Thanksgiving weekend, I attended the Darkover Grand Council Meeting — an annual science fiction/fantasy convention. One of the panel discussions was titled “Flying Cats and Talking Dogs: Creating believable animals in SF&F.” I brought up the question of how authors can make sure they’re getting it “right.” As a dog trainer who’s studied canine behavior (including wolf behavior), I often find it jarring when I’m reading a story that features dogs or wolves – simply because the author got it “wrong.” This is especially true of fantasy novels that include wolves – or werewolves – because there’s so much misinformation ingrained in our “common knowledge” of wolves.

One of the panel members asked what it was that authors so often got wrong about wolves, and I replied “Alpha wolves and wolf hierarchy.” There wasn’t time to go into the details of just how wrong the “common view” of wolf culture is. I left it at “A wolf pack is actually a family unit, with Mom and Dad leading their offspring” and invited anyone interested to email me for more information.

Margaret L. Carter, author of “The Shadow of the Beast” (a werewolf novel) was there, and she recently took me up on that offer.

This was my response (edited for clarity and accuracy after I re-read the articles I suggested to Margaret as good sources of information): (more…)

I’ve uploaded a condensed version of my “Pet Food Recall - What You Should Know (And Do)” post in .pdf and text formats.

Feel free to download the “Recall2Page.pdf” file, print it out, send it to friends, etc. If you would prefer to copy the text into a publication of your own (a newsletter, on your business stationery to hand out to clients, etc.), download the “Recall2Page.rtf” file instead. Please keep the text intact and include the proper byline (”by Ann Dupuis of Your Dream Dog, yourdreamdog.com”). If you wish to include the text in a publication that is for sale rather than free, please contact Ann Dupuis for permission before publication.

(There’s a slightly condensed version of this post available in .pdf format in my Downloads category, feel free to download, print out, copy, and share….)

You’ve probably heard about the pet food recall. But unless you’ve been actively seeking out more information, you may not realize just how extensive the problem with our pets’ food supply is, and that it’s far from over.

I’ve been following the pet food recall news closely, through two websites that have been doing a stellar job digging up information and reporting it quickly and clearly, with updates as soon as anything new is known:

http://petconnection.com

and

http://itchmo.com
Thursday, April 26th, while the FDA was assuring everyone at a press meeting that they weren’t expecting any more recalls of pet food, several more companies recalled some of their canned products. (more…)

This is a question that comes up a lot with people who are exploring the uses of positive reinforcement and clicker training: “When can I stop using food?”

And my response is: “When can your boss stop paying you for the work you do?”

I know, that’s a bit facetious, but I think it gets the point across. (more…)

I taught a “Positively Perfect Patients” workshop at the Randolph Animal Hospital on March 10th.

When I was planning the workshop, one thing I hadn’t planned on was the opportunity to practice all of the skills I intended to teach – over and over again, with a dog who once had to be sedated for anything more than the most basic of vet exams. (more…)

Midnight on Friday saw Paul and Nico and me down at the Animal Emergency Center in West Bridgewater, MA.

Nico has been pretty sick lately (we thought we’d have to put him to sleep a few weeks ago). It turns out he had Idiopathic Sterile Nodular Panniculitis — inflammation of the subcutaneous fat tissues, with no known cause. (The “nodular” part of the disease presented as swellings all over his neck and sides, some of which necrotized and burst.) (more…)

I’ve been thinking about positive reinforcement and how learning to train dogs primarily by reinforcing the behavior I want (and ignoring or redirecting behavior I don’t want) has literally changed my life.

Becoming a positive trainer (especially for those of us who started out with traditional methods using punishments and rewards, choke collars, and the like) requires a paradigm shift. Positive training isn’t just a different way of training — it’s a different way of looking at the entire training process, at the dog/human relationship, and at the world itself. (more…)

It seems that everyone has heard of Cesar Millan, host of the popular dog training show “The Dog Whisperer” shown on the National Geographic cable TV channel. When learning that I’m a dog trainer, a new acquaintance will often exclaim that they watch Cesar Millan and just love his show! I cringe inside while I try to calmly and politely explain just why Cesar Millan is bad for the dog training profession and very bad for our dogs.

While Cesar Millan does promote some good ideas concerning our relationships with dogs (I can agree with him that exercise and leadership are paramount!), his methods of fixing problem behavior rely heavily on using punishment and “flooding” — forcing a dog to face its fears until it “submits” (which may result in “learned helplessness,” a state of depression and helplessness in an animal that appears to the untrained observer to be calm compliance). Taken even a little bit too far, some of his methods are downright abusive.

(more…)

There’s a technique in dog training known as the “alpha roll” in which the handler forces the dog into a “submissive” posture, rolling the dog onto his back and pinning him there until he ceases struggling. The idea is to show the dog “who’s boss” and thereby make the dog more “obedient.” It’s all too often recommended (by misguided trainers and veterinarians) as a way to deal with dog aggression.

This technique is not a part of “positive training” and causes more problems that it could ever “cure.” The “alpha roll” is based on a misunderstanding of some observations of wolf culture. The people who promote the “alpha roll” as a “natural” means of gaining a dog’s compliance completely miss the fact that in wolves (and in dogs) the submissive posture is one that’s willingly adopted by the animal signalling submission. (more…)

On my way to an appointment with a client, I was listening to NPR morning news, and heard this piece about Tibetan Terriers and Batten disease:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5497047

Batten Disease is a tragic genetic disorder that results in the breakdown of the entire nervous system. In the United States, about 1,000 children are diagnosed with the disease each year. Few live into their twenties.

So what’s the connection with Tibetan Terriers? (more…)