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Happy blogging!

Carroll.

Punishment has become such a bad word of late within popular dog training media. There are some trainers that say they only use Positive Reinforcement. The word punishment invokes certain feelings and ideas in many people’s minds. From personal experience it seems, choke chains, alpha rolls, slapping or hitting etc. Yes all off these things could be described as punishing – perhaps! Read on…

To understand what a punisher is we need to understand learning theory. Punishment is something that reduces behaviour. Reinforcement is something that increases behaviour. Now, take the choke chain example – if I stop choking the dog when he sits down, I have just used the removal of the choke chain as reinforcement for the dog to sit! This is called Negative Reinforcement – the removal of an unpleasant/undesirable stimulus when the desired behaviour occurs. The word punishment is no-where to be seen in this situation – however, of course this is not something that should ever be done to a dog!

It is a fact that it is impossible to train a dog without the use of punishment! Think about it. If your dog jumps up on you and you ignore him i.e. remove the reinforcement of your attention. This will over time reduce the jumping up behaviour. This process is known as Negative Punishment! And this is what a “positive reinforcement trainer” does. However, none of us would ever say that we use Negative Punishment to a client – because of the perceived notion of what the word punishment means. Telling a child that they won’t get any ice-cream until they stop their tantrum is Negative Punishment! Negative Punishment sounds terrible, but when it’s explained, it is of course is the ethical way to deal with that situation. Slapping the child to stop the tantrum is called positive punishment – this is the addition of an unpleasant stimulus in order to reduce a specific behaviour.

Punishment has become such a bad word and I believe undermines people’s ability to truly understand how their dogs learn.

What the solution is I’m not sure – the general public is already bombarded with so many notions and ideas about what makes a good dog trainer.

Ethical Training is a term I like to use. Which would incorporate both the use of Positive Reinforcement and Negative Punishment in training and is a more correct way of describing how we should train our dogs.

Just something to think about Comments welcome

We booked him for a full panel of bloods with our vet and this is where it all began. The symptoms of liver disease are often vague and subtle at the early stages especially. He’s initial bloods showed up some liver dysfunction that needed further investigation. He had bile acid testing done several times and it was confirmed there was most certainly some problems in this area. Over the months that followed he had lots of test run and was referred to UCD. In August he was diagnosed with a Congenital Liver Disease called Hepatic Microvascular Dysplasia.  At first, I thought this was a death sentence for him, but we learnt lots and now he has a happy and almost normal life through medical and dietary management.

 What is HMD/MVD:

The liver is responsible for lots of functions in dogs including filtering toxins, waste removal and bile production to aid digestion. The blood is carried to the liver via the portal vein which branches out into smaller and smaller vessels to be detoxified. Microvascular Dysplasia is diagnosed when these microscopic vessels are abnormal and blood is going back into circulation without being detoxified and cleaned.

Symptoms:

 They are rarely consistent and there is range of symptoms from very mild to severe and not all dogs while suffer the same ones. This condition doesn’t usually present until the dog is around age three unlike a portosystemic shunt which symptoms usually come to light when the dog is much younger and usually under one, some of the symptoms include anorexia, lethargy, salivating, vomiting, diarrhoea, hepatic encephalopathy which is an impairment of the mental state due to liver dysfunction often seen as aggression, pacing, circling, pressing head, apparent blindness and even seizures and a zombie like state. Charlie’s most obviously symptoms where lethargy and staring with occasional vomiting and diarrhoea, lack of appetite, head pressing and becoming more aggressive with other dogs. Since Charlie was only aged two his symptoms where mild but I would spend a lot of time with him and quickly notice small changes in his personality.

 Tests:

Charlie had the following tests: Basic Panel of Bloods,  Bile Acid Testing,  Ultra Sounds,  Liver Biopsy,  Blood Ammonia Testing , Vitamin B12 tests & Zinc Level Test.  It took several months to get conclusive diagnoses as many other things had to be ruled out, mainly a Portosystemic Shunt which is another form of Liver Disease.

How do we medically Manage Charlie:

The hardest thing to get our heads around was that Charlie can have no meat or fish protein and plenty of other foods are off the menu too! This is essential to his care this would result in further toxin build up and damage to his organs. He gets prescription food from the Vet made especially for dogs with Liver Disease. He can also have small amounts of cottage cheese, egg whites, goats yogurt so we have become a dab hand at making him special cakes for his training as hotdogs and cheese (which were his all time favourites) are off the menu forever!

The amount of protein he eats per day has to be measured to ensure his symptoms are kept under control. He also needs to eat numerous small meals per day to ease the work load on his liver.

He also takes several medications and supplements which include:

1. Lactulose X 3 times per day – binds ammonia in his bowel and ensure he poops frequently throughout the day

2. Long term antibiotics X 2 times per day – to decrease bacteria in his blood

3. VSL-3 – Probiotics (because he is on longterm antibiotics and this is the most suitable since it contains no manganese which dogs with liver disease don’t tolerate well)

4. Zentonil (Sam-E) – prevents more liver damage

5. Heptosupport – supports normal liver function with Milk Thistle and vitamins

6. Zinc & Vitamin E – Dogs with liver disease are often lacking in these

It sounds like a lot and at first it was difficult to get the hang of it all, but now it’s like second nature to us. Charlie is a happy dog again who enjoys long walks on the beach and doing agility training. It most certainly hasn’t been a death sentence and we are very lucky to have our beautiful dog doing very well thanks to a little bit of effort and our amazing vet who always goes to great lengths to help and support Charlie.

This is a fantastic book that offers lots of practical advice and solutions to help prevent and deal with a wide variety of puppy problems. The book covers topics from selecting the right puppy, from the right breeder to toilet training, mouthing and everything in between. It is essential reading for all new puppy owners :) Also check out www.dogstardaily.com Ian Dunbar’s fantastic website crammed full of information.

2. Book a Puppy Socialisation Course:

As soon as your Veterinarian gives you the go ahead, your puppy should start a puppy socialisation course, with qualified, certified and experienced pet dog trainers before your puppy is 16 weeks of age, the earlier the better! This will be the most important course of your puppies’ life and you should choose your trainer carefully. The right puppy course should have a mix of off-lead play, obedience exercises, owner education to help ensure the maximum benefit for all. Look for certifications such as the APDT UK, CCPDT, APBC and evidence of study, assessment and experience from your puppy trainer

 3. Crate Train your Puppy:

 This helps to toilet train and chew train your puppy as well as helping to build some independence and help your puppy deal with frustration and self control. Dogs or puppies should not be left in their crate for more than a couple of hours during the day and very young puppies will need to be taken out at least once during the night for toilets. Puppies and dogs like to keep their bed clean and should not toilet in their crate unless the crate is too big, they are unwell or they have come from an impoverished environment where they have lost this natural ability. Puppies and dogs love their crate especially when it has lots of comfy blankets and is covered over at night time. It becomes their safe place.

 4. Chew Toy Train your Puppy:

 Ban the bowl in favour of Kong toys, treat balls, tug-a-jugs and any other interactive toys you can find for your puppy. A Kong is the world’s best dog toy and will become a saviour when you have a young pup or active dog. Invest in some appropriate size and chew level for your pup, put a small bit of cheese spread pate, sardines or similar around the inside of the Kong, stuff the Kong with their kibble as tight as you can (I find a rubber glove works great), give this to your puppy in replace of feeding from their dish especially when you have to go out for a while. If your puppy is busy chewing their Kong, they will never learn that chewing your kitchen table legs and skirting boards is fun, they will also have a job and something to keep them busy so they won’t be barking and disturbing neighbours. Over time you can make the Kong more difficult lots of people pour a small bit of stock cube over their Kong and freeze them, helps with puppy teething too!

5. Ensure your puppy has 100 positive experiences with 100 different people:

 Research suggests that the socialisation period of puppies is up until 16 weeks of age and that in this time they should have 100 positive experiences with new people of different ages, sizes, wearing different clothes, carrying different items and so on. This includes children of all ages and sizes too. Bring tasty treats out on walks and ask different people and children to help you achieve this goal, ask them to feed your puppy to help create that positive experience, never pull or drag your pup over to something they are frightened of, this will make them more frightened and may create some problems when they are matured.

6. Ensure your puppy has 100 positive experiences with 100 new dogs before 16 weeks of age:

 This is the same as number 5, except with dogs! This is where enrolling in a puppy socialisation course will help.

7. Don’t put your puppies nose in their toilets or smack them on the nose:

 If your puppy makes mistakes it’s not his fault, he is only very young and you need to train him. Don’t let an untrained puppy have free run around the house he will just go to the toilet as he needs to, instead bring him out to the garden every hour and wait and reward him when he gets it right. If you find an accident it’s the person who was meant to be watching the puppy that should be in trouble – not the pup! Puppies that have their nose put in their toilets will often eat their toilets or go behind the sofa or under the bed because they want to hide it from you, not a very nice thought. Puppies that are smacked on the nose often become hand shy and once they mature often become snappy and unhappy about being approached – not a problem any owner wants to be dealing with.

8. Teach your puppy Bite Inhibition:

 Probably the most important thing you will teach your puppy.  Puppies bite and its great that they do because this is how we teach them human skin is super sensitive.  You don’t need to hurt your puppy to let them know they’ve hurt you but once they bite down hard you can simply say OUCH and remove yourself or your puppy from the situation for a few seconds.  After some practice your puppy will start to inhibite their bite and be a lot more gentle.  Then you can let on it still hurts until they stop putting any pressure down at all and their biting will decrease until its just licking!  Off lead play with other puppies and well socialised dogs is also good for teaching bite inhibtion and should be covered in puppy classes.

9. Teach your puppy to be comfortable with being handled by you and different people:

 This will make vet and grooming visits a breeze for you and your pup. It will help remove any stress for you and your dog too. It will also be sure to save you money because you won’t need to have your dog sedated for things like having a bandage applied, stitches removed or a groom! Sit down every evening with your dogs dinner and touch their paw and give them some kibble, touch their ears and give them some kibble, look at their teeth, give them some kibble and so on….

10. It’s never too early to start your training!

You’ll make mistakes, your puppy will make mistakes, try harder, find out what they love, motivate them, be patient, be kind, most importantly enjoy them and have fun!

Diet: I have placed her on a holistic food called Robbies, this is a natural food produced by a company called the land of holistic pets.

Glucosamine: I changed her from a powder Glucosamine to a liquid Glucosamine called Flexicose, the reason I chose this particular Glucosamine was because a colleague of mine started taking the human form for his own knee and can now run an Agility course after the doctors said he needed an operation!

Magnetism: I bought a collar that has a small Magnet stitched into it which she now wears on her neck.

One month later after making all of these changes Honey more than managed a 3 hour mountain hike in our local mountains with no ill effects or signs of pain either during the walk or afterwards. I really never thought she would ever manage anything like that again and I am so happy for her. I cannot say which of these changes has had the most effect because I introduced them all around the same time. I know if I had been scientific about it I would have introduced each one individually, but all I care about now is that she is back enjoying her walks and not in pain. So for anyone out there whose dog suffers from arthritis just keep looking for solutions that work for your dog. You just never know!

DTI first met Clodagh when she did work experience with us; she then went on to adopt her own dog from Puppy Rescue, Bailey, the lovely chocolate cross breed. She attended classes from beginner’s obedience right up to advanced agility with many workshops and seminars along the way too with Bailey. They have gone on to win the Scrufts competition at the Pet Expo 2008, Game Night at DTI, and bringing home many rosettes from the agility competitions they have taken part in. All of this has been down to Clodagh’s dedication and hard work.

I first met Clodagh at agility classes who I was attending with my own dog, Charlie. Charlie and Bailey became firm best friends, with me and Clodagh becoming good friends shortly after!!! Clodagh and Bailey always bring lots of fun and laughs to our agility training sessions and to our competition days out.

Clodagh has been accepted to study Veterinary Medicine in Budapest. She leaves on Monday to embark on her new career. We know Clodagh is going to make a fabulous vet and we wish her all the best in Budapest. We will miss her dearly but she has promised to make any agility practice and competitions when she is home. This Sunday she and Bailey have their last competition before she leaves. It promises to be a great day out. Derek, our fab agility instructor, is going to take over Bailey’s handling at training and competitions so Bailey doesn’t miss out on his training, which he loves so much.

We wish Clodagh, all the best, from everyone at DTI, and especially from myself and Charlie. We are going to miss you lots and lots, we can’t wait until you qualify because Ireland is going to have a super new Vet

We remember the nervous and shy dogs that started out with us. And the feelings of happiness and pride to see them become happy and confidence, it can sometimes be quite overwhelming. Shep, the tri-colour collie, always sticks in my mind, I remember his first day. I picked him up and gave him a kiss. I promised him he would be well looked after, and of course he was, he’s now a super confident young man, who loves day care so much. Even now, months on, when I come in to start my shift, he runs to me to get his mandatory kiss and cuddle! There are many more just like Shep who we’ve had the pleasure to work with in day care.

When the dogs or owners go on their holidays, we miss them dearly and we have a huge void waiting on their return. It’s always great to get huge hugs and kisses from them when they come home (to day care that is). Zach, the day care character, always shows us how much he misses us when he is away, he runs in to tell us all about his adventures and we are delighted to listen!

When a dog is unwell, we’ve shared tears with each other and with their owners, and wait anxiously for news that all is fine. Of course, it always has been, but that doesn’t stop us worrying. The day care dogs feel like our babies too, and we all know what it’s like when our babies are not well! Every day we carefully monitor each dog and always know when the dog is feeling off. We know them so well, it’s very easy to spot!

When a dog moves away or their owner’s circumstance change, it’s very, very difficult to say goodbye. Over the years, I imagine it will only get harder and harder, it will never get easier. The emotional bond and attachment to each and every dog we care for is very strong. We’ve shared fun, laughter, pride, joy, worry, tears, love, happiness and every single emotion in between. We are lucky to have such great dogs to care for and to enrich our lives.

How do you locate your staff? Do you advertise or do people gravitate towards your company? When you do find the people you like how do you train them? How do you portray your company values so they will also value them? What do you think is an important trait in someone who is going to work with dogs and people?

We do have one DTI person who is very important and who works away in the background developing the website, updating it, thinking up new ideas and making sure everything is ticking over nicely technology wise!

Carroll Reid is our webmaster, programmer and all round techie! Carroll is Lisas husband and not only knows dogs, is a fab website developer but he is also a drummer for the group FROCK, oh and he can ski too. Talk about multitalented.

We are delighted to have such a great group of people around us. Without them DTI wouldn’t function. Who’s who in your organisation? And have you said “thanks” recently?!

To all our people THANK YOU!

Veronica a light haired female human loves attention, pulls on the lead and needs training in this area, sleeps all night, house trained but can get a little stressed around other humans. Needs a lap dog.

Harrold, an entire male human. Black hair, has a bad habit of popping at the collar, doesn’t like other human company. Needs an independent large confident dog to help him meet other humans and socialise.

Becky and Bobbie twins aged 6, high energy needs a lot of attention and a dog who is really fit and healthy to keep up with them. You shouldn’t mind being woken in the middle of the night as these are not house trained and only sleep around 5 hours a night. Advantages are lots of treats and many toys.

Clive This human needs a cat, no dogs, no humans!

The vet took him in straight away. Within an hour she came back with initial blood results, he wasn’t anaemic, but was fighting something, as his white blood cell count was up. The next step was to scan his stomach and intestine. Later that day she came back to say that there was a blockage in the intestine, but she could not see a foreign body i.e. something he had swallowed. The only other alternative was a tumour. I was devastated. She had given him barium to see where the blockage was and started x-rays. Over the next 24 hours we waited to see how he would progress. He was on a drip and antibiotics to keep him hydrated and help fight whatever infection he had.

On Monday the vomiting suddenly increased from every 12 hours to every 2 hours. The vomit was a very low ph and the vet was worried about his oesophagus sustaining damage. I was becoming increasing worried. We were waiting for a place in UCD (University College Dublin – The national Vet College) because the view was still that it was a tumour. The waiting was awful. UCD offered an appointment for Wednesday.

On Monday evening I spoke with the vet and I expressed my concern again that he was prone to scavenging and was there any way it could be a foreign body that he ingested. The next morning, after another xray I got a call at 9.30am, there seemed to be something foreign in the stomach. His stomach was almost empty after all the vomiting so it was easier to see and view the x-ray. We agreed that she would perform an Endoscope to have a look inside the stomach. The results were inconclusive, but there was something green there. So the next step was a laparoscopy to a look inside the stomach. I agreed and hung up the phone. I waited and waited for the phone call and prayed that it was a foreign body and not a tumour. But then, what if his stomach or intestine were perforated? What if he had septicaemia? What was the green stuff? My mind was racing.

Finally the phone rang, the vet had taken a small piece of what looked like rubber, which could have been the curved part of a ball out of his intestine. Luckily the intestine was not perforated and she was able to work it out through his intestine and exit it from his anus. She also had a look inside his stomach where she found smaller pieces of the rubber and quite an amount of hair all congealed in a single greeny mass. I racked my brain wondering what it could be. We don’t give our dogs free access to balls. He hadn’t destroyed any toys that I was aware of lately, and the only toys the dogs have free access to are the red Kongs and some similar toys from premier. Certainly none of these toys had ever been destructible. He would stay in overnight for observation. They would start him on water in the morning and introduce bland food later in the day. He progressed extremely well and I was told I could collect him that evening. I couldn’t wait to see him and give him a cuddle, I was also looking forward to forensically examining the offending article.

The moment I saw it I knew exactly what it was, the end off a puppy Kong bone, a blue one. We don’t have any in the house for our own dogs as they are all adults. However, last Halloween we were minding a client’s dog. They brought her crate and bed set up and carried it into the house. Inside the bedding was the puppy Kong bone, which I didn’t see until I noticed Homer chewing on it. He had taken it out of her bed and had chewed a piece off it. Obviously I took it from him immediately. I watched him for a few days afterwards and when there were no problems I thought nothing more of it. It was, after all pretty soft and I thought he had probably chewed it up enough so it would pass, or so I thought. That was 2 months ago. I never would have dreamed that it could sit in his stomach for so long before he could become ill from it. Because it was rubber, it didn’t show up on the x-ray, making diagnosis almost impossible. In addition based on the x-rays and comparing it to the vague shadows the vet assures me it was still in his stomach on Monday evening and sometime between then and the next morning it moved into the small intestine.

Thankfully he is home now after 5 harrowing days of worry. He is doing well and happy in himself. He’s on 6 meals a day and will be for about a week or so. I have always been very conscious and careful about the dogs ingesting foreign objects so only leave them with toys I know and trust. I never buy cheap toys that are destructible and any new toys are given under supervision. But it just goes to show that even when you’re ultra careful you can still get caught out. What have I learned? To always check bedding that arrives with a client’s dog. But most importantly, not to assume that problems will present within hours or days of ingestion and bring the dog to the vet straight away even if there are no symptoms.