SUNNY'S DIAGNOSIS - AND A WORRISOME-SOUNDING CLIENT

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.

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,

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