Because we are starting on Tuesday this round, due to short notice, each day in Week 1 will be doubled up. This essentially means that we will be using Sunday Fun Day to catch up (which is what it’s for!).
But, don’t worry if you fall behind – do this in your own time. Nobody needs more pressure right now and you can always access this program, at any time.
I can’t wait to see how you and your pet get on with these challenges. Come and join our Facebook group for guidance, support, interactions with a wonderful community of enrichers, and to see how everyone else is getting on!
Because we are starting on Tuesday this round, due to short notice, each day in Week 1 will be doubled up. This essentially means that we will be using Sunday Fun Day to catch up (which is what it’s for!).
But, don’t worry if you fall behind – do this in your own time. Nobody needs more pressure right now and you can always access this program, at any time.
I can’t wait to see how you and your pet get on with these challenges. Come and join our Facebook group for guidance, support, interactions with a wonderful community of enrichers, and to see how everyone else is getting on!
Time for another guided run through of #100daysofenrichment to help ease the blues and keep you busy, along with your pets!
Because we are starting on Tuesday, due to short notice, each day in Week 1 will be doubled up. This essentially means that we will be using Sunday Fun Day to catch up. But, don’t worry if you fall behind – do this in your own time. Nobody needs more pressure right now and you can always access this program, at any time.
I can’t wait to see how you and your pet get on with these challenges. Come and join our Facebook group for guidance, support, interactions with a wonderful community of enrichers, and to see how everyone else is getting on!
#100daysofenrichment will be starting, with Day 1, tomorrow, St Patrick’s Day!
The entire program is always available for you to access, but this will be a guided run via this blog and the Facebook group.
I made the decision hastily late last week as Ireland was effectively shutdown until at least the 29th March. That means I haven’t really had time to give you all sufficient notice or to prepare; so, this might be a little more fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants deal.
Get the Week 1 Prep list here. And read all the background information here – this is all good stuff, so dig in!
Given that most of the world is now experiencing some level of lock-down or limits to activity, I really hope that this helps to provide pet owners all over a bit of a project/distraction from the chaos and concerns, while also facilitating social outlets, with their pets,which might be very limited right now.
As always, our wonderful community of enrichers brings such positivity and joy, and not just to their pets!
We will make it a Corona-free zone and just bask in the good times we are having.
Sign-up to follow/subscribe to the blog and join in via the Facebook group and let’s make the best out of a bad situation, enriching and entertaining not just out pets, but ourselves too!
We have added some updates in relation to business and self-employment supports at the end. At this time, our policies in relation to client contact and sessions remain the same – we have not been exposed and will notify all appointments if that happens with alternatives or rescheduling arrangements.
Our priority is, of course, the health and safety of our staff and clients. The COVID-19 pandemic is pretty scary, and we certainly don’t want to alarm anyone or appear to over-react. We have qualifications and training in animal healthcare, including biology and biochemistry, and are doing our best to take an evidence-based approach.
We also have staff and colleagues who are in regular contact with vulnerable persons so it’s important we bear that in mind too, in terms of transmission.
First, there is no evidence, at this time, that dogs or other pets can become infected and spread this Coronavirus.
You might have heard of a dog in Hong Kong that has been quarantined after testing a ‘weak positive’. It is likely that this is a result of environmental transmission, given that the dog’s owner is infected. The dog is not infected or showing signs of illness.
But, pets and their belongings may be a source of transmission, if they have come into contact with an infected person, e.g. spread via touching their coat or bedding.
To avoid disappointment and disruption, we have moved all our (human) courses (for March and April) to online delivery and given our students a break from deadlines and course starts so as not to add to the pressure. This may be extended as required.
All students have been informed well in advance; last month, as we foresaw this development.
We have also suspended all assessment deadlines and course starts to further relieve learners’ pressure. Students can choose how they wish to proceed and we will revise again at the end of April.
For training and behaviour clients
we ask that if you are ill, have been in contact with an infected person and/or have been in a relevant country or area within the last month, that you let us know before our session
We will, of course, do the same and arrange alternatives for you.
you can let us know right up to the time of your session and we will discuss this with you – we are relaxing our cancellation policy during this time
if you must postpone your session, are ill and/or under self-isolation, that doesn’t mean we can’t train! There are so many things that we can do remotely via Skype or other tech and we use it regularly. Your session can still go ahead and we will still be able to provide you with top-notch service, instruction and support.
we recognise that lots of people may have to give up work (and salary) to care for children off school or due to restrictions in their business/place of work, for example, and/or invest in child care or pet care outside their normal budget, for example, and as such welcome you to discuss payment plans for any services
we tend not to handle your dog a whole lot during training and don’t often take your dog’s lead or equipment, for example, and from now on, we won’t do that at all during sessions unless absolutely necessary (for safety).
Disinfectant wipes can be used on equipment after handling, for example. We will be using disinfectant wipes on any equipment we share with you too.
we will wash our hands regularly throughout the day, whenever possible, and will apply appropriate hand sanitiser before entering your home.
Hand sanitiser can pose a health risk (alcohol poisoning) to pets so we will not apply it during our work with you and your pet.
We will not be booking consecutive sessions at this time, so will not be moving from one house to another. This allows us to change and clean up before attending a session.
We won’t shake hands when meeting with you, as we so often do, and will follow social distancing guidelines during sessions too.
To aid this, we request that only a small number of family members participate, ideally just the primary care giver/s. Don’t worry, we will send you your report/handbook with lots of videos and resources so everyone can practice.
Given this ongoing shut down affecting normal life, we also want to make sure you feel that you have continued support for you and your pet. Isolation, and indeed panic, can affect mental health too. Advice here for dealing with concerns, anxiety and maintaining your mental health; from the NY Times, A Brain Hack to Break the Coronoavirus Anxiety Cycle, and I think this from AFSP is particularly helpful and practical: Taking Care of your Mental Health in the Face of Uncertainty.
We are, as dog trainers, limited in what we can do but certainly want to do what we can!
To help, we will be running another REBOOT of #100daysofenrichment again next week. Subscribe to this blog and each day’s challenges will be sent to your email inbox every morning.
Join our Facebook group to share your experiences, interact with other participating pet owners, have some fun and bask in the loveliness of this group of devoted enrichers. More on this to come!
General Guidelines
The keys to limiting spread (and ‘flattening the curve’) include:
wash your hands properly and regularly (sing “Happy Birthday!” twice while hand washing)
We are particularly interested in behavioural science; here is more on this new hand washing trend from a behavioural sciences point of view.
use hand sanitiser (at least 60% alcohol) when you can’t wash your hands and keep it away from pets; let it dry into your hands before touching your pet or their belongings
maintain social distancing (at least 2m)
avoid hand-to-face actions
Download a printable PDF of this comic from The Oatmeal here.
Check out this instruction on teaching yourself, using behaviour science, to reduce face touching:
comply with guidelines in relation to social gatherings, self-isolation and so on
there is no need to wear a mask unless you are concerned you might spread disease
look out for and help vulnerable individuals while maintaining caution
use appropriate cleaners to clean and disinfect surfaces you touch and handle regularly
Caring for your pets:
make sure you have enough of any specific food or medications for your pet for two weeks, in case you can’t get to a shop, the vet, or order online
construct an emergency plan for your pets, just in case you are taken ill or must go to hospital, e.g. who will care for them, how will they be exercised. Discuss their care with a trusted person and make sure your pet has some time to become familiar with them, especially them entering your home
if you become ill, you are advised to reduce contact with pets, as with other family members. If you must care for your pet while ill, wear a mask during contact and close-up interaction, and wash your hands before and after contact.
Clean pet equipment carefully and regularly.
This is an evolving policy as things are changing fast, but we will keep you all updated with changes as we go.
Business procedures and concerns
Aside from illness, economical concerns are also running high and it’s likely that small businesses and the self-employed will be hardest hit.
First, play safe!
You are welcome to pull from our policy and resources for your own needs. Different pet businesses will require different procedures, however, that aren’t relevant to our policy.
For example, you might need to add some variation of the following:
organise electronic payments so that you don’t have to handle cash
go to the client’s car to take the dog in or drop off
use your own lead on the dog
ask pet owners not to leave belongings with their pets, but if it’s required, e.g. bedding, wash it in a 60C wash before use and advise they do the same when taking it back
What other procedures work for your set-up and safety?
Ireland, just today, has been shut down, to some extent, until 29th March. Small businesses, like ours, struggle in the face of even slight down-turns in trade, so this is likely to be very impactful.
We won’t know how much our businesses are affected by these closures, but it’s clear that we will have plenty of catching up to do out the other side of this. This means it may be important to examine your business planning and perhaps not invest in anything too hefty at the moment.
How available these will be to individual businesses is going to be the responsibility of each business owner to investigate their eligibility.
More on Jobseeker’s Benefit for the self-employed here from Citizens Information and a summary of how to apply, in these extraordinary circumstances here.
In order to access information about eligibility and payments, I recommend that you apply for a PSC, if you haven’t done so yet. This will allow you to access everything you need online so may be important as this rolls on.
There is a bit of rigmarole in the application, with an in-person interview required in low-risk circumstances, but once that’s done, it’s all much easier.
More on this here: Public Services Card.
There’s detail and links with the Minister’s announcement including lower cost loans, expanded loaning, increased loan brackets; see SCBI and MFI. Discuss allowances your personal and business banking may afford you, should you and your business be affected.
I highly recommend you seek advice and help via your Local Enterprise Office; I have always found them enormously helpful. Enterprise Ireland also offer excellent supports and advice.
As scary as all this seems, it’s important to channel your concern into proactively looking into what might be available to your business, what you might need and the extent to which you may be affected.
Take care of yourself.
Being self-employed and working for yourself, can be very lonely. This is compounded even further when social isolation is recommended, on top of extra stresses surrounding work and fincances.
Having to take all this on, while also interacting less, travelling less, just having less freedom and being concerned about our health and that of our loved ones, is very likely to add to your normal level of day-to-day stress.
You are certainly not alone in all that.
We have written about self care for dog trainers and related fields before here, and the unique challenges we often face in our chosen profession here.
Please take some time to consider how you are going to care for yourself during these testing times.
Reach out and create a community, or nurture the one in which you already participate – we will all need help and support through out…just via remote means rather than face to face contact!
If you want to play ball searching games while out and about, choosing a red ball might be the best for hiding from your dog. But if fetch is your game, blue might be better!
2017 research (Siniscalchi et al 2017) shows that dogs likely have dichromatic vision, similar to that of a person who is red-green colour blind. Indeed, this research devised a test for dogs like that which is used to assess human colour vision.
On top of previous works that have shown that the dog’s eye structure allows for colour vision, given the abundance of cones within retinal structure (Neitz et al, 1989), we can put the myth to bed that dogs see in black and white only.
All of this means that your dog’s toy colour matters!
If you want to play fetch out and about, blue is a better toy colour than red. Red, against green grass and vegetation will appear, to your dog, as about the same shade of grey-ish, making it hard to spot.
But, if you want to play toy search games, red might just be the best colour, causing your dog to have to really use their nose, rather than just immediately seeing the toy.
Here at AniEd, our people are women, our clients are mainly women, those who have mentored our business are mainly women (like Susan Friendman, Anne McBride, Helen Zulch, and many more), our colleagues are largely women and those with whom we work in a voluntary capacity through A Dogs Life are mainly women.
You get the idea; AniEd is largely women-led.
Women in dog training are traditionally presumed to be a soft touch, to be mere cookie-pushers, and not equipped to deal with the tough dogs or tough cases. Sorry to disappoint but this couldn’t be further from the truth.
The movement toward a more science and evidence based, and overall more humane, approach to teaching has come to our field in no small part due to women entering and shaping this industry.
We, and many of our colleagues have played a role in this here, over the last thirty years.
On this International Women’s Day, here’s a shout-out to all the badass awesome women with whom we work on a daily basis, who are blazing trails in our applied science, who are fighting for animal and human welfare, and who are proving our detractors wrong at every turn.
All dogs must go to the vet at some point in their lives. And most people acknowledge that going to the vet is a distressing and scary experience for their dogs. Despite this, it seems that pet owners are largely unaware of the signals dogs use to communicate that discomfort. (Mariti et al, 2015)
Dr Marie Hopfensperger, DVM, DACVB, states that about 10% of puppies show signs of fear at their first visit, but when talking about adult dogs, that figure jumps to 60-80% of dogs showing signs of fear at the vet’s.
That dogs experience fear and distress in veterinary, grooming and husbandry contexts has been largely normalised, unfortunately.
In recent years, a great movement in cooperative care has really taken off in dog training, largely inspired by captive animal training. Husbandry training is a long and ongoing journey, and most pet owners will not be able or willing to participate to the fullest. Indeed, many vets or groomers don’t always have the resources to invest in these programs.
Regardless, there are lots and lots of things that pet owners can do, that require little effort, that can greatly improve their dog’s comfort, reduce stress, increase safety and make it all easier on everyone.
That’s what we will be talking about today; largely, effective management strategies.
Some dogs will require more specialised, in-depth and specific care and we can help you with that, but on a more one-2-one basis.
Prepare a Vet-Kit
Get ready for vet visits by building a Vet-Kit and having it ready in a specific bag:
a bag you can easily have on your shoulder or back so your hands are free (it should be washable and it’s a good idea to use a water proof bag for ease)
your dog’s mat or bed that is a nice place for them to be, associated with lots of rewards
your dog’s gear and muzzle, where relevant
stuffable toys and lappable toys or other dispensers, especially if delivering treats while the dog is muzzled
HIGH value and more-liquid treats that your dog loves
favourite toys
a notepad (or use your phone) with your notes of questions that you want to ask and discuss, prior to your visit, and notes that you can record during and after your visit – it’s tricky to remember everything, especially when you are doing your best to manage your dog’s comfort too
Wash everything when you come home after each visit!
Soft treats and a ball make for happy vet visits for Decker!
Matwork
Bring your dog’s mat or a flat, non-slip bedding. This is helpful if you are waiting, so your dog can rest comfortably, and to have up on the table to increase your dog’s grip and comfort.
Medium or large dogs may be more comfortable being treated on the floor, so you can have them stand on their mat for traction.
Ahead of vet visits, you can make the mat a nice place to be by giving your dog chews and stuffables there and by rewarding the dog when he goes there.
Sit back, bring the mat close to you, and feed your dog’s entire dinner, one piece at a time, on their mat. Even your dog getting ten rewards, on their mat, most days will help them build a happy response to its presence and being there.
Anything you bring to the vet’s, including your dog’s bed or mat, should be washable and cleanable and you should wash it after each visit.
Gear
Obviously bring your dog’s collar, lead and so on. Even if your dog is walked on a harness, have them wear a collar too so that you can gently hook it should that be needed. Make sure to use your dog’s regular gear that’s used for other outings, and not just the vet’s.
Muzzle training and muzzle use is something that I can wholeheartedly recommend. Muzzling helps to keep veterinary staff safe, and feel more comfortable, allowing procedures to be completed efficiently and quickly.
But just like with matwork, we need to build a VERY positive response to the sight of the muzzle, and wearing the muzzle in lots of other places.
You can practice helping your dog become more comfortable sticking their nose into something by simply lining a paper cup or yoghurt pot (depending on your dog’s size) with something irresistible (like cream cheese, yoghurt, butter, pate or whatever floats their boat):
If muzzling is required, muzzle the dog before they become distressed so that might mean before you even enter the vet’s.
Fun stuff
We want to bring things that your dog likes and associates with feeling happy and comfortable. That means the best of the best food rewards and your dog’s favourite toys or games.
Stuffable toys that allow for lapping or lappables like Lickimat or Lickibowl type toys are wonderful additions. (Those links bring you to clips of Decker demonstrating their use; you can buy these products in most petshops and online.)
Use lappable treats so that should sedation be required, these can pass through the stomach faster. Although vets, RVNs and staff may argue that feeding the dog prior to sedation may increase the risk of aspiration, and while that is true, Westlund 2015 argues that the (small) risks are outweighed by the benefits.
These liquid cat treats are yummy, cheap and convenient:
Similar can be purchased online too, e.g. here.
Baby foods with dispensers are great also and tend to be very high value – they come in larger amounts so may be more suitable for bigger dogs.
A small snuffle mat may be a great addition if the dog can have more solid soft treats.
The treats above appear to be super high value are very soft and can be broken up easily!
When choosing treats:
smelly and soft
cut or broken up easily
small enough to be eaten quickly
high meat, fat and/or protein content
easy to deliver and toss
visible on the floor
don’t travel too much on the floor
If your dog loves a particular toy, bring that too. It’s not a good idea to have squeaky toys where other dogs are in close contact, such as in the waiting room, but talk to your vet about using them before, during and after in the consultation room.
Use the same treats and toys in lots of other non-vet contexts too.
Before you start
Exercise your dog well and make sure they have had plenty of opportunities to toilet, before your visit.
Don’t feed your dog a meal before going to the vet’s and do your best to stay calm too. The goal is to make sure that vet visits for your dog is as stress-reduced as possible, so be a good advocate for your dog.
Be prepared to stand up for your dog and discuss their needs with your vet team – you should be in this together!
Discuss your dog’s requirements with their vet team before each stage of your appointment and feel safe and confident with your planning and approach.
If your dog is experiencing distress, it’s ok to ask for a break and even discuss urgency of treatments: does this need to be done right now?
Sometimes, a vet or RVN will ask to take your dog to the back for some treatment. Certainly, many vets, nurses, groomers etc. report that the dog seems easier to handle when not with their owners. This is often erroneously blamed on owners ‘spoiling’ their dogs or some such, but this is unlikely. It’s much more likely that your dog is far less confidence and comfortable without you, so effectively shuts down a little and is easier to handle.
Whether this needs to happen or not, may be individual. I prefer not to allow this happen. But, for some dogs, getting the procedure done quickly is far less stressful than a drawn out process.
As much as I understand that the vet team is under time pressure, especially for routine consultations, giving your dog some time, particularly when you go into the consultation room, will help everyone settle and calm. Greetings can wait!
While you discuss your dog and their needs, allow your dog to sniff the room on a loose lead, giving them space from other people there. Be cool and neutral.
Seek medical help to support your dog and reduce their anxiety. Discuss the use of Sileo or Gabapentin, for example, with your vet prior to visits so that your dog has a little neurochemical help with coping.
Waiting Games
Waiting areas are one of the main areas in which not much improvement has been made in many veterinary practices and hospitals.
They are usually too small, with little room to make space between pets, doors often open right into them so dogs appear at a door on top of waiting pets, they have slick floors and are filled with sights, sounds and smells that dogs have come to associate with fear.
You don’t have to go in
As such, for the most part, I DON’T recommend that you wait, with your pet, in the waiting room.
leave your dog in the car or with someone outside, well away from the entrance or exit
go into reception and let them know that you have arrived and are waiting outside
when you go in, walk your dog briskly and directly into the consultation room
bring your dog straight out afterwards and have them wait outside
return to pay and discuss your dog’s care
Passing other dogs can be stressful for many dogs, but even dogs who might be comfortable in proximity with other dogs, might find passing stressed dogs in a stressful context when stressed themselves all too much.
Discuss this with your vet team before bringing your dog in; perhaps there is another entrance you can use, maybe your vet or RVN can check the waiting room and reception area so you can get the all clear before bringing your pet in or out.
You can ask your vet team and reception team about quieter times for appointments or times when it will be easier to get your dog in and out quickly and quietly.
If you do go in…
Give your dog as much space as you can and set up their mat and keep the treats flowing.
Construct a simple visual barrier by moving a chair or chairs and hanging your jacket or a blanket across the back to provide your dog with some privacy. This also helps other patients, with one less dog to be faced with as they move about.
If possible, leave your dog in the car and come into the waiting room to set up so that your dog can walk in and their familiar mat is immediately available, in their own little private nook.
It’s best not to let others approach or pet your dog. Mostly, people are well meaning but your dog needs time and space to process what’s going on.
Even if your dog seems excited and generally likes interactions with unfamiliar people, all that can be a little much in this context.
Hugging and constant fussing of the dog might not be appreciated from you either; that’s certainly something we think is comforting but may not be for dogs. Work hands-off instead with treats and toys!
Car trips
Make sure that going in the car doesn’t equal a trip to the vet; that’s a quick way to poison you dog’s attitude to car rides and comfort in the car.
With puppies, or dogs who have not had much experience in the car, do your best to get them out for short trips daily. When I say short, I mean one or two minute trips at the start; might just pull out of the drive, go around the block and back home.
This helps to establish the car as no big deal and no reason to get excited.
Follow our tips, do your practice, and no wrestling will be required!
Keep it fun and friendly
Going to the vet’s can mean lots of waiting around for your dog; waiting to get there, waiting to go in, waiting while the humans chat.
Along with the fear associated with going to the vet’s, waiting around can lead to increased anxiety in this context.
Have fun and play games!
While you wait and while the humans chat, play simple fun and training games with your dog to keep them moving, take their minds off the vet-stuff, and so that they can have some positivity.
What simple tricks does your dog do – practice them while waiting. Short and sweet behaviours that add a little movement and lots of rewards.
Like hand targets with movement:
Only restrain your dog, with your vet team’s guidance, as much as is necessary. Full pinning and wrestling is rarely required and when it is, sedation may be a better option and a topic for discussion.
Hook your dog’s collar and stay within view so you can comfort and settle them. Talk to your dog calmly.
Make rewarding things happen! Offer a delicious stuffable toy, lappable toy, or other dispenser for muzzled dogs, as soon as the examining or treatment context begins.
As best as possible, allow your dog access these treats throughout. This can help redirect their focus and keep them still, meaning less restraint and less risk for all.
Planning and preparation is on you! We know your dog will need treatments and invasive handling, and we know they find that scary; do them a favour and prepare them.
Happy visits
Discuss opportunities to bring your dog for happy visits, where no treatments happen. Your dog goes to the vet’s, gets some treats and goes home again.
Maybe you practice bread-crumbing onto the scales for a weight check:
The key to success is a little practice at home, in calm scenarios, that are not associated with handling and treatments.
Follow our tips, do your practice, and no wrestling will be required!
Husbandry training
There are lots of excellent resources on husbandry training out there; I particularly like Deb Jones’ book Cooperative Care. and Laura Monaco Tortelli’s work.
Some Facebook groups:
While their full participation is certainly the goal, I recognise that this isn’t possible for all pet owners, or even most. Taking some tips from this post and applying those relevant to your dog’s needs and that of your vet team, will go along way to helping boost their comfort, allow them to feel safe, and reduce everyone’s stress.
And this is just a start, you might already have some great approaches to keeping it cool, so do please share.
Even though dog training and dog care, especially online, are full of ALWAYS’S and NEVERS, you don’t need to stop with fetch games cold turkey.
Our post Fun with Find It!, not just Fetch from last week, gives you lots of ideas so that you can break up repetitive fetch games, add some variety and improve the quality of play time in terms of behavioural health and enrichment for your dog.
All sorts of absolutes are shared online about stopping with fetch games and dumping the ball launcher. Fetch is a most popular game for pet owners and their dogs, and I really don’t want to throw the ball out with the fetch games.
The PDSA Paw Report, 2019, found that almost 40% of dogs only get out of the house for up to 30 minutes at a time, and that 13% of dogs not getting out daily at all.
And a 2019 survey of 1500 pet owners by dog food Forthglade found that less than half of dogs are walked daily.
In the case of some of these dogs, their owners may incorporate some structured enrichment program (beyond food dispensing toys and food puzzles), but for most, this is unlikely.
Given this worrying trend, I certainly do not want to start limiting owners’ efforts when it comes to providing adequate physical and mental outlets for their pets.
It may not surprise you that one of the first things I do with clients is help them improve and refine enrichment for their pets, helping them meet their pets’ needs before we can start with training interventions.
That’s what #100daysofenrichment is all about; encouraging pets and their people to have fun and brain games together with as much guidance and support as possible. And play most certainly forms part of that program.
Fun with Find It! and fetch and other stuff too
Here are some clips from today’s trek around the Phoenix Park. We start with just sniffing and roaming – I want him nice and warm before he does anything strenuous. For the most part, he is trotting and loping around, at will as much as is possible and safe.
Intermittently we might do recalls, Go Find It! games, or just silly stuff just as part of engagement and joy in hanging out together.
When he’s good and loose, we might play fetch; not every time, not in the same places. Sometimes I don’t even bring a ball.
But, we do our best to follow the rule of doing a different move each time to cut down on repetition, and making play time more than just fetch. So, we might have several rounds of this.
Then we might walk on; he gets to carry the ball: he’s the winner! We’ll have intermittent interactions around the ball – “I’m gonna getcha!” and a bit of tug, maybe.
Don’t just think about variation in toy games, but on your walks and outings in general. Engage your dog in lots of different activities and interactions, bring them to areas that allow for sniffing and running, different gradients, different footings, different levels of cover.
Rather than abolishing, we have responsibilities to help refine. And rather than going after pet owners, we have responsibilities to shape behaviour and apply differential reinforcement, rather than aversive approaches.
Add in Find It! games, along with sniffing, and lots of adventure time, rather than taking exercise and entertainment away from dogs. Concentrate on making it more dog.
Going out and about is pretty exciting for dogs; it stimulates all their senses while also providing lots of physical and mental stimulation. Your dog is going to be experiencing high levels of arousal, hopefully at a healthy and manageable level.
Doing all that, experiencing all that, and then bringing your dog home and expecting them to just chill, is pretty unrealistic.
Winding down is a skill. Think of your wind down at the end of your day. Just getting in from traffic and hustle can leave us buzzing and, even though we might be tired, good, restful, peaceful sleep isn’t necessarily immediate or easy to come by.
What works for you? Getting changed, having a shower, cooking a meal, discussing your day and debriefing, watching some TV, relaxing in your favourite spot, being idle, reading a book. Until lights out.
Our dogs are no different. And, indeed, because we have selectively bred many types of dogs to get more wound up quicker, we might have quite a winding-down-challenge on our hands.
This clip shows the last part of our outing; for about two hours Decker had been running about, sniffing, fetching, sniffing, playing flirtpole, practicing engagement and training exerccises. All that activity gets all his systems going.
Not only do we need a warm down for his body but also for his brain.
We end all that excitement with a slower meander through the goalposts. He gets to, at his own pace, check and respond to all the pee-mails, sniffing to his heart’s/nose’s content. You can see some prolonged and persistent sniffing in the clip toward the end of our tour.
This helps to cool him off, gradually lower his heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure and helps his brain begin to stand down, slowing in the production and circulation of neurochemicals associated with high arousal, bringing him back to base.
This is a gradual process. We don’t go from 100 back to zero just like that. Sniffing like this, less urgent movement, choice of interaction, brings him down a few notches and starts him on the descent toward baseline again.
Sniffing is the perfect start to warming down the brain and behavioural systems.
From there, add chewing and to bring us all they way down, finish with some lapping.
Crazy to sniffing to chewing to lapping to calm. Crazy back to calm is a multi-step process.
Maybe massages, stretching, or just resting together helps you and your dog – what else?
As with life and play, think in Rollercoasters. Activity and exposure to the world brings ’em up, so we need to help ’em come down again.
That will help your dog relax and really benefit from the activity as well as the well-earned rest afterwards.
After activity or excitement, do your equivalent to touring the goalposts – make sniffing, chewing and lapping happen, bring your dog down, think in Rollercoasters.
AniEd Ireland 