An Ethogram of the Shelter Dog - C.L.A.S.S.

This article first appeared in The APDT Chronicle of the Dog, copyright 2008, The Association of Pet DogTrainers, www.apdt.com, 1-800-PET-DOGS.Face Diving:Jump Up Contoured:When the dog repeatedly leaps upward at the human’sface, in an intrusive way, usually causing the human todraw back away from the dog.Flying Shoulder Rub:When the dog leaps into the air with his front or all fourfeet and touches his shoulder to the tester.Forearm Licking:When the dog licks the tester’s forearms so that thetongue leaves a sticky trail that can be felt by the testerminutes after the licking. Possibly done by the very backof the dog’s tongue (where there is sticky saliva). Lickingmay occur on other parts of the tester if tester is wearinglong sleeves.Freeze:When the dog ceases all movement for a brief moment.A freeze includes a tensing up of the muscles.When the dog jumps up and places his front paws ona human and makes flush or contoured physical contact;usually lasts two seconds or longer.Jump with Clasp:When the dog bendshis wrists while jumpingup on a human. The dog’sfront paws may or may notwrap around the human.Leash Bop:When the dog reachesaround and pokes ornudges the leash with hisnose.Leash Grab:Jump with claspWhen the dog grabs the leash into his mouth andclamps down or begins tugging.An Ethogram of the Shelter DogFreeze With Head Turn:When the dog ceases all body movement and turns hishead toward a human or another dog.Front Paw Jab:When the dog’s front paw (usually, but not always, theright paw) reaches out past the plane of the dog’s nose andwithdraws in a pulling motion.Frontal Body Orientation:When the dog positions himself pointing his head andbody directly in front of the human. It almost always occurswith alignment. It is almost as precise as a perfect score forthe recall-to-front position in obedience competition.Leg Lift:When the dog (male or female) lifts one rear leg (oruncommonly both rear legs, usually seen in terrier typesmall dogs) to urinate. Which leg is lifted should be noted.Angle of height of lifted leg should be noted.Lunge Away:When the dog pulls so hard on leash away from thetester as to have his front feet come off the ground oralmost come off the ground.Hard Eye:When the dog’s eyes are open, round, with the tapetumvisible. The tapetum is the reflective layer of the choroid ofthe eye, which gives the hard eye its characteristic marblelike,glowing quality. The brow is usually, but not alwaysfurrowed/tense.Hard Stare:When the dog makes sustained eye contact lasting twoseconds or longer, blinking less than every two seconds.Head Whip:When the dog moves his head abruptly and rapidlyto aim at someone or something that makes contact withhim.www.APDT.comNose Bop:When the dog’s nose makes brief, poking physicalcontact (with no sniffing) with the human or another dog.Penis Poke:Lunge awayWhen the dog touches another dog’s penis with hisnose or mouth.[continued on next page]November/December 2008 • The APDT Chronicle of the Dog • 43

An Ethogram of the Shelter DogThis article first appeared in The APDT Chronicle of the Dog, copyright 2008, The Association of Pet DogTrainers, www.apdt.com, 1-800-PET-DOGS.rug, floor, furniture, etc) for three seconds or longer. If thedog sniffs an area but licks up or chews something withinthe three seconds, this is usually food scavenging, and notcounted as intense sniffing.Poop Marking:When the dog lifts one leg just prior to and sometimesduring defecation, and then directs his anus high and thepoop ends up falling/brushing past or landing on a highobject.Pounce Off:When the dog jumps up and pushes his front paws upagainst a human and re-bounds off. The dog is pouncingoff the human. Contact is fleeting.Shake Off:High poop markingWhen the dog shakes himself off, starting with his headand shaking back from there.Sociability:Two seconds or longer of gentle, physical contact madeby the dog while orienting toward the tester. Mountingand sniffing are excluded.Soft Eye:When the dog squints his eyes while relaxing hisbrow. The dog keeps or moves his ears back during softeye contact. Blinking occurs more than once every twoseconds during soft eye contact. Commissures (cornersof the mouth) are often retracted or curled up during softeye.Tail Carriage:Where the dog positions the base of his tail.• High Tail Carriage: A high tail carriage is when thedog’s tail is above the plane of the dog’s back.• Level Tail Carriage: Level tail carriage is when the dogcarries his tail along the same plane as the dog’sback.• Low Tail Carriage: A low tail carriage is when the tailis below the plane of the dog’s back.• Tucked Tail: A tucked tail is when the tip is betweenthe dog’s rear legs.Teeth Clack:When the dog opens and shuts his mouth and the forceof his teeth coming together makes an audible sound.Examples of shoulder rubsShoulder Rub:When the dog rubs against a human or object and startswith the neck region and follows with a smear down hisbody.Shoulder Stance:When the dog standsobliquely in front of the testerwith his shoulder touching oralmost touching the tester.Sniffing - Intense:When the dog sniffssomething in the room or onthe tester (clothes, leash, skin,Intense sniffingTeeth Touch:When the dog’s teeth (canines, incisors, pre-molars ormolars) come into brief, fleeting and light physical contactwith a human.Urine Mark:When the dog (male or female) urinates with a streamlasting less than five seconds. Usually preceded bysniffing.Whale Eye:When the whites ofthe dog’s eye shows.The dog’s head movesslightly ahead of theeyeball, causing thecorner to show white.>Whale eye44 • The APDT Chronicle of the Dog • November/December 2008 www.APDT.com

This article first appeared in The APDT Chronicle of the Dog, copyright 2008, The Association of Pet DogTrainers, www.apdt.com, 1-800-PET-DOGS.Wide Panting:When the dog’s mouth is parted extra wide, withouthaving his lips retracted while he breathes with his mouthopen.Yawn, no teethYawn — Regular:When the dog yawns.Yawn With Teeth Exposed:When the dog yawns and flashes all or most of the teethin his mouth during the widest part of the yawn.I was recently watching an episode of Meerkat Manoron Animal Planet, and was thrilled and astounded tosee the first reference in any mammal, to anal marking.It was described as an “attack” and considered part of adominance take-over by one meerkat to her injured sister.Although there was no biting or actual injury, the onemeerkat repeatedly anal-swiped and shoulder rubbed allover the other meerkat.Scent Marking and Resource Guarding:I also see a strong correlation between these “scentmarking”behaviors and dogs who fail the resourceguarding portions and sometimes the stranger tests.It seems to me that whether it is a human-to-humanrelationship or a dog-to-human relationship, the healthiestand least risky relationships are ones based significantlyon respect, friendship, love, shared joy, etc. and the mostrisky, least healthy relationships are ones where themajority of the relationship is based on treating the otheras property, or as if the other is “owned.” I wonder if, whena dog shows no sociability, but scent marks the tester andthe furniture in the testing room throughout, whether heis claiming these as his own property, tagging them asresources to guard.Most Dangerous Profile:An Ethogram of the Shelter DogCommon Clusters of Behaviors:The Scent Marking Cluster:I frequently see Shoulder Rubbing, Flying ShoulderRubs, Shoulder Stance and all the Anal Touching/Swipingbehaviors occurring together. These behaviors tend tooccur in the least sociable dogs, and commonly in dogswho fail one or more portions of the test. I interpret thesebehaviors as a form of scent marking.Anus Behaviors:Initially, I began to notice merely that some dogs wouldsit on my shoe during testing. Then I would notice thatsometimes this would “gross me out” or disgust me, whichI found interesting since I am usually not in any waydisgusted by dogs. I then noticed that the dogs who saton my shoe and disgusted me would position themselvesin such a way that I could feel their anus on the top of myshoes. Other dogs, with whom I was not disgusted, wouldposition their tails or rear legs in such a way that they couldsit on my shoe without their anus making contact. It hadnothing to do with tail set, tail type, or tail carriage. ThenI began to notice that the dogs whose anuses made contactwere typically the least sociable dogs who commonly failedone or more parts of the full assessment. The most sociabledogs hardly ever touched their anuses to me or any otherplace in the testing environment. Anal glands are knownfor scent marking in dogs, and it seems to me that a dogwho swipes his anus all over the tester and furniture in thetesting room, could, like graffiti, be tagging his signature,claiming ownership of all these things.www.APDT.comI consider the large, muscular, non—sociable dogwho shows many “scent marking” behaviors as themost dangerous type of dog. I believe dogs that are bothphysically large and strong, as well as show no attachmentto humans, but rub on them with their shoulders andanus, have the most potential for harm. To me, these arenot in any way “pet” or “companion” dogs, but ratherpredators. I also believe that it is, in part sociability (alongwith training, relationship, bonding, and bite-inhibitiontraining) that helps a dog inhibit his bite if and when thedog was to get aggressive.Pediatric Spay/Neuters:As a very new observation, one that I am still just aspectator of, is I see an abundance of what I consider“scent marking” behaviors in adolescent and adult dogssuspected of, or known to have been, a pediatric spay orneuter. Pediatric spay and neuter I define as sterilizationperformed before six months of age. I haven’t seen enoughsuspected or known pediatric spay/neuters to really amassenough observations, except that I have, so far, been prettyconsistently making these observations on the ones I dosee.Intense Sniffing and Dog-to-Dog Aggression:I have noted that dogs who sniff one spot for threeseconds or longer and do so more than once duringtesting, are more likely have dog-to-dog aggression issues.I have noticed during behavior consultations as well thatdogs who have issues with other dogs are most likely tocome into the consultation room and [continued on next page]November/December 2008 • The APDT Chronicle of the Dog • 45

An Ethogram of the Shelter DogThis article first appeared in The APDT Chronicle of the Dog, copyright 2008, The Association of Pet DogTrainers, www.apdt.com, 1-800-PET-DOGS.intensely sniff the floors, rugs and furniture. The sameholds true of the outdoor environment. These dogs willalso sniff outside the consultation room, grass, trees, fenceposts, etc.It makes sense that dogs with issues with other dogs,whether they’re fear-based or based in anything else,would want to gather as much information about the otherdogs that were in the environment before them.Leash Grabbing and Resource Guarding:I have noticed a correlation from dogs who grab and tugthe leash during the sociability testing and who later go onto fail resource guarding. I’m not sure why this is exceptthat leaning down to pet the dog along his back is alsoinadvertently approaching the dog’s leash, if that’s indeedwhat he’s guarding, or maybe he’s guarding his body andwants to deny access to himself. This type of leash tuggingmost often has a very different quality to it than a fun gameof tug with a pet dog. The shelter dog’s tugging is moreintense, jerky, violent, reckless, with more hectic chompingand re-gripping, and often includes climbing up the leashtowards the tester’s hands. It usually feels quite unsafe,and indeed it is unsafe, since the leash is the only point ofcontrol between dog and handler.The benefits to breaking down behaviors into tiny,observable parts is that it takes the personal responsibilityout of describing dogs—instead of “that dog gave me afunny feeling” or “that dog scared me to death”—thedescription becomes “that dog froze, hard stared, blinkedless than once every two seconds” or “the raised his tailwhile making frontal, aligned contact with me.” Thesebehaviors are undeniably observable by anyone, andtherefore there’s less room for blame and excuses.Note: This article was also published simultaneously in theAustralian APDT Newsletter.Sue Sternberg is a lecturer, shelter owner, trainer, author, andcreator of the infamous “Assess-A-Hand.” She can be reached atRondout Valley Animals for Adoption, 4628 Route 209, Accord,NY 12404, or at sue@suesternberg.com. Her Web sites arewww.greatdogproductions.com and www.suesternberg.com.Behaviors I’ve Listed that are Observed from OutsideAssess-A-Pet Testing:A couple of the behaviors listed I see outside of thetesting environment, but wanted to include them anyway.Once a behavior is pointed out to someone, he or she willsee it everywhere, so it’s always of interest to point out todog professionals behaviors so that we might all share in adiscussion of when they occur, in what context, and throwaround interpretations.One of the behaviors I observe in some dogs are twodifferent kinds of yawns: one without revealing any teeth,and the other yawn in which at some point in the event,all the teeth show (incisors, canines and premolars). Sincethey are two distinct types of yawns, I can’t help butwonder that they mean different things. I have noticedthat the yawn-with-teeth occurs most often when one ofmy dogs is close to me and my other dogs approach or arealready close.Poop and Urine Marking usually occur outside theAssess-A-Pet test, but are observed during the normalcourse of caretaking of shelter dogs, and certainly regularlyobserved by owners and professionals.In ConclusionThe more I assess shelter dogs, the more I videotape,the more I review the footage, the more I see. I discovernew observations and behaviors all the time, even thoughwith some familiar clips it feels like it’s not possible to seeanything more. Once I observe something new, I can theneasily identify it everywhere, and then I wonder how Icould possibly have ever missed it!DOG G ST★RSDAILY®The Online Resource for Dog ProfessionalsA daily multimedia magazine withnews, blogs, articles, audios and videosA digital puppy raising textbookA place to share photos and videosof your own dog starsWe strongly believe that effective puppy husbandry information is crucialand should be available to all. Sheltering and rehoming unwanted adultshelter dogs is expensive, heartbreaking and not always effective.Puppyhood is the time to rescue unwanted adult shelter dogs.dogstardaily.com was designed for new puppy owners to use as a practicalguide for safe in-the-home socialization and training before their pup is oldenough to go to puppy classes and for trainers to use as a class textbookfor homework assignments and frequently asked questions.Dog Training 2.0 — The Next Revolution★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★www.dogstar daily.com46 • The APDT Chronicle of the Dog • November/December 2008 www.APDT.com