When it comes to training your dog there is no magic wand, no miracle cures and no need to pay a behaviourist hundreds of pounds. Adopt a simple, relaxed attitude towards your dog and most things can be corrected or fine tuned pretty easily and stress free..
There are 2 kinds of dog owners that I absolutely detest. The first is the dog owner who expects his dog to be a person and the second is the dog owner who tries to be a dog, both equally lead to problems created by the person, the dog meanwhile has an impossible task trying to work out which he actually is. All the time we hear people talking about the "pecking order", how important it is that the owner should be "dominant" with their dog; eating first, going through doorways first - do you really think your dog knows what you are doing?
Before commencing any training with any dog you must remember the first rule - you are a person, your dog is a dog. You behave like a person, your dog behaves like a dog, once that is completely clear in your mind the rest will follow. Whatever theory of domestication you follow the fact remains that your dog’s train of thought is more like that of a wolf and not that of a human.
Think through all the things your dog does that makes you angry, we could probably even compile a top 5!
Barking when shut away
Growling when he can’t get his own way or keep his trophy
Not coming back when called
Chewing the furniture
Weeing in the house
As humans we expect the dog to do as we tell him, as dogs all of these things are natural normal behaviours that shouldn’t be the subject of conflict between him and his person.
Some dogs will bark when shut away because they don’t want to be shut away, barking usually brings a person, even if it’s just to tell them to shut up - the dog learns that no matter how long you keep the barking up - a person will come. Growling is an excellent tool that usually stops a human dead in their tracks and means you can keep whatever is in your mouth at the time. It also works really well if the human wants you to move and you don’t want to!
Not coming back when called is a totally man made problem - why come back if it means the funs is over - I’d rather run some more and if that invites my human to join in this wonderful game of chase then even better.
Chewing the furniture ALWAYS gets a reaction as does weeing in the house. The truth is the dog doesn’t know the different between a carpet and a lawn, the dog doesn’t know the different between the wooden chair leg and the wooden stick they are allowed to play with. Dogs need to chew, it goes part and parcel of being a dog and subsequently they have no clue that the behaviour is wrong. Dogs that are continuously chastised for weeing in the house will sometimes simply learn that it’s dangerous to wee in front of you!
Whatever the behaviour, the problem should not be dealt with as a "text book case. There are no hard and fast rules as to how any specific "problem" should be handled. In fact in many cases you’d achieve better success by changing YOUR behaviour! Whenever you are faced with a behaviour problem that you wish to change, the first question you need to ask is "what does my dog achieve by acting in this way" and then think about what YOU do next - the what happens next is the point at which the behaviour is learned, and once learned it is very very difficult to reverse it. Dogs are not pre programmed to all think in exactly the same way - just as with children, what works for one will not work for another. A classic example of this is food guarding, in most cases the dog has no objection to you taking the food bowl away - in others it teaches him that he needs to guard it and a behaviour problem is "created". I have a big problem with people that insist they can take the food bowl away from their dog because in doing so all you achieve is giving the dog a reason to guard his food in the first place.
Well first up throw away the text book that tries to explain why a dog does what he does, he does what he does because it creates a reaction - the "What Happens Next" scenario that will almost always mould the dog’s behaviour. Once you have figured out what the dog achieves you can then begin to work at changing it, by reacting in a pleasant or not so pleasant way that would make the dog think twice next time. Don’t hit him (unless of course you want a confrontation) but don’t give the dog a reason to repeat the behaviour unless it’s a behaviour you want repeated. Above all be consistent - remember he learned to bark in the night because it made you come running and this may only have taken one night to learn - you need to not come running for a lot more nights to teach him that the outcome is different now and barking does nothing more than give him a sore throat. Adding food to a food guarders bowl teaches him that your presence brings more food and doesn’t threaten the food he already has, getting a treat for coming back when called teaches him something nice happens when he’s recalled, give a treat and let him run off again is even better - he learns that being called isn’t an automatic sign that he’s going back on the lead now. In almost every situation it is easy to work out what the dog is achieving by his behaviour - trophy stealing makes someone chase him, growling makes people back off - you get the idea don’t you. And then simply reinforce this by praising desired behaviour, ignoring undesired behaviour and make sure that your reaction is appropriate and consistent.
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Tania HolmesAdvice regarding castration seems to differ depending on who you ask. I guess that the “rules” also differ between breeds and subsequently breeders will advise according to the breed they know. Sadly I’ve found that the worst people to advise on castration are vets, their knowledge on the subject is so broad spectrum that the vast majority of it doesn’t appear to apply to many pedigree dogs. I know that as far as bulldogs are concerned the advice given by non breed experienced vets on this subject is often mis-guided and sadly, incorrect. Whereas there’s no doubt that as a profession they are fantastic at understanding the medical aspects of the reproduction system, sadly, they don’t seem to have an awful lot of knowledge regarding behavior and when it comes to castration, the hormones that are involved do appear to put the two hand in hand. To be fair, many vets do try and get their advice right and many will advise the owners of a hyperactive, boisterous dog to castrate on the basis that it will calm them down, in reality it probably won’t make a blind bit of difference (in bulldogs at least) and castration undertaken too early can, in some cases, cause worse behavior than what you were trying to curb.
I think the first thing you need to ask yourself prior to having your dog castrated is why. There certainly isn’t a need to rush out and get your dogs dangly bits chopped off simply because he has dangly bits and this is probably why so many male dog owners find the thought of castration so stomach churning. There are only really two advantages of having your dog castrated – a) he will be unable to sire a litter and b) he will never contract testicular cancer. In my opinion, these are the only two reasons why a dog should be castrated. It has been my experience that castration will NOT calm a boisterous dog down simply because it will not alter a personality. It will NOT stop a dog from lusting after your leg or the cat or even next doors collie cross (unless of course it’s a bitch and she is in season) as most humping behavior is not sex driven but is simply a way of expressing stress, nervousness or dominance. It may stop him from cocking his leg in the house and may stop him from wanting to pee on every single blade of grass in the park – but there’s no guarantee’s there either.
In fact all of these are behaviors that need to be dealt with by good old fashioned training and if your reason for castration is any of these then you are going to be sorely disappointed as castration is certainly not a behavior “quick fix”.
Bulldog males have a testosterone surge between the ages of 6 and 9 months old, in many cases this turns them in to “lager louts” and this is often the behavior which causes many vets to advise castration. This is where the vet and me will always disagree because the dog needs this surge of hormone in order to mentally mature properly, put simply it allows chemical changes in the brain to take place that turn the dog from puppy to adult. I usually compare this stage of the dogs development to that of a 15 year old human boy. Take a look at the kids hanging around the town, walking the walk, talking the talk, voices in various stages of breaking, faces in various stages of sprouting hair. The hormone changes that allow this to happen to your son is pretty much the same as the hormonal changes that need to occur in your bulldog and early castration will prevent this surge of hormones and subsequently prevent the dog from mentally maturing. You can usually tell the dogs that were deprived of their testosterone surge because they usually never learn to cock their legs and end up “peeing like a girl”. Often they don’t properly develop skeletally either and tend to have under sized heads and narrow fronts. My personal opinion is that bulldogs should never be castrated under the age of 18 months, if you are having problems with oik-ish behavior then you need to look at your training methods (see issue 1) and not enlist the help of a vet with a scalpel and a syringe full of anesthetic.
Once your dog is mentally mature then castration can be happily undertaken. If you have no intentions of breeding or showing then this is the most responsible course of action to take, not only will it prevent him from wandering off after local bitches on heat it will also prevent him from ever developing testicular cancer. As a bonus it MAY stop unwanted marking behavior and it will most probably reduce the number of squabbles and fights in a multi dog household (especially amongst other males) unless a major falling out has already occurred and then it’s unlikely that anything will put it right.
The trick is to strike the right balance and seek the correct advice from the correct people.
Tania Holmes
Wetting in the house really falls into two categories – not house trained: ie: getting up to wee on the floor, or marking: scenting bedding, sofas, beds etc.
If you feel the problem is because she’s not house trained then the training programme is pretty simple and in most cases very effective. Firstly, form a routine for her so she knows exactly when she’s expected to go outside to the toilet. First thing in the morning (even if there is already a puddle in the kitchen), after she’s eaten, lunch time, tea time and before bed. Go outside with her so you can praise her when she “performs”. Decide on an emptying command like Do wee wee’s, be clean, hurry up or whatever you are comfortable with and on the first visit to the garden just use this command as she squats to wee, then lots of praise and a treat. All accidents in the house to be completely ignored, clean with bleach or disinfectant or spray over with Wash and Get Off Spray (Available from www.detour-records.co.uk/reggiesden.htm).
On the second trip start the command as soon as you are in the garden (or the area of the garden you want her to use), keep using the command until she squats – and then loads and loads and loads of praise.
In most cases you can house train within a week or 2 simply because she works out that weeing makes you happy and gets her a treat – by ignoring the accidents in the house she will work out that this happiness only occurs outside, punishing her for weeing inside carries 2 risks – 1) she sees the telling off as attention and subsequently uses weeing in the house to get attention or 2) learns that it’s actually dangerous to wee in your presence and then you’ll never get her to wee outside when you’re around.
Dogs that have previously lived out side have two issues to deal with, firstly – going out the back door last thing at night risks having the door shut behind them, we want them to do their last wee but the dog doesn’t know that – she thinks she’s being put out for the night so refuses to go. Dogs that have lived outside have no concept of where the right and wrong places are so the praise and ignore method will usually work, simply because it brings them praise. It can take a while to get that first wee so you can issue that first command, but once the behaviour has been reinforced and the dog associates the command with the act - it doesn’t usually take the dog long to work out what happened and what gets the praise.
The second problem is marking, this is deliberately marking bedding that she thinks should be hers, this can be her own bed but also the other dog, your bed, the sofa or worse other people’s houses. If the problem is limited to just her own bed, firstly rule out a UTI (frequent efforts to wee with little or no result) and sometimes dribbling just a little cider vinegar into the drinking water will deal with any low level infection or mild cystitis (Available from www.detour-records.co.uk/reggiesden.htm). If you are confident she is marking, ie: clean bedding is immediately wetted then you can try and combat this by having 2 layers of bedding, when you wash the bedding only wash the top layer, put the clean layer on the bottom and bring the bottom layer to the top – this keeps the bed scented and should prevent her from marking it – spraying the bedding with wash and get off (Available from www.detour-records.co.uk/reggiesden.htm) will also help deter her from weeing where you don’t want her to.
A very useful tool in housetraining is the crate (Available from www.detour-records.co.uk/reggiesden.htm), Crates are useful for two reasons, firstly, it confines the dog to a small area whilst you are not around, this makes life much easier when it comes to clean ups and it is pointless letting an un-housetrained dog have free access to the house if you know she’s going to pee – besides crating a dog for a few hours or over night is no more cruel then putting a baby in a cot or a play pen. Secondly, many dogs don’t like fouling where they sleep (although this doesn’t always apply to bulldogs – one of the few breeds that seem to not care less). There is a lesser risk that she will mess in her bed, but in severe cases removing all bedding from the bottom of the crate for a few nights is usually sufficient as it reinforces the fact that they are stuck with it until morning when you come and let them out. Again, ignore the mess, take the dog straight outside, use the emptying command and then issue tones of praise for doing it in the right place.
There is a third more serious problem and that is incontinence cause through a medical issue, spayed bitches often lose bladder control slightly and there is a syrup available from the vet that will help BUT this syrup can make bitches aggressive so we don’t usually advice you use this unless absolutely necessary. The second medical issue is a spinal problem, most notably hemi vertebrae which will cause loss of bladder control or spina bifida, both need xrays to confirm and really are worse case scenarios, hemi vertebrae (or butterfly vertebrae) is the most likely of the two and is sadly more common than it should be in brachycephalic breeds.
It’s also worth noting that bitches in season almost always wee in the house, they become prone to infection whilst in season so a UTI or mild cystitis is not unusual – again in mild cases dribble cider vinegar into the drinking water but in severe cases (blood stained urine) she will need a course of anti biotics. They also wee in the house when so show other dogs that they’re ready to mate (an invitation to the males and a warning to the bitches), if your dog was previously a brood bitch or has been used for breeding she will have already associated being in season with being mated and will be giving out the signals to any boys in the area that may be available.
Tania Holmes
