PDTE 2011 July Newsletter

PDTE NEWS 

JULY 2011 l Issue 17 

www.pdte.org 

Photo: 

Adelaide Lönnberg, Finland 2010

MESSAGE FROM the CHAIRMAN 

MESSAGE FROM 

the EDITOR 

Dear Readers! 

It’s summer again and our summer in 

Finland started so hot that even I – who 

love the sun – have to say there is a limit 

also to the sunshine. On second thoughts 

I should have been quiet, because now we 

have rain and cold... 

I again want to thank all of you who have 

sent me material for this Newsletter, which 

is our 17th. I have been the editor since 

Issue 12 (2008), making this my 6th issue, 

and every time I feel so good when I get 

material from you — different kinds of 

material that you wish to share with other 

members. This is one of the greatest benefits 

of the PDTE; we get information from 

at least 16 countries. 

Hello and welcome to the new summer edition of the PDTE Newsletter 

– I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 

In the UK we’ve been blessed with many bank holidays and lots of sunshine which 

heralds the start of what looks to be a lovely summer. My dogs have been loving helping 

me (from the comfort of the bench!) prepare the garden for vegetable planting, it 

provides a lovely summer buffet for them as it all ripens, they particularly enjoy the herbs, 

squash, strawberries, beans and courgettes. Foraging is an instinctive, enjoyable and 

natural dog behaviour so think about what you can do to make your outside space more 

interesting MESSAGE and rewarding for FROM them. I find they the are careful CHAIRMAN 

and selective about what they 

pick and don’t damage the plants so there’s enough for us all to share. 

The PDTE Board have been busy as ever and I’m pleased to welcome a great many 

new members to the PDTE. During the past few months we’ve had a continual stream 

of applications which helps to add to the wealth of knowledge within the PDTE. Don’t 

forget to join the forum so that we can all get to know each other better and share ideas 

or problems. 

Having just booked my flights for Oslo I can only encourage as many members as 

possible to book up for this fabulous weekend. The PDTE AGM & Seminar is always the 

highlight of my year, and I go to a great many other seminars, it’s inspiring, 

interesting and enjoyable and a wonderful opportunity to network and make new friends. 

Every year I think is the best one ever and they just seem to get better and better. If you 

have something you would like to talk about do let us know so that you can join the list of 

speakers at this great weekend. 

All kinds of information is important and 

it reminds us that we are not alone as we 

strive towards our goal, which is to make 

life better for dogs. We can pass on excellent 

tips and there is often the opportunity 

to lend a hand. Doing this together 

enables us to extend our knowledge bank 

and network well beyond what we could 

achieve alone. 

Speaking of which — our biggest event of 

the year, the PDTE weekend and AGM, 

is being held in Oslo, Norway, on 24-25 

September and an extra seminar on 26 

September. This is an excellent opportunity 

to meet face to face and really network. 

If you haven’t registered yet, do so now! I 

hope to see you all there. 

I wish you all a very relaxing and sunny 

summer. 

Raili 

Newsletter Editor 

raili@doi.fi 

Hope you are all enjoying summer weather and I look forward to seeing many of 

you in Oslo. 

Winkie 

Chairman 

Copyright © 2008. The reproduction in whole or part of any of the contents of PDTE News is expressly forbidden without written consent of the editor.

BOARD’S CORNER 

Contents: 

Board´s Corner 3 

Greetings from 

member countries 4 

Welcome our new members 5 

Invitation to the AGM 2011 10 

What´s up in 2011? 11 

Home stories 15 

AGM meeting in Bilbao 2010 

Memory matters 16 

Attachments and Relationships 22 

Report of the ESCV-congress 24 

Animal cops in Holland 25 

The Netherlands in top 10 25 

of animal cruelty 

Living with newfoundlands 26 

Sleeping dogs 28 

Canine gut flora 29 

Is my dog trying to 

dominate me? 30 

President 

Turid Rugaas 

Boks 109, 3361 Geithus, Norway 

Phone: +47 (0) 32 780 987 

E-Mail: turidrug@frisurf.no 

Website: www.turid-rugaas.no 

Chairman 

Membership Secretary 

Andrea Knoblauch 

Dorfstrasse 66, 8955 Oetwil a.d.L. 

Switzerland 

Phone: +41 (0) 44 748 57 10 

E-Mail: a.knoblauch@bluewin.ch 

MeetingS Secretary 

Winkie Spiers 

121 Harbut Road, London SW11 2RD 

England 

Phone: +44 (0) 207 924 3744 

Mobile: +44 (0) 7718 332 914 

E-Mail: winkie@winkiespiers.com 

Website: www.winkiespiers.com 

Treasurer 

Raili Halme 

Pärehöylänpolku 15, 03220 Tervalampi 

Finland 

Phone: +358 (0) 50 504 2109 

E-Mail: raili@rakkaathaukut.f 

Website: www.rakkaathaukut.fi 

BOARD ASSISTANT 

Next newsletter 

DECEMBER 2011 

Please send materials by 1st October at 

the latest to raili@doi.fi 

Advertising prices 

1/4 page €20 

1/2 page €50 

1/1 page €100 

For more information, reservations 

(latest 1st October) and originals 

(latest 15th October) contact 

raili@doi.fi 

Philippa Woodward-Smith 

58 Pettinger Gardens 

St Denys 

Southhampton SO17 2WL 

England 

+44 (0) 7944 565 085 

pwoodward_smith@hotmail.com 

www.pippawoodwardsmith.co.uk 

Adelaide Lönnberg 

Finland 

adelaide@rakkaathaukut.fi 

PDTE NEWS Page 3

BOARD’S CORNER 

Country representatives 

AUSTRIA – 

Denmark Turid Rugaas / turidrug@frisurf.no 

England Ali Zaffar / zaffarmeister@gmail.com 

Finland 

Raili Halme / raili@rakkaathaukut.fi 

there are STILL A few 

countries without 

representatives. 

If you are interested 

please 

contact Turid 

turidrug@frisurf.no 

Germany 

Sonja Hoegen / hoegen@dogcom.de 

Greece 

Yiannis Arachovitis / info@stardogs.gr 

IRELAND – 

Italy 

Chiara Gentileschi / tristan22@virgilio.it 

Netherlands Nelis Verhoeven / info@zandberghoeve.com 

Norway 

Turid Rugaas / turidrug@frisurf.no 

Poland 

Agnieszka Nojszewska / agnieszka@dobrypies.pl 

Scotland Max Muir / info@action4dogs.co.uk 

We have opened a new topic 

in the Newsletter 

– Networking – 

The idea behind this is to tell members how 

great it is to network with people in your own 

country and in others. 

You see a lot, and you learn a lot 

from each other. 

Try networking this summer and 

write us an article about it. Other members 

might be inspired to do the same! 

Spain – 

Sweden 

Switzerland 

Monica Grönqvist - Carlsson / monica@hundagarskolan.com 

Susi Roger / relosuga@bluewin.ch 

GrEetings from member countries 

In GREECE 

In ITALY 

Turid’s Iinternational dog trainer course 2009-2010 in Clivio 

“ About 200 hundred people interested in 

animal behavior attended the April 10th 

StarDogs seninar in Athens, Greece. Yiannis 

Arahovitis (StarDogs) spoke about the 

“Causes & treatment of Dog Aggression”. 

The second part of the seminar was a 

presentation of modern , positive dog training 

methods on basic obedience. 

StarDogs and partners go around big 

Greek cities and inform animal lovers on 

how to understand and communicate better 

with their pets” 

Page 4 

This exercise helps dogs to become more 

self-confident with their hind legs. Valeria 

is luring her dog. 

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9. 

PDTE NEWS

WElCOME OUR NEW MEMBERS 

Charlotte 

Andersson, 

Denmark 

My name is Charlotte Andersson, and I’m 

40 years old. I have been working with 

animals all my life, as I was raised by dedicated 

parents who worked with “broken” 

animals, dogs, horses and exotic animals. 

In 1994 I was educated at the Ethology 

Institute here in Denmark, after which I 

attended several courses, and in 2004 I 

finished my education at the university of 

animals as a therapist in Chinese medicine 

for animals and humans. In 2010 I founded 

the Fair Dog Association here in Denmark, 

where we work for equal rights for all dogs 

and their owners and for Fair Play in the 

world of dogs. 

Steffanie Binder, 

Germany 

After I was settled into my main work 

as a teacher for kids with special 

needs I decided to get a new dog. 

Almost five years ago I got Lilly, a Coton 

de Tulear. I went to a puppy and 

youngster class. From the very beginning 

she was interested in hunting, so 

we started to do some tracking. She 

was pretty good and the trainer invited 

us to join his search and rescue group. 

Thus we started mantrailing. I went to 

a lot of workshops and seminars and 

became a mantrailing instructor. Two 

years ago I started my own mantrailing 

group and I give mantrailing courses. A 

few months ago we decided to specialise 

in finding missing pets. In addition, 

my dog and I like retrieving and other 

nose- and brainwork. Last summer I 

started to train family dogs.Last year 

I took the trainer education with Turid, 

which finished in April this year. 

Merethe Boergart, 

Denmark 

dogs. My heart beats for a good dog 

life, with lots of love and companionship. 

I also consider it very important to 

reduce the stress in our dogs - and in 

humans as well. I have trained as a 

masseur for dogs, and was examined 

by a vet - www.biodyr.dk, the only such 

vet in Denmark. 

Carlos Dangoor, 

Balearic Islands, 

Spain 

I started to be curious about dogs “by 

accident”. About six years ago my wife 

brought a dog home and since then I 

have been fascinated with them. Currently, 

with other partners, I have set 

up educando(g), a company that organizes 

courses and seminars on dog 

training. 

Nina Haaland, 

Norway 

My name is Steffi. I was born in 1971 

in the south of Germany. I grew up with 

a lot of different animals. When I was 

twelve years old my family got our first 

dog. As a teenager I was increasingly 

responsible for our small poodle girl. 

She lived for 14 years. For some years 

during my studies I lived without a dog 

of my own but with cats. 

I am aged 42 and have been with dogs 

all my life. My parents had dogs of all 

breeds while I was growing up. When 

I left home and got my own apartment, 

my first dog was a Samoyed. Later I 

had Dalmatians, of which I have two 

now. Since 1996 I have worked with 

dogs and owners who have problems. 

I was educated by Roger Abrantes, 

and training has been a part of my life. 

But now my heart beats for family dogs 

who are not in balance. I work full time 

advising owners about their dogs, to 

get the best life for both. I give lectures 

on dog behaviour and a good life for 

our dogs. 

I completed the dog trainer education 

with Turid Rugaas in april 2010, 

and am very happy to work according 

to her principles and ways of seeing 

I run “Hund i Fokus”, a small dog 

training school in Darbu in Øvre Eiker, 

Norway. 

In addition to behavioural consulting 

and private lessons we have a wide 

range of classes: Puppy classes, tracking, 

searching, freestyle, problem-dog 

classes, chanterelle searching and 

others. 

We focus on positive reinforcement in 

all our work with dogs, mainly clicker 

training. 


WELCOME OUR NEW MEMBERS 

We mainly conduct classes in Darbu, 

but also upon request in other places 

in Norway. 

I have been a contributor to the magazines 

“Hundesport” (the Norwegian 

Kennel Club’s magazine) and “Ditt Dyr” 

(“Your Animal”), and during 2006-2008 

had a weekly column in the local newspaper 

“Bydgeposten”. 

I started the Norwegian Freestyle Association 

(www.freestylenorge.com), 

and am now a judge in both freestyle 

and heelwork to music. 

I am a chief instructor in canine-related 

education at the Fjellanger Hundeskole 

(www.fjellanger.net), also at the University 

(www.umb.no/sevu/artikkel/evukursserie-for-adferdskonsulenter) 

and 

at Hundens Hus in Sweden (http://hundenshus.com) 

Lisa Hird, 

Scotland 

I am a Professional Canine Behaviourist and 

Dog Trainer, covering all of Lanarkshire, Dumfries 

and Galloway, Borders and the Lothians. 

I am fully qualified with a Diploma in Canine 

Behaviour, Certificate of Dog Training, Certificate 

of Behaviour problems. I have a Higher 

certificate in Cynology and have an Advanced 

Diploma in Canine Behaviour Management with 

distinction. 

I also have a diploma in Canine Aggression, 

with distinction. 

I am a member of the Institute for Animal Care 

Education. 

I am an external behaviourist for Dog’s Trust 

and I also work on a voluntary basis with The 

Scottish Staffordshire Bull Terrier Rescue, helping 

owners who have taken in a rescue dog to 

overcome any problems they may be facing. 

I help Pet Fostering Service Scotland as a 

volunteer. 

I have three rescue dogs of my own and have 

worked with dogs for over 25 years. 

I use positive reinforcement methods, providing 

the owner with effective management and 

control skills. I undertake veterinary referrals 

as the cost of the service can often be claimed 

through the owners pet insurance. I do NOT 

use cruel or harsh methods. 

I have a special interest in Rescue dogs and 

canine aggression. 

“The fidelity of a dog is a precious gift demand- 

Page 6 

ing no less binding moral responsibilities than 

the friendship of a human being. The bond with 

a true dog is as lasting as the ties of this earth 

can ever be”. Konrad Lorenz 

Through being an admin assistant to Winkie, I 

will fulfil my desire to contribute to the welfare 

of dogs in my small way — and also through 

the PDTE I plan to keep abreast of current 

thinking regarding owning our lovely dogs. 

Jeanne Hoogland- 

Vilyn, Netherlands 

I live with my husband and our two daugthers 

and two dogs, a 12-year-old Dutch Kooikerdog 

male and an 8-year-old mixed breed female 

from Greece. Our first dog was also a Dutch 

Kooikerdog but he is no longer with us. He was 

trained the old-fashioned, tradional way with a 

choke chain. In august 2004 I went to a seminar 

about calming signals given by Turid Rugaas 

that changed my life and that of other dog 

owners. Since then I have improved the quality 

of life for my own dogs and am helping others 

to look at a different way of thinking about dog 

behaviour and communication between dogs 

and people. Before 2004 I had never heard of 

calming signals. I did doggy dancing, agility, 

and competition obedience with my dog. But 

after the seminar on calming signals in 2004 

I stopped, and could see that my dogs were 

more relaxed. I give them more mental activities 

and nosework, and just let them be dogs. I 

have owned my own Dog training school since 

2004, and in 2006 I attended Sheila Harper’s 

IDTS in the Netherlands. From 2004 until now 

I have attended various seminars and summer 

camps with Turid Rugaas, Sheila Harper, Anne 

Lill Kvam, and Suzanne Clother. Since than I 

have changed lots of things at the dog training 

school. We now do other things like social 

walks, one-to-one work in the real world, and 

dog behaviour training sessions. I visit people 

at home more, so we can work on the problem 

they have at home and look at the cause of 

the behaviour not just the symptoms. People 

like this approach more than only being given 

corrections that do not solve the problem. I’m 

committed to continually furthering my knowledge 

about dogs. My aim is to help people 

enjoy their lives with their dogs and focus on 

long-term solutions. 

Dewi Houwen, 

Netherlands 

I am Dewi, 31 years old and living in a little 

village called America in the south of Holland 

together with my boyfriend, two dogs and five 

chickens. I have been in love with dogs since 

I was a little child. Unfortunately my parents 

wouldn’t allow me to have one. So the first dog 

of my own came just three years ago. During 

all these years without a dog of my own, I got 

to spend time with a Border Collie owned by my 

parents’ friends. I was at their house together 

with Shep during their holidays and at other 

times when they went away from home. Now 

Shep isn’t alive any more, but I still have very 

warm memories of this dear friend. 

Today I have two Bearded Collies, Promise 

and Duuk. Such a wonderful breed. They bring 

me so much joy every day. Our biggest hobby 

together is mantrailing and search games in 

general. 

I discovered mantrailing 1 year ago and now 

am addicted to this sport, and my dogs are 

too. My coach has asked me if I would like to 

help her with the training of the dogs and their 

owners and hopefully become a trainer myself 

some day. 

I didn’t need any time to think about that. To 

me, being and training with dogs is the most 

natural and beautiful thing in the world. I want 

to learn everything and I’m very, very glad she 

gave me this opportunity. 



Ronja Hyppölä, 

Finland 

Judith-Selina 

Keller, 

Switzerland 

Susanne Lautner, 

Austria 

Hi I’m Ronja, and I would like to share the story 

of my dog Blanca. I never had a dog when I 

was growing up, although I wanted one. One 

day when I was living in Spain, this dog just 

literally walked into my life. She was really ugly 

and dirty and was walking on only three paws. 

She followed me everywhere. Finally I took her 

in, had her treated at the vet’s, and then she 

came home with me to Finland. She never had 

major problems although she didn’t really like 

other dogs. At least it seemed like that to me; 

I didn’t know any better. Now she is about 6-8 

years old and very happy. When I moved to 

Finland she had to live elsewhere for a while 

as my in-laws were allergic. The lady she lived 

with took really good care of her until I was able 

to move into my own place. She was working 

at the Finnish Animal Welfare Society, and a 

member of Rakkaat Haukut was giving a seminar 

there. I attended and got very interested. I 

really wanted to attend a dog massage school 

but at the time it was too expensive for me. 

But I wanted to study something about dogs, 

so I ended up at the Rakkaat Haukut trainer’s 

education. And now I have also done the 

behaviourist course. I’m still planning to attend 

the massage course, but first I plan to start the 

government-approved animal trainers course. 

I was born in 1974 in a little town in Switzerland 

and grew up with my parents, an older 

brother and sister and a few pets. Since I can 

remember I have been fascinated by nature 

and by animals. As with many animal-addicted 

children I dreamed of a profession with dogs. I 

invested all my pocket money in dog books or 

magazines and I frequently walked the dogs 

in our neighbourhood. My deep desire to have 

my own dog became reality at the age of 27. In 

September 2001 a charismatic Dalmatian male 

puppy called Eden (Ginger) came into my life. 

In winter 2006 a Magyar Vizsla female puppy 

called Alisha joined and enriched our family. 

Three years ago I started working in an animal 

shelter, which is an instructive experience that 

gives me the daily opportunity to work with 

different dogs and to learn a lot about dog 

behaviour. 

Turid Rugaas’ “calming signals” workshop gave 

my life with dogs a completely new direction. 

I wanted to know more about this philosophy 

and undertook the puppy trainer education as 

well as different workshops at Nicole Fröhlich’s 

NF Ausbildungszentrum (Training Centre) in 

Maienfeld. In Septemper 2009 I started Sheila 

Harper’s IDBTS, which has given me valuable 

knowledge and many tools for my work with 

dogs. I love to be engaged with shelter dogs. I 

am fascinated by both nosework and retrieving 

(apportieren). I also work as a dog trainer. It 

is a privilege and a big responsibility to work 

with people and their dogs, supporting them to 

increase the life quality of the partnership, to 

learn life skills and to help improve their relationship. 

As trainers we can learn from every 

team we work with and this is a great privilege. 

Susanne is a vet with her own pet practice in 

Vienna. Her areas of special interest include 

dog-dog and dog-human aggression, puppies, 

nosework, and helping animals and their 

owners, so that those who visit her practice feel 

good about going back. 

Helena Männis, 

Finland 

Hi, I’m Helena and I love dogs! We have 

always had dogs in our family; now I have four 

of my own. They are street dogs from Thailand. 

I got them because I lived there for a year and 

I brought them back with me. I had problems 

with two of them; they were growling at the 

others and didn’t get on with any other dogs 

but mine. I was looking around for a solution 

and came across Rakkaat Haukut. I asked Raili 

to come and see me, and she did. I learned a 

lot from it and got more and more interested, 

and now I’m hooked. I’ve completed both the 

Rakkaat Haukut trainer’s education and the 

behaviourist education, and I am helping out 

at the dog day care. Eventually I would love to 

work with dogs full time. 



Page 8 

Jana Nemcova, 

England 

My journey with dogs started 11 years ago 

when I decided to raise a puppy for a guide-dog 

association. The experience was both terrible 

and terrific. Most importantly it opened my eyes 

to the dog world and it brought my Labrador 

boy into my life. Back in the Czech Republic 

I used to work in a job that didn’t satisfy me 

and my main experience with dogs was as an 

everyday ownership. Later on I started rescuing 

abused dogs and finding them new homes. But 

this wasn’t enough as there were not enough 

good homes. People didn’t know what dogs 

really need. Without educating people I could 

only change very little. I decided to gain an official 

education as a dog behaviourist, because 

I wanted to be taken seriously. Unfortunately, 

back in CR there was no official education of 

this type. So I decided to take my chances in 

the UK. I have recently finished Sheila Harper’s 

IDBTS and I attend as many seminars as 

possible. I work as a dog walker at the moment 

and I’m actively involved with a local dog 

rescue where I’m currently managing a project 

enriching outdoor paddocks for dogs. Rescue 

dogs have always been my main passion, but 

also just ordinary dog ownership. My main 

mission is to change the stigma that is around 

dogs and show people what they can achieve if 

they build a strong relationship with their dogs 

based on understanding and respect. 

Carolin Reger, 

Germany 

Dogs have been around me from early childhood. 

They have always fascinated me and it 

has always been my deep wish to make them 

feel they can trust me. I had my first own dog at 

15 — Baron, an Irish Terrier. After studying Biology 

and English, I got my first dog from a dog 

shelter – a 2-3 year-old Maremmana, Blanca. 

For 11 years she was my “white shadow” and 

she taught me so much more about dogs. The 

idea of visiting a dog school never crossed 

my mind, even though Blanca was not “easy”. 

I knew how she felt and so it was always 

possible to manage what might have been 

difficult. After Blanca’s death, I couldn’t think 

of a new dog. I had started teaching and also 

took up studying psychology. I felt convinced 

that my new dog would somehow find its way 

to me. Then one day, 1 1/2 years after Blanca’s 

death, the phone rang: A friend’s sister called 

and asked me to adopt a young Border Collie 

mix that desperately needed a new home … 

Yala is 10 years old now and still in fairly good 

health. She is Blanca’s complete opposite. 

Because of a new home with a big garden I 

took in another dog, Aqui, whom I carefully 

chose as an appropriate companion for Yala. 

He is a Galgo mix from Spain, soft and gentle. 

Because of his hunting instinct I got in touch 

with the Galgo-Hilfe. They offer free runs for 

dogs on Sundays, but I soon realized that it 

was too stressful there for Aqui (he suffers from 

hip dysplasia). After taking in a third dog as a 

foster dog, a traumatized Galga, I founded a 

group for fearful dogs in 2007 – to give dogs 

a chance for appropriate canine and human 

contact under controlled conditions. At that time 

I came across several animal-learn books and 

was surprised and happy to find many ideas 

that I had somehow discovered by living so 

closely with my own dogs (and all the dogs 

that have been my friends). For the work in my 

group I studied the Calming Signals closely 

and integrated the knowledge into my work. 

By now I realized that there is a demand for 

dog-friendly dog trainers. I got in touch with 

an animal-learn dog trainer and was offered 

the possibility to learn from her in theory and 

practice. I also took up mantrailing and visited 

my first seminars. When I met Anne Lill I got to 

know about Turid’s dog trainer education and 

immediately applied for it. Also our fourth dog, 

Coco, a Maltese mix from Spain, had joined us. 

She was the missing piece in our family jigsaw. 

In between we took up four foster dogs and 

found loving homes for them. 

Today I live together harmoniously with my 

boyfriend and our four dogs. My work with dogs 

and their owners includes work with fearful 

dogs, basic training, group training, nosework 

– especially mantrailing - and supporting owners 

with newly adopted dogs from dog shelters. 

I cooperate with Hundeschule Findeklee, the 

Galgo-Hilfe and many friends who are committed 

to giving dogs a better life. 

Bente Stensland, 

Norway 

My name is Bente Stensland. I have a husband 

and three children and two dogs. I have always 

been interested in dogs. Since my family got 

a dog when I was 4 years old, I have loved 

dogs. When I got my first own dog together 

with my husband, I started to attend a course. 

This course was horrible and I walked away in 

the middle of it because I felt it was so wrong. 

When I got home I started thinking of how I 

could train in a better way without pain. I found 

Turid Rugaas’ shool on the Internet and had 

to go there. I am very glad that I did that and 

learned all the good methods to train in a good 

way with my dog. Later I got my second dog 

from some people who did not want to have her 

anymore. They had not treated her very well 

and it has taken me a long time to teach her to 

trust me. 

My dog-related education is from Hagan 

Hundeskole, Turid Rugaas’ dog trainer school. 

I have also taken a course about learning 

theory at the university in Ås. I am a nurse by 

profession. 

Together with Agnes Vælidalo, I started the 



dog training school Logrendehale in Mandal in 

2010. 

We hold various courses and consultations for 

dogs. We are also about to start a boarding 

kennel for dogs, which hopefully will open this 

year. Our focus will be to respect every dog 

and their needs, give them peace, choices 

and mental stimulation through an enriched 

environment. 

We’ve also started a project where we are 

measuring the dog’s heart rate in real time in 

order to further understand what happens with 

the dog’s physiology in different situations. 

There are many situations where we would 

want to measure a dog’s pulse, so this is something 

we’ll do a lot of in the future. 

Agnes has been working on the final school 

assignment at Turid Rugaas’ school where she 

measures how the dog’s pulse reacts when 

you walk directly towards the dog vs. going in 

a curve. This is a big project that we are both 

working on. 

Margarita Tryols, 

Balearic Islands, 

Spain 

Agnes Vælidalo, 

Norway 

I am 29 years old and come from Mandal, 

southern Norway. I am married, and have a 

little girl and a Standard Poodle called Odin. 

My great interest in dogs began a couple of 

years ago when we got Odin, a then 3-year-old 

relocated dog. 

My dog-related education is from Hagan 

Hundeskole, Turid Rugaas’ dog trainer school, 

where I am about to finish. 

In 2010, together with Bente Stensland, I 

started the Logrendehale dog training school in 

Mandal. We hold various courses and consultations 

for dogs. We are also about to start a 

boarding kennel for dogs, which hopefully will 

open this year. Our focus will be to respect 

every dog and their needs, give them peace, 

choices and mental stimulation through an 

enriched environment. 

I have also started a project in which I am 

measuring the dog’s heart rate in real time, in 

order to understand the physiological response 

in different situations. There are many situations 

in which I would like to measure a dog’s 

pulse, so this is something I’ll be doing a lot in 

the future. 

Currently I am working on the final assignment 

at Turid’s school, in which I measure how a 

dog’s pulse reacts when one walks directly 

towards them as opposed to curving. 

GrEetings from 

member countries 

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 

Hello, my name is Margarita Truyols. I live in 

Palma de Mallorca, Spain, with my family and 

my two dogs, Pancho and Bruna, and our two 

cats Félix and Rafaela. 

I’ve lived with dogs for years and I can’t imagine 

life without a dog beside me at home. 

I attended the first Seminar of Turid Rugaas in 

Spain in 2005 and it was a revelation to me. 

Since then I have followed Turid’s theories and 

I was her student at the Education Course in 

Madrid in 2007-2009. 

I never did the courses to become a professional 

dog trainer, but in order to understand and 

give a better life to my dogs at home. However, 

after the Education in 2007-2009 I knew I had 

to do something for the dogs and their owners. 

That is why Carlos and I founded Educando(g), 

in order to spread a gentle way of dog training 

in Spain. 

I have also written a little book, trying to give 

children some advice about dogs. 

Here we are training the smacking sound. Anne lill is offering the dog a bag full of treats 

and Chrissy has to catch the attention of her dog with a smacking sound. 

Valentina is luring her dog over an obstacle. 


What‘s up in 2011? 

Welcome to Oslo, Norway for the Annual Meeting of 

Pet Dog Trainers of Europe 

This weekend you have the opportunity to meet trainers from all over Europe, 

share experiences, talk about dogs and get to know others who work with dogs 

and share your interest. Both PDTE members and non-members are welcome. 

Location: Rica Helsfyr Hotel in Oslo 

Saturday and Sunday: Lectures by PDTE members both days, AGM Sunday 

morning, joint dinner Saturday evening with time for networking and free time 

to enjoy the city. 

Attractions and sights in Oslo: Amongst the internationally known attractions 

are the Vigeland Sculpture Park, the Viking Ship Museum, the Munch Museum 

and Holmenkollen. New attractions in Oslo include the Nobel Peace Centre, the 

Opera house and the Holocaust Centre. 

Are not two days enough? Join a workshop Monday 26 th September. 

Speakers have not been finally decided. We envisage a divided day, with 

different lecturers before and after lunch. 

PDTE AGM, Saturday & 

Sunday 

Members: 120€ 

Non-members: 180€ 

Incl. warm lunch both 

days 

Hotel 

Double room: 140€ 

Single room: 110€ 

Free parking/internet 

As this is an international event, please note that all talks will be held in English. 

Registration: +47 47347695 / post@hundensegen.no (Tiina Finn) 

A warm welcome to all who want to join us in Oslo in September 2011. 

Turid Rugaas, Anne Lill Kvam, Tiina Finn, Stepanka Horakova, 

Line Skaugerud, Bente Stensland and Agnes Vælidalo 

More information coming soon on www.pdte.org 

Page 10 



PDTE Events, Courses, Seminars, Workshops... 

These events, courses, seminars and workshops have been accepted by the PDTE Board. 

Part of the income contributes to the work of the PDTE. If you would like to organize a PDTE event, 

contact Raili Halme raili@doi.fi . 

FINLAND 

ORganiSed by the 

DOG-ORIENTED INSTITUTE 

More information: 

Raili Halme, raili@doi.fi 

Tel. +358 50 504 2109 

Education in Finland is held in Finnish 

but will be interpreted into English if 

needed. In other countries the education 

language is English. 

13.8 – 04.12 (6 weekends) 

DOG-ORIENTED Instructor 

EXAM EDUCATION – DOI 

- Lectures + practical training 

The origin of dogs, and the 

dog as an animal 

Good leadership is parenthood 

Learning in dogs 

Using your body in teaching 

Planning your own courses 

Breeds 

Enrichment for dogs 

Stress behaviour in dogs 

How to train people 

The language of dogs and 

calming signals 

First aid 

Marketing and advertising 

Practical work 

Homework 

Planning and keeping your 

own courses 

Practical exam 

Graduates of the instructor education or 

people who have enough knowledge 

may attend: 

DOG-ORIENTED behaviourist 

EXAM EDUCATION – DOB 

In English, starting in Poland August 2011 

(see page 13, and in Holland October 

2011 (see page 31). In Finnish, starting in 

Finland 2012. 

For more information about all of these, 

contact raili@doi.fi 

NetherLands 

ORganiSed by 

Calming Signs and 

Nelis Verhoeven, 

Melanie Linssen, Raili Halme, 

Winkie Spiers, Gerd KÖhler 

and others 

July 15-20, 2011 

BETTER RELATIONSHIP CAMP 

A happier dog makes happier humans 

Venue: Zandstraat 3, 

5984 PA Koningslust 

Further information: 

www.calmingsigns.com 

RAILI HALME 

21.10.2011 – 19.11.2012 

Dog-Oriented Behaviourist 

EXAM Education – DOB 

Venue: Zandstraat 3, 

5984 PA Koningslust 

9 units 


www.calmingsigns.com 

WANT to HOLD your event 

as a PDTE event? 

send an application to 

raili@doi.fi 

You will get 

1/2 page advertising space 

free of charge in the Newsletter and 

added value to your event by using the 

PDTE logo! The smallest profit to the 

PDTE is only 10%. 

NORWAY 

27th August 9-17 in Oslo 

Amber Batson, England 

Theme: 

The memory of the dog 

5 - 7 August in Oslo 

Turid Rugaas 

A follow-up course for updating knowledge. 

(In Norwegian only) for trainers 

who have previously taken my dog 

trainer school 


turidrug@frisurf.no 

POLAnD 

OrganiSed by 

GOOD DOG - Academy of 

Communication with Animals 

Agnieszka Nojszewska, 

kontakt@dobrypies.pl 

www.dobrypies.pl 

RAILI HALME 

26.8.2011 – 9.12.2012 

DOG-ORIENTED BEHAVIOURIST 

EXAM EDUCATION – DOB 

Venue: Warsaw 

9 units 

See the detailed programme in this 

Newsletter on page 13! 

More information: www.dobrypies.pl 



Other Events, Courses, Seminars, Workshops... 

Sheila Harper 

Page 12 

ENGLAND 

16 - 17 July 2011 

The Canine Nutrition Workshop 

Venue: Staffordshire, UK 

Contact Sheila Harper 

sheila@sheilaharper.co.uk 

SALLY ASKEW 

23 - 24 July 2011 

The Spiritual Dog Trainer: 

Workshop 3 – Exploring Balance 

Venue: Suffolk, UK 

Contact Sally Askew 

info@caninebowentechnique.com 

8 - 9 October 2011 

The Spiritual Dog Trainer: Workshop 

4 – Cultivating Energy for Human & 

Dog 




19 - 20 November 2011 


Workshop 5 – Ways of improving 

well-being for ourselves and our 

dogs 




MARIA HENSE 

GERMANY 

5 July 2011 

Serenity for Dogs 

More mental and physical health for 

dogs by being calm 

Venue: Golmbach 

Contact Martina Schoppe 

tina.schoppe@arcor.de 

3 July 2011 

Hyperactivity In Dogs 

Venue: Near Düsseldorf 

Contact Gabi Echterhoff 

info@hundeschule-fairplay.com 

28 August 2011 

Venue: Meschede 

Positive Psychology For Dogs 

Contact Christina Sondermann 

info@spass-mit-hund.de 

10 September 

Venue: Schwerte 

Living With Multiple Dogs 

Contact Sabine Mersche 

info@animal-team.de 

11 September 

Venue: Schwerte 

Basic Training – All A Dog Really 

Needs 

Contact Sabine Mersche 

info@animal-team.de 

5 November 

Venue: Meschede 

Behaviour Therapy 

Basic Knowledge everyone should 

have 

Contact Christina Sondermann 

info@spass-mit-hund.de 

Seminars 2011 in South 

Germany, see www.dogcom.de 

for more information 

Day seminar I “The nutrition of dogs 

- basics“: Saturday 17 September 

2011 with Silvia Weber 

Day seminar II “Nutrition - fresh, 

individual, healthy“: Sunday 18 September 

2011 with Silvia Weber 

Weekend seminar “Fear and 

stress“: Saturday 22 + Sunday 23 

October 2011 with Turid Rugaas 

Evening lecture “Hunting behaviour”: 

Monday 05 December 2011 

with Inga Böhm 

Trainer education with various 

teachers starting in June 2011 

Education for animation dogs (dogs 

who visit kindergartens, schools, 

rest homes...) starting autumn 2011 

For detailed information, visit www. 

dogcom.de 

SCOTLAND 

Action 4 Dogs 

Mob. 07999 866 989 - info@action 

4dogs.co.uk 

mailto:info@action4dogs.co.uk 

Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D 

10 - 11 September, 2011 

The first day of the Seminar will focus 

on the most common context 

of dog-dog and dog–human 

aggression related problems. 

The second day will be based 

on one of her books FOR THE LOVE 

OF A DOG: Emotions in You & Your 

Dog, and How they Affect Training and 

Relationships. 

Venue: Craiglockhart Campus, 

Napier University, Edinburgh 


www.action4dogs.co.uk/patricia_ 

mcconnell.htm 

SWITZERLAND 

SALLY ASKEW 

3 September 2011 

Start of Canine Bowen Technique 

training course 

Venue: Maienfeld. Switzerland 

Contact: Nicole Froehlich info@ 

footstep.ch 

1 - 2 October 2011 


Workshop 4 – Cultivating Energy for 

Human & Dog 



footstep.ch 

10 - 11 December 2011 

How to be a Dog Detective 



footstep.ch 

12 - 13 December 2011 

The Spiritual Dog Trainer: Workshop 

5 – Ways of improving well-being for 

ourselves and our dogs 


Contact: Nicole Froehlich info@footstep.ch 



Other Events, 

Courses, 

Seminars, 

Workshops... 

SWITZERLAND 

On 20/21 August 2011 

Grisha Stewart (USA) 

is coming to Switzerland to give a 

2-day BAT Seminar. 

BAT (Behaviour Adjustment Training) 

is a methodology based upon desensitization 

in which the fearful dog learns 

how to achieve his desired consequence 

in the presence of his/her 

object of fear by displaying a newly 

learned behaviour. The dog owner 

learns to better read his/her dog’s body 

language as well as to recognize the 

dog’s stress signals, in order to support 

the dog in making new decisions better. 

Lectures and hands-on demonstrations 

with dogs brought by participants. 

More about BAT : http://ahimsadogtraining.com/blog/bat/ 

Where - Hotel Engel, Hauptstrasse 22, 

4143 Dornach, Switzerland 

Cost ca. CHF 300.- incl. 2X Lunch 

Seminar language English with German 

translation 

Registration http://web.me.com/support.notation/Site/Termine_Seminare. 

html 

look for the link “Anmeldung (per sofort 

bis 15. Juli 2011)” or register via email 

ljc@ dogs@me.com 

if you would like your 

events to appear in the 

next newsletter in 

December 2011, please 

send your information 

by 15 November to 

raili@doi.fi 

DOG-ORIENTED 

BehavioUrist 

EDUCATION 

RAILI HALME 

The course is held in English (translation into Polish) 

Organized by: GOOD DOG 

Academy of Communication with Animals 

Agnieszka Nojszewska, 

kontakt@dobrypies.pl www.dobrypies.pl 

Course Programme: 

1. 26 - 28 August 2011 

Friday 

* Introduction to the course 

and participants 

* Recap of previous talks 

on parenthood, 

stress and communication 

in practice 

Saturday - Sunday 

* What is a problem dog? 

* Whose problems? 

* Good behaviourist and the right place for consultation 

* Instinctive behaviour in dogs 

* The effects of breed on behaviour 

2. 14 - 16 October 2011 

Friday Group work around homework 

Saturday - Sunday: special speaker AMBER BATSON, England 

* How to work with vets and some basic understanding 

of how medical conditions can affect behavioural 

problems (how to see unhealthiness, pain in dogs, how 

to handle the pain, wrong moving, wrong feeding etc) 

3. 25 - 27 November 2011 



* Learning theory and practice 

4. 13 - 15 January 2012 



* Teenagers, adult dogs, old dogs - Practical work 

* Cases: Meeting clients and getting a case 

5. 09 - 11 March 2012 



* Fear and “aggression” - Practical work, cases: 

* Problem solving with clients’ cases 

6. 20 - 22 April 2012 Case studies with clients’ cases 

7. 13 - 15 July 2012 Case studies with clients’ cases 

8. 12 - 14 October 2012 Case studies with clients’ cases 

9. 07 - 09 December 2012 

Exam and evaluation, Diplomas 

If you can’t attend the whole education, you can participate in 

some or all of the lectures and get a participation diploma! 

WELCOME! 


Home stories... 

A loving tribute to the memory of my sweet baby Jellybean Lollipop (Kennel name-Tallulah 

Sunrise 2005-2011), my rescue Bull Terrier who passed on 6th April 2011 after losing her 

brave battle with kidney failure. RIP my angel until we meet again, mummy loves you. 

Our journey began 3 years ago after a 

phone call from Joan Kenway of Bull 

Terrier Welfare. She asked if I could take 

on a young female Bull Terrier still in her 

previous home needing to be re-homed 

as soon as possible. So Tilly as she was 

called then joined my family. We renamed 

her Jellybean Lollipop on the way back 

from collecting her because she was such 

a sweetie and I love Jellybean Factory 

Jellybeans! 

Jelly was overweight (which made her 

a great pillow), had bad teeth, overshot 

jaw, smelly breath and a dolphin shaped 

marking in her red fur. Cassini, my other 

rescue red female, has a stingray shaped 

one so this was fate! My vet Martin Brice 

diagnosed a heart murmur which had gone 

unnoticed at her old vet’s and he let me 

devise an exercise and feeding protocol 

to tone her up and ease the bowel issues 

she had. Feeding this young girl was no 

problem she really loved her food, but I 

had to work on her food aggression as well 

as her other issues. 

Jelly had hyper-excitement issues, meaning 

if she saw a blade of grass (no, not 

kidding) she would tip from normal to 

yowling to high pitched incessant barking 

looking like she was high in seconds. Wow 

what a chemical rush this girl was getting! 

It made my mini Bull Terrier Koda stress 

and he wouldn’t go near her in the fields. 

It took approximately 6 months of sub trig- 

ger/threshold work, positive reinforcement 

and retraining to get her to the point where 

I could open the car without her exploding 

out and making open area visits calm and 

pleasant for all of us. Koda’s reactions and 

her passing out a few times were enough 

to motivate me early on to sort it out. She 

had hormone related reactivity issues as 

well! 

Food aggression was quick to sort out, 

as was the hyper-excitement with toys. 

Leading a sub threshold life is not easy 

but I owed it to all of the dogs, us as well 

as a responsible owner. Jelly was a joy to 

live with, she was compassionate beyond 

compare and taught me this in a way no 

human has. Her playful, sweet, loving 

attitude gave us joy and helped me cope 

when I got stressed and my Asperger Syndrome 

(it’s on the autism scale) took over. 

She would nudge a dog, any dog if was 

hurt or seemed fearful. She would nudge 

us humans if we were not happy, she 

would come and lie down with you if crying 

and she would give calming signals galore 

if arguments broke out in the house. She 

was like me; not happy to be touched unless 

asked for and didn’t like confrontation. 

In fact she would nudge on walks, nudge 

when washing up or cooking. It was as if 

Page 14 


Home stories... 

she was checking up on you, making sure 

you were ok. It wasn’t attention seeking; 

there was care behind the nudge! I’d look 

down at her and her ears would prick up, 

so heart-warming. She was a lover not a 

fighter but would react to barking if barked 

at, which I worked on with her to reduce 

it. She was lovely to train and work with; 

she did accompany me to work and met 

lots of friends because of it. She was shy, 

not scared shy, but in a “I’ll come to you if I 

want to, then go away if that’s alright” kind 

of way. Her recall was fantastic, always 

came running back with a wagging tail and 

ears up, big smile and she walked by my 

side whenever I asked, kindred spirits. 

When I felt she was fit enough to be 

spayed, I took her in to the vet’s and asked 

for a pre-op blood screen. That’s when I 

was told the bad news. She had creatinine 

elevation and an ultrasound revealed 

she had congenital kidney dysplasia, an 

irreversible condition which was treated 

remedially but she would eventually go 

into full renal failure. To say I was devastated 

was an understatement, but she 

was immediately put on medication, I 

changed her home cooked food to reflect 

the lower protein and phosphorous levels 

she needed and began the long road of 

keeping everything potentially toxic to her 

out including some of the dog treats I used 

to buy and chemicals in floor cleaners etc. 

Hard to maintain but so worth it; she was 

my angel. 

Jelly’s mannerisms were to me so unique. 

The only dog I ever met which liked her 

scruff grabbed and rubbed from side to 

side, was ticklish on her muzzle too. She 

laughed when you rubbed her belly; she 

had subtle expressions in her body language 

and eyes which she altered when 

communicating with me when she wanted 

something, whether it was a treat, a walk 

or toilet. She tranced all sorts of things, 

doors were a good one. If you said no to 

her she would give you the big puppy eyes 

that so many other dogs use with their 

owners too, they made her look so adorable 

that it worked every time, those big 

brown eyes could melt my stony heart! I 

let her get away with more than the others, 

she was my baby and I knew she had less 

time with us; every minute was blessing. 

During the last few months she slowed 

down. I had to teach Koda & Cassini to 

walk slowly for Jelly. She damaged her 

cruciate ligament and I took her to hydrotherapy 

for treatment, which helped her 

gain strength back but she was still slow. 

Happy to go out, she slowly walked by my 

side. Our last walk was only a short one, 

but we had a bit of a play and she seemed 

happy but had lost so much weight and 

was weaker. The day before we moved 

I was worried about her, emailed Martin 

in SA that she had no appetite, laboured 

breathing, lethargy; signs of kidney 

failure. Busy packing I fretted over her, 

tried encouraging her to eat and take her 

meds but she did gulp down some liver 

cake. She stabilised a bit and I took her to 

the surgery first thing before the movers 

arrived. Stressed and upset we moved 

house while my Jelly stayed at the vet’s. 

I was thankful she was being cared for 

while so much was going on. We visited 

her and she looked so pitiful. There was 

no spark in her eyes. My Jelly was fading 

away. Leaving her there that night was gutwrenching 

but with so much to do at the 

house (it had been left full of junk and 2 

years’ worth of dirt) I had no choice. Upset 

and distracted I went to visit the next day 

and Laura Frascarelli the locum vet and 

all the vet nurses were so good, patient, 

and understanding and took great care of 

Jelly, but I couldn’t leave her there on her 

own another night. We agreed I’d take her 

home for one last night then bring her back 

to be put to sleep the next day. It was the 

most precious night. 

My friend Rebecca, Jelly’s original 

breeder, as fateful luck would have it, 

came to say goodbye. She had always 

loved Jelly who was the firstborn of the 

litter. Jelly had raging thirst but we slept 

and cuddled together the whole night and 

woke to birdsong and glorious sunshine. I 

was crushed beyond belief but could not 

see my best friend suffer any longer. She 

died with her head in my arms at 1.20pm 

on 6th April 2011 and was buried in the 

sunshine where she had been sunbathing 

that morning. I felt it fitting, she was a 

sun worshipper. I had wrapped her in her 

favourite blanket, put in her Kong, some 

We have started a new topic in the Newsletter 

– HOME Stories – 

liver cake and water and cried until I slept, 

exhausted. As she also liked hose pipes 

and moving water. I will save up to install 

a water feature in memoriam by her grave. 

The pain of losing her is like nothing I have 

ever felt before, I have not had an easy life 

and coping with emotional turmoil is alien 

to me, but I believe she and I were meant 

to meet and teach each other the things 

we did. Fate. She plays happily at Rainbow 

Bridge, free from pain until we meet 

again. Goodbye my baby. I will miss and 

love you forever. 

Thank you to my children, dogs and cat for 

letting me bring another Bullie baby home, 

without you I am nothing. Thank you to 

BTW, thank you to Martin, Laura the locum, 

Clare, Lisa, Sara, Jody and the team 

at Emerson Vets and a special thank you 

to Rebecca for making Jellybean for me. 

Katie Scott-Dyer, England 

The idea of this topic is to share how we live with our dogs. We all have our own way of living 

and it is very interesting to see what we do in different countries. 

So start writing and send your article with photos to the editor raili@doi.fi. 

Others will soon follow! 


PDTE AGM MEETING In SPAIN 25 – 26 September 2010 

What is memory? 

Memory is an accumulation of things that 

have been learnt, or experiences that have 

been experienced and that are stored in 

the brain. 

This includes facts, events, spatial mapping 

(where to find things), physical processes 

/ motor skills (how to do activities) 

Your brain has stored a range of different 

facts — what you had for breakfast yesterday, 

the date you were born or that Paris 

is the capital of France and Helsinki is the 

capital of Finland. 

SPATIAL MAPPING just means where 

things are in life, where you find things, 

where the bathroom is, how you get from 

home to work or how you get from home to 

the supermarket. 

Also, you remember how to do things. 

PHYSICAL PROCESSES are what we call 

motor skills, how to do things like swim or 

jump or brush your teeth, or play the piano 

or drive a car. 

All of these things make up what we call 

memory. 

Types of dog memory 

MEMORY MATTERS 

Understanding memory and its effects on behaviour modification in the dog 

As humans we have two main types of 

memory: 

1) DECLARATIVE MEMORY. 

That means that we can state, or declare, 

certain facts. 

• Semantic memory (facts / figures) 

Semantic memory is memory concerning 

specific facts such as Helsinki being the 

capital of Finland, or that the next Olympic 

games is London 2012. You know (hopefully!) 

that 2 x 2 = 4 and how to tell the 

time from looking at a clock face. 

As far as we can tell dogs do not have 

semantic memory. 

• Episodic memory (events) 

Also part of declarative memory, things 

we can declare, is EPISODIC MEMORY. 

This refers to episodes, things that have 

happened to us or to those around us. 

The simple word for that is “events”. So 

you may remember your 25th birthday or 

your first day at school, or your wedding. 

Amber Batson, BVetMed MRCVS, ENGLAND 

All this is part of your declarative memory. 

Dogs have this type of memory, we may 

not know the exact details of an event they 

remember but we all know dogs remember 

events that happen to them. 

2) PROCEDURAL MEMORY 

This includes motor skills and emotional 

responses. 

• Motor skills 

Playing tennis, for example, is a physical 

skill. You have to learn how to throw a 

ball up and how to swing a racket. It is a 

physical skill to learn to ride a bicycle or 

a horse, or drive a car, or simply to climb 

stairs. 

• Emotional responses 

Emotional responses, like when you are 

really scared, involve a physical process 

like running away, or hiding, known as fight 

or flight. Emotional responses are part of 

procedural memory because they involve 

procedures, things that we do. And this is 

very relevant because dogs have these 

types of memories too. 

To recap, then, as far as we know dogs 

do not have semantic memory. It is very, 

very hard to prove that dogs remember 

facts or figures. Nobody has yet demonstrated 

that dogs can learn multiplication 

or addition. They might have a response, 

but they don’t seem to hold the fact in their 

head. They don’t know that the capital of 

Germany is Berlin. 

But they do have episodic memory; they 

have event memory and they do have motor 

skills and emotional responses, which 

are procedural memory. A dog definitely 

remembers being beaten up by a cat as an 

event! That is declarative memory. They 

remember having had a painful injection 

at the vet’s. Equally, they can learn motor 

skills like offering a paw or going through 

weave bars or catching a rabbit. They also 

have emotional fight or flight responses. 

They remember being chased by a horse, 

but they also knew at that moment how to 

run away from it. 

Dogs can learn a whole range of cues to 

certain activities. They can learn how to 

negotiate agility courses. For example, a 

dog can easily run under the agility bar, 

but he has learnt that in order to get a 

reward (reinforcement) — whatever that 

reinforcement is — he should jump over 

the bar. We’ve been able to teach dogs to 

find drugs, and they know that if they find 

the drug, they will get a reward (not the 

drug). We have taught them to be obedience 

tasks, agility tasks and even to be 

assistance dogs – letting us know when 

the phone rings, picking things up, moving 

things around. 

Therefore, if we understand how memory 

works in dogs, we can be better trainers. 

It means we can be better at fixing and resolving 

learnt undesirable behaviours. For 

example, say I don’t want my dog to jump 

up anymore. I want it to keep all its feet 

on the floor when I come home from work, 

I teach it a new behaviour - a new thing, 

a new memory. We’ll be better placed to 

fix behavioural problems if we understand 

how they got the behaviour in the first 

place — why they have a memory that 

causes a problem and very importantly, we 

might even be able to prevent behavioural 

problems by affecting their memories as 

well. 

We also have something called SHORT- 

TERM MEMORY and something called 

LONG-TERM MEMORY. 

THE HERE AND NOW – Short-term 

memory 

Short-term memory is information that’s 

coming in right now from the environment 

and from your mind, and you’re aware of it 

at this moment. But you’re only aware of it 

for very short periods. 

Normally you can only hold on to this 

awareness for a few moments. 

LONG-TERM memory is information that’s 

been previously stored, and you retrieve it 

from where it is stored and use it. 

Short-term memory seems to contain 5-9 

slots. 

Short-term memory can only hold information 

within this number of slots for a few 

seconds before forgetting the information. 

Increasing the amount of information starts 

to displace information from the slots. 

For example, if I were to ask you to close 

Page 16 PDTE NEWS

PDTE AGM MEETING MEMORY In SPAIN MATTERS 

25 – 26 September 2010 

your eyes and I read you a number like 

this one: 5 7 3 8 2 4 1, 

You would probably be able to write it 

down after you opened your eyes. You 

would find it even easier with a short 

number like 2 7 9 5 4. 

But if I gave you number like 9 2 4 3 7 0 1 

5 6 8 4 3, you would probably not remember 

the whole sequence. 

That’s because most mammals seem to 

have between 5 and 7 slots. Some people 

have been shown to have 8 or 9 slots, 

or possibly more, but most people and 

animals seem to have between 5, 6 or 7. 

How is this relevant to dogs? 

Every time you try to train a dog, whether 

as a trainer or as a behaviourist, or even 

simply as an owner when out on a walk, 

the dog probably has a maximum of 

between 5 and 7 slots in his short-term 

memory. 

Think of a dog in a relatively typical training 

environment, like a training class. What 

we see is loads of information slamming 

into the short-term memory slots. For 

example: 

• There are new people in the room 

• A black Labrador is sitting next to the dog 

• A Golden Retriever is looking over from 

the back of the room 

• The training hall smells different 

• There is a smell of food or treats 

• The owner is talking 

• Other people are making all kinds of 

noises 

• The owner starts moving around 

• There’s been a bitch on heat in the room 

earlier 

Those are just a few things in that one 

room that are filling that dog’s short-term 

memory slots. No wonder we end up 

with dogs that are confused or switch off 

because they don’t know what to do. 

So what we can do is start by looking at 

ways to free up those slots. We can’t tell 

our dog not to pay attention to all the other 

things going on, only to pay attention to 

us. But there are some other ways we can 

help. 

HABITUATION 

One of the best ways is habituation. In 

essence, it means learning what you can 

ignore in the environment, because it’s not 

associated with anything particularly nice 

or nasty – it is neutral. 

Right now you’re not worried about an 

empty chair in the room with you, because 

you know chairs don’t just jump up and 

hit you over the head. You’re not worried 

about the window, because windows 

are okay where they are; they are quite 

neutral. 

Habituation is a form of what we call NON- 

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING. You make no 

associations with it, so it becomes neutral. 

And the more things our dogs are habituated 

to, the more slots are available for 

learning. Therefore, the more things they 

can ignore in their environment because 

they don’t mean anything, the easier it is to 

train them. 

Let’s go back to our training class. If the 

dog who is having his first day at the training 

class has previously been habituated 

to e.g. women, men, kids, big dogs, small 

dogs, female dogs, male dogs, dogs moving 

around, the village hall — then straight 

away we would free up some slots. There 

is no need for the dog to pay particular 

attention to these neutral stimuli. 

How common is it in most training classes 

for the dogs to be well habituated to the 

things there? Well that depends on the 

individual dog. It means that group training 

is quite different for dogs. Therefore it 

means it may be more appropriate to train 

a dog and his owner in their own home to 

start with, rather than in a training class. 

It’s hard enough for them to do the training 

in their own lounge — the phone rings 

and someone comes to the door, the kids 

might be at home, the ball is under the 

sofa and then the cat walks in! Let alone 

being in the village hall with five other dogs 

and five strangers and a whole host of 

smells, and maybe needing to pee. If you 

think about it, it’s really a miracle that dogs 

learn anything at all. 

So how do we get them habituated? If 

something like a chair is going to become 

a neutral stimulus, the most important 

thing is that there must be no reinforcement 

of fear. All experiences of the chair 

must be neutral, not a single incidence of 

the chair suddenly moving and hitting the 

dog. 

So that means there has to be gradual 

process, and the things have to be experienced 

from a distance initially. Because 

if you don’t know something, and it is suddenly 

right there in your face, that makes 

you react anyway. You need to be able to 

see it from a safe distance and approach 

it. 

For example, take dogs and vacuum 

cleaners. Ideally you want to start off with 

the vacuum cleaner in another room with 

the dog free to come and go and explore it 

and lie beside it and so on. Next you could 

have the motor running, but it’s still in the 

other room. Often much later on, you can 

progress to where it is moving with the dog 

comfortably nearby. 

What we must be aware of is that sometimes 

people think they are habituating 

but actually they may be flooding – this 

means presenting something causing fear 

to the dog where there is no opportunity 

to escape. If you are unfamiliar with this 

concept I would recommend you read 

more about it. 

Another thing about habituation is that 

it has to be repeated. A chair will never 

be neutral until you’ve met a chair countless 

times and it’s stayed where it is. Our 

brain is constantly working out how best 

to survive, and is therefore not prepared 

to consider something neutral on one 

meeting alone. That would be a dangerous 

thing to do. Let’s say you are a wild 

dog and a cheetah walks past when you’re 

a 9-week-old puppy, and the brain says, 

“Hah, I’ve just seen a cheetah and it was 

neutral!” It’s not really a sensible thing to 

do — the cheetah might simply be full and 

not having a wild-puppy-hunting day. 

Neutral pairings must be repeated in order 

to be learnt. 

We also have to practise in different 

contexts, because again, a chair in a hall 

might be safe, but a chair half way up the 

stairs might not be safe at all. It’s the same 

for a dog. Just because a vacuum cleaner 

is OK in kitchen doesn’t mean the vacuum 

cleaner is OK in the lounge. And it doesn’t 

mean that it’s OK in the garden, either. 

To recap, when we trying to train our dog 

in the middle of a park where there are 

loads of dogs running around, the smell 

of rabbits, ducks, people, bicycles etc. it is 

incredibly hard for dogs to learn anything 

from us. So at the very least, when we’re 

trying to train something new, the environment 

needs to be calm, not fearful and 

not overexciting. It is actually harder to 

achieve than sometimes we can imagine. 

It doesn’t mean we can’t do it, but we do 

need to be aware of the pitfalls. 



CHUNKING 

Here is a little test: Look at the word below, 

then close your eyes and write it down. 

EFJAMSOLPUBUNATEL 

The chances are that you remembered it 

by thinking of the syllables separately, like: 

EF—JAM—SOL—PUB—UNA—TEL 

And that would fit into your slots. You put 

the word into bits you are already familiar 

with as a combination – we call them 

‘chunks’. Often it’s the same with phone 

numbers. If you recognise or remember 

an area code or a prefix that indicates a 

mobile phone number, that’s one chunk 

(one slot) right there. 

We use this technique to maximise patterns 

that dogs can easily recognise. For 

example, we train the following chunks 

separately: “Sit,” then on another day “Lie 

Down,” then “Roll over” on yet another 

day, and then “Get up,” and so on. Each 

one uses a slot. Then we combine them 

into the trick “Sit-Lie-Roll-Get up” and that 

in itself then becomes one chunk, using up 

only one slot. That is how dogs can learn 

increasingly complex behaviours. 

However, we need to train the individual 

things very clearly first, otherwise dogs, as 

we know, get confused about what we are 

asking them to do. 

LONG-TERM MEMORY 

LONG-TERM memory is information that 

has been put into storage. 

How do we get it back? 

Do we know how long dogs remember 

things for? No one has yet been able 

to prove how long dogs can remember 

things, but it does appear to be their entire 

lives. 

At the end of the day, if a dog is going to 

survive, it needs to remember that black 

dogs can attack, or that vets can jab it with 

a needle. And it needs to remember that 

rabbits taste good and how to catch them. 

We all know that dogs who have been 

separated from their owners for a week or 

more recognise their owner. And of course 

there are many situations when dogs have 

been separated from their owners for 

years and still recognise them. 

How does short-term memory 

become long-term memory? 

We’ve already said that short-term 

memory has a small capacity. In fact, 

scientists have suggested that 90% of 

short-term memory is probably gone within 

3 seconds. If we don’t keep thinking about 

it, it’s gone really fast. Therefore, for any 

information in your short-term memory to 

be passed to your long-term memory it has 

to keep being repeated. 

That process is called REHEARSAL. 

Once something has been rehearsed, it 

becomes long-term memory by a process 

we call CONSOLIDATION. 

That’s why if you teach your dog to sit 

now, for the first time, and only once, he 

won’t remember it six months from now. 

You have to practise it every day or a few 

times a day for a few days, and then he 

is likely to remember it if he has a several 

month gap. 

Short-term memory is subject to something 

we call: 

TRACE DECAY 

That’s a posh word for what we just said: 

that short-term memory only lasts about 3 

seconds. A good English idiom for that is: 

“USE IT OR LOSE IT.” 

However, sometimes life-affecting information 

can bypass the rehearsal phase. If 

something is incredibly valuable to you, it 

doesn’t need that much rehearsing. 

Particularly if something is valuable to 

your life, like “I nearly died when that 

happened!” you will remember it from one 

experience. If you put your hand on a hot 

stove and it burns you, you don’t have to 

say, “Oh I wonder what will happen if I do 

it again.” Your brain remembers it from the 

one experience. 

So sometimes, very valuable information 

in the short-term memory goes straight to 

the long-term memory, it’s consolidated 

immediately. 

How valuable information is, we call: 

SALIENCY 

Many of you will have heard this word 

before. Highly valuable information is 

SALIENT information. One-off salient 

experiences can lead to well-developed 

long-term memories. One single bad experience 

can stay with you for life (just like 

above, you only need to burn your hand on 

the cooker once to know not to repeat that 

encounter). 

This can happen to dogs. If a dog gets attacked 

by another dog, he will find it really 

hard to learn new memories about that 

dog, or about dogs in general. If he has a 

really bad experience at the vet’s, it can be 

really hard to learn that vets are OK, ever 

again. 

That’s why these salient experiences and 

the memories they create, can be really 

hard to fix, because they assist survival. 

WORKING MEMORY 

Working memory is what you are aware 

of right now. The part of your memory that 

you are working with. 

For example, if we take the situation of a 

dog arriving in the park, that dog is likely 

to be aware of many stimuli and each one 

will pass into the working memory – what 

he is aware of right at any given moment: 

New information that is coming into his 

brain: “I need to go to the toilet. I can hear 

an airplane. Somebody’s riding past on a 

bicycle. There’s a rabbit! There is an unfamiliar 

smell in the grass over there.” 

But at the same time, he is also getting old 

information from his long-term memory. “I 

met a black Labrador over there last week. 

I found half a biscuit by that log, I played 

chase with my ball over on that bit of grass 

yesterday.” 

All those bits of information are coming together 

in the working memory. So the dog 

is concentrating on bits of new information 

that have come in through its senses, and 

old information that is being recalled from 

storage about the park. 

If all that information is important to that 

dog, then we may find it has filled all his 

short term slots. The owner calls him, and 

the voice just flies straight past. How many 

times have you heard people say, “My dog 

is deaf in the park?” It’s not because the 

dog is naughty or ignorant, or any of those 

words that we may use, but it’s because 

his slots are full and he actually doesn’t 

register hearing the voice. 

Close your eyes and think about what you 

had for dinner last night. 

You probably remember what you had. But 

you probably also remember where you 

were, who you were with, what it tasted 

like, what it looked like, and possibly what 

it smelled like. You may remember what 

you were wearing. 



While you have been thinking on ‘last 

night’s dinner’, your slots were mostly full 

with those particular memories because 

you were focusing on them. 

Take a dog in a training class as an example. 

In theory, his slots may be full with the 

following: “I’m actually quite nervous about 

other dogs and I’m in an area surrounded 

by the smell of other dogs,” That is going 

to be his memory. His working memory is 

going to be full of: “Last week I got bitten 

by a terrier, last year I was in the vet’s 

clinic and got growled at by a spaniel, and 

I got taken away from my mum when I 

was really young and I’m nervous...” All 

of these memories associated with dogs 

enter his memory just because he can 

smell other dogs. He’s not thinking about 

what we’re trying to train him. His working 

memory might be completely different to 

what we think it is. 

That is very important for us to be aware 

of. 

So what a dog is thinking about right now 

and what he’s capable of learning about is 

a result of both how much new information 

is coming in, and of how much old information 

is being recalled at the same time. 

Therefore, if we are going to teach dogs 

effectively, whether we are training them 

or trying to resolve a behavioural issue, 

we have to recognise how full their slots 

are, and we have to understand how we 

can empty them before we offer any new 

information. 

It also requires understanding the importance 

of rehearsal. And we have to be 

aware that one-off potentially life-affecting 

salient events can result in long-term 

memories even if they only ever happened 

once. 

If we are aware of these things, we are 

on a path to being better trainers and 

resolving problems a lot more easily and 

effectively. 

Photo: Sonja Hoegen, Germany 

WHAT MAKES A MEMORY? 

We all recognise that memories are in our 

brain somewhere, but where are they? 

Can we find them? Can we measure 

them? 

Each type of cell in the body has its own 

name. Skin cells have a name, liver cells 

have a name, and brain cells also have a 

name. Brain cells are called neurons. 

NEURON = Brain cell 

Cells are pretty much the same no matter 

where they are in the body, they all have 

the same basic characteristics but they are 

also slightly different depending on what 

part of the body they are in; they have 

specialisations. Like other cells, brain cells 

have a main body that contains DNA and 

other structures common to all cells. Unlike 

other cells though, there are numerous 

branches entering the cell, and usually one 

big branch leaving it, with loads of smaller 

branches emerging from it. The brain is 

made up of billions of these neurons. 

The brain is very interesting in that it is 

made up of two halves that are virtually 

identical. All the messages moving around 

through the brain, through these billions of 

neurons, are passed to the body through 

the spinal cord. 

Brain cells are all linked together but 

each cell is, in essence, a one-way street. 

Information can only pass through a neuron 

in one direction. How all the neurons 

are connected to each other and pass 

information along is called a NEURON 

NETWORK 

That is how memories are made. Our 

memories ARE our neural network. How 

much memory a species has depends on 

how many neurons they have, and how 

those neurons are connected. 

For example, the sea slug, known as 

Aplysia, is a little creature that is very 

interesting to memory scientists because 

it has the smallest number of neurons in 

any known animal — a mere 20,000. It 

may sound like a lot, but a mouse has 40 

million neurons and our dog has about 1.5 

billion. 

The average human has 100 billion neurons. 

As humans we all have pretty much 

the same number of neurons, but how 

many connections we make is a different 

story. 

Quite often there are at least three 

branches leaving each brain cell. There 

can be ten or more. That means that a cell 

can potentially connect with at least ten 

other cells. Therefore, a dog could have 

fifteen billion connections, and a human 

could have a thousand billion connections. 

So where are our memories stored in 

among all of these cells? Pieces of stored 

memories are called ENGRAMS. The 

search for this elusive “Can I find a memory 

in the brain?” started a long time ago. 

In the 1940s, Karl Lashley experimented 

with rats by putting them through mazes. 

Rats are incredibly good at finding their 

way through mazes, because they have 

evolved to live underground in tunnels. 

Their brains have an amazing capacity to 

retain maps. Lashley allowed his rats to 

find their way through a maze to a piece 

of food, then he checked how well they 

remembered the way. It took no more than 

one or two sessions for them to learn the 

whole route. He then made holes in different 

parts of their brains to see how well 

they would remember the maze. What he 

discovered was that it didn’t really matter 

where he made the holes as much as how 

much damage he caused. 

The results of his experiments set off a 

path of experiments that showed us it is 

the connections between neurons that 

seem responsible for holding our memories. 

We call these connections between one 

cell and another a SYNAPSE 

These synapses - the junction between the 

end of one cell and the start of the next, is 

actually what our memories are. 

The synapse is in fact a gateway. Information 

travels down neurons in the form of 

electricity, but the transfer of information 

across the synapse is chemical. 

There needs to be an electrical stimulus 



firing down the neuron for the synapse 

to be activated. It’s a bit like a telephone. 

When it rings, nothing will happen until 

you answer it. When you do, the electricity 

is converted to sound waves. In the case 

of a neuron, the electricity is converted to 

chemicals. 

How often a pathway in the brain has 

electricity going down it affects how strong 

the connection is. 

If electricity doesn’t travel down a pathway 

very often, the connections are quite weak. 

But if it travels down it often, the connection 

becomes very strong. For example, 

imagine you are walking through a field of 

grass that is up to your waist, and nobody 

has crossed that field before. It’s quite 

heavy going and you really have to push 

your way through. Afterwards you can only 

just make out where you walked. If the 

next day you take exactly the same path, it 

will be a little easier and a little more obvious. 

If you continue doing this every day, 

before long you have a well-trodden path 

through the field, with no resistance to 

you travelling along it. This analogy helps 

us understand how neuron connections 

strengthen through use. 

This is relevant for memory, and the basis 

of rehearsal. 

Donald Hebb discovered that these connections 

between cells, the synapses, are 

plastic. They are malleable and changeable. 

And if you use one of these connections 

they grow stronger, and if you don’t 

they grow weaker. We call that 

SYNAPTIC PLASTICITY 

“USE IT OR LOSE IT” 

When pathways grow stronger because 

they are used, this is called LONG-TERM 

POTENTIATION. 

But if a pathway grows weaker because 

it is not used, this is called LONG-TERM 

DEPRESSION. Note that this has nothing 

to do with emotional depression, like when 

we feel sad. 

Long-term potentiation is what happens 

when you learn to ride a bike. You’re 

rubbish at it to start with. You fall off all 

the time, but you practise and practise 

Page 20 

and you get better at it. It’s the same with 

playing a musical instrument. You are not 

very good at it in the beginning, because 

the connections along those pathways 

are very weak. The more you practise, the 

stronger those connections get and the 

better you get at playing the instrument. 

This applies to our dogs too. If your dog 

practises raiding the fridge every day, he 

gets very good at it. If he practises chasing 

cats then he gets very good at that. When 

he practises doing agility, and keeping his 

paws on the yellow mark, he gets better 

at that. We have an expression for it in 

English: 

Practice makes perfect 

In terms of making new memories, there 

are some parts of the brain that are more 

important than others. 

HIPPOCAMPUS 

Hippocampus is Latin for seahorse, and 

describes pretty well what this little part 

of the brain looks like. The Hippocampus 

is probably the most important part of the 

brain in relation to memory. 

Earlier, we looked at types of memory 

(declarative and procedural). 

The hippocampus converts relevant information 

into long-term memory. 

We have already seen that dogs appear 

to have episodic memory and procedural 

memory, not semantic memory, but all of it 

is transferred into long-term memories by 

the hippocampus. 

Information comes into our dogs through 

any of the five senses: sight, smell, sound, 

taste and touch. This information gets 

passed straight to the front part of the 

brain, the main “curly” part of the brain that 

we call the 

CORTEX 

When the cortex gets information, it 

passes it on to the hippocampus. If the 

hippocampus passes the information back 

to the cortex, a new pathway has been 

made and that information is now stored 

as a memory. 

If it needs to be reused, it gets reactivated 

and more electricity goes down it. This 

process by which the hippocampus makes 

new pathways into the cortex is called 

CONSOLIDATION 

Of course once the information is passed 

to the cortex an1d stored there, there has 

to be a way to retrieve it. This process is 

called RETRIEVAL. 

Remember those slots we talked about 

earlier? They seem to be in the hippocampus. 

The hippocampus is pulling information 

out of the cortex, combining it with 

information currently coming in through 

the senses and that combination is your 

WORKING MEMORY. 

The other thing the hippocampus is incredibly 

important for is SPATIAL MAPPING. 

Very interestingly, studies have been done 

on Black Cab drivers in London. Any of 

you who have been to London will know 

that the Black Cab is quite a famous sight 

there. But you may not know that Black 

Cab drivers spend 2-3 years learning all of 

the roads in London, and how to get from 

any one place to another without consulting 

a map. This is called ‘THE KNOWL- 

EDGE’. They spend years gaining it, and 

the final test is incredibly hard. You cannot 

be licensed as a Black Cab driver without 

having passed it. 

This is of interest because when the brains 

of Black Cab drivers were compared 

against people who don’t have The Knowledge, 

the cab drivers had much larger 

hippocampuses. The hippocampus seems 

to be the place involved in storing maps in 

the brain. 

SALIENT MEMORIES 

If something is really valuable, almost 

life-threateningly so, you will remember it 

with one go. 

Think of a dog hit by a car while crossing 

the street. The dog experiences extreme 

fear and pain. You can imagine how that 

would be a very salient, important memory 

for the dog. The main organ in the brain 

responsible for this is the 

AMYGDALA 

This little structure next to the hippocampus 

is almond-shaped (which is what the 

Latin means). Highly emotional events, 



particularly fear, are dealt with by the amygdala, 

and they can be recalled instantly if 

necessary. 

A threatening stimulus detected by any of 

the five senses can be fast-tracked and 

prioritised in the brain by the amygdala. It 

is responsible for detecting and assisting 

storage of fear-based memories. 

Recent research has shown that large 

amounts of long-term potentiation 

(strengthening of synapses), occur inside 

the amygdala. 

To recap, then, in the main, long-term 

memories are kept in the cortex and 

retrieved by the hippocampus. It’s a fairly 

long and complex pathway. But when 

there is a fear memory, that pathway 

can be bypassed because the memory 

is stored in, or around the amygdala and 

retrieved much faster. 

Why this is important to us as trainers and 

behaviourists is because when an animal 

undergoes a negative and fear-inducing 

experience, he will remember it very quickly 

and very clearly. We all know that when 

an animal has learnt something equals 

pain or something equals fear, it seems to 

get stuck with that memory forever. I have 

worked with many dogs that have had 

severe aggression problems. They find it 

really hard ever to let go of those memories. 

If something really bad has happened 

to them, it is much harder to fix. 

So, if your dog has a memory of a dog attack, 

it seems likely that this will be stored 

in connections inside or around the amygdala. 

If we try to train the dog to associate 

the attacking dog with good memories 

through some retraining programme, we 

are likely to end up making connections 

from the hippocampus to the cortex. 

Now your dog has two different memories 

stored in two different places, and the 

amygdala is the shorter pathway with the 

faster access. And that may well be why 

some dogs with fear-based problems 

seem to struggle to learn something 

new. That doesn’t mean they can’t, but it 

doesn’t mean that you are a bad trainer 

when you can’t get a dog over a problem. 

The amygdala is saying, “Never let go of 

this, never let go of this, NEVER let go of 

this. It’s really, really important!” 

MEMORIES AND CONTEXT 

We associate certain smells with different 

contexts. For example, if you smell some 

kind of soap, it may remind you of your 

mother’s bathroom, shampoo, a hospital 

room, or something else entirely. Different 

people associate different stimuli such as 

a particular smell with completely different 

memories. 

Why does that matter? It matters because 

we don’t hold memories as individual, isolated 

things. We put memories in context. 

So when we think about a dog that gets 

attacked by a cat, the dog doesn’t just 

learn about the cat. There were many 

other things going on in that dog’s environment 

at the time of the attack, which it will 

associate with that attack in future: the 

smell of the cat, the colour of the cat, the 

way it moved, where the dog was at the 

time, the fact that the owner was carrying 

a shopping bag, the fact that the dog was 

on a lead, the owner had white trainers 

on — all manner of things could be linked 

with the cat attack. Of course what things 

exactly it will remember will be dependant 

on that dog — what it was paying attention 

to at that time. 

Think of the dog’s 5-7 slots. They are 

always filled, so which ones were filled 

at the time of the cat attack will have an 

effect dependent on the individual dog. 

Whatever stimuli were in those slots at 

the time will always be linked with e.g. the 

place of attack. Next time he walks into 

that place, he will associate that place 

with being attacked. When he arrives at 

that place, all the associated stimuli will 

be pulled into his working memory again: 

What the cat looked like, how it moved, 

what it smelled like, what other things were 

in the environment he noticed at the time. 

Whatever it is that he remembers, and has 

associated with the attack, is what is going 

to be pulled into his working memory, and 

it will have a behavioural effect on the dog. 

People often say, “My dog doesn’t want 

to go in the garden. I don’t know why he 

won’t go there.” or: “My dog doesn’t like 

going in the car, and I haven’t a clue why!” 

It’s really quite common that as trainers or 

behaviourists we get presented with the 

associated stimuli causing a problem from 

the owner’s perspective when actually it 

may not have been that stimulus that was 

the initial cause. It’s just become associated 

because of what happened in the environment 

at the same time of the relevant 

experience for the dog. 

Other stimuli that are present at the same 

time as a main stimulus, and that keep 

returning to the dog’s memory, make up 

what we call: 

ASSOCIATIVE LONG-TERM 

POTENTIATION 

There are two main reasons why this is 

important to us as dog trainers: 

One has to do with training cues, like an 

example of teaching our dog to lie down 

in different places. We don’t want him to 

associate lying down with a television in 

the room, or a certain sofa, or a certain 

carpet, or the owner standing in a certain 

place. We want the dog to only associate 

lying down with a specific ‘cue’ given by us 

as the owner or trainer. 

The other has to do with fixing problems. 

We quite often have to fix associated 

stimuli as well as the main stimulus. So 

when we look at separation anxiety as 

an example, we need to fix the fear of 

being alone. We can get another dog and 

perhaps that resolves most of the problem. 

Or we can teach the dog to be alone 

for 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 

minute, etc. But that dog may still remain 

fearful of having the door shut on him, or 

he may still be fearful of the owner putting 

her makeup on (a common sign an owner 

is about to go out!). Sometimes we have 

to work on those associated stimuli as 

well. The problem is, if we miss one or 

two of those associated stimuli, we won’t 

necessarily fix the unwanted, ‘problem’ 

behaviour. 

In the main, fixing the main stimulus helps, 

and we look at that later. But we have 

to be aware of these associated stimuli 

because they are relevant when fixing 

problems or training something new. 

Amber has promised continuing articals 

to Newsletter no 19 in spring 2012. 


Attachments and Relationships 

Karen Marsh, ENGLAND 

Dogs are social creatures and thrive best 

when they have the company of other 

dogs or humans. In fact, this is one of the 

ways in which they are a lot like us. We 

humans are very social creatures, even 

the ones of us who like to be on our own! 

We wouldn’t like being alone enforced 

upon us all of the time. (That is why 

solitary confinement is a big punishment 

for us humans) and our dogs also need 

company and the chance to form relationships. 

Attachments to caregivers are comprised 

of four components – proximity seeking, 

separation anxiety, safe haven and secure 

base. Dogs want to approach and stay 

near their caregiver (proximity seeking), 

resist and become distressed at separations 

from their caregiver (separation 

anxiety), use their caregiver as a base 

from which to explore (secure base) and 

turn to their caregiver for reassurance and 

comfort when they are distressed (secure 

haven). 

but pick up a book or a magazine and 

pretend to read it while TOTALLY ignoring 

the dog. Then put the book down and 

acknowledge the dog again. Visual signals 

usually work best, so use the book signal, 

or you could also hang some wind-chimes 

up, ignore the dog then remove the chimes 

and speak to the dog again. (These work 

well as there is an auditory signal as well 

as a visual one). This must be done slowly 

and systematically, in order to build up 

trust. Stay in the same room to start with 

Photo: Kasia Harmata, Poland 

“Attachment” is a special emotional 

relationship that involves an exchange of 

comfort, care, and pleasure. In humans, 

attachment is an emotional bond to 

another person (or our dog). Dogs also 

form attachments to us, and to each other. 

These attachment theories were described 

by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, and 

basically listed 5 styles of attachment. The 

studies were done on children’s attachments 

to their main caregiver, but as our 

relationship with our dogs is one of caregiver-infant, 

these styles also apply in this 

case. Research has been done with dogs, 

repeating the experiments that Ainsworth 

did on children, and similar results were 

obtained, showing that the bonds between 

humans and dogs mirror that between 

mothers and children. 

Page 22 

Secure Attached 

In this style of relationship there is lots of 

love and complete trust between you and 

your dog. The dog feels secure, and even 

though they may be upset at you leaving 

them they are assured that you will return. 

They seek you out in times of distress as 

they feel confident that you will provide 

comfort and reassurance. This is the best 

type of relationship to have. 

Insecure Attached 

In this style of relationship the dog loves 

you but there is no trust. This is the typical 

cause of separation anxiety – the dog is 

distressed when you leave and doesn’t 

trust you to come back. To deal with this, 

initially begin by being mentally unavailable 

to the dog. Stay in the same room 

(just be mentally unavailable) beginning 

with just a few seconds of ignoring, and 

gradually increasing. Then move on to 

be physically unavailable by going out 

of the room (initially for a few seconds to 

start with then building up). Use the visual 

signal when you leave the room, as the 

dog has already begun to develop trust in 

this. Eventually you can leave your visual 

signal and leave the dog for a while, and 

the dog will trust that you will return. While 

doing all this, you must make all of your 

other interactions with your dog completely 

consistent – your dog needs to be able to 

trust you in all areas of life. 

Insecure Avoidant 

In this style of relationship, the dog isn’t 

too sure about you yet. There is not much 

love or trust present. This is often seen 


Attachments and Relationships 

initially with rescue dogs who haven’t yet 

bonded with their new owners. The best 

way to handle this is to let the dog build a 

relationship with just one person first. Let 

the dog choose to come to you in his own 

time, not making any demands on him, 

until he is completely happy and secure 

with just you. Then add in another person 

– initially just in the room, ignoring the dog, 

until the dog accepts that. Then the other 

person can come a bit closer, ignoring the 

dog, until the dog is happy with that person 

being near. The new person can also 

then give treats (throwing them if the dog 

seems unsure of the person getting too 

close initially) to begin to condition the dog 

to new people. 

Insecure ambivalent 

In this style of relationship the dog wants 

to be with you but doesn’t want to be with 

you at the same time. This causes lots of 

stress for the dog. Sometimes this attachment 

style will show as the dog coming to 

you happily, but then barking at you once 

he gets there. He wants to be with you but 

realises he can’t cope once he actually 

gets to you. You need to let dog be with 

you with nothing much going on so he can 

realise it’s not that scary. Try not to make 

any demands on the dog while a relationship 

is being built, let him sort himself out 

in his own time. This relationship style is 

also seen in how dogs relate to each other. 

Often a dog will approach another dog, 

but then realise that it’s all too much for 

him once he gets there, and he will react 

(growl, lunge etc.). Try and let your dog 

hang around other dogs that are friendly 

and non-reactive, so he can learn that they 

are actually OK and he doesn’t have to 

worry. An Insecure Ambivalent relationship 

style is also seen in dogs with people other 

than their owner. A dog may approach 

another person, child etc. and then bark or 

growl when he gets there as the realisation 

that it’s all too scary sinks in. Again, try 

and let your dog hang around people and 

children (at a safe distance!) so he can 

see that they are nothing to be afraid of. 

Insecure disorganised 

This is the hardest attachment style to 

deal with. The dog has no relationship with 

you and is unpredictable in showing her 

stress. Sometimes she will be OK, and at 

other times she will be fearful and aggressive. 

You need to try and be as consistent 

and emotionally predictable as possible to 

enable the dog to begin to build up trust in 

you and allow a relationship to develop. 

Photo: Kasia Harmata, Poland 

We should let our dogs set the pace of 

progress of the relationships they form 

with us, always remaining calm and 

consistent, allowing the love and trust of 

a healthy secure attachment to form naturally. 

We can build deep emotional bonds 

with our dogs, and they with us. We owe 

it to our dogs to try and make our relationship 

with them the best it can be. 

Dog-oriented education for professonals and dog owners. 

Owned by PDTE Full members. 

More information: raili@doi.fi or +358 50 504 2109 

Started already in Finland l Holland l Poland l Mexico 

References: 

1. Ainsworth, M. and Bowlby, J. (1965). Child 

Care and the Growth of Love. London: Penguin 

Books 

2. Ainsworth, M., M. C. Blehar, E. Waters, and 

S. Wall. Patterns of Attachment: A Psychological 

Study of the 

Strange Situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 

1978. 

3. Attachment Behavior in Dogs (Canis familiaris): 

A New Application of Ainsworth’s (1969) 

Strange Situation 

Test József Topál, Ádám Miklósi, Vilmos 

Csányi, and Antal Dóka Loránd Eötvös University 

1998 


Report of the ESCVE -congress 

Maria Hense, Germany 

Veterinarians working in the field of behavioural 

medicine, behaviour therapists 

and clinical ethologists met in September 

2010 at a congress in Hamburg to learn 

from each other and to discuss the newest 

scientific knowledge. This was organized 

by the German National Society of 

Animal Behaviour Medicine and Therapy 

(GTVMT). 

Many lectures provided food for thought 

and generated lively discussion. Topics 

included the relationship between stress 

and chronic ingestion illnesses, the normal 

behaviour and needs of rabbits, and 

learned helplessness in parrots. 

Several presentations focused on the influence 

of tryptophan (in the diet or added 

to the diet) on the behaviour of dogs and 

cats. Tryptophan improves the serotonin 

metabolism in the brain, and it has been 

proven that its presence helps dogs and 

cats to deal with everyday stressors. 

Another scientific project presented by 

Dr Valentina Mariotti of the University of 

Barcelona, Spain, looked at the benefit of 

movement on the serotonin level in dogs. 

It has been shown for other species (e.g. 

humans) that moderate endurance movement 

like slow jogging or long walks has a 

marked benefit on the serotonin metabolism. 

It just helps a person “to feel good”. 

So, is movement beneficial also for dogs? 

How much of it? Can one help their dogs 

to feel content and be less “reactive“ by 

taking them for a long walk? This project 

seems to point in this direction. But unfortunately 

a lot more work has to be done to 

prove or disprove it. 

On a slightly more exotic note, there was 

a lecture about the use of a clicker in 

Schutzhund sport. The lecturer, Dr. Esther 

Schalke, who runs the Institute of Animal 

Welfare and Behaviour at the University of 

Veterinary Medicine in Hannover, Germany, 

showed videos of Malinois shepherd 

dogs being trained as police dogs. The 

reinforcement used for the conditioning of 

the clicker was access to a ball (lying on 

the ground) or the protection sleeve worn 

by the helper in Schutzhund sport. We all 

Seminar 

Dog friendly Daycare 

Monday 21th of October we organize 

in association with Dog Oriented 

Institute a seminar for professionals. 

Target sector: 

People who are working in a Daycare, Shelter, Dog Boarding 

House. Breeders and other places where dogs are together. 

Venue: 

Koningslust Holland 

had the opportunity to see some extremely 

precise training and dogs showing remarkably 

few, if any, stress symptoms. 

(A personal remark: I considered leaving 

the room before this lecture started but 

now I am glad that I stayed. Although I still 

have serious doubts about the usefulness 

of this “sport” or “work” I learned a lot 

about precise training and a good alternative 

training method for dogs which are 

still worked in this way. It could be much 

worse. And: I was surprised how “calmly” 

the dogs could work.) 

The courage of some attendees and 

organisations publicly opposing Cesar 

Millan´s Great-Britain tour was applauded. 

More information can be found under: 

http://www.dogwelfarecampaign.org/ 

or http://beyondcesarmillan.weebly.com/index.html. 

Other contributions relating to the concern 

for animal welfare included: 

• The Blue Dog project (an Internet 

project designed to help children learn 

about dogs); and 

• The involvement of several persons 

working to change, repeal or advise 

the government on national laws relating 

to dangerous dogs. 

Discussing the above topics with other 

participants, I discovered that there were 

not just veterinarians but also many other 

people who were interested in animal 

therapy. So an ESCVE congress may 

also be of interest to other PDTE members. 

The next congress will take place 

in France. Visit www.esvce.org for further 

information. 


info@tiearztpraxis-hense.de 

www.tierarztpraxis-hense.de 

PDTE members get discount 

Interested? Call +31 77 467 86 19 


Animal Cops in Holland 

Nelis Verhoeven, Netherlands (source Huffpost Green) 

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Dial 112 if 

you’re in trouble. Dial 144 if your dog is. 

From October, police officers will be 

trained to answer the call, ready to enforce 

laws protecting pets, livestock and wildlife 

against abuse, the government announced 

Friday. 

The first country to elect an animal rights 

party to parliament will begin training 125 

police officers next month, who “will be 

100 percent dedicated to tackling animal 

abuse,” said Justice Ministry spokesman 

Job van de Sande. 

The recruits will be drawn from the regular 

police force, already trained to fight armed 

criminals. A new special animal emergency 

number, 144, will also go into effect. 

Marianne Thieme, leader of the Party for 

Animals, said last year the national animal 

protection agency gets some 8,000 reports 

of abuse each year. 

But the driving force behind the creation of 

the animal cops was the Freedom Party of 

anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, which 

campaigned for better livestock welfare at 

national elections last year. 

Wilders told The Associated Press his 

party pushed for the new corps during negotiations 

to form the current government. 

His party is not in the minority government 

but supports it on important votes in return 

for concessions, such as on tightening 

immigration. 

“We strongly believe in tougher penalties 

for people who mistreat animals and police 

who are specialized in that,” Wilders said 

in a text message to the AP. “Animal welfare 

is an important issue to many people 

and to us.” 

The government said prosecutors will also 

begin demanding tougher sentences for 

those convicted of abusing animals. 

The primary responsibilities of the officers 

assigned to the Dutch Police Department 

Animal Services Unit are to prevent and 

punish animal cruelty cases, protect the 

public from rabies and problems associated 

with stray dogs and cats, and pick up 

stray and injured animals. 

the netherlands 

in top 10 OF animal cruelty 

Nelis Verhoeven, Netherlands (source Huffpost Green) 

The Netherlands scores high on the list 

of animal cruelty. Our country is in fourth 

place on a list of countries where largescale 

animal cruelty occurs. The list has 

been published for the thirteenth time 

this year and is hosted by the Dierenhulp 

Foundation. Greece is once again leading 

the list, followed by Spain. In third place 

are the Netherlands Antilles. Last year the 

Netherlands was in sixth place. This year 

our country has climbed two places, due 

to the trading of sick horses, trade in live 

animals through numerous web sites and 

providing a hunting licence to members of 

the Royal Family. 

Numerous reports of abuse and maiming 

of ducks, geese, swans, dogs and cats 

mean that the Netherlands now ranks in 

fourth place. The biggest climber is Aruba, 

which rose some seventeen places and 

is now in twelfth position. The reforms in 

Cuba have had a positive effect on both 

humans and animals. 

The top ten animal unfriendly countries are 

as follows: 

1 Greece 

2 Spain 

3 Netherlands Antilles 

4 Netherlands 

5 Romania 

6 Turkey 

7 Venezuela 

8 Bulgaria 

9 Egypt 

10 Portugal 

Let us know what’s going on 

in your country 

Send your information with or without photos to the editor 

raili@doi.fi. 


Living with Newfoundlands 

Pippa Woodward-Smith, England 

I count myself very lucky to have two 

lovely dogs as part of my family, both 

Newfoundlands. I do not claim to be an 

expert on the breed, but I thought I would 

share the knowledge I have picked up in 

the last three years and some of the challenges 

people can face when they choose 

the breed! 

The one thing that those people involved 

in the breed can agree on is that nobody 

knows the exact origin of the Newfoundland. 

However, it is thought that the breed 

was developed as working dogs to assist 

fishermen with towing the boats to shore 

and in draught work carting loads of logs 

and timber. It comes as no surprise that 

the Newfoundland is well built for these 

tasks, with a thick double coat with a water 

resistant top coat and a fluffy insulating 

undercoat. They have large webbed feet 

which act very efficiently as paddles when 

they swim; incidentally, when they swim 

they move as if they are swimming breaststroke 

and power through the water with 

a level back. They grow to approximately 

65 cm in height at the shoulder for an adult 

female and 70 cm for an adult male, with 

the females weighing approximately 55 kg 

and the males 65 kg. There are three colours 

recognised in the UK: black (the most 

common), brown and landseer (named 

after the artist Sir Edwin Landseer - white 

with distinct black markings). 

My older dog is a male Newfoundland 

and I brought him home as a puppy at 10 

weeks old and I therefore had the joys of 

many of the challenges that Newf puppies 

bring! I mention some of these below. 

Mouthing 

While most puppies mouth and try to grab 

at clothing, some Newfoundlands take this 

to a new level as they have a very strong 

instinct to carry things in their mouths. This 

instinct is clearly important for the task 

they were originally bred for. However, 

puppies often get over-excited with carrying 

their owner’s clothing and will get far 

too hyper and end up ripping and tugging 

at the clothing. It didn’t take long for me 

to realise that the situations most likely 

to illicit this behaviour in my puppy were 

exciting situations and my return (whether 

in the morning, or through a new door 

or after leaving the house). Once I could 

predict when he was likely to do it, it was 

easy to either occupy his brain prior to him 

trying to mouth by scattering some of his 

food on the ground or, if he was calmer, 

to offer him a toy or chew to hold in his 

mouth instead. I also used this to teach 

him to help me with tasks such as carrying 

my small plastic rubbish bin back into the 

house once I emptied the garbage. Where 

cues were missed, I found it very helpful 

to say, “uh-huh” and then walk to the other 

side of a dog gate (sometimes a challenge 

with a puppy hanging onto your trousers!) 

and ignore until the trousers were set free. 

Jumping up 

Like many puppies, Newfoundlands often 

jump up at people in their desire to greet 

them and lick at their faces. One thing 

that is paramount in raising all puppies, 

but is so clearly highlighted with Newfs, is 

the need to be consistent in teaching the 

puppy what behaviour you want from it as 

a puppy. Newfoundland puppies are adorable 

bundles of fluff about the size of fully 

grown cocker spaniel and the biggest challenge 

is training other people not to reward 

the behaviour that you (as well as they) 

will not want in the dog as an adult. I found 

mostly turning my back was a very clear 

signal for my puppy, although sometimes 

he would grab at my clothes when I did 

this and so I often used similar techniques 

that I did for his mouthing behaviour. 

Walking on a loose lead 

Due to their size and weight as adults it 

is imperative that Newfoundlands learn to 

walk nicely on a loose lead. I have seen 

many people allow their Newf puppies 

to pull them all over the place and it is 

inevitable that when the dogs are adult 

they will continue to do so. As a conse- 


Living with Newfoundlands 

quence many Newfoundlands are either 

only walked by the adult men in the family 

and/or are walked with the use of head 

halters. Many people are amazed that I not 

only walk my fully grown male but my fully 

grown female at the same time. I learned 

the importance of teaching the length of 

the lead with my puppy and for him to 

learn that the end of the lead was his limit 

and found Turid’s loose lead technique 

very valuable in doing this. 

Water 

Most Newfoundlands love any water 

instinctively, and from puppies happily 

bail out all of the water in their bowl and 

splash and paddle at any given opportunity. 

Raised bowls are particularly useful to 

avoid your kitchen being flooded on a regular 

basis! Some puppies will swim the first 

time that they are in the water, but some 

are worried about taking their paws off the 

ground. My boy was in the latter camp and 

it took a lot of splashing about in the water 

and for me to get into the water too for 

him to take that leap of faith and there has 

been no stopping him since. Swimming is 

fantastic exercise for Newfoundlands of 

all ages, as it helps build muscle strength, 

while lessening the impact of the exercise 

on the joints which is very important due 

to their size. As swimming uses far more 

energy that walking it is important to bear 

that in mind when exercising. 

Digging 

Newfoundlands LOVE to dig as much 

as they like to paddle in water and often 

like to combine both activities together 

to have lots of muddy fun! You definitely 

need a good sense of humour when you 

share your home with a Newf and they are 

most definitely not the breed for the house 

proud or keen gardener. I am quite relaxed 

about my dogs digging in my garden 

where they like, however where people 

are more particular about keeping some 

of their lawn green I think it is important 

to allow the dog to have an area of sand 

or mud where they are able to dig to their 

heart’s content! 

Drooling 

Due to the structure of their flews, Newfoundlands 

are more likely to drool than 

some other breeds and within the breed 

those with the looser flews will drool more 

than those with the tighter flews. The drool 

is quite an incredible substance, which 

I’m sure if someone thought hard enough 

could make a fortune as an alternative to 

concrete or glue! Generally speaking if 

your dog is relaxing at home or on their 

usual walk they don’t tend to drool much. 

However add in some food or excitement 

and it is really quite impressive how much 

they can produce. Sometimes they are 

happy for it to just drop off but often they 

like to shake their heads and spread the 

fun! Hopefully most people who own the 

breed are fully aware of this tendency and 

therefore well prepared with towels dotted 

around the house. 

Temperature 

Due to their wonderfully thick double coat, 

designed to keep them warm swimming in 

the arctic cold water, they can very quickly 

overheat even in moderate temperatures. 

Newfs will often choose to lie directly on 

cool flooring rather than bedding for that 

reason, and those people using crates with 

their puppies/dogs need to be careful to 

give the dog the option of lying on a cool 

surface rather than always on bedding. 

You get used to wearing a number of additional 

layers of clothing in the winter so 

that your Newf is happy to stay inside the 

house with you rather than taking refuge 

outside. Newfs are at their happiest generally 

lying outside but with the door open so 

that they can see their family. It can often 

feel like you should replace your front door 

with a revolving door, as a Newf is always 

on the wrong side of the door! 

Newfoundlands aren’t the breed for 

everyone and most Newf owners will try to 

make the realities of living with the breed 

crystal clear to avoid someone buying a 

cute fluffy puppy and then realising when 

they are fully grown that they do not want 

a large, slobbering, moulting dog in their 

house. They are a breed that is very close 

to my heart and the appeal of the breed 

is summed up perfectly by Byron is his 

epitaph to his Newfoundland Boatswain: 

“Near this Spot 

Are deposited the Remains of one 

Who possessed Beauty without Vanity 

Strength without Insolence 

Courage without Ferocity 

And all the virtues of Man without his Vices 

This praise which would be unmeaning 

Flattery 

if inscribed over human Ashes 

is but a just tribute to the Memory of 

BOATSWAIN a DOG, 

Who was born in Newfoundland May 1803 

And died at Newstead Nov. 18, 1808” 


Sleeping Dogs! 

Winkie Spiers, England 

Too often I see in my day to day work dogs 

who don’t get enough good quality sleep 

and there seem to be a variety of factors 

that contribute to this. Quite a few dogs 

that I see are stressed or anxious for one 

reason or another and can’t settle or relax, 

others may be suffering from ill health or a 

pain issue, some don’t have any suitable 

or comfortable places to be or are crated 

for long periods of time. Not enough good 

quality sleep can have a detrimental effect 

on us and on dogs so it’s worth thinking 

about. 

Dogs are what’s known as ‘polyphasic’ 

sleepers, which means that they naturally 

sleep multiple times in a 24 hour period for 

anywhere from 12 – 18 hours. The time 

that a dog will need to spend sleeping will 

depend on a huge variety of factors; age, 

state of health, type of dog/breed, season/ 

weather, hormonal state, activity levels, 

diet etc and this will vary throughout the 

dog’s life. In addition dogs need space to 

be able to lie flat out to achieve good REM 

sleep, which is something that isn’t always 

possible in crates, small plastic beds or 

enclosed spaces. 

I’ve observed dogs choosing to sleep in a 

large variety of places both inside and outside, 

and I think a choice suitable for each 

individual is hugely important. Often dogs 

are given just one place that is theirs and 

I don’t believe that is enough. Some dogs 

like to sleep where they can see as many 

doors and as much going on in the household 

as possible, they are nosy and like 

to keep an eye on what we are up to from 

a safe vantage point. Or at other times 

they may like to feel secure in a corner or 

hidden away. Within multi-dog households 

they need to be able to have the opportunity 

to sleep alone and in peace away 

from others if they want to, although some 

dogs like to be close to each other or us 

when they sleep. All individual likes and 

dislikes should be considered, and bear in 

mind that things may well change. Safety 

is essential if a dog is to have good quality 

sleep, so ensure that wherever they sleep 

they are made to feel safe and that noone/nothing 

can interfere with them. 

from watching where and when my dogs 

sleep at different times of the year and depending 

on their mood and energy levels. 

In my home my dogs have two sofas to lie 

on in our sitting room along with a bean 

bag, a large fluffy rug, two dog beds and 

some sheepskins. In the kitchen there 

are a couple of beds and in the bedroom 

there are several different types of bed. 

In the garden I put out rugs and blankets 

in different places so that wherever I am 

they can be with me or somewhere else, 

they can be in the sun or in the shade. My 

lurchers are more fussy about where they 

sleep than my terrier, as their skin and 

coats are much finer, but as Dennis my 

terrier has got older he now prefers softer 

surfaces. 

Lying down on slippery surfaces can be 

difficult for dogs as they slip getting up and 

down, so laminate flooring I find not great 

for quality sleep. Equally when travelling in 

a car it’s essential to make sure the dogs 

have a non-slip and comfortable place 

to lie down on a journey, and on a long 

journey they need space to be able to lie 

flat out if they want or need to. Peace and 

quiet is not to be forgotten either; remember 

that their hearing is often much better 

than ours so keeping the volume down 

generally can help both them and us! 

Comfortable and good quality sleep 

promotes good health and well being and 

is as important for us as it is for dogs – are 

you getting enough?? 

Within breeds there will be differences; the 

hairier the dog the more it might seek out 

cool places, and dogs with finer coats and 

thinner skin may need more padded and 

comfortable places to be. I find I learn a lot 

Page 28 


Canine Gut Flora 

Nicole Mackie, England 

When we look at a dog’s health, we often 

forget one important part of the whole dog 

and that is the gut flora. We cannot see 

the gut and so do not know what’s going 

on in there until our dog becomes ill requiring 

a visit to the veterinarian. 

Puppies are normally born with a well 

balanced functional gut flora and a weak 

immune system. While the puppies are fed 

by their mother’s milk, their immune system 

develops and the gut flora is protected 

and remains in good balance. 

It is when weaning begins and we introduce 

food into the puppies’ diet that the 

gut can become stressed. This may be the 

time when gut problems start for the dog. 

It is important that breeders allow their 

puppies to nurse from their mothers for 

as long as possible, giving the gut more 

time for the good bacteria to build up and 

protect the gut environment. When the 

puppies are weaned, the gut is invaded 

with a variety of foods and depending on 

what they are fed, they are on their own 

when it comes to gut flora. 

If the diet fed is incorrect or unbalanced 

for the growing puppy’s body, the gut is 

compromised and stressed by introducing 

bad bacteria, toxins and pathogens. As 

the puppy grows into adulthood, flora also 

grows and develops within the gut, and the 

diet will determine whether they retain a 

good gut environment or a compromised 

one. 

What causes gut flora to 

become out of balance: 

therapist myself, I would recommend giving 

your dog a good quality probiotic on a 

regular basis right from the time the puppy 

is weaned or when you first acquire your 

dog. 

Probiotics are necessary in helping your 

dog’s gut environment to fight the toxins 

and bad bacteria that enter the body on 

a daily basis. The gut cannot absorb the 

nutrients from supplements when it is 

compromised by disease, scavenging, 

poor diet etc. 

Even if the dog is on a healthy diet, if the 

gut flora is out of balance it may not be 

able to absorb all the nutrients from its 

food. Gut flora is important for all gut processes 

to function properly. 

Try to avoid giving sweetened, flavoured 

or cheap yoghurt to your dogs as not all 

commercial yoghurts are made the same 

and not all have the same amount of good 

bacteria in them. In fact, some do not 

have much of the good porbiotic bacteria 

in them at all. If you choose to feed your 

dog commercial yoghurt, choose a good 

quality organic plain yoghurt. However 

the best option would be to give a good 

quality probiotic of at least 2 billion active 

bacteria. How much you give depends on 

the dog size. 

Your veterinarian or complementary therapist 

should have access to some excellent 

quality probiotics. The sooner you begin 

adding probiotics to your dog’s diet the 

healthier their gut, and you may help prevent 

gut related diseases in the future. 

l 

l 

l 

l 

l 

l 

Incorrect or poor diet 

Stress 

Genetics (physiology) 

Scavenging 

Disease 

Anything from the outside world 

that enters the gut 

How do I know if my dog’s gut 

flora is out of balance? 

l Faeces test by your veterinarian 

l Look at your dog’s faeces, 

anything 

other than normal firm faecal 

matter is evidence of unbalanced 

gut flora and should be investi 

gated by a veterinarian 

l Diarrhoea 

l 

l 

l 

Constipation or straining 

Blood in faeces 

Disease 

What can be done about it: 

First be proactive, take your dog to your 

veterinarian for diagnosis and to check 

there is nothing else going on. Once your 

veterinarian has made a diagnosis you can 

then begin working with your veterinarian 

to bring things back into balance. 

Your veterinarian may refer you to a 

complementary therapist or you can ask 

for a referral if you wish to go down that 

road with your dog. As a complementary 


IS MY DOG TRYING TO DOMINATE ME? 

Two more questions you have to ask 

before answering that one are: 

Why would my dog want to dominate me? 

What’s in it for her that she doesn’t already 

have? 

These three questions are actually quite 

intertwined, so let’s look at the situation 

with her - oops, I mean OUR pack: 

She gets 2 squares a day. And that doesn’t 

count all the treats for doing tricks, coming 

back on recall and such. Would she 

somehow get MORE to eat if she were to 

win domination over me? Maybe a better 

quality? Are you inferring, that what she 

gets now is of inferior quality and that by 

dominating me she would get better food? 

Or more? 

by Leonard “Buzz” Cecil** CTDI, Cert.CBST 

She gets all the water she can drink, both 

from her water dish, but also on walks 

from the various fountains and water 

troughs. Now if she were to dominate me, 

would she somehow demand and get 

more and better liquid refreshment? German 

white wine, French red wine? Maybe 

a real Czech Pilsner beer. Single-Malt 

Scotch (from my collection?)? 

If she were to win domination over me, 

would she then get to leave the house 

before me? Maybe. But it’s very possible 

she wouldn’t live very long, charging out 

the door in front of me into the street. But 

then I’d just have to get another dog to 

dominate me. And another. And another. 

And then where would she want to go? 

Can’t go shopping with no money. She’s 

not crazy about the movies unless they’re 

animal films. 

If Vela were trying to dominate me, what 

would she have to gain by walking in front 

of me. Well, for one thing she would have 

to STAY in front of me. What a drag, if 

there was a lovely piece of cow dung behind 

me or to the side of me. She’d have 

to make that hard choice between cementing 

her domination over me by staying 

out in front of me and perhaps losing her 

domination by falling behind to savor that 

dead bird. Choices, choices and the RE- 

SPONSIBILITIES attached to them. 

What’s a dog to do? 

And of course, she’d have to choose the 

route to take, determining where we are 

to go. Fine. And if there’s no food or water 

there when we get there, is she supposed 

to force me to provide it for her wherever 

we end up? Now try this with your dog, 

just what I tried today. My dog was sniffing 

dominantly 10-20 yards in front of me. We 

came to a fork in the road. She headed 

down the right fork and I, being the rebellious 

soul I am, purposely took the left 

path. I would have thought, her being the 

dominant wanna-be, that she would have 

insisted, that I come to her, but no, low and 

behold, without me even calling to her, she 

not only was suddenly running past me up 

the left road, but when I then decided to go 

on the right road, she then bounded on by 

me and up the right road. Well, ok, I see 

your point. What a cunning little cur. She 

actually TRICKED me into thinking I was 

dominating her by going on the left road, 

when she knew, that I would eventually 

see it her way and go on the right path, 

which she’d originally been on. Sometime 

you don’t have to dominate with force, you 

can do it by cunning and treachery. 

Now, when I come home, it’s obvious who 

is the dominant one in the house. As soon 

as my key hits the door, Vela is at the door, 

demanding my attention. It’s quite clear, 

that if my wife were actually the leader of 

the pack (for what husband is EVER the 

leader of the pack?), she would come right 

to the door, beating my dog by a nose to 

greet me at the door, I would then give her 

a big smacker, a bunch of roses and a bottle 

of champagne. Or something. But it’s 

apparent, that Vela has banned my wife to 

the kitchen, in order that she can take over 

this dominant function. This has caused 

countless “discussions” between my wife 

and I - and tears. But we have been able 

to strike a compromise. I will not kiss Vela 

on the mouth any more and will wash my 

hands and face before kissing my wife. I 

try ignoring Vela when I come home, but 

that simply doesn’t work. She just follows 

me everywhere I go, sometimes running 

up ahead of me, for example on the stairs. 

The more I tried to keep her behind me, 

the more excited she becomes. And of 

course my wife hollers down “If you would 

ignore the dog, maybe she’d stop pestering 

you. And why should you deal with 

her before even saying hello to me?” So I 

had a choice. Either keep peace with my 

wife and ignore my dog in her attempt to 

dominate me or accept the fact that she’d 

already dominated my wife and ignore that 

in favor of trying to first greet my dominated 

wife, thus not allowing my dog to 

dominate me. These dogs can put you in 

an untenable position. I guess that’s part 

of their plan. 

One aspect where Vela has completed 

her move to take over domination of her 


IS MY DOG TRYING TO DOMINATE ME? 

humans is how she will lay down on our 

feet, taking over our space, claiming her 

rule-of-dog. Now she doesn’t do this all the 

time, but does whenever the fancy strikes 

her, whether we want this or not. We’ve of 

course given in lock, stock and barrel to 

this overt domination, so much so that we 

do not wear slippers any more in the winter, 

knowing that Vela will claim her rightful 

spot on our feet. Frankly, this doesn’t really 

bother us much, especially in the winter 

in the kitchen/dining area where we have 

stone floors. But it is of course the idea 

of allowing her to dominate us and claim 

a piece of our space that needs to be 

noticed here. 

only ever played poker, cribbage and (yes, 

I admit it) Masters of the Universe when 

she’s been asleep in her bed in her room 

(well, it’s actually the stair well next to my 

office, but we call it her room). We have 

been able to hold her blatant dominating 

scheming in this area at bay. So it’s a 

small price to pay, to play tug with her sock 

- used to be my sock, but she claims them, 

when they get holes in them. I wonder how 

the holes get in them …. 

As you can see, we’re fighting an up-hill 

battle on all fronts with Vela. Her seemingly 

sweet demeanor and wagging 

Retriever tail is obviously just a ruse for a 

plotting, scheming canine version of the 

next military K9 junta, just waiting to lay 

claim to the leadership of our pack. We’ve 

been able to work out our compromises, 

but we feel we need help to reclaim our 

house and family. 

** - besides being in a life or death struggle 

with his dog Vela for the control of the 

civilized western world and the cecil family 

refrigerator, Buzz is also IT-Geek, professional 

bass-trombonist, dog trainer/behavior 

consultant 

I’m sure, if our furniture were more comfortable 

for her, she would try to show her 

dominance over us in this respect also, 

but she’s never shown any inclination to 

get up on the the sofa, my office chair, 

the dining room chairs or the junk-chair 

(I suppose you have one too, a chair that 

just seems to fill up with all sorts of junk 

that has no other place in the house) by 

the door. She also has never shown any 

inclination to counter-surf or beg at the 

table. I suppose that’s because in order 

to fulfill her domination over us, we see 

that she has her own place by the table 

or the sofa near us at all times which she 

can use to keep a watchful eye on us. To 

appease her dominating character, we will 

occasionally give her a pig’s ear or ostrich 

tendon while we’re eating and that seems 

to give us a break from her iron-pawed 

rule of the house. Strangely enough, when 

we’re on trips, she’s never tried to claim a 

spot on the hotel bed. Maybe she’d prefer 

sheets and blankets to the usual Nordic 

bed coverings? We count ourselves lucky 

here. 

She has shown however some cracks and 

inconsistencies in her drive to take over 

the alpha of our pack. One such area is 

playtime. There seems to be no pattern 

to when she wants to play and when she 

doesn’t. In fact, she’s always up for a long 

game of tug. I suppose if we always gave 

in to her she’d try to expand this dominating 

behavior to Checkers, Monopoly (what 

would be more natural for practicing the 

domination of the world except for Sim 

City?) or even Chess. We did see a film 

of one lady who taught her dogs to play 

chess with her, but we’ve been warned 

not to even entertain the idea of this, in as 

much as chess is THE game for aspiring 

socially upwardly mobile dogs, looking for 

any way to take over control. We’ve also 

Venue: 

Dog Oriented 

Behaviourist Education 

The First time in Holland in association with Dog 

Oriented Worldwide Institute we organize a practical 

education for Dog Oriented Behaviourists and 

Trainers 

Koningslust Holland 

PDTE members get discount 

Interested? Call +31 77 467 86 19 

Education is accepted by PDTE 


Wishing you a fabulous 

summer! 

The PDTE Board 

Photo: Pippa Woodward-Smith, England 2010

PDTE 2011 July Newsletter

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