Creature Teachers

Saving your Dog from Cancer

2007-03-14T02:25:44-07:00

This sad story comes from one of our readers who wanted to share with the Creature Teachers community so that his heartbreak didn't have to happen to another loving dog owner.

"My dog, a beautiful 10 year old black lab named Indy recently passed away from cancer. Part of the reason that treatment was so difficult was because of some serious mistakes made by her primary care veterinarian. Indy developed a small bleeding sore in the skin above her rib cage in the late autumn. After one visit to the vet, she was put on antibiotics for what the vet thought was a possible skin infection. The antibiotics did not have any effect and her sore turned into a small, raised, ulcerated mass."

"Another trip to the vet. This time the vet thought it would be best to remove the mass. I asked about a biopsy but the vet told me that a biopsy could cause spread, were the mass malignant. This is true, but performing cytological testing with tissue from a needle aspirate - different from a biopsy - rarely causes spread. To make a long story short, I allowed the vet to remove the mass without getting a diagnosis prior to surgery. As a result, she did not know what she was removing and had no idea how to establish correct surgical margins. The vet only performed a skin resection around the mass, not an abdominal wall resection. The mass was biopsied after removal."

"The results were devastating for Indy. The pathology report said the mass was a grade III mast cell tumor that had been incompletely removed by a veterinarian who failed to get what would have been an easy diagnosis. The cancer started to spread rapidly, likely because of the disturbance to the site that occurred during surgery. Chemotherapy managed to extend her life for a few months."

"Indy had one of the only curable forms of grade III mast cell tumor because of the presentation on the skin above her rib cage as opposed to face, paws, or genitals. But removing the mass without a diagnosis was a fatal mistake. By the time I got Indy to the University of Minnesota, it was basically too late. With mast cell tumors, microscopic disease almost always surrounds the mass. Thus, chemotherapy and/or radiation should be engaged before surgery unless the veterinarian is able/willing to perform an extremely aggressive resection. Indy's primary care veterinarian did not perform an aggressive resection even as a precaution."

"Please tell other animal owners to get all masses aspirated and diagnosed before removal if at all possible. It might have saved Indy's life and I don't want any other dogs to go through this horrible ordeal. My problem was politeness. I should have insisted on a needle aspirate cytology test before surgery but I did not want to seem pushy or act like I knew more than the veterinarian."

Teaching "Wait"

2007-02-08T20:00:00-08:00

"Wait" is a very useful command when it comes to doors in a dog's life. For example, it prevents your dog from rushing out the car door when you reach the park, or from running in the house before you've had a chance to wipe his paws. In this article, I will go step-by-step to help you teach your dog "wait". I have also included pictures to make this command easy to learn.

Start in an entryway. It has to be something obvious to start, like a doorway or a step.
Face the dog, place the dog in a sit (but not stay), and open the door.
Every time the dog moves toward the open door, step in front of the dog (as if your body is the door closing) and say "WAIT!". When your dog backs up, praise him and step back.
Repeat these steps until your dog seems to almost give up, or at least not makes any dives towards the door. You'll know when you are there by your dog's behavior.
Release your dog to go outside. (Our word for this is "OKAY!".)
Bring your dog back inside and try it again. Practice makes perfect!

As an alternative, you can try this using the door as a block, such as when you are trying it with your car. I always hold the door with my hand in the jamb, however, because that way I would shut the door on my own hand and not the dog! You follow the same motion as you do with the body block - hold for a second and open it again. If you just stand there with the door closed or your body blocking the entry, you are just another door and the dog won't learn the command!

Teach your Puppy How to Not Bite

2007-01-17T01:23:22-08:00

All puppies bite. Some breeds, in particular the sporting/retrieving breeds and the large-jawed breeds, tend to be more mouthy than others, but all puppies do bite. The trick is to teach your puppy how to have good social manners and only chew on appropriate toys.

WHAT DO I DO WHEN MY PUPPY BITES?

When your puppy bites you, follow these steps:

FREEZE! Do not pull your arm or clothing away from the dog, as this just makes it into a tug game. If it is a serious case and you really need the dog to let go, push into the dog instead of pulling to get the biting dog to release.
YELP! Make a high-pitched or other surprising noise. This will often make a puppy let go on his/her own.
PRAISE! Praise the puppy for removing his/her teeth.
REPLACE! Give your puppy an appropriate chew toy to play with and praise for chewing on that toy instead.

DO NOT grab the puppy's mouth, hit the puppy's face, or play tug with your arm. These actions do nothing to solve the problem. Try to avoid hand games entirely and only play with the puppy's toys.

Remember, puppy nips are only a stage in the infancy of your puppy's life. With constistent training and time, your puppy will grow up to be a great member of the family.

Recommended Training Books

2007-01-15T02:23:46-08:00

I've read through all of these at the bookstore, and they all seem to have good advice in them. They also are positively reviewed by many other trainers. I have met all these trainers personally, and I would whole-heartedly recommend their services as well.

Childproofing Your Dog: A Complete Guide to Preparing Your Dog for the Children in Your Life by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson

There's A Baby in the House: Preparing your Dog for the Arrival of your Child by Mike Wombacher

Living with Kids and Dogs...Without Losing Your Mind by Colleen Pelar

Raising Puppies & Kids Together: A Guide for Parents by Pia Silvani, Lynn Eckhardt

Motivating your Dog to Learn

2007-01-10T02:05:20-08:00

Motivation affects every living creature. Humans wouldn't go to work every day if they didn't receive a paycheck. Ducks wouldn't hang around cit parks if visitors didn't throw bread crumbs to them. Raccoons wouldn't hide under your house if it didn't provide a safe place for their young. Whether the motivation is as simple as a basic need or as complex as pleasure, all dogs works the same way -- they need to be motivated, such as with food or toys.

The following concepts are things you might consider at the start of your training regimen to prevent dog behavior problems in future.

WHAT DOES YOUR DOG LIKE?

A people-pleasing dog like a Golden Retriever might work for a tennis ball or a good petting, while an independent dog like a Redbone Hound Dog might work for you in order to get his way. All dogs are different, so each owner needs to make a list of what motivates their dog. Does your dog have foods that he likes better than others, or is any kind of food okay? Does he seem obsessed with a certain toy or with fetching in general? Does sitting with you seem painful to your dog if something more interesting is going by? What does your dog truly enjoy?

You are the person who knows your dog best. A trainer may provide you with some ideas of rewards but they often don't live with the dog 24 hours a day or see the dog in its home environment. Therefore, it is up to the dog's family to create a list of the dog's favorite things in life, and to use those things as motivation when training.

Many people associate reward-based programs with dog treat training, but that is only looking at part of the picture. A reward to your dog is anything he wants. This can include food, treats, toys, games, attention, walks, car rides or simply the ability to move about freely. Most everyday day actions are rewarding to your dog but would never be considered a reward by most dog owners. For example, a reward for sitting could be to have a leash put on or to be let outside; a reward for a recall might be a car ride; and a reward for a great stay could be a release with a toy thrown. Learn to think like your dog, and you will be able to come up with a large list of rewards.

BUILD TRAINING INTO EVERYDAY LIFE

If your dog eats twice a day, you are given two opportunities to practice a sit-wait-release command series. If you throw a ball 20 times each night, you have the opportunity to teach your puppy how to sit or lay down. If your dog goes for a walk each day, you have ample opportunity to practice sitting at street corners, learn proper doggie manners, and teach your dog how to not pull his leash.

The most successful training programs are based on rewards in the dog's everyday life instead of scheduled training sessions using treat rewards. When a dog is taught commands in special training sessions and those commands are never reinforced again, they are forgotten just as easily as they were learned. In contrast, when you make a command into a habit, it is a command learned for life. A great example is sitting for food. If your dog must sit and wait for every meal (and will not get the meal otherwise), your dog will learn to sit for food by default.

VERBAL REWARDS

Dogs, like human babies, are not born with a firm grasp on the English language. This is why you have to teach your dog each new word and what it means. You do this by using something the dog needs (such as food) to lure and reward the dog. Two examples are:

Bridging: Many trainers use a technique called a bridge. This is basically a signal to the dog that the behavior just performed is correct and good things are on the way. This signal can be a click, some other type of noise, or a verbal signal such as "good dog", "yes" or "thank you." To teach your dog a bridge, you need to work with a simple command such as "sit." Have the dog sit, give the dog the bridge ("good!") and then immediately follow with a treat. Once you try this several times, the dog will begin to understand that "good!" means "that is the exact behavior I wanted and good things will come because you did it." Over the course of training, you can begin to add additional time between the bridge and the reward or bridge several times without a direct reward and the bridge will still hold the same meaning for the dog.
Luring: Luring means to use a reward (like a treat) to coax the dog into position. For example, to teach a sit, you might take a treat and bring it over the dog's head while saying "sit." When the dog's rear hits the ground, you would then say "good" (using bridging as described above) and give the dog the treat. This helps the dog learn what the word "sit" means by using a basic need (food) to cause a specific behavior.

It is rare to find a dog that will learn a command without being taught, or obey every learned command for a pat on the head. If you are lucky enough to find one of these rare dogs, then great for you! But for the rest of us, finding ways to motivate our dogs to learn can be a constant challenge. By using knowledge of basic dog behavior, a few training basics and an arsenal of your dog's favorite things, learning any command and obeying it in the long run should be a snap!