How to Raise the Perfect Dog (9 page)

One of the males seemed particularly smitten with us. He was the goofiest of the group and charged into us, somersaulting into our laps and clawing his way up to lick our faces. He gnawed on our fingers with surprisingly sharp baby teeth and stomped clumsy circles around us on giant tawny paws that were way out of proportion to the rest of his body. …

“I think it’s fate,” Jenny said.

“He certainly seems to like us,” I said.

Like the Grogans, most people selecting a puppy will instantly fall in love with the first dog that climbs all over them or begins licking them. They say to themselves, “He loves me. He chose me. He wants to come home with me.” Of course, feeling that we are “chosen” by a dog makes us feel good about ourselves and good about the dog we are going to bring home—both important factors in a human-dog relationship. But we have to keep in mind that in many ways, this attraction that we perceive is just a beautiful story. Any healthy, curious puppy will be attracted to most new things and people that enter its environment. The truth is, the puppy who, like Marley, leaps out of his box to be with you may already be displaying dominant tendencies.

Now, a dominant, active puppy with a high or very high energy level may be exactly the energy that you are looking for. You may be looking for a future champion agility dog to run obstacle courses with you. You may be a daily long-distance runner, like my colleague,
Dog Whisperer
field producer Todd Henderson, who needs a very active dog to keep up with him. Todd adopted Curly, a very-high-energy Lab-greyhound mix from the show—a wonderful dog that was far too boisterous for his previous owner, Pete, a laid-back New York City dweller. Remember how Angel’s breeder, Brooke Walker, wanted to give me Angel’s more dominant brother, Mr. Blue Collar, whom she called “the pick of the litter”? Brooke says she prefers more assertive puppies, because in her experience, they have been easier to train as show dogs. But remember, both Todd Henderson and Brooke Walker are also highly experienced dog owners, with naturally confident, calm-assertive energies. If you are inexperienced with dogs, or if you know yourself to be a softer, more submissive, more laid-back sort of person in general, the little Marley that jumps out of the box and charges you is probably not a good energy match if you want a compatible pet for life.

Interpreting a high-energy puppy’s natural curiosity as “love at first sight” isn’t the only way we can misread a dog’s communication through the hazy filter of our own emotional needs. Some people are looking for a spiritual connection with a dog, so they’ll select a puppy based on his “soulful eyes.” Other people want a puppy because they want to feel needed. They will see a puppy that seems nervous, timid, or withdrawn and choose it because they feel sorry for it. Then there are the people who choose based entirely on looks. In the first season of
Dog Whisperer
, we met an owner who selected Emily because the puppy had a heart-shaped pattern on her flank. Emily was a very active pit bull, and the owners ended up keeping her cooped up in a fenced backyard, unintentionally creating a red-zone dog-aggressive pet that needed serious rehab later. I’ve met people who brought home a puppy simply because it looked like Spuds MacKenzie, Petey from
The Little Rascals
, Lassie, one of the 101 Dalmations, or the Beverly Hills Chihuahua. I believe it is very important that people be attracted to the way their dog looks, but choosing a dog on looks alone makes even less sense than choosing your human mate solely for that reason.

Choosing a puppy based on energy level is a skill anyone can learn. At one month of age, all puppies are adorably clumsy in the way they move, but food is always a motivator, and the mother is pretty much the number one focus of their lives. So I will call the breeder in advance and find out what time the mother usually feeds her puppies, which happens on a certain schedule, the same time every day, about five times a day. That’s when I’ll schedule my visit. By one month of age, the puppies are already walking. I’ll ask that the puppies be kept in a separate area, then bring in the mother for feeding, and observe in what order the puppies waddle to the mother. By doing this I can read the energy of each puppy right away. I’ll see which is the pushiest, which is the most anxious, which has the most submissive energy, and which has the most medium or laid-back energy. Right there, I will be able to classify the puppies as low, medium, high, or very high energy.

You can also use the method I employed when choosing Angel from his siblings, by sitting all the puppies on chairs or a bench and observing how long they are willing to wait before getting distracted or jumping off. Low- and medium-energy puppies are perfect for inexperienced dog owners, families with kids, or owners who already have a higher-energy dog at home. In fact, the great majority of the problems I’m called in to correct are the result of an owner who is living with a dog with a higher energy level than the human. Higher-energy puppies are for the Todd Hendersons, Brooke Walkers, and Diana Fosters among us—very active people or very experienced dog owners.

Although Chris Komives is a very active, high-energy person, his wife, Johanna, is quieter and definitely medium-level energy, and it’s always best to seek a dog that matches the lowest-energy family member, so everyone in the household will find it easier to be the dog’s pack leader. “Because we were looking for a terrier, we knew we’d be getting a medium- or high-energy dog,” Chris said. Being novice dog owners, the Komiveses planned on taking my advice and wanted a medium-energy dog for their very first puppy. However, their breeder had other ideas. “In working with breeders, they have a lot of say about which puppy from the litter you’ll be getting. Unfortunately, because of the breeder’s confidence in me as a
Dog Whisperer
cameraman, she gave us what she called the ‘pick of the litter.’ Now, I only recently learned from Cesar when he brought home Angel, that the ‘pick of the litter’ is the highest-energy, most dominant pup. So that didn’t work out as planned. In the breeder’s defense, I did talk about doing agility with Eliza, and a higher-energy dog is more appropriate for this activity.” Eliza’s higher energy level did present the Komiveses with a few unexpected challenges when she became a teenager, which we’ll discuss in upcoming chapters.

When it comes down to choosing energy, however, experience trumps activity level, as far as I’m concerned, because even most longdistance runners have to go to work during the day. Lots of hands-on experience with dogs, on the other hand, gives you the kind of leverage that only instinctual knowledge can bring. A person with a physical disability may not be very active, but he may also be able to handle a high-level-energy service dog, because he understands leadership, patience, and knows how to channel that dog’s energy into doing things like turning on lights, opening doors, and guiding the person to the bus stop. A person with instinctual calm-assertive energy and confidence, combined with experience, can manage even the highest-energy dog, even if that person has physical limitations.

Finally, since dogs speak in energy 24/7, a dog can tell you more about another dog’s energy than any human system of measurement. When I first took Daddy to meet the pit bull puppy that would carry his legacy of calm-submissive energy to the next generation, I allowed him to show me the energy levels of the puppies I was considering. Remember how Daddy growled at the puppy I had noticed displaying dominance toward my friends’ children? Daddy knew right away that the puppy’s behavior was not his cute “friendliness” or “spirit” but the kind of dominant energy that can cause problems within a pack. Daddy ignored another puppy, one that was displaying a lower energy level but also some early symptoms of nervousness and anxiety. He instantly gravitated to the calmest, best-behaved puppy in the litter. Take your cues from Daddy and don’t let your emotions get in the way of finding the perfect puppy for you.

3
MOTHER KNOWS BEST

Learning from the Pros

Binky and her pups

M
y first instructors in the different stages of puppyhood were all professionals—professional canine mothers, that is. I’m proud to say that I learned about raising puppies from the very best—the female working dogs on my grandfather’s farm in Mexico. Mother Nature is all about balance, and it is always to nature that I turn whenever I want to explain about the correct way to bring up puppies. As human beings, we often look at the animal kingdom with a superior eye—after all, the Bible tells us we have dominion over the animals, right? Modern science is even more arrogant about our relationship to animals. The truth is, while human beings can create, design, and build all manner of clever systems, innovations, and shortcuts to try to improve on nature, there is one thing we can never better, and that is a natural animal mother raising her offspring in the wild. This is one case where the original blueprint is still—and always will be—the best. When my clients are having a hard time understanding what leadership truly means to a dog, I refer them back to the experts by asking them to observe the way a mother dog births, rears, and nurtures her young to be good, obedient followers and pack members. In many ways, everything we need to know about raising puppies is right there in front of us, in the miracle of a good mother dog and her offspring.

I can vividly recall my childhood wonder at the everyday phenomena of animal birth, life, and death constantly unfolding before my eyes when I lived on my grandfather’s farm. I could not get enough of observing the intricate rituals by which the mothers raised the pups. The best mothers made it look so effortless. It was as if they were following a program. Imagine a computer program where you input an application, and then the computer shows you “Click to the left and you will find this. Click to the right and you will find that. Click underneath and you will find this…” over and over again, and it’s perfect, every time. The dogs on the farm were running an amazing program; it had a natural flow, and it was very precise. It was gentle but had a feeling of surety and assertiveness behind it. These female dogs that I grew up with usually had their own mothers as role models, but even an inexperienced bitch can be an outstanding mother. That’s because this flawless program for raising puppies lies deep within their DNA.

One such first-time mother who came through with flying colors was Angel’s own mother, a miniature schnauzer named Binky who was just over a year and a half old when she was first bred. Angel’s breeder, Brooke Walker, shared with me some details of Angel’s birth, a tale that illustrates not only the meticulous procedures of a conscientious breeder but also the innate wisdom and calm-assertive energy of an exemplary canine mother.

BINKY’S FIRST LITTER

“The first thing I’ll do when I want to breed a girl is I’ll go to my vet to do a full cytology on her, to make sure there isn’t any blockage to her being able to deliver on her own,” Brooke recounts. “You have to think ahead. So then I have them draw a sample of her blood and test the progesterone levels, so that I know when she’s ready to be bred.” After performing this canine form of the “rhythm method,” Brooke is able to predict accurately when the puppies will arrive. Binky was bred on August 22, 2008. That meant that fifty-eight or sixty-three days later, the puppies are mature enough to be born. Using this formula, Brooke knew that the first day Binky could whelp would be October 18 of that same year … the day that would become Angel’s birthday!

“When a bitch has been pregnant for a month, I go down to my vet, and I have him do an ultrasound. So we see how many puppies there are. The uterus of a dog is very different from a woman’s,” Brooke explains. “It’s like a horn. There are two areas where the whelps, or embryos, grow. And nature just takes care of that so well. There are usually two in one horn and two in the other horn, or three and three, or three and two. With Binky what we had was two in the left horn, two in the right horn, and right in the center was a twin.”

Brooke was very excited by the idea of an identical twin puppy, which was something she as a breeder had not experienced before, but her vet seemed much more reserved about the situation. She would soon learn the very grave reason for his reticence.

As the weeks passed, Brooke prepared her bedroom to be the whelping area.

“I set up the whelping pen in my bedroom, because for the first forty-eight hours I don’t leave the room.” Of course, in nature, a wild canine doesn’t want or need the assistance of a human, or even another pack member, when giving birth—in fact, a pregnant female will wander away from the pack to make a nest, and all the other dogs will respect her signals and give her a lot of space when she is going through the birthing process. A pregnant female in a pack of dogs commands tremendous respect and status. But as a cautious breeder, Brooke wants to be available at all times in case there is an emergency with the puppies or the mother—especially a first-timer such as Binky. “I put the expectant bitch into her whelping pen a couple of days before so that she can feel comfortable in it.” Since bitches select their own nesting areas in the wild, it’s not always a done deal when the human is the one to decide where the birth will take place. This was true of Binky. “She jumped right back out at first. I had to very kindly encourage her, putting her toys and blankets in there, a tempting treat, praising her for spending time in there.” After the first day, Binky felt good enough to settle into her pen, which was a box 3½ by 3½ feet with raised walls, to keep out drafts; a raised area; newspapers, blankets, and a heating pad on the floor; and a railing around the side known as a “pig’s rail,” to prevent any situation where a puppy might get crushed if it happens to crawl behind the mother. Everything was in place for the big day.

Novice or not, Binky rose above and beyond her call of duty. “That’s what is so beautiful about nature. She just instantly knew what to do. Sure, she did cry a little when her vulva was starting to enlarge, and when she was having her first contractions. The first time out, all of those areas are enlarging and the first delivery can be a little bit painful.” But Binky soldiered on. Angel’s sister, Ms. Pink, was the first of the puppies to make an appearance. “I recorded the time that she went into labor and I recorded the time that the puppies were born. I also had a scale waiting nearby. So Binky had her first puppy at noon, and it was a female. She was 5 and ⅜ ounces. I also try to find if there’s a significant something or other about their markings so that you can tell them apart. So you can make sure when you’re weighing every day that you’re seeing a weight increase in the first three days.”

The moment her first puppy was born, Binky proved she was going to be a canine supermom. She appeared both fascinated and thrilled by her new infant, immediately licking her clean and biting off the umbilical cord as if she had done it a thousand times before. Brooke always stands by to help make sure the puppy gets to the nipple and to make sure the placenta comes out. In nature, the mother will usually eat this nutrient-rich afterbirth, but Brooke has discovered that too much of a good thing can cause problems with her schnauzer moms. “I always allow my bitch to have one at least because they’re really nutritional. But it gives them really bad diarrhea. The first litter I had, I didn’t know left from right. I only knew what my books had taught me. I let her eat all five of her afterbirths and, oh my goodness … the mess…”

Once Binky’s first daughter started nursing, the stimulation caused Binky’s body to prepare again for the next birth. Binky’s second puppy, another female, came next, at 12:30 p.m. Then there was a long, long wait. Brooke wasn’t worried at first—unlike dogs that bear big litters, miniature schnauzers can take as much as four hours to deliver completely—but when 4:00 p.m. rolled around and there were no more puppies in sight, she knew something was wrong. “Someone who didn’t take the time or didn’t have the knowledge could have thought the whole thing was over, that she was just resting. But I knew that she was definitely straining. She was having contractions and nothing was coming. She was getting to the point where I felt like she was getting too tired to get the job done.”

Brooke called in her reproductive vet, to give Binky a shot of Pitocin to induce contractions, and a very big puppy began to crown. Now Brooke understood why her vet had been concerned about the twin they had spotted in the ultrasound. “I’ve since done a lot of research on it, and it’s very rare that a situation like that turns out happily. It’s almost always an abnormality.” Binky’s twin was hydrocephalic, which means it had an abnormally large head. “We needed to massage her and help her pull it down. And then, the minute it was out, she started pushing out number four, at 4:30, and number five at 5:00.” That number five was my man, Angel, the last of the siblings to enter the world.

Binky’s first litter-whelping chart

Binky’s hydrocephalic puppy illustrates a fact that I believe humans very much need to understand—motherhood, for a dog, is not an emotional experience, it is an instinctual experience. Her hydrocephalic puppy was born dead, and Binky totally ignored it. She made no attempt to revive it or to clean it. Her only concern was delivering her living puppies and making sure they were safe and healthy. She just knew right away that it was imperative to move on to her viable pups. “It was like, phew, that’s over, now let’s get on with what we’re getting on with,” Brooke observed. “Of course, as a human watching, if she had grieved, I would’ve gone to pieces. Which wouldn’t have helped anyone.”

As humans we are very attached to the process of mourning, even if that means grieving a being we haven’t met yet. I had such a misfortune in my own human family, a younger brother who was born dead, and the heartbreak of that experience still enshrouds my entire family like a thick fog. My mother still feels great sadness and guilt about this tragedy that occurred more than thirty years ago. For dogs it’s all about the greater good, the survival of the whole litter, and, in the bigger picture, the survival of the pack. A mother with a dead or sick puppy may make an attempt to revive it, but she will never linger to mourn. Her immediate concern is for her puppies that are living. In this way, a bitch will never nurture weakness in her offspring. From the moment they are born, the canine mother gently but firmly lets her new offspring know that they must follow her rules if they want to survive. Mother dogs do not “coddle” their young. In fact, if one of the pups in her pack has trouble finding a place to feed, she will help him only up to a point. If he can’t keep up with the rest of the litter, she may even let him die. When it comes to raising puppies, we humans have to remember that this calm-assertive pragmatism is the natural state of mind of their very first pack leader—their mother. We never want to lose the empathy and tenderness within our hearts that make us want to care for puppies in the first place, but we do need to acknowledge the example of the mother dog herself, and keep in mind that puppies naturally respond to this matter-of-fact way of being in their world. Their feelings will not be hurt when you set the kind of firm rules their mother will set. In fact, they are just waiting for those rules, so they can be assured of secure, balanced futures.

EXPERIENCING A DOG’S WORLD FROM DAY ONE

On October 18, 2008, Angel entered his new world with his eyes and ears closed but his nose wide open, already familiar with the first and most important scent, the scent of his mother. During the two-week neonatal period, Angel and his siblings were mostly reactive. Their whole purpose in life was to feed and to sleep. However, even at this phase, there was already a hierarchy forming among the littermates. Brooke describes how Angel’s more dominant brother, Mr. Blue, was always the first to feed, the first to push the others out of the way. This is what I mean when I say that a dog’s basic energy level is inborn. This doesn’t mean that Angel’s big brother will grow up to be a hard-to-control dog. Because of his excellent genes and the socialization exercises that Brooke puts all her puppies through before they are adopted, with the right calm-assertive owner, Mr. Blue will most assuredly mature to be a first-rate, obedient pet. But his inborn energy level does mean that Mr. Blue’s natural tendency in new situations will be to take charge if there isn’t another leader around to give direction. Angel, on the other hand, has an inborn tendency to sit back and see what happens before he steps in to fill a leadership gap. That is the classic response of a medium-energy dog.