PDTE 2010 June Newsletter

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PDTE Workshops In Poland 28 – 30 September 2009 continue... WALKING NICELY WITH YOUR DOG Raili Halme, Finland ENSURE COMFORT Knowing how to walk with your dog is extremely important. Dogs feel pain just like humans do. So if your dog has a very thin collar this will hurt it a lot more than a wide one. Metal collars and choke chains are terrible and cause massive discomfort. People who think a dog won’t pull when it’s on a choke chain are badly mistaken. Mostly, dogs pull because it hurts to walk on the leash. It can also be a learnt behaviour but this is another matter. A dog tries to avoid pain by moving away from it. So the more the collar hurts, the more the dog pulls. Therefore, in order to walk nicely with a dog it is important to have good equipment. The wider the collar, the more comfortable it is for the dog. If you have nothing better to do some evening, try wearing your dog’s collar and leash and get another person to hold the leash. Tell them to keep it nice and taught, and to give it a good jerk once in a while. Or perhaps they can drag you around for a while. A well-fitting harness is by far the best option for a dog. But the wrong harness — one that stretches across the soft base of the throat — can be just as painful as a collar when the dog starts to pull. The best kind of harness is one that forms a v- shape across the chest, where the pulling point is on the breastbone rather than the throat. There is a stomach part that prevents it sliding up to the throat. At Rakkaat- Haukut – Happy Dog we have designed a three-part harness with interchangeable modules that can be tailor-fitted to suit every dog. For example, if the dog has a very short back but a broad chest and a big abdomen, he might have a size L chest piece, a size XS back piece, and possibly a size XL stomach piece. It fits snugly and won’t come off the dog. In many cases owners have reported that their dog either pulled a lot less or even stopped pulling altogether when they got the new harness. Another advantage of the Happy Dog harness is that it doesn’t require pulling over the head, something that many dogs dislike. This removes the initial stress of shoving something over the dog’s head, and the walk starts in a more relaxed manner. The better the dog’s harness, the less he will feel leashed. Remember that a dog is also a prey animal and needs to feel he can escape danger. A loose leash and comfortable harness give him that feeling of security. We have to take our dogs out at least three times a day, and doing so on a tight leash with a painful collar is very stressful for the dog and often for the owner, too. Even when we have learnt to walk with our dog on a loose leash, we have a tendency to jerk or drag him around. That is one thing we all should learn: a dog can normally hear us when we ask him nicely to follow us. One of the most fundamental rules of dog behaviour is that dogs learn by association. Therefore, if something painful happens to a dog, it will associate the pain with whatever else is going on at that moment, like seeing a person or another dog. If every time he shows interest in another dog or a child he gets a painful jerk on his throat, he will think the dog or child is the cause, not the idiot on other the end of the leash. It won’t take long before he is afraid of dogs or children and starts to show what people interpret as aggression. Many countries in Europe have very short leashes, which is very limiting for the dog because it prevents him from sniffing things that are slightly off to the side. The range of smells on either side of the pavement or path is vast, and it is important to let a dog explore them. A good leash length for daily use is about 3 metres (10 feet). An excellent addition is a shock absorber that fits between the leash and the harness or collar. In our Happy Dog range of products, this stretchable extension is either separate and comes in different strengths, or is fixed to the end of the leash. The elastic shock absorber should be a fairly short separate part of the leash, not the whole leash, as the latter makes it difficult to control how far the dog can go. A shock absorber is not only comfortable for the dog; it is easy on the owner’s hand. DON’T TALK TOO MUCH Possibly the most difficult thing for us when we walk our dog — even more difficult than not jerking — is to be quiet. Con- Page 26 PDTE NEWS
PDTE Workshops In Poland 28 – 30 September 2009 continue... stantly gibbering away both with someone else and at the dog is very confusing for the dog. If you are talking non-stop with someone and then in the middle of a sentence say to the dog, “Hey, don’t do that!” how on earth will he know you are talking to him and not your companion? Or if you are constantly telling your dog, “Do this, don’t do that, come here, go there,” and suddenly tell him to sit, the chances are he won’t. He is not being disobedient; he simply didn’t distinguish the command from everything else. It is a guaranteed way to frustrate your dog. It is much nicer for him if you walk along quietly, and then he will listen when you say something, such as asking him to follow you. It makes it much easier for both dog and owner to curve around or walk away from difficult situations. TAKE IT EASY We all know how stressful it is to be in a hurry. Charging out for a one-hour walk or run with the dog before work in the morning is highly stressful for both and owner. By the time we leave for work he is over the top with excitement and will find it much harder to relax. By contrast, taking a short stroll during which the dog can sniff around and calmly do his business is beneficial to both of us, and a great way to start the day. Jogging may be wonderful for the owner, but it is never good for a dog. The only dogs one can really run with are Dalmatians, because they were bred to run alongside carriages and wagons. Remember that the dog is a prey animal as well as a hunter; so running alongside the owner or bicycle without the chance to see what is going on can be very frightening. Of course if you are in the forest and the dog is free, that is different because he can choose his own path and is free to stop, escape or hide if needed. For the same reason, jogging is not even good for sled dogs. Their work is to pull and run long distances, but the difference is that they are doing it together, as a pack. They are out front, and they are doing a job. SHOULDERS FIRST! When we are walking with our dog, we should be aware of what we are telling him with our body. Often we don’t have the foggiest idea what we are doing. We start and stop, turn and swivel and face this way and that or walk around in circles, and the dog is completely confused. Try keeping your shoulders facing in the direction you plan to go. You’ll be amazed how well your dog understands it! REWARD GOOD BEHAVIOUR Remember, it’s really important to praise and reward your dog when he is walking nicely and everything is fine. If you have a good relationship with your dog, he will love it when you praise him; you don’t have to stuff treats in his mouth constantly. But remember: when you praise your dog or give him a treat, you are reinforcing what is in his mind at that moment. If he is afraid, giving him a treat can make the fear worse. I have seen many courses with frightened dogs, and what people do is give them all kinds of goodies to try to make them feel better. But what they are doing is rewarding the fear. LET YOUR DOG HAVE A GOOD SNIFF Last but not least, let your dog have a good nose-around. Exploring different smells is guaranteed to make your dog more tired than a long jog or a fast walk. He has to use his brain to process and assimilate all the smells his nose encounters. What about a dog that eats everything it finds? Some dogs that were starved as puppies are desperate for food, even when well fed. First of all, muzzling a dog is unkind because he will feel trapped and he can’t get close enough to the smell to explore it properly. Nor does it help to give the dog a command to leave it alone, because more often than not we will see it too late. But we can teach him an alternative behaviour, and this is where the owner’s imagination comes in. The owner needs to find something that is more rewarding to the dog than what it finds on the ground. It may take some time, but that treat does exist somewhere. Then the dog can learn that whenever it finds something edible on the ground, if it goes to the owner instead, it will get its favourite treat. A dog will always do what is most rewarding for it. Therefore the reward the owner gives has to be much more attractive than what the dog finds on the ground. Walking with your dog does not have to be a chore. It can be a pure delight for both of you and reinforce your relationship rather than jerking it apart. Have fun! PDTE NEWS Page 27
Page 1 and 2: PDTE NEWS JUNE 2010 ● ISSUE 15 ww
Page 3 and 4: BOARD’S CORNER PRESIDENT MEMBERSH
Page 5 and 6: WElCOME OUR NEW MEMBERS ERIKA VOTA
Page 7 and 8: What‘s up in 2010? PDTE ANNUAL GE
Page 9 and 10: FINLAND ORGANISED BY RAKKAAT HAUKUT
Page 11 and 12: What‘s up in 2010? Other Events,
Page 13 and 14: My husband Hessu and l live with si
Page 15 and 16: Dominance, in common language Nelis
Page 17 and 18: The Bowen Technique Winkie Spiers,
Page 19 and 20: PDTE AGM MEETING In Poland 26 - 27
Page 25: PDTE AGM MEETING In Poland 26 - 27
Page 29 and 30: PDTE Lectures and Workshops In Pola
Page 35 and 36: As this is an international event,

PDTE 2010 June Newsletter

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