The Dog Blog

It may seem like shameless promotion, but I have to say, it’s a wonderful thing to hold a book you wrote in your hand, long after the writing and the editing and the discussions with the publishers are over… My new book, Tales of Two Species: Loving and Living with Dogs just came from the printers, and I have to admit it feels good to see it. It’s a collection of essays written over the years for Bark magazine, published by Dogwise (who I call the Amazon of dog books). Working with the editors of Bark has been a joy, and collaborating with the folks at Dogwise has been equally delightful (I presume you are not shocked to learn that this is not always the case between author and publisher?

I'm in South Africa right now, where the landscape is stunning and the animals are captivating. I don't know about you, but when I think of Africa I think of exotic beasts, lions, zebra, buffalo, crocodile, antelope and the like. I don't really think of dogs, but of course they are here. Domestic dogs and their people are what brought use to South Africa after all – Ian & I just completed a lecture series in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Yep, it’s that time again. The stores are filled with holiday decorations, we all wonder how the season could have snuck up on us so quickly…and dog trainers like me feel the need to warn everyone about the things that can harm dogs at the holidays.

Between planning family gatherings, decorating, gift-buying, and preparing way too much food, it's easy to get overwhelmed and forget about the needs of our dogs. But the holidays are also the busiest time of the year for veterinary emergency clinics. Take a moment to read over these simple tips for keeping your dogs happy and safe during the holidays:

They say dogs are good for you. Having just limped into the office with a nasty case of ‘nylabone foot’, I’m beginning to wonder!

If you’ve ever stood on one of these in the dark, in bare feet, I won’t have to explain the pain, the jumping about, or the expletives! And all this after laughing my head off having read about a top footballer who had to take six months off after dropping a jar of peanut butter on his foot. Clearly, karma at work.

Dogs reduce blood pressure in people that are stroking them. Dog owners suffer from fewer minor ailments, such as colds and flu, and many studies have shown that dogs are excellent for human health and well being, both short and long term. However, what nobody ever talks about are the many and various trivial ‘owies’ that dog owners quietly suffer: random toy injuries being just one.

When I adopted Fergus the Jack Russell
Terrier 6 months ago I wasn’t looking for another dog, but he needed a new
home, and it felt like the right thing to do. 
He’s a very nice guy who acts like every person he meets is his best
friend, and he is actually great with other dogs.  He’s a good looking dog and he’s really quite
well behaved.  He integrated into our
house so quickly and easily that it almost seemed like he’d always been
here.  And yet, it didn’t seem quite
right.  I felt a little guilty every time
I looked at him cuddled up on the couch next to me.  I felt bad because I didn’t love him. 

Call me crazy, but I’m a trainer who doesn’t worry about or interrupt canine mounting in most cases. I don’t see it as a problem behavior that needs to be discouraged or modified. In fact, I find it to be a very positive social interaction that often leads to play behavior and the development of friendships between dogs.

I spend the majority of my life with groups of off-leash dogs who don’t live with each other. When I started doing this kind of work five years ago, I believed that mounting was inappropriate behavior that should be discouraged. I found very quickly that the prevention of mounting also prevented other things.

In many cases, mounting is a necessary part of the dance that leads to hanging out together, playing and feeling comfortable with another dog. What I found is that dogs who were not allowed to mount had a hard time moving toward friendly interactions.
Here are the purposes I have seen being served by mounting:

It seems that soon there will be a new dog in the White House that will also have to learn to deal with the press and other stressors of large scale public service that go along with being the First Dog of America.

If the Obamas do indeed get a puppy, there will be plenty of time for early socialization which can help a dog grow to be confident and social in most situations and with a wide array of people. I do hope they are able to find the time to fit a reputable puppy class into their busy schedules. Because early socialization and training is a key component to a harmonious relationship with a dog.

When President Bush moved into the White House, no one asked Barney if he wanted to come along.  Nobody asked him if he wanted to schmooze with world leaders or work in press relations…. but Barney did try to tell everyone how he felt about it on Friday!  If anyone had been paying attention to Barney’s body language, they would have known that he wasn’t interested in socializing with the press. 

Unfortunately, the language of dogs seems to be as indecipherable to the average American as any other foreign language they’ve never learned.  Despite their regular exposure to dog language, most people are still taken by surprise when a dog bites… especially their own dog, who they really should be able to understand! 

The party line is that humping by dogs is a sign of dominance and is not related to sexual thoughts or connotations. I'm not so sure about that.

Regions of the brain that control both aggression and sexual behavior are so close that some overlap in executive function is inevitable. In intact males, testosterone activates both brain regions, enhancing aggressive responding, mounting (humping), wanderlust (roaming), and urine marking.

A dog biting someone on the finger isn’t normally newsworthy. But when that dog is Barney, the Scottish terrier who belongs to President Bush, the world is bound to hear about it. Apparently, Reuters television White House correspondent Jon Decker was bitten yesterday by Barney when he reached down to pet him.