So you want to get a dog, Part 1: Puppies

Bringing a pet dog into our homes is a decision that needs to be made with great thought. Of course us dog lovers will see cute puppy pictures online and get drawn in by their adorable factor; completely normal! Dogs were made to appeal to our nuturing side, literally. They've evolved large round eyes and heads, just like human babies amongst other things, and thus we feel the urge to pick them up and cuddle them as we would a vulnerable infant, and to nuture and care for them. Being 'adorable' is part of the dog package; they simply would not have lasted as long as human companion animals if they did not have some sort of allure or draw. Many of us get dogs for our mental wellbeing, or for the kids (prepare yourself; kids will need constant active supervision with dogs!). Whilst the jury is still out on whether having a pet dog does in fact affect our mental health in a positive way, there are tonnes of welfare issues to consider from the dogs point of view.

Each dog is different, but let’s discuss the general requirements of dogs, in order to foster some self-reflection in your decision to acquire a dog.

Picking your puppy

Puppies are not clean slates, as many would believe. Indeed, where you acquire your puppy, their health, their living conditions and greater environment, their parentage, their parents health both prior to conception, post birth and during gestation, and their genetics can all influence your puppy's behaviour. That's a long list, isn't it?!?

Puppies should be born ideally to confident, happy and healthy parents. You want to make sure the parents of your puppy are living in a similar environment to you. It doesn't have to be identical, but by knowing how the parents behave on a day to day basis, how they cope with day to day life and how their behaviour is managed can give us an insight into how your puppy MAY behave as they grow. Some behavioural traits may be heritable, so it's good to know what mum and dad are like. 

Mum and dad should also be health checked, and checked for specific ailments if they are pedigree and their breed is prone to certain conditions. Your breeder should be able to provide you with information on all of these things for both parents. When looking for specific breeds, you can look up the kennel club online either from your own country or from others where you know there are reputable breeders. The Kennel Club website should have links and references to breeder databases. From there you can find a few different breeders of your choice and can contact them all to ask questions. Be aware that great breeders will also have a waiting list and loads of questions for you too!!

Puppies also need to be reared in an environment similar to the one it will be living in. For example, if your puppy was reared outdoors in the shed or a kennel environment up until the day you brought it home, then there are so many things that puppy didn't experience or prepare for in its new life with you. The sounds of washing machines, TV's, radios, the action packed energy of children in the home. It didn't experience the smells and sounds of meals being cooked, homework getting done, people going by the house, sirens, traffic, bicycle bells, postmen, a family routine.

The list is endless; trying to manufacture those experiences in a class or home environment between the ages of 8 and 14 weeks is likely going to be a challenge that you're going to need support with, and we don’t have time on our side to fit it all in. We simply cannot make up fully for those deficits (though there are things we CAN do to help if this sounds like your puppy!). Life needs to just happen, and puppies for the most part need to just be reared in the middle of it all from before birth.

Socialisation and where it goes wrong

From 3 to about 14 weeks is the window of puppy development that we call 'socialisation'. Most of that age bracket is spent with the breeder. See why the rearing environment is so important now?? Socialisation is a buzzword that encircles the dog owning community with lots of misconceptions and beliefs about what it means, mostly around ‘social’ contact, with both people and dogs. The definition in the dog world is different than in the human world, hence all the confusion. Socialisation doesn’t mean meeting, interacting and playing with as many dogs and people as possible. In fact, we DON’T want our dogs doing this! The reason being is that if we let them play with everyone, we can risk magnetising our puppy to other dogs; meaning they will be frustrated at times when they cannot go over and say hello. As well as that you can also unknowingly put your puppy in danger if the other dog isn’t as receptive to its boisterous playful antics, which most adult dogs will not be. Just like children, puppies can behave inappropriately with other dogs. They aren’t born knowing what is appropriate or not; we have to help them learn. Investing your time in teaching your puppy that checking in with you is amazing, staying close by is fun, and that passing dogs and people is no big deal is a much better way to spend your time rather than searching for new pals on every walk.

Instead of going to the dog park to 'socialise' your puppy and get them used to other dogs, it would be better if you hung out regularly (once or twice a week) with a friend and their calm adult dog. That way your puppy has a confident social model to watch and learn from, rather than the high octane, inappropriate play that often accompanies the dog-park.

Just like we humans have friends that we see regularly, so should your dog. We don't need our dog to be magnetised to other strange dogs and people when out and about.

So what exactly is socialisation then? It refers to an age bracket; a period of time during which the experiences your puppy has, good and bad, can have a long-lasting influence on how they view and behave in the world. There are also different developmental stages throughout the socialisation period and beyond that we need to look out for. By ensuring we monitor puppy behaviour on an individual level (even when still with littermates!) we can be aware of any issues that may crop up. Puppies also need to experience different things, from floor textures, sounds and problem solving puzzles to levels, temperatures and smells, whilst still with the litter, and during their different developmental stages. This all needs to be handled carefully, so your best bet is to contact a trainer and get your puppy signed up to a private program or class group setting where helping your puppy develop confidence and life skills is a big part of the curriculum. We can teach sit, stay or fetch later on; we need to be ensuring our puppies are growing into resilient and happy dogs with good welfare first!

Resources and help sourcing your puppy

• The Irish Kennel Club 'find a breed'
• The UK Kennel Club 'find a puppy' site
• Irish Pet Advertising Advisory Group (a great list of questions to ask your breeder or rescue!)
• Before you get your puppy - Free EBook!

Remember, your breeder should ask you lots of questions; they'll want to know their puppy is going to a 5 star home! They will also likely be happy to let you visit the puppy more than once. If your breeder wants cash up front, wants to meet in a carpark or is eager to sell their puppy now without meeting you, they're likely not legitimate.

Co-operative care & joyful vet visits

I'm not going to lie; my dogs don't like the vet. There are very few procedures with which they are totally comfortable, and I feel guilty every time they need vaccines, routine exams or medications involving a vet. That being said, I have begun a few simple things with them to reduce their discomfort, and that counts for something and provides a foundation on which we can build comfort with increasingly more invasive procedures. There are also a few different things that YOU can do with your dog to build their comfort with different examinations.

I'm first going to outline a few different things that your dog might be uncomfortable with, and then I will discuss what you can do and train to alleviate a bit of discomfort with these procedures.

"My dog doesn't enjoy the following..."

The weighing scales

I used to attend a vet with Ivy when we lived in Dublin City Centre, and they had the worlds most awkward weighing scales. It was a normal flat weighing scales, but for some reason they had built a box around 3 of the sides, so the dog had to step in uncomfortably, making it easier for vets to pen in the animal to get accurate weight measurements. Horrendous for many reasons, and scary for the dog.
Since then we have switched to a different veterinarian, with a large waiting room, tonnes of space for anxious dogs (and owners) to hide or be hidden, and space to access the surgery rooms without running into another pet. Fab. The weighing scales is still the same flat platform, but without the box, meaning it is easier for the dogs to both step on, stay on, and step off.

Taking your dogs weight shouldn't be a stressful experience, yet many dogs find it uncomfortable to use a scales. This can be down to the stressful environment itself, memories of getting jabbed previously, being in discomfort or pain when visiting the vet, or even the social pressure of being asked (and then forced) onto the scales, even briefly.
The benefits may outweigh the negatives in this scenario, but every little stressor in the vets adds up. With something simple like a weight check, it makes sense to train our dogs for this so that they feel less uncomfortable with at least one regular procedure.

Calm in the vet waiting room

Walking into the vet, and waiting there with your dog can be a nightmare sometimes, especially during busier periods when there may be three or four other dogs in there too. Some dogs find it hard to be in close proximity to other dogs, and throw in feeling unwell on top of that you have a disaster
scenario waiting to happen. Often, people will want to chat and talk about your dog; "What is he in for?" and touching your dog or getting their dog to say hi to yours is likely. This is often the last thing a poorly or anxious dog needs! It could be a great idea to teach a certain 'go-to' behaviour; a behaviour your dog can practice lots and lots in the vet waiting room that gives them something to do and helps keep them calm. This can help lower stress levels of everyone involved!

Ear, eyes and body checks

Whilst the more invasive procedures are often things like vaccines, the dreaded up-the-nose kennel cough, or the thermometer-in-the-bum; being manipulated and handled for examinations can be just as uncomfortable for our dogs. We may assume that our dogs don't mind this part as much; after all they love a cuddle on the sofa! But for us, when the doctor takes our blood pressure, listens to our heart beats or looks in our ears it's a very different feeling than cuddling up on the couch with your best bud. Though simple, these procedures invade our personal space, coming into our bubble and making us feel icky. It's no different for our dogs. Building our dogs confidence with these procedures, increasing comfort and helping them cope can be effective at lowering our dogs overall stress levels at the vet.

"So what we can do is..."

Targets

Targeting is a term used for when we teach an animal to touch or target a part of their body against something. So for example, we can teach our dogs to touch their noses off our hands, or to give the paw, or to go to bed (yes their bed is a target for their body!). There are plenty of other ways that we can use targets, and we will go through some of those here.

Weighing scales: There are two targets that may be most handy in teaching your dog to like the weighing scales. One is a hand target or 'touch', and one is a place to stand, or a floor target. We can use either of these, or a combination of both.

Hand targets is simply teaching our dogs to touch their nose off our hands when cued, and then building on that behaviour and training them to follow our outstretched hands, WITHOUT food as a lure. This means we can hold out our hand and guide our dogs onto the weighing scales without physically lifting them onto it. See our video tutorial here for part 1 and here for part 2.

Training a place target, or a spot your dog should stand, is a bit different. What we want is our dogs four paws on an object, such as a yoga mat, blanket or vet bedding. You could even make a pretend scales out of a large rectangle of wood and use that. If you've taught the hand target above, use that to move your dog onto the object, and once all four paws are on it, say 'yes!' and give a treat. See the video tutorial here. Note that in the video, I use a clicker instead of saying 'yes!'. It is still the same.

Calm in the vet waiting room: Teaching our dogs to lie down on a mat can be a beneficial behaviour, as it gives our dog a behaviour to do, and if taught correctly the mat can be a lovely place to be. Having a specific mat for settling means that you can bring your mat everywhere and use it to station your dog, giving them a spot to be and a signal that says "we're just hanging out on our mats
now!". When at the vet office and waiting for your appointment, you can place the mat down away from other dogs and people, and let your dog hang out on the mat until your name is called. Here is the initial teaching of this behaviour, and then helping your dog learn how to do it for longer duration of time, with distractions, and even if you have to move away from them.

Ear, eyes and body checks: Getting our dogs used to being handling is a vital life skill; we may assume our dogs love being touched and petted but as animals without thumbs, grooming and touching isn't as common or as appreciated as we would like! We can build up our dogs comfort though, by playing a simple game for thirty seconds to a minute at a time. Touch for a treat! Taking treats in one hand and putting that hand behind your back, you briefly and gently touch one of your dogs body parts with your free hand, take your hand away, and make a treat then magically appear from behind your back. Video tutorial here. This teaches your dog that each time a body part is touched, something lovely happens afterwards!

Another option for examinations can be practiced at home. All you need is a tile or glass wall or window (or a helper and a Kong!), something spreadable like cream cheese, yogurt, peanut butter or pate, and a peckish dog. Smear stuff all over the tile or glass pane (or in your Kong), and let your dog start licking at it. Whilst they're licking, begin to touch them (gently!) all over. If they stop licking, immediately take your hands OFF the dog. As soon as they start licking and lapping again, you can begin to re-examine them. This teaches your dog that they can control when exams start and stop.

When they are uncomfortable, they stop licking and you stop touching. When they feel a bit better they continue to lick and lap at the foodstuffs and you can examine. See? It's all about consent. Consent builds confidence and helps reduce your dogs stress levels associated with exams and veterinary procedures.
You can try this in the vets office too with a lined Kong or a wooden spoon dipped in something lovely. Hold it in front of your dog; whilst they eat your vet can proceed with heart rate, body or ear exams. When your dog takes their face away from the Kong, your vet should be instructed to STOP. There is a fantastic video from our friends at AniEd Ireland (www.anied.ie) here about happy vet visits!

From these small tips you can build up to more behaviours aimed at helping your dog at the vets. Chin targets can be another useful one, as seen in action here, or even work with a trainer to help your dog reach consent for blood draws as seen here! Whatever small action you take, you will be making a big difference to your dog. Get in touch for more information should you require it. Happy training!

Your dogs nose (and why you should let them sniff)

Your dogs nose is amazing. Fact. But how do we know it is amazing? How does it work? How good are humans at following scent trails compared to dogs? Read on for all of these answers and more.

A scents journey from air to brain

We know dogs can smell all sorts of different scents in great depth, and are far more sensitive to smell than we can comprehend. Our noses pale in comparison. But why? 

Well, in the dogs brain, the olfactory centre that is responsible for controlling all things smell is three times larger than in human brains. That means that even though a dogs brain is smaller than a humans, the part in charge of smell is way bigger. This size difference means they can pack tonnes more neurons and pathways in there; fitting in lots of equipment for understanding, processing and responding to scent.

The nose

How scent gets to the brain is a fundamental part of olfaction. You can't smell anything if the scent doesn't travel in your nose in the first place! Dogs noses are wet to allow scent to stick to it, and to provide liquid so that when the air moves inside it becomes warm and humid like a vapour. This makes it easier for scent to travel into the nasal passage and for scent to be detected. 

In order to smell stuff, dogs have a unique way of inhaling, or sniffing. They can inhale and exhale rapidly, due to the structure of the nose itself. Either side of your dogs nose, there are two slits; these spiral out from under the nostril. Air will be inhaled through the nostril itself and is exhaled through these slits during bouts of sniffing, allowing the exhaled air to kick up some of the scent from the ground but lessening the impact of disturbing and further diluting the scent underneath the nostril itself. This is how your dog can sniff so rapidly. The next time your dog is sniffing the air or looking as though they're simply looking around them, watch their nose, and see if you can see it moving as they smell the breeze.

The vomeronasal organ (or how dogs smell with their mouth)

Inside your dogs mouth, just behind their front teeth, is a small segment of tissue that is called the vomeronasal, or Jacobson's, organ. Chemical compounds that arrive into the dogs mouth in liquid form can be detected with this organ, and the 'scent' of these transferred to the vomeronasal bulb in the brain. Whilst these liquid 'smells' are not processed by the olfactory bulb, the vomeronasal organ is still considered part of the olfactory system as it helps dogs detect pheromones and other information from the environment. Some dogs will even taste the urine or faeces of other dogs in order to gather more information through the vomeronasal organ. Humans have vestigal versions of this organ at the roof of our mouth about a centimetre behind our front teeth. You can feel where it should be with your tongue!

Nasal cavity cells and tissue

Once inside the nose and nasal cavity, each cell has little legs called cilia. Cilia are present in lots of cells, but the ones in the nose have tonnes of scent receptors that can receive the scent chemicals and send that information all the way up to the olfactory bulb in the brain. The surface area inside the dogs nasal cavity is huge, much greater than a humans, helping to translate all of those scent molecules into readable messages to send to the dogs brain. Whilst we may have less than 10 million scent receptors helping us decode smells, dogs have hundreds of millions, so can understand and interpret scent in ways we simply cannot comprehend!

Tracking, trailing and scent plumes

A study carried out in 2007 (Porter et al) found that humans could learn to track scent, but whilst they got a bit better with practice, their noses still were not as sensitive as the dogs. However an interesting note stood out from this study, one that highlighted a certain behaviour that dogs do that was seen in the human test subjects. Often when trainers get calls about dogs that pull on lead, weaving side to side across the footpath is a big part of that. "Oh he pulls left to right, right to left, he's all over the place!" However, when mapped out, how animals follow scent tends to be in a weaving pattern. When scent is dragged in a straight line across land for tracking purposes, the scent from the line will travel with the breeze, or gather like smoke rising from a flame. These scent plumes can veer left or right in the air, and the individual who is sniffing them out will follow each plume, losing them then veering back to try and 'catch wind' of it again. This leads to what we see as a zig-zagging motion. The next time your dog veers off course to go and smell something, take a second to appreciate their nose, and what must be an incredibly interesting scent to suddenly change direction for. 

If you would like more information on scent, airflows, competitive/detection dog work or another aspect of scent that we didn't cover here, let us know and we can create another post going into more depth! Follow along on Facebook, Instagram or on our website for more information and for training or dog walking services.