pet connection

I’m a military brat; my Dad spent a career in the US Coast Guard. I’ve served in the US Navy and the US Marine Corps, and my husband is a retired Marine.  But all that patriotism hasn’t blinded me to the fact that the military can make mistakes just as anyone can.

The US Marine Corps’ latest dog policy is a mistake, plain and simple. Over the past few months the news — via the internet, newspapers, and TV — has stated that the US Marine Corps is waging war on aggressive and/or dangerous dogs.  That’s only partially true.

The US Marine Corps has begun waging war on pit bulls, pittie mixes, Rottweilers, rottie mixes and wolf hybrids. The news originally stated that families living in base housing who have these breeds or mixes will have to have their dog earn an AKC Canine Good Citizen title to remain on base. This is not addressing only those dogs who have been reported as aggressive; no, it’s breed specific legislation and is targeting only these breeds.

The CGC is a wonderful program and all of my trainers at Kindred Spirits Dog Training are CGC evaluators, we do CGC tests, and we love the new AKC puppy STAR program. But this is not what the CGC was designed for.

So a proverbial war is raging. At some bases the ASPCA SAFER program is being tried to see if it will work better than the CGC, and at other bases there are discussions about the American Temperament Test Society test.

While everyone is arguing and debating what should have been done or what needs to be done now, Kindred Spirits just stepped up to the plate and said, “We need to keep these dogs in their homes. Period.”

So we are holding free screening sessions for the dogs living on base. The service member of his or her spouse can bring the dog to our training yard during an evaluation session and we’ll take a look at the dog’s level of training or lack thereof.

If the dog appears capable of passing the CGC we’ll do it right then and there for no charge or we’ll schedule the dog for the test. If the dog is pretty close to being ready but not quite, we’ll give the owner some pointers and tell him to call us when he’s ready. Or, if the dog needs training, we’ll schedule him for a basic training class.

Our first two dogs just passed the test last night. Sam, and black and white pittie mix and Titan, a red and white pittie mix, passed the CGC after a few weeks of training. Their owners stepped up to the plate, took the coaching from us seriously, and did an awesome job. All of us at Kindred Spirits are so proud of them.

Personally I do not believe in breed specific legislation. I don’t believe groups of anyone — people or dogs — should be lumped together and judged by the actions of a few. But I also don’t want to take the time to argue with the US Marine Corps while these families might be losing their dogs. Some families have already panicked and taken their dogs to one of the local shelters or rescue groups.

Many of the owners who have contacted us are dealing with jobs and raising a family by themselves while their spouses are in Iraq or Afghanistan, and now they’re facing losing their dog.  Nope, not gonna happen while my trainers and I can do something about it.

So, if you live near Camp Pendleton and know a family living on base with one of these breeds, send them to our website. If you train dogs and live near a Marine Corps base, contact animal control on the base and offer your help. They need it.

Our two Pugs have long been like children to my husband and me. So what’s going to happen now that a real human child is on the way?

In November, a daughter will be joining our family – hopefully with fewer wrinkles and less shedding than our Pugs. And we’re taking this time to get our dogs ready for a new human family member. We want the transition to go well for them, and we want to make sure they have the right manners for interacting with a baby.

One thing we’re not doing is lavishing attention on the dogs pet during the weeks and days leading up to the birth of the baby. Whether it’s mothering hormones or just wanting to make up for the changes to come, too many parents-to-be make exactly that mistake.

And when the baby does show up, and not only the old routine but the new are out the window, it ends up making the dogs feel less secure. Instead, parents to be should give their pets the kind of attention that will be a happy “new normal” when the baby arrives.

I don’t love my dogs any less, but I’m starting to get them used to not always being on the sofa with us. I ask them to sit and wait to be invited, or let them get on a nearby chair instead. This both helps them get used to having some areas be “off limits,” as they no doubt will once the baby arrives, but prepares them to be comfortable even when they can’t be in our laps.

Although the Pugs were allowed to sleep in our bed for years, the more pregnant I got, the more I relished having extra space to accommodate restless pregnancy sleep – not to mention fitting the gigantic pregnancy pillow into our bed to support my growing belly and sore back. So, the Pugs were asked to sleep in a round, wool dog bed at the side of ours. They’re still right next to me, but in their own space.

To help the Pugs fill the time I’ll be devoting to the new baby, I’ve been giving them mind-stimulating things to do. Food bowls have been replaced with food puzzles that the dogs manipulate and work through in order to get the food out of the inside. Chew toys and rawhides are left around the house for them.

And sometimes, they get both; they love it when I put canned dog food inside a Kong toy, place a pencil rawhide chew through the middle, and then freeze the whole thing. Every time I pull a frozen Kong out of the freezer, the dogs do a spinning happy dance, making flying leaps through the air like circus dogs.

We’ve also been working on body space sensitivity. For example, when my black pug, Willy, went through a therapy dog certification program, we learned that having a good sense of appropriate body space was a vital quality in a therapy dog. That news made my family laugh, as Pugs are notorious for tromping over each other, other dogs and people like they were breathing pieces of furniture.

But an infant can’t handle a dog walking across her body the way an adult can, and we realized it was for the safety of our baby to teach our Pugs the idea of body space. If the Pugs jump up on the couch or in a lap without permission, they are given a prompt “off” cue and then are redirected to an area where they can settle down, such as their own bed.

Jumping up on people during greeting is another body space issue that has been difficult to control, especially with the rate it’s reinforced by the children living in our apartment complex. But since I don’t want my dogs knocking my daughter down when she gets to the toddling stage, I’m working on it.

When greeting the Pugs myself in the home, or when I take them out on walks around other people, I ask the Pugs to sit before being petted. If they jump up during the greeting, they are then ignored until they sit again, and then petting can resume.

Bruce and Willy both liked to alarm bark when strangers approached when we were on our walks. With the idea of stroller walks and wanting calm dogs to accompany us on walks, I began training them to be quiet when out on walks and to turn towards me when other people or dogs approach.

To do this, I had to condition them to look at me by throwing down treats each time a stranger or dog approached. After several trials, the dogs began anticipating the treats coming with an approaching person or animal and started turning towards me without the treats needing to be thrown down.

To keep their response of looking at me reliable, I treat them at random times when they look over at me when people or pets are near. Their barking has decreased 95 percent, with the 5 percent being handled by putting them in a modified time out on the walks when they are not quiet after being asked. I anticipate much quieter and easier stroller walks because of the walk preparation I’ve begun with them now.

One issue still worries me. My friend Katie had her 18 month old son, Jackson, over for a visit one day. He pulled a toy ball out of his mom’s diaper bag, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of the hat. Luckily I was right next to my ball-crazy fawn Pug, Bruce, when Jackson threw the ball, but I was barely able to grab him before he raced after the ball, averting a possible knock-down of little Jackson.

The most bothersome pregnancy pet peeve (literally) that I have encountered is other people seeing my close relationship with my Pugs, and them proceeding to tell me that when I have the baby the Pugs will not be nearly as important to me, and the baby will totally replace them. Without exaggeration, 90 percent of people, strangers, family and friends included, who see my pregnant belly accompanied by my two Velcro Pugs stuck to my side warn me of the change that will happen.

My parents and husband who are close enough to me understand my devotion to my Pug children encourage me that the arrival of a new baby will only strengthen family ties, Pugs included.

Although I haven’t had the baby yet and am not qualified to say for sure how life with my Pugs will change, I do believe that a new family member won’t take away love from anyone in the least, but rather will help expand my heart to love, both the new baby, my husband, and our cherished Pugs.

In an effort to prevent a number of armed forces families from having to give up their pets, the United States Marine Corps has asked the ASPCA for help in evaluating a number of dogs owned by service families for potential aggression:

By using the SAFER assessment, safe dogs will be given the opportunity for a waiver so they can remain on the base until 2012. The ASPCA is opposed to breed bans — laws that ban specific breeds of dogs or unfairly discriminate against responsible dog guardians based solely on their choice of breed. Such laws also fail to achieve the desired goal of stopping illegal activities such as dog fighting, and breeding and/or training dogs to be aggressive. The ASPCA believes that strict enforcement of laws that ban animal fighting, and breeding and/or training animals to fight, is the proper means to address the problem.

“We’re very excited about the ASPCA coming to Parris Island,” said Army Capt. Jenifer Gustafson, the Officer in Charge of the veterinary clinic on Parris Island. “There was a chance that some pet parents would be forced to give up their dogs or leave housing on the base, so this is a great

The media release from the ASPCA is here.

“A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.” – Groucho Marx

Looks as if Brian the neighborly contractor will be figuring out the poultry netting after all, but not until I give it one more try.

Yes, the poultry netting is easy. Yes, the instructions are clear. No, I shouldn’t be having any problems. But … I’m about as handy as a duck-billed platypus.  And maybe not even that much.

The good news is: I overcame my fear of wiring, electricity and shock. I ran a grounding wire. I zip-tied all the wires neatly out of the way. I spliced. I wire-nutted.  Frankly, I have this damn poultry net totally wired.

The bad news is: It doesn’t work. I know it’s arcing somewhere, because I can hear the clicking when I walk down the fence line. I just can’t figure out where the problem is.

I ended yesterday with a desire to kill myself by throwing my body into the poultry netting. Except: 1) It wasn’t working; and 2) Even if it were, it wouldn’t kill me, since it’s just not that powerful.

Instead, I made a gin and tonic and called it a night.

This morning I skipped the fence dilemma and worked on the chicken area. I spread fresh corn, dried corn and crushed oyster shells around the yard, and then split a bale of hay over the area so they’d have to dig for the goodies. Cleaned out the laying boxes and put fresh hay in them. Reorganized some of the roosting poles because the babies aren’t so little anymore and everyone needs some room.

Then I clipped the feathers on the right wings of all the chickens so they can’t get any lift to get over the two layers of fencing — chain link and netting — that stand between them and the dogs.

That netting will by electrified someday soon — as God is my witness — but having a chicken fly over it into the dog area will negate all the effort I’ve put into getting it to work.

The chickens didn’t much like the wing-clipping, but they seemed to like the re-organized yard: By noon I had five fresh eggs.  Seems like they’re rewarding me for all my efforts on their behalf.

I asked Woody to carry one of the eggs into the house. I wanted to see if he’d do it without breaking it or trying to eat it. He is such a good boy! He carried it gently, sat next to me in the kitchen and pushed the egg into my hand with his tongue when I said, “Give.”

He’s getting that egg for dinner. It’s completely undamaged, but I’m not that keen on the dog-spit, so I figure he deserves it.

Image: Woody will hold anything you ask him to. He is such a sweet, sweet boy.

Many years ago I thought I knew a lot about dogs. But now, the more time I spend with dogs and the more I work with them and write about them, the less I seem to know. Funny, huh? Or maybe it’s just that  I’m more open to letting the dogs teach me.

Archer, our youngest dog, is still in the throes of adolescence. He’s not being too obnoxious with my husband and me,  just an occasional, “Sit? I’ve never heard that word before!” But Archer is pushing Bashir, our 5-year-old, who is the big dog on campus.

This morning when I let the dogs outside, Archer made a rush for Bashir. No aggression but more “mobbing” as if to push Bashir around a little.  Bashir handled it very well, and I’m so happy I saw it. As Archer charged towards him, Bashir got very tall and very still. Bashir’s mouth got tight and I saw just the least little flicker of a lip lifting over a canine tooth.

Archer immediately slowed and lowered himself, still moving towards Bashir.  But instead of mobbing him, he began licking Bashir’s muzzle. After a few seconds, Bashir began to relax and Archer took off in another direction.

The body language of both dogs was so wonderful; their messages were conveyed so easily and so simply. The incident was over, with no growling, snarling or muttering afterwards. It was over. Wow! If only people could handle things so easily.

Our oldest dog, Riker, is ten. Although he gladly allowed Bashir to step into the leadership role among our three dogs, Riker likes to pretend he’s still in charge. He won’t show any outward signs of giving way to Bashir –  no muzzle licking from him!  –  but he does show it in other ways. He will never ever try to take a toy or chewie away from Bashir, although he will take one away from the puppy. He always allows Bashir to go in or out doors first and will never try to push past him. In response, Bashir is a kind, benevolent leader.

I admit, I try to copy Bashir when I can in situations where it’s warranted. When handling difficult dogs in training situations, I try to be calm and still so as not to create a more difficult situation. Although it’s tough to lift a lip over a canine tooth (snicker…) I found that some canine body language can be duplicated.

One of my favorite books on canine body language is by Brenda Aloff, “Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide” (Dogwise; 2005). The photos show dogs in a variety of situtions demonstrating a wide variety of emotions. Aloff also provides a discription of what is being shown in each of the photos. Although I don’t agree with all of her assessments, I wasn’t there when the photos were taken eithor and so many canine emotions — like ours — often can’t be accurately portrayed in one still photo. But overall, her book is wonderful, and it’s required reading for all of my trainers at Kindred Spirits.

Image: The puppy, Archer, is doing a submissive muzzle lick even as he tries to continue to steal a toy as the older dog, in this case Riker, shows some teeth.