

Punishment must be immediate. When your dog destroys your sofa while you are away and, when you come back, it ‘seems’ to recognise its fault by keeping its tail between its legs, do not punish it. Punishing it would be an error of judgement on your part because the dog would understand this attitude as ‘every time you come back home from having been away for a long time, you get cross’. It would learn to fear your return from a long absence. So that it knows that you are telling it off for wrecking your flat, punishment must be administered within the five minutes maximum that follow the misbehaviour, otherwise you would reinforce its fear of seeing you returning home cross.

Behaviour

Understanding your dog

It may be that acquiring a dog seems easy and training it looks like a formality. This will not be the case, though, if it is the first time that you have got the opportunity to do it. Your new arrival can be quicker to analyse you than you are to train it; it might easily find your faults, abuse your errors and exploit your naivety.

So, you have just acquired a dog? Well done! So as to savour the shared feelings that might arise from this new relationship, you and your dog must understand each other perfectly well.

Thanks to your knowledge of your dog’s social structure and your study of its behaviours, you will be able to perfectly adapt the training to the newcomer, whether it is to give your puppy good habits or to plan a particular type of training for a future adult dog in the service of humans.

As well as possessing a certain form of intelligence and an excellent memory, dogs are surprisingly sensitive. A lot of our stress is picked up by our companions who live our worries on a daily basis. So as to face these modern life constraints, it is important to keep your dog well balanced through a sporting activity that is vital for your dog and keeps its owner active.

Finally, some dogs present such severe behavioural problems that they are not pleasant companions for humans anymore. Reviewing their education will allow you solve most of those behavioural problems.

The dog’s behaviour and character

Behaviour

A dog’s behaviour is defined by the whole of its movements and attitudes that result in interaction between the animal and its environment, both internal and external. A behaviour’s ultimate goal of is to give the genetic potential of the individual the best possible chance to survive.

We can demonstrate this through several examples. Indeed, the ancestor of the canids gave birth to different species whose size and structure is fairly identical: wolves, jackals and foxes. What makes these species different from one another is their ability to communicate with their peers and, thanks to this more or less developed ability, to form organised groups of various sizes. The more developed the communication, the more elaborate the social behaviour is, the more cohesive the groups that are formed and the more individuals there are in the group.

Each of the canid species feeds by capturing preys of different sizes. The fox is a solitary animal that captures preys of a smaller built than it is. The wolf on the other hand, although it is not much bigger than the fox, has at its disposal much perfected means of communication and is able, thanks to the cooperation of all pack members, to hunt preys that are more bulky.

Our domestic dogs have adapted during their evolution to the specificities of their environment by developing their own social behaviours. Some of these behaviours are innate or instinctive and are transmitted from generation to generation whereas others are acquired by an individual during its lifetime.

From observation, the various behaviours have been classified in 9 behavioural systems as follows.

1. Exploratory behaviour

This is a behaviour by which the animal moves in a new environment and displays curiosity.

It is very important for the development of a young animal learning skills that it is confronted with a rich, varied and spacious environment. This will indeed determine the dog’s temperament using transmitted hereditary factors. This type of stimulation is a favourite with most breeding methods. A puppy that is brought up in a very rich and playful environment until it is four months old will become an animal that learns easily. Conversely, a puppy that has spent the first four months of its life in a constant and uniform environment will suffer from emotional instability and an exacerbated shyness towards humans. Such a puppy will not be able to cope with the complexity of new and unwonted situations.

2. Alimentary behaviour

This is a behaviour by which the animal seeks to ingest food.

When it is suckling, the puppy uses its front paws to get massages using its mother’s hair. The puppy suckles 7 to 8 times per 24 hours during the first three weeks. After that, the mother regurgitates food and then accepts to share her food with her young. After they have been weaned, puppies need 4 meals a day. Progressively they will get to one meal a day, which will sustain them for a sedentary lifestyle. An adult dog is capable of going through periods of fasting that last for a few days. Although canids are predators and carnivorous animals, dogs like to eat dried foods after a training session. Some owners might prefer using ready-made portions that are well adapted to dogs, since their domestication has made them omnivore. A lot of dogs are capable of regulating their feeding whilst others, like the Labrador, have a tendency for bulimia that needs controlling.

3. Thirst behaviour

Dogs must have permanent access to drinking water as they must be able to drink at any time.

4. Elimination behaviour

This behaviour can take place during communication and whilst marking their territory by urinating or defecating. This communication is visual through the position adopted by the dog to pass faecal matter and urine and olfactory through the smells generated. This behaviour is stimulated in puppies during suckling by their mothers licking their anal or genital orifices. That way, a reflex is born: it needs to go to the loo after each meal. Urinating can also express an intense emotion – either joy or fear - or a sign of submission.

5. Social behaviour

This behaviour is defined as being all interactions between two or more animals that does not have a reproductive function. In puppies, socialisation allows them to discover pack psychology, to test their fellow litter puppies through games, to improve their control over their body through fighting, to learn codification and communication as well as the hierarchy within a group. These preferred relationships and imitation behaviours take place within the first few months of a puppy’s life. Any breeder will confirm how important this phase is to allow the puppy to develop and become well balanced within a harmonious relationship with humans and their environment. If this phase is nonexistent, this can provoke psychological trauma in dogs as they grow up. They will then show abnormal fear towards other dogs, noise and humans. They will remain shy, anxious and dangerous.

6. Reproductive behaviour

This behaviour defines the following phases: displaying, nest building, whelping, maternal and paternal behaviours and the newly-born puppy’s attitude to life.

7. Licking behaviour

This behaviour is defined as the way dogs look after their fur by licking, scratching or nibbling it. This cleaning is done by the mother whilst the dog is young. It consists of licking the coat and the urination and defecation orifices when the puppy is suckling. The mothers’ little tongue caresses will little by little be replaced by people stroking the dog.

8. Napping and sleeping behaviour

This behaviour divides the day between active and resting time. Like all young individuals, a puppy must spend more than three quarters of its time asleep. An adult will spend half its time doing the same. Some pets adopt the same active rhythm as their owner.

9. Thermoregulatory behaviour

This behaviour allows animals to maintain a constant body temperature according to the climate’s variations. The Husky, for example, is a sled dog capable of coping with very low temperatures. Before sleeping, its digs a nest in the snow in which it lays rolled up into a ball.

Acquiring good habits from 0 to 18 months old

Because they can be educated but also because they are able to spontaneously process a new activity, dogs are considered intelligent. It is obviously impossible to compare a dog’s intelligence to a person’s, which is why it is necessary to be cautious when defining a dog’s intelligence. First of all, each dog has a field-related intelligence. Do not ask a Border Collie to intelligently stand guard, a Shih Tzu to swim to rescue, a Greyhound to intelligently gather sheep nor an Alsatian to race intelligently. Each pedigree dog is intelligent in its own field and thus there is not limited to one type of intelligence but displays several varied forms that are largely hereditary. We therefore should not ask a dog to do things for which it is not programmed. That would be as stupid as to as a baker to build a timber frame.

Some dogs are more intelligent, display more initiative and are better able to learn than others. However, an intelligent dog might appear completely dumb because it does not understand what you are asking of it. In this case, it is your fault if the instructions you gave were not clear and accurate.

Another error of interpretation comes from the dog’s own sensory faculties. One dog is not more intelligent than another because it can identify a specific vehicle from afar or await someone’s arrival at a certain time. It is simply that its very developed olfactory and auditory faculties (10 to 20 times more than ours) allow it to perceive the arrival of a particular car or of an individual that it knows. Moreover, a dog is never distracted and although it might look sleepy its senses are permanently alert. The more its sense of smell and hearing are developed, the more its memory will be powerful. Once a dog has registered certain differences, it ‘tunes in’, understands very quickly, remembers accurately and recalls its memory in appropriate circumstances whenever it can.

If a dog buries its bones, it is because it has the ability to find them again and therefore has a good memory. Without it, we would find training it rather difficult. Very quickly, a dog remembers the name you give it, it obeys its owner’s orders and memorises the new places it visits. Because it has a memory, it dreams. A part of the events that take place in a dog’s day are committed to memory whilst the rest is eliminated during sleep. So when a dog is agitated during its sleep, wriggling its hind legs, it is dreaming that it is hunting or running. When it puffs through its lips, it is dreaming about something pleasant. During a dog’s life, there is an ‘imprint period’ – during the first few weeks of its life – during which everything it experiences gets unforgettably engraved into its behaviour. As we have already pointed out, everything that is learnt between the eighth and ninth weeks of its life is memorised. This phenomenal memory explains why some dogs, towards the end of their lives, remember their post-natal period and can remember the breeder that helped bringing them to life.

Thanks to its amazing memory, its auditory, tactile, olfactory and gustative faculties and thanks to some various trial and error experiences, dogs can distinguish between very similar stimulations and spot a difference where humans cannot.

Let us examine two examples: firstly this of a dog that recognises from the way they slow down two cars of identical makes – one belonging to a stranger, the other belonging to its owner; secondly this a dog that, seeking to find a mechanism to open a door, ceases to look when the door opens and gets the hang of opening it first time after that.

Again, thanks to their memory, dogs can extremely easily imitate other dogs. An Alsatian puppy will learn to stand guard if it is in a household where an adult dog already does so. It will learn this task through mimicry. A mastiff that makes the link between limping and being looked after will be able to simulate other health problem to obtain its owner’s care and attention.

Understanding your new dog

The dog’s social structure

Through socialisation, a dog learns and develops the parameters within which its relationships are going to take place: with its mother first, then with other puppies of the same litter, with puppies from other litters, with other dog breeds, then with other pets and also with humans. It is our understanding of this socialisation process that determines what rules to follow when breeding dogs.

In a normal socialisation process, the dog firstly learns what species it belongs to and then it develops and learns appropriate communication signals and integrates into a group structure by following the rules by which it is governed. This is a progressive development that is split into phases. From 0 to 21 days, social interactions are limited due to the puppy’s insufficient physical development. Between the 3^rd and 5^th week, the puppy comes into contact with its environment and memorises the species it has recognised as friendly. It is attracted by all living beings it comes in contact with and gets attached to them. After that is when averse reactions towards new contacts are developed. The critical period for learning about friendly species decreases and ends in the 12^th week. From week 11 to week 15, the puppy learns about hierarchy. Later on, another socialisation process kicks in.

So as to properly understand dog training mechanisms, it is necessary to understand how hierarchies are built within a dog’s pack.

In wolves, for instance, the pack is organised around two hierarchies, one male and the other one female. For each of them, the hierarchy revolves around one predominant individual – called the alpha – that is at the centre of a geographical and social territory. Other subdominant individuals place themselves around the dominant member in concentric circles of various levels in decreasing order of importance. Each individual dominates over the individual below it. Age is also a dominance factor. The lowest ranking individual is in a way the ‘scapegoat’. For both males and females, each level of individuals will be dominant over the one below. Youngsters acquire their position within the hierarchy when they are around 1 year old. This hierarchical structure is very stable and is only questioned if a dominant individual is challenged by a dominated one.

In the pack, the alpha eats first and chooses the best bits. The lowest ranking individual eats last and gets the leftovers, if there are any. This is a principle that is also applied within the female hierarchy. Also, so as to reserve procreation for the best females, dominated females synchronise their reproductive cycles on the dominant ones so they can display pseudocyesis (also known as false pregnancy) and serve as wet-nurses.

Territory instinct within the pack is very developed. Most dogs are on their guards when they perceive unusual signals. They bark to signal to the rest of their pack the intrusion of an individual on their territory. If there is a danger, the first sentinels are the lowest ranking individuals. In a way, they protect the dominant core of the pack. Each pack member has its own territory which it very actively protects, against humans as well as animals. In a household, a dog will adopt as its territory the area that its owner has reserved for it or it might choose its own space. So as to respect the rules of dominance between the dog and the family, it is necessary to place the dog’s bed as far away from the family alpha (acting here as the pack alpha) whilst paying attention that the children’s bedrooms are within the geographical circle of dominance of the family alpha.

A domestic dog’s life style does not allow it to form sufficient size packs to constitute a hierarchical structure as complex as the wolf’s. Nevertheless, this tendency to build a comparable hierarchy impacts on the human household, which is what will constitute the basis of the dog’s training. A hierarchy takes place normally between a human being and its dog. The latter is submissive to its owner who represents the group alpha. The dog must also be submitted to the other members of the family. The dog therefore appears in this hierarchy as the lowest ranking member. This position is easily established when a dog is young but it may be that the dog, as it grows up, defies and challenges the dominance of one or several people within the family. A baby that arrives after the dog entered the household, for instance, might be considered as a lower ranking member. It is then important to put the dog back in its place.

Often in a human household, what defines the rank of each individual is the horizontal line from one individual’s eyes to the other. This is why a child on all fours will be more vulnerable than a dog lying on a sofa. So as to ensure that the dog will not challenge the child, it is necessary to teach the dog never to climb on any elevated surface.

Essential Activity

Training clubs have two roles. Firstly they teach owners that are having difficulties how they can properly train their dogs with sensible advice from someone who is qualified.

Secondly, they encourage competition fans to drive their dogs towards results they can be proud of.

A dog is undoubtedly a man’s best friend. It perceives the rough times in its owner’s life and shows some compassion towards their emotional changes. Unconsciously the dog is our scapegoat but it can only maintain its psychological balance if it can exercise and thus shrug off the burdens it has accumulated. Physical exercise and play times are always necessary for a dog. For dogs that are very dominant, it is necessary to channel their energy and aggressiveness through strictly controlled training activities.

Training

Training your dog properly is essential. You will discover what good manners to make it learn right from the first few months, as well as what uses a dog can have, such as guarding or helping blind people, for instance.

Guarding a garden

A guard dog should be chosen according to the task that will be required of it. You might want an operational dog that takes initiatives and bites happily, like the Rottweiler. It must be very well trained otherwise it might become dangerous. You might on the other hand want a dissuasive dog such as the Beauceron. In this case, you might want to choose a dog that is mistrustful so that it is always aware of potential intruders or dangers yet fearful enough to keep a safe distance and dodge attacks. The qualities required for a guard dog are physical. The dog must be standard to big in size and be able to bark easily. It must be nervous enough to externalise its aggression rituals: hairs standing up, teeth bard, attack and retreat manoeuvres. The dog must be vigilant and fight without getting overwhelmed by certain situations. In some cases it might be useful to have two guard dogs on the same territory as this pack set up can fine tune their instincts. Guarding in pairs avoids problematic behaviours linked to solitude. Moreover, it is harder for an intruder to immobilise who dogs at once since the dogs organise a combat tactic not dissimilar to predation - one facing the front, the other one facing the rear.

Guarding a garden must start when a puppy is around 5 to 6 months old. The dog’s skills improve around 1 years of age and are acquired about 1.5 years of age. This is only based on the dog’s ability to warn of the presence of an intruder or an object and then to chase it away. It is in no way an opportunity for a dog to improve its attack or biting skills and fine tune its sensitivity. People who want to develop such skills in a dog will need to become member of a training club so that mainly sportive or professional aims at reached, under the strict control of a professional dog trainer.

To train a dog to keep guard, two techniques are at your disposal. The first one consists of getting the young puppy trained by an adult dog. It will learn to mimic what the adult dog does whilst being encouraged by its owner. For the second technique, at dawn the owner and its dog take position near the gate. A friend of the owner’s plays the prowler’s part using an appropriate gait and then flees as soon as he hears the dog growl. The owner must congratulate the dog as soon as it growls. This technique reminds us of what happens when the postman comes. The dog barks then the postman goes away, which is interpreted by the dog as an encouraging victory that is reinforced daily. This training must be done with different ‘prowlers’, by including various objects, rags, bags, which will be left behind by the intruder firstly after the intruder resisted a little then without it resisting so as to teach the dog to let go immediately. Again, the dog must always be the winner.

The three stages of training differ by the length of the leash. To start with, the dog is at your feet on a short leash, so that the dog’s freedom is restricted. At 1 year of age, the leash is a bit looser and the dog has got more freedom but remains under its owner’s control. Finally around a year and a half, the dog is not controlled using the leash. It can obey basic orders and has perfectly acquired the notion of having a territory to guard.

It is essential that the property’s gate remain closed at all times and is fitted with a sign warning of a guard dog’s presence. The gate should only be open if you, the pack leader, are taking the initiative to do so after you have attached your dog or ordered it to remain lying down. You cannot allow that some people come in to your property with the guard dog’s approval and others don’t. Remember to put up a wire fence on your gate so that no child can put his arm through it, especially if you are going to train your dog to grab any object or rag that pokes through it.

Refusing baits

It may happen that evil-minded neighbours or burglars get rid of your dog by throwing poisoned dog food over the hedge. It is possible to prepare your dog to such nasty acts by teaching it not to eat anything in the garden. Firstly it is essential that the dog’s meal always take place according to the same ritual every time – always served at the same time, in the same bowl and in the same place. You dog must never beg or steal from the table. It must also not obtain secretly from your children what you refuse it. Do not hesitate to impose this rule on your guests too, as there must never be exceptions in a dog’s training.

All treats are to be banned except if they are given to reward the dog when it has obeyed a particular order given by its owner. So as to reinforce this training, it is necessary to throw into the garden baits containing chilli peppers, pepper or other off-putting condiments. Neither the owner nor a stranger must punish a dog for picking up those baits. The bait itself is punishment enough. You can also imagine baits that will punish the dog through mechanisms, e.g.: a mouse trap, an elastic band or a weak electric current. This is the principle of negative conditioning.

Secret codes between you and your dog

Shared closeness between an owner and its dog can be such that it is possible to have secret codes that no one else can crack. Knowing your dog’s facial expressions and being able to perceive the slightest gestures linked with certain behaviours will allow communication to be established between you. You can then easily teach it simple or complex secret codes through speech, gestures or clothing.

Canines understand more specifically short words and verbs. Later on it will not be necessary to use whole words; syllables can be skipped and eventually you can end up with orders that are understood only by the dog.

Sign communication can be based on the arm position in front or behind your back, on your hips, legs spread or not and be completed using accessories such as wearing objects, a hat, a scarf, etc. This type of training takes place by refining the order given rather than its realisation. Using repeated drilling it is possible to obtain conditioning that is imperceptible. Such mechanisation results in orders being rather superfluous, as human and dog understand each other using the shortest of words or gestures. At the pinnacle of closeness it would appear that there is a telepathic message uniting the dog and its owner. It is at any rate what can appear to happen between a shopkeeper and his dog.

A shopkeeper’s dog

Indeed, as well as taking pleasure in having an ‘intelligent’ pet, conditioning such as this is useful in a lot of areas. Needless to say that having a dog in your shop has primarily a got dissuasive effect. But appearances can be mistrustful – even if a dog appears to be in deep sleep, its senses remain alert and it can intervene immediately upon orders of its owner, as its defence mechanisms are ready for action. Choosing the right dog is important because the dog should not be ruled by its emotions. A well-balanced dog is required because it will master its instincts and control its impulses whilst remaining an intent observer.

To train a dog to guard a shop, it is absolutely necessary that the puppy has no contact with the clients, as they might find it cute and will try to stroke and pet it. You will need to go to a training club for training that will start with basic exercises aiming for you to state your authority, then attack simulations and simulations of theft in the shop and then of intervention of honest clients. Just like for introducing a dog in a new home, you must define you dog’s territory and demand that it respects it. After a year of training, i.e. when your dog reaches the age of two, your dog should be operational. Visiting the club once a week and making sure that you take your dog for walks should help it keep in mind what it has learnt.

Home training tuition

Home training tuition is an alternative to the type of training provided by clubs. It is suitable for people who do not wish to develop their animal’s sporting skills but wish to understand canine psychology so as to correct their pet’s behavioural problems. This type of training allows the trainer to see the dog/owner pair evolve in their usual environment and therefore to accurately identify their problems. It is also an advantage to make your dog work on guarding your own garden. Finally, for some people, having the trainer come to their homes is useful for people who are not able to go to the training ground.

Sense of smell

Sea and mountain rescue dogs, tracking dogs in the police force, hunting dogs, truffle dogs, bloodhounds, sniffer dogs

Dogs’ exceptional sense of smell has been used for assisting in numerous situations for a long time. Some dogs are hunters and can track and fetch game, others make good substitute for pigs to find truffles.

The Saint Hubert dog is amongst the biggest hounds. Because its nose’s mucous membrane is very developed, it is remarkably efficient when working. Before becoming a pet, it was used to seek game but also to track lost children and stray prisoners.

The Dachshund is also a breed used for its sense of smell. It was miniaturised so as to be able to chase badgers in their warrens.

According to the canine breeds’ nomenclature, scent hounds belong to the sixth group. Many scent hounds are pack dogs, which is also called ‘hunting with dogs’. Depending on the size of the quarry hunted, the idioms ‘small game’ or ‘big game’ are used. The Grand Bleu de Gascogne hunts foxes, board and wolves. The Basset Bleu de Gascogne, Beagle or Basset Hound are short-legged and can therefore track rabbits. Otterhounds are used, as their name describes, to track otters in cold waters. American Water Spaniels are agile when it comes to hunting ducks.

Other hounds are found in group four. There are numerous terriers, amongst which the Scottish Terrier and the Fox Terriers are used to hunt pests. The West Highland Terriers, also called ‘Westie’, and the Cain Terrier are rat hunters.

Dogs’ sense of smell was used by humans during World War II for specific military missions. As well as for surveillance of military premises, dogs such as the Bouvier des Flandres were trained to search for weapons and wounded people.

Cocker Spaniels, Belgian Shepherd Dogs and Labradors have also lent their sniffing talents to customs officers to detect drugs, explosives and other forbidden substances.

In rescue missions, just like the St Hubert we have previously mentioned, the St Bernard has a reputation to be able to find people lost in the mountains or buried in avalanches. Alsatians, Belgian Shepherd Dogs and Pyrenean Mountain Dogs prove to be very efficient in finding earthquake victims. Newfoundland dogs are specialised in sea rescue and do this zealously.

Guard dogs

Since dogs have been domesticated, one of their qualities has been well recognised: their ability to guard a territory that they have been entrusted with. Whether this territory is military or private, the most commonly used dogs for such a task are Belgian Shepherd Dogs, Alsatians, Rottweiler, Doberman, Great Danes and finally Beauceron dogs. These dogs are intimidating because of their size, their strength and their ability to bite. Some are naturally aggressive but this tendency can be controlled through training.

In the past, many dogs with a bellicose character were in wars. The Neapolitan Mastiff for instance was used for Roman combat. Bit by bit, these mastiffs became guard dogs.

Working dogs

Amongst the breeds that belong to this category are the Shar Pei, the Molosser, the Dogue de Bordeaux and the Fila Brasileiro. Being a guard dog does not only mean guarding territories. Many dogs have a calling to guard flocks. Shepherd dogs and Bouvier type dogs are included in this category.

There are different types of flock-guarding dogs: cattle dogs that look after cows and shepherd dogs that look after sheep. Before they were used in France in the police and surveillance companies, Belgian Shepherd Dogs were amongst the most popular to herd flocks. Border Collies and Collies are the UK’s favourites. In Germany, it is the Schnauzer, ‘butchers’ Bouvier’, that was much widespread. The Bernese Mountain Dog, however, is an exception since it is not only a shepherd dog but also a cartdog. As for the Bouvier des Flandres, as well as being a cart dog and a shepherd dog, it is also an excellent guard dog.

We have talked about hounds using their sense of smell to detect game. We finally need to mention the other types of rifle hunting dogs: pointers and retrievers. The latter are water dogs that are trained to bring back water game. The most famous are the Golden Retriever and the Labrador. Cocker Spaniels have also got a speciality as they are trained bird-dogs; they track birds in shrubbery by bouncing so as to push back the birds towards the hunters. Braque, Pointers and Griffon breeds are capable of flushing out their prey then remaining still, on the lookout, whilst their owner gets closer. These are dogs that seem to indicate with one of their legs the direction where the prey can be found. They freeze, one front leg stops, bent in the air and their nose ‘points’ towards the prey. Spaniels and Setters are also hounds that freeze once they have sniffed their prey and lie down so as to allow the hunter to throw his net.

This Spitz group of dogs encompasses all the Nordic dogs – i.e. dogs from Alaska, North America, Canada and Scandinavia.

The Malamute, Chow Chow and Siberian Husky have a build that makes them able to bear extremely cold temperatures, accomplish tasks where they pull carriages or sledges that are more or less heavy. These dogs are remarkably tough and put their heart in their work. They have a good relationship with humans because their survival is interdependent to this of their owners. These hostile regions also have their herding dogs, such as the Finnish Lapphund, used for herding reindeer and their hunting dogs, like the Laïka that is a bear and elk hunter.

The Chow Chow is an excellent guard and combat dog that is not very affectionate. It also used to be bred in Monglia for its tasty flesh.

Assistance dogs

Dogs possess therapeutic properties. A dog is not only an excellent companion for people who are alone, elderly or disabled, but it also fill out functions that compensate for their owner’s failure. It is only at the start of the last century that humans started to train dogs to assist people who are visually impaired, hearing impaired or with reduced mobility.

The Labrador is the most loyal and trustworthy of the dogs that are trained to help blind and visually impaired people. These assistance dogs enhance their owner’s social function whilst having a favourable mental impact on their morale. When looking after a dog, a disabled person regains dignity and gives meaning to their life by closely sharing every moment with their dog. Dogs are real companions; they are faithful, comforting, protecting and devoted. The emotional link between humans and dogs acts as an emotional derivative that is often used in psychology or even psychiatry wards. This is why dogs are more and more introduced into prisons and hospitals.

Communication

Dogs have very developed means of communication. Four different means of communication can be outlined, all of which are linked to sensory organs. A dog uses its urine to leave scented marks as a calling card and to delimit the territory it claims. Its position - crouched or not – adds a visual signal through which another dog can understand its physiological and sexual status. Body language using tail movement sends information about a dog’s feelings and emotions whereas its ears, turned towards a specific situation, get any auditory information on the arrival of another dog. Both dogs will gauge each other by licking each other’s muzzles, thus creating a tactile communication process.

One of the most developed senses in the canine species is the sense of smell. Tracking dogs, such as the cocker spaniel, the Alsatian or the beagle, have a very precise and powerful ability to differentiate smells. Not only is this type of communication used in numerous occasions on short or long distances, but it also used durably in time. This olfactory communication takes place via the emission of pheromones that humans cannot perceive and that last for hours or even days in some cases. These olfactory substances are sprayed by anal glands, vaginal secretions, faecal matters, the external ear canal, paw pads and a specific zone on the tail. The olfactory messages contained in urine give information about the dog that emits them – its gender, its identity, its physiology, its hierarchical position, etc. Although pheromones are not perceived by humans, they intervene in the dog-human relationship. You can indeed observe the modification of a dog’s behaviour when a child has become a teenager and secretes pheromones of puberty that are perceived by the dog.

Auditory communication is also very developed in dogs. A dog is capable of perceiving frequencies from 25 to 16000 Hz and even sometimes 60000 Hz. Dogs emit a lot of sounds, except the Basenji that never barks. The basic vocal sounds that you can hear from dogs are whimpering, yelling, snarling, yapping, barking, growling, howling and coughing. There are also non-vocal mechanical sounds such as chattering teeth and panting.

Tactile communication takes place through subtle exchanges in certain circumstances. For instance dogs that meet touch noses and dogs that are resting sleep next to each other. Some dogs seeks stroking from their owner, others like the Labrador go and lie down near their owners so as to maintain tactile contact via the owner’s foot or leg.

A dog cannot distinguish accurately the outline of objects and its colour perception might not be well developed. On the other hand, it can see relatively well in the dark and detects movement very well, even from hundreds of meters away. Border Collies for instance, which are shepherd dogs, can perceive a hand gesture from 1800 meters away. Visual signals are given by body postures, facial expressions and gestures. It is important to know these attitudes to be able to understand your dog. Being able to decode these attitudes will allow you to read your dog’s position relative to other dogs, to other species and to humans. These tell-tale attitudes or morphologies are modified in some circumstances by human intervention. For instance, the way humans crop a Doberman’s ears makes it look more standoffish. The hierarchical relationship between two individuals can be seen through signs such as the head position, the position of the body relative to another individual, raised hair, etc. In a combat situation this hierarchy is visible as the high ranking individual seizes in its mouth the neck of the low ranking one. It will shake it until the lower ranking dog capitulates and accepts its lower status within the hierarchy. The lower ranking dog displays this capitulation by rolling on its back, with its belly to the sky. This visual communication allows puppies to use their mother as a role model whilst developing their own talents.

Education principles

Educating a dog is constant task and, contrary to humans, obeying a task is not a constraint for dog. On the contrary, it is above all a pleasure to communicate with its owner, to feel it has its own place in the household and therefore it is with pleasure that it will submit. Making it obey helps the dog be happy whilst at the same time it makes you happy to be obeyed. All the while you share your time with your dog you protect it by preventing it from behaving dangerously – getting run over, running away, stealing – and you are helping it be accepted it in its ‘new, human, pack’.

Socialisation

Socialisation is a very important learning process. Right from its birth, a puppy’s relationship with its mother and its litter companions has a determining influence on its personality. Each pet dog must be in contact with its own litter, with other dogs, with other animals but also with humans. Breeders must ensure that the puppies’ environment is rich and varied, especially from 3 weeks from birth. This includes contact with other individuals, with objects, noises and varied situations. The more diversified these experiences are, the more adaptable and intelligent an adult the puppy will become. It is important not to separate puppies from their litter; they should remain with their mother until they are weaned. The puppies should encounter people of varying sizes, genders and ages. Such contacts should not be limited to feeding but should also include gentle manipulations and incentives for the puppy to play and to explore. The puppy will therefore be in a state of awareness, ready to discover the world as well as its own abilities.

Problems linked to breeding, that will disturb the socialisation process

In some big dog breeding farms with paid labour, there is a low worker to bitch ratio and therefore the socialisation process risks being of a lesser quality. In other farms where breeding puppies is a complementary activity to the farm’s main activity, litters might be kept in buildings that are not suitable for that purpose or that are less visited. It is also common to encounter problems with puppies that have been sold late and segregated for some time in a kennel or a shop window or put in quarantine. Conversely, puppies sold too early, separated from other puppies from the same litter or orphaned puppies reared by humans and that have not met other dogs will be victims of ‘under-socialisation’.

When to remove the puppy from its litter

It is better to remove a puppy from its litter between the end of the second month and the end of the third. Breeders usually prefer giving the puppy away at the end of the twelfth week when it is tattooed, immunised (initial and booster jabs) and treated for worms. So as to allow the puppy to socialise with its future owner, the future owner will be allowed and encouraged to come and visit the puppy as often as possible before taking it away.

Attitudes pertinent to domination

Once a puppy arrives in its now home, it is necessary to continue to develop its curiosity by allowing it to have rich contacts with individuals and objects. This newcomer will also need to understand the hierarchy within its new ‘pack’; it is on this core notion that training is based. A human becomes a substitute for the mother and becomes leader of the pack. It is by knowing your dog’s various means of expression that you will understand whether it is dominant or submissive and it is through this very language that you and each family member will impose your dominance over it. When a dog arrives in a household it must absolutely, at all times and in all circumstances, hold the bottom rank in the family because it will never consider its position as definitive. Indeed, it can always try and challenge this position in fighting back to try and gain in hierarchy. A young dog constantly tests the other ‘pack’ individuals to see how far it can push the boundaries.

A puppy learns the main meaningful dominance and submission behaviours through its first experiences through play with its litter companions as well as through its genetic makeup.

The main dominant expressions for a dog are: head held high, ears pointed up, gaze set on the dominated dog, upper lip drawn back, teeth bared, whole body tensed up, horizontal or straightened tail. The dominating dog positions itself above the dominated dog – either just its head or the whole of its body. It places a front leg on the other’s neck, withers or back and grabs its muzzle or neck, snarls or growls.

The main submissive expressions for a dog are: fleeing gaze avoiding the dominating dog’s gaze, ears flat pointing backwards against the scruff of the neck, the corners of the mouth pulled backwards, low head and tail, the whole body huddled up, lying on its back, bottom up, throat and belly presented to the dominant dog, licking the dominant dog’s muzzle.

A dog reproduces with humans the various behaviours it has learnt with other dogs. The main attitudes through which a human can express his dominance over his dog are: looking straight into the dog’s eyes, lifting the dog and holding it in their arms, grabbing hold of the dog’s neck skin and shaking the dog, forcing the dog to sit and to lie on its sternum and on its back, manipulating parts of a dog’s body through flexing and extending them, stroking, combing, brushing the dog, putting and taking off its collar and lead, holding its muzzle closed, pushing it or pushing it back, stopping it from moving, telling it off, ordering it using a deep voice, telling it off using an authoritative tone of voice.

Choosing a name for your dog

Log on again !!! soon to be published

The dog’s first car journey

All dogs like riding in a car. If some find it disturbing when they travel, it is because they have been badly conditioned from the start; they will therefore need efficient reconditioning. Most of the dogs that display a nauseous state when travelling (excessive salivation and nausea) are car sick, just like humans, but this is not due to biological causes. Indeed, an important psychological factor intervenes in this state of discomfort, which inconveniences the owner because its dog cannot fully take part in his daily routine. Other than chemical sickness potions, re-education is the solution to try because most of the time the car trips will done be to go to sporting events, show or trips whilst on duty. For all those types of journeys, the drowsiness resulting from medication would not be suitable.

Some of the first few outings will be unpleasant because, once they have been taken out from their mother’s warmth the puppies are manipulated and lugged around in a box whose smell is unrecognisable. The environment is aggressive, the noise level is unusually loud, there is stopping and starting, swaying and unexpected speeding up. Needless to say that the first important trips will be to the vet’s for the first two check ups: checking the dog over, performing vaccinations and tattoos. These are particularly disagreeable for the dog. Later, there will be trips to get the dog’s ears and tail trimmed. Naturally, the puppy will therefore dread to travel in such uncomfortable conditions.

At the breeder’s, it is important to socialise all puppies from the same litter together to car journeys. At first, the breeder will do short journeys: to the bakery, around the block or visiting neighbours. These short trips must be very gently done. Someone should accompany the puppies. They should reassure, stroke and flatter these new passengers, taking care to bring in the car a blanket with the mother’s scent on it. These little trips must be short, have no unpleasant purpose and always be rewarded with play and outdoor time. Between each car trip it is important to insert walks. In case of a long journey, the puppy needs to be distracted by frequent stops (every two hours) so that it can stretch, relax, go to the loo and play. Give it water if necessary. When taking your dog out on a rest area or a lay-by, keep it on the lead. During stops, do not leave your dog locked up in the vehicle as it would risk a heat stroke. During the journey, do not allow your dog to sit in the front passenger seat. Even for a short journey, it must stay on the back seat or in the boot of the car. The boot must be properly ventilated and separated from the passenger cell with a net or a mesh. Finally, do not allow the dog to put its head out of the window as this may cause irritation to its eyes or ears.

An adult dog that already has motion sickness can be reconditioned to car travel by making this means of transport a pleasure. Firstly, to avoid nausea, give your dog a light meal around 10 hours before you leave. For trips that last less than twelve hours, let your animal fast. You must turn every apprehension into something fun, something it trusts and enjoys. At first, the car will be in the garden with a rug in it, thus giving the dog a chance to sleep in it without being disturbed by engine noises or petrol smells. To reassure your dog, add its toys, some treats and clearly show your approval of course!

For that dogs that ‘guard the car’ and keep barking every time they see other dogs is neighbouring cars, simple training should allow you to travel across town quietly. With the help of a canine club, you can train the dog to bark or be quiet on demand. A second solution consists of distracting your dog as soon as another dog is likely to disturb yours. Bit by bit, it will not feel stimulated anymore to defend its territory – i.e. the vehicle.

Introducing a dog in your home

As we previously saw, a dog’s family is its ‘pack’ and the dog is the lowest ranking individual within it. It must therefore have its territory, which it will defend in all circumstances as it will defend the pack’s territory. This territory must be as far as possible from the ‘pack alpha’. When introducing a dog in a new home, you must immediately give it its own permanent territory. This place must be safe, free of wires, dangerous or fragile objects or toxic plants. It must be a restful place for the dog, quiet, light and not next to noisy rooms.

If a puppy is constantly disturbed, perturbed by comings and goings, it will start to feel anxious, to become nervous, to bark and even become aggressive. While it is sleeping - which is three quarters of the time - it must not be disturbed by incessant visits, or on the contrary be left the dark and forgotten about. There must be no ceremonial when it goes in or comes out of its room, as these will only increase its importance and self-confidence. Such forceful and emotional attitudes might later on encourage the dog to defy you and redefine its place within the pack hierarchy. A puppy’s education is done instant by instant. If you relax your attention even for a week, you will risk the dog acquiring bad habits.

The puppy’s territory must be a comforting place, which is why, a few days before taking the puppy away from its litter, it would be wise to give the breeder a blanket so that it can acquire the scents of the puppy’s mother’s and littler companion’s. You can then strategically place this blanket at the bottom of a dog house, basket or cardboard box, near a source of heat within the space that has been defined for the puppy. Moreover, this space must respect three essential territory rules: an area for play, another for nutrition and a third for the dog to do its business.

It is also when it first arrives that you will need to define what is allowed and what is not. You should not allow it to do things which will later on be forbidden. Forbid access to rooms in which its presence is undesirable; make it clear that beds or armchairs are not part of its personal space. Do not allow it either to play with old objects – clothes or shoes – because it cannot make a difference between old and new. It is preferable to buy your dog toys of its own, that are compatible with the development of its jaws and its gums’ sensitivity.

Cleanliness

It is easy to teach your dog to be clean if you follow some simple rules. Firstly, between 0 to 3 months, its mother will stimulate defecation and urination by licking the puppy’s belly and natural orifices while it is suckling. From the third week, the puppy can control its elimination process. It spontaneously leaves the nest and selects places far from it to satisfy its natural needs. Doing this, it respects the resting area, the feeding area and the play area. It will usually use the same places out of habit.

A puppy does its business within the ten minutes that follow feeding. All you have to do is remain vigilant and even carry it gently towards the place that you have selected to that effect. It will quickly associate this precise need with the defecation area and later on it will ask you to let it out to do its business. That way, you can have a clean puppy from the 3^rd month.

A defecation area is also a dog’s communication area. In its dejections are substances called pheromones, which are messages that inform other dogs on the dog’s physiological state, its gender, its age, etc. Once emitted, these scents stimulate other dogs to respond by depositing their own faecal matters or urine over the top of these.

Breeders play an important part in teaching puppies cleanliness. Indeed, the socialisation period allows the dog to learn good habits once and for all. A puppy can learn to do its business on a square of grass or on a precise spot on concrete, in sand or on a cloth-covered surface. As soon as it has arrived in its new home it will keep these habits. A dog that was brought up in a kennel will never stain your rugs. Conversely, a dog brought up to do its business on carpet, towels, cloths or old household linen with not make the difference between these and your carpet.

The newspaper technique is to be avoided. Getting used to doing its business on newspaper, might well get the dog stuck in an attitude that will later on clash with your routine. Indeed, you might walk your dog for hours on end and organise lots of activities for it and notice that it never does its business outside but refrains from going until it can go on newspapers. You will have to progressively eliminate this behaviour by putting fewer and fewer newspapers, closer and closer to the door. Some dogs will continue to urinate where the newspapers were if the tiling is stained with pheromones. In this case you will need to deodorise the spot using white wine vinegar.

A few more pieces of advice: by regulating feeding time, you will regulate your dog’s alimentary canal, which allows you to anticipate defecation times. Take your puppy out after each meal until it has done its business and then congratulate it before coming back home. Always keep the same routine and get rid of snacks as they will disturb its cleanliness habits. Finally, if there is a little accident, do not react angrily or emotionally, most of all do not put your dog’s nose in its wee, especially if you have discovered the fault more than five minutes after it happened. Urine that is emitted in your presence is likely to be of joy as it is happy to be reunited with you, so do not blame your dog. If your dog is emotional, train it to wee on a specific territory.

Your power of anticipation must condition your dog to be clean. This is even more the case in an urban setting. As soon as a dog smells another dog’s scent, sniffs it then turns round on itself and starts to crouch, using a gentle tug on the leash you must lead it crouch over the gutter. Once it has done its business, it is appropriate to congratulate it and maybe give it a little attention for to celebrate this event. Training a big dog and gutter training must be achieved through obedience to simple orders such as walking on the leash, ‘heel’, ‘stop’, ‘sit’, etc.

Walking on a leash

Walking on a leash always takes place according to a specific ceremonial. Firstly, so as to make sure that your dog does not escape, it is important to firmly hold the leash, i.e. with your hand through the loop and the leash in the palm of your hand. You must lead the dog from the same side as you are holding the leash and in such a manner that the dog is not in front of your knees. The protocol always starts with an order followed with the dog’s name. You repeat the order each time the dog tugs on the leash and is not at your feet, at the speed you have chosen. Then, each stop must be punctuated with the order to ‘sit’. You need to reposition your dog in the walking axis any time it ends up sideways. Each correct execution of an order must be complimented using your voice or by stroking the dog.

If the dog pulls on the leash a lot, which is often the case with young dogs, you must not hesitate to command the dog to ‘heel’ using a sharp pull on the leash whilst still using the whole length of the leash. A short leash will always encourage your dog to keep a certain amount to tension on it, which might limit communication to a tense or even conflicting relationship. The leash must serve as a supple and necessary umbilical cord between your dog and you, through which everything experienced by one is understood by the other. Each time you pull on the leash, you must then let go again so as to give your companion more space and so that it understands that there is no constraint when it correctly follows orders.

Variations in positions – too much in front, back or sideways – and variations in speed should be corrected each time via little tugs on the leash. You must not tolerate that your dog stops suddenly, neither to welcome another dog nor to sniff traces of another dog. In no circumstances should you pull the dog along by the leash, pick it up or ‘hang’ your companion to make it raise its head. To train it to follow you without being a nuisance, vary your pace, take frequent turns, make frequent stops and put your foot in the way each time it wants to lower its head. With a few rules in place, it is happily that you can envisage walks with your pet because you are the one who must initiate the outing.

Orders: Lie down, Sit, Heel, Fetch, Bark, Quiet

Teaching a dog to obey is based on two essential rules. The first rule is to know the dog that you are to train so as to shape its training accordingly. The second rule relies on congratulating and stroking the dog each time an order is carried out successfully.

At the start of the conditioning, the owner must closely observe its dog and as soon as it lies down the owner gives the order ‘lie down’. Since it is the dog that has taken the initiative in the first instance, the order is carried out and then the dog is rewarded. Little by little a connection is established between your companion’s gesture, the order given and the rewards. Since your dog is always aiming to please you and has an excellent memory, it will try at any time to repeat this gesture. Your order will gradually take place well before the dog’s gesture. You can use the same process for each attitude you want it to adopt, such as lying down, sitting, coming, fetching, barking or being quiet. Each order must of course be preceded by its name so that your have its attention as soon as it hears it.

Let us see in what ways you can take advantage of your dog’s spontaneous attitudes to give it the orders to ‘heel’ or ‘fetch’. As soon as your dog is coming back towards you, shout “heel!” This may be at meal times, when you are coming back home or as you are getting ready to go for a walk. When outside your dog might be attracted by smells, another dog or an object. Move quietly away from the dog, without its noticing. As soon as it notices it will come back to you. That is when you need to give the order “heel!” Using the same principle you can vary the situations ad infinitum to make it fetch an object and bring it back to your feet. Be careful to always congratulate it, even if the object it brings back does not coincide with what you had in mind. Whether it is a stone or a dead rabbit, show a lot of respect for these objects that are loved by your dog because there is in a dog a true love for the objects fetched. You can then discreetly and tactfully ‘forget’ these objects as your walk goes on…

To teach your dog how to bark, you must take advantage of an opportune moment and congratulate it once it has barked spontaneously. A puppy can also learn by imitation from another dog that can bark upon command. Obtaining silence is done using the same principles.

Through these examples, one realises how much humans can put a puppy’s spontaneous reactions to good use by encouraging the good reactions through talking to it and stroking it and by slowing down the bad ones imperceptibly and progressively.

Site Map

Paid for by direct debit