Muzzles!

Time to get a muzzle.

OK, so you have a dog that needs a muzzle. There are plenty of reasons dogs wear muzzles but often owners say they don’t want to feel stigmatized by being seen with their dog in a muzzle. I get it. I have bully breeds and want to project they are great dogs. But it comes down to people who don’t get it are going to say whatever they are going to say while I ensure the safety and happiness of my dog.

There are a bajillion great reasons why dogs wear muzzles.

• For a dog that gobbles up inappropriate items like rocks. 

• Making sure a dog can’t land a damaging bite. 

• Occasionally herding dogs tag housemates when arousal levels get too high. Afterall, herding dogs just don’t politely ask bulls and rams to move along into a pen they have no intention of going near. They use their teeth to enforce motion and to protect themselves. 

• Dogs may make a bad choice on a trail and, for example, a bike whizzes by. Of course, you aren’t going to walk a dog that is working on moving object issues in the middle of your local bike rail trail, but a mountain biker can seemingly come out of nowhere, especially if they are riding on a trail closed to bikes.

• Muzzles are awesome to keep well-meaning people from shoving their hands in your leashed dog’s face. Parents suddenly put down their phone to actually get their kid if their child is magnetized to a dog in a muzzle. 

• My favorite effect of walking a dog in a muzzle is in the speed other dog owners suddenly find. Miraculously, they rush to leash-up their dog while in a no off-leash dogs area instead of shouting “My dog is friendly!” 

• And, of course, if your dog gets anxious at the vet muzzles can be game-changers. You are more relaxed because you know your dog can’t land a bite or even air snap. If your dog is happy about wearing a muzzle, you can bring your dog’s muzzle in with you which is less stressful to all involved and so much kinder to your dog than being forced into a muzzle.

All my dogs are muzzle trained, even the ones who are highly unlikely to use their teeth. Every dog has the potential to bite. If they get injured, wearing a muzzle to get triaged or treated won’t add to their stress. 

Bumas muzzles are custommade. They are cool and pretty. Awesome for hard to fit dogs. They are pricey. 

https://www.bumas.us/frontpage

Baskerville Ultras are the ones I recommend the most. Be sure to get the newer ones with a clip like a collar rather than a belt-like fastener (unless sound is an issue for your dog)  

Save the box it came in for teaching your dog to love it!

Sizing for Baskervilles

https://www.petexpertise.com/baskerville-ultra-dog-muzzle/

Buy one:

https://www.chewy.com/baskerville-ultra-dog-muzzle/dp/11737

My new favorite custom muzzles!!!! Made in US. 

https://www.trust-your-dog.com/

General info

https://muzzleupproject.com/

Desensitizing

https://www.facebook.com/AggressionInDogs/videos/284099959073961/

Shaping a muzzle for a better fit

https://www.facebook.com/AggressionInDogs/videos/270049333827154/

Make it pretty!!

http://www.thedoggeek.com/2016/04/a-duct-tape-muzzle-art-tutorial.html

Grooming a dog that thinks brushing sucks

Hi-Fi, a nine year old Pitty/Cattle Dog+, has what is called a smooth coat but he sheds like crazy! All year long, his black hair shows up everywhere. I take along extra lint rollers when staying in hotels to be sure he doesn’t leave too much behind. I even get his hair stuck in the soles of my feet. If you have ever had that happen, you know how much a single tiny strand of dog hair can hurt. Oweeee!

This is how Hi-Fi and I have agreed on a brushing routine. By sitting down, I’m decreasing the pressure of reaching and looming over him. I started by teaching him to target different objects with his hips/flank. His action of touching his flank to an object brought out a tasty food reinforcer. I also auditioned many brushes and combs to see what he found least bothersome. This soft rubber curry brush is the winner, and as a bonus, it’s easy for him to retrieve. I use a fun retrieve to relieve any tension he’s feeling and to reinforce approach to me, even though he is getting brushed.

Here, he easily and readily targets the brush with his flank, which is my cue he is ready for me to start brushing. It’s his start button. If he didn’t offer this behavior when I held the brush out, it tells me he’s not ready. For example, if there were certain other dogs close by, he may have split attention. The environment would be too much. I’d end this attempt, and either move Hi-Fi or put the the other dogs in the house.

At one point during the video, he moved away from the brush. I think it’s because he’s working hard at getting the food out of my other hand. I stop, and he quickly steps back into contact with the brush. His tail is low with a sweepy wag which for him indicates he is comfortable. I did feel his teeth more than usual while he was eating treats. We call this “getting sharky” which is a great tell that your dog is less than perfectly comfortable.

I keep this session short and happy. Would I love to brush him for 20 minutes and get every piece of extra (potential barb to the bottom of my feet) hair off him? Sure. I do this with my Sheltie mix, Skeeeeeter!. He’s not that kind of dog. It would burn him out on brushing. I’ve worked very hard to change his conflicted feelings to happy waggy feelings. Quitting before I accomplish my goal of totally brushing out his undercoat respects his limits. There’s always after dinner or tomorrow. By listening to him now, he’s more than happy to play this game with me next time.

Teaching a dog to take pills

This is a video of my 14 year old Sheltie mix, Skeeeeeter!, at pill time. She is taking four individual pills and she couldn’t be happier about having the opportunity!

I started out like everyone-I hid her pill in some food. She started spitting out the pill and scarfing down the food. I got more creative. I tried disguising it in cheese, a hotdog, cream cheese, a marshmallow, pepperoni, meatball, etc, etc. The more creative I got, the more she started distrusting any food item I handed her. Then I moved to pill pockets which worked great for a week or so before they became “poisoned” as well. Nope, no way was she going near a pill pocket. Sigh. She was always an easy dog to manually pill, but since she has a tumor at the top of her head and her jaw muscles were affected by her cancer, it made it difficult to open her mouth to cram a pill down her throat. Poor girly.

I turned to the internet. I’m a professional dog trainer-surely I could train a dog to eat a pill. Err-right? Laura VanArendonk Baugh has a short video on a dog taking a pill for a chip. Wow-just what I needed! Between that and Deb Jones cooperative care, I designed an easy training protocol for Skee.

First, I needed something Skee would eat but wasn’t particularly crazy about. Popcorn! She will eat it, but has never been thrilled about it. Mmm, OK, I’ll have a one or two, thanx bai. I started by giving her a piece of popcorn and immediately swooping in and following it up with something she really likes-cheddar cheese. I did that several times in a row once or twice a day.

Practicing without actually giving her a pill allowed me to work on my timing and placement of reinforcement. I found it was easier for Skee if I made the process extremely predictable. I call her into the kitchen before each meal and lay out all my treats. I always use my left hand for the popcorn and feed the good stuff with my right. I use the same stand-by for more information verbal cue “Ready??” When I have her full anticipatory attention, I say “Take.” Then I present the popcorn and immediately swoop in with the cheese both to reinforce the take and to make sure she got the popcorn down.

In behavior-land, we call what I was doing utilizing the Premack Principle. The Premack Principle states that a low probability behavior (taking a pill) can be reinforced by a higher probability behavior (eating cheese). Skeet totally understands there is her very favorite food treat if she takes the pill in her mouth. If she chooses not to take the pill, she doesn’t get any cheese.

Skeeeeter! (she really does need each of the five e’s in her name and the exclamation mark) was diagnosed with cancer in April of 2019 with a poor prognosis. She has a squamous cell carcinoma tumor located under her skin above the ridge of her left eye which is a extremely uncommon presentation. Surgery and palliative radiation followed. She was placed on twice daily capsule of Gabapentin, in addition to liquid Metacam, to minimize pain. After her diagnosis, we put her on the anything you want to eat diet. This was a big hit! She gained 5 pounds in 3 months. Oopsie. In any case, she had an array of ridiculously named canned foods to top off her kibble. I switched to a canned food she really liked for the special food reinforcer and picked the ones that were more fillet shaped because it was the easiest to deliver to her. Plus, she loved it. She was noticeably more excited to do her “take” of popcorn when I switched to something she really really wanted that followed it up.

The last thing I did before trying her “take” with a capsule was to switch from popcorn to a piece of her regular kibble. With her new weight, ahem, she was less enthused about kibble.

Altogether, it took about three to four weeks of training two times a day before she reliably and eagerly took any pill handed to her. We had a few capsules get mangled and had to be thrown out, and twice I discovered a capsule in the living room ten minutes after I thought she had taken it. I still don’t know how she managed that!

In October, Skee’s new oncologist wanted to try a chemotherapy drug, Toceranib. It would be an additional three pills three times a week. Plus, a new challenge-I had to wear gloves to administer it! I went back to practicing taking with low value kibble and the same very high value canned food but while wearing gloves. Skee handled it like a pro. She even helped me out by really trying hard to get the kibble or pill, even if my glove was a little slick. The behavior seamlessly transferred to my husband giving her pills as well as a dog-sitter. She has the behavior of take nailed.

This encouraged me to train this behavior with my other two dogs. With any luck it will be a very long time before they need an array of pills, but now they have this as a behavior in their toolbox. If given the opportunity, why not have your best friend look forward to pill time? Especially when it’s end of life choices, the struggle to get a dog to take medications is so terribly sad and poignant. This is a much better way.

Looking at the first obstacle

Back ten years or so ago, Susan Garett was teaching dogs to look at the first jump on the startline of an agility course. Eh, I thought, just a party trick. After teaching agility for another decade, I have had time to re-think. Some of my students struggle to get the first obstacle for a number of reasons and that their dog is staring at them is very common. In scent work, I especially don't want the dog looking to the handler on the start line. Scent work dogs need to be scanning the search area ahead of them, ready to lead their owner to the hide.

Here's the entirety of a 5 minute training session in all its imperfect glory, edited only between resetting the target. It starts with my 12 month old Pitty mix, Pearl, with zero experience at looking ahead to staring at a jump with duration. This easily transferred to the agility field and looking for the first obstacle. It makes lateral lead-outs a breeze. I think it also helps with stays as the dog is >doing< something as looking is an active behavior as opposed to not moving. 

Will it bite me down the road if she chooses the incorrect obstacle? I dunno but will report back...

Choice and body contact

All dogs are not Lassie clones. It's a wonderful thing when you have a care-free confident dog that has zero issues with you brushing teeth, clipping nails, and toweling off. However, every dog is different. Some dogs shut down and accept their fate. Others show teeth, growl, or bite to get the point across that they do not want to be handled like that. Owners are often very surprised when their dog expresses discomfort from basic touching.

Dogs with touch and restraint issues, often the more restraint is added, the more the dog fights back. Vet visits turn into nightmares. Owners can feel angry and helpless.  There are several helpful training strategies for the touch sensitive dog, including muzzle training and a program of desensitization and counter-conditioning. But the most help is found on the other end of the leash. It's a two-way conversation with the dog about comfort level. The owner has to learn to give their dog choice and control in body contact.

Here's a video I recorded when I got home from a hike with the dogs. (Don't look at my hat head!) Hi-Fi had rolled in something disgusting and I had to get the stink off him. Through offering him choice and respecting his comfort levels, we had a low-stress clean up.