Ew. A puppy.

Fine. I'll admit it right here in print: I'm falling in love with Kuna. He's squirming his way in to a snuggly, fuzzy compartment of my heart and it's terrible.

You see, my two girls are enough work as it is. With Sarah always ripping through the pantry like a tyrannosaurus (she's on meds that make her do this) and Bizzle reacting to dogs, bringing Kuna in to the home has flipped our world upside down. He whines, he needs to be watched like a hawk, he's clumsy and puts my paper shredder to shame (except that my paper shredder shreds paper I don't want...)

He wakes up way too early and is learning that this really awesome (not) noise called a bark comes out of his mouth anytime he chooses! Yippee! *eye roll* Puppies are sooo much work!

It's not fair - he was supposed to be J's dog. J inherited my girls. He loves them as if they are his own but they occasionally remind him of their loyalty to me (shh...but this is secretly flattering). Therefore, Kuna was chosen by J for J, with my expert guidance of course. ;)

I tried to keep my hands out of the pot but when you're dead set on proper socializing, crate training, house breaking, leash training...sigh. It just sorta...happens.

I was carrying him in from his last potty break of the night. He was a tired little boy, every bone in his body turned to mush as he draped his head over my shoulder and let out a soft puppy coo. I looked around to see if anyone was looking (don't ask my why I felt this needed to be done in secrecy) and buried my face in his scruff, closed my eyes and took in a big breath. I was good as gone.

It's not a matter of whether or not I love dogs. Trust me, I L-O-V-E dogs. I just thought I was stronger than this. I thought the flailing paws and floppy ears were cute, but this is serious! We have major work to do and we don't have time for tantrums and late night howl sessions, nor do we have time for snuggles and falling in love. I have to maintain my professionalism.

Alas, I've failed miserably. This silly boy has taken hold of my heart. And in complete puppy fashion, he's chewing it into a million pieces on the living room floor.

My Snuggly Boy

Picture this. It's 2 o'clock in the morning and you're letting your dog out to do his business. You were barely coherent enough to get a leash on him! As you sleepily sit on the porch steps while he finishes up, you remember you are supposed to reinforce his going potty outside. But you didn't grab your clicker and you didn't grab your treats. What to do!?

If clicker trainers had a dime for every time someone asked, "when can I get rid of the clicker and treats?" well, we would be able to do this job for free. The science behind positive reinforcement is that you give the dog something rewarding when he's done something right to up your chances that he does that behavior again. Commonly, this is done with the clicker/treat combo. The clicker marks the thing that was right and the treat gives the dog a reason to try that behavior again.

But what are you supposed to do if the dog is still acquiring behaviors and you find yourself without clicker and treats?

 It's because of this reality I try to teach clients the importance of finding real-life reinforcers for their dogs. I say "find" because your dog knows what's reinforcing to them - you just have to discover what would be ideal for you to use. Barking is reinforcing, but that's not necessarily a behavior you want to use as reinforcement. Cuddling is reinforcing to some dogs, that would be perfect to use when you find yourself without treats!

It turns out, Kuna is a sucker for some behind-the-ear petting. He loves to shove his puppy head in your lap while you slowly rub behind his ears. I found this out while I was teaching him that biting makes me go away. He tried to bite a couple times and the third time of me getting up and leaving, he decided instead of a bite, he would put his head in my lap. I slowly, so that I didn't get him riled up again, rubbed behind his ears while talking softly to him. He practically fell asleep! So I thought, hmm...let's see if this is good enough to use as reinforcement for behaviors. "Kuna. Sit." His little butt plopped on the ground. "gooooooood booooooy...." as I massaged his ears. I asked for the behavior again, wanting to see whether the speed of his behavior increased, decreased or stayed the same now that he thinks he will get an ear rub in return. Sure enough, the "sit" was faster. So I rewarded with the ear rub. A few more reps of this told me that the ear rub was perfect reinforcement - the behavior got faster. *when you're experimenting with this and you notice their behavior response time slows, then the reinforcement is not working correctly. Try something else...

It was me in the example above: there I was, practically falling asleep on the porch when I realized: uh-oh! he just
1) didnt go pee in the house
2) told me he had to pee outside
3) successfully eliminated outside.
I need to reward this big time!! So I went over to my little love bug and rewarded him with a little snuggle and an ear rub. His tail told me this was exactly what he was looking for!

Try this out with your dog! Use toys, praise, happy voice...all of these things can be reinforcers. You can also try pairing praise with a treat so that your dog begins to associate your words of encouragement with tasty morsels of food. That will make your praise worth much more!

e

Kuna arrives!

Well, it's been one busy month! I won't waste valuable computer bits rehashing these last five weeks - just know that everyone is alive and well.  The most recent and significant change: there's a new boy in the family. That's right: we're fostering a terrier/hound mix, 5 - 6 weeks old with cuteness seeping out of his pores. We named him Kuna - the fact that my boyfriend already named him pretty much means we've adopted him, but we keep telling ourselves it's temporary.

I always told myself that if I found a dog B could tolerate, I would adopt him/her right there. For all these years, I never understood what it was about our last foster that granted him safe access in to our home without B's world being turned upside-down. Shame on me for not thinking outside of the box. I was thinking it was only because he was a puppy. That could still be part of it but more importantly, he was a HE. B doesn't care so much for the drama that females bring - she's got enough of it to last a life time. So J and I said that if we found the right dog, he'd at least have to be a boy. :)

After only a few days of volunteering as a trainer at the Calvert Animal Welfare League, we found Kuna.

All he does right now is eat, sleep, pee, poop. Oh! And WHINE! This boy whines alllll through the night. But it's okay. I keep telling myself: his training has begun. If you go open his crate while he's whining, it will never stop. 

I also forgot how much a puppy doesn't know! He doesn't know:

what a leash is

how to navigate stairs 

what the sound of plastic opening could potentially mean...

He also didn't know some very important puppy lessons that can be taught by an appropriate older dog. Surprisingly, that has turned out to be Bizzle! The one dog who I thought was clueless about dog body language.

Kuna kept trying to follow her into her kennel. I lured him out of there before disaster struck, but he was very persistent. When it came time to feed her, he slipped from my hands and went for her food (I wasn't feeling worried for his safety, so you can understand why I was kind of thinking, "well, let's see what transpires.") He not only went for her food, but jumped on her head while she was eating! B emitted a low grumble...VERY appropriate for such foolish behavior! Kuna backed off immediately on his own and for the rest of B's meal, he sat at a safe distance from B and her food. She never repeated herself or got out of hand. Her stern voice told him, "You better back up kid..." and that was all that had to be said. What a great lesson for them both: B learns that using appropriate reactions works and K learns to be told only once.

I'm very interested in how B and K will learn to coexist...stay tuned for new puppy updates! We're back in the blogging saddle with plenty of new stuff to talk about!

e