How to Raise the Perfect Dog (20 page)

If your puppy feels hesitant or anxious about the car, condition him to go in and out of the car when you aren’t going anywhere. Leave the doors open, offer a treat, and play in the car while it’s in the driveway. Once you’ve repeated that exercise enough to make the transition in and out of the car go smoothly, add a ride around the block to get the puppy used to the sensation of movement. Gradually increase the length of these drives. Finally, once you’ve successfully passed these tests, add a destination experience to these practice excursions, but vary it, to expose your puppy to as many new environments as possible. Drive to your friend’s house, your mother-in-law’s, your local library, or your favorite sidewalk café, making sure you are aware and observant of your puppy’s level of immunity and therefore his exposure to other dogs. Let the puppy get out of the car, reward him, then bring him back. An important added benefit of these exercises is that they greatly increase your leadership position in your puppy’s eyes. The more places you go in which you display calm-assertive energy to your puppy, the more your dog recognizes you as the one who can guide him through any experience, no matter where you go.

However, some owners who succeed in conditioning their puppies to the car create another problem—overexcitement. The puppy gets so hyped up by the idea of a car ride that he can’t calm down, creating chaos that can be anything from a nuisance to a roadway hazard. Overexcitement can show itself as barking, whining, hyperactive movements, or even drooling. Crate training is the most obvious way to temper this problem. Once you have conditioned your puppy to remain calm inside his crate, when you move the crate into the car, they both can come to represent quietness. Follow the same procedure as above, but add the crate, and do not pay attention to your puppy until he is calm and submissive in the crate at all times. Correct him with a “Tssst” or a tap on the top of the crate if his excitement even begins to escalate. Then practice the exercise without the crate, using a safety gate or a doggie seat belt.

Chris Komives practiced this exercise with four-month-old Eliza when he noticed her developing a drooling problem in the car. “I put her in the car when we weren’t going anywhere, waited until she was calm, and then got out and did it again. We played in the back of the car. It wasn’t long before the drooling stopped.” I am constantly challenging my dogs to stay calm-submissive inside the car, even in the face of stimulating activity happening all around us. The other day, just for fun, I took a carload of puppies with me to share a drive-through car wash experience, to expose them to all the different sights, sounds, and smells. Everybody—Junior, Blizzard, Angel, Mr. President, and a visiting French bulldog named Hardy—stayed quiet and calm through the entire ordeal.

Once you are certain your puppy is comfortable about accompanying you anytime, anywhere, practice getting him used to your specific vet’s and groomer’s offices.
Since sick dogs can be present at either location, don’t practice this part of the exercise until after your puppy is four months old and his immunization schedule is complete
. I always recommend getting a dog used to the neighborhood of the vet’s office, parking a block away, and walking—or even Rollerblading—to the office itself. That mimics the experience of migration to a dog, so it makes sense to him when you arrive at your destination. When your puppy is young and still unsure of new places, don’t push him too far. Instead, start with a short walk across the parking lot. Don’t let the puppy pull and sniff the ground, but let him take his time at first. Take a few trips to the vet’s office, just for fun, and ask the office staff or vet techs to provide your puppy with a treat or a fun toy when he arrives. Remember when you were a kid and your doctor had the best lollipops?

It’s also important that your puppy gets to know the vet, and that the vet practices no touch, no talk, and no eye contact at the very first meeting. Finally, check your own energy when it comes to vet visits. Are you the type of person who always becomes tense before your own doctor or dentist appointments? Do you find yourself worrying about how your dog will cope with an examination? Unless your energy is calm and assertive, you can’t ensure that your dog will be able to relax either. Your dog will always mirror the energy you share with him. Puppies in particular are absorbing every cue their pack leader sends them about how they should feel and react when they are in strange new environments.

HOME CARE FOR YOUR DOG

The next thing you must do in order to ensure serenity during your vet or grooming appointments is to introduce your puppy to all the different ways a professional might examine his face and body. Since all veterinarians recommend that you perform regular home checks on your puppy’s eyes, ears, and mouth and teeth, this is your perfect opportunity to practice this activity. “A puppy’s ears should be checked at least once a week,” says Charlie Rinehimer, VMD. “More often if the dog is a flop-eared breed like a cocker or springer spaniel. Owners should also check their dog’s paw pads after long walks or play sessions on pavement for abrasions and scratches. After walks in the woods or high grass, run a comb through the puppy’s fur to check for fleas and ticks.” Bath time is another good opportunity to make routine health checks on your puppy. “Another misconception that I see is people don’t bathe their dogs regularly, thinking it dries out their skin. Not true! Wash your dog as often as you see fit,” advises Dr. Paula Terifaj. “Clean out the ears. Inspect them for redness, irritations. Look in the mouth—look for redness. Smell—is there any discharge? When you wash the dog, feel for lumps. Lift up your dog’s tail! I know you don’t want to look back there. But you can find things like tapeworms. Starting this with your puppy young will help them get used to it. Get active in your dog’s health care! Don’t just say to your vet, ‘Here’s my dog; take care of it.’ “Becoming proactive in your puppy’s health routine can also save you on vet bills in the long run.

MR. PRESIDENT’S JOWLS

The lovable bulldog is a feat of human genetic engineering so extreme that it requires special health care and maintenance throughout its entire life. English bulldogs tend to have respiratory problems because of their flat noses, which also cause them to snore and drool. Their unnatural body shape can cause them to develop joint problems or arthritis. Bulldogs also require regular, almost daily, cleaning between the jowls and the loose folds of skin on their faces, which can become dry and crusty—or even smelly and infected—if they aren’t tended to. It’s vital to start this regular cleaning ritual at an early age, even if the folds are fairly shallow and undeveloped. If you wait until the dog is an adolescent, he can interpret your touching his face as a challenge and may become belligerent and fight back. I’ve rehabilitated many dogs that have had serious issues around being touched on their bodies and their faces, and we’ve covered many such cases on
Dog Whisperer
. I made sure to start the process of cleaning Mr. President’s folds early in his puppyhood, to lay out the blueprint for stress-free vet and grooming sessions for the rest of his life.

THE HEALTH CARE RITUAL

My supplies for this regular ritual are a towel, a little warm water, some cotton swabs, and a cleaning pad with a little alcohol on it, as well as a few tasty treats for rewards and incentives. I begin by putting an organic lavender lotion on my hands. The scent relaxes me, so I can make sure my energy is calm and centered. Always remain peaceful—never rush any kind of grooming or health-related exercise, including bathing. Your dog needs to associate all these experiences with relaxation and he can’t achieve this unless your energy is calm first. I always approach these sessions with my dogs like a prayer or a meditation. Another advantage is that I am teaching Mr. President to associate the scent of lavender with relaxation. The memory of the scent becomes much more influential than my saying, “Calm down” or “Relax.” I want to create an imprint so that I can use that scent in the car or anywhere else that I need help creating a mellow bulldog.

I do this exercise on a raised table in my garage. After I lift the dog onto the table, I wait until he relaxes before I begin the session. I start with a treat hidden behind the warm-water-soaked towel. I want the scent to get him interested in the towel, but I don’t want the treat so close it creates too much excitement. I want Mr. President to see this as a win-win situation; when he entrusts me with his face, he also gets a treat. Mr. President is one extremely food-motivated dog. However, I don’t want to give too many treats; I want to create such a pleasant association with this process that eventually treats won’t even be necessary.

Gently, I place my hand under his chin and lift his face up. I’m projecting a serene energy that I want him to mirror. I use this opportunity to put drops in his eyes—bulldogs are also prone to eye irritations and infections, and their eyes must be kept clean and irrigated. He gives me a little protest when he feels the first sensation of the drops—just a little curl of the lip—but I soothe him with a deeptissue massage of his hindquarters. His reaction serves as a good reminder, however—a curl of the lip from a cute bulldog puppy can turn into a growl or a bite from an adolescent or adult bulldog if we don’t build the proper foundation early.

Next, it’s time for the cleaning pad and alcohol. Since he is naturally going to be repelled by the medicinal smell, I hide a treat behind the pad. This way, the unnatural smell is accompanied by a smell that definitely interests him. It’s a simple trick, to keep him engaged, so he wants to find out more about what I am doing, not shrink away from it. When I give him the treat, however, I always use my clean hand, not the one with alcohol on it, so he doesn’t accidentally ingest any alcohol. Using the cotton swabs, I wash between his folds. Every time I move toward his face, I reinforce the action with the association of a treat.

At the end of the exercise I clean my hands to remove the alcohol scent, then put some more lavender lotion on to end the ritual in the same way I began it. I give him one last treat, and the fact that he takes food instantly shows me that his mind is not under stress. Finally, I finish with a massage of his whole body and face, so he learns that when I touch his face it can be for pleasant sensations as well. He ends in a relaxed, receptive state—just the way I want him. I lift him back up by his scruff, using my hand to balance his weight, and place him gently back on the ground. The fact that he gravitates right back to me and doesn’t try to run away assures me that he had a positive experience.

My hygiene ritual with Mr. President should serve as an example of how to make a pleasant interlude out of any of your puppy’s health care and grooming needs. By applying this method, you will prepare him for future handling by other professionals, you’ll be taking a proactive role in his health and hygiene, and you’ll also be strengthening the bond between you, building a lifetime of trust.

*
DHP—3 in 1 vaccine

†
May be considered on a regional basis where these diseases are known to be a true risk

6
CONNECTING, COMMUNICATING, AND CONDITIONING

How Your Dog Learns

Tug-of-war between Junior and Mr. President

A
mother squirrel and her baby spent all day on a walkway of the UCLA campus, repeating over and over the same apparently fruitless task—trying to get the baby squirrel to jump up and over an approximately four-foot-high wall. Such exercises in life learning are everyday occurrences in the animal world, but this particular incident was captured on videotape by some fascinated university student, who uploaded it onto YouTube, and it received an amazing 500,000 hits! When I saw the short piece, I was happy to learn that it was reaching so many people. To me, this simple amateur video illustrates exactly what I want my readers to take away from this book about how animals learn—and how we can help, not hinder, their natural processes.

In the video, the mother squirrel is showing the baby squirrel what it looks like to jump to the top of the wall, teaching by example. The mother squirrel seems to have an endless supply of patience as she demonstrates her graceful moves over and over again. The baby squirrel finally gets up the gumption to try it a few times himself, but he makes it only partway before falling. At this point, the concerned UCLA students watching this unfolding drama decide to get involved. They move a backpack up against the part of the wall that the squirrel is attempting to scale. At first, the squirrel flees the strange object, but after a few minutes, it returns and figures out that the backpack could make a good ladder. The squirrel climbs up the backpack, but the object isn’t quite high enough to leverage the baby animal to the top. Another student comes on the scene with a couple of large sandbags; stacked together, they are taller than the backpack. Again, the tiny rodent flees the scene. This time, his mother comes down and escorts him back to the wall for another try. She leaps up and waits just above the sandbags. Then, encouraging with silence and energy, she watches her baby climb up the sandbag, make a last heroic hurdle, and finally succeed in scaling that daunting concrete wall.

My first thought after watching that video was “What if that had been a mother dog and a puppy?” I have no doubt whatsoever that the same concerned students would have simply picked the puppy up and put her on the grass above the wall. They might even have comforted her, petting and cooing as they did so. Then they would’ve gone on their way, confident that they had “rescued” a helpless animal, while the puppy actually might have missed a learning experience that could one day save its life. The truth is, in most situations, animals—even juvenile animals—are anything but helpless. Animals are smart, resourceful, and all about survival. What we humans interpret as “rescuing” can actually be blocking a puppy from her natural process of learning and growing and mastering a new environment. In the UCLA squirrel video, the animal in question was saved from this fate because of its wildness. The students approached and dealt with a wild squirrel very differently than they would have a domestic puppy or kitten. And what they did with the squirrel turned out to be exactly the right thing to do! They helped the animal, not by rescuing it, but by working
in partnership with it
, giving it direction but not stepping in and solving its problem. A partnership between human and animal is exactly how we need to approach first connecting and communicating with, and finally, conditioning (or “training”) our puppies.

CONNECTING
Relationship Is Everything

It was my original ambition in life to grow up and become the best dog trainer in the world, and I have trained many dogs in my life—to perform tricks, to answer to commands, as well as to work as security dogs. Soon after I arrived in America, however, I observed that traditional “training”—meaning sit, stay, come, heel, or answering to other commands—was not solving the problem of an epidemic of unstable dogs. What those dogs needed was for their owners to stop humanizing them, to reclaim a leadership role in their lives, and to fulfill
all
their primal needs—the needs of animal, dog, and breed, in that order. But as you have already learned, a puppy’s mother starts “dog training” from the earliest days of her pups’ lives. Her training is not done with a high, squeaky, overexcited voice, commands, or bribery by treats; it is done in silence, using energy—a much more powerful tool of communication.

“When I have a litter, they are learning from the moment they are born. They learn from their mother, their siblings, and from me handling them,” says my friend Martin Deeley, executive director of the International Association of Canine Professionals and an acclaimed breeder and trainer of gun dogs.

When an owner picks up a puppy for the first time, the pup is already beginning to learn from the owner. The ride home in the car is a lesson. The meeting of the family is a lesson. Dogs are learning twenty-four hours a day. Even when asked to relax and do nothing, they are learning to do this and be patient. Everything we do with a pup from the moment we get that pup is a learning experience. So we actually start “dog training” the moment we get a pup, and in fact we should start teaching ourselves how to behave and how to establish all the good habits before we even get the pup.

A mother dog’s “training” is also done through connecting. She has a real relationship with her pups, expressed through constant calm-assertive leadership. This is why I advise all puppy owners to think “connection,” then “communication,” before they think “training” or “conditioning.” Learn to converse with your dog the way another dog speaks to her—using energy, body language, and eye contact—before you ask her to master the intricacies of any human syntax. Your conversations will have much deeper meaning for your dog that way, and you will be sharing a true connection. Connection is the language of energy; it is the cornerstone of the lifelong bond between you and your dog. Connect and fulfill first, then move on to conditioning.

CESAR’S FULFILLMENT FORMULA

Every dog and puppy needs …

1. Exercise—in the form of a minimum of two structured walks with a pack leader, twice a day

2. Discipline—clearly communicated and consistently enforced rules, boundaries, and limitations

3. Affection—in the form of physical affection, praise, treats, and playtime

… and in that order! Though you may be adopting a puppy in order to give it love, the reality is that puppies need a lot more than love to keep them balanced. A good pack leader shows love by fulfilling the dog in all three areas—in the right order. This fulfillment formula works throughout the entire life of your dog.

LEASH TRAINING

When it comes to bonding with your puppy, once again you have Mother Nature on your side, since from birth to eight months, your puppy is programmed to always follow her leader. Once the natural mother is out of the picture, you become the puppy’s default pack leader, and if you direct her with the same calm-assertive energy that she’s been accustomed to since birth, your puppy will automatically follow you whenever you wander away. It’s as if there were a built-in invisible leash between you and her.

Still, when your puppy is with you in the public, human world, an invisible leash is not enough. There are far too many distractions and dangers out there. Once she enters adolescence, she is going to want to range far and wide. You need to leash-train her from a very early age, in such a way that the leash is barely noticeable and has only positive connotations for the puppy. Done right, leash training strengthens the connection between you and your puppy. It becomes a physical cord through which your energy travels to her, and vice versa.

Many conscientious breeders will begin the leash training for you. Brooke Walker already had Angel well on his way by the time he came home with me, at eight weeks. Brooke starts the process by putting little paper bands on their necks right about the time they are starting to walk. She initially does this for identification purposes—that’s how I first met Angel, when he was simply Mr. Green, next to his brother, Mr. Blue, and sister, Ms. Pink. “Since my puppies rarely leave home before three months, I usually start introducing them to the leash at about eight or nine weeks. Just five minutes, twice a day. I’ll do short little stints with a treat held close to their nose to encourage them to move forward. I like to compare it to when you introduce a child to swimming and you keep moving backward from them so that they have to take one more stroke to reach you.”

Brooke’s method of leash training is right in line with my own philosophy of being a partner instead of a dictator when it comes to your dog’s learning. I recommend letting a puppy drag around a very short leash for quick intervals while she’s playing—supervised at all times, of course—just so she can get accustomed to the unnatural feeling of having something around her neck, while still experiencing the fun and freedom of play. Remember, we as humans are used to getting up every morning and putting foreign objects like clothes, shoes, and jewelry on our bodies, but to a dog, leash, harness, booties, or sweater are just that—completely foreign. Conditioning is the process of making the unnatural feel natural. Trainers who work with wild or exotic animals—for instance, big cats that perform in magic acts—always start conditioning their animals to leashes and collars as young as possible. The younger a puppy is when she gets used to the feeling of a leash, the more normal the sensation will be for her.

As for the tools themselves, I am a big proponent of less is more when it comes to a puppy’s leash. In fact, with all the puppies I’ve been raising for this book, my simple 35¢ nylon leash slipped over the pup’s head and held high up on the neck for control has been my number one tool. I am a fan also of “show leashes”—slim-cut, pure leather leashes with a loop at the end that are used in dog shows. They are short, lightweight, and allow a maximum of control with a minimum of tension. If you want to introduce a Halti or gentle leader to your puppy, the correct time to do it is between four and six months of age.

Never use a prong collar or other advanced training tool on a puppy under six months of age, but if your powerful-breed puppy is still exhibiting signs of overexcitement or lunging as she enters her adolescence, consult a professional to help you decide on the appropriate tool to help manage the problem. By preventing any behavioral issues now, in puppyhood, I hope you will be so in tune with your dog that there will be no need for advanced tools or extra help down the line. But if you need help, make sure to reach out before the problems escalate out of control.

And always remember that it’s not the tool itself—it’s the energy behind the tool that matters! Your energy passes through the leash directly to your dog, so if you are uncomfortable in any way with the training tool you are using, your dog will sense it—and react accordingly.

Another important detail of leash training is that you must always let the puppy come to the tool, never force the tool on the puppy. The first few times, this may take patience. Make a loop that’s about one and a half times wider than your puppy’s head. Then hold it in front of you and let her sniff it. You can spray it with an organic scent or palm a treat on the other side of the loop. Let the pup examine the tool and feel comfortable with it. Lightly touch it to her forehead and nose. Once the puppy seems relaxed and curious about the tool, hold the treat on the other side and let her put her head through the loop to reach the treat. Then gently tighten the tool. If your puppy is still relaxed, provide a reward—petting, praise, or a treat. The adventure of the walk that goes along with the leash is the biggest reward, giving the leash a positive association. That’s why so many dog owners report that their dogs get excited whenever they see the owners going for the leash—the association of the good times that the leash represents.

After a few times repeating this ritual, you may be able to hold the loop of your leash out in front of your puppy and watch her put her head through on her own. If your puppy is wearing a collar and you are simply attaching a leash to the top of it, never chase the puppy around when it’s time for a walk. Once again, let the puppy come to you. Using the tried-and-true formula of nose-eyes-ears, engage your puppy’s nose and make sure she’s standing or sitting still while you fasten the leash to the collar. Stay relaxed and quiet; keep the image of your pup’s calm, confident canine mother in mind. And keep your energy positive. Taking a puppy for a walk should be one of life’s most joyful experiences!

Puppies have very short attention spans, so when they are young, keep the time on the leash short and sweet—no more than five to ten minutes at first—and fill that time with fun, pleasant surprises, and rewards. When the shorter sessions become easy, gradually lengthen them. This way you’ll leave your puppy wanting more each time. She’ll actually come to crave the experience of the leash because it will come to represent adventure, exercise, praise, and, most important of all, bonding with you, her pack leader.