Missy - a Miller dog from the past... THE NAME GAME Family was visiting last week, so I actually took the week off – no new consults. We did have a Cognition Workshop last weekend, but I just flooded you with Cognition stuff after our last academy. I've included a few Cognition Workshop videos below, but nothing in depth on Cognition.   So instead, I thought I’d talk about names for our companion animals.   T.S. Eliot   T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) was a poet, playwright, essayist, and critic who revitalized English-language poetry through his innovative style, verse structure, and diction. A lot of his writings were pretty heavy-duty, but as a child I fell in love with his Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, which was a collection of whimsical light poems about feline psychology and sociology. It served as the basis for Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1981 musical, Cats. T.S. Eliot   My favorite poem was The Naming of Cats. I had memorized it as a child and still remember much of it today. It starts out:   The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter. It isn't just one of your holiday games; You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.   Intrigued? You can find the rest here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Poetry/comments/gidnha/poem_the_naming_of_cats_from_old_possums_book_of/   At any rate, I have always taken the naming of our furred, feathered and scaled family members seriously, and I hold T.S. Eliot at least partially responsible for that. ANIMAL NAMES Here’s a sampling of name stories from the 145-plus animal companions who have shared my life so far:    4 Kelpies  1.     Our first Australian Kelpie (in the 1980’s, when Kelpies were brand new to the US) was Keli, which means “dog” in Australian Aborigini. Keli Katie 2.     Next came Katie (from the same breeder as Keli) – already named that by the parents of the veterinarian we got her from. They had gotten her to herd their dairy cows and she was afraid of cows, so they were rehoming her. Kai KC 3.     Clearly following a “K” trend, we got Kai (Kaizen) 10 years ago from Joyful Rescues in Pennsylvania  – Kaizen means “change for the better,” – clearly appropriate given the slow but steady progress toward force-free training in the dog world! 4.     Finally, four years ago we were contacted by the Carroll County Humane Society. They were housing 24 dogs from a hoarder case and trying to send each of the dogs to an appropriate breed rescue. They were no local breed rescues but knowing our affinity for Kelpies they asked for our help. We agreed to foster the 4 Kelpies while Hedgesville Hounds looked for homes for them. These dogs had been crated for most of their young lives… you should have seen the action when we turned them loose together in our indoor arena!! We labelled it “Kelpie Chaos” and when we ended up adopting one ourselves the name stuck – and we call her KC for short.   More Dog Names I won’t list them all here, but here are a few others: 1.     Lucy – a Cardigan Corgi adopted from the shelter here when husband Paul was Executive Director there. I had long fancied a Corgi and assumed a Pembroke because they are the most common. But one day I walked into the shelter kennels to do behavior assessments and there she was. Mine! She was owner-surrendered at 11 months – too much energy. We adopted her, I took her home, and watched her gallop gracefully through our fields. Footloose and Fancy Free!! (Lucy for short) Lucy Bonnie 2.     Bonnie – we never knew exactly what she was, but we called her a Scorgidoodle – maybe Scottie, Corgi and Poodle. Staff knew I was a sucker for fluffy dogs (see Josie, below) and as I walked in the door to do assessments they handed me a stack of paperwork with Bonnie’s on top. “You need to do this one first” they said. I fell in love with this sweet girl at once – owner surrendered at 10 months because they couldn’t house train here (submissive urination). As I was sitting on the floor with her at the end of the assessment, Paul walked by the observation window with the Animal Care Supervisor, looked in and said, “Well, it looks like we’re taking another one home.” Yep, sure enough… “Bonnie Wee Lass” – because she was. 3.     Sunny – yes, my wonderful 25-pound Pomeranian who brought such light and joy into my life – his full name was a very fitting “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows.” Sunny 4.     Josie – the wonderful Terrier mix who showed me the error of my aversive training ways and prompted me to cross over to force-free training… Paul and I found her while we were doing an undercover cockfighting investigation in San Jose, California. We had seen stray dogs all day and not stopped, but when Josie ran across the street in front of a car, without either of us saying a word, Paul pulled the car over, I jumped out, she came to me and I put her in the car. “Josie” – for San Jose. Josie  Cat Names 1.     Stars and Stripes – Stripes had appeared one day on our farm and we took him in. Yes, a tiger-striped Mackerel Tabby, and I wasn’t feeling very name-creative at the time, so he was just “Stripes.” But then, not quite a year later, a 7-week-old kitten rode home in the wheel well of my car, jumped out when I got home and disappeared into the woods. We set a live trap, but no sign of her. I assumed she was probably dinner for some wild animal. But then one evening a week later as we were coming in from doing barn chores, KC chased her up a tree. It took me an hour (up on a ladder, with food) to coax the very hungry kitten down so I could grab her and bring her in the house. We pondered various names (Stowaway, Hitchhiker…) and then Paul said, “How about Stars?” PERFECT!! So now we have “Stars and Stripes”! Stars and Stripes 2.     Barney – When we were living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a black-and-white tuxedo cat showed up in our barn one day and kept coming back. I checked with all the neighbors to see where he lived. Turned out it was right next door, where they had multiple (as in many) outdoor cats, and this guy was getting pushed out. The neighbors said they were going to be moving, and we could keep him if we wanted. So he was “Barney” – because he had moved into our barn. Then one very stormy night he came to the house, meowing at the back door asking to be let in. I let him in and he never asked to go out again. But we kept his name “Barney” – we didn’t change it to “Housey.” 3.     Gewurztraminer – because that’s the kind of wine we were drinking in a restaurant in Sonoma County, California, when we looked out the window and saw him walking up and down the sidewalk, greeting people, and dogs. When we were done eating we didn’t see him, but when we entered the parking garage we heard him meow as he approached a couple on the opposite side of the garage. They ignored him - and when I called “Kitty, kitty, kitty” he tore across the garage and jumped into my arms. So “Gewurztraminer” became ours after no-one answered the “found” ads we posted.   Horse I could obviously go on forever, but at the risk of boring you I will just do one more. 1.     Olivia – When Paul was Director of the shelter here they did a horse hoarder case. A woman the other side of Sharpsburg had more than 75 horses, including several dead ones on the property, several pregnant mares, some feral BLM horses and a feral BLM donkey. The shelter impounded them all, thanks to the assistance of some wonderful horse rescue groups. We leased a farm across the road where we housed and cared for about 20 of them, and brought the 12 miniature horses to our farm. I knew we were going to keep one of them, and every day when I went out to feed them I would think to myself, “Which one do I want???” And then one day I looked at the little black 2-year-old filly and said, “You’re the one that I want!” So – she’s named after “Olivia Newton John” who sang that song in “Grease.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oKPYe53h78  Olivia   That’s all for now, folks! And… I would love to hear some of your animal name stories. I know you have them!!! Two Outcomes – One Sad, One Happy I did want to share a couple of case outcomes with you. Sad one first: Zorro, the Bulldog, was one of the three “Similar But Not Similar” cases I shared with you recently. You may recall I said his prognosis was Poor to Fair. I was not surprised to get an e-mail from them this week letting me know that they had decided to euthanize him after he began biting Sherry (the wife) – several times in just a few days. Zorro Here is what they shared: “Thank you for your typed report and additional info. It is with a very sad heart that I need to let you know that we had to put Zeke to sleep this morning.  After our session with you, he became aggressive with me multiple times on two different days. I was constantly on edge never knowing when it would happen again. He did land a bite on my hand during one of the episodes. After conferring with our primary vet and realizing that with the possible seizures and possible brain tumor it was the call to make to keep all safe.” I am always very supportive with clients who need to make this very difficult decision, and I share the “Losing Lulu” Facebook site with them. If you’re not familiar with it - Losing Lulu is a wonderful support group for people who have had to do behavioral euthanasia: https://www.facebook.com/groups/488243504915808 On a happier note, I also got an e-mail this week from another client, this time reporting good progress with her dog’s modification program. I don’t think I had previously shared this one with you… Chica is a Bluetick Hound who is not happy that little one-year-old Lisa is now moving around the house. Lisa’s parents, Mary and Evan, are rightfully concerned and said they realized they should have done something sooner. I applauded them for addressing this before anything bad happened. I have included the comments I made in my response to the report Mary sent 10 days after their session with me: CC&D Client: We did this 4x since our session. Not sure if she's quite made the connection, she sometimes just does a side eye and expects a treat. Evan is holding Lisa's hand and Chica is on a leash. We haven't quite gotten comfortable with just Lisa walking by on her own and not sure if Evan in the picture causes a problem with creating an association? Chica My Comment: I agree with not letting Lisa walk by on her own yet - unless you put up and exercise pen for protected contact - and then Lisa still can't try to engage with Chica through the pen... Slow is good...! If she does a side eye look at Lisa then yes, I would still feed. Operant Client: Feet/Find it - We've done this about 8x or more. She's great on Find it, not sure she's made the connection with the Feet. My Comment: Just keep at it. "Feet" is the more useful of the two for management purposes. Find It is great for exercise and enrichment. Client: Walk Away - This is wildly successful. We were at the dog park and Lisa was on the other side of the fence. Chica was walking towards her off leash and I gave the Walk away Cue and she immediately and enthusiastically obeyed. My Comment: YAY!!!!!!!!! Management Client: Meal scatter - We've done this 4x since our session. It's a great way to get her to exercise and we have also gone on a few walks and hikes in areas that don't cause her anxiety because they're relatively new. My Comment: SMILE! You could do it more, too...<G> Client: Vet/Medication - We started her on Calming supplements - Greenies that contain theanine and tryptophan - yesterday. The vet would like us to try these for the next 2 weeks to see how she does before we give her a drug. We ordered Sileo and it should arrive this week. Will report on the results. My Comment: Great - thank you! Client: Nail and Trainer - We have not gotten to this yet, but plan to once we get the medication squared away. My Comment: 🌞🌞🌞 Client: Muzzle - Same as above. My Comment: 🌞🌞🌞 Client: Mailbox and Postal Truck - We haven't done anything on this. The mailbox has oddly stopped being an issue, at least for now. My Comment: Well that's a Yay! Client: Doorbell - We plan on doing CC&D and have her go to her bed. My Comment: If you're just feeding treats for doorbell, that is CC&D. If you're teaching her to go to her bed that is operant. You can do both - I would start with the CC&D and then add the operant when she is calmer about the doorbell. Observations Client: Chica seems to be having more stress about being separated from us when Lisa is awake. For the first few weeks, she generally kept to herself when upstairs. Now, she often barks excessively and jumps on the doors to be let down. We are providing Chica with "us time" whenever possible, but in between she seems very anxious to be apart from us. This may change now that we've started the supplements, if not then hopefully medication will help curb this. My Comment: This is a concern, for sure, since aggression is caused by stress. We should try to address it quickly - if supplements don't show a marked improvement in a short period of time I would move to medication sooner rather than later... You are giving her yummy chews when you put her away? Client: Chica's relationship with Tylerton has substantially improved. They will now touch noses and sleep on the same furniture. Chica has also tried to get Tylerton to play with her. My Comment: Excellent!!! Client: We have not seen any aggression when Chica and Lisa have transitioned spaces. Chica licked her feet once. We did have one undesirable bark when Chica saw Lisa, Evan, and Tylerton on the couch and was not allowed to join (Chica was headed outside). My Comment: Continue to err on the side of caution with this... I wish all my clients were this thorough with their programs and reporting back to me!!! My prognosis for this case was "Good to Excellent." Cognition Workshop Videos 2025-08-23 15.06.46.mp4 2025-08-24 09.25.41.mp4 2025-08-24 13.58.47.mp4 2025-08-24 14.00.48.mp4 2025-08-24 14.06.50.mp4 Life At Peaceable Paws Family visiting – some fun signs from our travels… Warm Woofs, And a cute baby horse from a farm down the road Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

Squid!! A foster cutie from many years past... Three Dogs With Reactive/Aggressive Behavior to Visitors in the Home Looking at my schedule and reviewing behavior history forms for this week, I realized that I had three private clients who were all reporting a similar concern about their dogs’ behaviors – reactive/aggressive behavior toward visitors to the home – and only in the home. Outside of the home all three dogs were reportedly not reactive/aggressive.   So first, a reminder – “reactive” doesn’t necessarily mean “aggressive.” I love Dr. Karen Overall’s definition of reactivity as “An abnormal level of arousal in response to a normal stimulus.” That’s it! Nothing about aggression… However, it can include aggressive behavior, because a very high level of arousal can easily tip over into aggression, and because some reactivity – especially fear-related reactivity, can easily include aggression.   Another very interesting thing about these three cases is the diversity of breeds. The first was an Australian Shepherd, the second an English Bulldog, and the third a Bichon/Maltese mix. Reactivity does not practice breed discrimination.   So let’s meet the dogs and see what happened with each one.   Lily the Australian Shepherd   Lily is a 3.5-year old red-tri Aussie from Aussie Rescue. Her history is a little sketchy, but we do know that at one time (not sure at what age) she was given up because she was too excitable with the family’s children. After meeting her, I can understand that! It also appears that at one time she was in a shelter in Mississippi, but it’s not clear from her records if the family surrendered her to the shelter in Mississippi or if she had been adopted and rehomed by the family after her shelter stay.   The Lovely Lily At any rate, she is now in a foster-to-adopt home with Myra, and we’re hoping we can help make that permanent! While she does have a fenced yard, Myra soon discovered that Lily could easily climb the fence to chase deer and squirrels. When Myra had an inward “roof” extension added to block Lily’s climbing, her athletic dog figured out how to leap up and land on the roof before jumping down to chase. Myra is an active, healthy senior who wanted an active dog – maybe just not this active! Unfortunately, Lily’s fence-jumping prowess eliminates some exercise options that Myra had planned for her. Lily was lovely with me in our session – at our training center, not in her home. She was very affiliative – and indeed, high-energy. She was easily aroused to the point of jumping up, body-slamming and nipping – all from excitement, not aggression. Go Wild and Freeze elicited too much arousal too quickly, as did the Walk Away protocol. However, we did discover that she seemed to consistently respond to a “Freeze” cue by lying down when I folded my arms and gave the cue randomly throughout the remainder of the session when she was getting aroused, so it’s possible someone has attempted this with her before. I suggested continuing to practice and reinforce the “Freeze” cue without deliberately arousing her first – both when she is not aroused as well as when she is beginning to become aroused. This could be a valuable tool to help manage her arousal going forward. Lily wanted to be busy during our session, so to keep her occupied we each threw tennis balls for her from time to time. She wasn’t inclined to bring them back, so I suggested Myra have a bucket of tennis balls that she could keep throwing on her property for exercise, with Lily on a long line to prevent fence scaling. After the bucket is empty, Myra would get to go collect all the balls.   We practiced Feet/Find It and Nose Games – and Lily did well with both. We also discussed and agreed to incorporate Meal Scatters into her daily routine as a good enrichment/exercise vehicle. Again, this can be done on a long line on Myra’s property to prevent critter chasing.   We explored the possibility of finding one or more appropriate canine playmates for Lily. Two to three good hard play sessions a week could go a long way toward managing her high energy level and arousal. Another option might be to find someone who is interested in doing one (or some) dog sports with her. She could be a natural for Agility, Dock Diving or maybe even Treibball (she showed some interest in a Jolly Ball…).   Myra has already been working on a Relaxation Protocol with Lily. I switched her to the UPenn Protocol and encouraged her to generalize it to numerous various locations around the house, then eventually incorporate it into having visitors in her home.   Finally, we discussed (and practiced) Counter Conditioning and Desensitization (CC&D) with me walking past Lily at a distance of 20 feet to start, and ultimately just 5 feet away. We didn’t expect to get the aggression response (and we didn’t) since we weren’t in Lily’s home, but I wanted Myra to practice the mechanics. Lily and Myra both excelled at the CC&D – Myra was very skilled at seeing (and feeding for) even the brief eye shifts toward me that most clients miss, and Lily began offering Conditioned Emotional Response looks (CERs) back to Myra after just a few repetitions.   Although reactive aggression is often actually fear-related even when people think their dog is being protective, in Lily’s case I think it really is either territorial or protective aggression. She didn’t appear the least bit fearful, and she is quite bonded with Myra and was upset when her human had to leave the room briefly.   I did suggest to Myra that she have a discussion with her veterinarian about using over-the-counter calming products such as L-Theanine and Ashwagandha, and perhaps a situational prescription anti-anxiety medication for those times when Myra was planning to have visitors.   Overall, the prognosis for Lily is Good. She will benefit from more exercise, and she is blessed with a human who is knowledgeable and exceptionally capable and committed to making things work with Lily. The only glitch is whether, even with the increased exercise and behavior modification program, Lily turns out to be more dog than Myra wants to live with. I assured Myra I would fully support her decision if this is where she needs to go after her honest effort to make it work. And if it ultimately doesn’t work, we know the Aussie Rescue group will take Lily back, take excellent care of her, and work hard to find her the perfect forever home. Zorro the English Bulldog Zorro’s case is a very different story. He is a 3.5-year-old neutered male English Bulldog, with a low tolerance for frustration, and his arousal/nipping appears to be primarily frustration reactivity. It happens most frequently when he is on leash or restrained by his harness and attempting to greet someone. It can also occur when he is off leash and excitedly greeting someone who then turns away and doesn’t give him the attention he seeks. He is already on Clomicalm and Alprazolam for anxiety and Gabapentin for ACL pain (which also has an anti-anxiety effect). Zany Zorro - doing the best he can with lots of challenges  He also has a history of seizures, as well as food allergies that require him to only have a hydrolyzed protein diet (seriously limiting high-value treat options for behavior modification work). His humans – Sherry and Tim, are experienced dog people and previously owned another English Bulldog. They shared, regretfully, that Zorro came from a clearly not-responsible breeder in Florida – she had no interest in hearing that he had cherry eye (which has been treated), food allergies, and currently has an ACL tear which will need surgery. They didn’t even bother trying to inform her about his seizures.   We let Zorro off-leash during the session, and at one point midway through the session he did one of his jump/vocalize/nip incidents at me. I had done my usual “totally ignore the dog” behavior that I normally do with client dogs – unless and until I see the dog being appropriately affiliative. Although Zorro was trying to engage with me, it was with a level of arousal such that I was not comfortable engaging with him. Tim suggested that this was possibly an example of him being frustrated by the human’s failure to pay attention to him, and his over-threshold resulting response. I agree with Tim.   It's also quite possible that the yet-untreated ACL tear triggers a moment of pain when Zorro is aroused and jumping, which could also cause a brief aggressive outburst. Although Tim and Sherry didn’t seem to think the ACL was bothering him all that much, I noticed (and pointed out to them) numerous occasions during our two-hour session where he was clearly not comfortable putting weight on that leg when standing still, and was not sound when moving.   The ACL has not yet been treated due to Zorro’s seizures. His regular vet suggested holding off on the ACL surgery in case the seizures were related to something terminally serious, such as a brain tumor. There were also concerns about sedating him for surgery unless and until the seizures were under control. He has been seen by a neurologist, is on medication (Keppra) for the seizures, and has not had any seizures for a couple of months. While I concur with holding off on the surgery for the reasons mentioned, I also have concerns about leaving it untreated, and the potential for pain contributing to Zorro’s aggression. Sherry and Tim agreed to schedule a follow-up visit with the neurologist to see if he would give the go-ahead for the ACL surgery.   In the meantime, we agreed on the following modification program commitments: 1.     Ask Zorro’s regular vet if they can use the scent of veggie bacon (or something else) to flavor his hydrolyzed protein treats and make them higher-value for training. 2.     Begin the UPenn Protocol for Relaxation at least 5 days per week, 5 to 10 minutes per session. 3.     Play Nose Games for mental and physical enrichment at least 5 days per week, 5 to 10 minutes or more per session. 4.     Do Counter Conditioning and Desensitization with a visitor to the home at least 1 time per week, 20 minutes or more per session. 5.     Manage his behavior by removing him from the room when you have visitors (except when you bring him out for CC&D), and find new food toys you can use to keep him content when he is closed in another room.   Poor Zorro has a lot going on – and we know that medical issues are significant contributors to the stress levels that lead to aggression. My fingers are crossed, hard, that addressing those will help us make progress with our modification efforts – and at this point in time my prognosis for Zorro is High Poor to Low Fair. Ricky the Bichon/Maltese Mix Ricky is a 12-year-old neutered male Bichon/Maltese mix (what a cutie!) whose aggression toward visitors to his home started just three years ago. Ricky - what a cutie!!! Okay – anytime we have a significant behavior change in an adult dog, we have to ask… what else has changed? Ricky and his human, Kristin, moved three years ago, from a large house in a low-activity quiet community with houses far apart, to a much smaller house in a high-activity community with houses close together. We know aggression is caused by stress… and that would stress me too! Ricky’s human also shared that he is no longer comfortable jumping up and off the bed and sofa. At the age of 12 it’s quite likely that he is having some arthritis pain. We know that pain is a very significant stressor, so Kris will be exploring that with her veterinarian. I do sometimes suggest to clients that they ask their veterinarian about doing a short trial with a pain medication. If they see the dog’s behavior change significantly – in this case if Ricky starts jumping on and off the bed and sofa again – it’s a very good indication that there is pain happening. I could tell RIcky was worried in our session, but nowhere near threshold, and actually fell asleep on Kristin's lap halfway through the two hours. We practiced Feet/Find It, Walk Away, Treat and Retreat, and he did well with all of them. I would label his behavior as fear-related aggression. I suspect that Ricky has probably always been somewhat worried about visitors to his home, but it wasn’t until the added stress of the move and possible addition of pain that his stress over visitors escalated to aggressing toward them. As I often do with aggression clients, we listed all Ricky’s stressors and assigned strategies to minimize them as much as possible. The 5 stress-reducing strategies are: A. Classical Counter Conditioning B. Operant Conditioning Protocols C. Manage (an important part of any successful behavior modification program) D. Get Rid Of It (the stressor, not the dog!) E. Live With It (because we can't make all stress go away) We usually end up with between 10 and 20 stressors for the dog – we had 12 on Ricky’s list - here they are with their assigned strategies and my comments: 1. Visitors to the Home (A,B,C) - you can hold him (he does better when held, unlike most dogs), do CC&D and use Treat and Retreat 2. Activity outside the home (A,B,C) - Ricky is aroused and bakring out the front door multiple times a day... Close the door! Can do CC&D/Feet and Find It if desired 3. Strangers in general (C,A,B) - Avoid people when walking, have Rick wear yellow, use CC&D, Feet/Find It, Walk Away 4. Pain (C,D) - Explore to confirm, give pain medication if indicated 5. Cars (A,B) - Do CC&D, Feet and Find It and/or Walk Away as opportunity presents 6. Thunder (C) - Ask vet about situational medication 7. Vacuum (E) - Allow him to remove himself from the room (it stresses him if you remove him) 8. Sudden noises in the home (E) - Stuff happens. Try to minimize as much as possible 9. Separation from Kristin (C) - Minimize as much as possible - his separation-related behavior is not extreme 10. Approaching vet/groomer locations (E) - He is a little stress when approaching but gets happy once he's there 11. Deliveries/doorbell (C) - Put sign on door asking delivery people not to ring the bell 12. Your Stress (E) - Stress happens! Just be aware that your stress moves him closer to threshold.   After we create our stressor list, the client and I agree on our priorities, since we can’t work on all of those stressors at one time. Anything that says “manage” or “get rid of” happens right away, or course. Then we choose usually 2 to 4 of them that require an investment in client time and energy as our “commitments.” Our priorities for Ricky are numbers 1 through 4 in the list above. Our commitments for our program (in addition to talking to the veterinarian about medications) with Ricky are: 1.     Feet/Find It – 5 minutes or more every day 2.     Walk Away – 5 minutes or more every day 3.     Treat and Retreat – as opportunity presents 4.     Counter Conditioning and Desensitization – at least 2 times per week, 20 minutes or more, (weather permitting), and as opportunity presents. I suspect that just closing the front door so Ricky isn’t stressed by and barking at all the community activity all day will go a long way toward modifying his behavior. Prognosis for this little guy and his very committed, very capable human is – High Good to Excellent! Life At Peaceable Paws Just some more PPaws farm photos to brighten your day… Hiking with KC and Kai. KC is on a long line because if she should happen to hear thunder of a gunshot, she would be GONE! Kai on the run! Tiger Swallowtail on Joe Pye Weed You've heard of "Elf on a shelf"? Here's "Fawn on a lawn"! Our house cat "Stripes" intrigued by Fawn on a lawn... Another of our gorgeous sunsets... Hope you are enjoying the fast departing rest of our summer!! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

Miller dogs from days past... Back, left to right: Lucy, Cardigan Corgi and Bonnie, Scorgidoodle. Front - Tucker, Cattle Dog mix, Dubhy, Scottish Terrier, and Katie, Australian Kelpie Our Cognition Academy True confession time… Cognition is my favorite of all the various academies we offer here at Peaceable Paws. I find it so exciting to explore the incredible cognitive capabilities of the canine mind – things we were at one time told dog brains were entirely incapable of doing.   Cognition is defined as the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension, including but not limited to: Thinking, Grasping and Applying concepts, Knowing, Remembering, Reasoning, Sense of Self, Theory of Mind, Judging, Problem-solving. These are higher-level functions of the brain and also encompass language, imagination, perception, and planning.   We now understand and accept that most animals, including insects, are far more cognitive than we have, in the past, given them credit for. And it only makes sense… how could animals survive if they didn’t have the ability to remember, problem-solve, reason, and do many of the other things included in the definition cognition?   How could we possibly have believed for centuries that animals couldn’t do any of these things? I attribute it to our species’ arrogant desire to place ourselves above all the other species on earth. But that’s a topic for another discussion at another time…   We have a wonderful time in our Cognition academies and workshops teaching our dogs to understand and apply cognitive concepts. These include: Imitation; Object, Color and Shape Discrimination; Reading, Match-to-Sample; and more. Teams also create a "Cognition Test" that all the dogs get to participate in - essentially a very small sample cognition study. Teams develop and test a cognition hypothesis. Here's one from last week's class: Cognition Academy – Team Cognition Test Easy Bites -vs- Brain Bites: Delayed Gratification in Dogs Katie Beth Miksa & Bethany Davidson   Hypothesis: Given the choice between a standard bowl with kibble and a puzzle feeder with high value food, dogs will choose the more easily accessible bowl of kibble.   Equipment Specifications & Set Up Equipment: Kibble, High Value Treat (cut into small pieces), Medium-Sized Dog Bowl, Wooded Puzzle Feeder (Round Puzzle with 9 Depressions & 9 Matching Removable Cylinders), Mat, Tape (to Mark Distances), Pen, Data Collection Sheet, Timing Device, Measuring Tape, Chair, leash tab Set Up Using a measuring tape mark off a distance of 8 feet.  At each end place a piece of tape.  From the first tape marker, measure out a distance of 6 feet.  From 6 feet, measure out and mark a distance of 1 foot to both the right and left of center (Total Distance is 2 feet).  These will serve as markers for the bowl and puzzle feeder.  Immediately behind the first tape maker, place a mat to serve as the dog’s starting position.  Behind the mat, place a chair for the restraining handler to sit on during the test.  (See Diagram A). Diagram B – Puzzle Layout   Place 5 pieces of kibble into the bowl.  We are using poultry free kibble due to the allergies of one subject dog in this class.  Place 1 piece of a high value treat under each of the designated puzzle feeder cylinders.  The puzzle feeder has 9 total cylinders.  All but five have been removed.  To ensure consistency, the remaining cylinders will be arranged like the 5 side of a die (See Diagram B).  For Canine Cognition, we are using bacon as the high value treat as it is both high value and novel to the participants of this academy. Dogs will be wearing a short training tab leash to prevent them from wandering in the event that they do not have solid a sit/wait.                                                         Diagram A - Test Layout    Procedure   Have handler bring the subject dog into the testing area and put him/her in a sit/stay on the mat provided. The handler will hold the dog in case they are unable to maintain a “wait” cue.   The experimenter will move forward from the starting point (directly in front of the dog 8 feet away) with both choices in hand to allow the dog sniff each.  The choice on the dog’s left side will be presented first.  The choice on the dog’s right will be presented second.  After that, the experimenter will say wait, and back up 6 feet.  The “wait” cue can be repeated as necessary while setting both items on the ground at the same time 2 feet apart.  The experimenter will then step back another 2 feet to the starting point and say “choose.”  The handler will let go of the training tab and release the dog on the “choose” cue.  Dogs will be allowed to investigate each option.  Once they eat a piece of food from their choice, the other will be removed by the experimenter.  If the dog goes to the puzzle and begins to engage a timer will be started.  Dogs will be allowed to engage for 1 minute before the experimenter steps in to assist if they are unable to complete the puzzle and obtain a treat on their own.  This is to prevent frustration.  As the dogs remove the cylinder from the puzzle, the experimenter will remove them from the area to prevent the dogs from chewing on them.   The test will consist of four trials. The puzzle will be on the dog’s left for trial one and three while the kibble bowl will be on the dog’s right. For trials two and four, the kibble bowl will be on the dog’s left and the puzzle will be on his/her right.   And in case you were wondering, Katie Beth and Bethany's hypothesis was disproven - the dogs pretty consistently preferred to work for the bacon (or later, chicken) in the puzzle toy rather than the easily accessible kibble.  Here is the curriculum from our recent Cognition Academy:   I was disappointed that we only ended up with three human students for the week (we brought in some extra dogs) but we had a great time with this small and mighty group: And Maggie does it!  Katie Beth Miksa demonstrates a behavior for Maggie to copy.   And helps him get it right. Bethany Davidson teaching Evan Match to Sample. Kimana Merrill doing color discrimination with Logan And Logan gets it right!!! Peaceable Paws KC (this photo) and Kai (photo on the right) learn to read with Kimana and Katie Beth. Happy Finnegan Update   I ended my last blog post with a description of Finnegan, a Labradoodle who turned out to be too fearful to be able to participate in the Level 1 Academy he was here for. Sara-Sun Cangelosi had worked with him every day despite a jam-packed academy schedule, and we said a sad good-bye to him on Graduation day with prayers and hope for his future.   We were thrilled to hear that he had been adopted, and his new humans shared this lovely e-mail with Sara-Sun:   <<Hello Sara,   My name is Jim.  On July 30, I adopted Finnegan, the black Labradoodle you trained recently.  I wanted to let you know he is doing great.  He is gaining more confidence in his new environment each day.  I have a 11 ½ year old yellow Lab Kirby, and a 1 ½ year old Golden Doodle, Oshie (female).  Finn loves them and they love him (especially Oshie).  Finn and Oshie have already bonded, playing nonstop and sleeping with each other at night in my bed with me.  My old boy Kirby likes that he can now chill and get his much-needed nap time in while the kids play non-stop, lol.   I was thinking about renaming Finn at first, but after reading the beautiful write up you did about him with his photo on it, it brought tears to my eyes and said to myself, he is Finnegan.  I live in the suburbs of Bel Air, Maryland.  A nice older well-established community that is very dog-friendly, with people walking their dogs every day.  I have a nice big back yard with a privacy fence and pool that has become Finn's safety sanctuary so far.  He is timid on our walks, being afraid of cars, loud noises and other things you wouldn't see on trail walks, but he is doing well.  He does not like car rides, has vomited in car twice, so we will stay away from that for time being.   I have to get back on Finn's training.  He is not responding to my cues to sit, stay and just about everything else.  I know it is hard for him to focus with the other dogs around, so I will make adjustments so we can have alone time to train.    I was hoping you would be okay with giving me your number so I can send you pics and video of Finn.  Also I wanted to see if you resided in Maryland and if by any chance you would be an option for me to watch Finn if I traveled in the future.  I have family and neighbors I can rely on, but it's always nice to have someone else, especially someone that Finn knows.   Thank you for all that you do with the dogs you train and helping them get through rough stages waiting to find their forever home.  Looking forward to hearing back from you.   Jim Dupree>> Finnegan has found his forever home!!! Of course, Sara-Sun will get back to Jim and hopefully will continue to get (and share!) updates about Finn’s progress. She can let him know that Finn really couldn’t learn those behaviors here because he was too stressed, so it not surprising that he’s not responding to the cues. She lives in Brooklyn, so probably can’t help him in person, but two students from that academy live in Maryland, and can hopefully help Jim with his furry boy. Life At Peaceable Paws And ending with some more PPaws farm photos to brighten your day… Toad who visits the doorstep on our back deck nightly. Twenty geese in the pasture. What?? It's too early for flocking up! One of our many beautiful sunsets. Seven deer on our front lawn. Canadian wildfire haze. Beautiful Tiger Swallowtail on our back fence. Freddie helping to move hay. Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

OUR LEVEL 1 BASIC DOG TRAINING AND BEHAVIOR ACADEMY; AND “SHOUT!” Our Level 1 Basic Dog Training and Behavior Academy I have been offering this 6-day hands-on trainer-training Academy for more than 20 years, starting when we were still located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Of course it has numerous updates over the years to keep up with new science about our dogs’ learning abilities. Initially it included much of what is now our Instructor Academy. Now it focuses entirely on teaching students to teach the behaviors in our Basic Good Manners Class (all force-free, of course) and an in-depth dive into the science of behavior and learning. It is now followed by our advanced academies, including Behavior Modification, Aggression, Canine Cognition (my favorite), Multi-Species and more.   It's not an easy course. Students are graded in four different areas and must score 70% or better in each section, with a final score average of 70% or better. The sections are: 1.     Class Participation – This includes arriving to class on time, participating in class discussions, and working appropriately with their dogs during group classes and practice sessions. 2.     Study Guides – Students get three take-home study guides. These have also been modified over the years. They used to be “quizzes”, as in “come into class, sit down at your table and take the test, brain dump only.” They are now take-home, open-book/open-computer – intended to help students focus on the topics that will be on their written final exam. This has at least helped to reduce some of the stress for everyone. 3.     Final Written Exam – The written final is not take home/open book. It is a sit-at-your-table and answer the questions from memory, the morning of Day 6. There are 17 questions (open-ended questions, not multiple choice!) and students have two hours to take the test. 4.     Final Practical – Afternoon of Day 6, students demonstrate, one at a time, what they have worked on with their dogs during their week here. As I advise them on Day 1, I am not grading them on how perfectly their dog is trained in just five days – I am looking at their skills. Perhaps their dog was doing a verbal Down by Day 3, but when they cue her to down in the practical, she doesn’t do it. No points off for that – I am looking to see that they react appropriately when the dog doesn’t respond to the cue – i.e. lure/prompt.   The Level 1 Curriculum It is a busy and exhausting week for the human and canine students as well as for me. The human students arrive every morning at 8:30 to hike their dogs for 30-45 minutes – a great stress outlet for the dogs who have been kept in shelter kennels or boarding kennels nearly 24/7 prior to their arrival. Then I instruct the group training class – we cram our 7-week Basic Good Manners curriculum into 5 days – and it never ceases to amaze me how many of the Academy doings are doing at least as well, if not better, than many of our clients in our regular group classes. Of course, our dogs are getting a good two hours of training every day (no wonder we are all tired!), which is way more than lots of dogs get in a week! The rest of each day is a mix of class lecture and discussion, study guide review, practice training, and each student gets two one-on-one training sessions with me during the week. Saturday is Graduation Day – written final, practical final, celebration, and a one-on-one feedback meeting with me before they head home. The Academy curriculum detail is here if you want to take a look: Meet the Dogs and Their Students This class had a couple of challenging dogs along with some very lovely ones; four from Frederick County Animal Control (FCAC) and two from Lab Rescue LRCP (LR). They were: 1.     Roderick (FCAC) – a 1-year-old neutered male, somewhat fearful Lab/Pit mix. Roderick had been here recently for the Aggression Academy and had made good progress, so I thought he could do this, paired with Josh Greeves, an FCAC volunteer who was already familiar with him. It was more challenging for Roderick than I thought it would be at first, but he and Josh did very well together. Added bonus – Josh can keep working with Roderick now that he’s back at FCAC!   2.     Cordelia (FCAC) – a beautiful spayed female 1-year-old German Shepherd, picked up stray with her GSD companion, Cressida. She appeared to have had some prior training, and while she was somewhat stressed (as GSDs are prone to be) made excellent progress during the week with her assigned human, Catharine Franklin, of Lubbock, TX   3.     Cressida (FCAC) – Cordelia’s apparent “sister” (they were picked up stray together). Also a beautiful 1-year-old GSD girl with some prior training, and also somewhat stressed, she had a great time with her trainer for the week – Ed Henry of Burlington, NC.   4.     Mikey (FCAC) – A sweetheart of a 6-year-old Hound mix (neutered male) – he rocked the week with his trainer, Bobbie Ambruzs from Fort Collins, CO. They were second-high score on their practical final. Mikey was an adoption return after one month in the home due to resource guarding with the other home dogs. We all loved him… a great scent work candidate!   5.     Chloe (LR) – A classic chocolate Lab, Chloe (8-year-old spayed female) was a bit of a high-energy handful and a bit vocal, but she and her trainer, Katie Koutsouradis also rocked the week – they were high scoring on their practical final.   6.     Mia (LR) – Yellow Lab , also 8-year-old spayed female, surrendered along with Chloe to Lab Rescue when their human had to go into a care facility. Both well-loved and well-cared for, Mia was noticeably calmer than Chloe, and also did extremely well during the academy with her trainer Jonah Schreffler from Brooklyn, NY. Jonah has a thriving dog-walking business in Brooklyn and wants to add training to his services. It was interesting to watch him develop a new skill set – from dog walking to dog training.   7.     Lylah (LR) – Black Lab mix, 2-year-old spayed female, very intelligent and very high energy with a very strong interest in tennis balls. Excellent candidate for canine sports – she will thrive in the hands of a dog-competent human who can direct her energy to appropriate outlets. Erin Fitzgerald or Alexandria, VA. did a fantastic job of managing Lylah’s energy (and training her) during her week here. LR suggested she might be a candidate for one of the many agencies who utilize working dogs for various tasks. We wholeheartedly agreed!!   8.     Finnegan (LR) – Last but not least, Fin is more of a Doodle than a Lab, and an adorable one at that as well as a big cuddle-bug when he was comfortable. A 1-year-old neutered male, Finn was originally stray at a shelter before going to LR. Sadly, he was too stressed to participate in class most of the week – in fact too stressed and shut down to do much more than just go for walks on the farm. His wonderful trainer, Sara-Sun Cangelosi, also of Brooklyn, NY, ended up working with Bobbie and Mikey. In her “spare” time, she did an amazing job of helping Finnegan acclimate to the Peaceable Paws world, and on Friday we were able to lure him into a sit a few times – the pinnacle of is training accomplishment for the week. (For those of you who haven’t been to this academy, “spare time” is hard to come by – major kudos to Sara-Sun for her work with Finnegan and her great attitude!)   The shelter and rescue agencies who work with us are invariably pleased with the results, knowing (as do we) that the likelihood of their dogs' success in their new forever homes will be greatly enhanced by their experiences here. If any of our recent Academy dogs appeal to you - contact their agency: Frederick County Animal Control - https://frederickcountymd.gov/15/Animal-Control Lab Rescue LRCP - https://www.lab-rescue.org/ And if you think you might be interested in attending our Academies and becoming a PMCT (Pay Miller Certified Trainer), you can go to our website for more information: https://peaceablepaws.com/peaceable-paws-intern-academies/ We also have some interesting workshops coming up... you can find them here: https://peaceablepaws.com/workshops/   Shout!   Okay – this is a brief and totally non-dog-related side-trip. I just had to include it because I found it amusing. I was at the grocery store one day last week, with a long shopping list. As I was wrapping up and getting ready to head to check-out, I was scrutinizing my list to make sure IO had gotten everything. Just then, on the store’s music-playing PA, the Tears for Fears song “Shout!” came on:   "Shout, shout, let it all out These are the things I can do without Come on I'm talking to you, come on Shout, shout, let it all out These are the things I can do without Come on I'm talking to you, come on" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye7FKc1JQe4   And guess what? The one thing on my list that I hadn’t gotten yet was, yes: Shout – the laundry detergent stain remover. Thank you, Tears for Fears!!! Life At Peaceable Paws Life at Peaceable Paws isn’t just about dogs (in case you hadn’t realized that yet). We also board horses (Peaceable Pastures) and just enjoy life on our peaceful 80-acre setting. We got a new boarder this week – a 16-year-old registered Paint (but a solid-colored one) named Arris. Our current horse population is at 11 – 9 boarders and 2 of our own horses. Arris is settling in quite well, with a low-drama introduction to his new pasture Pals, Prince and Star. Yes Paint horse are supposed to have patches of white, but if a solid-colored foal is born to registered Paint parents they still get to be registered as a Paint. Go figure… Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

Memories... Dubhy our Scottish Terrier playing the piano A TREE FALLS AT PPAWS So – you know what the dairy cow said when the farm flooded? “If it’s not one thing, it’s an udder…” And, you know what happens when the dairy cow jumps over the picket fence to escape the flood? Udder disaster!   Fortunately what happened here was not an udder disaster, but it’s certainly starting to feel like the “if it’s not one thing it's an udder…” Or as Roseanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radnor) used to say on Saturday Night Live… “It’s always something!”   Tree down! Last night at 7:22PM as I was trying to decompress from a stressful Academy week, our power flickered and then went out. It’s not unusual for us to have brief power outages, so I waited… and no, it did not come back on. I got in my car and headed out the driveway to see if it was our power lines or somewhere in the neighborhood. I didn’t get far. I rounded the turn to the long quarter-mile of our drive that goes out to the road, and there it was a few hundred feet in the distance: a very large tree was lying across the driveway. Dangit! I assumed it had brought down the power lines, but I walked past the tree to confirm, being very careful to keep my distance. Yep, wires down! It was, indeed, something. Wires down!!! Then back to the house to call Potomac Edison. They said repair time was estimated to be 11:30PM. Going to be a long dark evening with no computer and no TV. Gee, I guess I could read a book by flashlight, just like I used to do as a little kid when I was “sneak reading” in bed.   Lights came back on at 9:30 not 11:30, so it was only two hours, not four. Thank you! Meanwhile I was counting my blessings – our Academy students, boarders and staff had all gone home before the tree fell – no one was driving, walking dogs or riding horses in the driveway when the tree came crashing down.   It took my hubby Paul and boarder hubby Jim a good four hours Sunday morning to cut up the tree and move all the pieces off the road down to our burn pile. (Without Jim it would have taken Paul seven hours – THANK YOU JIM!!!) The good news – no one was hurt and no property damage… Phew! Hard at work... All clear!   ANATOLIAN SHEEPDOG GETTING IN THE TRUCK   We occasionally get emails from around the country, even around the world, from people looking for a little help with their dogs. We usually take the opportunity to find someone near them we are comfortable referring to, but sometimes I will answer if it’s fairly quick and easy. We got this one recently:   Hi Pat,  My name is Janet, I'm writing from BC, Canada. My partner got two 5-6-year-old female dogs in the last two months. I've taken an active interest in caring for them and training them, as I now see myself as a "doggie stepmom" ;). I came across your Power of Positive Dog Training book at the library and absolutely love your philosophy and style. I refer to it often.   One of our dogs is an Anatolian Shepherd; she is big and sturdy, has very thick fur and is generally quiet/calm and a bit aloof/independent. We have found that she cowers when we try to get her into a truck. She lies down and won't move or tries to hide/run away and refuses to come. Regrettably, when we were first bringing her home, we were on the side of the highway taking a river break and resorted to a combination of pulling and picking her up roughly to get her in the truck, so we could continue homeward. This is also what I heard the previous owner would do.  Sometimes she will willingly get into the cab or the bed of the truck. A small "tug" on the leash will often trigger her to hop in. It's tricky to know what conditions will make her more likely to get in voluntarily. It seems that leaving home to go for an outing is more likely than when it’s time to return home. She doesn't seem to mind getting into a car (say a station wagon back) and once she is in the truck, she seems calm.    The Anatolian Shepherd Dog stands between 27 and 29 inches at the shoulder and can weigh as much as 150 pounds. (Stock image) I wondered if jumping up and down causes her pain as she can seem a bit ungainly and "heavy footed"(she also doesn't know 'sit', she just lies down, rolls over etc.)   We have tried: - asking her to get in the truck giving clicks and treats for any movement in the right direction, getting excited, saying lots of encouraging words and then waiting for up to 20 minutes to see if she will do it -squeaking a toy -having lots of treats right there to find when she gets in the truck -luring with yummy treats -having the other dog jump in first as a model -having her jump in first so she can have her space -driving away and allowing her to run after the truck, hoping she'd eventually want to get in -and of course, pulling on the leash/collar and hefting her in    Any suggestions, or references you could point us to? Ladder? Ramp? Thank you!   Best,  Janet I wanted to answer this one in part because they were doing a lot of good things already and I wanted to reinforce their good efforts (and because it feels good when the writer gives me positive reinforcement for my books and makes me want to reciprocate!) <G> Here’s my response: Hi Janet, Glad you like my book!!! I'm sorry you're having challenges with your Anatolian. They're big dogs and can have strong opinions! A surprising number of dogs are reluctant to get into vehicles. Sometimes it's because they get carsick and thus have a very negative association with being in the car - but you say she's calm once she's in the truck, so that's probably not it. Sometimes it's because getting in the car usually predicts a trip to the vet or boarding kennel. And since she's okay with the car but not the truck it's possible she had a past bad experience specifically in a truck. And you may be right - there may be a pain element to it, so definitely start by having her checked out by your vet. One option can be a short course of pain meds to see if that makes any difference - although a past pain-association may still trigger a negative response even when pain is controlled. You have done all the right things so far - apparently to no avail. I think a ramp or steps is a great idea, and I would suggest teaching her to use them elsewhere (with a high rate of reinforcement with very high value treats) so she has a very positive association with it before you try it with the truck. Other than that, you could try just hanging out with her near the truck but where she is fairly comfortable. Give her treats just for being there (without clicks) until she is relaxed and settled, and very gradually moving closer to the truck over several sessions, as she seems willing. This is counter conditioning and desensitization – giving her a positive association with the truck, rather than clicking for specific operant (deliberate) behaviors. You want to avoid putting her over threshold each session, just stay within her comfort zone and be sure to end the session when she is calm and relaxed. You could also do a version of Treat and Retreat - where you toss a treat slightly toward the truck (again, still within her comfort zone) and then toss one away from the truck to give her relief from the stress of moving toward the truck. This will all work best if you can avoid having to put her in the truck until she is happy to do so on her own... take her places in the car instead! Every time you have to coerce her into the truck it will set your program back some. Hope this helps - let me know how it goes!!! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA HONEY THE STRESSED BORDER COLLIE Honey - a girl with a very positive prognosis! Honey is a 5-year-old spayed female mostly Border Collie who has lived with her current humans, April and Rick, since the age of 10 months. She was a private rehome from a family who had small children and decided they didn’t have time to properly care for her. She is great with her own family, and shy with strangers. Incidents of recent concern included snarling at a dog she’s always gotten along with previously, lunging at a child who ran past her, and growling at a 3-year-old child who grabbed her face. (I might growl too if a child grabbed my face!) Honey’s presenting complaint was: People/animal reactive; guarding humans; herding; protective on leash. She entered the training center confidently and explored the room. She approached me but did not invite interaction until later in the session. She was panting – possible stress panting, possibly from the heat. Target Behavior: Reactive barking and defensive behavior with humans and dogs. Goal Behavior: Honey is calm, relaxed and socially appropriate with other humans and dogs in her world. While Honey appeared environmentally confident, her reactive behavior (barking) with people and other dogs suggested perhaps a certain lack of adequate socialization and training with her first family. Watching her during our session, it appeared to me that she was doing more “alert barking” than “alarm barking,” which indicated a much lower level of emotion – a good thing! This was confirmed by how exceptionally well she did with the counter conditioning and desensitization (CC&D). We did CC&D with Honey for about 10 minutes. As I passed by about 20 feet away after just a few passes she relaxed noticeably and offered multiple CERs to April after looking at me. This tells us that the emotional part of her brain was making the association between me and the chicken. The fact that she started doing this so quickly again suggests that her emotional response to people is relatively mild. This will likely make it much easier to modify her behavior than if she was having a strong emotional response. I shared with Alice and Rick that Honey responded to the CC&D protocol significantly faster than most of my clients’ dogs, which gives us cause to be optimistic. We also discussed what her humans had perceived as guarding behavior. While this is not entirely out of the question, in most cases where humans think their dog is protecting them, in fact the dog is protecting herself. It often happens more in the presence of the owner because the dog feels safer about acting out when her humans are there. They also mentioned possibly adding children to their family in the future, and their concerns about her response to small humans. I told them that they are very wise to address this well before any children arrive. Two excellent resources for this are: Dogs & Storks (a course offered by Family Paws – they also have other excellent resources: https://www.familypaws.com/courses/dogs-storks/ ) and the book Living with Kids and Dogs Without Losing Your Mind, by Colleen Pelar: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/living-with-kids-and-dogs-without-losing-your-mind-colleen-pelar/1113024968   Of course, I emphasized the importance of upping their management game – Honey needs to not be in situations where kids can run past her, or worse, grab her face. I did explain that a growl is a good thing – it is your dog making every effort to not bite while telling you that something is making her very uncomfortable. And especially in light of their above-mentioned desire to have children, we don't want to keep giving Honey negative associations with kids! https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/behavior/dog-growling-is-a-good-thing/ As I usually do when working with a dog with aggressive behaviors, I shared that aggression is caused by stress, and that the more we can reduce stress in Honey’s life along with our behavior modification program, the less likely she is to feel the need to aggress. We listed her stressors, assigned strategies and agreed on commitments. We normally get between 10 and 20 stressors on my clients’ stressor lists – Honey had just eight, yet another reason for optimism. Hers were: new humans, kids, other dogs, the vet hospital, nail trimming, being out in the rain. outside sounds, and family stress. Honey’s Modification Program Commitments  1. Feet/Find It: At least 5 days per week, 5 minutes or more per session; start in your house, then outdoors, then generalize to the world. 2. Nose Games: At least 3 days per week, 10 minutes or more; indoors at first, can keep it indoors or take outside when she knows the game. 3. 1-2-3 (and other Pattern Games that you like): At least 3 days per week, 5 minutes or more per session; start in your house, then outdoors, then generalize to the world. 4. Treat & Retreat: As opportunity presents; use people in the real world who show an interest in her. 5. People/Kids/Dogs: CC&D 1-2 times per week, 20 minutes or more per session; find a location where you can manage intensity of stimulus to keep her below threshold. The more you can do of this the better… My prognosis for Honey is very bright: Prognosis:            0        1        2        3        4        5        6        7        8        9        10                              Poor          Guarded             Fair               Good          Excellent And my comment in my report to April and Rick was: It is rare that I give a prognosis this bright with my clients – many of whose dogs offer behaviors far more challenging than Harley’s. You/we can do this!!! I expect to hear good things from April and Rick, and will let you know when I do! SUSIE THE BITEY HOUND/SHEPHERD - BRIEF FOLLOW-UP Meanwhile, a brief follow-up on Susie. I shared Susie’s story in my last blog here – she was the German Shepherd mix who was one of just three dogs to survive being left in an overheated van in Texas. Bob and Anna were concerned about her behavior of nipping at people – especially visitors to their home. I am happy to report that they are pleased with her progress even in a fairly short time. They have implemented the management and counter conditioning protocols that we discussed (and anti-anxiety medication), and Susie is already becoming calmer when there are people visiting. They do recognize that they will need to continue this for quite some time and may always need some level of management when new people come to the house. But yay for progress!!! KC IS FINE!! To reassure those of you who expressed concern and support for KC’s mouse bait eating incident – she is fine – YAY!!! And PHEW!!!!! Until next time... Be Positive!!! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

KC and the mouse bait mishap A MOUSE BAIT MISHAP, A CHALLENGING BEHAVIOR CASE AND OUR INSTRUCTOR ACADEMY Mouse Bait Mishap We use mouse bait to control rodents in our barn. Mice and rats can overrun a horse barn where grain is abundant and easily accessed. Our feral cats do a good job of rodent control in our lower hay barn, but they don’t come up to the horse barn – too many humans around! My husband has always been very careful to set the bait out in enclosed containers (with an opening just large enough for mice to enter) so the dogs can’t get to it. The brand we use is called Tomcat BAIT CHUNX, and the active ingredient is Diphacinone – an anticoagulant which causes internal bleeding. Not nice, I know, but neither were the mouse traps we had been using. I hated when I found a trap that had been tripped and the mouse was trapped but still alive. CAUTION - Indeed!!! Sunday evening as we were coming back to the house after barn chores our 5-year-old Australian Kelpie, KC, was very interested in a spot beneath the curly willow tree that grows next to our garage. Paul called her, and as she came to him we realized she was eating something. I ran to the spot where she found it and discovered that our bucket of mouse bait had somehow ended up on the ground with the lid off, and she had eaten a chunk. PANIC TIME!! KC doing okay post mouse-bait ingestion The bucket had a poison control phone number to call, which I did immediately. The woman who answered was very kind and helpful. She reassured me that given KC’s age, weight and medical status (very healthy) and the amount she ingested, she would probably be okay – but cautioned us for the next two days to watch for blood in her stools, and significant lethargy – as in not even wanting to stand up and walk. If she makes it through that with no signs, she is probably okay. Two days are up tonight as I write this and, thank Dog, KC seems none the worse for wear. PHEW! It’s a good reminder though, to always be aware of potential hazards in your home. I know I might get some shade for sharing this information with the world, but I think it’s helpful to let people know this can happen to anyone. We still have no idea how the bucket ended up where KC could get to it, but you can bet any mouse bait we use in the future will be stored somewhere where it cannot possibly end up in dog’s reach! Susie the Bitey Shepherd/Hound Target Behavior: Stress/fear-related barking and lunging at people when walking on leash and nipping at visitors to the home.   Goal Behavior: Susie is calm and socially appropriate in the presence of dogs and humans when on leash, and when there are guests in the home. Description of the Behavior: Susie is six years old and has been living with her current family (two adult humans) for the past two years. She was one of 14 dogs rescued from a sealed U-Haul truck in Corpus Christi, Texas, on a 95-degree day. (The owners were charged with animal cruelty.) She was one of only three out of of the 14 who survived the ordeal – nine were found dead in the truck, two more died at the vet’s despite emergency treatment. https://www.kristv.com/news/local-news/reports-11-dogs-found-dead-in-uhaul  Susie - the stress shows... open mouth panting, ears back, worried eyes Susie was eventually sent to a German Shepherd rescue group in Virginia, where she stayed in a foster home for several months until my clients adopted her. Unfortunately, the rescue group added to her trauma by sending her to a shock collar trainer for more than a month. It’s no wonder she came to her new home with a boatload of stress! Her humans, Bob and Anna, brought her to me because of her stress-related behavior toward people and dogs – barking/lunging at them when she was being walked on leash, and nipping at visitors in the home. Susie was extremely stressed while she was here, panting and pacing around the entire room during much of the session. During the first 30 minutes she softly and randomly mouthed my leg, arm, waist, chest and clipboard multiple times, until I gave her a frozen stuffed Kong to keep her occupied. When she nipped me gently I did not react, and she never escalated to more intense biting. After she finished the Kong she was clearly less stressed, and did not re-engage with nipping me until after we did counterconditioning and desensitization (CC&D) with Anna feeding her chicken as I passed by, which clearly was stressful for her. After that she again nipped me softly several times randomly during the remaining 30 minutes of the session. This confirmed for me that the behavior is  stress-related – she had stopped doing it when her stress subsided during the first 90 minutes in the training center, and resumed the nipping after her stressed increased again with the CC&D. Despite working professionally with dogs for some 50 years, this was a new presentation of stress-related behavior for me. I see lots of dogs with aggressive behaviors, and normally my neutral presence is reassuring them and they don’t try to bite me, as I am very careful not to cause stress and trigger a response. For example – I am already seated when the client enters the room with the dog and don’t make eye contact or speak to the dog unless and until the dog is clearly offering affiliative behaviors. Although Susie’s nipping appeared to be offensive aggression (she chose to approach me and I made no attempts to engage with her), this is actually a defensive behavior for her. A lot of fearful dogs learn that the best defense is a good offense, and so, according to Bob and Anna, Susie nips at strangers, often from behind (another fearful dog strategy) to warn them to leave her alone, and hopefully to encourage them to go away and not come back. Since I was very careful to do nothing to overtly provoke her nipping (other than being present) – no eye contact, no speaking to her, I could understand why this behavior was quite concerning for her humans – it concerned me too. They hadn't sought help sooner because they kept hoping she would get better, but instead, not surprisingly, she was getting worse. Protocols: We discussed a number of protocols to help Susie get to a place where she no longer feels the need to nip. This included reducing her stress through anti-anxiety medication as well as working to change her association with people and dogs using CC&D to change her association with her stressors, and Operant behaviors that she enjoys, to help move her emotional brain from worried to happy. Counter Conditioning and Desensitization (CC&D)I have had much success with CC&D for dogs with fear-related and aggressive behaviors. This protocol works to change a dog’s association with the things she is worried or too aroused about by pairing them with high-value treats. You want the dog to notice the aversive or arousal-causing stimulus, but at an intensity of stimulus that keeps her below threshold – far enough away, minimal movement at first. When she starts looking at the stressor and looking quickly back at the person delivering the treats she is giving “conditioned emotional response” looks (CERs). This tells us that the emotional part of her brain is beginning to make the connection – “That thing (person, dog, etc.) makes chicken happen!!!” When CERs start happening it is tempting to wait for the dog to look back before feeding. Do not wait; it is important to still feed as quickly as possible when she looks at the “thing.” You are not reinforcing a “look at me” behavior – you are working to create a positive association with the aversive stimulus. When consistent CERs are happening it is time to increase the intensity of stimulus, one element at a time – more movement, more volume, more animation or move closer – not several at once. The keys to successful CC&D are 1.) Lots of repetitions over lots of sessions. 2.) Managing the environment to prevent opportunities to practice the behavior and sensitize the dog further 3.) Working with the dog at a sub-threshold intensity of stimulus during CC&D sessions and 4.) Patience. The longer the dog has been practicing the unwanted behavior(s), the more time it will take to convince her that it’s no longer the best behavior strategy. (Think crockpot, not microwave)   We did about 10 minutes of CC&D with Susie. She was quite worried and over threshold (barking) at first, but she was able to come back down when I reduced intensity of stimulus (stayed farther away – about 40 feet) and she started appreciating the chicken. Key to our success with this protocol will be Bob and Anna’s ability to find a location where they can have people far enough away that she stays below threshold. Parks and parking lots are often good choices for this. Her behavior with guests in the home suggests that she can probably work with a shorter distance if they put her away while guests enter and are seated, and then bring her out on leash for CC&D.   Operant Conditioning(OC) I include OC behaviors with clients as well as the CC&D. Operant (deliberate, thinking) behaviors can help to manage a stressed dog’s behavior (as long as they are below threshold) as well as move the brain to a happier emotional state (if you ask the dog to do something she loves, she gets happy). Since you often see results more quickly with OC behaviors, it also gives the humans something easier to do and they have success – which is reinforcing to the human and helps keep them motivated to keep working on the more challenging behaviors was well. Key to success with OC protocols is making them really fun so the dog gets very happy when you give her the cue. For Susie we practiced Treat & Retreat; Find It and Search; the 1-2-3 Pattern Game; and discussed the UPenn Relaxation Protocol to help her not be stressed when Bob leaves. Bob is her primary human, and she demonstrates some mild to moderate separation-related behaviors when he leaves the house. Susie and her humans did well with these. Management Management is critically importance for the success of any behavior modification program, prevent over-threshold exposures. Failure to manage results in further sensitization to the aversive stimuli as well as reinforcement for the undesirable behaviors. As we know, behaviors that are reinforced increase… For Susie, this means not allowing her to be loose in the house when Bob and Anna have guests. I suggested putting her in the bedroom (crating her when guests are present is likely a stressor) and giving her a frozen stuffed Kong or other irresistible chewie to keep her happy when she’s separated. Then when guests are settled they can bring her out on leash and use the opportunity for CC&D, Treat & Retreat, and some of the other Pattern Games such as Up-Down and Ping-Pong. Anti-anxiety medication also comes under the heading of “management” and can be critically important in helping many anxious dogs succeed. I reminded Bob and Annie to not reprimand Susie in any way for her behavior. We know that aggression is caused by stress, and reprimands will escalate her stress levels, making nips more likely in the future. Stressors: Because aggression is caused by stress, one of the things I do with aggression clients is list all their dog’s stressors and then assign strategies for reducing stressors. Here is a link Susie’s stressor list (15 total): I don’t expect a client to work with all of their stressors at immediately. Any marked for management or “get rid of” will happen right away. Beyond that we agree on our priorities for “commitments” and that’s what we focus on. The others can be addressed when opportunities arise, and/or when we are doing well with our priorities and we’re ready to move forward. Behavior Modification Protocols/Minimum Commitments: After we agree on which protocols we will be implementing for the dog, I always have my clients tell me what is realistic for them in terms of frequency, rather than me telling them what they need to do. They know what their life is like, and if I overload them, the entire program is likely to go in the dumpster. Here are Susie’s commitments: 1.     Medication: Within the coming week; have discussion with veterinarian about long-acting anti-anxiety medication and use of fast-acting one until long-acting takes effect. Let me know the outcome of the discussion. 2.     Treat and Retreat: As opportunity permits. Be sure to be very clear with person doing the treating that they do not try to pet her. 3.     Operant: Practice each at least one time per day, 5-10 minutes or more, 5 days per week (more is fine/better!); Feet/Find It, 1-2-3; UPenn Relaxation Protocol. 4.     People/Dogs: Do CC&D at least 2 times per week, 20 minutes or more per session. As we practiced here – be sure to find a sub-threshold distance where she can work without barking. It is likely to be farther than the 40-foot distance she was able to work at here because there are more stimuli out in the real world. It probably can be close in your home. 5.     Management: Immediately – put management steps into place to reduce Susie’s stress, prevent further sensitization and reinforcement for behavior, and keep guests safe. Prognosis: I gave Susie a prognosis of Guarded to Fair. Guarded because of the level of stress she is demonstrating, her history of neglect and aversive training methods before she was adopted, and the fact that she has had several years to practice her stress-related behaviors.  Fair because she has two humans who are deeply committed to helping her improve her quality of life. Instructor Academy Another seven dogs and humans were here the last week of June for Instructor Academy. We had a great time, with lots of laughs. I hadn’t offered this academy for several years due to lack of interest and only added it this year when several trainers requested it. Each morning two different students took turns teaching the “class” – and each student was assigned a role that they played when they weren’t instructing. Each afternoon students took turns coaching each other, again playing their role when they weren’t the coach. Then, at the end of each day, students wrote up their feedback for their teachers for the day. Here are the roles they played: STUDENT ROLE #1 You are an experienced clicker trainer with a new dog. You buy into the positive training philosophy completely and are totally on board with this training. Your dog is a family pet – you have no interest in showing, despite your considerable experience. You’re a single adult with plenty of time to devote to your dog and his training.   STUDENT ROLE #2 You are a first-time dog owner, and have gotten advice from friends and dog professionals (vet, groomer, pet-sitter) that’s all over the place – from shock collars and alpha rolls to training with treats. You’re confused, and not sure who to believe. You are married with three children, ages 2, 3 and 5, so training the dog is not your highest priority.   STUDENT ROLE #3 You have owned dogs all your life, and have been successful with a training model that incorporates a fair degree of intimidation in your relationship with your dogs. You love your dogs and are committed to their training and welfare – are open to new ideas about training, but skeptical about the clicker gadget and concerned about dependency on food for training. You think Cesar Millan rocks. You are married with no children – your dog is a fairly high priority in your life.   STUDENT ROLE #4 You’re a bit of a carry-over from the 60’s and 70’s, kind of into the free-spirit thing. You want your dog to respond to you out of love, and you’ll never be a strict disciplinarian, which is why this training appealed to you. You live with a partner who has insisted you need to get a handle on your out-of-control dog, so you’re here at class, a little reluctantly. You have an out-of-control teen-ager from a prior relationship.   STUDENT ROLE #5 You’re getting on in years, have some physical limitations, and your darling adult child thought it would be a good idea to get you a dog. Unfortunately you have a great deal of difficulty controlling the dog – he has more energy than you can deal with, and you’re a bit afraid of him, since he has hurt you on more than one occasion.   STUDENT ROLE #6 You are an experienced, serious dog person. You have been exposed to the clicker and like it, but aren’t yet fully proficient at it. You would like to get better. You hope to show your current (new) dog in obedience eventually, and then perhaps Canine Freestyle. Your first goal is a CGC certificate, and you’d also perhaps like to do some Animal Assisted Therapy with your dog. You’re married with one pre-teen child, and your family fully supports your interest in dogs.   STUDENT ROLE #7 You have shared your home with several dogs over the years (you are middle-aged) and recently lost your heart dog. You thought getting another would help, but now you are seriously questioning that decision. This dog is a lot to handle (your last dog was perfect!) You’re trying hard to make it work and are a reasonably competent trainer but you don’t know if you will ever be able to love her.   Students reported having a great time during the week, and felt it was very valuable.   I’m attaching our curriculum for the week here so you can see what we did: THE BEAUTIFUL WORLD AT PEACEABLE PAWS AND PASTURES And... more photos from the paradise we call home: Butterflies are out in force these days! And Freddie - scratching on his new scratcher tools... and learning Speeday. 20250708_173453.mov 20250703_172145.mov Warm Woofs and Happy Summer, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

Bonnie Wee Lass, from days past... Aggression Academy – Not So Much... and That's Okay! It was the Aggression Academy that really wasn’t. It can be challenging to find the right dogs for this academy. We want dogs who have demonstrated some aggressive behavior, but we don’t want Cujos, as we want everyone to be safe. We also cannot work with dogs who are significantly reactive to humans or other dogs, as that behavior is too hard to manage in the academy environment. So, we generally look for dogs with arousal biting, resource guarding, husbandry issues, and mild fear-related aggression. Several of the dogs who came for this academy ended up not really presenting with the behaviors they were reported to have, but that was okay – we still found plenty to work on. For this academy two students brought their own dogs. These were: Heidi and Autumn Heidi Moreau’s Autumn, an 11-year-old spayed female Staffordshire Terrier/Bull Dog cross with mild reactivity toward other dogs, and Abigail Penland’s Ahsoka, a 1.5-year-old spayed female Pembroke Welsh Corgi, whose lack of impulse control was complicating life with her other home-dogs, and who also needed some work on muzzle training and nail trimming. Abigail and Ahsoka Nedra Woodard worked with KC, our 5-year-old spayed female Australian Kelpie with husbandry challenges, Nedra and KC and we had four dogs from Frederick County Animal Control: Ross Miller worked with Huntley, an 8-month-old neutered male Retriever mix with fear-related behaviors, including fear of men. Ross and Huntley Emily Jagdmann worked with Horatio, a 2-year-old neutered male Pit mix (originally a stray) with arousal/mouthing behaviors Emily and Horatio Ashlee and Bella Debbie Nathanson worked with Roderick, and 8-month-old neutered male Retriever mix with fear-related behaviors. Debbie and Roderick and Ashlee Correll worked with Bella, a 2-year-old owner surrendered spayed female Pit mix with arousal, jumping and mouthing behaviors. Each student is required to keep a detailed journal of their work with their dogs for the week, and for the shelter dogs they write up a one-to-two-page report that goes with the dogs back to the shelter, to be shared with potential adopters. Here are the students’ experiences in their own words, excerpted from these documents: WORK DONE IN ACADEMY Heidi and Autumn Description of the Behavior: Autumn shows aggressive behaviors in the form of stiffening, hard stares, barking and Working on UPenn Relaxation Protocol lunging toward strange dogs. Her behavior becomes more intense if the other dogs are excited, vocal, or give off some body language that she perceives as threatening. Passing another dog on a trail is most difficult for her due to the proximity to each other. I am generally very aware of our surroundings and avoid situations that could potentially trigger her. Protocols Planned for the Academy: Counter-conditioning and desensitization (CC&D); UPenn Relaxation Exercises; Leslie McDevitt Pattern Games; Walk Away; Chin Rest Chin Rest for cooperative care Concluding Comments: This was a wonderful Academy although I struggled with the assignments. But I think what stressed me more overall was that Autumn was out of her comfort zone and very stressed. I overestimated what she’d be able to handle and sadly we did not get to see her full spunky, personality, although she did relax some by the end of the week. I really enjoyed working on the Relaxation Protocol with her and will continue with it moving forward. I was impressed by how well she did with the Chin Rest and will certainly practice more as cooperative care behavior. The Counter Conditioning exercises with Pat’s dogs gave us good information, and overall Autumn handled the “on the fly” CC/D pretty well too. Would have liked to get more CERs (Conditioned Emotional Response looks) but then again her stress level had a lot to do with how she behaved. 20250612_110421.mp4 Wait for the Food Bowl - for impulse control Abigail and Ahsoka Description of the Behavior: Behavior 1 (Primary) - Lack of impulse control at doors (going outside) causing arousal and potential for aggression with her canine housemates Behavior 2 - Lack of impulse control at mealtimes (excited about food delivery) Behavior 3a - Excited response to visitors (entering the home) Behavior 3b - Excited response to visitors (knocking on door) Behavior 4- Touch sensitivity to nail trimming   Teaching Place for Relaxation Protocol Protocols Planned for the Academy: a.       Mat - use this to regain focus during distractions, build confidence, help move Ahsoka past scary objects/people/animals, or distract her as these things pass her. Use with behaviors 1, 3a, & 3b b.       Breathe - use this to calm down/decrease arousal and regain focus during distractions.          Can be used with all behaviors c.       Relaxation - Alternative to “Breathe” use this to calm down/decrease arousal and regain focus during distractions. Can be used with behaviors 1, 2, 3a, & 3b. d.       Choice/You Choose - used to provide agency and build confidence e.       Bucket Game/Chin Rest - Alternatives to “You Choose” (See above) – used to provide agency and build confidence. Used with Behavior 4. f.       Pattern Games – routine and predictability can build focus and confidence g.       Wait at Door and Wait for food bowl for impulse control   Concluding Comments: Although Ahsoka was happy and eager to work at the beginning of each day, she did show some signs of stress during our work sessions: a.       She was avoiding the bowl when we did “Wait. (I am wondering if my speed of delivery, amount of eye contact, and how much I bend over affect her reaction.) b.     When I began to work on the UPenn relaxation protocol modules, Ahsoka was happily engaged and clearly enjoyed working. c.      We made good progress with “Wait” at the door – I was able to exit the door and move as far as 15 feet outside with her staying in her “Wait” position. d.     We tried a bit of the Karen Overall “Breathe” protocol but didn’t get too far. e.      We never made it to the Bucket Game or Chin Rest for nail trimming. Nedra and KC Learning to scratch the Scratch Board Description of the Behavior: During examination by the shelter vet during the intake process, KC reportedly air-snapped when restrained as well as during attempts to trim her nails.  Since that time, there have been no other incidents as these actions have been eliminated.  A mobile vet is used and a very gentle, mild restraint like an arm across the chest may be performed by Pat during a vaccination.  Pat has been able to trim one nail at two separate times when KC was calmly lying next to her on the sofa. Chin Rest for cooperative care Protocols Planned for the Academy: Operant Conditioning:  ●       Filing own nails on a scratch tube using lure/shaping; ●       Bucket Game using Chirag Patel protocol OR Chin Rest to indicate consent ●       Back foot/feet targeting to elevated stationary target for easy access ●       Front foot/feet targeting to elevated stationary target for easy access ●       Easy and fun games for faster recovery:  Touch, Find it, Ping Pong, Search Classical Counter Conditioning and Desensitization (ambitious!): CCD for sight of nail clippers & movement towards each paw; CCD sound of nail clippers trimming stick - increasing proximity to feet; CCD sensation of nail clippers touching nail(s); CCD touching paw - progressing to holding nail(s); CCD body handling and gentle restraint; CCD veterinarian approaching her with various tools, reaching near, toward and for her; CCD arm reaching around her neck/chest and eventually wrapping around then making contact; CCD arm reaching around her torso and eventually wrapping around then making contact; CCD full but gentle restraint (arm around chest/neck and torso); Gotcha game CCD collar grabs Concluding Comments: Training with KC is definitely a challenge.  She seemed to have a tolerance for 6-8 trials of any protocol on average and worked for a maximum of 20 minutes - even less on days when the weather was bad.  She was able to focus better when Pat was in close proximity.  At the end of the week: ●       KC was much farther along than I thought she would be on touching one’s hand to her front right paw/toenail, listening to the clipper clip a stick just a few inches from her front right nails and reaching the clippers / moving them adjacent to her outer front right toenail. ●       With the nail filing tube, KC was consistently offering her front left paw and starting to drag it (even twice one time on the last day!) We did add a cue  yet but the signal was holding the tube vertically between the knees and giving a slight knock with a closed fist in the middle of the tube, pulling it away as her paw came up. ●       She learned to back up in a 1.5 foot wide chute or corridor by following a “find it” treat into the tube for about 3 ft.  She will run in and then back out without a lure as you say “back up”! This seemed to build her confidence and she would seek out that activity when she tired of something else. ●       KC was starting to roll onto her right hip comfortably with a lure (settle) and, on our best session, was clearing having both rear feet available for nail trimming.  ●       It was a pleasure working with such a smart and sweet dog.  I can tell she has come a long way from where she started.  Even though the journey is a long one, she is in a wonderful place. 20250609_134738.mp4 Ross and Huntley Counter Conditioning to a male human Description of the Behavior: Although Huntley was attending Academy for arousal behaviors and resource guarding, throughout the week, we saw significant fearful behaviors. Huntley displayed avoidance of me (male) and would retreat if I approached him. I tried crouching, adjusting my body so I wasn’t directly facing him, and treat tosses. None of that was successful in getting him to approach more closely than 3 feet away without really stretching his neck to retrieve the treats. If I made any sudden movements, Huntley would dart away. In fact, anytime that anything scared him, he would dart away in a frantic panic. He was fearful of a large range of stimuli, including: men, moving cars, car doors closing, horses, lawn mowers, weed trimmers, branches breaking in the distance, going through the doors into the training facility, and also any sudden noises or bangs. Ping-Pong Pattern Game to reduce stress and build confidence Protocols Planned for the Academy: My original intention was to work with Huntley on his over-arousal and difficulty settling by teaching him sit, down, and then a relaxation protocol, in addition to working with the resource guarding through the Walk Away and “I Come In Peace” protocols. I quickly realized that this was an unrealistic plan, since I couldn’t even get close to Huntley to work on the protocols. We decided it would be better for Huntley to work on his fear of men and add in some resource guarding exercises when practical. The main focus became the Treat and Retreat game, to create a better association with me. I knew I wanted to incorporate one of the Pattern Games, so I started out with “Ping Pong.” That turned out to be useful to help calm Huntley after a stressful event. I added the 1-2-3 game, which was very helpful to move Huntley through a mildly stressful event. Concluding Comments: Spending this week with Huntley turned out to be educational in different ways than I had expected. Rather than improving my mechanical skills and timing by working with him, I learned more about empathy and patience. There were many times that I was incredibly frustrated, but I tried to think about clients who might adopt a dog like Huntley. It gave me a whole new perspective when taking that into consideration. Additionally, even being a professional, I struggled to not take it personally when Huntley would run from me, or when we had to call for help because we got “stuck” on a hike. I believe that, moving forward, this shift in perspective will prove to be extremely valuable when working with clients. Huntley has provided me with quite an education! 20250612_111849.mp4 20250612_112027.mp4 Emily and Horatio Give agency - Horatio can choose to put his harness on... or not! Description of the Behavior: Basic husbandry is a source of stress for Horatio and Horatio will display appeasement and deference signals depending on the context and intensity of the stress. In the past Horatio has resisted and pulled away when handling his paws. Horatio jumps and gets mouthy when stressed/excited. This was noted in the shelter as well on multiple occasions. Horatio will selectively guard high value food objects. He also guarded his food bowl and was unwilling to give it up at the shelter. Counter Conditioning for touch Protocols Planned for the Academy: I planned several different protocols to work on Horatio’s behavior. Counterconditioning and Desensitization (CC&D) was my first choice to address Horatio’s aversion to his harness and to basic husbandry interactions. I also used operant conditioning to teach Horatio to choose to stick his head into the harness for a reward, and used classical conditioning to help Horatio create positive associations with wearing the harness. The second protocol I planned to use was to teach Kelly Fahey’s “I Come In Peace” to create a classical association between my proximity and the arrival of delicious food items for Horatio. I discovered that this was not necessary as Horatio’s resource guarding was not as severe as initially portrayed and instead implemented the operant protocol “Trade” to teach Horatio to willingly trade me his food items when I ask for them in anticipation of a more delicious and higher value reward. I also used the operant protocol “down” to help reset Horatio between. This both acted as a mental break for Horatio and set the foundation to teach Horatio a behavior that is incompatible with jumping (he cannot jump and lie down at the same time). Concluding Comments: While Horatio is not 100% comfortable with paw and body handling over all parts of his body, he will happily participate in putting on and taking off a harness. Future work with Horatio will focus on continuing the CC&D protocol (location of touch and duration), helping Horatio continue to gain comfortability with a harness, and practicing CC&D to touch. At this time, Horatio can easily be lured into a down, but the lure needs to be faded and the skill needs to be proofed before I would say he is “trained.” I would say Horatio is 50% of the way to a solid “Trade.” Further work with this would be needed since we want to get to a place where Horatio eagerly drops the food item, and we are not quite there yet. I am optimistic and excited to see what Horatio will achieve. 20250610_104638.mp4 Ashlee and Bella Description of Behavior: Overarousal leading to jumping and mouthing behavior. Protocols Planned for the Academy: -Go Wild and Freeze- This behavior is used to help teach Bella an “Off” switch. Her arousal can turn into mouthing behavior that may be unwanted, so to help Bella when she with this we want to teach her to perform an incompatible behavior. -“Say Please”- A “Say Please” program can teach Bella to offer a polite behavior in order to receive something she wants. -U-Penn Relaxation Protocol- This protocol can teach Bella how to naturally be calm in a variety of environments. While she is rather friendly, she can become over-aroused which can turn into mouthing behavior if not managed/modified properly. She also appears anxious/fearful so the relaxation protocol will give her something predictable to help her to feel safe in a variety of environments. -Search/Find It- This simple protocol can help distract Bella from arousal triggers such as other dogs, people, and horses. -Touch- This behavior can also be used a distraction from triggers as well as a fun and easy break from some more frustrating behaviors that we are working on. Concluding Comments: Moving forward, I would like to see the protocols we put in place continued. She has responded incredibly well to them this week, and I believe they will help her to have some predictable behaviors to rely on and she finds her way in the world with her new forever humans. Bella was such a sweetheart this week and was very receptive to training. I hope all the good things for this sweet girl in the future. 20250610_151351.mp4 Counter Conditioning for touch Debbie and Roderick Description of Behavior: Upon first meeting Roderick, he was at the front of his kennel, but low body posture and ears back.  He would take treats, did not growl, but was not affiliative. I was able to enter his kennel slowly and use treats through the harness loop to have him put his head through the harness on his own.  He froze when I tried to buckle the harness but continued to take treats, and I was able to get it on without issue, though Ricky appeared to be uncomfortable.  The shelter indicated that Roderick needs help building confidence and learning that the world isn’t so scary. My goal is he becomes more comfortable with his environment and with handling so he does not become a likely candidate for fear-based aggression. Chin Rest for cooperative care Protocols Planned for the Academy: I plan to implement a Counter-Conditioning and Desensitization(CC&D) protocol to acclimate Ricky to his harness and being touched. I also plan to use some operant conditioning to help him build confidence and feel more in control of his environment.  Procedures would include a combination of “Paws Up/Step Up”, Chin Rest, and “Find It”.  The 1,2,3 Pattern Game is another protocol that can help with confidence building. Concluding Comments: In our short week together, Roderick learned how to put his paws up on a stool, lay his chin on a chin rest, count to 3 for the 1,2,3 Pattern Game, and he’s an expert at Find It and Search.  He particularly enjoyed the Chin Rest and Paws Up and would often choose to offer these behaviors on his own.  The more choice he has to decide what to do and move about freely, the more relaxed he becomes. He is startled easily by sudden movements and noises, so I did not work with a clicker but marked good behavior with an enthusiastic “Yes!” Because of his fears, I think he would benefit from a quiet home with patient adults or older children who can enjoy his silly side but allow him the time and patience to come out of his shell and work with him to feel more comfortable.  He also seemed to enjoy other dogs.  While he is selective with his friends (who isn’t?), he could probably benefit from a more confident dog companion who can show him the ropes. 20250611_170048.mp4 Dogs and humans both learned and benefitted from their week at this academy, and hopefully the dogs will have a better chance for success when they find their forever homes. INSTRUCTOR ACADEMY TEASE Another seven dogs and humans here this past week for Instructor Academy. Here are photos for a tease – more details on my next blog: THE BEAUTIFUL WORLD AT PEACEABLE PAWS AND PASTURES More photos from the paradise we call home: Warm Woofs and HAPPY SUMMER!!! Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

Four incredibly wonderful Peaceable Paws dogs from days past... left to right: Missy, Dubhy, Lucy, Bonnie 3 CHALLENGING AGGRESSION CASES – PHEW!!! AND - AGGRESSION ACADEMY THIS WEEK… I am up to my neck in our Aggression Academy this week (more about that next week), so this one is going to be shorter than normal – but I wanted to share with you my three very challenging behavior cases from last week. Three Challenging Cases These were all breeds of dogs and levels of aggression I don’t see often – a Shiba Inu with fear-related aggression, a Catahoula/Dane mix with generalized anxiety and fear-related aggression, and two German Shepherd siblings with stress-related intra-family aggression. Yes, aggression is cause by stress, and “fear-related” is the most common presentation of aggressive behavior. Eric, the 3-Year-Old Catahoula/Dane mix Eric came first, on Thursday. He was panting, pacing and whining throughout the 2-hour session and Mary, his human, said he is stressed and panting most of the time at home. He already takes Trazadone for nail trims at the veterinary clinic where Mary works, and is on Purina Calming Care. Clearly something more was called for in the medication department, and we agreed that she would talk to her vet ASAP about a long-acting anti-anxiety medication. Reconcile (fluoxetine) is most commonly used for anxiety in dogs, but I don’t name specific medications to clients, as I am not a veterinarian and that would be playing outside my lane. You can make your local veterinarians very unhappy if your client goes to them and says “my trainer says I need xyz medication” and you may also be opening yourself up for legal trouble! Eric I helped Mary understand why using aversives such as the spray bottle is counterproductive, and she easily agreed to stop. There are studies that confirm that the use of aversives can contribute to an increase in aggressive behavior, and I shared this link with her: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090217141540.htm   Other than that, we practiced and agreed to keep working on several of my standard protocols: 1.     Counter conditioning and desensitization (CC&D) for strangers and children 2.     Operant behaviors (which also contain CC&D elements): Treat and Retreat, Feet and Find It, Walk Away, Touch 3.     CC&D for nail trimming https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/care/a-counter-conditioning-protocol-for-nail-trimming/ 4.     UPenn Relaxation Protocol 5.     Nose Games 6.     Meal Scatter in Yard It was a lot, but as a very committed dog caretaker and animal care professional I am optimistic that she will commit to our program and I gave Eric a prognosis of “Good.” Marcus, the 4-year-old neutered male Shiba Inu First off, I loved this family: Mom, Dad and three boys – the two older boys were on a break from college and came to the session, the younger son was still in school. They admitted in their behavior history form that they were a first-time dog family and realized they had made tons of mistakes, starting with purchasing Marcus from a puppy mill broker Marcus (Lancaster Puppies – check them out: https://www.lancasterpuppies.com/ ), following with purchasing a breed that isn’t necessarily the easiest for a fist-time dog family. They had kept a detailed log of his aggression incidents since beginning of April. How many clients do that before they come to you? And as we talked, I realized that the older son had already done a ton of research on canine aggression and body language and educated the rest of the family – Ronnie would nod every time I said something that he had discovered in his research. Marcus had started out being defensively aggressive to visitors to the home, and guarding resources – his first growl toward a human occurred when he was 6 months old. In recent months he has started biting family members as well, and now would sometimes bite in response to foot movements, and simply the voice of the middle son. So far Vicki, the Mom, had been the only one he hadn’t bitten and the one he was most comfortable with. (That changed when he bit Vicki Saturday evening following our Friday consult.) When asked on the history form about the number and severity of bites, they had written, “too may to count,” with at least 12 that caused bruising, at least 12 that had broken skin, and two that had required a trip to the doctor/stitches. He also had random, rare, occasional seizures (several months apart) for which he was not at this time receiving treatment. He was already on Reconcile since October for his anxiety. Some family members felt it had helped, others did not. They had, sadly, also worked with trainers who used aversives, including prong and shock collars, one of whom had taken Marcus for a 3-week board and train. After the board and train, as the family tried to implement the trainer’s advice to be more “controlling” with Marcus, the dog began biting family members. No surprise there. For Marcus, we would implement: 1.     A discussion with the veterinarian about additional anti-anxiety medication(s) – with a phone consult with a veterinary behaviorist if necessary 2.     CC&D at least 1 time per week with visitors to the home 3.     CC&D or possibly using a remote treat dispenser for foot movements 4.     CC&D to the middle son’s voice 5.     I Come in Peace for resource guarding And, of course, lots of management. Kipper and Jive – 2-year-old male German Shepherd siblings, one male, one intact Bred by owners Jane and Andy, Kipper and Jive were both stressed in the training center, although Kipper was definitely more stressed. Major concern the humans presented was resource guarding for attention, also recently for food, but it was clear that the challenges went far beyond that. Kipper The topic of “Littermate Syndrome” of course came up early in the session – a term that I am not fond of. We see the same behavior issues with puppies acquired from separate litters who are raised together – so it is more about hyper-bonding and relationship issues between the puppies, regardless of whether they are littermates or not. If you do raise two puppies together they need to spend a lot of time apart form each other doing good things with their humans so they have opportunity to build Jive relationships with their humans as well as to avoid separation anxiety between the dogs. Jive was clearly the more assertive of the two dogs in this pair, and much of Kipper’s stress and growling was defensive – trying to protect himself from Jive by warning him to stay away. Again sadly, prior to coming to me, Jane and Andy had worked with two different aversive trainers who used prong and shock collars, which likely increased the negative association between the dogs. Quote from Jane, “Had another trainer who used ‘forceful’ corrections and made them worse.” Several challenges here: Jane and Andy disagreed about important concepts, including medication and neutering. Hence Kipper (Jane’s dog) was neutered and Jive (Andy’s dog) was not. And Jane was very willing to explore medications for Kipper, while Andy was adamantly opposed to using them with Jive. Another significant challenge – while Kipper was stressed in Jive’s presence, both dogs were stressed when separated from each other, so there was not easy management solution. Here's what we agreed on for these two: 1.     Medication: Talk with vet ASAP about anti-anxiety medication for Kingsley (and preferably for Jive as well, but not holding my breath); delighted that vet is behaviorally knowledgeable – that makes this much simpler for all - terrific! Let me know what vet says/does. Share this report with her. 2.     One dog in house, other returning into home (a strong trigger): CC&D as discussed, at least 2 times/week, 20 minutes or more (more is fine/better!); both dogs on leashes – each dog gets a treat each time he looks at the other dog. Stay far enough apart that they are not growling. 3.     Manage: To the extent possible, keep dogs separated, especially when one or both are clearly very stressed. 4.     Journal: Keep a detailed journal of work with the dogs and any incidents of tension – (details – when, where, what was going on, what happened) – send to me for at least the next three weeks – preferably longer. Because of the challenges with these two I requested more detail and more frequent check-ins than normal, to see where we can go from here. Prognosis for this one is guarded due to the multiple challenges, including husband’s refusal to consider medication for Jive. We shall see… Aggression Academy Tease Seven dogs and humans are here this week for Aggression Academy. More on this next blog… Here are photos for a tease: Bella Ashoka Autumn Huntley Horatio Roderick Peaceable Paws KC (Kelpie Chaos) Coming Soon at Peaceable Paws A week “off” with just two client consults next week, both dogs with reactive behaviors  – one a German Shepherd, the other a Border Collie/Pit/German Shepherd/Golden Retriever (gotta love those DNA tests!) The week after that is our Instructor Academy – and yes, of course you will hear about that one too. Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

A good year for foxes at Peaceable Paws!!! THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME!!! Shaping workshops are always great fun, and this one was no exception! We started with six dogs and handlers and one auditor – but one dog went home early because he found the environment too stressful. The remaining five pairs explored lots of new behaviors and had a ton of fun. What is Shaping? “Shaping” means breaking a behavior down into small pieces and starting with the first bits, reinforcing successive approximations (steps) until you have built the whole behavior. It is a great way to teach complex behaviors as well as simple ones. It works best if you actually sit down and write out your whole shaping plan before you begin, so you know what small behaviors you are looking to reinforce. If you’ve never tried it – and if you’re not using it in your training programs, I strongly suggest you give it a try! There are several different shaping techniques: FREE SHAPING The purpose of Free Shaping is to develop a large repertoire of behaviors that your dog will then be able to offer when you’re shaping a specific behavior. It involves simply marking and treating your dog for any behaviors and is often done as Karen Pryor’s “101 Things to Do With a Box.” The one rule is that you can only reinforce three times in a row for offering the same behavior – then you wait for a different behavior. (If they come back to that behavior later you can reinforce it again.) It’s important to remember - any behavior can be something as small as glancing toward the box, leaning toward the box, taking one small step in the direction of the box… And sniffing one corner is a different behavior than sniffing another corner or sniffing the middle. We also use it for “101 Things to Do With a Prop,” – same idea, but using a variety of props instead of boxes. Remember that you do this without a behavior goal in mind – you are not trying to get the dog to jump in the box or push the toy grocery cart. At least not until you have established a large repertoire of behaviors with your dog. Then you can start shaping a specific behavior. LURE/PROMPT (DIRECTED) SHAPING Lure Shaping involves using a lure or prompt to help the dog understand what you are asking her to do. We use this a lot in our group classes. It can help you accomplish your goal more quickly – for example, lure-shaping your dog to lie down by putting a treat in front of her nose, gradually moving it toward the floor, and clicking and treating as she gradually moves lower and lower until she is all the way down. You certainly could do this using Pure Shaping (see below), and we would probably end up with a lot of frustrated dogs and humans if we tried to do Pure Shaping in our basic training classes, with people who may not yet have a lot of the training skills needed to be successful with shaping. PURE SHAPING With Pure Shaping, you have a specific behavior goal in mind, and you don’t do any luring or prompting. There are some trainers who insist dogs learn behaviors much better through Pure Shaping, and that this is the only legitimate way to train. Our friend Bob Bailey of Chicken Camp fame (and much more) says “Rubbish.” He agrees that shaping is a great training option, and that animals can learn behaviors just as well using other methods, including luring. ( https://drbobbailey.com/) Pure Shaping does encourage a dog to offer behaviors rather than waiting for you to show or help her with luring, so it certainly does have some advantages, but it is by no means the only useful game in town. Karen Pryor’s 10 Modern Principles of Shaping It is helpful for your shaping success to know and follow Karen Pryor’s 10 Modern Principles of Shaping: 1. Be prepared before you start. Be ready to click/treat immediately when the training session begins. When shaping a new behavior, be ready to capture the very first tiny inclination the animal gives you toward your goal behavior. This is especially true when working with a prop such as a target stick or a mat on the ground. 2. Ensure success at each step. Break behavior down into small enough pieces that the learner always has a realistic chance to earn a reinforcer. 3. Train one criterion at a time. Shaping for two criteria or aspects of a behavior simultaneously can be very confusing. One click should not mean two different criteria. 4. Relax criteria when something changes. When introducing a new criterion or aspect of the skill, temporarily relax the old criteria for previously mastered skills. 5. If one door closes, find another. If a particular shaping procedure is not progressing, try another way. 6. Keep training sessions continuous. The animal should be continuously engaged in the learning process throughout the session. He should be working the entire time, except for the moment he’s consuming/enjoying his reinforcer. This also means keeping a high rate of reinforcement. 7. Go back to kindergarten, if necessary. If a behavior deteriorates, quickly revisit the last successful approximation or two so that the animal can easily earn reinforcers. 8. Keep your attention on your learner. Interrupting a training session gratuitously by taking a phone call, chatting, or doing something else that can wait often cause learners to lose momentum and get frustrated by the lack of information. If you need to take a break, give the animal a “goodbye present,” such as a small handful of treats. 9. Stay ahead of your learner. Be prepared to “skip ahead” in your shaping plan if your learner makes a sudden leap. 10. Quit while you’re ahead. End each session with something the learner finds reinforcing. If possible, end a session on a strong behavioral response, but, at any rate, try to end with your learner still eager to go on. The Workshop We started Saturday morning with six dog-human teams and one auditor: Lucy and Gordie, Laura and Winnie, Joann and Scarlett, Terri and Maya, Lacey and Teddy, and Linda and Eve, with Natalie auditing. Gordie had to leave Saturday morning – he was a client’s dog that Lucy had been working with and it turned out the workshop environment was too stressful for him – so Lucy just helped coach for the rest of the weekend. The weekend of fun included: ·        Free Shaping, first with boxes, then with props – and eventually a selected behavior with the prop ·        Shaping body parts (a head turn, a paw movement…) ·        Shaping a paw touch to make an Easy Button talk, or a light button to turn on and off ·        Shaping either Reverse or Go Around ·        Shaping a behavior of the trainer’s choice Here's what the whole weekend looked like: And here are some of the results: Maya doing 101 Things to Do With a Box. Gordie doing 101 Things to Do With a Box. Winnie doing 101 Things to do With Winnie the Pooh. Eve doing 101 Things to do with a baby cradle. Shaping Maya to push a grocery cart after doing 101 Things with it. 20250525_092828.mp4 20250525_103448.mp4 20250525_103323.mp4 20250525_095101.mp4 20250525_112659.mp4 20250525_092735.mp4 THE BEAUTIFUL WORLD AT PEACEABLE PAWS AND PASTURES Flowers, wildlife and a hike with the Kelpies... the beautiful world around us always puts a smile on my face…     Coming Soon at Peaceable Paws I cannot believe it is June already - hope you are planning a great summer! Several interesting private clients coming up this week: a Catahoula mix with stranger reactivity/aggression; a Shiba Inu with aggressive behaviors – biting family members as well as strangers; intra-family aggression with 2-year-old German Shepherd littermates. And then… our Aggression Academy starts June 9th. Lots going on – as always! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

2 DOGS WITH FEAR-RELATED AGGRESSION/REACTIVITY   Lab/Beagle/Pit Mix and a Mini Dachshund I’m sure I’ve said it here before, but I’ll say it again – these are not “aggressive dogs,” – they are dogs with aggressive behaviors. Aggression is one of my practice specialties, so I see a lot of clients whose dogs have some degree of aggressive behavior. Every single one of them is a lovely dog much of the time or their humans would probably not be exploring and investing in options to help their dogs have a better quality of life. Not an "aggressive" dog - just a dog with reactive behaviors. If I label a dog “aggressive” I’m saying that’s pretty much the whole dog, or at least a dog who is aggressive most of the time. I do expert witness work, and I recently testified in a case with a Caucasian Shepherd who was kept in the backyard 95% of the time, didn’t interact with humans other than his own family, and nearly ripped the throat out of a workman who went into the back yard when he was working on their furnace. The owners hadn’t put the dog away and hadn’t warned the workman not to go into the yard. They are lucky he wasn’t killed by the dog! Now that’s a dog I might call “aggressive.” But that’s a whole different rabbit hole. Let’s talk about my two very nice client dogs with aggressive behaviors. Susie Meet the Dogs Susie is a 1.5-year-old spayed female Lab/Beagle Pit mix (we are guessing). Her humans adopted her four months ago from a Maryland shelter, where she arrived in December of 2024 as a stray. So no information about her past history – but at least she wasn’t at the shelter very long. When walking on leash Susie barks and lunges at passersby and has nipped ankles a couple of times. She barks with high arousal at squirrels and birds outside her windows multiple times a day, and chases her home cats. Phew! Johnny Johnny is an almost-2-year-old neutered male Miniature Dachshund, purchased from a show breeder – not a puppy mill. Johnny has been shy from the time they acquired him at the age of 10 weeks, and has become increasingly anxious and reactive around people, both when they are visiting the house and when his humans are out walking him on leash. Like Susie, he barks and lunges if strangers get too close and has nipped ankles a couple of times. They first became concerned about his behavior when he was about a year old. The intensity of his barking, lunging and ankle nipping has increased in the past year. Sadly, one would think a show breeder would have known the importance of early socialization and good breeding for temperament, but apparently not in Johnny’s case… Fear-Related Aggression and Reactivity Four important things to know about fear-related aggression and reactivity: One – My favorite Dr. Karen Overall definition of “reactive”: She defines it as “An abnormal level of arousal in response to a normal stimulus.” Perfect! It doesn’t necessarily mean aggression – but it can. In both Susie's and Johnny’s cases, their fear was moving them toward defensive-aggressive reactivity Two – It is a very common behavior pattern for a shy/fearful puppy to just shut down when they are very young. People feel sorry for them – “Oh, poor scared baby!” and they pick them up to comfort them, not realizing they are making it worse. The puppy thinks, “I’m going to die!” and, helpless to do anything about it, just shuts down. As the pup begins to mature and gain a little confidence, one day she growls as the person bends to pet her or pick her up. Wisely, the person backs up. Guess what – the growl was just reinforced! (Negative reinforcement – the dog’s behavior makes a bad thing go away.) The puppy’s brain thinks, “Hey, that worked – I’m going to do that again!” And because behaviors that are reinforced are likely to increase, next time she growls sooner and louder, and the growl eventually turns into a bark, a lunge, and finally a nip. And then – worst case scenario, an actual bite. Our sweet, shy little puppy has learned that the best defense is a good offense. Three – It is also very common for fearful dogs to nip at ankles or calves as scary people walk away from them, as if they are saying, “And I said stay away!” My take on this is that they are not brave enough to make that editorial comment when the person is facing them, but they are bold enough to say it to the person’s back. Four – A fearful dog’s first behavioral choice is usually to move away from the scary stimulus. When they are on leash they know they can’t move away. Hence fearful dogs are much more likely to bark, lunge, nip and/or bite when they are trapped by the leash and can’t escape. Fortunately, Susie and Johnny’s humans were seeking help before their dogs’ behaviors escalated to actual bites. The fact that both were beginning to nip ankles as people walked away from them is what motivated them to seek help. Protocols Since the two dogs’ behaviors were very similar, it’s not surprising that their protocols and commitments also were very similar – with the addition of the cats and windows for Susie, and the harness for Johnny. Classical counterconditioning and desensitization work to change the dog’s association with and emotional response to stimuli. Operant protocols, properly taught so the dog gets very happy when asked to do them, can bring the dog’s focus back to her human, and can also serve to move the emotional brain from worried to happy. (Oh yes, operant and classical conditioning are happening together all the time…) I usually use the CC&D as our primary protocol, with the operant behaviors as an adjunct to assist when needed. Plus - operant behaviors often give visible results more quickly than the CC&D, which gives the humans success, reinforces their work and makes it more likely that they will keep working with their dogs.<G> And of course, management – always a critically important piece of a successful behavior modification program. By the way, both families were very pleased to hear that they don’t need to take their dogs for leash-walks unless and until we have successfully modified their leash-reactive behaviors. Both dogs could be well-exercised in their own yards, and dogs who have adequate exercise and enrichment at home don’t really ever have to go for walks. (Just ask my farm dogs!) People need to know that they don't necessarily have to take their dogs for leash-walks to be good dog caretakers! Commitments 1.     People (Both dogs): Counterconditioning and Desensitization (CC&D), 15 minutes or more per session – Susie’s people committed to 4 times a week, Johnny’s to 3 times a week. Also – do Treat and Retreat any time a willing person is available. 2.     Windows (Susie only): Cover windows with adhesive film to manage – peel back film to do CC&D with squirrels and birds at least 4 times a week 15 minutes or more. (Susie only) 3.     Cats (Susie only): Continue to manage by keeping separated; do CC&D at least 4 times a week, 15 minutes or more. https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/care/peacekeeping-among-cats-and-dogs/ 4.     Harness (Johnny only): CC&D 10-15 minutes several times a day when the harness is not actually put on. Operant – teach Johnny to voluntarily put his head though the harness opening – a few minutes several times a day. 5.     Operant Behaviors (Both dogs): 5 to 10 minutes or more, 5 times a week – a variety of these, making sure each one is done at least 2-3 times a week – Find It/Search, Nose Games, Walk Away, Touch, Pattern Games (especially 1-2-3). I am happily optimistic about both of these dogs. Their humans seem very committed to helping their dogs become more comfortable in their worlds, appear capable of managing their environments so the dogs don’t have lots of opportunities to practice the behaviors, and both dogs responded very well to the protocols when we practiced them in our sessions. Both families were also interested in continuing to work with us in private sessions and in classes when appropriate. AGONISTIC BEHAVIORS “Agonistic” refers to any social behavior related to conflict. The term has broader meaning than aggression because it includes threats, displays, retreats, placation, deference, and conciliation. In fact, the purpose of most agonistic behaviors is to avoid actual conflict – a very healthy thing in a social species. While many people see a dog’s agonistic signals as a bad thing, behaviorally-knowledgeable humans understand that a hard stare, a growl, a snarl, an air snap, even a bite where teeth touch but don’t break skin are a dog’s desperate attempts to not actually bite. The dog is saying “you are making me very uncomfortable and I really don't want to bite you... please stop!” Rather than punishing a dog for her agonistic behaviors, it’s important to identify what is causing her discomfort, remove the stressor, and if appropriate, do behavior modification to convince her that the stressor is actually a good thing. https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/behavior/dog-growling-is-a-good-thing/ YOUR DOG IS TALKING TO YOU ALL THE TIME Kai This week our 11-year-old Kelpie, Kai, reminded me how good our dogs really are at communicating, if we just remember to listen. We were in the barn aisle, across from the feed room. There’s a five-foot tall wall between the feed room and the barn aisle. I was standing by the table with the radio, and Kai was at my feet, looking at me purposefully. He often does this when he wants me to give him a treat, so I wasn’t paying too much attention. Then I realized he was glancing up toward the table and back at me. Clearly, he was telling me something. This is usually what he does when there’s a toy or treat he can’t reach – often because it went under a stall door. But he was looking up – not at a stall door. I looked on the table. Nothing. I looked under the radio. Nothing. I brushed all the dust off the table to show him – nothing. He kept looking up, and back at me. Then I realized he was looking up past the table. And there, hanging on the feed room wall, was a piece of horse hoof from a recent trim. We do give our dogs horse hooves as chewies, and he was clearly telling me there was one up there that he wanted. So of course I gave it to him. Your dog is talking to you all the time. Remember to listen with your eyes… Coming Soon at Peaceable Paws No private consults for me this week – but our Shaping Workshop is this coming weekend – YAY! Shaping is one of my favorite things – after Cognition, of course… looking forward to a fun weekend with some terrific humans and dogs!! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

OUR BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION ACADEMY A Small But Mighty Class The academy started last Monday – May 5th. We normally have eight students per class. This year so far registrations for many of our academies have been painfully slow. I blame it on the current political climate (we are near Washington DC and a lot of our students and family members of students are concerned about future income), as well as the increasing availability of online learning. I personally don’t think anything takes the place of hands-on experience, but I do understand the attraction of the convenience and lower cost of online… At any rate – we only had four signed up for this class, and I decided to proceed with it anyway. Four is pretty much the minimum that I want to do an academy for. (Of course eight is better!) So last Friday, May 2nd, we get a call from one of our students. She just had to euthanize her 15-year-old heart dog, and there was no way she would be able to emotionally handle a stressful academy week. Far too late to cancel on the remaining students, we decided to proceed with just three. I figured we could add our Kelpie, KC, into the mix so at least they would have a fourth dog to work with, and different behaviors and protocols to work on. Monday started out well – three eager students – Mandy Hull from Leesburg, Virginia, who would be working with Frankie, listed as a Feist (but we don’t see it!) from Frederick County Animal Control (thank you, FCAC!!) Kelsey Moran from Washington, DC, who brought her foster, soon-to-be-adopted Lab mix Baby Girl, and Ashlee Correll from Ashburn, Pennsylvania where she has her training business, Spicy Paws (https://www.spicypawsllc.com/ ) who would be working with Jima, the high-energy Lab from a couple of blogs ago. Best laid plans… Thursday evening Mandy had to leave to deal with a personal situation, so we were down to just two. Meet the Dogs Frankie was one of four young dogs who came into the shelter as strays a few months ago. Frankie from Frederick County Animal Control. Feist mix? Kelpie mix? Tell me what you think he is!! All four had flat foot deformity, probably due to early nutritional deficiencies, perhaps with some genetic influence. The shelter had done a great job with rehabilitation for this – looking at Frankie now at the age of 10 months, you couldn’t even tell. Frankie was somewhat fearful and was suffering from shelter stress – and the loud sounds of the new construction at the shelter weren’t helping him. He had begun spinning in his kennel, and was being given anti-anxiety medication, which was helping, but a week at Camp Peaceable Paws would be a nice break for him. Baby Girl came with not a lot of history, other than she had originally come into rescue in this area from Alabama, and  soon after the academy was going to be adopted and relocate to North Carolina. However Kelsey met with the potential adopters and they all agreed it wasn't the right fit. She is around two years old, and exhibits fear-related behaviors on walks, with cars and trucks, and in new environments, but is calm and sweet much of the time. Baby Girl - not headed to her new home in North Carolina Jima you met a couple of weeks ago in my “One Delightful Client” blog. Margie had graciously allowed us to use Jima in a prior Level 1 “Basic Training and Behavior” Academy, and I suggested that sending Jima to a BMod Academy Jima, happy, confident, high-energy - learning to grow up and settle down could help with his arousal behaviors and give Margie a nice break from his busy-ness. She readily agreed, so Jima was here to work on impulse control and calming. KC is our five-year-old Australian Kelpie. She came from a Carroll County hoarding case four years ago, with a total of 28 dogs, four of whom were Kelpies. We fostered all four (hence the name KC, for Kelpie Chaos) and chose her to adopt out of the four. KC is on Fluoxetine, which does a good job of controlling her light and shadow chasing OCD behavior and gets additional anti-anxiety meds for her storm phobia. For the academy, we planned to work with husbandry procedures – she is not at all happy about having her nails trimmed. KC - Do my nails? NOT!!! Protocols Mandy and Frankie (for the four days she was here) Mandy did Find It and Search, Pattern Games (especially 1-2-3), Place, Harness and Counter Conditioning and Desensitization (CC&D) to sounds and touch. Frankie made great progress and was sad to go back to the shelter two days early. A Counter-Conditioning Protocol for Nail Trimming - Whole Dog Journal Hello world! Getting to know a somewhat cautious Frankie on Day One And yes, I can settle... Ooooh - I think I like putting the harness on! 20250506_140032.mp4 20250508_094241.mp4 Ashlee and Jima focused on impulse control with a loooong list of protocols, including Polite Leash Walking, Find It and Search, Touch, Sit, Down, Wait and Get It, Trade, Go Wild and Freeze, Walk Away, Place and Muzzle Conditioning. Jima also made excellent progress with learning to control himself. Ways to Calm Down Your High Energy Dog - Whole Dog Journal Protocol for Teaching a Safe "Trade" With Your Dog - Whole Dog Journal (Chirag Patel's' wonderful muzzle video!) Teaching A Dog To Wear A Muzzle (Muzzle Training),https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FABgZTFvHo g See - the muzzle makes good things happen!!! (Treats!) Jima shoves his nose into the cheese-prodcuing muzzle Wait until I tell you... Wait until I tell you... 20250507_100955.mp4 20250505_143656.mp4 Kelsey and Baby Girl did a lot of CC&D – she was definitely more sensitive than Frankie, and Kelsey had to take things a lot slower. She also did Find it and Search, Touch, Scatter, Pattern Games (Up/Down and 1-2-3). Baby Girl did well with these and still has a long way to go. Kelsey will continue working with her while they wait for the right humans. Just hangin' out, getting comfortable in a new place... Counter Conditioning for being touched Teaching to Nose Target Counter Conditioning for moving into a new space 20250508_093631.mp4 20250507_093534.mp4 KC did a session with each of the three students, focusing on Chin Rest for Cooperative Care nail trimming. She, too, still has a long way to go… Teaching Chin Rest to Dogs – CattleDog Publishing Counter Conditioning for being touched - working our way down to the paw for nail traimming Starting the Chin Rest Positive reinforcement for offering her paw More Chin Rest work 20250506_094842.mp4 Lots of good work happened during the week! Frankie is back at FCAC waiting for his new humans to find him. Baby Girl is waiting for her forever home to appear. Mary is coming to pick Jima up tomorrow and will continue working with Lucy on all Jima’s new Impulse Control protocols. And KC? Well – I should get motivated and keep working with her on that Chin Rest… A REHOME ASSIST REQUEST This e-mail came across our desks this past week:   Good afternoon,   We are reaching out to see if your organization can be of assistance to us. My husband and I are looking to rehome our year and half old Tan Cocker Spaniel named Tommy. We have made this decision as he has become a threat to our home. He has attacked my husband and I and our cat, he is posing a great threat to our baby as well and we are fearful for her safety. We have owned Tommy since he was eight weeks old. When he was about six months old, we began to experience food aggression with him as well as minor anxiety with strangers and grooming. We enrolled him in training however, this was nonbeneficial to the concerns we were having. These aggressive behaviors started to increase and become more unpredictable as to the triggers. We sought advice from his vet who prescribed Prozac. However, we were unsuccessful at identifying his triggers and cannot figure out how to help manage him and his aggression. We spoke to other trainers with no results; we are at a loss and need to do something as we are in fear for our daughter’s safety. When Tommy was a puppy we socialized and took him in public and he met a lot of people and dogs with little issues at first. However, in the last six months we are unable to socialize him as we do not know when he will attack others. We live in fear with him being in our home as we never know when his next attack will be.  Does your organization accept surrenders, if not do you know anyone I could contact? Thank you for your time. This was my response: Hello Carol, I am sorry to hear about the challenges you are having with Tommy. Certainly having a small child in the home greatly increases the risks, and I support you in trying to find other options for your boy. Sadly, dogs with the behaviors you describe can be very difficult to rehome. You love him - and are looking to rehome him because of his behaviors. And you want someone who has no emotional connection with him to take him on, along with the risks that accompany a dog who has aggressive behaviors... Another concern with that is that once you have rehomed him, you lose all control over what happens to him, and there are far too many people out there who will do really bad things to dogs in the name of "behavior modification." https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/lifestyle/dog-rehoming-when-is-it-the-right-decision/ We do not accept surrenders here, sorry - we are a behavior/training business, not a shelter or rescue. Has he actually bitten/broken skin on anyone? Some shelters and rescues will not accept dogs with bite histories or known aggressive behavior due to the liability, depending on the severity of the behavior and the resources the organization may to do good behavior modification... So - here are my thoughts: 1. Where did you get him? If you got him from a breeder, a good, responsible, ethical breeder will always take back any of their puppies at any time in their lives, regardless of the behaviors. Contact Tommy's breeder and see what they say. 2. One of my first suggestions to clients who find themselves in similar situations is, "Do have any friends or family members (who don't have children) who already know and love Tommy and might be interested in taking him? If so, this is always a best bet, since rehoming is challenging and carries so many risks. 3. I could suggest doing good, solid behavioral modification work with a ***good, experienced, knowledgeable force-free*** behavior professional as an option, but this would take time, there's no quick fix. With a small child in the home this may just be too much of a risk, and there is no guarantee that Tommy would ever be comfortable with your child. If you would like to pursue this option, I am happy to refer you to good professionals in your area, if I know any, or we are happy to work with you here, if you live close enough. https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/find-the-best-trainer-for-you-and-your-dog/ 4. Private rehoming to the general public can ***very*** risky. People may misrepresent themselves and their intentions, and you really have no way of knowing what they might do to him. PLUS - if Tommy goes off and bites someone after you rehome him you may still be liable - I would suggest talking to your attorney about this one. If you do choose to go this route for Tommy, be very, very careful! 5. You could try Cocker Spaniel Rescue. If you go this route you will want to do diligent research - there are some bad rescue groups out there - some are hoarders pretending to be rescues, others are well-intentioned but simply in over their heads. You also want to be sure it's a rescue group that uses modern, science-based force-free methods for any training and behavior work they do (or work with professionals who do). Here is a link to one Cocker rescue - but I do not know anything about them. https://www.cockeradoptions.org/about.html  6. You could try shelters and other rescues - again with the caveat about many not willing/able to take dogs with aggressive behaviors, as well as the possibility that he may end up being euthanized anyway. (Even so-called “no-kill” shelters do euthanize dogs…) Also - some of the non-breed specific rescues may be (but not necessarily) less rigorous in their standards of care and handling, and shelter facilities can also vary widely - from excellent to horrible - so check them out carefully! Go see for yourself - do not just take someone's word... 7. Finally - behavioral euthanasia, as heartbreaking as that is, is a reasonable alternative. I have often said - if I found myself in that position, knowing the likelihood of my dog having a long, safe and happy life is slim and the risk of him being abused or injuring someone is high... I would rather have my dog say a peaceful good-bye in my arms than have him face unknown terrors in the world. I do hope some of this is helpful to you. Please do let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Warm Woofs, 🐶🐾🌼🌻🐶🐾🌼🌻🐶 Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA This Week at Peaceable Paws Clearly, this week was all about academy. But that didn’t stop the beautiful world from going on around us. Hope your week was good, and you are enjoying our wonderful Spring! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com

SUNNY’S DIAGNOSIS This is my last post about our boy Sunny – I promise. But I thought you would want to know… We got the results of his biopsies back – and as we suspected, it was a gastric carcinoma. This is a particularly nasty cancer (not that there are any good ones, but some are better than others…) – average survival time after symptoms begin showing is 30 days – even with surgery. He did, indeed, last just over a month. I am glad we didn’t do surgery - I suspect he would have died on the table. I am glad we said a gentle good-bye to him here at home. I am glad we had 7 wonderful years with him here on the farm. I am grateful for all the support from everyone through this difficult time. And yes, I am still crying. BEAR - A WORRISOME-SOUNDING CLIENT I was somewhat concerned about this upcoming consult. Bear was an eight-year-old perhaps Shepherd/Malinois mix, or maybe a Black-Mouthed Cur. He came to a Virginia rescue from a South Carolina shelter and was adopted at the age of eight weeks. Bear Mike had just acquired Bear from a friend of his – Bob. In his behavior history form, Mike told us this: Bear was originally owned by Bob’s son and his wife, who kept him crated most of the time, heavily used a shock collar and a prong collar, and would strike Bear with hands and objects. About a year ago the wife surprised Bear with a belly rub while he was asleep. He startled and bit her, Black Mouth Cur breaking skin on her hand but not requiring medical attention. He also bit their three-year-old son a few months later. After that bite they were considering euthanasia, and Bob, who had probably spent more time with the dog than anyone at his son’s home, was determined to give Bear a second chance for a better life. His friend Bob just happened to be looking for a dog. I was most concerned about this: Mike brought Bear home on Saturday. On Sunday, Bear kept Mike trapped in his bedroom while growling, barking, and lunging when he would try to open the door to exit. Mike had to call Bob to come and help. Yikes! I was anticipating a very challenging session. Much to my happy surprise, while Bear was clearly stressed here at the training center (panting and whining much of the time), he did not exhibit any aggressive behavior. Of course, we always do our best not to trigger aggression: I am already seated when the client comes into the room, and I don’t make any attempt to interact with the dog until I get a very clear invitation to do so. Unless the dog's behavior is very worrisome, I invite the client to take the leash off and let the dog explore the room. We did this with Bear. Bear came up and sniffed me but offered no affiliative body language. I take this opportunity to explain to the client that many people don’t realize that lots of dogs who come up to sniff are not inviting interaction but rather are checking you out. “Hey! Who are you and what are you going to do???” Well-intentioned but unenlightened dog lovers may get snapped at, or worse, bitten when they misread this as an invitation to pet the dog. Indeed, it took about 90 minutes and a round of Find It and Search before Bear relaxed a little and decided to be friendly with me. I explained to Mike and Bob that aggression is caused by stress – across the board, with the very rare exception of idiopathic aggression. True idiopathic aggression is very sudden, very violent, and has no known trigger. (Idiopathic = a fancy scientific word that means, “Duh, we don’t know what causes it…”) It was once commonly called “Rage Syndrome” or “Cocker Rage” or “Springer Rage” (because it was allegedly seen most frequently in those breeds) – but it was waaaaaaaaaaaay over diagnosed. It is exceedingly rare – and much of what was called “rage syndrome” was probably really resource guarding. And the dog probably was giving social signals that the human just didn’t see or understand. Indeed, I’ve had clients walk in and say, “My dog has Rage Syndrome. When I do this he bites me.” Ummmm – if you know what it is you do that makes him bite you… it’s not Rage Syndrome… https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/behavior/idiopathic-aggression-in-dogs/ https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/behavior/understanding-aggression-in-dogs/ But I digress. Back to Bear. After living eight years in one home with very little enrichment or socialization other than what Bob provided on his twice-weekly visits, it was probably extremely stressful for him to suddenly be moved to a new home with a new human. Hence the aggression. Because his behavior sounded quite serious, we squeezed him into our schedule, and a week later I was meeting with the three of them - Mike, Bob and Bear. With some trepidation. It’s always nice to be pleasantly surprised. In just one week, Bear had happily claimed Mike as his human. There had been no more in incidents of Bear trapping him in the bedroom – in fact we were already seeing some separation-related behaviors (SRBs) - which he had never done at his last home. Bob shared that Bear was happier than he seen him at any time during his entire eight years at his son’s house. I suspect Bear realized his life had suddenly done a 180-degree turn, significantly for the better. He actually had a human who cared about him! We discussed his new life with Mike. Mike was concerned that Bear was not a very eager eater. He had no interest in the chicken or cheese we had dropped on the floor for him, and while some of that could have been stress, Mike said he wasn’t interested in chicken at home either. What? I thought ALL dogs loved chicken!!! Mike was feeding him two cups of a good quality dry food twice a day and had started putting some wet food on top to try to get him to eat more. Bear would just pick at his food, and Mike was leaving his food bowl down for him all day. I noted that Bear was actually a little heavier than I would like to see, and according to vet records had gained five pounds since last summer. I recommended cutting back some (to 1.5 cups twice a day to start), and feeding meals: fixing the food, putting it down, leaving it down for no more than 30 minutes, then picking it up until the next mealtime. Mike agreed to try this. While Bear was much better behaviorally than expected, there were still things we could work on. We introduced him to Find It and Search, one of my favorite operant behaviors both for stressed/fearful dogs and dogs with reactive behaviors. I love it in part because it’s simple – almost every dog can do it perfectly the first time. “Find it!” means I just dropped a treat between my feet, and “Search” means I tossed a treat “out there” somewhere. I also love it because, although it is an operant, thinking behavior, it also can help move the dog to a happier place emotionally, because they get a very happy association with the cues. (By the way – if my client already uses those cues to mean something else, we just pick different cues, like “Feet” and “Seek”.) We practiced Find It and Search ninety minutes into our session, just as Bear was starting to relax (he even laid down twice!). I was tossing Mike’s homemade beef jerky treats which his dog loves, and Bear finally decided that I was a good person and got friendly with me. Note: tossing treats for a fearful dog is a much better strategy than trying to hand-feed treats to a fearful dog (not recommended). Mike share that Bear was generally calm and relaxed at home, but he was stressed anywhere else. We wanted to address his stressors, since Bear was clearly a dog who could resort to strong aggressive behavior when stressed – and because stress is not a good thing anyway. We listed Bear’s stressors and discussed and assigned strategies for reducing them (my standard practice for aggression cases): Bear’s Stressors: 1.     New places – Use counter conditioning and habituation; take his bed or blanket with him for comfort/security; eventually use the UPenn Protocol 2.     Strangers, especially women – Manage his exposure, use counter conditioning, use operant Find It and Search 3.     Kids – Manage his exposure, use counter conditioning, use operant Find It and Search 4.     Vet Hospital – Do Happy Vet Visits and Cooperative Care 5.     Home alone – Use the UPenn Relaxation Protocol 6.     Thunder/Fireworks – Not sure, will monitor and we will address if necessary 7.     Car – This appears to be mild, maybe happy stress – we can live with this one 8.     Delivery people – Again mild, manage and live with it 9.     Crowds – Management and counter conditioning 10. Your stress – Live with it – but be aware that your stress puts him closer to his aggression threshold https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/cooperative-care-giving-your-dog-choice-and-control/ Our Program As is my standard practice, at the end of our session we agreed on “commitments”. I like giving the client something tangible in terms of time and frequency, and I always have them tell me what is realistic for them. There’s no point in me telling them they have to do something three times a day, seven days a week, if it just means they are going to throw the program in the trash as soon as they get home. Here are Mike and Bear’s commitments: 1.       Search/Find it – at least 2 times per day, 5-10 minutes or more; do Search and Find it as we did here – at home at first, then gradually start doing it in new places, on walks, and when you are doing your “other locations.” 2.       Happy Vet Visits – at least 2 times per week, 15-20 minutes (or more) per session; confirm with your vet, find out when low-activity times are to do this. 3.       Other Locations – at least 2 times per week, 15-20 minutes (or more) per session; find low-activity locations at first, just sit (bed/blanket) and feed treats (counter conditioning) as he watches the world. When he is comfortable there, gradually move to higher activity locations or times. 4.       UPenn Relaxation Protocol – at least 4 times per week, 5-10 minutes per session; do this on a bed or blanket that you can take other places with you. 5.       Heather – contact Heather by 5/1/25 to discuss working with her. As agreed, I will send her a copy of my report from our session. 6.       Separation-Related Behaviors – keep an eye on this, and if it increases, let me know – we will need to address. I also suggested L-Theanine and Ashwagandha for Bear – two over-the counter products that can help with stress-reduction. I did not see Bear as needing prescription medications at this point in time (unless thunder/fireworks and/or an escalation of SRBs), but he could benefit from these. Report on or about: May 8, 2025 I always tell my clients that they are mine for life – they are welcome to contact me at any time with questions, comments, concerns, brags… and I ask them to keep a journal for at least the first few weeks (longer is better, of course!) and request that they report to me (send the journal) at least once in two weeks. This Week at Peaceable Paws It was fox time here this week! We realized that the fox we’ve been seeing around the pastures recently had her den in an old groundhog hole on the hillside right behind the barn (in Freddie the pig’s yard!). We got to see her four babies playing outside the den, just one day before she picked them up and moved them to a more secluded location somewhere. Bye-bye babies – thanks for letting us see you!!! And now… getting ready for our first academy of the year, next week – Behavior Modification. Photos and comments to come!!! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

Apologies in Advance Apologies in advance if my blog is a little rambling this week. I am still reeling from our impossible loss of Sunny, but trying to pull it together and get back to some semblance of work. At least doing something helps take my mind off the gaping hole in my world, so here we are. I get ocular migraines. Got my first one when I was headed to my 6th grade Science Class final exam. I thought I was dying. I had them a lot during the 20 years I worked at the Marin Humane Society, especially during my last 10 years there as Director of Operations. No doubt stress-related. When I left the shelter in 1996 to launch Peaceable Paws, they stopped, and I hadn’t had any more headaches for decades until a few years ago, when I started getting just a few a year. After losing Sunny on Friday, I cried all weekend, and Monday night I was violently ill – abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea. (I know, maybe too much information…). Then Tuesday I had two migraines, and Wednesday started another shortly after I woke up. But the Wednesday one was different. I usually have them on my left side. This one was on my right. They usually just affect my vision. My right hand started to go numb. And just as my husband walked in the door from running errands, my speech started slurring – I could barely talk. This had never happened to me with a migraine before. Very concerned that I could be having a stroke, Paul bundled me into the car and we spent the day at the Emergency Room. Long story short – my CT scan was normal, ER doctor diagnosed tension headache. Go home and rest. Fortunately, it was a slow week. After an Expert Witness Zoom on Monday I only had one client scheduled, and not until Friday. I was fully recovered by then, so at least it didn’t mess up my schedule. One Delightful Client I was really looking forward to my Friday session. I first met Margie some twelve years ago when she brought her Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Amos, to our puppy class. Definitely an exceptional canine caretaker, in the intervening years she has attended two of my academies (and gotten married and had two kids!). She came to see us again last summer – her aging parents had acquired a Lab puppy and Margie was puppy-sitting while her folks were away. At just twelve weeks, Jima was turning out to be a handful. On the plus side, he was very confident and social. On the challenging side – lots of puppy energy! Margie was concerned that they had taken on more than they might be able to handle, despite being experienced Lab people. Margie has worked with him some since then (and he came to a Level 1 Academy shortly after his first trip here, just for a Basic Good Manners foundation), but she doesn’t live with her parents, and they haven’t really been able to do the necessary, consistent work. Jima is now a very high-energy, confident, social adolescent Lab (read: big and strong) and for now, at least, is living with her – perhaps a permanent placement. She was looking for some additional guidance. Puppy Jima - June, Age 12 weeks When she initially called to make the appointment, Margie said she wanted help with impulse control and leash-walking. When she arrived, she was pleased to tell me that the leash-walking had gotten considerably better, so we would focus on impulse control. Jima at Academy - September - 6 months Jima greeted me with a full-bore Labrador body-slam. And yes, she has worked with him on polite greetings. She said he’s not usually this excited about meeting people; friendly, but not so over-the-top. I suspect he remembered me – and Peaceable Paws – from his fun academy week and was just expressing his enthusiasm about being back. We started the session with an off-leash hike on the farm to wear him out a little while we talked. Jima had a great time rolling in the muddy pond, rinsing off in the creek, and galloping around the fields and through the woods. And yes, it only wore him out a little… Our Program Many of my clients with high-energy dogs are not providing enough opportunity for physical exercise. Margie was not one of these. Jima had several good off-leash running sessions every day, and Margie works from home, so he’s not shut in a crate all day. She did note that on the odd occasions that he goes to daycare he is definitely calmer when he comes home, but that’s not a regular thing for him. She also shared that in addition to crating him at night, he is crated more than they would like in the evening, simply because his habit of grabbing things that aren’t his and running around with them prevents them from relaxing on the sofa. (Gee, a Lab who wants to pick up things in his mouth… go figure!) And yes, they do their best to dog-proof, but there’s always something, especially with two young kids in the house. It's so refreshing to do a consult with a client who already has a strong foundation in the basics of behavior science. With Margie I could skip right to the program, without walking through all the nuts and bolts of how dogs think and learn. Here are my comments about the various things we agreed to implement in Jima’s world: 1.       Wild to Mild Class at Peaceable Paws with Lucy (once a week for 4 weeks) – starts 4/19 – then perhaps more classes with Lucy – Wild to Mild again, perhaps Nose Games, or… 2.       Day Care regularly two times per week. You have noted that Jima does come home from day care less amped. This also gives you a much-needed/well-deserved break a couple of times a week. 3.       BMod Academy at Peaceable Paws for one week – May 5-10. This will give him some concentrated work on his impulse control protocols, and give you a longer stress break. 4.       Tethering – You can tether him as needed so you can have him with the family but not have to worry about what he’s getting into - i.e. so you can eat dinner without interruption, sit quietly watching TV in the evening, or engage in other activities that he doesn't need to participate in. https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/tethered-for-success-the-dos-and-donts-of-dog-tethers/ 5.       Nose Games – Great activity to engage with the boys, good mental and physical exercise – and he can find the boys if/when they get lost! Several times a week - at home for now – maybe a class later. 6.       Walk & Settle – Daily, when you are walking with him anyway, have Jima settle on a designated spot (leash on or off). Reward him for staying calmly. 7.       Wait at the Door – This is an excellent impulse control exercise – I encourage you to increase your attention to this one. https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/sit_wait_stay_training/wait-is-one-of-the-most-important-commands-you-can-teach-your-dog/ 8.       Recall – you are already doing this indoors in the evenings – keep it up! I suggested you also start working on it outside – on a leash at first, just doing the “Run Away Come” to convince him that running after you is fun. You could try calling him in your best party voice, running away, and then whipping out a tug toy or something he does get really excited about, so he starts to associate “Come” and running away with an irresistible game of tug. We also may want to work on this in private sessions or in a Recall class. https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/leash_training/training-your-dog-to-execute-an-extremely-fast-reliable-recall/ 9.       UPenn Relaxation Protocol: Similar to the Karen Overall protocol but a little simpler. You will continue to work on this (mat) sometimes in conjunction with tethering, sometimes on the mat without being tethered. This Week at Peaceable Paws Making the grief a little more bearable... I am thankful for the lovely spring weather, all the beautiful flowers, and the amazing array of wildlife. A multitude of deer (haven’t seen any fawns yet) and turkeys hanging out in the fields, a fox making an appearance near the barn at feeding time several nights in a row; turkeys and foxes chattering in the woods, peepers peeing in the pond, birds singing everywhere… This morning as I opened the gate to the barnyard to take the horses’ feed out, a bunny dashed across the yard (HAPPY EASTER!!) with our Kelpies, Kai and KC, hot on his fluffy little tail. To my relief, when I called them both dogs stopped in their tracks and came right back to me. No bunnicide in front of my very eyes, thank you… Score one for positive training – have a great week!!! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

Good-bye My Sweet Boy... Sunny’s Story Sunny came to us in late July of 2018 at the age of 11 months. A year after losing our second Pomeranian, Scooter, I started looking for another. I found Sunny on Craig’s List. No – this is not the place I generally send people to look for dogs, but this was a rehome, not a Craig’s List breeder. I contacted the person who had posted the ad and sent her my website link. She had already placed him in another home – but she said she had looked at my website and if the first home didn’t work out for some reason, she would love for us to have him. A week later I contacted her again, just to check in, and she said the adopter was returning him – they were afraid he was going to kill their cat. She was picking him up that morning – could she bring him over to meet us? OF COURSE SHE COULD!!! She arrived in a big red pickup truck and stepped out, dressed in Mennonite garb and holding a 25-pound Pomeranian in her arms. Larger than I expected! (Although we always thought he was a mix of some kind, a later DNA test confirmed he was 99.9% Pomeranian!) We invited her into the training center and she set Sunny down. (His name wasn’t Sunny then, but I don’t remember what it was.) Sunny was fearful. Paul sat on a chair, and I sat on the floor. Sunny made his way over and warmed up to me but wanted nothing to do with Paul. We suspected that the men on the Mennonite farm didn’t have much to do with him, and if they did it likely wasn’t positive. The woman said her teen-age daughter had a female Pomeranian and thought she wanted to breed her, so they bought Sunny from an Amish farm (read “puppy mill). Then her daughter changed her mind, so they were looking to rehome him. After about 20 minutes, Sunny still wasn’t any happier about Paul. The woman looked at the clock on the wall and said, “I have an appointment I need to go to… what do you think?” I glanced at Paul – assuming he would say no. Instead, he looked at me and nodded his head. Sunny was home! And in case you were wondering, the woman didn’t ask for any payment – she just wanted a good home for him. We named him Sunny – short for Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows. He sure lived up to that name during his too-short life! (And he never tried to kill our cats…) He bonded to me immediately – and showed some early mild separation related behaviors (SRBs), although never severe ones. He of course was not crate-trained. We put an exercise pen next to my side of the bed so he could be near me at night, but even that wasn’t enough. For two weeks I slept with my hand dangling in the ex-pen touching him, then gradually began to withdraw it until he could sleep in the pen without my hand in it. Meanwhile I was working on crate training, and soon he was able to be crated at night – yes, near me on my side of the bed. That’s where he slept for the rest of his life. Over the next couple of years Sunny gradually became comfortable with Paul. He also attended some of our Behavior Modification Academies where we worked on counterconditioning and desensitization with our male students. He became more confident with our boarders in the barn when they came to visit their horses and eventually lived up to his name; he was Sunny with pretty much everyone. Of course I was always his main squeeze until the very last moment. So, What Happened? Sunny had always been our healthiest dog. No issues whatsoever. He would run full speed doing zoomies with KC and Kai in the barn aisle, the arena and our back yard, and chasing rabbits in the woods. He could leap from the ground into my arms and I would catch him. He followed me everywhere, and if we left him in the house he always greeted my return with happy excitement. 20241124_093216.mp4 Then, in mid-February of this year he threw up a few times. Not super alarming, but when our mobile vet (Dr. Snyder, Stone Marsh) came at the end of the month for everyone’s annual well-pet check-up we asked her to do a senior blood panel for him. Just in case. He was seven, so it was time to start those anyway. The blood panel came back normal, but starting in early March the vomiting was happening more frequently; 3-4 times a week. We started him on chicken and rice and some anti-nausea meds, per our vet’s instructions. When that didn’t seem to help – and in fact he was getting worse – Dr. Snyder, who only does basic vet care, told us to go to a full-service vet, so we took him to North Paws Animal Hospital – a new vet clinic for us, but was had heard very good things about them. Dr. Bellerive at NPAH examined Sunny and did a GI Panel, and radiographs and an ultrasound. She was concerned that the pictures showed abnormalities, including a thickened stomach and intestinal walls, and gave us a low-fat diet, anti-nausea meds and more instructions. The GI panel showed a couple of abnormalities, and we started medication for those. He quickly got worse. He stopped eating his low-fat diet and we had to tempt him with anything he might eat. Vomiting increased to every day, then multiple times a day. Dr. Bellerive referred us to Partners Veterinary Emergency/Specialty Center in nearby Fredrick. We had an appointment for the following Wednesday with the Internal Medicine Specialist. But when our boy – who had always had a voracious appetite – stopped eating altogether we took him into the ER at Partners on Saturday, where Dr. Wilson examined him, gave him fluids, and said he needed to stay there. On Monday he was seen by Dr. Kakar, the specialist. She did another more detailed endoscopy and found a mass of necrotic tissue in his stomach – possible cancer. She did biopsies – results of which can take 1-2 weeks to come back. They had a tube in his nose and were withdrawing fluids from his stomach every few hours, and placed an IV tube in his leg to give him fluids. By Monday evening he was eating a little and definitely brighter. They said we could come visit on Tuesday, and if he was still brighter and eating, he might be able to come home with us. SWe went. He still wasn’t his normal, happy bouncy Sunny, but his tail was wagging and he was definitely happier than when he had left him there. I walked him outside and he brightened up even more. Yay! We brought him home, and he was pretty cheerful. He ate some various foods – not his normal diet, but Dr. Kakar said give him anything he will eat. So he got some hardboiled egg, chicken, roast beef and cheese. He even ate his pills in cheese, which would be necessary for us to keep treating him at home. But it didn’t last. By Thursday he was quite depressed, would not eat anything, and his stools were black and moist, meaning blood – the mass in his stomach had probably ruptured. We agreed we had to let him go. Dr. Snyder came out and helped us say good-bye so Sunny could leave us in the comfort of his own home. I’m still crying. Because he followed me everywhere, everything I do reminds me that he’s not here. He was only 7 years old. He should have been here at least twice that long. Here's some happy Sunny photos from his years with us: All of the dog trainers, clients and other contacts in my network have been incredibly supportive through our ordeal. Many of them knew Sunny personally and shared their stories about what a wonderful boy he was. I am so grateful for their support and kind Sunny words. Here are some of their comments: “I am so sorry for your loss. My wife and I first met Sunny when we brought our dog to you for consultation. He was so happy and proud to be with you and to collaborate with you and your work.” “Oh no! I am so very sorry to hear this! I remember his awesome little presence at PPaws and that fabulous bounce/jump. Run free, little man! Always loved – never forgotten!” “RIP Sunny, thank you for all the help you gave us during our training classes.” “Oh no, Pat. I'm so sorry. He was such a special guy. I'm so grateful I got to partner with him at one of the academies. I bet he's already spotted at least a hundred bunnies.” “I'm so sorry to hear about Sunny. He was such a sweet, loving dog, and I feel really lucky to have gotten to spend time with him and see the special bond that you two shared. He was truly one of a kind.” Pet Loss and Grief He truly was one of a kind. Being able to write about him has been cathartic for me… Thank you for listening. We will be burying him this afternoon on his favorite bunny-chasing hill along with several of his favorite toys – including his best stuffed bunny. Good-bye, sweet Sunny… I know that many of you have endured the impossible pain of losing a beloved animal companion. There are some wonderful resources available to help us during these dark times: https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/grief-and-bereavement---loss-of-a-pet  https://www.aplb.org/  https://www.petmd.com/blogs/fullyvetted/2009/march/ten-ways-you-know-its-time-euthanize-your-pet-6745 https://www.lapoflove.com/Quality-of-Life/How-Will-I-Know-It-Is-Time  And I wish for you that when the time comes you can help your beloved companion leave this earth gently, that you have as  much support as I have gotten, and that your own grief passes with time. This Week at Peaceable Paws As you might imagine, not much going on here this week – just sending you peacocks and flowers. Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

FEARFUL CANINE CLIENTS IN ONE WEEK!!! So – Last week I had three canine clients with significant fear-related behaviors all in one week – definitely not the norm for my practice! I get fearful dogs, sure, but not usually this fearful and not usually three in one week! The dogs were Rose, a Border Collie; Orvie, a Rat Terrier/Chihuahua/Dachshund, and Harvey, a Chihuahua/Italian Greyhound. I make it a point to be seated when clients enter the room with their dogs. This helps the dog become comfortable with me much more quickly. I normally very soon invite the client to remove their dog’s leash so they can approach me if they want (agency!) The dog will often approach me very early on to investigate. It’s important to know that when they do this, they are checking me out, not inviting me to pet them. A lot of people misinterpret that “checking you out” behavior and try to pet the dog – and may get bitten as a result. Usually, by the end of a two-hour session the dog has decided I’m okay and is inviting interaction. Not one of these three dogs became comfortable enough to interact with me. Best we could do was a little Treat and Retreat. Note: If I do have to get up and move around the room for some reason, I ask the client to put the leash back on the dog and move far enough away that the dog doesn’t feel threatened by my movements. Here are last week's dogs: Rose, the 4.5-year-old Border Collie Rose’s humans report that she was very shy/reserved when they adopted her from a rescue group in August of 2023. She had apparently been used for breeding for the first three years of her life – obviously not by a responsible breeder (she is now spayed). She became more comfortable with George and Jade over time but is still quite wary of company. There was extra company visiting over the 2024 holidays. Rose started coming out of hiding more but began acting aggressive – and is now nipping at shins, snarling, growling and lunging when daughter and son-in-law drop off baby granddaughter for the day. Rose also has occasional seizures, which may be stress/anxiety-related. (She is on medication for the seizures.) It is not unusual for a dog who starts out fearful and shut down to become aggressive when they get more comfortable in their environment and are bold enough to start making editorial comments. Rose was clearly very worried when she entered the training center – her tail was down and her head was lowered. Ten minutes into the session she came up and sniffed me to investigate but never became comfortable with me. It even worried her when her Jade stood up (after a little struggle with the chair), and she stayed closest to George throughout the session. Orvie, the Rat Terrier/Chihuahua/Dachshund Mix Orvie is an adorable 1.5-year-old wiry black-and-tan Terrier mix. (Of course, ever since my wonderful Josie I have been a sucker for black-and-tan Terrier mixes…). Ruth brought him to see me (accompanied by her friend Julie who also walks Orvie 2-3 times a week) due to his fear-related aggression toward other dogs and sometimes humans. She adopted him as a puppy from a shelter in Alabama. Mom had been surrendered to the rescue while pregnant. This was probably a very stressful experience for her, and we know that when mom is stressed with puppies in utero, the pups are washed with excess cortisol, and studies have shown that this can resulted in those puppies having stress-related behaviors throughout their lives. So probably not the best start in life for poor little Orvie. Orvie investigated me briefly but was not affiliative (did not invite interaction) and did not warm up to me at all during the two-hour session. He was quite friendly with Jackie, however, the friend who comes and walks him several times a week, and sat on her lap for much of the session. Harvey, the Chihuahua/Italian Greyhound Mix Harvey, now 7 years old, has lived with his current family since the age of 4 weeks – when he was given to them by a friend of a friend because her boyfriend was abusing him. I know. So much wrong with this picture… 4 weeks old – too young to leave Mom – and who abuses a 4-week-old puppy??  Viviane and Terry (mother and daughter) were most concerned about Harvey’s non-stop barking around animals or humans who don’t live in their home. He is also very sound sensitive. Harvey was quite nervous in the training center – he trembled noticeably for the first 45 minutes of the session, and then off and on for the remainder of the 2 hours. He did approach me once, early in the session, just to investigate – he did not in any way invite interaction. He was happiest sitting on Terry’s lap, where he was able to start relaxing, and even closed his eyes. His humans were quite pleased, however, that he did not bark at me once during their session. MAybe because I am pretty good at not making dogs uncomfortable? Protocols As you can imagine, protocols were somewhat similar for all three of these cases. We incorporated counter conditioning and desensitization (CC&D) – a mainstay in almost every case involving strong emotional responses to stimuli, to change the dog’s association to the stimulus, and hence his behavioral response. For Ovie we are doing CC&D with strangers and other dogs, with his crate, and with his leash and being reached for; for Rose, with visitors, sudden movements, and Ruthie, the grandbaby who stays with them several times a week and for Harvey, just people and dogs. And again almost always – some operant protocols. These can be useful for managing behavior – keeping the dog busy doing something when a stimulus might be coming too close. These are usually simpler than CC&D and the dog’s human can see results more quickly – so the human is positively reinforced for her work with the dog. We know that behaviors that are reinforced are repeated and tend to increase; our clients are more likely to keep working with their dogs if they can get some early success with these protocols. And while operant behaviors involve the cortex – the “thinking” part of the brain, if you get your dog really happy about an operant behavior you can also move the emotional part of the brain (the amygdala) from “worried” to “happy” when you ask them to do something they love to do. Operant and Classical Conditioning are happening together all the time. I heard Bob Bailey say once, “Pavlov is always on your shoulder.” I like to say, “Pavlov is always on one shoulder – Skinner is always on the other.” With these three dogs we are doing: 1.     Find It/Search: I tell my clients this is the easiest thing they will ever teach their dogs. “Find it” means you just dropped a treat at your feet. (If they already use “Find it” to mean search for treats in the environment we use “Feet” instead.) And “Search” means you’ve tossed a treat “out there” somewhere. (Again – a different cue if they already use “Search” for something else. 2.     Pattern Games: This is Leslie McDevitt’s marvelous collection of pattern-based protocols. Patterns are helpful for fearful dogs because routine is reassuring to them – they know what to expect. My favorites are 1-2-3 and Two Cookie – but I give my clients a handout with all of them and tell them to focus on the ones that work best for them and their dog. 3.     Treat and Retreat: This one is good for dogs who are worried about people – the person can interact with the dog but the dog gets to stay in his comfort zone. 4.     Targeting: “Touch” (nose to hand) can be very useful for confidence building. Lots of dogs love it – it’s simple, and they get happy/excited about “I push the button (the hand) – I get a treat – Yay!!!” It’s a great way to move a dog past something they are worried about – they get focused on and happy about touching the target as you move past the monster garbage can or the senior with the walker. I have all my clients practice these behaviors first in the safety and comfort of the dog’s home until his eyes light up when he hears the cue or engages in the behavior, then outside at home, and eventually out in the “real” world. Management Management is always a critically important piece of a successful behavior modification program. If the dog continues to practice the behavior he is either continuing to be reinforced for it (behaviors that are reinforced continue) and/or continuing to be sensitized by the stimulus, which makes it difficult if not impossible to change his association/opinion and his emotional response. My Whole Dog Journal article on management (from long ago!): https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/behavior/upper-level-management/ Anti-anxiety medication is a form of management. Harvey was already on Fluoxetine for anxiety and had been for some time (with a recent increase in dosage) – I suggested they ask their veterinarian about Sileo for thunderstorms. (Note: I don’t usually mention specific medications, but I feel comfortable suggesting Sileo because it is widely marketed specifically for sound sensitivity.) Orvie had just started on Fluoxetine two weeks prior, so too soon to have a noticeable effect, but also was getting Trazadone prior to known anxiety-causing events – such as coming to Peaceable Paws. Rose is on Keppra for her seizures, so George and Jade were going to ask their veterinarian if she could also take anti-anxiety medications. Fingers crossed – especially since her seizures appear to be triggered by stress/anxiety! Other management measures we put into place for these three dogs include: 1.     Cover windows to prevent arousal barking at people and dogs walking past house 2.     Put sign on the front door asking people not to ring the doorbell 3.     Remove the dog from the room/yard before bringing out or starting appliances – vacuum cleaner, washing machine, lawn mower 4.     Use white/brown noise or calming music to muffle sounds: https://icalmpet.com/ 5.     Put in another room before visitors arrive 6.   Put up Yellow Dog posters and educate community about the meaning of the color yellow: None of these are going to be quick-and-easy cases, but all of the dogs’ humans appear very committed to helping their dogs have a good life. Fingers are crossed…   This Week at Peaceable Paws FLYING MONKEY I had reported a couple of weeks ago that Flying Monkey, our 10-year-old feral barn cat who had become reasonably social with me (as in – rubbing all over me, letting me pet him and vaccinate him) and normally showed up for breakfast every day, had for no obvious reason suddenly become very feral again. Days, even a full week would go by between Monkey sightings, and when I did see him it was just a brief glimpse before he would dash under the shed. Well, it seems he’s back. This past week I’ve seen him every day, and the past three days he was back to being friendly, talking to me, rubbing on my hand and letting me pet him. I have no clue what was going on, but welcome back, Monkey! SICK SUNNY On a not-so-happy note, Sunny, our 20-pound Pomeranian, has been vomiting almost daily since the beginning of the month – mostly yellow bile, but sometimes his whole meal. We tried chicken-and-rice – didn’t help at all. We were at the vet a week ago – she took x-rays, saw lots of white specks in his stomach and intestines, and started him on low-fat Purina (sigh) and anti-nausea meds. Less vomiting for a couple of days, but now back to every day, sometimes twice a day. Our giant Pomeranian has lost several pounds in the process, and we’re headed back to the vet on Monday for more x-rays and ultra-sound. Sunny (short for Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows) is still his happy-go-lucky self in between vomiting episodes, but we are quite concerned. Please send good thoughts! On the happier side – it’s supposed to reach 80 degrees today – YAY!!! Headed out now to weed flower beds and play with horses. Hope you are having a good weekend!!! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

A HUSKY MIX PLAY STYLE IS CONFUSED WITH DOMINANCE I always have a “moment” when I read dominance in a client’s behavior history form. Then we have a discussion about why "dominance" isn't what most people think it is. There is a real construct of dominance in behavior - but it is solely about gaining access to a mutually-desired resource. That's it. My client used this term with her dog Ashley, a 4.5-year-old spayed female Husky mix. In addition to “dominant behaviors with other dogs” Ashley was described as being nervous of human strangers and nervous of bangs/loud noises. So we had the dominance discussion. I like to be seated to greet my clients and their dogs. A high percentage of my canine clients have stress/anxiety and/or aggression behaviors, and this helps the dogs be much more comfortable with my presence. (My staff go out and greet them in the parking lot and give them instructions for coming in.) Asley and her human, Karen, entered the training center, came over to where I was seated, and Karen sat down at the other end of the six-foot table. I invited her to take off Ashley’s leash (which I normally do unless I see very unsafe body language from the dog). Ashley came over to me and I ignored her – again, my normal practice unless I see very affiliative body language. As I explained to Karen, many people don’t realize that when a dog comes up to you, they may be investigating you, not inviting interaction. I completely ignore my canine client investigators until they let me know with soft body language that they have decided I’m okay. Even then I proceed slowly, with brief eye contact, and an occasional comment to the dog. Then it’s usually the dog who makes contact first and I will scratch under the chin. And yes, treats happen, eventually. Once we are on “speaking” terms, if I need to get up for some reason I will often ask the client to re-leash their dog – depending on how comfortable the dog is with me. Ashley warmed up to me quite quickly, sniffing out my treat pocket and resting her head on my leg, and I was able to move around during the session without any issues. I don’t use treats at first because often, if you lure a dog to you with treats you are, in effect, coercing him past his comfort zone because he really wants the treats. Then when the treats are gone, he goes, “OMIGosh I am way too close to this scary person!” and a bite happens. It is not a good idea to ask scary strangers to feed treats to your fearful dog. Karen was already aware of this, as well as the importance of not letting strangers come up to try to pet Ashley. Karen was mostly worried about Ashley’s play behavior with other dogs. She had been taking her to the dog park (we agreed to stop this) and had observed Ashley doing what she called “bullying” other dogs there. “She enjoys charging and deflecting at the last second or pouncing with her open mouth over the back of the other dog’s neck.” She said this had also happened at other private home and neutral locations, and (surprise!) many dogs no longer wanted to interact with Ashley. She was especially concerned because she has several friends with small dogs that she wanted Ashley to be able to play with. One couple had a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and when they visited Ashley kept pouncing on the little dog. She had also done this with other small dogs. Not good! Even if she’s not being aggressive, the mere size difference can cause injury to the smaller dog, and her high arousal play style can result in the smaller dog being defensively aggressive, which is also not likely to end well. Play Styles I explained to Karen that this was about differing playstyles and size incompatibilities, not about dominance. Different dogs have different playstyles, and while some dogs (a minority, I believe) are able to adapt well to a variety of styles, most dogs prefer playing with dogs who like to play the way they do. Ideally, you want to find canine playmates for your dog who appreciate and reciprocate your dog’s play. If you know your dog’s preferred play style, you can narrow his playmate pool to potentially suitable dogs without attempting risky introductions. Here are common canine play styles: •        Cheerleaders: These dogs like to play on the fringes around other dogs who are actively engaged with each other (see Body Slammers, Chasers and Wrestlers). They are often from the herding group (Collies, Shepherds, etc.) and are usually quite vocal, often engaging in non-stop barking. Cheerleading is related to behaviors that have been enhanced for herding – herding dogs tend to be “control freaks.” They may also nip at heels, and at the assertive “fun-police” end of the cheerleader behavior continuum, will actually try to break up the fun. If they do this with dogs who take offense, there is potential for dogfights. Playmates for cheerleaders need to be tolerant of these dogs’ sometimes irritating efforts to control play activities. •        Body Slammers: These are the demolition derby dogs of the canine playground. Labs and Boxers are prominent in this group, although there are plenty of others for whom “play” means “run full speed into other dogs and see if you can knock them off their feet.” This can also include mouthing behavior. Body Slammers play best with other Body Slammers, but can also be compatible with some Wrestlers and Chasers. They don’t generally do well with Cheerleaders and Soft Touches. There is risk of minor to major bodily damage when big dogs run into each other at full speed. Think “T-bone” collision. A lot of the breeds who fall into the Body Slammer category seem to suffer from a higher-than-average incidence of ruptured ACLs. Hmmmmmmmmm. •        Wrestlers: Wrestlers are into full, prolonged body contact. These dogs are most likely to take turns being on top, and also tend to engage in rousing games of chew-face. This is a comparatively low-risk play-style, as long as both dogs are happy wrestlers. If one dog insists on pinning another who isn’t comfortable there, however, it can turn ugly. Watch your wrestlers to be sure both are having a good time, and be prepared to intervene if you see emotions rising. A time-out followed by a Consent Test is a good strategy if arousal levels are getting high – it gives both participants time to chill out and brings arousal levels back down, and you can see if they voluntarily choose to re-engage. •        Chasers: These dogs just love to run. It’s great fun to watch dogs play “catch me if you can.” Some show a strong preference for the specific role of chaser or chasee, others are happily willing to take turns. A variation of Chase is Keep Away, where the chasee grabs a toy and invites the other dog to chase after her and try to get the toy. Keep Away often morphs into a mutually enjoyable game of tug. •        Tuggers: Just like it sounds, these are dogs who love to play tug, and are happy to do it with a canine playmate. Dog-tug is a fine game – just watch for resource guarding that can turn tug into war. •        Soft Touches: Some dogs are very tentative about play. These may be dogs who were not well socialized and aren’t yet sure how to interact confidently with other dogs, they may be dogs who have been injured or are arthritic and it hurts them to play hard, or they may just be dogs who don’t like to roughhouse. Soft Touches should definitely play with other soft touches – they’re likely to find any other kind of play too mentally traumatic or physically painful. •        Self-Play: It always makes me chuckle to watch a dog engaged in self-play. This is the dog who tosses a toy in the air for herself, catches it, and tosses it again. My Corgi, Lucy, would carry a ball to the top of the stairs and push it off so she could run down and catch it, carry it upstairs and do it again. My wonderful Terrier mix, Josie, when she was alive, could entertain herself by rolling onto her back with a chew-toy in her mouth, lifting the toy by grasping it with both front paws, hold it in the air and study it for a while, lower it back to her mouth and chew some more, then lift it and study it again, all while staying on her back. Like children, there’s a certain joy in having a dog who can keep herself entertained! So – Ashley was definitely in the Body Slammer category. Cody Comes to Visit We had arranged for Karen’s friends with the Cavalier to come to the session, and about an hour in, they arrived. We had the dogs on opposite sides of an exercise pen barrier so I could observe body language. Ashley was definitely excited about Cody’s arrival, but her body language was all “happy excitement” – I did not see any aggression. She stayed at the barrier, gazing eagerly at Cody. Cody, on the other hand, moved away from the barrier and showed no interest in interacting with Ashley. After fifteen minutes of observing the dogs, I proposed attaching leashes (for management) and putting both dogs on the same side of the barrier. Both families agreed, and so we did. Ashley definitely wanted to play. Cody clearly did not. After a few minutes of Ashley bugging Cody, the little dog gave a clear “back off!” snap. I was happy to see that Ashley respected that communication – for a moment – but then tried to reengage. The Plan We then separated the dogs and had them lie on blankets about 6 feet apart. I was very pleased to see that Ashley was able to settle and relax on her rug. This gave us our plan for going forward: 1.     Karen would seek out appropriate canine playmates for Ashley who appreciated her rough play style so we could meet her canine social needs. We would help Karen with this endeavor. 2.     Walk Away – at least 3 times per week, practice “Walk Away” (Ashley did beautifully with this when we practiced in our session) so Karen would have a way to move Ashley away when she was getting too aroused about other dogs. 3.     Practice the UPenn Relaxation Protocol at least 3 times per week to enhance Ashley’s “Calm on the Blanket” behavior 4.     Sessions with small-dog friends at least once a week – practice having Ashley calm and controlled as we did in the session, including parallel walking. 5.     Do Nose Games at least 3 times a week, as fun enrichment time for Ashley. I did let Karen know that it is highly unlikely that Ashley will ever be able to have small dogs as playpals, but that it is a realistic goal for her to be able to self-regulate and be calm in the presence of her friends’ small dogs, eventually even off leash. This Week at Peaceable Paws It has been an interesting week here at Peaceable Paws. The weather has seesawed back-and-forth between 70’s and 20’s – the birds are nesting (including the sparrows that come back every year to nest in our stove's air vent), and some of the spring flowers are trying to convince us that the warmer weather is here to stay. FLOWERS BIRDS A couple of years ago I discovered the Merlin app for my phone. It does sound ID as well as photo ID – you just point it at the singing bird, push the button and it tells you what bird it is. I love it! Thanks to Merlin I found out a while ago that the crows we have here are Fish Crows (had never heard of them). And just last week I discovered that what I thought all these years were Downy Woodpeckers are actually Hairy Woodpeckers – who know? (Another one I had never heard of!) I now know that Carolina Wrens are everywhere around here, thanks to Merlin identifying their song. We have Red Tail Hawks, Red-Shouldered Hawks (those I ID'd without Merlin's help) and one of my favorites - Pileated Woodpeckers! (Also ID'd without Merlin). I do have a very birdy dog trainer friend who tells me that Merlin is not 100% accurate, but so far it hasn't steered me wrong! Check it out!!! FIRE IN THE WOODS!!!!! My husband Paul is a Fire Police volunteer, which means he responds to fires, wrecks and other emergencies to do traffic control for the fire and police departments. So – imagine my surprise when one of our boarders came in the driveway last week and said, “There’s a huge fire in the neighbor’s woods behind your outdoor arena!” Sure enough, the neighbor was burning a wood pile from trees he’d been cutting down and piling up for the last couple of weeks – the pile was about 20 feet high and 40 feet long… We already weren’t happy with all the loud machines (he was also bulldozing the ground) and now this! You’d think he might have had the courtesy to let us know he was going to burn… We called our local volunteer fire company (we’re members) and they came out and said it was a controlled burn, they had people there watching it, and it was okay. An hour after we called it in the county declared a burn ban for dry conditions. Great. So it smoldered for a couple of days and all seemed well – until Sunday, when two of our dog training students came in for class and said it was flaming again. Sure enough, the wind had come up and the fire had re-ignited. This time the brush truck came in and the Deputy Fire Chief said, “Wait. This isn’t even the burn pile the guy showed us the other day when we were here – that was just two small piles behind his house. He never told us about this one!” 20250316_152922.mp4 The re-ignited fire wasn’t threatening anything at the moment, but the firemen thanked us for calling – if it had gotten out of control and set the woods on fire, it would have been nasty! So they put it out with water and rakes and said they would be billing the neighbor’s insurance company for the cost. Good! Never a dull moment!!! But for now, all is back to peaceable at Peaceable Paws and Pastures. Hope you are enjoying the beginning of Spring as much as we are!!! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

POOR PUPPY - HOW TO HELP YOUR CRYING PUPPY; WHY YOU ***DON’T*** WANT TO WAIT IT OUT! I had a recent client who, among other things, was asking me how to deal with her puppy’s nighttime crying. I was glad she asked. Gone are the days when standard advice was to ignore a crying puppy. “Ignore him,” we said, “until he stops crying. If you go to him while he’s crying, you’ll reinforce him and teach him to cry more.” That’s horrid advice and I regret that ages ago I was guilty of saying it to clients. Now that competent, educated dog training and behavior professionals have a much better understanding of the science of behavior and learning, we won’t tell you to ignore your pup’s cries. You must take action when your pup is in distress. That’s what his cries are – he’s communicating to you that he’s distressed – sometimes very distressed. (Note: This does not apply to “demand barking” – that requires a very different response. While some puppies manage to survive having their cries ignored and grow into normal, healthy adult dogs, others suffer with stress-related behavioral issues for the rest of their lives, including separation related behaviors, due at least in part to not having their needs met when they were so desperate for help. So what should you do when your puppy cries? He’s crying for help. Help him. A New World When a puppy arrives at his new home, his world has turned upside down. His mother and siblings are gone. The familiar sights, sounds and smells of his birth home are gone – replaced with an alien environment. Even if he came from a responsible breeder who helped prepare him for this life change (sadly, a relatively small percentage of possible puppy sources) the stress of rehoming may still trigger distress behaviors. It’s critically important to take things slowly. Your pup may have never been alone before, ever. Being left alone now could be horribly traumatic, especially if you ignore his pleas for help. Your best approach is prevention. Assume your pup has never been crated or left alone, and plan on staying near him at first. Even if he has been previously crate-trained, the stress of relocating to your home can contribute to panic attacks. What To Do Whether you are faced with a newly-arrived puppy or one who’s been in your home for a while, here’s what you need to do: 1.         Determine why he is crying. What’s stressing him? After identifying his stressor(s), figure out how to make them go away. (Go to: https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/stressed-out/) 2.         Anticipate when he’s likely to stress-cry and pre-empt the crying by engaging him in some other activity, food toy, or providing company. 3.         Keep him near you and gradually acclimate him to being alone. Isolation is a huge stressor for a puppy! 4.         Spend time acclimating him to his crate by playing crate games, preferably starting with his first day home (but it’s never too late). 5.         If he is stressed by crating, use an exercise pen alternative (a collapsible wire pen) for confinement. 6.         If you cannot determine his stressors and alleviate his crying, engage the services of a qualified professional force-free behavior consultant to help you, sooner, not later. First Night A pup’s first night home can be make-or-break time. (Also true for your newly-adopted adult dog!) If he adapted well to his crate during your first-day crate games, you can probably crate him in your room for the night. Do not, under any circumstances, crate him away in a room all by himself. You have to hear him when he cries to go to the bathroom or if he's telling you he’s alone and distressed. Get up and take him out if you think he needs to go. Crating him in your room saves him from feeling abandoned. If he’s stressed about the crate, use an exercise pen that you can set next to your bed with your arm draped over the edge if necessary, to assure him he’s not alone. (I’m speaking from the voice of experience here – I had to do this with our Pomeranian, Sunny, when we adopted him at the age of 11 months. For several weeks. And then gradually withdrew my arm and eventually, when he was ready, crated him at night.) Give him a good bout of puppy playtime before bed, a last bathroom trip and time to settle before the two of you retire for the night. Have his crate or pen where he can see you. A microwave-heated towel can provide comfort for him. He may fuss for a moment or two. As long as it doesn’t escalate and he settles quickly, you can ignore brief fussing. If it persists or starts increase to distress crying, intervene. Hang your hand in front of his crate or into his pen so he has company. Over time (days, weeks) you should gradually be able to remove your hand without causing distress. The same philosophy holds true for other times, long after your first night is behind you – in fact, for the rest of his life. A distressed, crying dog needs to be helped, not ignored. Figure out why he’s upset and determine what you need to do to alleviate his stress. Intervene when he’s distressed. He’s crying for help. Help him. CAT BEHAVIOR MYSTERY First let me say that I am a very strong advocate for keeping cats indoors. Twenty years working at the Marin Humane society in Novato, California, convinced me that outdoor cats tend to have short lives and all too often meet up with unhappy endings. That said, we live on a farm, and feral cats randomly choose to move into our lower hay barn. In fact, about ten years ago, when my husband left his position as Executive Director of the local humane society, his replacement (trying to play the unfortunate “no-kill” game), was instructing shelter staff to dump feral cats around the county. When several ended up on our farm, all at the same time, we suspected it was part of this very misguided effort. As much as I believe in indoor cats, most of the time trying to bring truly feral cats indoors is a disaster, We already had one barn cat – a beautiful dilute calico, Dorothy. She was not feral but moved in from the neighbor’s house and adapted life in the upper horse barn life very well. In fact, as the exception that proves the rule, she lived to the ripe old age of 16, and happily greeted many of our academy students and canine visitors as well as our horse boarders. So – we trapped and sterilized the feral newcomers, and since we already had Dorothy we named them Munchkin, Scarecrow, Flying Monkey, Auntie Em, Kansas and Wizard. Since they were very feral, there was no point in trying to bring them indoors - they would have been miserable. We set them up in our lower hay barn. (Auntie Em, a lovely tuxedo girl turned out to not be feral, didn't adapt well to living in our house with our menagerie, and went to live with my niece in Indiana). As outdoor cats do, they gradually passed on – and we don’t know why or how, although Munchkin may have been bitten by a copperhead snake, judging by the symptoms he displayed before vanishing. Generally they just disappear. In time, Flying Monkey (a small black shorthair), who had been wildest of the bunch, was the only one left, and I started a concerted effort to socialize him using Kellie Snider’s CAT procedure (Constructional Aggression Treatment). The effort was eventually successful. He is now eleven (!!!), and for the last three years I have been able to pet him, pick him up and even vaccinate him! No one else can get near him, but I can. A new feral feline friend, Xander, moved into the lower barn a couple of years ago, and through the same process I am now able to pet him, pick him up and vaccinate him too. Xander has become a very regular presence – he is there almost every day and often prefers to come to me to be petted rather than rushing over to eat the food I put out for him. But… Around the middle of January, something happened. I don’t know what. Monkey came for morning feeding time, limping, with a wound on the inside of his left hind leg. It wasn’t awful – just looked like a scrape. He came close enough that I could touch it and look at it but was definitely wary of me. After that, although his leg healed quickly, he became more and more wary – staying at the back of the barn instead of coming up to greet me. And my little black Monkey who was usually there faithfully every single morning for breakfast began missing meals. I started keeping track, and as long as he showed up every two to three days, I wasn’t too concerned. Then he missed nine days in a row and I thought we’d lost him. But one day I saw him duck into the barn when I went down for something in the middle of the day. Yay – he was still here! Two days later he was there for breakfast, came up and greeted me like old times. YAY – he’s back!! Fingers crossed, I expected to see his friendly self every day after that. Now after seven days again with no Monkey, this morning I saw him dart under the tractor shed next to the barn when I went down to feed. But no old-time happy greeting. I would love to know what’s going on with him. Why was he spooked, then friendly, then vanished again? My husband thinks someone else somewhere did something bad to him. If there are any cat people out there – I would love to hear your theories!! KELPIE PLAYTIME We got our first Australian Kelpie some four decades ago. Keli was my Canine Field Agent at the Humane Society - he was trained to herd, rode with me in the truck, helped round up loose livestock and catch stray dogs, and did school Humane Education Programs with me. We are now on our third (Kai) and fourth (KC) Kelpies - first time we have ever had two at once. KC stands for Kelpie Chaos...<G>. She's the liver-and-tan - and we adopted her from a hoarder case, so she came with a lot of behavior challenges. Yes, she is on Reconcile - doggy Prozac. It is great fun to watch the two of them play together. I'm still trying to get good video, but here are some still shots: And Two weeks in a row now I’ve gone for trail rides on Levi – working on fulfilling one of my New Year Goals… More of my cases next time – promise! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

CLIENT #1 – REMY, A NON-DOG-SOCIAL LABRADOR RETRIEVER It’s not very often that you come across a Labrador Retriever who doesn’t like to play with other dogs, but Remy is one of those rare exceptions. She and her human came to see me this week. Remy, now 4 years old, a spayed female, grew up with a couple of Lab friends that she got along with quite well and one that she still plays with regularly. One moved away but came back to visit recently, and shortly after they were reintroduced, Remy launched into a scuffle with Susie and they had to be separated. Not too long after that, Helen, Remy’s human, had to go out of town and when her pet sitter came over to stay at the house she brought her blind senior Pomeranian with her. Remy definitely wanted to do the little dog harm. Helen told me that Remy had been “fine” with other dogs up until now – she takes her to the dog park and Remy happily chases her toys. But (and here’s the big clue) she doesn’t ever play with the other dogs. She generally avoids them. As my Academy students will tell you, I always put “Fine” in finger quotes. To me – when a dog is truly “fine” they are calm, relaxed and happy. But most of the time when a dog’s person says the dog is “fine” what they mean is that the dog isn’t over threshold (acting out) – but in reality much of the time the dog is quite far from “fine.” In fact, much of the time the dog is still tense, stressed and worried – perhaps even shut down, but is nowhere near calm, relaxed and happy. Avoidance isn’t “fine” either. Avoidance is sending a very clear message that the dog is not comfortable with whatever stimulus she is avoiding, and if that stimulus (dog or whatever) gets too close or tries to be too social, our avoidant dog is likely to become aggressive to try to get them to back off. I believe this is what happened with Remy. And since she has now found a successful strategy for making those dogs go away, she’s likely to resort to it more often. So – kudos to Helen for seeking help before Remy has a long history of practicing successful “go away” behavior. STUFFED DOGS I don’t often used stuffed dogs – I think most dogs are savvy enough to realize pretty quickly that they aren’t real, and if anything their artificial stiffness can make dogs even more uncomfortable. But I tried it with Remy – I wanted to watch her body language when she first saw the other dogs, and to see what she did when released (which I wasn't about to do with a live dog!). I just happened to have a life-sized/lifelike stuffed Labrador and a life-sized lifelike stuffed Pom. Remy was barky with both stuffed dogs from a distance of 70 feet (one at a time). When we released her leash to see what she would do she ran up to the Lab, sniffed his posterior, sniffed around a little more and then, realizing it wasn’t real, moved off to greet a nearby person. 20250221_143559.mov 20250221_144000.mov When we let her approach the Pom she was much more suspicious – didn’t come up and sniff, but eventually realized it was stuffed and started playing with it like a stuffed toy. So then we did some counterconditioning/desensitization (CC&D) with my Kelpie, Kai. As expected, she barked at him at first at 70 feet, but was easily kept below threshold as Helen let Remy look at Kai and then immediately fed her chicken. Remy quickly started offering CERs (conditioned emotional response looks) – glancing at Kai and then looking back at Helen for chicken – and Remy clearly began to relax. We gradually decreased distance and all went well until we were about 15 feet apart. Although Remy had seemed to be tolerating the decreasing distance well, she suddenly tensed, gave several aggressive barks and lunged toward Kai. We calmly increased distance, Helen continued with the CC&D, and Remy quickly settled back down. PROGNOSIS Most dogs, even those who aren’t overly social, can cultivate a small circle of intimate friends – and that is what we hope for Remy. I am also optimistic that with enough CC&D work she can be socially appropriate in the presence of other dogs, as long as we don’t expect her to interact with them. Our own Scottish Terrier, Dubhy (who is no longer with us) was initially quite dog reactive/aggressive, and over time we successfully and peacefully added several new canine members to our family. (And yes, he really did play the piano...<G>) Helen committed to at least 3 CC&D sessions with Remy per week, and after spending some time with her I’m pretty sure she’s the kind of person who will absolutely fulfill her commitment and then some. She did agree, for safety reasons, to stop taking Remy to the dog park, other than perhaps to hang out outside the park for CC&D opportunities, and I provided her with an article on doing careful introductions to create that small circle of intimate friends: https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/care/proper-dog-to-dog-introductions-in-the-home/   I do think this one will go well! CLIENT #2 – SPARKY, THE REACTIVE AIR BNB PIT/STAFF Sparky, a 1.5-year-old spayed female Pit/Staffie mix, is about as cute, friendly and social with humans as they come (those ears!!!). That is, when she’s not at home in her house, which is the location of her humans’ Airbnb business. Sparky pretty much loses it whenever a car comes in the driveway, and if guests (some with dogs, some without) are walking the grounds around the house. Once she is introduced to the humans she is quite friendly with them, but her response to the initial arrival (delivery people too) is quite alarming. She did have one very significant incident when Dylan had her outside, off-leash, unaware that a guest was walking with their dog. Sparky went after the guest’s small dog, and the guest was bitten several times while protecting his dog from Sparky. Fortunately, the guest was very understanding and forgiving, especially after Dylan and Sharon comped their 3-day stay and offered them another free 3-day stay if they should want to come back for another visit. We took advantage of Sparky’s reactive barking to sounds in the adjoining office to practice some CC&D. Sparky responded and settled with lightning speed – which gives us cause for optimism, although I did tell her humans that it might not work quite as quickly in her own home environment where she has a history of reacting. Also in the plus column – other than her over-the-top-reaction times, she is actually a very calm, laid back girl most of the time – so not a candidate for long-term anti-anxiety medication, although I did suggest to Sharon and Dylan that they ask their vet about short-acting meds that they could give when they know they have guests arriving. OUR PLAN Here are Sparky’s commitments: Behavior Modification Protocols/Minimum Commitments (more is fine/better): 1.         CC&D – At least 3 times per week, 15-20 minutes or more per session (when possible with friend-set-up) and be prepared for/take advantage of anticipated guest arrivals. 2.         Find It/Search – At least 5 times per week, 5 minutes or more per session – (easy one; more is fine)!! 3.         Scatter Meal – Once per day (evening meal, weather permitting) – the more widely scattered the better! 4.         Nose Games – At least 3 times per week, 5-10 minutes or more – and more is fine – I suspect you will all love this one… ENRICHMENT! 5.         Walk Away – At least 3 times per week, 5 minutes or more per session – to be able to move her away from arousal-causing stimuli - remember that in order for this to work you need to make it a FUN PARTY!!! My prognosis for Sparky was still positive, but a little more guarded. It can be significantly more challenging to modify behavior when the dog’s exposure to stress-causing stimuli in the environment is harder to manage. Sharon and Dylan will need to commit to serious management as well as the modification protocols if they want to help Sparky learn to be calm about guests on the property. WORKSHOPS In case you needed more motivation – here is a list of our upcoming workshops: Cooperative Care with Lucy McKnight: April 5-6 The Shape of Things to Come with Pat Miller: May 24-25 Equine Clicker Training with Sam Steckel: May 31-June 1 Brain Candy/Cognition with Pat Miller: August 23-24 Rowdy to Refined/Impulse Control with Lucy McKnight: September 20-21 You can sign up here: https://peaceablepaws.com/workshops/ or contact us for more information. Don’t wait too long, everything is starting soon!!! SUNNY HELPS WITH PIG CPR No, Freddie didn’t really need CPR. Freddie, like many pigs, will flop down and lie on his side when you scratch his tummy – so I invited Sunny to step up on his pig brother. And Freddie's enjoying it. (Kai declined the invitation...) Cute, eh? Supposed to be 60 degrees Wednesday – I think maybe I’ll ride a horse!!! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

Yes, I do get a lot of clients who bring me dogs with aggressive behaviors. Please note that I do not call them “aggressive dogs,” as that labels the whole dog, when in fact most of these dogs are wonderful dogs most of the time with occasional moments of aggression. Not fair to saddle the whole dog with that label! Shoot – I’m a behavior professional and I have (and have had in the past) dogs with aggressive behaviors. Like our second Pomeranian, Scooter, who wasn’t always happy about being brushed… I advertise that my business includes an aggression specialty and as a result I get a lot of referrals from veterinarians and other behavior professionals. Any professionals who refer to me are welcome to come sit in on the consult. I encourage them to do so, as I will often refer their clients back to them for follow up work – especially since some of them come from quite some distance away. If the client’s referring professional attends the session, they will be well prepared to help them with follow-up. Here are this past week’s two aggression cases: AGGRESSION CASE #1 – HAPPY; AUSSIE/LAB MIX Happy, an Aussie/Lab mix, is five years old, a neutered male, and has lived his entire life in harmony with eight-year-old Arby, a German Shepherd mix. Until now. Any time we see a significant behavior change in an adult dog we know that something else has changed – something internal, something external, or both. In late January, Happy was diagnosed with bladder stones and had to have bladder surgery. A few days after he came home from that experience, the attacks on Arby began – three to four incidents in just a couple of weeks. The final attacks resulted in a redirected bite to Jenny when she tried to separate the dogs. When she contacted us, we advised her to keep the two completely separated until she could come for her consult. Aggression is caused by stress. Not just the stress of the immediate trigger, but the combined stress of everything in the dog’s world at any given time. We call this “trigger stacking.” Medical issues are huge stressors, and it is quite likely that Happy was experiencing considerable discomfort even prior to the stones being diagnosed. It is also possible that on one or more occasions he associated Arby’s proximity with his pain, even though, in reality, Arby did nothing. Once this occurs, even though the pain has been resolved, the association can persist. Other possible contributing factors could be: 1.      Jenny shared that Happy has always been a high-anxiety dog. Indeed, Happy was panting and whining upon entering the training center and was clearly somewhat stressed throughout the entire two-hour session. 2.      Happy and Arby’s humans went on vacation for a week shortly after Happy’s surgery, leaving the dogs with a pet sitter – another stressor. 3.      I noted that Arby was limping as he moved around the room. At age eight, in addition to limited mobility due to lameness, Arby could be starting to lose clarity of vision and hearing. Any one or all of these could cause him to be less prompt in responding to Happy’s “Go away!” signals, causing Happy to escalate those signals to an attack to get his message across to Arby. This happens not infrequently with senior dogs. I urged my client to talk to their vet about pain medication for Arby... We put up a barrier across the training center and allowed the dogs to interact through it. Things were peaceful with no overt tension from Happy until, about 10 minutes into the session, the dogs sniffed noses through the barrier and Happy briefly growled. Arby moved away, and things seemed to settle back down while we discussed the elements of the case. One of the things I always do with aggression cases is list stressors and assign strategies to make as many stressors go away (or at least decrease) as possible. Reduce stress, reduce potential for aggression. We came up with 11 for Happy (I usually get somewhere between 10 and 20), with Abe, being separated in the home, and being left home alone as the three most significant. Our strategy options are 1.) Counterconditioning and desensitization (CC&D – changing the dog’s association/opinion) 2.) Operant Conditioning (teaching a new, deliberate behavior that makes the dog happy – so it also changes his emotional state in the moment) 3.) Management (always a vitally important piece of any successful behavior modification program) 4.) Get Rid of It (the stressor, not the dog!) and 5.) Live With It (because we can’t make all stress go away). About 70 minutes into the session, with Arby lying calmly on a blanket, minding his own business some 15 feet from Happy, Happy suddenly began growling at Arby again – this time a prolonged growl for about 10 seconds. There was no obvious trigger – Arby hadn’t moved and hadn’t even looked at Happy. Go figure. Is there still something internal with Happy? They had taken them to their vet the week before the consult to make sure he was happy and healthy – and the vet confirmed that he was not in pain. At least, that is, not in pain from the surgery… however, general practitioners are not always fully capable of a thorough pain exam and diagnosis… Our Plan I do “Commitments” with my clients to get their buy-in on our modification program going forward. We agree on the protocols we will be using, and then I have them tell me, realistically, how often they are able and willing to commit to practicing those. Here are Happy’s commitments: Behavior Modification Protocols/Minimum Commitments (more is fine/better): 1.         Happy and Arby: CC&D at least 1 time per day, 5 or more days per week; as we did here, with both dogs on leashes – can have Abe walking past or can have both humans seated. Can also do parallel walking. Be sure to stay below threshold intensity (Crockpot, not Microwave). (Handout attached) 2.         Touch: At least 1 time per day, 5 days per week; Link to an article on how we do this: https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/on-target-training / . 3.         Walk Away: At least 1 time per day, 5 days per week; Here: https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/how-to-teach-your-dog-to-just-walk-away/  . 4.         UPenn Relaxation Protocol: At least 1 time per day, 5 days per week; be sure to proceed very slowly – make sure Henry is very relaxed and comfortable with each module before proceeding to the next. (Protocol attached.) I also encouraged my clients to put Happy back on the Trazadone their vet had provided, but perhaps at a reduced dosage (discuss with vet) since what they were giving him was making him groggy. We also discussed over-the-counter calming aids such as L-Theanine and Ashwaghanda, Adaptil, Thundershirt (not just for thunder!) icalmdog music (Through a Dog’s Ear), and more. I expect progress to be slow for this one… fingers are crossed! AGGRESSION CASE #2 – GORDIE; COCKER/BORDER COLLIE MIX Gordie is a nine-year-old neutered male Cocker/Border Collie mix. Unlike Happy, Gordie has had aggression issues all his life and has been on Fluoxetine (Prozac) since he was two years old. (Just increased dosage from 20mg to 30mg…) In fact, he delivered a severe bite to my clients’ 20-year-old daughter’s face eight years ago while resource guarding a pizza crust on the sofa. He was also, recently, quite aggressive when Larry tried to take a Bully Stick away from him. Judy and Larry were managing Gordie’s behavior quite well until daughter April (now 28), husband Aiden and brand-new baby daughter Megan (now eight months old) all moved in last June. Gordie was quite taken with Megan at first – until she became mobile. Now he has decided she is very threatening, and growls anytime she crawls near. There is still tension between April and Gordie as well (likely in part because April still doesn’t trust him after the 2017 bite, and her body language communicates that), and Gordie is also not fond of Candy, the four-year-old spayed female Labrador Retriever who moved in with April and family. A whole lot of stressors going on here!!! In our session, Candy was a typical Lab – friendly with everyone, outgoing, happy, goofy… while Gordie was more reserved, mostly hung out with Larry, and growled at Candy if the big dog ventured too close. The very first thing I told this family was that “Gordie must not be loose in Megan’s presence when Megan is crawling around and Megan cannot crawl up to him!!!! EVER!!!! Unless and until we are successful in changing Gordie’s opinion of Megan, there is a huge risk in thinking that you will always be able to react quickly enough to remove dog or baby when the growl happens. Can you say “TRAGEDY!!!???” And if you continue to remove Gordie physically (with reprimands) you are only worsening his negative association with Megan (and hence his aggression) – “When the baby is around my humans get upset and bad things happen!” I usually try to not be alarmist – but we simply cannot be casual about interactions between dogs and babies! The second thing I told them was “We don’t just take things away from our dogs. EVER!!!” We teach a polite “Trade” behavior so our dog will happily and willingly give things up, and then we always trade for a treat. Our Plan Again, we listed stressors (Gordie has 12), assigned strategies and agreed on priorities and protocols: Behavior Modification Protocols/Minimum Commitments (more is fine/better): 1.         Find It/Search and I Come In Peace: April – multiple times per day – have treats in your pockets and/or in containers around the house and toss treats for Gordie when he is near you. Do at least one I Come in Peace per day. (Handouts Attached) 2.         Megan: CC&D: At least 5 times per week, 15-20 minutes or more per session; do CC&D with Megan as we did here – sometimes with her crawling, but don’t let her get close enough to make him growl. (Handout attached) 3.         UPenn Relaxation Protocol (Judy): At least 1 time per day, 5 days per week (or more). (Protocol attached) 4.         Trade (Larry) – At least 1 time per day, 3 days per week (or more). (Handout attached) Here’s hoping we can convince Gordie that Megan and April are his friends, but it’s likely to get harder, not easer, as Megan goes from crawling to toddling. Our backup plan: manage their interactions scrupulously until April and company move out. The plan is for that to happen sometime in the coming year. Meanwhile, I hope and pray that they got the management message loud and clear. TRAINER ACADEMIES AND WORKSHOPS Academies We have been offering in-person Trainer Academies for more than 20 years and have never had trouble filling them. Until now. It hurts my heart to share that academy registrations so far this year are dismal. It also hurts my bank account, as a significant part of our revenue comes from our academies. Don’t know if it’s due to fears about the economy, the easy availability of on-line learning, or what… but if you are looking for a hands-on learning experience with a longtime, internationally acclaimed leader in force-free training (that’s me, blush) please consider us. We offer everything from our Level 1 Basic Dog Training and Behavior Academy to Canine Behavior Modification, Aggression, Advanced Training and Behavior Study, Cognition, and more. All taught hands-on, personally by me. You can find out more about our academies here: https://peaceablepaws.com/peaceable-paws-intern-academies/ and/or feel free to contact us at the number/email below. Workshops We also have a great list of workshops lined up for 2025. I’m teaching two (Shaping and Brain Candy), our wonderful Practice Manager/Lead Trainer Lucy McKnight is teaching two (Cooperative Care and Impulsivity), and our amazing Horse Trainer/Instructor Sam Steckel is even teaching one on Clicker Training/Cooperative Care for horses! You can find them all here: https://peaceablepaws.com/workshops/ or contact us. Don’t wait too long, everything is starting soon!!! A WILD AND WINDY TIME Holy cow, it has been windy here!! Steady 20-25 mph, with gusts up to 50 and 60 mph, for more than 24 hours.  I went to take the dogs out last night for their last bathroom break only to discover that some 75 feet of our backyard fence had blown down. HOLY WIND DAMAGE, BATMAN!!! And, of course, it’s not covered by our homeowner’s insurance. (It would if a tree fell on it though, apparently…) Hoping it all settles down soon. I’m hearing about crazy weather all across the country – everyone please stay safe! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

I have to say… it always surprises me when I see trainers on social media complaining about their “average” clients. I must get the best clients in the world, because I figure if they are investing in helping their dogs, and coming to see me, they must already be ***above average***! The vast majority of my clients are super-committed to helping their dogs have a good quality of life. That’s why they are wiling to invest a not insignificant amount of money to make sure their dogs are medically healthy (or treat whatever needs to be treated – like the many thousands of dollars the family of the GSHP puppy has spent from the last blog who was bitten in the head) and then to pursue also not-cheap behavior modification solutions. I appreciate these people. Are my clients always 100% “compliant”? (I hate that term – it reeks of old-fashioned coercive dog training…dictionary definitions: obedient, docile, submissive). Of course not. But the vast majority really do everything they can to help their dogs, and I appreciate that. Of course not everyone can afford to do everything that might benefit their dogs, and I appreciate that too. Speaking of quality of life… a high percentage of my clients come to me with dogs who have aggressive and/or reactive behaviors, which can be hugely stressful for the human as well as for the dog. One of the things I will remind my clients is that their quality of life is every bit as important as their dog’s quality of life, and the client is invariably grateful that I acknowledge this. That came up for one of this week’s clients – the English Lab SRB case described below. It is also an important point if the behavioral euthanasia topic comes up (fortunately extremely rare over the 28 years of my behavior and training practice!). There’s nothing like the emotional trauma of euthanizing your dog to improve your own quality of life, and if/when this happens we need to reassure the client that the dog’s quality of life is very poor (the behavior issues tell us that) and that yes, they, the human, deserve to have a good quality of life as well. CASE #1 – MAGGIE, THE ENGLISH LAB WITH SRBS In case you haven’t heard, “Separation Related Behaviors” (SRB) is the new, modern term for “Separation Anxiety,” (SA) and refers to any undesirable behaviors that occur in the caretaker’s absence. SA was a way overused term for a whole continuum of behaviors a stressed dog might do in the human’s absence, when in fact true SA should have been reserved for those behaviors at the very extreme end of that continuum – a true clinically pathological condition. A dog who barks for a few minutes when the owner leaves would be labelled with SA when in fact what she had was a low level of “separation distress” at the other end of that continuum. Maggie is a 6-year-old spayed female English Lab who had no indications of SRB for the first 5 years of her life. She is a very lovely, calm, easygoing dog – not the type you’d except to break with SRBs as a mid-life crisis, but there you have it. She lived in a mid-sized town in a home on a busy road with a fair amount of pedestrian traffic and enjoyed watching the activity outside her window every day. Then her person moved with her to a lovely, peaceful, rural environment (which  many dogs would give their canine teeth for!) and she immediately (on Day 1) began SRB barking when left alone. She had never done this before. My evaluation of this behavior is that the combination of the stress of the move and the absence of her daily out-the-window enrichment combined to set off this stress-related response. It’s not just, “Hey, where did my human go,” it’s “Hey, where did EVERYBODY go????” On the positive side, the John's female companion, Susan (who lives at a different location) has been able to take leave from her job and come stay with Maggie all day, every day. But as she said to me in our session – she can’t do this forever – she needs to get her life back. Quality of life, right?! Discussion We talked about medication – my first line of defense for any dog who has significant levels of SRB. Susan is all in favor. Unfortunately, John is very reluctant to consider this step, having bought into the old-fashioned concern that it will change her personality and “turn her into a zombie.” We are working to convince him that it will be in everyone’s best interests, and that properly done, medications should not have the effects he is concerned about. (Here is a link to an excellent article that I share with clients on Behavior Medications from Dr. Jen’s Blog: http://www.drjensdogblog.com/behavior-medication-first-line-therapy-or-last-resort/ )    Meanwhile, we will hopefully get Maggie start on some of the over-the-counter products that can help with stress relief, such as L-Theanine, Ashwaghanda, Adaptil, and Purina Calming Care (a probiotic). Maggie was diagnosed with bilateral hip dysplasia and osteochondritis at the very early age of 1 year. (Hence the concern about poor breeding…) and is noticeably overweight. I pointed out that pain is a significant stressor and emphasized the importance of maintaining without fail her schedule of pain medications, and reducing her weight to put less stress on her body, legs and joints. I also suggested a full thyroid panel; Labs are one of the breeds prone to hypothyroidism, which can cause weight gain as well as stress/anxiety. It hurts my heart to see dogs being bred (by real breeders, not puppy mills) with such significant structural weaknesses that are a definite detriment to quality of life. I urge my clients to tell the breeders – not to place blame or be confrontational – but because breeders need to KNOW – so they don’t keep repeating breedings that produce puppies with such horrendous conformation and medical conditions. Our Plan Finally, we are instituting the UPenn Relaxation Protocol – a very thinly-sliced program to help Maggie become comfortable with being left alone. It is very similar to Dr. Karen Overall’s Protocol for Relaxation, but slightly simplified. Fingers crossed!! Susan is gung-ho to implement this procedure, and since she's there all day every day with Maggie I am expecting great results. CASE #2 – FRANNIE, 3-YEAR-OLD GERMAN SHEPHERD – DOG AND HUMAN REACTIVE BEHAVIOR This was Frannie’s second visit to Peaceable Paws. She came to see me last June and Carla purchased a consultation package. The plan was to see her again much sooner, but she has had a long run of very challenging gastrointestinal issues which made Counter Conditioning and Desensitization (CC&D) very challenging. It’s hard to feed a dog lots of treats when everything upsets her stomach! They have finally resolved (knock wood) her GI stuff, so we are back on track. Carla has done an amazing job working with Frannie in the interim with the 1-2-3 Pattern Game, using a Klimb for  “Place” and “Back Paws,” and lots more . Most impressive is her success with teaching Dr. Karen Overall’s Protocol for Teaching a Dog to Breathe.” Yes, of course, dogs already know how to breathe, but this protocol teaches a stressed, panting dog to close their mouth and breathe through their nose, which is a lovely relaxation technique. I have introduced this to a number of clients, and Frannie’s person has done the best job of any in teaching her dog the protocol. Here is a link to a video of Dr. Overall discussing and demonstrating this very useful protocol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdffTkxqlZQ 20250131_141532.mp4 On the not-so-successful side, Frannie still presents with very reactive behaviors when faced with people in motion, or dogs in general. After 45 minutes of sitting and talking with Carla with Frannie seemingly comfortable with me, as soon as I got up and started walking out of the room she began barking. When I returned to do CC&D she was over threshold at first with me at a distance of 75 feet, but was able to settle and stay below threshold as I gradually reduced the distance to 40 feet. (My CC&D protocol is simple – let the dog look, feed high value treat. Let her look again, feed treat. Over and over until you start getting CERs (conditioned emotional response looks) – then very gradually increase intensity of stimulus – increase motion, decrease distance, etc.). When we tried CC&D with my dog Kai, we were not able to keep Frannie below threshold in the training center even with feeding treats. Normally we would go outside where we could increase distance but it was nasty cold/windy outside so we tabled that for our next session. I had forgotten that in addition to Frannie’s behavior challenges, she also has all the worst conformation characteristics of a poorly-bred Shepherd – roached back, very weak hind legs that wobble as she walks, also diagnosed with hip dysplasia at any early age… come on breeders – you have to do better!!! 20250131_142959.mp4 We still have a long road ahead of us, but as committed as Carla is to helping Fannie, I am optimistic about our long-term success.  FREDDIE GETS NEUTERED We had put off Freddie’s neutering until it warmed up a bit… we didn’t want him trying to recover from surgery when it was sub-zero even with a blanket and heat lamp. I had never seen a pig neutered before, so I found it very interesting. Apparently pigs have quite large equipment!!! Our boy is already up and about (surgery was at 2:30, it’s now 6:30) and seems none the worse for the experience. So far. Another beautiful sunset tonight, deer in the pasture, geese flying over… I LOVE life here on the PPaws farm!! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com