Archive for July 2nd, 2010

Dogs are pack animals. Your family and all other pets in your family are his pack. When everyone leaves for work and school, some dogs get highly upset and may become destructive or annoy the neighbors with incessant barking and whining. What causes this behavior and is there anything you can do about it?

My Experience

Long ago, I had a dog named Pepper. She was part Australian Sheppard, and was a very sweet dog, although she was also very…ahem….active. I had her for 11 years, and for the first 9, she was an excellent dog. Even as a pup, she never chewed on furniture, shoes, or clothes. Day after day, everyone left for work and school, and Pepper caused no problems. After 9 years, she suddenly became very destructive. It started when she got left in the basement one day, and it stormed. Being deathly afraid of storms, she wanted to get at her usual hiding place – under a bed. So, she dug her way through the basement/kitchen hollow-core door. I came home to find the poor thing hiding under the bed, along with a big hole in the door.

But this was merely the beginning. Over the next 2 years, Pepper dug through doors, walls, and even the front door. She crashed through windows screens and shredded upholstered furniture. We bought her a big crate, and on her first day inside it, she broke the thick plastic floor lining and her even-thicker plastic water dish into shards. She also broke both of her upper eye teeth off along the gum line trying to chew her way out. We took her to the vet to get her teeth fixed, and I asked for some doggy Valium. The vet informed me that, without a doggy psychiatrist’s treatment, doggy Valium only works in about 5% of cases. And even with a psychiatrist, they just help in about 15% of cases. I’ve since heard better numbers than that, but back then, it left us feeling pretty hopeless.

In the last few months that Pepper lived with us, we moved into a big, brand-new home. Initially, she seemed as happy as we were with our new digs. But before long, she started her destructiveness again. She chewed on woodwork, shredded the carpet in several places, and destroyed a few window screens. We finally came to the heart-breaking decision that we were going to need to find her a different home, before she totally ruined ours. At 11 years old, we weren’t sure that anyone would want her. But we did find her a wonderful home, with a lot of space to run, and someone who is home for her all day long.

We never could figure out what caused Pepper’s sudden separation anxiety. Looking back, I think it could have started about the time we got a new box springs and mattress. Up till then, Pepper had always slept on the bed – not at the foot of the bed, but right up there on the pillows. It had gotten to the point that if I rolled over onto my stomach or side during the night, I would get a mouthful of her shed hair. So when we got the new mattresses, I stopped letting Pepper sleep on them. Maybe being alone throughout the day was OK, so long as she got her cuddle time at night, and all of the destructiveness was her means of letting me know she didn’t appreciate being exiled from sleeping on the bed.

I believe Pepper’s case was somewhat unusual, but there are actually steps that will help with more “normal” cases of separation anxiety. Below are a few things that can help:

Food and Exercise

Give your dog sufficient exercise. An exercised dog is a happy dog, and is also a tired dog. And a full belly is a happy belly. A dog that has been on a nice run and gotten his belly full is more likely to relax and take a nap and sleep much of the day away. Ah, the life of a dog And of course, you should also make sure there’s fresh water and food available for your dog.

Sights, Smells, and Sounds

Leave the television or a radio on. It can be reassuring to your dog if he can hear human voices. Leave a window open. Dogs like the fresh air and the outside smells, plus they are able to see and hear people and other animals that are outside. You may have to leave it open only a crack, though, depending on your dog’s behavior. Pepper would go right through a screen that was open wide enough.

Something to Do

Leave your dog some favorite toys. It will give him something to do. Toys that you and the dog have played with, and therefore have your smell on, can reassure. Ropes, nylon bones (not real ones, they can splinter and cause lots of problems or worse), squeaky toys, and balls are good. The dog I have now goes out in the front yard on a 20-foot lead. I’ve seen him have fun with the lead, as though it were a live person or animal, when there was nothing else to do.

Answering Machines and Web Cams

Set your answering machine to screen calls, so that the caller’s voice can be heard, and call your dog a couple of times throughout the day and let him hear your voice. If possible, set up a web cam in your house and also at work so that you can look in on your pup and see what he is up to. If he is misbehaving, call the answering machine and reprimand him. If he appears to be getting anxious, call and talk to him in a soothing voice.

Put Your Dog in a Crate

Though it didn’t work for Pepper, it can meet your needs exactly. It might sound mean to confine your dog to this kind of small space each day, but it can in fact be reassuring to him. A dog often comes to think of his crate as his own familiar “bedroom”. One Fourth of July, when my current dog, Bo, was just a pup, he ventured outside and heard a huge firecracker boom. He ran back inside, cowering. He came out again, and it happened again. His third time out, several loud fireworks went off at the same time, and Bo ran back inside, down the stairs, into his crate, and curled up and hid in there. It was his safe place to go. Crating is most effective if your dog is used to it, or is raised from a pup using a crate.

Stay Calm

When you leave, and when you initially get home, stay calm. Your dog will recognize your vibes, and if you become nervous because he is going to be nervous or upset, your dog will pick up on it. Make coming and going no big deal.

Interval Training

Go outside for a few seconds, then come back in. Go out again, and wait a minute or two and then come back in. Vary the amounts of time you’re gone. Get your dog used to being separated for small amounts of time, and gradually increase the time. Go in or out different doors. Take your keys with you one time, and not the next. Go when your dog is looking, and when he isn’t. And stay calm. Eventually, your dog is not going to know if you will be gone for a long or short time. But he will start to realize that you always return.

I hope these tips will help you and your best friend to live in harmony. Love My Dog Blog would love to hear any stories you might have about your dog and separation anxiety, or any other stories about your dog. You can also visit Love My Dog Blog for information, tips, and human dog interest stories.

I am sure that there are a lot of horse lovers around the world, and that all of them would like to spend more time with these gorgeous creatures. There are a lot of horse stalls where you can work and learn how to perform around horses and if you can afford one, you can keep one in your home. All horses are extremely sensitive, so you need to be extra careful while training them.

One of the highly recommended training systems is the TTeam, highly-developed by Linda Tellington-Jones, which is considered to be horse friendly and most significantly, available to everyone. It is especially suited to educating any horse who might have learning difficulties due to poor handling, injury, stress issues, or simple inherited conformational biomechanical issues.

In Tellington’s words: “TTeam addresses the pain, soreness, fear and tension in a horse’s body which is very often responsible for their resistance and/or their undesirable behavior”. In her book “Improve Your Horse’s Well Being” she says that: “TTeam allows you to change your horse’s behavior and process his personality without force, by using non-habitual, non-threatening movement and special ground exercises.”

This method is very hard to apprise, and of course requires a lot of forbearance, but trust me, the results at the end are worth every single second of it. Performance horses in every discipline, from endurance horses to Olympic dressage and jumping horses, have shown improved performance with the use of the TTeam training system.

And the best way to learn this training system is, of course, from the master herself, Linda Tellington-Jones or even the practitioners trained and certified by her. This system is considered to be the most honest fulfillment of being able to enjoy horses in a way that produces results with comfort and confidence between the horse and its rider; and most importantly a system that can generate a genuine spiritual bond between them.

But of course, if you do not have the time to come across any stables, or the means to take care of a horse, you can always go online and play all kinds of horse games, take care of your virtual horse in a completely equipped virtual stable and simply make the most with what you have at the minute.