Oh no! My dog pees when greeting people.

Recently I had someone ask me if she could “train” her dog not to piddle every time someone greets her and wants to pet her. My answer was: “yes, you can, but it will require some time and patience on your part”

A dog that pees when she gets attention is likely a shy dog, that gets excited and intimidated when people come into her space. Most of the time people that love dogs want to pet them immediately and give them lots of verbal attention, like: “Oh, you are so cute. Come over here. You don’t have to be afraid, I like dogs!” They keep going after the dog, trying to pet her. Since the dog is in a submissive state, and likely excited for all the attention, she will crouch down and squeeze her body to make herself smaller, and in the process might pee a little, or even a lot. Now there will likely be some verbal exclamation from either the dog owner or the guest: “Oh no, she peed on the floor!” and some excited hustle about cleaning it up quickly. The dog senses that she has done something wrong and associates this greeting ritual with a state of anxiety and confusion.

A quick fix to address this situation is to instruct your guests to ignore your dog and please don’t try and pet her. The suggested exercises that follow will show you how to help your dog overcome her state of confusion and fearful responses, and gradually teach her to associate meeting new people with a positive experience. It will take repeated short sessions of the exercise to change her current behavior with the new behavior. You will need to enlist the help of a friend or neighbor, and will need to find a high value treat for her.

You are looking for a treat that has a good scent. I like to use turkey or chicken meat, but you can also use a dog treat that she likes. Use one that you can break up into smaller pieces. You will not use the treat as a reward to feed to her, but rather use the scent to redirect her attention from the scary situation. I store my treats in an airtight container, so the treat container does not give out the scent.

To start, we want to remove much of the stimulus, so I want you to be sure to set aside some quite time to practice with just one guest. Choose an area with an easy to clean up floor and have a roll of paper towels nearby, so you can be prepared to clean up any accidents. When an accident occurs, please be sure to not say anything, but just simply use the paper towel to clean it up calmly and without much commotion. Walk your dog prior to the training session and let her empty her bladder, this will help prevent some of the accidents.

Ask your guest not to speak to the dog and not to touch her during this exercise. You will also ask them to completely ignore the dog when they first come in. I know this is hard, but be sure to instruct the person to be calm, quiet and non-intrusive toward the dog.

To start the exercise, greet the person at the door, as you normally would when a guest comes in. If you are training outside, to meet people on a walk, walk up to the person and just have a short verbal interaction between you and them. Make sure the person does not look at the dog and don’t use her name during your conversation. Now hand a small piece of the high value treat to the person. Instruct them to hold it in their lightly closed fist. Ask them to crouch down, but not talk or look at the dog directly.

The dog is likely at a bit of distance, assessing the situation. She may be excited and trying to decide what to do. Have the person just offer the scent to the dog by waiving the closed hand with the treat in front of themselves. The scent will redirect the dog’s attention and she will likely start to sniff in the direction of the hand, or come closer to investigate. Don’t offer the treat at this time, only the scent. Once she becomes interested, calmly have the person get up. Wait a moment and then get back down to repeat the exercise. The goal is to engage the dog with the scent. 

Repeat this a few times, then have the person put the treat down on the floor, stand up straight and see if the dog will come and get it. If she does, end the exercise here, if she doesn’t, just have the person walk away and leave the treat.

Do this several days in a row, you can even do it several times per day. After the dog becomes more interested and reacts in a more relaxed way to the stranger, extent the exercise to giving a treat by hand at the end of the exercise. If your dog is highly toy motivated, you can eventually have the stranger come in and pick up a toy and throw it for the dog. This helps as the guest is now interacting with the dog.

As you can see, you will over time reconditioning the dog to associate meeting new people with the scent and reward of the treat, thus removing the anxiety. Be sure to watch your dog's reactions and body language closely, and only move forward if the dog is feeling secure and relaxed. Gradually over time you can see if the dog becomes comfortable and starts to come over to people to be touched, but don’t force the issue. Not every dog is wanting to interact with strangers in this way. 

I hope you find the information helpful. We'd love to hear about your experiences, so please comment below. Please share our post on Facebook or other channels if you feel someone can benefit from it.

Until next time: Keep your Paws on the Road!

Bee Walker

What is your dog chewing on today?

Dogs need to chew – it’s how they clean their teeth and also a way to release stored up energy.

So you can give them stuff to chew on, or they will find it for themselves. If you leave it up to your pooch, he may choose your carpet or your furniture. Having your dog chew up things in your home is frustrating and can get expensive, so it is a lot cheaper to go to the pet-store and find some chew toys and chew foods for him.

I often hear people say that their dog doesn’t like to chew, even though they provide many toys for him to do so. If this is the case with your dog, read on, because every dog needs to chew to keep his teeth and gums healthy. You may just need to find the right thing he likes to chew on.

Also there can be other underlying behavior issues that lead a dog to chew through your door, but in this blog post I want to address the dog’s need to chew – not behavior issues such as separation anxiety or other issues.

Apollo and his toy collection

With this in mind, I’d like to start by reviewing the difference between chew toys and chew food.

Chew toys are toys that encourage to chew, but are made from materials that the dog cannot and should not eat, on the other hand, chew foods are digestible items that are made to last for some time to allow the dog to chew and break off parts. Chew foods are safe to eat and are digestible.

It is important for you to be clear on the difference, as you need to make sure your dog does not ingest parts of his chew toys. As a general rule, if your dog destroys his chew toys quickly, they are either too small for him, or not suitable. It is important that you chose the right kind of chew toy to keep your pet save. Children’s toys are often rated by age, which indicates that certain toys can become a choking hazard for younger children; similarly dog toys are sometimes rated for strong chewers, but unfortunately this is not as widely used as it is with children’s toys. Please be sure to always supervise your dog when you first introduce a new toy or food to him. Once you learn that a particular item is safe, you can leave it out for the dog to go to as he chooses.

Chew foods should last for several days, so if your dog eats up the chew food within a few minutes, it is too small and does not allow for consistent chewing. It may be a great treat for him, but you still need to provide something he can actually chew on for longer periods of time.

We usually recommend that you have several different types of chew toys and food out for your dog. Here are some examples for each category:

Chew toys:

Ropes, hard rubber and nyla bones

Chew food:

Deer antler, natural bones, raw hide, bully sticks and compressed dried bones.

Other considerations:

There are a lot of choices at the pet store when it comes to buying chew toys or chew foods. Beware that many of the flavored items can actually stain your carpets, as the dog chews on them. Dog toys can also be very expensive. If you do not have a lot of money to spend on these items, consider the following. Our dogs love rope toys and you can easily make your own, by buying rope at the home improvement store and tying knots into the ends. We also get natural marrow bones at the grocery or butcher, and they cost only a fraction of what you pay for a manufactured chew bone at the pet store.

Every dog is different. So you may need to try out different types of chew toys or chew foods to find the ones he likes. If your dog does not chew at all, consider having his teeth checked. He could have an infected tooth or gums that hurt him.

You may also like this article about making your own stuffed chew bones.

I hope you enjoyed this article - please comment below, we love to hear from you! If you like more information visit our FREE resources from our website.

Until next time: Keep your Paws on the Road!

Bee

Spoil your dog - Homemade A.S.P.B. treats

I have been getting a lot of great feedback from all of you regarding the homemade dog treats. So here is another easy to make recipe for some Applesauce Peanut Butter biscuits that are Jaeger and Heidi's all time favorite.

Of course you can always substitute the flour with oats or non-wheat flour, just remember that the consistency of the dough may change and you may need to add more applesauce or water to make the dough so it can be rolled and cut.

Ingredients

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups quick-cook oats
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup unsweetened organic applesauce
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ cup coconut oil
  

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and 
  cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients
• Knead dough on a lightly floured surface.
• Roll the dough to about ¼ inch thick and then cut into shapes with cookie cutters, or make small dough balls.
• Place cookies on baking sheet
• Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
• Let cool completely and before serving.
  

Notes

Store uneaten cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week.


For more organic dog biscuit recipes see our previous blog posts:

Make your own dog biscuits

Homemade Pill Pockets for dogs

 3 Favorite dog treat recipes


Please share your favorite dog treat recipes with us, please comment below and share and like our post.

Thank you!
Bee

This May Save Your Dog's Life! – Teach him not to bolt through doorways!

It is so heartbreaking, I see so many Facebook posts on lost pets every day. Thank goodness many dog owners now have their pets micro-chipped and most pets wear a collar with their owner's cellphone number on it. These two things can make sure that someone can contact you when your pet is found and hopefully you will be able to get her back home safely.

Few people know that you can teach your dog two very important lessons that most likely will prevent your dog from getting lost in the first place. The first lesson is: “Open doors don't mean run through it”, the second: “the safest place is with your owner”. In this blog article, I want to cover the first lesson in more depth with you. 


 

For many dogs, open doorways and gates are an invitation to run and explore the world outside. The most essential training for your dog is to teach her not to bolt through an open door. Your dog should always wait to be invited through any door, other than her doggie door.

Teaching this principle is actually not hard, but it does require consistency on the owner's part. Whether you are going through your front door, the gate at the dog park, or in and out of the car, you must require your dog to wait for your invitation to go through. You need to be able to open any door and not have the dog run through it.

Here are a few examples of exercises you can do in a controlled and safe environment. Teaching your dog in this way, can prevent her from getting lost one day, and may well save her life! Make sure you set aside some time to teach, about 20 minutes a day. 

Dogs must wait quietly to exit the vehicle

 

1. Doors at your home

Start by practicing in your home. Practice with all doorways that lead to the outside world. This may be your front door, garage door, or any side gate in the yard. Practice first with your dog on-leash. Later you can do this off-leash as well, but make sure you control the environment and keep it safe!

With your dog on the leash, approach the door. If your dog is already in front of you with her nose on the door, turn and walk away from the doorway. Continue walking to and from the door until the dog is looking toward you for direction.

Now with the dog waiting by your side – she will be looking at you, wondering what is going on – open the door slightly. If she pushes past you and tries to squeeze through the door, gently close it. Do not say anything, there is no command for this, this is a behavior you are teaching, not a command. Continue to open/close the door until she is waiting for you. This may take a little time.

Once she no longer tries to squeeze through the door, open the door all the way, but do not let her go through. With the door wide open, walk back into the home, away from the doorway. Then walk toward the door. Do not allow the dog to be in front of you, and do not allow her to walk through the door. Walk back and forth until she calmly walks next to you or behind you on a loose leash.(If your dog does not walk on a loose leash on a regular basis, you may need to start teaching her proper leash behavior first. See our FREE training resources tab on our website for articles and videos on leash training.)

After you are able to walk with her toward the door without her trying to rush in front of you, you should stop six-feet away from the doorway. You can now ask her to sit, or you can ask her to wait, whichever you prefer. Make sure you spend some time on this and do not go further until she will sit or wait quietly a few steps away from the doorway with the door open.

Now you can invite her to go through the door with you. I like to tell my dogs “Let's go.” You can come up with any command you like, but I recommend you do not use OK. I have seen many families where they used this command and the dog would bolt anytime someone said OK.

Your dog should walk through the door calmly, not bolt. If the dog rushes through the doorway, say “no” and walk right back inside. Go back to a previous step until the dog is calmly walking through the door next to you.

Practice going in and out of the door in the same manner, and practice all the different doors and gates.

Make sure that everyone in the family is consistent in expecting the dog to wait until invited to pass through any outside doorway!

Our dogs know to wait even with the RV gate wide open

2. The car door

Most dogs get lost either by running from home, or out of the owner's car. Practice getting in and out of the car with your dog. The same principle as with your doorway exercises apply. The dog is to be calm and must wait to be invited through the door. This can be the side door or the back hatch.

With the dog in the vehicle, slightly open the car door. If the dog tries to squeeze through, gently close the door without saying anything. Be patient and continue until the dog waits inside the car. She will be back a little, looking at you for guidance.

Watch our YouTube video to see this exercise performed by one of our dog training clients with her two labs.

Once the dog is calmly waiting, open the door all the way. Tell your dog to wait. I usually use my hand to signal the wait as well as use the spoken command. This is helpful, as we may get out of the car on a noisy highway rest-stop. If your dog tries to come out, gently close the door. Keep doing this until you can open the car door and your dog waits for you to invite her out. Now pick up the leash and step away from the door, inviting her to come out.

Stop right next to the car, don't start walking right away! Expect her to stand quietly next to you. Resist the need to talk to her, praise her or pet her at this time. These actions will more than likely get the dog all excited. This is important, because you need to keep the calm energy for a nice calm walk. This is also so helpful, since you may need to get your things out of the car, and lock the doors, so expect the calmness every time!

Teaching this behavior will take time and patience, but every dog can learn to respect the open doors. Start practicing outside the home as well, making sure the dog does the same behavior at the dog park gate or a friend's house.

Another important lesson I mentioned at the beginning of the article is teaching your dog that the safest place is with you. To teach this, your dog must never, I mean never, get a negative when coming towards you! Even if she just chewed up your expensive designer purse. Every time you call your dog to you, all she ever gets is praise! Remember that you can only correct when your dog is actually doing the unwanted behavior, never after the fact. See a related post on the subject Creating teachable Moments.

Stay tuned for our upcoming post on creating a trusting relationship with your dog to read more on the subject.

I welcome your feedback, please post a comment on your experience with these exercises.

Until next time: Keep Your Paws on the Road.

Thank you,
Bee

Homemade Pill Pockets for your dog

Our senior dog Jaeger has arthritis in his front legs, so he gets turmeric and yucca powder to help with the inflammation. I also have him on a wonderful supplement called Fresh Factor. 

He is usually pretty good about taking pills, and he loves the taste of the Fresh Factor supplement, but the turmeric and yucca, not so much. Because of the powder form, it is easy to mix them into pumpkin or can dog food. 

Recently I found this recipe for pill pockets online at the

 The Lazy Pitbull. I tried them out and they are awesome and super

 easy to make. 

Homemade Pill Pockets

 You can make them as needed. They contain only three ingredients that are usually found in most households: Peanut Butter, Coconut Oil and Oats (you can use Flour instead of Oats).
Use all three in equal amounts.

Ingredients for homemade Pill Pockets

I use my coffee grinder to make the oats into flour. If you like, you can substitute regular whole wheat flour, or almond flour. 

Mix everything together and then put in the refrigerator to let the dough harden. Roll the dough into small balls and use the handle of a wooden spoon to make small indentations for the pill.

 

Pill Pockets for dogs

Then you just need to put them in the freezer for about 20 minutes to keep their shape. If you want to make a larger amount, you can simply store them in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.

When you are ready to use one, let it get to room temperature, so it softens a bit, which makes it easy for you to insert the medication and pinch it shut. Now it's easy to feed to your lovely canine!


Check out some of our previous blogs on homemade dog biscuits and on Supplements for your senior dog



Here is the full Pill Pocket recipe:
 

Ingredients

• ¼ cup Peanut Butter
• ¼ cup Coconut Oil
• ¼ cup oats made into flour + some for reserve
  

Directions

• Liquefy Coconut Oil in Microwave.
• Mix all ingredients together.
• Place dough into the refrigerator for a few minutes to harden.
• Roll the dough into 1 inch balls.
• Sprinkle 1 to 2 T of crushed oats (you can substitute with flour) onto wax paper and then roll each ball in the oats.
• Use handle of a wooden spoon to push a small hole in the center of each ball (not all the way through, only about 1/2 way) to create your Pill Pocket.
• Place Pockets on a tray in the freezer for about an hour so they retain their form.
• You can then place the pill pockets, in an airtight container and keep them in the fridge until you're ready to use.
  

Notes

• Store them in the refrigerator, they will keep for up to 3 months.
  
• You can use flour instead of oats

If you are looking for an online pet pharmacy, we recommend WorldPetExpress:

Is your dog greeting everyone with too much excitement?

Is your dog greeting everyone with too much excitement, barking, jumping and clawing at strangers and friends? Is he hyper and overly excited when someone comes up to give him attention and can't seem to hold still to be petted? Maybe he even climbs on top of your visitor, who is sitting on the couch, pushing and licking with way too much enthusiasm?

It's nice to have a friendly, go lucky dog that loves everyone, and surely most people don't mind - or do they?

 Well, your friends and family may not say so, but an overly excited greeting can be a bit overwhelming, especially if the guest is not a dog-lover. Sometimes the pawing and jumping can even hurt someone.

So what can you do about it? Most of the people we meet with overly excited dogs don't realize that this behavior is something they have taught their dog over time. They think the dog is just naturally hyper or super friendly. But the behavior described above is anything but natural. If your dog is greeting you, or other people (or even other dogs) in this way, he has been conditioned over time. More than likely, he has received positive feedback, when he acted this way in the past. For example, jumping and scratching at his owner or visitors has resulted in him getting attention. He was petted in return for it. He became the center of attention, even if the attention, later on, may result in negative attention to his behavior.

So now what? Can you break the pattern and recondition the dog? 

The good news is: Yes you can!

It may take a little time, and certainly some effort and determination on your part, but dogs can learn new behavior very quickly, as long as the owner is consistent in teaching and expecting it.

1. Start with yourself

Start expecting calm behavior whenever you come home. This can be challenging for most dog owners because they just love to come home to loving enthusiastic fur-babies.
However, if you allow your dog to greet you in an overly excited way,  it is much harder to condition him to behave otherwise with strangers.

The best way to curb his initial excitement is to ignore the dog, whenever he is in an excited state. Do not talk to him, and please, do not pet him when he is in this way! When he jumps on you, rather than pushing him off you, or stepping backward, step into him.

Watch our YouTube video on this technique:

 2. Require calmness when walking up to strangers

When you are out walking your dog, do not allow your dog to walk up to strangers when he is pulling or jumping. The easiest way to discourage the dog to do this is to walk him in the other direction for a few steps until his attention reverts back to you. Walk forward again if he is quiet. You should practice this on your daily walks. This technique will take some time at first, but you will soon reap the benefits.

See how this works for Jim with Abbey, an 8-month-old Labrador Retriever that had learned to associate excitement with greeting strangers:

 

 3. Visitors to your home must not engage with your dog upon arrival

For a while, until he has learned to associate calmness with greetings, ask your friends and family to ignore your dog, when they come into your home. They should not speak to the dog, not pet him, and not look directly at the dog.

Once the dog has calmed down, then the person can give attention. If the dog gets overly excited again or invades the person's personal space, you as the owner need to take control of the dog. This may mean to tell the dog to get back or lay down on this bed.

Again, this is best taught in a teachable moment environment, meaning practice with someone that is willing to help you, rather than waiting until someone comes over that may not even like dogs.



Remember it takes calmness to teach quiet calm behavior in your dog, so keep the sessions short, and don't try to train your dog, when you notice yourself being frustrated or angry.

It took some time for your dog to learn the old behavior, and it will take time to condition him to the new, quiet way to greet and interact with you and others. Consistency is the key in all behavior modification. 


Thank you for reading our blog, we value your feedback and would love to read your comments. Please share our posts, if you believe others may benefit from reading them.

Until next time: Keep your Paws on the Road.

Bee Walker

Another articles that you may like on the subject: The Power of Pause

Stop your dog from pulling on the leash

It's nice to go for a walk and have a well behaved dog on the leash. Even more importantly, most people don't realize that allowing their dog to pull on the leash can have negative effects on the dog's behavior and can also injure  the dog or the owner. If the dog wears a collar around the neck, strong consistent pulling can damage the trachea, the dog's airway. This does not happen from a little pulling, but strong and consistent pulling bruises the trachea and can lead to permanent damage. If your dog pulls constantly and you hear him gagging or raspy breathing, make sure you switch to a harness for the time being, until you can train him to walk on the leash without pulling.

However, be aware that the harness is going to increase the strength of the dog and the pulling will be worse. A strong pulling dog can do injury to the person holding the leash, as the pulling can strain the wrist, or shoulder, and can lead the person to fall during walks.



Even when no one gets hurt, walking a dog that has bad leash behavior is no fun. When you travel with your dog, you have to walk him at least three times every day. We hear from our dog training clients that fixing the leash pulling and lunging is the number one crowdpleaser - changing the walk to an enjoyable and fun activity for both the dog and the owner.



It is not hard to teach your dog not to pull on the leash. In this blog, we will share an easy to do training exercise that will train your dog. However, it is more important that you, the owner, understands the important part consistency plays after training. During our private in-home obedience training sessions, Jim can train a dog within 15 minutes to walk properly on the leash, even to heel. The dog will be in the training mode and the owner and dog will be doing great on leash for the rest of the 1 hour class. Later the dog will often go back to pulling, if the owner does not consistently work with the dog every day.


When we train, we show the dog what behavior we want from him. But it is through repeated behavior, that the dog actually learns. A lot of dog owners work with the dog for some time, but then go back to letting the dog pull and revert to the undesired behavior. Consistency in behavior is what actually teaches the dog, not training.

 At first you will set aside time for training, meaning you will make sure you have a controlled environment to do the leash training exercise with your dog. As you both progress, you will expect the new leash behavior at all times.

While you are doing the leash training, you are not actually walking your dog for exercise. So in the beginning stages, you need to be sure to first walk your dog to allow him to relieve himself, and also provide some form of exercise for him. It is a good idea to play fetch or let him romp around in an off leash area, if possible.

We recommend you use a training collar and six foot leash. Take all the other collars off the dog at this time.

Leash training Exercise 1:

In the quiet area you selected for the exercise, choose two focal points for yourself. This might be a parked car and a tree. Or maybe a mailbox and a streetlamp. These two points should be about 100 feet apart. From here on out I will refer to them as Marker A and Marker B.

Your dog is pulling on the leash while you are walking toward marker A. That's okay, just keep walking toward A. Once you get to the marker, turn your focus on your second marker and start walking towards it. Your dog, thinking he knows where you are going, will be pulling you towards B, or maybe he is pulling toward somewhere else he wants to go sniff. Let him go to the very end of the six foot leash and as soon as the leash gets tight, turn 180 degrees and walk back towards A. It is very important that you not stop, continue to walk and do not say anything. The training collar will do all the work. Your dog will feel the collar tightening and he will turn around and see your backside, as you are walking back toward A. In his mind, he wants to get out in front of you, so he will dart past you and pull toward point A. Just as soon as he runs past you and the leash gets tight, turn again 180 degrees and start walking towards B. Do not stop and don’t say anything. Just keep walking towards B.

Each time your dog gets to the end of the leash and pulls, you change direction. By doing so, the training collar will get tight, and your dog will automatically want to come towards you to relieve the pressure. As long as the leash is loose, continue to walk forward. As soon as your dog pulls tight on the leash, change direction.

After a few minutes, your dog will become suspicious of you changing your mind all the time and will start to stay closer to you, so he can keep an eye on you. This is exactly what we are looking for. Start making it a game, don't just wait for him to yank on the leash, change directions more often and see him stay with you. Change your speed and start stopping and then going again. Your dog will have fun, feeling the challenge to pay close attention to you and to what you are going to do next.

Here is our Youtube video showing this technique:

Do this exercise for several days in a row, at least twice each day. Spend no more than 30 minutes on it each time.After a few days, you can start to incorporate the same leash behavior into your regular walks. 

Each time you start your walk, make sure you expect calmness, never start the walk excited. If you get your dog all wound up before you put on the leash, how can you expect him to be calm and not pull you excitedly down the street? Many dog owners unintentionally get their dogs into these super hyper states by talking to the dog about going out for a walk. They will usually say something like: “Fido, do you want to go for a walk? Come let's go outside!” They will use a happy voice. The dog will get excited and start running back and forth, he may jump around or whine. If your dog acts in any of these ways when you are getting ready to go outside, he has learned to associate a hyper and excited state of being with going outside. If you want him to behave on the leash, you must get him to calm down before you leave the home.

See our previous post on a exercise to calm your excited dog

Thank you for reading this blog-post, I would love to hear your experience with the exercise or other information. Please comment below.

Until next time: Keep Your Paws on the Road!

Bee Walker