My Top Ten Tips for Your New Dog's Successful Transition to Your Home

Most of my work at present is with new owners of refuge or rescue dogs – I’ll be sharing some of their stories in the future. These are kind-hearted people willing to give a second chance to a dog that, for whatever reason, has been lost, abandoned, discarded or dumped. More often than not these dogs are adolescents or adults given up because their previous owner could no longer ‘handle’ them or no longer wanted to. In all cases, whether the dog is a pup, an adolescent or an adult, I offer the new owner my top ten tips for a successful transition from the refuge to the family home.

Due to my working with several refuges, some of which are in France up to five hours away, my contact with the new owner may be via email rather than in person and in some cases takes place through a volunteer liaison person at the refuge who knows the dog and has met with the prospective owner.  Because of the volunteer nature of these refuges and shelters their primary focus is to find homes for the dogs in their care, not to offer advice on training. By my offering to kick start the process with some easy to follow guidelines, my hope is that more dogs will successful integrate into their new homes, thus reducing the number of dogs returned to the shelters.

Adopting a New Dog?  First Ask Yourself a Few Key Questions

…and note down the answer – these will form the foundation of your “house rules” – No. 1 of my top 10.

Who will be his primary handler? Your new dog must have only one primary handler – this person is responsible for all aspects of the dog’s training and decisions related to him. Other members of the family can help out, but the dog needs one human he can look to as the manager of the pack – someone who will show him the ropes and protect him if need be from other humans as well as dogs.

Where do you want your dog to sleep? All dogs need a bed just like we do, sharing yours is not a good idea; it should be kept as a special privilege for a dog that has learned good manners. So decide right from the start where you want your dog to sleep, and stick to it.

The dogs on their couch

 Will he be allowed on the furniture? Making a rule at the start as to what places are out of bounds for your dog makes for a happier home in the long run. Remember is easier to train a desire behavior than correct an undesirable one. If you don’t want him on your furniture, he needs some ‘furniture’ of his own – a bed, bean chair, old couch, a mat in the corner, and you need to have a consistent way of managing his attempts at getting on to your furniture by reinforcing his going to his own.

What toys are acceptable for him to chew? Your puppy or new dog is going to chew whether you like it or not. If you do not provide him with suitable chews, he’ll find his own – shoes, bags, chair legs, couch cushions, the door mat…trust me I know this from experience. Stuffable chews (eg, Kongs) are the best as they keep him cognitively occupied as well as addressing his need to chew, you can stuff them with something yummy (like mince and rice) and freeze them. There are a wide range of toys suitable for dogs to chew and a little cream cheese, or peanut butter can make something new and alien into something interesting to explore.

Where will his ‘safe’ place be? Your dog needs a safe place to call his own whether it is a crate, a cordoned off part of the kitchen, or a “puppy pen” set up in the living room. You need a place to put your dog when you have other things to do.

 What will his routine be? Just like a new baby needs a routine for eating, toileting and sleeping so too will your new dog.  While he was in the shelter, there would have been a routine to his day, now he is with your family it is up to you to teach him the routine you want. Try and fit it as closely into your daily schedule as you can, but write up a routine and follow it – it will make things a lot easier in the long run.

Where will he toilet? Your new dog, whether a puppy, adolescent or adult, needs to establish a toileting routine with you as soon as you get him home. Decide where you want him to toilet and take him to this spot: after he has woken, after he has eaten, and at two hour intervals otherwise.

Now you have considered these questions – you can use them to form the basis of your house rules.

Top 10 Tips For a Trouble-Free Transition

1.  Establish a set of "house rules" for your new dog as soon as you get him home:  Depending on the method of training you employ it may take weeks to secure desirable behaviors for both dog and family members alike. If you start as you mean to continue you can establish good habits early rather than having to unlearn bad habits later.  Keep in mind, what may be cute in a little puppy, will never be cute in a full grown adult.
2.  Start your new dog’s training on day one: Build into your routine lots of 3-minute training sessions. Make every training session about one thing only. Keep a leash on your dog throughout the training so he is fully under your control. Have a pile of treats at the ready and a clear idea of what you are training. The Sirius Behavior Blueprints are a great place to start.
3.  Make coming and going from your home no big deal: Get in the habit of leaving your puppy or new dog for a few minutes at a time. Put him in his safe place and walk into another room for a minute or two. Return to the room your dog is in and pay him no attention until he is quiet and settled (keep yourself busy doing other stuff). When he is calm, go to him and quietly tell him what a good boy he’s been and reward his calmness.  You want to avoid your dog getting over excited when you leave – raised adrenalin equals raised anxiety levels. Try leaving the house now for 2-3 minutes and when you return again pay no attention to your dog until he is calm and settled or enough time has passed (5-10 mins) for him not to associate his feelings with your coming home. Gradually increase the time you leave him alone and always focus on and reward his calmest behavior.
4. Decide a feeding schedule for your new pal right from the start: Work out his daily allocation of food and put half aside for treats for training during the day, divide the rest into 2 small meals – one for the end of the morning, one for the end of the day. If your dog is very food orientated, use the meal as a special reward after a series of training sessions. If your dog is fussy or picky, give him 15-20 minutes to eat his meal before taking it away for good. It won’t hurt him to miss a meal occasionally, it might even do him some good, just like fasting does for us.
5. Decide where you want your dog to be when you are eating your meals/when you have visitors call/when you want the children to get their homework done: It is a good habit to teach your dog to go to his mat, or den with a stuffed chew (or some other non-interruptive behavior) when you sit down to your meals or you want him out of the way for a while. The last thing you want is a dog begging for food at meal times or for attention when you must give it elsewhere. Encourage quiet behavior by rewarding any occurrence of him lying quietly in his den keeping himself occupied.
6. Work on "off lead" behavior as early as you can: Start in the house in a safe place (for your belongings as well as for your dog), let your dog romp around and get him used to coming back to you frequently. Reward him with a special treat (taken from his food allocation) any time he comes near you. Do this frequently, ALWAYS wait for your dog to come to you, reward each time. At this stage you don’t need to use any cues or commands, simply use your body language to encourage your dog to come to you. You can even move away and see if he will follow. The earlier you establish this foundation for the recall, the easier it will be for you to teach your dog to come on cue later on.  ALWAYS stay cheerful and positive when your dog comes to you, you want this to be a pleasant and enjoyable experience for your dog every single time. If you yell, or make a scene, or raise your voice, even in fear for your dog, just once, your puppy or new dog will remember that and there will always be the off chance it might happen again so he will be reluctant to return.
7. Handle your puppy/dog often: Get him used to being touched by you. If he is a puppy pick him up and carry him around, stroke him, play with him. Get him used to you touching his paws, his head, putting your hand inside his mouth, brushing him. If the dog is older and more wary, start with simple stroking along the spine. Reward with a treat, any calmness the dog displays. Touch his collar, run your fingers along the inside. Reward him for letting you do that. Progress down each leg and so on.
8. Please, please take your new dog to good manners and/or puppy socialization classes at your earliest convenience: Please ensure that the trainer only uses positive training methods (clicker training, positive lure based conditioning).  Avoid any trainer who talks about "alpha dog" and "dominance" training or the need to use punishment as a training device. Dog training has evolved beyond these methods and there is plenty of good information on the internet in support of quality positive dog training: the Associationof Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) offers advice on appropriately certified trainers and you can find a register of Certified Training Partners at the Karen Pryor Academy.
9. Encourage your new dog to be on his best behavior whenever you are in a social situation: (including playing with other dogs, or children or when attending dog training classes.) You have the bigger brain so it is for you to establish the boundaries of what is acceptable behavior. Decide how it is you would like your dog to behave in the presence of others and reward him for incidents of that behavior. Any undesirable behavior should result in the end of the association i.e. take the your dog away.
10. Teach your dog his name: Your dog’s name needs to have all the power of an emergency recall. Whenever you use it you want it to mean something wonderful is coming. Start by saying your dog’s name and feeding him a treat. Keep doing this until he looks at you when you say his name in anticipation of the treat. Mark that behavior (with a bright ‘yes’ or a click) and feed him a treat.  Now go to a different room or take him off leash and let him run around a little. Say his name softly, does he look at you? If so, mark and treat and say his name again. Repeat until you get 8 correct responses in a row. NEVER use your dog’s name in anger, or yell it, or say it over and over again. Say it once, and expect a response, if you trained the foundation then he will respond every time. Good dog!

Final Word

Share these Tips with all family members and any guests you might have visit you. It is so important that your new dog be presented with a united front and that means everyone needs to follow the rules.

Your dog is smart, if the rules relax when you have guests visit, then he’ll catch on quick “Ah, people coming to visit means I can do what I like, yippee!”

Start as you mean to continue, focus on what you want your dog to do, reward for good behavior, ignoring everything else, and you can’t help but have success.

What Do You Want From Your Dog? Setting the Right Expectations

This is Beau, our youngest dog. He’s a Beauceron X and he’s beautiful – not just in looks but in temperament too. He was my husband’s answer to a poodle in the family.

Beau at three months

When Beau first joined us he was three months old and while he was hubby’s dog, it fell to me to do much of his basic training. Clicker training is not so much about solving problems as preventing them from ever happening in the first place. One strategy that enables this more proactive approach is the need to define clearly what it is the dog’s owner expects from his dog. In our situation I could easily have drawn up a training plan much as I’d done for Blue, our poodle, but it would not have taken into consideration my husband’s expectations of what he wanted from his dog.

Martin works in a high powered job and is not as young as he used to be. He was keen at the time to increase the activity in his life; he saw this new addition as a means to that end. Wasn’t that all the expectation he needed?

Pinning him down to a ‘client interview’ was to be my first challenge; he didn’t understand the need for it. We’d owned dogs in the past and none of the trainers we’d worked with had suggested doing this. However it was a requirement of my KPA course and I asked him to humor me – he graciously obliged.

One evening last summer we settled on the balcony with a drink in hand and discussed in some detail exactly what Martin wanted from his dog. Initially, I got lots of “well I don’t want him to pull” and “he needs to come when called”. And while there is nothing wrong with these – what I was after was something more descriptive of why he wanted these behaviors. I explained as much to him and told him to consider thinking of this as a job description for his dog – what were the competencies he was after?

In the side bar is the list of expectations he generated. I couldn’t improve upon it if I tried. Not only is it an excellent description of the dog Beau is becoming, it is also a pretty good description of the character of my husband. It seems to me what he was after was a match with himself. Should I be jealous?

In designing a training program for Beau, I referred often to this list. It helped me identify and prioritize the behaviors we wanted Beau to develop competence. It was useful in explaining why I trained this behavior at this time, rather than that one, and it gave me a benchmark I could refer to whenever we were veering off track.

That was nearly 6 months ago now. Over the holidays we reviewed this initial list and to our delight were able to tick off many of the expectations as “achieved”.

Beau at 8½ months is an active, friendly dog, fun-loving and responsive. He is calm but cautious around all things new, is learning to remain calm around children despite all the noise they make (we have several schools on the estate). He is attentive and courteous most of the time, and only occasionally lets his puppy exuberance get the better of him.  He is learning to be more thoughtful and to exercise self-control particularly when he meets people he knows and likes. He is not a barker, and just as well even at this age he has a bark that will terrify the dead.

Goals set in this way are not static; they should adapt to suit your situation and changing needs. Today I feel the need to add another section to my goal setting form – Achievements. While I used the Goals to help with the training, we inadvertently achieved other things as well and it would be good to note these over time so we can appreciate just how successful this process really is.

Blue and Beau in one of their
few quiet moments

Beau is a gentle giant, an affectionate dog who really does look to Martin for his lead. He is always keen to please and loves nothing better than to play with or just be with his best buddy – his two legged friend (despite what the picture on the right might suggest). What greater achievement for a dog could there be?

Dealing with Puppy Mill-Induced Phobias - Part 1

At the rescue shelter

Part of my motivation to get professional clicker training came from my learning to deal with my dog’s little phobias. All puppies have fears of one sort or another. Most of these fears are of things unknown and have no pre-history so they can be dealt with relatively easily. A phobia, though is something quite different. By definition, it is a “persistent irrational fear of a specific object, activity or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it” (www.dictionary.com ). It often originates from some sort of deep-seated trauma, can manifest at any time and the oddest things can trigger one. 

Blue, our miniature poodle, has them in abundance - only no-one knew this when we adopted him.

After surgery

Close up

Blue is a “chien sauvé”, a rescued dog. At the end of 2010, he was rescued from a notorious puppy mill in Italy as ‘unsold stock’. He was 6 months old and weighed only 3 kg, most of which was his matted coat of bug infested wool. Multiple infections in his eyes, ears and paws qualified him as a hospital case yet the people at Dr. Villiers Clinic in Lausanne soon had him on the mend and fostered out with Lindy, the AIDA Switzerland volunteer who rescued him.

With his foster family, Blue’s true delightful character started to emerge. He was with a caring family which included three other dogs, and they took particularly good care of him. It was a honeymoon period for him and he took to it with total appreciation and an out-pouring of puppy emotion – everybody loved him.

With Hercule

With Suki

When Blue came to us it was his third change of environment in 6 weeks. In foster care he had other dogs with which he could play and from whom he gained courage. He could follow them about and annoy them with his puppy antics; he could use them to model his behavior. In our home, there were no other dogs, he had to keep himself occupied at times, and it is in these sorts of alone moments that a phobia begins to manifest itself.

With Jerry and Hercule in
in his foster home

We have little knowledge of what life was like for Blue in those formative months of his life. All we could do at the time was attempt to piece together some of the picture from aspects of his behavior and the reactions he displayed to certain things in those first few weeks with us. Each day brought startling revelations and new challenges to overcome.

Fear of grates and drains

 Puppy mill dogs are typically kept in wire crates with no base board so that feces and urine can pass directly through into a collection tray or runoff drain underneath. We believe that Blue spent most of his life before his rescue in a wire crate of this type. We also suspect his crate was probably located in an elevated position as many of these crates are stacked on top of each other to make full utilization of space. We surmise this from Blue’s behavior whenever he comes across an unknown drainage grate or ventilation outlet as well as his almost pathological fear of heights.

Initially Blue’s reaction to a grate or drain was one of avoidance – he would stop stock still and back away even though the grate might be several metres away.  When this first happened no amount of coaxing could get the wee chap to approach the offending piece of road bling – we skirted the issue for weeks, literally.

It soon became apparent that this was an issue that needed dealing with if we were ever going to be able to take our dog out for any normal sort of walk – do you know how many drainage grates and manhole covers there are in a city?

Some schools of thought would suggest that one use a “throw him into the deep end” approach i.e. tug the dog over to the grate and make him see it’s perfectly safe. In my opinion this would have done nothing other than terrify him even further and reaffirm that his initial fear was indeed the right one. What I needed was a means to desensitize him to the source of fear and allow him to come to the realization that his fears were unfounded on his own.  Clicker training provides the ideal vehicle for this. However this was much more than a simple click’n’treat situation!

Blue’s fear was so great that he would refuse to accept even the most appealing of treats. On more than one occasion his response was simply to spit out any treats offered to him. It was important to me to modify my understanding of the term “reward” as the primary motivator. It is easy to think of food as that which is most important to a dog, but Blue was teaching me that comfort, security, acceptance, understanding …were all equally powerful motivators.

We dog lovers have a terrible habit of anthropomorphism when it comes to our dogs – attributing human emotions to our canine friends. The reality is that all mammals, regardless of species, have a need for at least the first four stages of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. What Blue was in need of was the fourth stage: esteem: confidence, achievement, respect for and by others – it was my job as his ‘pack’ to provide him with that.

My Interpretation of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as it applies to dogs

And so it was my education began. First I needed to develop my powers of observation – where were all these jolly grates and how could I spot them before my dog did? A little forward planning and a few walks on my own provided me with several routes I could take my dog where there were a few relatively unobtrusive grates that we should be able to successfully sidle past.

My next task was to engineer it so that my body always came between my dog and the terrifying metal work. If I could orchestrate it so Blue’s focus was on me as we went past, he could become familiar with the route and build his confidence before having to confront a grate.  It was all very well in theory, but the reality was more complicated. To pull this off I had to keep one eye on Blue and watch for any signs of stress, while also being on the lookout for each subsequent grate.

It was a slow process – one in which I learned the power of the click after we had successfully passed. If I clicked before approaching the grate, and there was any element of fear, I ran the risk of inadvertently rewarding Blue for being afraid. I learned this because it was during these times that Blue would categorically refuse to accept any treat. If, however, we negotiated our way past without incident  – my being between dog and grate – the click would mark the success of the pass-by and the treat was more readily accepted.

Another strategy I employed was to pair up the fearful object with something of great desire to Blue – his love of balls. Our estate has many ventilation vents and drainage grates alongside the gardens and playgrounds. By taking a ball out when we went to play and selecting a place close to one of these drains I could provide Blue with an opportunity to approach the grate to retrieve his ball. In those early days he’d never go too close, preferring to crouch and bark for me to retrieve it. When I didn’t respond, he’d look at me standing as I was in close proximity to the grate, and decide that another strategy might be more effective. A tentative step closer to the grate, CLICK!, and I’d nudge the ball closer to him and farther away from the grate. If he took another step, he’d get another CLICK!, and the ball would come ever closer. Soon the ball would be an acceptable distance from the grate and he’d rush to retrieve it. In this way I was able to gradually reduce the circle of fear around the grate.

That was 12 months ago, now Blue pays little heed to the familiar metal work in the road. On occasion we may come across one unknown and he will approach tentatively, sniff at it and peer into its depths as if looking for the ghost dogs beneath. Each approach earns him a click’n’treat or some much deserved praise for being such a brave boy. He’s also getting quite adept at jumping over any that come between him and where he wants to go. And that’s the sort of great he likes! 

Acknowledgement: Many thanks to Lindy, Blue's foster mum for the photos from his time with her.

Recipes

Meaty Treats

500 grams ground raw poultry (bones, skin and all)

200 grams grated sweet potato, skin included
300 grams offal (chicken or turkey livers, hearts or gizzards)
½ tsp ground ginger
1 clove garlic (use in every second batch)
1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves
Optional: up to 1 cup left-over cooked rice
                ½ cup cooked or frozen spinach

1. Blend the sweet potato, offal, ginger, garlic and basil with the spinach and/or rice (if using) until liquidized. Mix into the raw meat mix.
2. Spread onto a non-stick sheet (or a large piece of cling film) until about a quarter of a centimeter thick all over. An easy way to do this without handling the mixture is to cover it with a sheet of cling film and roll it flat with a rolling pin. Peel the cling film off once you get it to the right thickness. This amount will make two trays worth.
3. Place in a dehydrator at a low temperature (~115 °F/46°C) for 5-6 hours or until the mixture is completely dry.
4. Cut into strips or 1 cm squares and pack in an air tight container. When needed, just toss ’em to your dog or let your dog nibble at the strips.

Scotti's Dried Egg Treats

10 eggs
Pinch of salt
1 tsp dried parsley or 2-3 sprigs of fresh
200 grams chicken or turkey livers (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Separate eggs. Whisk the whites with salt until stiff enough for peaks to form.
2. Liquidize in blender the parsley, egg yolks and livers (if using).
3. Fold the yolk mix into the egg whites until just mixed.
4. Pour onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper and let spread, DO NOT flatten.
5. Turn the oven down to 100°C and bake for 10-15 minutes until the mixture rises a little like a soufflé. It should be firm to touch.
6. Let the cake cool before slicing it into strips about half a centimeter thick. Lay these on a baking sheet (or a dehydrator tray) and return to the oven until they dry out further (another 15-20 minutes). 
7. Remove from the oven and slice each strip into treat sized pieces. 
8. Turn your oven to its coolest temperature (or set the dehydrator at 40°C) and dry the pieces out slowly until all the moisture is gone. 

Drying Meat for Treats

Liver and Kidneys

1. Slice the meat into strips of an even thickness - about ¼ centimetre. 
2. Lay the strips on a drying sheet and place in the dehydrator at 115°F-46°C until the slices are completely dried out. You want these pieces to snap apart when broken. If there is any moisture at all in the slices they will begin to go moldy.
3. Snap the pieces into bite-sizes and store in an air-tight container. Use liberally with all your training.

Heart or Muscle Meat Jerky

1. Use beef or lamb heart, the muscle meat of any animal so long as it is lean and fat free.
2.  Cut away all visible fat from the meat. Slice meat into strips about a ½ centimetre thick. The thicker the strips the more chewy they will be. 
3. Place in a dehydrator at 115°F-46°C for 5-6 hours turning them after 3-4 hours to make sure they get evenly dried. The strips will bend rather than snap but should still be well dried out. The thicker the strips the longer they will take to dry.
4. Cut into bite-sized pieces (about a centimetre square) and store in an airtight container. Enjoy, your dog will love them.

High Quality Treats Make for Great Clicker Training

One of the most important factors that contribute to successful clicker training is the quality of the treats you use.

All dogs are motivated by food but some more than others. Sometimes the fear of a situation or an intensive distraction can override the effectiveness of foods you might be using for treats. Just as you might go off your food when you are feeling tense or stressful, so too will your dog.

I work with refuge and rescued dogs that have often been exposed to abusive or stressful situations. Many of these dogs are keen to please and will do anything for a little attention and a special treat in the early stages of working with them. But as work continues with the dog or if they have learned some bad habits in the past, they may become interested in other things that capture their attention and fail to respond favorably to the treats that once worked for them.  It is at this point that the quality of your reward really needs to match or surpass what it is you are asking of your dog.

Unfortunately animal products are not as well labeled as human ones and I found it hard to identify exactly what went into many of the commercial brands. Unless you are willing to give your treats the taste test, you have to rely on your dog's response to the treat in a variety of situations. In the early days of my clicker training I would try any product on the market that was labeled as tasty and nutritious - my miniature poodle always performed the taste test and spat out more treats than he swallowed. Some would work in safe situations but the majority I couldn't take on the road with him - he just wasn't interested. This caused me all sorts of problems when it came to identifying quality treats for which my dogs would work. In the end I was buying commercially prepared pure meat treats but to get 100% quality meat products is expensive.. During a single clicker training session, our Beauceron pup would gobble up 50 grams of treats. As he has five or six 15-20 minute daily training sessions – that equated to nearly three packs of commercial food a day. I needed a more economical solution.

A brain wave, and a particularly long hot summer, resulted in my harnessing the power of the sun to dry a Meaty Treats mix (see my Recipes blog for details) that I’d had quite a lot of success with in a paste form with both my dogs. Not a problem if you live in a tropical climate, but I live in Switzerland, how was I going to maintain this through the winter? I tried a couple of times drying it in the oven, but even the coolest temperature of my oven was too hot and the meat started cooking, making my apartment smell like an abattoir. The dogs loved it, but they were the only ones!

During my KPA residential at the Legacy Canine Centre in Sequim in November, I had the very great please of working with a 16 week old Icelandic sheepdog whose mum made him the yummiest dried egg treats. All the dogs we worked with at Legacy loved these – here was, at least, part of a solution. A discussion over lunch elicited Scotti’s recipe – Scotti’s Dried Egg Treats – as well as some valuable information about how I might solve the rest of my problem.

 Apparently there was a dehydrator on the market that was ideal for drying meats. A little internet research and I learned all about the Excalibur Dehydrator.  One of my KPA friends was coming to Geneva in December and she offered to bring one across for me if I could get it delivered to her place before she left (what a cool bunch of people the KPA attract!)

That was a month ago now and since then I’ve gone into full scale production: beef or lamb liver and kidney, lean beef strips, chicken breast, chicken livers, hearts and gizzards, beef heart or lamb heart – any meat that is fresh, fat free and nutritious goes into the machine. And my dogs love them all!

High quality dog treats are crucial for any sort of training, but they are of particular value for clicker training; a very small amount of a high quality treat will elicit a whole range of wonderful behaviors from your dog in a wide range of situations - even scary or intimidating ones. I have pots of treats all over the place so there is always something my dogs will work for easily at hand. Because the treats are well dried, they don’t smell (much) and they keep for weeks (though mine don’t usually last that long).

An added benefit that I hadn’t figured is that of variety. Using dried treats like this enables me to keep the anticipation active with both my dogs. They never quite know what treat they will be getting (and sometimes it is a mixture of them all) and so are much more willing to work than if they were getting the same old treat all the time.

I’m happy – my dogs are getting highly nutritious treats that motivate them to be willing recipients of all my behavior modification sessions, even those conducted by my husband. And my dogs are happy – they think they’ve got me trained to deliver tasty treats on demand just for performing a few simple behaviors on cue in distracting situations. Click!